“But at what point, sir, does the mortification in disgust of sin reach the peak and the pith? Please help me reach the peak and the pith!”

“Nigrodha, take a mortifier who is restrained in the fourfold restraint. They give up these five hindrances, corruptions of the heart that weaken wisdom. Then they meditate spreading a heart full of love … compassion … rejoicing … equanimity.

They recollect many kinds of past lives, that is, one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. They remember: ‘There, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here.’ And so they recollect their many kinds of past lives, with features and details.

What do you think, Nigrodha? If this is so, is the mortification in disgust of sin purified or not?”

“Clearly, sir, it is purified. It has reached the peak and the pith.”

“No, Nigrodha, at this point the mortification in disgust of sin has not yet reached the peak and the pith. Rather, it has only reached the softwood.”