[854] When the brahmin student Uttara, the pupil of Pārāsiriya, had sat down to one side, the Blessed One said this to him: "Uttara, does the brahmin Pārāsiriya teach his disciples the development of the faculties (indriyabhāvanā)?"
"He does teach it, Master Gotama."
"But in what way, Uttara, does the brahmin Pārāsiriya teach his disciples the development of the faculties?"
"Here, Master Gotama: one does not see a form with the eye, one does not hear a sound with the ear — it is thus, Master Gotama, that the brahmin Pārāsiriya teaches his disciples the development of the faculties."
"That being so, Uttara, then according to the statement of the brahmin Pārāsiriya a blind man will be one whose faculties are developed, and a deaf man will be one whose faculties are developed; for a blind man, Uttara, does not see a form with the eye, and a deaf man does not hear a sound with the ear."
When this was said, the brahmin student Uttara, the pupil of Pārāsiriya, sat silent, dismayed, with shoulders drooping and head bowed, brooding, unable to make a reply.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.