Reading for the day was MN113 Sappurisasutta. I was surprised to find, if my understanding is correct that an untrue person can reach the dizzy heights of “I have attained the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, unlike these other mendicants.’ And they glorify themselves and put others down on account of that” with their ego/conceit intact only falling at the finish line. Is this sutta aimed at other spiritual practices, that is, non Buddhists? Surely it can’t, by definition apply to Arahants?
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Because they’ve ended the conceit “I am” (better/equal/worse), arahants don’t glorify themselves and put others down in thought or speech or bodily action. The rest of us do this in gross and subtle ways. Conceit is one of the seven underlying tendencies to be understood and abandoned (SN 45.175).
The heights of samadhi are not the same as the heights of wisdom. Devadatta had great powers of concentration and psychic powers, yet he tried to kill the Buddha and cause a schism in the Sangha. Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta taught the Buddha about attaining the two highest formless states, but they didn’t have the wisdom of a stream-enterer (though because the Buddha’s first thoughts about who to teach upon awakening was to teach them, it’s highly likely they would have attained quickly had they not died soon before). Those examples show how immoral people and non-Buddhists can attain powerful samadhi and how samadhi is not necessarily connected with liberating wisdom.
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Thank you. I suspected wisdom was a key factor here. Supra wisdom as opposed to mundane. It was encouraging to read in the same sutta that a lay person living a true and ethical life can be held in high esteem as it states
“Even if someone doesn’t receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick, if they practice in line with the teaching, practice properly, and live in line with the teaching, they are worthy of honor and praise for that.” or is that a misreading/misunderstanding on my part. Metta @Mkoll
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You’re welcome. 
It seems the sutta is mostly addressed to those who have gone forth. But it’s no big leap to generalize the principles being taught (modesty, diligent practice, abandoning conceit and arrogance, etc.) to laypeople as well.
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Myself, I am more intrigued by another line in that passage, and part of the conclusion:
a good (person) reflects thus: 'Lack of desire even for the attainment of the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception has been spoken of by the Lord; for whatever they imagine it to be, it is otherwise.
(That person), having made lack of desire itself the main thing, neither exalts (themselves) on account of that attainment of the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception nor disparages others.
… And again, (a person) by wholly transcending the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, enters on and abides in the stopping of perception and feeling; and having seen by intuitive wisdom, (their) cankers are caused to be destroyed. And (this person) does not imagine
(they are) aught or anywhere or in anything.(MN 113, tr. Pali Text Society vol III; parentheticals for gender neutrality)
That makes it sound as though the attainment of “the stopping of perception and feeling” leads directly to “seeing by intuitive wisdom” and the destruction of the cankers, yet in MN 70 Gautama declares that the attainment of the Deliverances, which end with “the stopping of perception and feeling”, does not automatically confer “intuitive wisdom” and the “utter destruction” of the cankers.
Moreover, he makes clear there are those who possess “intuitive wisdom” who have not attained the Deliverances. That “intuitive wisdom” I believe is said to be the result of seven days and seven nights of the mindfulness of Satipatthana (MN 10 and DN 22)–at least the Pali Text Society translations conclude with:
Whoever… should thus develop these four applications of mindfulness for seven days, one of two fruits is to be expected for (that person): either profound knowledge here-now, or, if there is any residuum remaining, the state of non-returning.
Presumably “profound knowledge” is “intuitive wisdom”. A similar result is offered as the result of the mindfulness of Anapanasati sermon, though there’s no mention of seven days and seven nights:
… one of two fruits may be expected: either final knowledge in this very life or, if there is a residue of clinging, the state of non-retuming.
(SN 54.4, tr. Bhikkhu Bodhi)
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