dn25:18.0 2.4. On Reaching the Softwood
dn25:18.1 “But at what point, sir, does the fervent mortification in disgust of sin reach the peak and the pith?
dn25:18.2 Please help me reach the peak and the pith!”
dn25:18.3 “Nigrodha, take a mortifier who is restrained in the fourfold constraint.
dn25:18.8 They give up these five hindrances, corruptions of the heart that weaken wisdom.
dn25:18.9 Then they meditate spreading a heart full of love …
dn25:18.10 compassion …
dn25:18.11 rejoicing …
dn25:18.12 equanimity.
dn25:18.13 They recollect many kinds of past lives, that is, one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. They remember: ‘There, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here.’ And so they recollect their many kinds of past lives, with features and details.
dn25:18.14 What do you think, Nigrodha?
dn25:18.15 If this is so, is the fervent mortification in disgust of sin purified or not?”
dn25:18.16 “Clearly, sir, it is purified. It has reached the peak and the pith.”
dn25:18.17 “No, Nigrodha, at this point the fervent mortification in disgust of sin has not yet reached the peak and the pith.
dn25:18.18 Rather, it has only reached the softwood.”

