[102] "Ānanda, if anyone should say: 'This is the supreme pleasure and joy that beings experience,' I do not concede this to him. Why is that? Because, Ānanda, there is another pleasure more excellent and more sublime than that pleasure. And what, Ānanda, is that other pleasure more excellent and more sublime than that pleasure? Here, Ānanda, a bhikkhu, by completely surmounting the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception (nevasaññānāsaññāyatana), enters and dwells in the cessation of perception and feeling (saññāvedayitanirodha). This, Ānanda, is the other pleasure more excellent and more sublime than that pleasure.
"It is possible, Ānanda, that wanderers of other sects (aññatitthiyā paribbājakā) might say: 'The ascetic Gotama speaks of the cessation of perception and feeling, and yet he designates it as included in pleasure. What is this? How can this be?' When wanderers of other sects speak thus, Ānanda, they should be told: 'Friends, the Blessed One does not designate a state as included in pleasure with reference only to pleasant feeling (vedanā); rather, friends, wherever pleasure is found, and in whatever way, the Tathāgata designates that as included in pleasure.'"
Thus spoke the Blessed One. Delighted, the venerable Ānanda rejoiced in the Blessed One's words.
The Bahuvedaniya Sutta, the ninth, is finished.
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The Apaṇṇaka Sutta
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.