Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c17.s3.1

v1.c17.s3.1

A monk, anxious to take up a subject for meditation, must, at the first place, choose a competent spiritual preceptor (*kalyāṇa-mitta*). He should try to find out one who has mastered the fourth and fifth *jhānas* and has thereby developed insight (*vipassanā*) into the truths of the universe, and has, in fact, become an Arhat, by destroying all the impurities (*āsavas*). Failing to get hold of such persons, he should seek for the next best in the descending scale,¹ thus: