1.
The Discourse on the Path
833.
At Sāvatthī.
"Monks, before my enlightenment, while I was still a Bodhisatta, not yet fully enlightened, it occurred to me:
'What indeed is the path, what is the practice for the development of the bases for spiritual power?'
It occurred to me, monks:
'Here a monk develops the basis for spiritual power that possesses concentration due to desire and volitional activities of striving -
thus my desire will not be too slack, nor too tense, nor contracted internally, nor distracted externally.
And he dwells perceiving after and before -
as before so after, as after so before;
as below so above, as above so below;
as by day so by night, as by night so by day.
Thus with an open mind, unobstructed, he develops a mind of luminosity.
Concentration due to energy, etc.
concentration due to mind, etc.
he develops the basis for spiritual power that possesses concentration due to investigation and volitional activities of striving -
thus my investigation will not be too slack, nor too tense, nor contracted internally, nor distracted externally.
And he dwells perceiving after and before -
as before so after, as after so before;
as below so above, as above so below;
as by day so by night, as by night so by day' -
thus with an open mind, unobstructed, he develops a mind of luminosity.
"Monks, when the four bases for spiritual power have been developed and cultivated in this way, a monk wields the various kinds of supernormal power: having been one, he becomes many; having been many, he becomes one; etc. He exercises mastery with his body even as far as the Brahma world. Monks, when the four bases for spiritual power have been developed and cultivated in this way, a monk, through the elimination of the mental corruptions, realises by his own direct knowledge, in this very life, the liberation of mind and the liberation by wisdom that are free from mental corruptions and, having entered upon them, dwells in them." The first.