Numbered Discourses 4.5

1. At Wares Village

With the Stream

“These four individuals are found in the world.

What four?

An individual who goes with the stream; an individual who goes against the stream; a steadfast individual; and a brahmin who has crossed over, gone to the far shore, and stands on solid ground.

And who is the individual who goes with the stream?

It’s an individual who indulges in sensual pleasures and does bad deeds.

This is called an individual who goes with the stream.

And who is the individual who goes against the stream?

It’s an individual who doesn’t indulge in sensual pleasures or do bad deeds. They live the full and pure spiritual life in pain and sadness, weeping, with tearful faces.

This is called an individual who goes against the stream.

And who is the steadfast individual?

It’s an individual who, with the ending of the five lower fetters, is reborn spontaneously. They’re extinguished there, and are not liable to return from that world.

This is called a steadfast individual.

And who is a brahmin who has crossed over, gone to the far shore, and stands on solid ground?

It’s an individual who realizes the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life. And they live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements.

This is called a brahmin who has crossed over, gone to the far shore, and stands on solid ground.

These are the four individuals found in the world.

All those people with unbridled sensuality,

not free of lust, enjoying sensual pleasures in this life:

again and again, they return to birth and old age;

those who go with the stream are sunk in craving.

So the attentive in this life, with mindfulness established,

don’t take part in sensual pleasures and bad deeds.

In pain they’d give up sensual pleasures:

they call that individual ‘one who goes against the stream’.

Someone who’s given up five corruptions,

a perfect trainee, not liable to decline,

who’s mastered their mind, with faculties immersed in samādhi,

that man is called ‘steadfast’.

The sage who has comprehended all things, high and low,

cleared them and ended them, so they are no more;

they’ve completed the spiritual journey, and gone to the end of the world,

they’re called ‘one who has gone beyond’.”