The Related Suttas Collection 21.1

1. Monks

With Kolita

So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There Venerable Mahāmoggallāna addressed the bhikkhus: “Friends, bhikkhus!”

“Friend,” they replied.

Venerable Mahāmoggallāna said this:

“Just now, friends, as I was in private retreat this thought came to mind: ‘They speak of this thing called “noble silence”. What then is this noble silence?’

It occurred to me: ‘As the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, a bhikkhu enters and remains in the second jhāna, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without placing the mind and keeping it connected. This is called noble silence.’

And so, as the placing of the mind and keeping it connected were stilled, I was entering and remaining in the second jhāna, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without placing the mind and keeping it connected.

While I was in that meditation, perceptions accompanied by placing the mind beset me due to loss of focus.

Then the Buddha came up to me with his psychic power and said, ‘Moggallāna, Moggallāna! Don’t neglect noble silence, brahmin! Settle your mind in noble silence; unify your mind and bring it to immersion in noble silence.’

And so, after some time, as the placing of the mind and keeping it connected were stilled, I entered and remained in the second jhāna …

So if anyone should be rightly called a disciple who attained to great direct knowledge with help from the Teacher, it’s me.”