Reading guide
Four criteria marking the trainee
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse gives a trainee three criteria before reaching the five faculties: understanding the four noble truths; reflecting and confirming that no other ascetic or brahmin teaches as truly, really, and accurately as the Buddha; and understanding the five faculties without yet having direct meditative experience of their own destination, apex, fruit, and culmination — seen only with penetrating wisdom.
The precise line between trainee and adept
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse's own criterion for the adept repeats the trainee's own wording almost exactly, but with one decisive addition: “kāyena ca phusitvā viharati” (“they have direct meditative experience of it”), where the trainee's own passage explicitly states “na heva kho kāyena phusitvā viharati” (“they do NOT have direct meditative experience of it”) — the same wisdom-seeing, but only the adept has touched it directly.
The adept's own further criterion: the six faculties' final ending
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse gives the adept a further, distinct criterion beyond the trainee's own three: understanding that the six sense faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) “will totally and utterly cease without remainder, and no other six faculties will arise anywhere anyhow” — a direct understanding of one's own final parinibbāna, where rebirth's six senses will never recur.
Key terms
The text
§1-2 — the Buddha's own questionSo I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Kosambī, in Ghosita’s Monastery. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants: “Mendicants, is there a way that a mendicant who is a trainee, standing at the level of a trainee, can understand that they are a trainee? And that a mendicant who is an adept, standing at the level of an adept, can understand that they are an adept?” “Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. …” “There is a way that a mendicant who is a trainee, standing at the level of a trainee, can understand that they are a trainee, and that a mendicant who is an adept, standing at the level of an adept, can understand that they are an adept.
§3-5 — the trainee's own three criteriaAnd what is a way that a mendicant who is a trainee can understand that they are a trainee? It’s when a mendicant who is a trainee truly understands: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’. This is a way that a mendicant who is a trainee can understand that they are a trainee. Furthermore, a mendicant who is a trainee reflects: ‘Is there any other ascetic or brahmin elsewhere whose teaching is as true, as real, as accurate as that of the Buddha?’ They understand: ‘There is no other ascetic or brahmin elsewhere whose teaching is as true, as real, as accurate as that of the Buddha.’ This too is a way that a mendicant who is a trainee can understand that they are a trainee. Furthermore, a mendicant who is a trainee understands the five faculties: faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. And although they don’t have direct meditative experience of their destination, apex, fruit, and culmination, they do see them with penetrating wisdom. This too is a way that a mendicant who is a trainee can understand that they are a trainee.
§6 — the adept's own criterion, echoing the trainee's with one additionAnd what is the way that a mendicant who is an adept can understand that they are an adept? It’s when a mendicant who is an adept understands the five faculties: faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. They have direct meditative experience of their destination, apex, fruit, and culmination, and they see them with penetrating wisdom. This is a way that a mendicant who is an adept can understand that they are an adept.
§7 — the adept's own further criterion: the six faculties' final endingFurthermore, a mendicant who is an adept understands the six faculties: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. They understand: ‘These six faculties will totally and utterly cease without remainder. And no other six faculties will arise anywhere anyhow.’ This too is a way that a mendicant who is an adept can understand that they are an adept.”
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