hearingSimileSeeded

Traveler Hearing Drums

1

discourse

by lack of rules and observances—not by that either

'Nor without view, without learning, without knowledge, without ethics and observances - not even by that;' The mundane right view ‘There is what is given and what is offered and what is sacrificed; there is fruit and result of good and bad actions; there is this world and the other world; there is mother and father; there are beings who are reborn spontaneously; there are in the world good and virtuous ascetics and brahmins who have realized for themselves by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world.’ should be accepted. Learning should be accepted: the voice of another, discourses, mixed prose and verse, expositions, verses, inspired utterances, quotations, birth stories, marvelous accounts, and answers to questions; knowledge should be accepted: the knowledge of the factors of awakening, the knowledge of the noble truths, the knowledge of the kamma as one’s own, knowledge of meditative attainments and the directly knowings. Similarly ethics and observances should be accepted. While these should be accepted, the Buddha is saying that purity is not attained by only these means, that these are not sufficient for the attainment of purity.