"Kesi, you are reputed to be a horse trainer. Just how do you discipline a horse to be tamed?"
'Bhante, I discipline one kind of horse gently, another kind sternly, and still another kind both gently and sternly.'
"But, Kesi, if a horse to be tamed by you won't submit to discipline by any of these methods, how do you deal with him?"
'Bhante, if a horse to be tamed by me won't submit to discipline by any of these methods, then I kill him. For what reason? So that there will be no disgrace to my teacher's guild. But, Bhante, the Blessed One is the unsurpassed trainer of persons to be tamed. Just how does the Blessed One discipline a person to be tamed?'
"I discipline one kind of person gently, another kind sternly, and still another kind both gently and sternly.
(1) This, Kesi, is the gentle method:
"Such is bodily good conduct, such the result of bodily good
conduct;
Such is verbal good conduct, such the result of verbal good conduct;
Such is mental good conduct, such the result of mental good
conduct;
Such are the devas such are human beings."
(2) This is the stern method:
"Such is bodily misconduct, such the result of bodily misconduct;
Such is verbal misconduct, such the result of verbal misconduct:
Such is mental misconduct, such the result of mental misconduct;
Such is hell, such the animal realm, such the sphere of afflicted spirits."
(3) This is the gentle and stern method:
"Such is bodily good conduct, such the result of bodily good conduct;
Such is bodily misconduct, such the result of bodily misconduct;
Such is verbal good conduct, such the result of verbal good conduct;
Such is verbal misconduct, such the result of verbal misconduct;
Such is mental good conduct, such the result of mental good conduct;
Such is mental misconduct, such the result of mental misconduct;
Such are the devas, such are human beings;
Such is hell, such the animal realm, such the sphere of afflicted spirits."
"But. Bhante, if a person to be tamed by you won't submit to discipline by any of these methods, how does the Blessed One deal with him?"
"If a person to be tamed by me won't submit to discipline by any of these methods, then I kill him."
“But, Bhante, it isn't allowable for the Blessed One to destroy life. Yet he says, "Then I kill him.'
"It is true, Kesi, that it isn't allowable for the Tathāgata to destroy life.
However, when a person to be tamed won't submit to discipline by the gentle method, the stern method, or the method that is both gentle and stern, then the Tathāgata thinks he should not be spoken to and instructed, and his wise fellow monks, too, think he should not be spoken to and instructed.
For this, Kesi, is 'killing' in the Noble One's discipline: the Tathāgata thinks one should not be spoken to and instructed, and one's wise fellow monks, too, think one should not be spoken to and instructed."
