[492] **"The One with Vision did not declare to me"** (na me byākāsi cakkhumā): he did not declare to me — he did not tell, did not teach, did not make known, did not establish, did not disclose, did not analyze, did not make plain, did not proclaim.
**"One with Vision"** (cakkhumā): the Blessed One possesses vision by way of five eyes: he has vision with the fleshly eye (maṃsacakkhu), vision with the divine eye (dibbacakkhu), vision with the wisdom eye (paññācakkhu), vision with the Buddha-eye (buddhacakkhu), and vision with the universal eye (samantacakkhu).
How does the Blessed One have vision with the fleshly eye? In the Blessed One's fleshly eye five colors are found: the color blue, the color yellow, the color red, the color black, and the color white. Where the eyelashes are rooted, it is blue, deep blue, pleasing, lovely to behold, like the ummāra flower. Beyond that it is yellow, richly yellow, golden in color, pleasing, lovely to behold, like the kaṇṇikāra flower. On both sides the eye-sockets of the Blessed One are red, richly red, pleasing, lovely to behold, like indagopaka insects. In the middle it is black, deep black, unroughened, glossy, pleasing, lovely to behold, like an aḷāriṭṭhaka seed. Beyond that it is white, purely white, pale, spotlessly white, pleasing, lovely to behold, like the morning star. With that natural fleshly eye, belonging to his individual existence, produced by former deeds of good conduct, the Blessed One sees for a yojana all around, both by day and by night. Even when there is darkness endowed with four factors — the sun has set, it is the uposatha of the dark fortnight, there is a dense forest thicket, and a great unseasonal storm-cloud has arisen — even in darkness endowed with such four factors he sees for a yojana all around. There is no wall, no door-panel, no rampart, no mountain, no thicket, no creeper that obstructs his seeing of forms. If one were to mark a single sesame seed and drop it into a cartload of sesame, he could pick out that very sesame seed. So pure is the Blessed One's natural fleshly eye. Thus the Blessed One has vision with the fleshly eye.
How does the Blessed One have vision with the divine eye? The Blessed One, with the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human, … understands beings as faring according to their kamma. And should he wish it, the Blessed One could see even one world-system, could see even two world-systems, could see even three world-systems, could see even four world-systems, could see even five world-systems, could see even ten world-systems, could see even twenty world-systems, could see even thirty world-systems, could see even forty world-systems, could see even fifty world-systems, could see even a hundred world-systems, could see even a thousandfold minor world-system, could see even a two-thousandfold middling world-system, could see even a three-thousandfold world-system, could see even a great-thousandfold world-system; or however far he should wish, so far could he see. So pure is the Blessed One's divine eye. Thus the Blessed One has vision with the divine eye.
How does the Blessed One have vision with the wisdom eye? The Blessed One is of great wisdom, of broad wisdom, of joyous wisdom, of swift wisdom, of sharp wisdom, of penetrating wisdom, skilled in the divisions of wisdom, of discriminating knowledge (ñāṇa); he has attained the analytic insights, attained the four grounds of self-confidence; he is a bearer of the ten powers, a bull among men, a lion among men, a nāga among men, a thoroughbred among men, a burden-bearer among men; of infinite knowledge, infinite splendor, infinite fame; rich, of great wealth, possessed of wealth; a leader, a guide, one who leads onward, one who makes understood, one who makes reflect, one who surveys, one who inspires confidence. For that Blessed One is the arouser of the unarisen path (magga), the producer of the path not yet brought into being, the declarer of the undeclared path; he is the knower of the path, the discoverer of the path, the one skilled in the path. And now his disciples dwell following the path, becoming endowed with it afterwards.
For that Blessed One, knowing, knows; seeing, sees. He has become vision, become knowledge, become Dhamma, become Brahmā; the sayer, the proclaimer, the elucidator of the meaning, the giver of the Deathless, the lord of the Dhamma, the Tathāgata. For that Blessed One there is nothing unknown, unseen, uncognized, unrealized, untouched by wisdom. Taking in past, future, and present, all dhammas in every mode come within the range of the gate of knowledge of the Buddha, the Blessed One. Whatever there is that is called knowable, that can be known — the good of oneself, or the good of others, or the good of both; the good pertaining to this present life, or the good pertaining to the life to come; the plain good, or the profound good; the hidden good, or the concealed good; the good requiring inference, or the good already established; the blameless good, or the undefiled good, or the cleansed good, or the ultimate good — all that turns within the Buddha's knowledge.
