AN 6:92 · Cases (Ṭhāna Sutta)
“Monks, these six are impossible cases. Which six?
“It’s impossible for a person consummate in view1 to live without respect or deference for the Teacher. It’s impossible for a person consummate in view to live without respect or deference for the Dhamma. It’s impossible for a person consummate in view to live without respect or deference for the Saṅgha. It’s impossible for a person consummate in view to live without respect or deference for the Training [heightened virtue, heightened concentration, heightened discernment]. It’s impossible for a person consummate in view to return to that which should not be gone to.2 It’s impossible for a person consummate in view to produce an eighth state of becoming.3
“These six are impossible cases.”
Notes
1. Consummate in view, diṭṭhi-sampanna, is an epithet for a person who has attained stream-entry.
2. According to the Commentary, this means that the stream-enterer cannot intentionally break any of the five precepts or adopt any of the 62 wrong views listed in DN 1.
3. In other words, the stream-enterer has, at most, no more than seven future births before gaining full awakening.
See also: SN 16:13; AN 3:87–88; AN 7:31–34; AN 7:56
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 licence, for free distribution only. Source: dhammatalks.org (Metta Forest Monastery).
