Before
Pubbe Sutta (AN 3:104)
“Monks, before my self-awakening, when I was still just an unawakened bodhisatta, the thought occurred to me: ‘What is the allure of the cosmos? What is the drawback of the cosmos? What is the escape from the cosmos?’
“Then the thought occurred to me, ‘Whatever pleasure & joy arises dependent on the cosmos: That is the allure of the cosmos. The fact that the cosmos is inconstant, stressful, subject to change: That is the drawback of the cosmos. The subduing of desire & passion, the abandoning of desire & passion for the cosmos: That is the escape from the cosmos.
“Now, as long as I did not have direct knowledge, as it has come to be, of the allure as the allure, of the drawback as the drawback, and of the escape as the escape with regard to the cosmos, I did not claim to have directly awakened to the unexcelled right self-awakening in this cosmos with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, in this generation with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & common people. But when I did have direct knowledge (of these things) as they have come to be, then I did claim to have directly awakened to the unexcelled right self-awakening in this cosmos with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, in this generation with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & common people.
“Knowledge & vision arose in me: ‘Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further-becoming.’”