All bodily action of the Buddha, the Blessed One, proceeds in accordance with knowledge; all verbal action proceeds in accordance with knowledge; all mental action proceeds in accordance with knowledge. In regard to the past the Buddha, the Blessed One, has unobstructed knowledge; in regard to the future the Buddha, the Blessed One, has unobstructed knowledge; in regard to the present the Buddha, the Blessed One, has unobstructed knowledge. As far as extends the knowable, so far extends knowledge; as far as extends knowledge, so far extends the knowable. Knowledge has the knowable as its limit; the knowable has knowledge as its limit. Knowledge does not proceed beyond the knowable, nor is there any range of the knowable beyond knowledge. Those dhammas stand with each other as mutual limits. Just as, when two halves of a casket are fitted together, the lower casket-half does not exceed the upper, and the upper casket-half does not exceed the lower — they stand with each other as mutual limits — even so, for the Buddha, the Blessed One, the knowable and knowledge stand with each other as mutual limits: as far as extends the knowable, so far extends knowledge; as far as extends knowledge, so far extends the knowable. Knowledge has the knowable as its limit; the knowable has knowledge as its limit. Knowledge does not proceed beyond the knowable, nor is there any range of the knowable beyond knowledge. Those dhammas stand with each other as mutual limits. The knowledge of the Buddha, the Blessed One, occurs in regard to all dhammas. All dhammas are bound up with the adverting of the Buddha, the Blessed One, bound up with his wish, bound up with his attention, bound up with the arising of his mind (citta). The knowledge of the Buddha, the Blessed One, occurs in regard to all beings. The Blessed One knows the disposition of all beings, knows their underlying tendency, knows their character, knows their resolve; he understands beings with little dust in their eyes and with much dust in their eyes, with keen faculties and with dull faculties, of good disposition and of bad disposition, easy to instruct and hard to instruct, capable and incapable. The world with its devas, with its Māra, with its Brahmā, this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, with its devas and human beings, turns within the Buddha's knowledge. Just as whatever fish and turtles, even down to the timi-timiṅgala, move about within the great ocean, even so the world with its devas, with its Māra, with its Brahmā, this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, with its devas and human beings, turns within the Buddha's knowledge. Just as whatever birds, even down to the garuḷa Venateyya, move about within a region of the sky, even so even those who are equal in wisdom to Sāriputta move about within a region of the Buddha's knowledge. The Buddha's knowledge stands pervading and overmastering the wisdom of devas and humans. And those learned khattiyas, learned brahmins, learned householders, and learned ascetics — subtle, practiced in disputation with others, like hair-splitting archers — wander about, as it were, demolishing views with their acumen. Having formulated question after question, they approach the Tathāgata and ask. Those questions are spoken to and answered by the Blessed One; their grounds are pointed out, and they become adherents of the Blessed One. Then indeed the Blessed One outshines there — that is, in wisdom. Thus the Blessed One has vision with the wisdom eye.
How does the Blessed One have vision with the Buddha-eye? Surveying the world with the Buddha-eye, the Blessed One saw beings with little dust in their eyes and with much dust in their eyes, with keen faculties and with dull faculties, of good disposition and of bad disposition, easy to instruct and hard to instruct, and some who dwell seeing fault and peril in regard to the other world. Just as, in a pond of blue lotuses, or a pond of red lotuses, or a pond of white lotuses, some blue lotuses, or red lotuses, or white lotuses, born in the water and grown in the water, keep to the water and thrive submerged within it; some blue lotuses, or red lotuses, or white lotuses, born in the water and grown in the water, stand at an even level with the water; and some blue lotuses, or red lotuses, or white lotuses, born in the water and grown in the water, rise up above the water and stand unsoiled by the water — even so, surveying the world with the Buddha-eye, the Blessed One saw beings with little dust in their eyes and with much dust in their eyes, with keen faculties and with dull faculties, of good disposition and of bad disposition, easy to instruct and hard to instruct, and some who dwell seeing fault and peril in regard to the other world. The Blessed One knows: "This person is of lustful temperament; this one is of hating temperament; this one is of deluded temperament; this one is of speculative temperament; this one is of faithful temperament; this one is of knowing temperament." To a person of lustful temperament the Blessed One speaks the talk on the unattractive. To a person of hating temperament the Blessed One declares the development of loving-kindness. A person of deluded temperament the Blessed One establishes in recitation and questioning, in listening to the Dhamma at a suitable time, in discussion of the Dhamma at a suitable time, and in dwelling together with a teacher. To a person of speculative temperament the Blessed One declares mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati). To a person of faithful temperament the Blessed One declares the inspiring sign — the excellent awakening of the Buddha, the excellence of the Dhamma, the good practice of the Saṅgha, and one's own virtues. To a person of knowing temperament the Blessed One declares the sign of insight — the aspect of impermanence, the aspect of suffering (dukkha), the aspect of non-self.
Just as one standing upon a rocky mountain peak
might behold the people all around,
even so, O Wise One, O Universal Eye,
having ascended the palace made of Dhamma,
do you, yourself free from sorrow, behold the people
sunk in sorrow, overcome by birth and aging.
Thus the Blessed One has vision with the Buddha-eye.
How does the Blessed One have vision with the universal eye? "Universal eye" is a term for the knowledge of omniscience (sabbaññutañāṇa). The Blessed One is endowed, fully endowed, come to it, fully come to it, possessed of it, fully possessed of it, furnished with the knowledge of omniscience.
There is nothing here unseen by him,
nothing uncognized, nothing unknowable;
all that is knowable he has directly known:
therefore the Tathāgata is the Universal Eye.
Thus the Blessed One has vision with the universal eye. Hence: "The One with Vision did not declare to me."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.