{"collection":"Anguttara Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_an9.35/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_an9.35","id":"suttacentral_an9.35","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/an9.35/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Anguttara Nikaya","Early Buddhist Texts"],"text":"\u201cMendicants, suppose there was a mountain cow who was foolish, incompetent, unskillful, and lacked common sense when roaming on rugged mountains. She might think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I go somewhere I\u2019ve never been before? I could eat grass and drink water that I\u2019ve never tried before.\u2019 She\u2019d take a step with a fore-hoof; but before it was properly set down, she\u2019d lift up a hind-hoof. She wouldn\u2019t go somewhere she\u2019d never been before, or eat grass and drink water that she\u2019d never tried before. And she\u2019d never return safely to the place she had started from. Why is that? Because that mountain cow was foolish, incompetent, unskillful, and lacked common sense when roaming on rugged mountains. In the same way, some foolish, incompetent, unskillful mendicant, lacking common sense, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of seclusion, while placing the mind and keeping it connected. But they don\u2019t cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis; they don\u2019t ensure it is properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, as the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, enter and remain in the second absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without placing the mind and keeping it connected.\u2019 But they\u2019re not able to enter and remain in the second absorption. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enter and remain in the first absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of seclusion, while placing the mind and keeping it connected.\u2019 But they\u2019re not able to enter and remain in the first absorption. This is called a mendicant who has slipped and fallen from both sides. They\u2019re like the mountain cow who was foolish, incompetent, unskillful, and lacking in common sense when roaming on rugged mountains. Suppose there was a mountain cow who was astute, competent, skillful, and used common sense when roaming on rugged mountains. She might think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I go somewhere I\u2019ve never been before? I could eat grass and drink water that I\u2019ve never tried before.\u2019 She\u2019d take a step with a fore-hoof; and after it was properly set down, she\u2019d lift up a hind-hoof. She\u2019d go somewhere she\u2019d never been before, and eat grass and drink water that she\u2019d never tried before. And she\u2019d return safely to the place she had started from. Why is that? Because that mountain cow was astute, competent, skillful, and used common sense when roaming on rugged mountains. In the same way, some astute, competent, skillful mendicant, using common sense, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of seclusion, while placing the mind and keeping it connected. They cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis, ensuring that it\u2019s properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, as the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, enter and remain in the second absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without placing the mind and keeping it connected.\u2019 Without charging at the second absorption, as the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, they enter and remain in the second absorption. They cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis, ensuring that it\u2019s properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, with the fading away of rapture, enter and remain in the third absorption, where I will meditate with equanimity, mindful and aware, experiencing for themselves the bliss of which the noble ones declare, \u201cEquanimous and mindful, one meditates in bliss.\u201d\u2019 Without charging at the third absorption, with the fading away of rapture, they enter and remain in the third absorption. They cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis, ensuring that it\u2019s properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, with the giving up of pleasure and pain, and the disappearance of former happiness and sadness, enter and remain in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness.\u2019 Without charging at the fourth absorption, with the giving up of pleasure and pain, and the disappearance of former happiness and sadness, they enter and remain in the fourth absorption. They cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis, ensuring that it\u2019s properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, going totally beyond perceptions of form, with the disappearance of perceptions of impingement, not focusing on perceptions of diversity, aware that \u201cspace is infinite\u201d, enter and remain in the dimension of infinite space.\u2019 Without charging at the dimension of infinite space, with the fading away of rapture, they enter and remain in the dimension of infinite space. They cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis, ensuring that it\u2019s properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, going totally beyond the dimension of infinite space, aware that \u201cconsciousness is infinite\u201d, enter and remain in the dimension of infinite consciousness.\u2019 Without charging at the dimension of infinite consciousness, they enter and remain in the dimension of infinite consciousness. They cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis, ensuring that it\u2019s properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, going totally beyond the dimension of infinite consciousness, aware that \u201cthere is nothing at all\u201d, enter and remain in the dimension of nothingness.\u2019 Without charging at the dimension of nothingness, they enter and remain in the dimension of nothingness. They cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis, ensuring that it\u2019s properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, going totally beyond the dimension of nothingness, enter and remain in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.\u2019 Without charging at the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, they enter and remain in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. They cultivate, develop, and make much of that basis, ensuring that it\u2019s properly stabilized. They think, \u2018Why don\u2019t I, going totally beyond the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, enter and remain in the cessation of perception and feeling.\u2019 Without charging at the cessation of perception and feeling, they enter and remain in the cessation of perception and feeling. When a mendicant enters and emerges from any one of these attainments, their mind becomes pliable and workable. With a pliable and workable mind, their immersion becomes limitless and well developed. They extend the mind to realize by insight each and every thing that can be realized by insight; and they are capable of realizing those things, since each and every one is within range. They might wish: \u2018May I wield the many kinds of psychic power: multiplying myself and becoming one again \u2026 controlling the body as far as the realm of divinity.\u2019 They are capable of realizing it, since each and every one is within range. They might wish: \u2018With clairaudience that is purified and superhuman, may I hear both kinds of sounds, human and heavenly, whether near or far.\u2019 They are capable of realizing it, since each and every one is within range. They might wish: \u2018May I understand the minds of other beings and individuals, having encompassed them with my mind. May I understand mind with greed as \u201cmind with greed\u201d, and mind without greed as \u201cmind without greed\u201d; mind with hate as \u201cmind with hate\u201d, and mind without hate as \u201cmind without hate\u201d; mind with delusion as \u201cmind with delusion\u201d, and mind without delusion as \u201cmind without delusion\u201d; constricted mind \u2026 scattered mind \u2026 expansive mind \u2026 unexpansive mind \u2026 mind that is not supreme \u2026 mind that is supreme \u2026 mind immersed in sam\u0101dhi \u2026 mind not immersed in sam\u0101dhi \u2026 freed mind \u2026 and unfreed mind as \u201cunfreed mind\u201d.\u2019 They are capable of realizing it, since each and every one is within range. They might wish: \u2018May I recollect many kinds of past lives. That is: one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. They remember: \u201cThere, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here.\u201d May I recollect my many past lives, with features and details.\u2019 They\u2019re capable of realizing it, since each and every one is within range. They might wish: \u2018With clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, may I see sentient beings passing away and being reborn\u2014inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place\u2014and understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds.\u2019 They\u2019re capable of realizing it, since each and every one is within range. They might wish: \u2018May I realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom, and live having realized it with my own insight in this very life due to the ending of defilements.\u2019 They\u2019re capable of realizing it, since each and every one is within range.\u201d","title":"The Simile of the Cow","tradition":"Anguttara Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":1577}