Exalted Utterances - Udāna (KN 3)

1: Bodhivaggo - 9
The Gracious One saw those venerable ones coming while still far
away, 16 and having seen (them), he addressed the monks (saying):
“These brāhmaṇas are coming, monks; these brāhmaṇas are coming,
monks.” 17
After that was said, a certain monk who was a brāhmaṇa by birth, said
to the Gracious One: “To what extent, dear Gotama, is one a
brāhmaṇa? And again what things make one a brāhmaṇa?”
Then the Gracious One, having understood the significance of it, on
that occasion uttered this exalted utterance:
Those who, having removed bad things, live always mindful,
The Buddhas who have destroyed the fetters, truly they are
brāhmaṇas in the world.” 18
16 Wijesekera, Syntax §131c has shown that dūrato in these contexts does not
mean from afar (which makes it sound like they had come a long way, but
while they were still a distance away (from him), which I follow in the
translation here.
17 Repetition as here is a common form of emphasis in the Pāḷi discourses.
18 Buddha is applied here to all who have attained Awakening: disciples,
individual Buddhas, and Perfect Sambuddhas.