SN 48:46 · The Eastern Monastery (Pubbārāma Sutta)
“Through the development & pursuit of how many faculties, monks, does a monk whose effluents are ended declare gnosis: ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for the sake of this world’?”
“For us, lord, the teachings have the Blessed One as their root, their guide, & their arbitrator. It would be good if the Blessed One himself would explicate the meaning of this statement. Having heard it from the Blessed One, the monks will remember it.”
“Monks, it’s through the development & pursuit of two faculties that a monk whose effluents are ended declares gnosis: ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for the sake of this world.’ Through which two? Through noble discernment & noble release. Whatever is his noble discernment is his faculty of discernment. Whatever is his noble release is his faculty of concentration.
“It’s through the development & pursuit of these two faculties that a monk whose effluents are ended declares gnosis: ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for the sake of this world.’”
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).
