Dighanikaya 14.2-3

14.2-3

Assosi kho…pe… atha bhagavā anuppattoti ettha yaṃ vattabbaṃ, taṃ brahmajālasuttavaṇṇanāyaṃ vuttameva. Ayameva hi viseso – tattha sabbaññutaññāṇena assosi, idha dibbasotena. Tattha ca vaṇṇāvaṇṇakathā vippakatā, idha pubbenivāsakathā. Tasmā bhagavā – ‘‘ime bhikkhū mama pubbenivāsañāṇaṃ ārabbha guṇaṃ thomenti, pubbenivāsañāṇassa pana me nipphattiṃ na jānanti; handa nesaṃ tassa nipphattiṃ kathetvā dassāmī’’ti āgantvā pakatiyāpi buddhānaṃ nisīditvā dhammadesanatthameva ṭhapite taṅkhaṇe bhikkhūhi papphoṭetvā dinne varabuddhāsane nisīditvā ‘‘kāya nuttha, bhikkhave’’ti pucchāya ca ‘‘idha, bhante’’tiādipaṭivacanassa ca pariyosāne tesaṃ pubbenivāsapaṭisaṃyuttaṃ dhammiṃ kathaṃ kathetukāmo iccheyyātha notiādimāha. Tattha iccheyyātha noti iccheyyātha nu. Atha naṃ pahaṭṭhamānasā bhikkhū yācamānā etassa bhagavātiādimāhaṃsu. Tattha etassāti etassa dhammikathākaraṇassa.

In ‘The Blessed One heard… pe… then the Blessed One arrived,’ whatever needs to be said was already said in the commentary on the Brahmajālasutta. For this alone is the difference: there he heard by the knowledge of omniscience, here by the divine ear. And there talk of praise and dispraise was broken off, here talk of past lives. Therefore the Blessed One, thinking: ‘These monks praise my virtue with reference to the knowledge of past lives, but they do not know the perfection of my knowledge of past lives; come now, having spoken to them of its perfection, I shall show it,’ arrived, sat down on the excellent Buddha-seat that was set up according to custom for the Buddhas precisely for the purpose of expounding the Dhamma and made ready having been dusted off by the monks at that moment, and at the end of the question ‘For what [talk] are you seated together now, monks?’ and the answer beginning ‘Here, bhante,’ wishing to speak Dhamma talk connected with past lives, said the words beginning: ‘Would you wish [to hear]?’ Here, ‘iccheyyātha no’ means: would you wish? Then the monks, their minds gladdened, beseeching him, said the words beginning: ‘[It is the time] for this, Blessed One.’ Here, ‘etassā’ means: for this delivery of Dhamma talk.