9.
The Discourse on Faith
9.
On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Nātikā in the brick house.
Then the Venerable Saddha approached the Blessed One;
having approached, he paid respect to the Blessed One and sat down to one side.
To the Venerable Saddha seated to one side, the Blessed One said this:
"Meditate, Saddha, the meditation of a thoroughbred; do not meditate the meditation of an inferior horse. And how is there the meditation of an inferior horse? For an inferior horse, Saddha, tied near the trough, meditates 'grass, grass'. What is the reason for this? For an inferior horse tied near the trough does not think thus - 'What indeed will the trainer of horses to be tamed make me do today, how should I make amends?' He, tied near the trough, meditates 'grass, grass'. So too, Saddha, here a certain inferior person, whether gone to the forest or gone to the root of a tree or gone to an empty house, dwells with a mind pervaded by sensual lust, overcome by sensual lust, and does not understand as it really is the escape from arisen sensual lust. He, having made sensual lust itself his inner focus, meditates, broods, ponders, muses; dwells with a mind pervaded by anger, dwells with a mind pervaded by sloth and torpor, dwells with a mind pervaded by restlessness and remorse, dwells with a mind pervaded by sceptical doubt, overcome by sceptical doubt, and does not understand as it really is the escape from arisen sceptical doubt. He, having made sceptical doubt itself his inner focus, meditates, broods, ponders, muses. He meditates in dependence on earth, meditates in dependence on water, meditates in dependence on fire, meditates in dependence on air, meditates in dependence on the plane of infinite space, meditates in dependence on the plane of infinite consciousness, meditates in dependence on the plane of nothingness, meditates in dependence on the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, meditates in dependence on this world, meditates in dependence on the world beyond, whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognised, attained, sought after, pondered over by the mind, that too he meditates in dependence on. Thus, Saddha, is the meditation of an inferior person.
"And how, Saddha, is there the meditation of a thoroughbred? For a good thoroughbred horse, Saddha, tied near the trough, does not meditate 'grass, grass'. What is the reason for this? For a good thoroughbred horse tied near the trough thinks thus - 'What indeed will the trainer of horses to be tamed make me do today, how should I make amends?' He, tied near the trough, does not meditate 'grass, grass'. For a good thoroughbred horse, Saddha, regards the swallowing of the goad as if a debt, as if imprisonment, as if loss, as if misfortune. So too, Saddha, a good thoroughbred person, whether gone to the forest or gone to the root of a tree or gone to an empty house, does not dwell with a mind pervaded by sensual lust, not overcome by sensual lust, and understands as it really is the escape from arisen sensual lust; does not dwell with a mind pervaded by anger, does not dwell with a mind pervaded by sloth and torpor, does not dwell with a mind pervaded by restlessness and remorse, does not dwell with a mind pervaded by sceptical doubt, not overcome by sceptical doubt, and understands as it really is the escape from arisen sceptical doubt. He does not meditate in dependence on earth, does not meditate in dependence on water, does not meditate in dependence on fire, does not meditate in dependence on air, does not meditate in dependence on the plane of infinite space, does not meditate in dependence on the plane of infinite consciousness, does not meditate in dependence on the plane of nothingness, does not meditate in dependence on the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, does not meditate in dependence on this world, does not meditate in dependence on the world beyond, whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognised, attained, sought after, pondered over by the mind, that too he does not meditate in dependence on; and yet he meditates. And, Saddha, the gods with Indra, including the Brahmā realm, with Pajāpati, venerate from afar a good thoroughbred person who meditates thus -
We do not directly know that in dependence on which you meditate."
When this was said, the Venerable Saddha said this to the Blessed One - "How meditating, venerable sir, does a good thoroughbred person not meditate in dependence on earth, not meditate in dependence on water, not meditate in dependence on fire, not meditate in dependence on air, not meditate in dependence on the plane of infinite space, not meditate in dependence on the plane of infinite consciousness, not meditate in dependence on the plane of nothingness, not meditate in dependence on the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, not meditate in dependence on this world, not meditate in dependence on the world beyond, whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognised, attained, sought after, pondered over by the mind, that too he does not meditate in dependence on; and yet he meditates? And how meditating, venerable sir, do the gods with Indra, including the Brahmā realm, with Pajāpati, venerate from afar a good thoroughbred person -
We do not directly know that in dependence on which you meditate."
"Here, Saddha, for a good thoroughbred person, perception of earth in earth has become clear, perception of water in water has become clear, perception of fire in fire has become clear, perception of air in air has become clear, perception of the plane of infinite space in the plane of infinite space has become clear, perception of the plane of infinite consciousness in the plane of infinite consciousness has become clear, perception of the plane of nothingness in the plane of nothingness has become clear, perception of the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception in the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception has become clear, perception of this world in this world has become clear, perception of the world beyond in the world beyond has become clear, whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognised, attained, sought after, pondered over by the mind, there too perception has become clear. Thus meditating, Saddha, a good thoroughbred person does not meditate in dependence on earth, etc. whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognised, attained, sought after, pondered over by the mind, that too he does not meditate in dependence on; and yet he meditates. And, Saddha, the gods with Indra, including the Brahmā realm, with Pajāpati, venerate from afar a good thoroughbred person who meditates thus -
We do not directly know that in dependence on which you meditate." The ninth.