AN 5.121 - Gilana Sutta: To a Sick Man
Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.121.than.html
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Copyright: ©1997 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
License notice: The text of this page ("Gilana Sutta: To a Sick Man", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions.
Attribution: ©1997 Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The text of this page ("Gilana Sutta: To a Sick Man", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. Last revised for Access to Insight on 30 November 2013. How to cite this document (a suggested style): "Gilana Sutta: To a Sick Man" (AN 5.121), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.121.than.html .
Changes: Presentation only: original HTML markup reflowed into plain text; wording, numbering and source repetitions retained. No repetitions expanded.
Completeness: ABBREVIATED. Every source-unit character is preserved, including introductions, notes and verse structure. Thanissaro's collection-level note explicitly states that repetitions were cut: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/about.html. This is evidence about the translation method, not an assertion that every individual unit contains an omission; no repetitions reconstructed.

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Vesali, in the Great Forest, at the Gabled Pavilion. Then, in the late afternoon, he left his seclusion and went to the sick ward, where he saw a monk who was weak & sickly. Seeing him, he sat down on a prepared seat. As he was sitting there, he addressed the monks: "When these five things don't leave a monk who is weak & sickly, it can be expected of him that, before long — with the ending of the fermentations — he will enter & remain in the fermentation-free awareness-release & discernment-release, having realized & directly known them for himself in the here & now. Which five?

"There is the case where a monk [1] remains focused on unattractiveness with regard to the body, [2] is percipient of foulness with regard to food, [3] is percipient of distaste with regard to every world, [4] is percipient of the undesirability  of all fabrications, and [5] has the perception of death well established within himself.

"When these five things don't leave a monk who is weak & sickly, it can be expected of him that, before long — with the ending of the fermentations — he will enter & remain in the fermentation-free awareness-release & discernment-release, having realized & directly known them for himself in the here & now."