Like-minded
Samacitta Sutta (AN 2:35)
On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. And on that occasion Ven. Sāriputta was staying near Sāvatthī in the Eastern Monastery, the palace of Migāra’s mother. There he addressed the monks, “Friend monks!”
“Yes, friend,” the monks responded to him.
Ven. Sāriputta said, “Friends, I will teach you the person fettered outside & the person fettered inside. Listen to that & pay careful attention. I will speak.”
“As you say, friend,” the monks responded to him.
Ven. Sāriputta said, “And which, friends, is the person fettered inside? There is the case where a monk is virtuous. He dwells restrained in accordance with the Pāṭimokkha, consummate in his behavior & sphere of activity. He trains himself, having undertaken the training rules, seeing danger in the slightest faults. He—with the breakup of the body, after death—reappears in a certain deva-host. Falling from there, he is a returner, one who returns to this state of being.1 This is called a person fettered inside, a returner, one who returns to this state of being.
“And which is the person fettered outside? There is the case where a monk is virtuous. He dwells restrained in accordance with the Pāṭimokkha, consummate in his behavior & sphere of activity. He trains himself, having undertaken the training rules, seeing danger in the slightest faults. He enters & remains in a certain peaceful awareness release.2 He—with the breakup of the body, after death—reappears in a certain deva-host. Falling from there, he is a non-returner, one who doesn’t return to this state of being.3 This is called a person fettered outside, a non-returner, one who doesn’t return to this state of being.
“Then again, a monk is virtuous. He dwells restrained in accordance with the Pāṭimokkha, consummate in his behavior & sphere of activity. He trains himself, having undertaken the training rules, seeing danger in the slightest faults. He is one who practices for disenchantment, for dispassion, for & the cessation of sensuality. He is one who practices for disenchantment, for dispassion, for & the cessation of becoming. He is one who practices for the ending of craving. He is one who practices for the ending of greed. He—with the breakup of the body, after death—reappears in a certain deva-host. Falling from there, he is a non-returner, one who doesn’t return to this state of being. This is called a person fettered outside, a non-returner, one who doesn’t return to this state of being.”
Then many Like-minded Devas went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, stood to one side. As they were standing there, they said to him, “Lord, Ven. Sāriputta, in the Eastern Monastery, the palace of Migāra’s mother, is teaching the monks about the person fettered inside & the person fettered outside. The assembly is overjoyed. It would be good, lord, if the Blessed One went to Ven. Sāriputta, out of sympathy.”4
The Blessed One acquiesced with silence.
Then—just as a strong man might extend his flexed arm or flex his extended arm—the Blessed One disappeared from Jeta’s Grove and re-appeared in the Eastern Monastery, the palace of Migāra’s mother, right in front of Ven. Sāriputta. He sat down on a seat laid out. Ven. Sāriputta, bowing down to the Blessed One, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him, “Just now, Sāriputta, many Like-minded Devas went to me and, on arrival, having bowed down to me, stood to one side. As they were standing there, they said to me, ‘Lord, Ven. Sāriputta, in the Eastern Monastery, the palace of Migāra’s mother, is teaching the monks about the person fettered inside & the person fettered outside. The assembly is overjoyed. It would be good, lord, if the Blessed One went to Ven. Sāriputta, out of sympathy.’
“Those devas, Sāriputta— whether there are ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty—can stand on an area the size of a hole pierced by the point of an awl5 and not disturb one another. And if the thought should occur to you, ‘Surely it was there [in their heaven] that those devas developed such a mind-state that—whether there are ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty—they can stand on an area the size of a hole pierced by the point of an awl and not disturb one another,’ it shouldn’t be seen that way. It was right here6 that they developed such a mind-state that—whether there are ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty—they can stand on an area the size of a hole pierced by the point of an awl and not disturb one another.
“Therefore, Sāriputta, you should train yourselves, ‘We will be peaceful in our faculties & peaceful in our hearts.’ That’s how you should train yourselves. When you are peaceful in your faculties & peaceful in your hearts, peaceful will be your bodily actions, peaceful your verbal actions, peaceful your mental actions. [Thinking,] ‘We will render only peaceful service to our fellows in the holy life’: That’s how you should train yourselves.
“The wanderers of other sects are lost, Sāriputta, in that they don’t get to hear this Dhamma sequence.”
Notes
1. This state = the human realm. According to the Commentary, “inside” here means sensual levels of becoming; “outside” means form and formless levels of becoming. Alternatively, it says that “inside” denotes the five lower fetters, whereas “outside” denotes the five higher fetters. It illustrates the idea that a person fettered inside can sojourn in the higher levels of becoming before returning to this state with an analogy: a calf fettered by a tether to a post inside a corral but whose tether is long enough for it to lie down for a while outside of the corral. Similarly, a person fettered outside who is currently alive in this state is like a calf tethered to a post outside of a corral but who is currently lying down in the corral.
2. A concentration attainment. See AN 2:30, AN 6:13; SN 42:8, AN 8:63, and SN 46:54.
3. This individual, after leaving that deva realm, will either be reborn in one of the Pure Abodes or will gain unbinding. See AN 3:88.
4. The Commentary states that there were many more devas present at Ven. Sāriputta’s talk than the ones who went to see the Buddha, and that a large number of the devas listening to the discourse attained noble attainments. In fact, the Commentary, groups this sutta with the Mahāsamaya Sutta (DN 20), the Cūḷarāhulovāda Sutta (MN 147), and the Maṅgala Sutta (Sn 2:4) as having been particularly fruitful in this regard. Of these suttas, however, only MN 147 states that devas reached a noble attainment while listening to it.
5.Āragga-koṭi-nitudana-mattam-pi (-matte-pi in the Burmese and Sri Lankan editions). NDB misses the word nitudana, “piercing,” in this compound, and so defines the space as equal to the tip of the awl. The translation in GSB, however, is correct.
6. According to the Commentary, “here” can mean either here in the human realm or here in the Dhamma-Vinaya of a Buddha.
See also: AN 3:77–78; AN 3:85–87; AN 4:123–126; Ud 4:4
