dn25:19.0 3. On Reaching the Heartwood
dn25:19.1 “But at what point, sir, does the fervent mortification in disgust of sin reach the peak and the pith?
dn25:19.2 Please help me reach the peak and the pith!”
dn25:19.3 “Nigrodha, take a mortifier who is restrained in the fourfold constraint.
dn25:19.8 They give up these five hindrances, corruptions of the heart that weaken wisdom.
dn25:19.9 Then they meditate spreading a heart full of love …
dn25:19.10 equanimity …
dn25:19.11 They recollect many kinds of past lives, with features and details.
dn25:19.12 With clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, they see sentient beings passing away and being reborn—inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place. They understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds: ‘These dear beings did bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. They denounced the noble ones; they had wrong view; and they chose to act out of that wrong view. When their body broke up, after death, they were reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. These dear beings, however, did good things by way of body, speech, and mind. They never denounced the noble ones; they had right view; and they chose to act out of that right view. When their body broke up, after death, they were reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm.’ And so, with clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, they see sentient beings passing away and being reborn—inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place. They understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds.
dn25:19.13 What do you think, Nigrodha?
dn25:19.14 If this is so, is the fervent mortification in disgust of sin purified or not?”
dn25:19.15 “Clearly, sir, it is purified. It has reached the peak and the pith.”
dn25:19.16 “Nigrodha, at this point the fervent mortification in disgust of sin has reached the peak and the pith.
dn25:19.17 Nigrodha, remember you said this to me:
dn25:19.18 ‘Sir, what teaching do you use to guide your disciples, through which they claim solace in the fundamental goal of the spiritual life?’
dn25:19.19 Well, there is something better and finer than this. That’s what I use to guide my disciples, through which they claim solace in the fundamental goal of the spiritual life.”
dn25:19.20 When he said this, those wanderers made an uproar,
dn25:19.21 “In that case, we’re lost, and so is our denomination! We don’t know anything better or finer than that!”

