The Ending of Defilements (ITI102)

So It Was Said 102

The Book of the Fours

The Chapter on the Brahmin’s Offering of the Teaching

The Ending of Defilements

This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.

“Mendicants, I say that the ending of defilements is for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know or see.

For one who knows and sees what?

The ending of defilements is for one who knows and sees suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

The ending of the defilements is for one who knows and sees this.”

The Buddha spoke this matter.

On this it is said:

“As a trainee trains,

following the straight road,

first they know about ending;

enlightenment follows in the same lifetime.

Then to one freed through enlightenment

the knowledge of ending arises,

the supreme knowledge of freedom,

with the ending of the fetters.

Not by the lazy,

or by fools who don’t understand

may this be realized—extinguishment,

the release from all ties.”¹

This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.