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# AN 4:38 · Detached (Paṭilīna Sutta)
- URL: https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/an-4-38/
- Published: 2026-06-01T01:58:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-13T16:37:59.000Z
- Description: Aṅguttara Nikāya · AN 4:38. Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.
- Author: Ninth Heaven Literature & Arts Association (NHLAA)
- Tags: Buddhism, Sutta Piṭaka, Text, Indian, The Buddha, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Verse, Pali, Early Buddhist, Library, #Import 2026-07-06 03:33

“Monks, a monk who has shaken off idiosyncratic truths *\[pacceka-sacca\],*[1](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN4%5F38.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) who has thoroughly given up searching, who is calmed in his bodily fabrication,[2](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN4%5F38.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) is said to be detached.

“And how has a monk shaken off idiosyncratic truths? There is the case where a monk has shaken off the run-of-the-mill idiosyncratic truths of run-of-the-mill contemplatives & brahmans—in other words, ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ ‘The cosmos is finite,’ ‘The cosmos is infinite,’ ‘The soul & the body are the same,’ ‘The soul is one thing and the body another,’ ‘After death a Tathāgata exists,’ ‘After death a Tathāgata does not exist,’ ‘After death a Tathāgata both does & does not exist,’ ‘After death a Tathāgata neither does nor does not exist.’ All of these he has thrown off, shaken off, renounced, vomited up, let go, abandoned, relinquished. This is how a monk has shaken off idiosyncratic truths.

“And how has a monk thoroughly given up searching? There is the case where a monk has abandoned his search for sensuality, has abandoned his search for becoming, and has allayed his search for a holy life.[3](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN4%5F38.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) This is how a monk has thoroughly given up searching.

“And how is a monk calmed in his bodily fabrication? There is the case where a monk, with the abandoning of pleasure & pain—as with the earlier disappearance of elation & distress—enters & remains in the fourth jhāna: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. This is how a monk is calmed in his bodily fabrication.

“And how is a monk detached? There is the case where a monk’s conceit, ‘I am,’ is abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. This is how a monk is detached.”

Sensuality-search, becoming-search,

together with the holy-life search—

i.e., grasping at ‘such is the truth’

based on an accumulation

of viewpoints:

Through the relinquishing of searches

& the abolishing of viewpoints

of one dispassionate to

all passion,

and released in the ending

of craving,

he, a monk

peaceful, mindful,

calmed, undefeated,

awakened

with the breaking-through of conceit,

is said to be

detached.

Notes

1\. *Pacceka* can also mean “singular” or “personal.” Idiosyncratic truths are the opposite of noble truths, which are universal. See [Sn 4:8](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/sn-4-8/) and [Sn 4:12](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/sn-4-12/).

2\. “Bodily fabrication” *(kāya-saṅkhāra)* is a technical term for the in-and-out breath. See [MN 44](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/mn-44/). On the stilling of the in-and-out breath as a defining feature of the fourth jhāna, see [SN 36:11](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/sn-36-11/), [AN 9:31](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/an-9-31/), and [AN 10:72](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/an-10-72/). The definition of the calming of bodily fabrication given in this sutta helps to explain what is meant by the fourth step in mindfulness of breathing: “He trains himself, ‘I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication.’ He trains himself, ‘I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication.’” See [MN 118](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/mn-118/).

3\. On these three searches, see [Iti 54–55](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/iti-54/). The Commentary to this sutta says that the search for a holy life is allayed with the path of arahantship, although the search for a holy life in the form of views subsides earlier with the path of stream-entry.

See also: [AN 10:20](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/an-10-20/)

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*Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) licence, for free distribution only. Source: [dhammatalks.org](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN4%5F38.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) (Metta Forest Monastery).*