Ja 134 The Story about the Purification of Meditation
(Jhānasodhanajātaka)
In the present the monks are wondering at how Ven. Sāriputta can answer a question put by the Buddha that is beyond everyone else. The Buddha says that he could do this also in the past, and shows how his last words in that life had been correctly interpreted by his chief disciple (full story).
1. Ye saññino te pi duggatā,
Ye pi asaññino te pi duggatā,
Etaṁ ubhayaṁ vivajjaya,
Taṁ samāpattisukhaṁ anaṅgaṇan-ti.
Those who are conscious fare badly, those unconscious fare badly too, you should abandon both of these, bliss of attainment is spotless.
In this connection, those who are conscious means except for the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, he points out the remainder of those beings with minds.
They fare badly, for the one losing this attainment is also known as one who fares badly.
Those unconscious fare badly too, he points out those with minds reborn in the unconsious realm.
They fare badly too, for the one losing this attainment is also known as one who fares badly.
You should abandon both of these, both of these realms, with consciousness and without consciousness, you should abandon, give up, is the advice of the pupil.
Bliss of attainment is spotless, the one who attained the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, in the sense of a good man who goes by the name of blessed, the bliss of absorption, spotless, without fault, having the state of a strong mind that is one-pointed is called being naturally spotless.