{"collection":"Anguttara Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_an3.59/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_an3.59","id":"suttacentral_an3.59","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/an3.59/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Anguttara Nikaya","Early Buddhist Texts"],"text":"Then the brahmin J\u0101nusso\u1e47i went up to the Buddha, and exchanged greetings with him. Seated to one side he said to the Buddha: \u201cWorthy Gotama, whoever has a sacrifice, an offering of food for ancestors, a dish of milk-rice prepared for an auspicious ceremony, or a gift to give, should give it to the brahmins who have mastered the three Vedic knowledges.\u201d \u201cBut brahmin, how do the brahmins describe a brahmin who is proficient in the three Vedic knowledges?\u201d \u201cWorthy Gotama, it\u2019s when a brahmin is well born on both his mother\u2019s and father\u2019s side, stemming from a clean vessel, with irrefutable and impeccable genealogy back to the seventh paternal generation. He recites and remembers the hymns, and has mastered the three Vedas, together with their vocabularies and ritual performance, their phonology and word classification, and the testaments as fifth. He knows them word-by-word, and their grammar. He is well versed in cosmology and the marks of a great man. That\u2019s how the brahmins describe a brahmin who is proficient in the three Vedic knowledges.\u201d \u201cBrahmin, a master of three knowledges according to the brahmins is quite different from a master of the three knowledges in the training of the Noble One.\u201d \u201cBut worthy Gotama, how is one a master of the three knowledges in the training of the Noble One? Worthy Gotama, please teach me this.\u201d \u201cWell then, brahmin, listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.\u201d \u201cYes, worthy sir,\u201d J\u0101nusso\u1e47i replied. The Buddha said this: \u201cBrahmin, it\u2019s when a mendicant, quite secluded from sensual pleasures \u2026 enters and remains in the fourth absorption. When their mind has become immersed in sam\u0101dhi like this\u2014purified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable\u2014they extend it toward recollection of past lives. They recollect many kinds of past lives, with features and details. This is the first knowledge that they attain. Ignorance is banished and knowledge has arisen; darkness is banished and light has arisen, as happens for a meditator who is diligent, keen, and resolute. When their mind has become immersed in sam\u0101dhi like this\u2014purified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable\u2014they extend it toward knowledge of the death and rebirth of sentient beings. With clairvoyance that is purified and surpasses the human, they understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds. This is the second knowledge that they attain. Ignorance is banished and knowledge has arisen; darkness is banished and light has arisen, as happens for a meditator who is diligent, keen, and resolute. When their mind has become immersed in sam\u0101dhi like this\u2014purified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable\u2014they extend it toward knowledge of the ending of defilements. They truly understand: \u2018This is suffering\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the origin of suffering\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the cessation of suffering\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering\u2019. They truly understand: \u2018These are defilements\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the origin of defilements\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the cessation of defilements\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the practice that leads to the cessation of defilements\u2019. Knowing and seeing like this, their mind is freed from the defilements of sensuality, desire to be reborn, and ignorance. When they\u2019re freed, they know they\u2019re freed. They understand: \u2018Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is nothing further for this place.\u2019 This is the third knowledge that they attain. Ignorance is banished and knowledge has arisen; darkness is banished and light has arisen, as happens for a meditator who is diligent, keen, and resolute. One who is perfect in precepts and observances, resolute and serene, whose mind is mastered, unified, serene; who knows their past lives, sees heaven and places of loss, and has attained the end of rebirth, such a sage has perfect insight. Because of these three knowledges a brahmin is a master of the three knowledges. That\u2019s who I call a three-knowledge master, and not the other <j>who repeats what they are told. This, brahmin, is a master of the three knowledges in the training of the Noble One.\u201d \u201cWorthy Gotama, the master of three knowledges according to the brahmins is quite different from a master of the three knowledges in the training of the Noble One. And, worthy Gotama, a master of three knowledges according to the brahmins is not worth a sixteenth part of a master of the three knowledges in the training of the Noble One. Excellent, worthy Gotama! Excellent! \u2026 From this day forth, may the worthy Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life.\u201d","title":"With J\u0101nusso\u1e47i","tradition":"Anguttara Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":775}