[17]
[Translator's note: In the Siam Raṭṭha printing this item compresses **three consecutive suttas** by elision. The Thai Royal edition makes the boundaries explicit ("End of the Seventh Sutta … Anattā Sutta … End of the Eighth Sutta … Nibbāna Sutta … End of the Ninth Sutta"). The sutta divisions are therefore marked here in brackets; the elisions of the Pali itself are preserved as "…".]
[Seventh Sutta — Contemplation of Suffering]
"Bhikkhus, these seven persons are worthy of gifts (āhuneyyā) … an unsurpassed field of merit for the world. What seven? Here, bhikkhus, a certain person dwells contemplating suffering (dukkha) in all conditioned things (sabbasaṅkhāresu) … "
[End of the Seventh Sutta.]
[Eighth Sutta — Contemplation of Non-self]
"… dwells contemplating non-self (anattānupassī) in all dhammas … "
[End of the Eighth Sutta.]
[Ninth Sutta — Nibbāna]
"… dwells contemplating happiness in Nibbāna, percipient of happiness, experiencing happiness — constantly, continuously, without interruption — resolving upon it with the mind (citta), fathoming it with wisdom. He, with the destruction of the taints (āsava), … having realized it, dwells having entered upon it. This, bhikkhus, is the first person worthy of gifts … an unsurpassed field of merit for the world.
"Again, bhikkhus, here a certain person dwells contemplating happiness in Nibbāna, percipient of happiness, experiencing happiness — constantly, continuously, without interruption — resolving upon it with the mind, fathoming it with wisdom. For him the exhaustion of the taints and the exhaustion of life occur neither before nor after [the one the other]. This, bhikkhus, is the second person worthy of gifts … an unsurpassed field of merit for the world.
"Again, bhikkhus, here a certain person dwells contemplating happiness in Nibbāna, percipient of happiness, experiencing happiness — constantly, continuously, without interruption — resolving upon it with the mind, fathoming it with wisdom. He, with the utter destruction of the five lower fetters (orambhāgiyāni saṃyojanāni), becomes one who attains final Nibbāna in the interval (antarāparinibbāyī) … [this is the third person; the refrains for the third through sixth persons are elided in the Pali:] … he becomes one who attains final Nibbāna upon landing (upahaccaparinibbāyī) [the fourth person]; he becomes one who attains final Nibbāna without exertion (asaṅkhāraparinibbāyī) [the fifth person]; he becomes one who attains final Nibbāna with exertion (sasaṅkhāraparinibbāyī) [the sixth person]; he becomes one bound upstream, heading to the Akaniṭṭha realm (uddhaṃsoto akaniṭṭhagāmī). This, bhikkhus, is the seventh person worthy of gifts … an unsurpassed field of merit for the world.
"These, bhikkhus, are the seven persons worthy of gifts … an unsurpassed field of merit for the world."
[End of the Ninth Sutta. The Thai Royal edition follows immediately with the title of the next sutta, the Niddasavatthu Sutta, which lies outside this Pali item.]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.