The Ending of Mental Fermentations

The Ending of Mental Fermentations

With his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability, the monk directs and inclines it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental fermentations.

He discerns that ‘This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress… This is the way leading to the cessation of stress…

These are mental fermentations… This is the origination of fermentations… This is the cessation of fermentations… This is the way leading to the cessation of fermentations.’

His heart, thus knowing and seeing, is released from the fermentation of sensuality, the fermentation of becoming, the fermentation of ignorance.

With release, there is the knowledge, ‘Released.’

He discerns that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’

Just as if there were a pool of water in a mountain glen — clear, limpid, and unsullied — where a man with good eyesight standing on the bank could see shells, gravel, and pebbles, and also shoals of fish swimming about and resting, and it would occur to him, ‘This pool of water is clear, limpid, and unsullied.

Here are these shells, gravel, and pebbles, and also these shoals of fish swimming about and resting.’

In the same way — with his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, unblemished, free from defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability — the monk directs and inclines it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental fermentations.

He discerns, as it has come to be, that ‘This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress…

This is the way leading to the cessation of stress…

These are mental fermentations… This is the origination of fermentations… This is the cessation of fermentations… This is the way leading to the cessation of fermentations.’ His heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, is released from the fermentation of sensuality, the fermentation of becoming, the fermentation of ignorance. With release, there is the knowledge, ‘Released.’ He discerns that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’

“This, too, great king, is a fruit of the contemplative life, visible here and now, more excellent than the previous ones and more sublime. And as for another visible fruit of the contemplative life, higher and more sublime than this, there is none.”

When this was said, King Ajatasattu said to the Buddha: “Magnificent, lord! Magnificent! Just as if he were to place upright what was overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to show the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see forms, in the same way has the Buddha — through many lines of reasoning — made the Dhamma clear.

I go to the Buddha for refuge, to the Dhamma, and to the community of monks. May the Buddha remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for refuge, from this day forward, for life.

A transgression has overcome me, lord, in that I was so foolish, so muddle-headed, and so unskilled as to kill my father — a righteous man, a righteous king — for the sake of sovereign rulership. May the Buddha please accept this confession of my transgression as such, so that I may restrain myself in the future.”

“Yes, great king, a transgression overcame you in that you were so foolish, so muddle-headed, and so unskilled as to kill your father — a righteous man, a righteous king — for the sake of sovereign rulership.

But because you see your transgression as such and make amends in accordance with the Dhamma, we accept your confession.

For it is a cause of growth in the Dhamma & Discipline of the noble ones when, seeing a transgression as such, one makes amends in accordance with the Dhamma and exercises restraint in the future.”

When this was said, King Ajatasattu said to the Buddha: “Well, then, lord, I am now taking leave. Many are my duties, many my responsibilities.”

“Then do, great king, what you think it is now time to do.”

So King Ajatasattu, delighting and rejoicing in the Buddha’s words, rose from his seat, bowed down to him, and — after circumambulating him — left. Not long after King Ajatasattu had left, the Buddha addressed the monks: “The king is wounded, monks.

The king is incapacitated. Had he not killed his father — that righteous man, that righteous king — the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye would have arisen to him as he sat in this very seat.”

That is what the Buddha said. Gratified, the monks delighted in the Buddha’s words.

See also: MN 39.