Ugga-richman, lay, said in [Sutta. Aṅ. (4): aṭṭhaka-nipātā][1]: > With confident heart I paid homage to the Buddha. **The Buddha taught me step by step (anupubbikakathā)**, with a talk on giving, ethical conduct, and heaven. He explained the drawbacks of sensual pleasures, so sordid and corrupt, and the benefit of renunciation. And when he knew that my mind was ready, pliable, rid of hindrances, joyful, and confident he explained the special teaching of the Buddhas: **suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.** Just as a clean cloth rid of stains would properly absorb dye, in that very seat the stainless, immaculate vision of the Dhamma arose in me: **‘Everything(suffering) which is arise by the origins(samudaya), has an end.’** I saw, attained, understood, and fathomed the Dhamma. I went beyond doubt, got rid of indecision, and became self-assured and independent of others regarding the Teacher’s instructions. Right there I went for refuge to the Buddha, his teaching, and the Saṅgha. And I undertook the five training rules with celibacy as the fifth. This is the second incredible and amazing quality found in me. There are [many place][2] like that in tipitaka, so Buddhā exactly taught four noble truth to the lay. Th required questions are: 1. What is anupubbīkathā? 2. Why Buddha often taught anupubbīkathā to a lay? 3. Why the first saṅgāyanā monks often cutoff anupubbīkathā? 4. Why some people think Buddha never taught meditation to a lay? 1. What is anupubbīkathā? --- Anupubbīkathā is the very **long sutta** which describing about monk's procedure, such as DN [Sāmaññaphalasuttaṃ][3], DN [ambaṭṭhasuttaṃ][4], DN [Soṇadaṇḍasuttaṃ][5], DN [Kūṭadantasuttaṃ][6], etc. The evidence is the some of those sutta included the word "dhammacakkhuṃ", i.e. from DN [Sāmaññaphalasuttaṃ][3]: > So King **Ajatasattu**, delighting and rejoicing in the Blessed One's words, rose from his seat, bowed down to him, and — after circumambulating him — left. Not long after King Ajatasattu had left, the Blessed One addressed the monks: "The king is wounded, monks. The king is incapacitated. Had he not killed his father — that righteous man, that righteous king — the dustless, **stainless Dhamma eye would have arisen** to him as he sat in this very seat." Many people are misunderstanding by the wrong translation that anupubbīkatha must included dānakathā and saggakathā, but actually anupubbīkathā is the sequenced teaching, such as giving sequence, ethic sequence, etc. The "with" word from translation is "seyyathīdaṃ" which means "e.g.", so the translation should be " The Buddha taught me step by step, e.g. a talk on giving, a talk on ethical conduct, or a talk heaven. Then he explained (them by) the drawbacks of sensual pleasures, so sordid and corrupt, and the benefit of renunciation". 2. Why Buddha often taught anupubbīkathā to lay? --- Buddha taught anupubbikathā to everyone, not only lay. 3. Why the first saṅgāyanā monks often cutoff sutta to anupubbīkathā? --- The first saṅgāyanā monks chose "anupubbikathā" words to avoid the over long of sutta. Because most of lay at that time don't have much knowledge, buddha have to taught them very long sutta (maybe more that DN) and mix many contents to let them enlighten as sotāpanna. 4. Why some people think Buddha never taught meditation to a lay? --- Because they are misunderstanding of anupubbikathā. And they don't know how to read teaching as four noble truth, because they never memorize [netti][7], or never attained anyñāṇa from tipitaka-memorizer&jhānalābhī school, such as Pa-Auk. Every noble one must enlightened four noble truth, but it is not every ordinary people can discover the noble truth from tipitaka. People who can understand the noble truth from tipitaka must can deconflict every uncleared word of tipitaka. This is unable for people who can't memorize tipitaka pali and netti, because it needs nirutti-paṭisambhidā to deconflict the whole tipitaka. For the example from [VN Mahāvagga][8] by assachi arahanta to **sāriputta**, who enlightened as sotāpanna: >Ye dhammā hetupabhavā **(dukkha)** tesaṃ hetuṃ **(samudaya)** tathāgato āha **(magga)** tesañca yo nirodho **(nirodha)** evaṃvādī mahāsamaṇo. Or in [Sāmaññaphalasuttaṃ][3], which king Ajātasattu almost enlightened as sotāpanna, it is included vipassanāñaṇa part directly, etc. [1]: http://www.84000.org/tipitaka/read/roman_read.php?B=23&A=4606&eng=suttacentral [2]: http://search.tipitaka.org/solr/web?q=%20anupubbikatha%E1%B9%83&fq=script%3Aromn&facet.field=volume [3]: http://www.84000.org/tipitaka/read/roman_read.php?B=9&A=1199&eng=accesstoinsight_than [4]: http://www.84000.org/tipitaka/read/roman_read.php?B=9&A=2269&eng=metta_e [5]: http://www.84000.org/tipitaka/read/roman_read.php?B=9&A=2829&eng=metta_e [6]: http://www.84000.org/tipitaka/read/roman_read.php?B=9&A=3227&eng=metta_e [7]: http://tipitaka.wikia.com/wiki/Netti-Contents [8]: http://www.84000.org/tipitaka/read/roman_read.php?B=4&A=1499&eng=suttacentral