Khuddaka Nikaya - Sutta Nipata - Jatukanni-manava-puccha

Sn 5.11
Jatukanni-manava-puccha
Jatukanni's Question
Translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro BhikkhuPTS: Sn 1096-1100



Source: Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.



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[Jatukannin:]
Hearing that there was a hero —
desiring no sensuality,
having crossed over the flood —
I've come with a question:
Tell me the state of peace,
O One with quick eyes. O Blessed One,
tell me
as it actually is.
For the Blessed One lives
having surpassed sensuality,
as the radiant sun, in its radiance,
the earth.
Limited my discernment,
O One whose discernment's profound.
Teach me to know the Dhamma,
the abandoning here
of birth
& aging.
[The Buddha:]
Subdue greed for sensual pleasures,
& see renunciation as rest.
Let there be nothing grasped
or rejected by you.
Burn up what's before,
and have nothing for after.
If you don't grasp
at what's in between, 1
you will go about, calm.
One completely devoid of greed
for name & form, brahman,
has
no effluents
by which he would go
under Mara's sway.



Note
1. According to Nd.II, "before" stands for defilements related to the past,
"after" for defilements related to the future, and "in between" for the five
aggregates — form, feeling, perception, thought-fabrications, sensory
consciousness — in the present.