Dighanikaya 5.353

5.353

Idampi sutvā brāhmaṇo cintesi – ‘‘pañcasīlaṃ nāma rakkhituṃ garukaṃ, atthi nu kho aññaṃ kiñci īdisameva hutvā ito appaṭṭhatarañca mahapphalatarañcā’’ti. Tato taṃ pucchanto punapi – ‘‘atthi pana, bho gotamā’’tiādimāha. Athassa bhagavā tividhasīlapāripūriyaṃ ṭhitassa paṭhamajjhānādīnaṃ yaññānaṃ appaṭṭhatarañca mahapphalatarañca dassetukāmo buddhuppādato paṭṭhāya desanaṃ ārabhanto ‘‘idha brāhmaṇā’’tiādimāha. Tattha yasmā heṭṭhā vuttehi guṇehi samannāgato paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ, paṭhamajjhānādīsu ṭhito dutiyajjhānādīni nibbattento na kilamati, tasmā tāni appaṭṭhāni appasamārambhāni. Yasmā panettha paṭhamajjhānaṃ ekaṃ kappaṃ brahmaloke āyuṃ deti. Dutiyaṃ aṭṭhakappe. Tatiyaṃ catusaṭṭhikappe. Catutthaṃ pañcakappasatāni. Tadeva ākāsānañcāyatanādisamāpattivasena bhāvitaṃ vīsati, cattālīsaṃ, saṭṭhi, caturāsīti ca kappasahassāni āyuṃ deti; tasmā mahapphalatarañca mahānisaṃsatarañca. Nīvaraṇādīnaṃ pana paccanīkānaṃ dhammānaṃ pariccattattā taṃ yaññanti veditabbaṃ.

Having heard this as well, the brahmin thought: “The five precepts are a heavy burden to keep. Might there indeed be something else of such a kind that involves even less difficulty and is of greater fruit than this?” Then, inquiring about that, he said once again: “Is there, master Gotama,” and so forth. Then the Blessed One, wishing to show him—established in the fulfillment of the threefold morality—the sacrifices of the first absorption and so forth as involving less difficulty and being of greater fruit, began the teaching starting from the arising of a Buddha, saying: “Here, brahmin,” and so forth. Therein, since one endowed with the qualities mentioned below, while producing the first absorption, or established in the first absorption and producing the second absorption and so forth, does not become fatigued, therefore they involve less difficulty and less enterprise. And because here the first absorption gives a lifespan of one aeon in the brahma world, the second gives eight aeons, the third gives sixty-four aeons, the fourth gives five hundred aeons, and that same [absorption] developed by way of the attainments of the base of boundless space and so on gives a lifespan of twenty, forty, sixty, and eighty-four thousand aeons; therefore, it is of greater fruit and greater benefit. And on account of the abandonment of opposing states such as the hindrances, it should be understood as a sacrifice.