[498] (59) Then Tikaṇṇa the brahmin approached the Blessed One; having approached, he exchanged greetings with the Blessed One, and when the courteous and memorable talk was concluded, he sat down to one side. Sitting to one side, Tikaṇṇa the brahmin, in the presence of the Blessed One, spoke praise of the brahmins possessed of the threefold knowledge (tevijjā): "Such indeed are the brahmins of threefold knowledge; thus indeed are the brahmins of threefold knowledge."
"But in what way, brahmin, do the brahmins declare a brahmin to be one of threefold knowledge?"
"Here, Master Gotama, a brahmin is well born on both sides, of pure descent through both mother and father as far back as the seventh generation of forefathers, unassailable and irreproachable with respect to birth; he is a reciter, a bearer of the mantras, a master of the three Vedas together with their vocabularies (nighaṇḍu) and ritual manuals (keṭubha), with their phonology and word-analysis, and with the histories (itihāsa) as a fifth; he is skilled in the words and in exposition, and fully versed in cosmology (lokāyata) and in the marks of a great man. In this way, Master Gotama, do the brahmins declare a brahmin to be one of threefold knowledge."
"In one way, brahmin, do the brahmins declare a brahmin to be one of threefold knowledge; in quite another way is one of threefold knowledge in the discipline of the Noble One."
"But in what way, Master Gotama, is one of threefold knowledge in the discipline of the Noble One? It would be good if Master Gotama would teach me the Dhamma in such a way that shows how one is of threefold knowledge in the discipline of the Noble One."
"Then listen, brahmin, and attend carefully; I shall speak."
"Yes, sir," Tikaṇṇa the brahmin replied to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said this:
"Here, brahmin, a bhikkhu, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, enters and dwells in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture (pīti) and happiness born of seclusion. With the subsiding of thought and examination, he enters and dwells in the second jhāna, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration (samādhi). With the fading away of rapture, he dwells equanimous, and, with mindfulness (sati) and clear comprehension (sampajañña), he experiences happiness with the body; he enters and dwells in the third jhāna, of which the noble ones declare: 'Equanimous and mindful, he dwells happily.' With the abandoning of pleasure and the abandoning of pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and grief, he enters and dwells in the fourth jhāna, which is neither painful nor pleasant and has purity of mindfulness through equanimity (upekkhā).
"When his mind (citta) is thus concentrated, purified, cleansed, unblemished, rid of defilements, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs his mind to the knowledge (ñāṇa) of the recollection of past abodes. He recollects his manifold past abodes, that is: one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births, ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births, a hundred births, a thousand births, a hundred thousand births, many aeons of world-contraction, many aeons of world-expansion, many aeons of world-contraction and expansion: 'There I had such a name, such a clan, such an appearance, such food, such an experience of pleasure and pain, such a life-span; passing away from there, I arose in that other place; there too I had such a name, such a clan, such an appearance, such food, such an experience of pleasure and pain, such a life-span; passing away from there, I arose here.' Thus, with their aspects and particulars, he recollects his manifold past abodes. This is the first true knowledge (vijjā) he has attained: ignorance (avijjā) has been dispelled, true knowledge has arisen; darkness has been dispelled, light has arisen — as happens for one who dwells heedful, ardent (ātāpī), and resolute.
"When his mind is thus concentrated, purified, cleansed, unblemished, rid of defilements, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs his mind to the knowledge of the passing away and rebirth of beings. With the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human, he sees beings passing away and re-arising — inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate — and he understands beings as faring according to their kamma: 'These beings, alas, endowed with misconduct by body, endowed with misconduct by speech, endowed with misconduct by mind, revilers of the noble ones, holding wrong view, undertaking kamma under wrong view — with the breakup of the body, after death, they have arisen in the plane of misery, a bad destination, the lower world, hell. But these beings, endowed with good conduct by body, endowed with good conduct by speech, endowed with good conduct by mind, not revilers of the noble ones, holding right view, undertaking kamma under right view — with the breakup of the body, after death, they have arisen in a good destination, a heavenly world.' Thus, with the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human, he sees beings passing away and re-arising — inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate — and he understands beings as faring according to their kamma. This is the second true knowledge he has attained: ignorance has been dispelled, true knowledge has arisen; darkness has been dispelled, light has arisen — as happens for one who dwells heedful, ardent, and resolute.
"When his mind is thus concentrated, purified, cleansed, unblemished, rid of defilements, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs his mind to the knowledge of the destruction of the taints (āsava). He understands as it really is (yathābhūta): 'This is suffering (dukkha)'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the origin of suffering'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the cessation of suffering'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering.' He understands as it really is: 'These are the taints'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the origin of the taints'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the cessation of the taints'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the way of practice leading to the cessation of the taints.' Knowing thus, seeing thus, his mind is liberated from the taint of sensual desire, his mind is liberated from the taint of existence, and his mind is liberated from the taint of ignorance. When it is liberated, there comes the knowledge: 'It is liberated.' He understands: 'Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done has been done; there is no more of this state of being.' This is the third true knowledge he has attained: ignorance has been dispelled, true knowledge has arisen; darkness has been dispelled, light has arisen — as happens for one who dwells heedful, ardent, and resolute.
One of consistent virtue, alert and meditative,
whose mind is mastered, unified, well concentrated —
him indeed, the dispeller of darkness, the steadfast one,
possessed of the threefold knowledge, who has left death behind,
the benefactor of devas and humans, they call the one who has abandoned all;
accomplished in the three true knowledges, dwelling unbewildered,
the Awakened One bearing his final body —
him, Gotama, they venerate.
He who knows his past abodes, who sees heaven and the plane of misery,
and who has attained the destruction of birth —
a sage consummate in direct knowledge:
by these three true knowledges one is a brahmin of threefold knowledge.
Him I call one of threefold knowledge —
not another, who merely repeats what is recited.
"In this way, brahmin, is one of threefold knowledge in the discipline of the Noble One."
"In one way, Master Gotama, is the one of threefold knowledge of the brahmins; in quite another way is one of threefold knowledge in the discipline of the Noble One. And, Master Gotama, the brahmins' one of threefold knowledge is not worth a sixteenth part of this one of threefold knowledge in the discipline of the Noble One. Excellent, Master Gotama! … Let Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life from this day forward."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.