Dighanikaya 4.317

4.317

Tato bhagavā ‘kathito brāhmaṇena pañho, kiṃ panettha patiṭṭhātuṃ sakkhissati, na sakkhissatī’ti? Tassa vīmaṃsanatthaṃ – ‘‘imesaṃ pana brāhmaṇā’’tiādimāha. Sīlaparidhotāti sīlaparisuddhā. Yattha sīlaṃ tattha paññāti yasmiṃ puggale sīlaṃ, tattheva paññā, kuto dussīle paññā? Paññārahite vā jaḷe eḷamūge kuto sīlanti? Sīlapaññāṇanti sīlañca paññāṇañca sīlapaññāṇaṃ. Paññāṇanti paññāyeva. Evametaṃ brāhmaṇāti bhagavā brāhmaṇassa vacanaṃ anujānanto āha. Tattha sīlaparidhotā paññāti catupārisuddhisīlena dhotā. Kathaṃ pana sīlena paññaṃ dhovatīti? Yassa puthujjanassa sīlaṃ saṭṭhiasītivassāni akhaṇḍaṃ hoti, so maraṇakālepi sabbakilese ghātetvā sīlena paññaṃ dhovitvā arahattaṃ gaṇhāti. Kandarasālapariveṇe mahāsaṭṭhivassatthero viya. There kira maraṇamañce nipajjitvā balavavedanāya nitthunante, tissamahārājā ‘‘theraṃ passissāmī’’ti gantvā pariveṇadvāre ṭhito taṃ saddaṃ sutvā pucchi – ‘‘kassa saddo aya’’nti? Therassa nitthunanasaddoti. ‘‘Pabbajjāya saṭṭhivassena vedanāpariggahamattampi na kataṃ, na dāni naṃ vandissāmī’’ti nivattitvā mahābodhiṃ vandituṃ gato. Tato upaṭṭhākadaharo theraṃ āha – ‘‘kiṃ no, bhante, lajjāpetha, saddhopi rājā vippaṭisārī hutvā na vandissāmī’’ti gatoti. Kasmā āvusoti? Tumhākaṃ nitthunanasaddaṃ sutvāti. ‘‘Tena hi me okāsaṃ karothā’’ti vatvā vedanaṃ vikkhambhitvā arahattaṃ patvā daharassa saññaṃ adāsi – ‘‘gacchāvuso, idāni rājānaṃ amhe vandāpehī’’ti. Daharo gantvā – ‘‘idāni kira theraṃ, vandathā’’ti āha. Rājā saṃsumārapatitena theraṃ vandanto – ‘‘nāhaṃ ayyassa arahattaṃ vandāmi, puthujjanabhūmiyaṃ pana ṭhatvā rakkhitasīlameva vandāmī’’ti āha, evaṃ sīlena paññaṃ dhovati nāma. Yassa pana abbhantare sīlasaṃvaro natthi, ugghāṭitaññutāya pana catuppadikagāthāpariyosāne paññāya sīlaṃ dhovitvā saha paṭisambhidāhi arahattaṃ pāpuṇāti. Ayaṃ paññāya sīlaṃ dhovati nāma. Seyyathāpi santatimahāmatto.

Then the Blessed One thought: "The brahmin has answered the question. Can he stand firm on this point, or can he not?" In order to test him, he said: "Of these, however, brahmin..." and so forth. "Washed with morality" means purified by morality. "Where there is morality, there is wisdom": in whatever person there is morality, in that very person there is wisdom; whence could there be wisdom in one of bad morality? Or whence could there be morality in one devoid of wisdom, stupid, and deaf and dumb? "Morality-and-wisdom" means both morality and wisdom are morality-and-wisdom. "Wisdom-knowledge" is wisdom itself. "So it is, brahmin": the Blessed One said this, agreeing with the brahmin's statement. Therein, "wisdom washed with morality" means washed by the fourfold morality of purification. How, then, does one wash wisdom with morality? When an ordinary person's morality remains unbroken for sixty or eighty years, even at the time of death, having slain all defilements and washed wisdom with morality, he attains arahantship. Just like the sixty-year senior elder of the Kandarasāla cell. When that elder, lying on his deathbed, was groaning from severe pain, King Tissa the Great, having set out thinking "I will see the elder," stood at the door of the cell, heard that sound, and asked: "Whose sound is this?" "It is the elder's groaning sound." Thinking, "In sixty years of going forth, he has not even attained the grasping of feelings; I will not pay homage to him now," he turned back and went to pay homage to the Great Bodhi Tree. Then the young novice attendant said to the elder: "Why, venerable sir, do you bring shame upon us? Even the faithful king became remorseful, thought, 'I will not pay homage,' and left." "Why, friend?" "Because he heard the sound of your groaning." Saying, "In that case, make room for me," he suppressed the pain, attained arahantship, and gave a sign to the novice: "Go, friend; now have the king pay homage to us." The novice went and said: "They say you may now pay homage to the elder." The king, paying homage to the elder by prostrating like a falling crocodile, said: "I do not pay homage to the venerable one's arahantship; rather, I pay homage only to the morality protected while standing on the plane of an ordinary person." In this way, one is said to wash wisdom with morality. For one, however, who has no inner moral restraint, but through being one of quick comprehension washes morality with wisdom at the conclusion of a four-line verse and attains arahantship together with the analytical knowledges: this is called washing morality with wisdom. Just like the chief minister Santati.