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Aṅguttara Nikāya - The Numerical Discourses

4: The Book of the Fours

XIII. Fears — AN 4.124: Difference (2nd)

1“Mendicants, these four people are found in the world. What four?


Firstly, a person, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption … They contemplate the phenomena there—included in form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness—as impermanent, as suffering, as diseased, as an abscess, as a dart, as misery, as an affliction, as alien, as falling apart, as empty, as not-self. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in the company of the gods of the pure abodes. This rebirth is not shared with ordinary people.

2As the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, they enter and remain in the second absorption … third absorption … fourth absorption … They contemplate the phenomena there—included in form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness—as impermanent, as suffering, as diseased, as an abscess, as a dart, as misery, as an affliction, as alien, as falling apart, as empty, as not-self. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in the company of the gods of the pure abodes. This rebirth is not shared with ordinary people.

These are the four people found in the world.”

1"Cattārome, bhikkhave, puggalā santo saṁvijjamānā lokasmiṁ. Katame cattāro?


Idha, bhikkhave, ekacco puggalo vivicceva kāmehi … pe … paṭhamaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati. So yadeva tattha hoti rūpagataṁ vedanāgataṁ saññāgataṁ saṅkhāragataṁ viññāṇagataṁ, te dhamme aniccato dukkhato rogato gaṇḍato sallato aghato ābādhato parato palokato suññato anattato samanupassati. So kāyassa bhedā paraṁ maraṇā suddhāvāsānaṁ devānaṁ sahabyataṁ upapajjati. Ayaṁ, bhikkhave, upapatti asādhāraṇā puthujjanehi.

2Puna caparaṁ, bhikkhave, idhekacco puggalo vitakkavicārānaṁ vūpasamā … pe … dutiyaṁ jhānaṁ … pe … tatiyaṁ jhānaṁ … pe … catutthaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati. So yadeva tattha hoti rūpagataṁ vedanāgataṁ saññāgataṁ saṅkhāragataṁ viññāṇagataṁ, te dhamme aniccato dukkhato rogato gaṇḍato sallato aghato ābādhato parato palokato suññato anattato samanupassati. So kāyassa bhedā paraṁ maraṇā suddhāvāsānaṁ devānaṁ sahabyataṁ upapajjati. Ayaṁ, bhikkhave, upapatti asādhāraṇā puthujjanehi.

Ime kho, bhikkhave, cattāro puggalā santo saṁvijjamānā lokasmin"ti.

Catutthaṁ.