SN48:53 A Trainee
- fdg sc © Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi. (More copyright information)
1Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Kosambi in Ghosita's Park. There the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: |
"Bhikkhus, is there a method by means of which a bhikkhu who is a trainee, standing on the plane of a trainee, might understand: ‘I am a trainee,’ while a bhikkhu who is one beyond training, standing on the plane of one beyond training, might understand: ‘I am one beyond training’?" |
2"Venerable sir, our teachings are rooted in the Blessed One … " |
"There is a method, bhikkhus, by means of which a bhikkhu who is a trainee … might understand: ‘I am a trainee,’ while a bhikkhu who is one beyond training … might understand: ‘I am one beyond training.’ |
3"And what, bhikkhus, is the method by means of which a bhikkhu who is a trainee, standing on the plane of a trainee, understands: ‘I am a trainee’? |
"Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu who is a trainee understands as it really is: ‘This is suffering’; he understands as it really is: ‘This is the origin of suffering’; he understands as it really is: ‘This is the cessation of suffering’; he understands as it really is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’ This is a method by means of which a bhikkhu who is a trainee, standing on the plane of a trainee, understands: ‘I am a trainee.’ |
4"Again, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu who is a trainee considers thus: ‘Is there outside here[n.237] Ito bahiddhā. That is, outside the Buddha’s dispensation. See DN II 151,10–152,4; MN I 63,29–64,2; Dhp 254–55. another ascetic or brahmin who teaches a Dhamma so real, true, actual sn.v.230 as the Blessed One does?’ He understands thus: ‘There is no other ascetic or brahmin outside here who teaches a Dhamma so real, true, actual as the Blessed One does.’ This too is a method by means of which a bhikkhu who is a trainee, standing on the plane of a trainee, understands: ‘I am a trainee.’ |
5"Again, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu who is a trainee understands the five spiritual faculties—the faculty of faith, the faculty of energy, the faculty of mindfulness, the faculty of concentration, the faculty of wisdom. He does not yet dwell having contacted with the body that is their destination, their culmination, their fruit, their final goal; but having pierced it through with wisdom, he sees.[n.238] Yaṃgatikāni yamparamāni yamphalāni yampariyosānāni na h’ eva kho kāyena phusitvā viharati paññāya ca ativijjha passati. A similar construction is at SN46.54 (V 118,22–27 foll.). Woodward translates the above as if the negative na applies to both phrases: "he dwells not in personal experience thereof, nor does he pierce through and through by insight and see them plain" (KS 5:205). This rendering, however, misses the essential difference between the trainee and the arahant: the trainee sees Nibbāna, the final goal in which the five faculties culminate (see SN48.57), but cannot enter upon the full experience of it; the arahant both sees the goal and can experience it here and now. The conjunction ca should be understood in the disjunctive sense, as Spk confirms with its paraphrase: "He does not dwell having contacted that, having obtained that, with the name-body (nāmakāya, the corpus of mental factors); but (pana as a gloss on ca) he understands by reviewing wisdom, ‘Beyond there is a faculty—the fruit of arahantship.’ On the plane of the arahant he dwells having obtained this, and he understands by reviewing wisdom, ‘There is a faculty—the fruit of arahantship.’" This too is a method by means of which a bhikkhu who is a trainee, standing on the plane of a trainee, understands: ‘I am a trainee.’ |
6"And what, bhikkhus, is the method by means of which a bhikkhu who is one beyond training, standing on the plane of one beyond training, understands: ‘I am one beyond training’? Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu who is one beyond training understands the five spiritual faculties—the faculty of faith … the faculty of wisdom. He dwells having contacted with the body their destination, their culmination, their fruit, their final goal; and having pierced it through with wisdom, he sees. This is a method by means of which a bhikkhu who is one beyond training, standing on the plane of one beyond training, understands: ‘I am one beyond training.’ |
7"Again, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu who is one beyond training understands the six faculties—the eye faculty, the ear faculty, the nose faculty, the tongue faculty, the body faculty, the mind faculty. He understands: ‘These six faculties will cease completely and totally without remainder, and no other six faculties will arise anywhere in any way.’ This too is a method by means of which a bhikkhu who is one beyond training, standing on the plane of one beyond training, understands: ‘I am one beyond training.’" sn.v.231 |