2. Sãmaññaphala Sutta
The Buddha was dwelling, with a great assembly of twelve hundred and fifty Bhikkhus in the Mango-grove of Jivaka, the Royal Physician.
On the night of the full-moon night of the month of Kartika, Ajatasattu, the King of Magadha, was sitting on the topmost terrace of his royal palace with his courtiers. The king exclaimed : “What a beautiful night it is ! Which of the saintly renunciants or Brahmans should be approached this day in order to listen to his spiritual discourse; a discourse which will readily gladden my mind ?”
Having heard what the king said, each one of the ministers praised his own teacher and advised the king to approach him. In all, six teachers were proposed by the king’s ministers : Purana Kassapa : Makkhali Gosala; Ajita Kesakambala; Pakudha Kaccayana; Sanjaya Belattaputta; and Nigantha Nataputta.
The king, however, addressed Jivaka, who had remained silent: “Dear Jivaka, why do you remain silent ?”
Thereupon Jivaka said to the king “The Exalted One, the homage Worthy, the perfectly Self Enlightened is at present dwelling in my mango grove. If he is approached by Your Majesty, he will surely gladden your mind.”
The king, having heard what Jivaka had to say, ordered him to make the necessary arrangements, which the physician quickly did. The king then set out for the place where the Buddha was said to be staying.
The king asked this question of the Buddha : “Lord, we who are in the world, earn merit by giving alms; thus, we make ourselves, parents, wives and children, friends and relatives content and happy by means of various sorts of business and professions. Even so, is there any directly observable fruit of the renunciated life to be obtained in this very life ?”
The Buddha asked the king what replies the others had given, when the king had put these same questions to them. Thereupon King Ajatasattu told him the answers which others had given in accordance to their respective doctrines. The king also admitted to the Buddha that their answers had left him dissatisfied.
( 5 ) The Buddha gave the king an example of an obedient slave : “If a slave of yours, after renouncing the household life, should enter the order of Bhikkhus, would Your Majesty wish to force him to return to the household life ?” The Buddha thus put the question to the king himself. The king answered : “We would, rather reverence or render service to him.”
Even if such is not so important materially, it is one fruit of the renunciated life directly observable to the naked eye.
The Buddha then presented an accurate picture of the renunciant’s life gradually, by answering these questions:
(I) How is the renunciated life to be assumed by a house-holder who has listened to the preaching of the Tathagata and renounced his former life ?
(II) How is he to be possessed of the primary conduct, secondary conduct, and higher conduct by following its rules ?
(III) How is he to be well contented by becoming fully aware of memory and bringing this awareness to bear on even the least operation of his mind after achieving the discipline of his six senses ?
(IV) How is he to maintain mindfulness in Samadhi after attaining mental joy through eradication of the five Nivaranas, which are obstructions of Samadhi ? How is he to obtain the first, the second, the third, the fourth Jhana ?
(V) How is he to be gradually possessed by discriminatory knowledge, (Vipassana Nana), mental supernormal knoledge (manomayiddhi Nana), knowledge of psychic powers (Iddhivida Nana), knowledge of Divine power of hearing (Dibbasota Nana), the ability to penetrate the mind of others, (Cetopariya Nana), the remembrance of past lives, (Pubbenevasanussati Nana), the knowledge that consists of supernormal sight (Dibbachakkhu Nana), etc. and then how is he finally to be liberated from birth, old age, and death by attaining the Nibbana Dhamma whereby he attains knowledge of being free form impurities and experiencing actual liberation from them in which there are no such defects; and how is he thus to experience liberation with the knowledge of the extinction of fundamental defects ? These were the serial precepts the Buddha preached that day to the assembly, including the king. read more
Ajatasattu had killed his own father, the previous king, in order to accede to the throne. Because of this sin, he was prevented from profiting completely from the preaching of the Buddha. Still, the king took refuge in the Blessed One, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. 
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