The End Of Diighaavu The Lay-disciple

Come father! Please go to the Fortunate One and with your head pay respects at the feet of the Fortunate One, and say in my name: "Lord, Diighaavu the lay-disciple is sick, afflicted, suffering from a sore disease. He pays respect with this head at the feet of the Fortunate One."

It were a good thing, lord, if the Fortunate One would come to the house of Diighaavu the lay-disciple, out of compassion for him.

Well Diighaavu, I hope you are bearing up, I hope you are enduring. Do your pains abate and not increase? Are there signs of their abating and not increasing?

No lord! I am not bearing up. I am not enduring. Strong pains come upon me. They do not abate. There is no sign of their abating but of their increasing.

Then Diighaavu, thus must you train yourself: "I will be accomplished with unwavering loyalty to the Awakened One, like this:

Indeed the Fortunate One is thus:
Accomplished
Rightly and fully awakened
Peerless in wisdom and conduct
One Well-gone
Knower of the worlds
Matchless Guide of the advisable
Teacher of deities and humans
Awakened and fortunate.

I will be accomplished with unwavering loyalty to the Process, like this:

The Process of the Fortunate One is perfectly exounded
Immediate
Timeless
Varifiable
Progressive
To be known by the wise
Each for themselves.

I will be accomplished with unwavering loyalty to the [Noble] Community of Disciples, like this:

The Community of the Fortunate One's disciples has entered on the good way
The Community of the Fortunate One's disciples has entered on the straight way
The Community of the Fortunate One's disciples has entered on the proper way
The Community of the Fortunate One's disciples has entered on the complete way
That is to say
The four pairs of people
The eight types of people
This Community of the Fortunate One's disciples is:
Fit for gifts
Fit for hospitality
Fit for offerings
Fit for respectful greetings
As the incomparable field of merit for the world.

I will also be accomplished with the virtues dear to the Noble Ones, virtues unbroken, whole, unspotted, untarnished, giving freedom, praised by he wise: virtues untainted, which lead to concentration of the mind." That is how you must train yourself, Diighaavu.

As to these four limbs of stream-winning, lord, which have been taught by the Fortunate One, all of those conditions are to be found in me, and I do live in accordance with them.

Therefore Diighaavu, resting on these four limbs of stream-winning, you should further practise the six conditions which are constituents parts of wisdom. That is to say, do you dwell contemplating impermanence in all formations, conscious of stress in impermanence, conscious of there being no soul in what is stressful, conscious of abandoning, dispassion, cessation. That Diighaavu, is how you must train yourself.

Lord, as to these same six conditions, which are constituent parts of wisdom, all of them are to be found in me. I do live in accordance with them. Then lord, I have this thought: "I would not have the housefather Jotika here, fall into dejection at my death."

Don't you trouble yourself about that, Diighaavu, my lad! (said his father) Look Diighaavu, attend closely to what the Fortunate One is telling you.

Lord, that lay-disciple named Diighaavu, who was admonished in brief by the Fortunate One, has made an end. What is his lot? What is his destiny?

A sage, monks, was Diighaavu the lay-disciple. He lived according to Process, he did not harm me by disputing about Process. Diighaavu the lay-disciple took spontaneous birth through wearing out the five lower fetters. His destiny is not to return from that world.