Seclusion

1. I heard thus. At one time venerable Sāriputta was living in the monastery offered by Anāthapiṇḍika in Jeta's grove in Sāvatthi.

2. Then venerable Sāriputta, putting on robes in the morning and taking bowl and robes, entered Sāvatthi for alms.

3. Going the alms round in Sāvatthi, after the meal was over and returning from the alms round, entered the dark forest to spend the day.

4. Entering the dark forest, sat at the root of a certain tree to spend the day.

5. Getting up from his seclusion in the evening, venerable Sāriputta entered the monastery in Jeta's grove.

6. Venerable Ānanda saw venerable Sāriputta approaching in the distance and said to him: “Friend Sāriputta, your mental faculties are clear, your face seems clear. In what abiding did you spend the day?”

7. “Friend, secluding my mind from sensual desires and thoughts of demerit, with thoughts and discursive thoughts and with joy and pleasantness born of seclusion, raised my mind to the first higher stage. Yet, friend, it did not occur to me, `I attained to the first higher state of mind or got up from the first higher state of the mind'.”

8. “Friend Sāriputta, since long your latent tendency of measuring conceitedly has been completely destroyed, therefore it did not occur to you, `I attain, or attained to the first higher state of mind or got up from the first higher state of the mind'.”