[752] Then, Bhāradvāja, this occurred to me: 'Whatever ascetics or brahmins in the past have experienced painful (dukkha), racking, sharp feelings (vedanā) due to exertion, this is the utmost; there is none beyond this. Whatever ascetics or brahmins in the future will experience painful, racking, sharp feelings due to exertion, this is the utmost; there is none beyond this. And whatever ascetics or brahmins at present experience painful, racking, sharp feelings due to exertion, this is the utmost; there is none beyond this. Yet by this racking practice of austerities I do not attain any distinction in knowledge (ñāṇa) and vision worthy of the noble ones, surpassing the human state. Could there be another path (magga) to awakening?'
Then, Bhāradvāja, this occurred to me: 'I recall that once, while my father the Sakyan was engaged in his work, I was seated in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, and—quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states—I entered upon and dwelt in the first absorption (jhāna), accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with rapture (pīti) and pleasure born of seclusion. Could this be the path to awakening?' Then, Bhāradvāja, following upon that memory, there arose in me the consciousness (viññāṇa): 'This indeed is the path to awakening.'
Then, Bhāradvāja, this occurred to me: 'Why, then, am I afraid of that pleasure—a pleasure that is apart from sensual pleasures, apart from unwholesome states?' Then, Bhāradvāja, this occurred to me: 'I am not afraid of that pleasure—a pleasure that is apart from sensual pleasures, apart from unwholesome states.'
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.