[273] Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu possessed of six qualities is worthy of gifts (āhuneyyo) … an unsurpassed field of merit for the world. Of what six? Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu wields the manifold kinds of supernormal power (iddhividhā): having been one, he becomes many; having been many, he becomes one; he appears and vanishes; he goes unimpeded through a wall, through a rampart, through a mountain, as though through space; he dives in and out of the earth as though it were water; he walks on water without breaking its surface as though it were earth; seated cross-legged he travels through space like a bird on the wing; with his hand he touches and strokes even this moon and sun, so mighty and powerful; he exercises mastery with the body as far even as the Brahmā world.
With the divine ear element (dibbā sotadhātu), purified and surpassing the human, he hears both kinds of sounds, the divine and the human, whether far or near.
Having encompassed them with his own mind, he understands the minds (citta) of other beings, of other persons: a mind with lust he understands as "a mind with lust"; a mind without lust … a mind with hatred … a mind without hatred … a mind with delusion … a mind without delusion … a contracted mind … a distracted mind … an exalted mind … an unexalted mind … a surpassable mind … an unsurpassable mind … a concentrated mind … an unconcentrated mind … a liberated mind … an unliberated mind he understands as "an unliberated mind."
He recollects his manifold past abodes (pubbenivāsa), 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 eons of world-contraction, many eons of world-expansion, many eons of world-contraction and expansion: "There I was so named, of such a clan, of such appearance, such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my span of life; passing away from there, I was reborn elsewhere; and there too I was so named, of such a clan, of such appearance, such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my span of life; passing away from there, I was reborn here." Thus he recollects his manifold past abodes with their aspects and particulars.
With the divine eye (dibbacakkhu), purified and surpassing the human, he sees beings passing away and being reborn — inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate — and he understands how beings fare on according to their kamma: "These beings, sirs, endowed with misconduct by body, endowed with misconduct by speech, endowed with misconduct by mind, revilers of the noble ones, holding wrong view (micchādiṭṭhi), undertaking actions under the influence of wrong view — with the breakup of the body, after death, they have been reborn in a state of deprivation, a bad destination, the lower world, hell. But these beings, sirs, 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 actions under the influence of right view — with the breakup of the body, after death, they have been reborn in a good destination, a heavenly world." Thus with the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human, he sees beings passing away and being reborn — inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate — and he understands how beings fare on according to their kamma.
With the destruction of the taints (āsava), he realizes for himself with direct knowledge, in this very life, the taintless liberation of mind (cetovimutti) and liberation by wisdom (paññāvimutti), and having entered upon it, he dwells therein.
Possessed of these six qualities, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu is worthy of gifts … an unsurpassed field of merit for the world.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.