AN 3:103 Before—Gratification, Danger & Escape

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Would you like to have 1,000 grandchildren? Would you get 1,000 joys, 1,000 sufferings, or both?

One of the Suttas from the talk:

"pubbeva me, bhikkhave, sambodhā anabhisambuddhassa bodhisattasseva sato etadahosi:
"Before my enlightenment, O monks, while I was still a bodhisatta, it occurred to me:

'ko nu kho loke assādo, ko ādīnavo, kiṃ nissaraṇa'nti?
'What is the gratification in the world, what is the danger in the world, what is the escape from the world?'

tassa mayhaṃ, bhikkhave, etadahosi:
Then it occurred to me:

'yaṃ kho lokaṃ paṭicca uppajjati sukhaṃ somanassaṃ, ayaṃ loke assādo.
'Whatever pleasure and joy there is in the world, this is the gratification in the world;

yaṃ loko anicco dukkho vipariṇāmadhammo, ayaṃ loke ādīnavo.
that the world is impermanent, bound up with suffering, and subject to change, this is the danger in the world;

yo loke chandarāgavinayo chandarāgappahānaṃ, idaṃ loke nissaraṇa'nti.
the removal and abandoning of desire and lust for the world, this is the escape from the world,'

yāvakīvañcāhaṃ, bhikkhave, evaṃ lokassa assādañca assādato ādīnavañca ādīnavato nissaraṇañca nissaraṇato yathābhūtaṃ nābbhaññāsiṃ,
"So long, monks, as I did not directly know, as they really are, the gratification in the world as gratification, its danger as danger, and the escape from the world as escape,

neva tāvāhaṃ, bhikkhave, sadevake loke samārake sabrahmake sassamaṇabrāhmaṇiyā pajāya sadevamanussāya 'anuttaraṃ sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambuddho'ti paccaññāsiṃ.
for so long I did not claim to have awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with its devas, Māras, and Brahmā, in this population with its ascetics and brahmins, its devas and humans.

yato ca khvāhaṃ , bhikkhave, evaṃ lokassa assādañca assādato ādīnavañca ādīnavato nissaraṇañca nissaraṇato yathābhūtaṃ abbhaññāsiṃ,
"But when I directly knew all this,

athāhaṃ, bhikkhave, sadevake loke samārake sabrahmake sassamaṇabrāhmaṇiyā pajāya sadevamanussāya 'anuttaraṃ sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambuddho'ti paccaññāsiṃ.
then I claimed to have awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with ... its devas and humans.

ñāṇañca pana me dassanaṃ udapādi: 'akuppā me vimutti , ayamantimā jāti, natthi dāni punabbhavo"'ti. paṭhamaṃ.
The knowledge and vision arose in me: 'Unshakable is the liberation of my mind; this is my last birth; there is now no more renewed existence.'"

© Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2012)