Gotama Buddha told this
to Ananda about the PaccekaBuddhas!
The muni Vedeha (Ananda) bowing his body, asked the Tathagata,
who was staying
at Jetavana: PaccekaBuddhas exist, yet by what reasons do they arise, 0h wise
one?
Then the best of the omniscient, the great wise one told the following to Ananda
in
a sweet voice:
Those who paid honour to all former Buddhas, without attaining liberation during
the period in which their teaching was known, who are wise by means of sense of
urgency, whose intelligence is very sharp, also without the instruction of
Buddhas,
these attain insight alone even by means of a tiny limited object of
meditation...
And furthermore, in this whole world, there is no one except me, equal to these
PaccekaBuddhas. I shall clearly express the following, only an short description,
of the distinction of these great heroic Munis (silenced ones)...
Listen, all of you, who wish for the highest medicine, your attention should be very
calm, always directed to their good words, which are sweet like fine honey of those
great wise men, who are fully & perfectly enlightened all by themselves!
These are the explanations of PaccekaBuddhas, who
assembled on Mount Gandhamadana,
pronounced one after
the other, about the sorrow of any desire and the cause of the
overcoming
of all craving, & how they attained their insight. Conscious of the absence
of lust, while being in the
midst of the objects of lust, their minds are dispassionate
in
an infatuated world, having dumped the proliferations, & subdued all
obstructions,
they all attained insight thus:
Putting aside any violence to all beings, not hurting any of them,
good and compassionate,
with a mind filled with friendliness, one should live, alone, like the horn of a
rhinoceros...
Their morality are pure, their wisdom purified, their minds are concentrated,
practicing
watchfulness, reflecting, seeing the characteristics of the dhamma, they
understand it,
having developed all
the elements of the Noble Way and the Links to Enlightenment...
Having perfected the fulfillment of
merit, with the motive to become a solitary conqueror,
they become PaccekaBuddhas,
self-existent, independent, such is destination of the wise,
who does not attain the state
of a disciple during the time in which, there still remains the
knowledge of
the SammaSamBuddhas teaching...
Their dhamma being great, being all sublime manifestations of the core essential
dhamma,
powerful are their minds, having overcome the flood of suffering, their minds
are exalted,
seeing the highest & deepest
truth, they are like lions, like the horn of a rhinoceros...
With serene senses, calm, concentrated, remembering all beings in remote border districts,
illuminating like lamps in the other world and in this world, thus are
these PaccekaBuddhas,
always good...
Having destroyed all hindrances, these kings of men,
illuminators of the world, shining like
pure solid gold, undoubtedly
worthy of any gifts in this world, are these PaccekaBuddhas,
always
good...
There are in this world together with the divine world, good teachings of PaccekaBuddhas.
Those fools, who after having heard these, do not act accordingly, whirl round in suffering
again
and again...
Those who act accordingly, having heard the good words of PaccekaBuddhas, which are like
pure streaming
honey of small delicate bees, become seers of the truths,
possessing Wisdom!
Thus spoke the Gotama Buddha about those solitary ones Awakened
like a rhinoceros horn...
Source: The Canonical Apadana I 7-14
