§ 99.

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: "It's on the strength of Dhamma that I describe [a person as] a brahman with threefold knowledge, and not another as measured by citing & reciting. And how is it on the strength of Dhamma that I describe [a person as] a brahman with threefold knowledge, and not another as measured by citing & reciting?

"There is the case where a monk recollects his manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two... five, ten... fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction & expansion: 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.' Thus he recollects his manifold past lives in their modes & details.

"This is the first knowledge he has attained. Ignorance has been destroyed; knowledge has arisen; darkness has been destroyed; light has arisen -- as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute.

"Then again, the monk sees -- by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human -- beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their actions: 'These beings -- who were endowed with bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct; who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views -- at the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell. But these beings -- who were endowed with bodily good conduct, verbal good conduct, & mental good conduct; who did not revile noble ones, who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views -- at the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the good destinations, in the heavenly world.' Thus -- by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human -- he sees beings passing away & re-appearing, and discerns how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their actions.

"This is the second knowledge he has attained. Ignorance has been destroyed; knowledge has arisen; darkness has been destroyed; light has arisen -- as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute.

"Then again, the monk -- with the ending of fermentations -- remains in the fermentation-free release of awareness & release of discernment, having directly known and made it manifest for himself right in the present life.

"This is the third knowledge he has attained. Ignorance has been destroyed; knowledge has arisen; darkness has been destroyed; light has arisen -- as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute.

"It's in this way that, on the strength of Dhamma, I describe [a person as] a brahman with threefold knowledge, and not another as measured by citing & reciting."

He knows    his former lives.
He sees    heavens & states of woe,
has attained    the ending of birth,
is a sage    who has mastered full-knowing.

By means of these three knowledges
he becomes a three-knowledge brahman.^*
He's what I call a three-knowledge man --
    not another,
    citing, reciting.

[See MN 4; Dhp. 423]