101.1-2. Gratification, Danger, and Escape - I

AN 101.1-2 Gratification, Danger, and Escape - I

Translated from the Pali by Nyanaponika Thera and Bhikkhu Bodhi

Before my enlightenment, O monks, when I was still a bodhisatta, this thought occurred to me: “What is the gratification in the world, what is the danger in the world, and what is the escape from the world?”Then I thought: “Whatever joy and happiness there is in the world, that is the gratification in the world; that the world is impermanent, pervaded by suffering and subject to change, that is the danger in the world; the removal and abandoning of desire and lust for the world, that is the escape from the world.”

So long, monks, as I did not fully understand, as they really are, the world’s gratification as gratification, its danger as danger, and the escape from the world as escape, for so long I did not claim that I had awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with its devas, Mara and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, its devas and humans.

But when I had fully understood all this, then I claimed that I had awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with … its devas and humans. The knowledge and vision arose in me: “Unshakeable is the liberation of my mind; this is my last birth; there is now no further re-becoming.”