AN4_38: Paṭilīna Sutta

Paṭilīna Sutta - translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Sensuality-search, becoming-search,

together with the holy-life search—

i.e., grasping at ‘such is the truth’

based on an accumulation

of viewpoints:

Through the relinquishing of searches

& the abolishing of viewpoints

of one dispassionate to

all passion,

and released in the ending

of craving,

he, a monk

peaceful, mindful,

calmed, undefeated,

awakened

with the breaking-through of conceit,

is said to be

detached.

Notes

1. Pacceka can also mean “singular” or “personal.” Idiosyncratic truths are the opposite of noble truths, which are universal. See Sn 4:8 and Sn 4:12.

2. “Bodily fabrication” (kāya-saṅkhāra) is a technical term for the in-and-out breath. See MN 44. On the stilling of the in-and-out breath as a defining feature of the fourth jhāna, see SN 36:11, AN 9:31, and AN 10:72. The definition of the calming of bodily fabrication given in this sutta helps to explain what is meant by the fourth step in mindfulness of breathing: “He trains himself, ‘I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication.’ He trains himself, ‘I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication.’” See MN 118.

3. On these three searches, see Iti 54–55. The Commentary to this sutta says that the search for a holy life is allayed with the path of arahantship, although the search for a holy life in the form of views subsides earlier with the path of stream-entry.

Origin URL: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN4_38.html