Furthermore, a mendicant with defilements ended has well developed the four bases of psychic power … the five faculties … the seven awakening factors … the noble eightfold path. This is a power that a mendicant who has ended the defilements relies on to claim: ‘My defilements have ended.’
A mendicant who has ended the defilements possesses these eight powers that qualify them to claim: ‘My defilements have ended.’”
Numbered Discourses 8.29 3. Householders Lost Opportunities
“‘Now is the time! Now is the time!’ So says an unlearned ordinary person. But they don’t know whether it’s time or not. Mendicants, there are eight lost opportunities for spiritual practice. What eight?
Firstly, a Realized One has arisen in the world—perfected, a fully awakened Buddha, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, holy, knower of the world, supreme guide for those fit for training, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed. He teaches the Dhamma leading to peace, extinguishment, awakening, as proclaimed by the Holy One. But an individual has been reborn in hell. This is the first lost opportunity for spiritual practice.
Furthermore, a Realized One has arisen in the world … He teaches the Dhamma leading to peace, extinguishment, awakening, as proclaimed by the Holy One. But an individual has been reborn in the animal realm. This is the second lost opportunity …
Furthermore, a Realized One has arisen in the world … But an individual has been reborn in the ghost realm. This is the third lost opportunity …
Furthermore, a Realized One has arisen in the world … But an individual has been reborn in one of the long-lived orders of gods. This is the fourth lost opportunity …
Furthermore, a Realized One has arisen in the world … But an individual has been reborn in the borderlands, among uneducated foreigners, where monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen do not go. This is the fifth lost opportunity …