The Discourse about the Great Emancipation

The Fifth Chapter for Recitation
“Enough, Subhadda, stop this: 165 ‘Have they all understood, according
to their own avowal? Have they all not understood? Or, have some
understood? Or, have some not understood?’ I will teach the Teaching
to you, Subhadda, listen to it, apply your mind well, and I will speak.”
“Very well, reverend Sir,” the wanderer Subhadda replied to the
Gracious One, and the Gracious One said this: “Wherever, Subhadda,
the Noble Eightfold Path is not found in a Teaching and Discipline
there a (true) ascetic is not found, 166 there a second (true) ascetic is not
found, there a third (true) ascetic is not found, there a fourth (true)
ascetic is not found.
But wherever, Subhadda, the Noble Eightfold Path is found in a
Teaching and Discipline there a (true) ascetic is found, there a second
(true) ascetic is found, there a third (true) ascetic is found, there a
fourth (true) ascetic is found.
In this Teaching and Discipline, Subhadda, the Noble Eightfold Path is
found, here a (true) ascetic is found, here a second (true) ascetic is
165 The Commentary notes that it was neither profitable nor opportune for the
Buddha to refute the various sectarians at this point in time, so he simply
taught his own Teaching.
166 A (true) ascetic here refers to one who has reached the first path of
Awakening, and is an Ariya Sotāpanna. Similarly with the second
(Sakadāgāmī) third (Anāgāmī), and fourth (Arahatta) ascetics below.
166