“Mendicants, this one time, when I was first awakened, I was staying in Uruvelā at the goatherd’s banyan tree on the bank of the Nerañjarā River. As I was in private retreat this thought came to mind: ‘One without respect and reverence lives in suffering. What ascetic or brahmin should I honor and respect and rely on?’

Then it occurred to me: ‘I would honor and respect and rely on another ascetic or brahmin so as to complete the entire spectrum of ethics, if it were incomplete. But I don’t see any other ascetic or brahmin in this world—with its gods, Māras, and divinities, this population with its ascetics and brahmins, its gods and humans—who is more accomplished than myself in ethics, who I should honor and respect and rely on.

I would honor and respect and rely on another ascetic or brahmin so as to complete the entire spectrum of immersion, if it were incomplete. But I don’t see any other ascetic or brahmin … who is more accomplished than myself in immersion …

I would honor and respect and rely on another ascetic or brahmin so as to complete the entire spectrum of wisdom, if it were incomplete. But I don’t see any other ascetic or brahmin in this world … who is more accomplished than myself in wisdom …

I would honor and respect and rely on another ascetic or brahmin so as to complete the entire spectrum of freedom, if it were incomplete. But I don’t see any other ascetic or brahmin in this world … who is more accomplished than myself in freedom …’

Then it occurred to me: ‘Why don’t I honor and respect and rely on the same teaching to which I was awakened?’