“They speak of this thing called the ‘fourth absorption’. What is the fourth absorption? It occurred to me: ‘It’s when, giving up pleasure and pain, and ending former happiness and sadness, a mendicant enters and remains in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness. This is called the fourth absorption.’ And so … I was entering and remaining in the fourth absorption. While I was in that meditation, perceptions and attentions accompanied by pleasure beset me.

Then the Buddha came up to me with his psychic power and said: ‘Moggallāna, Moggallāna! Don’t neglect the fourth absorption, brahmin! Settle your mind in the fourth absorption; unify your mind and immerse it in the fourth absorption.’ And so, after some time … I entered and remained in the fourth absorption. So if anyone should be rightly called a disciple who attained to great direct knowledge with help from the Teacher, it’s me.”