Text
4:10 Before the Break-up (of the Body)
“Seeing how,
behaving how,
is one said to be
at peace?
Gotama, tell me about
—when asked about—
the ultimate person.”
The Buddha:
“Free from craving
before the break-up
[of the body],
independent
of before
& the end, 1
not classified in between, 2
no preference is his.
Un- angered,
un- startled,
un- boastful,
un- anxious,
giving counsel unruffled,
he is a sage,
his speech
under control.
Free from attachment
with regard to the future,
not sorrowing
over the past,
he sees seclusion
in the midst of sensory contacts.3
He can’t be led
in terms of views.4
Withdrawn, un-
deceitful, not
stingy, not
miserly, not
insolent, in-
offensive,
he doesn’t engage in
divisive speech.
Not drunk on enticements,
nor given to pride,
he’s gentle, quick-witted,
beyond conviction & dispassion.5
Not in hopes of material gain
does he take on the training;
when without material gain
he isn’t upset.
Unobstructed by craving,
he doesn’t through craving6
hunger for flavors.
Equanimous—always—mindful,
he doesn’t suppose himself
equal,
superior,
inferior,
in the world.
No swellings of pride
are his.
Whose dependencies
don’t exist
when, on knowing the Dhamma,
he’s in-
dependent;
in whom no craving is found
for becoming or not-:
He is said
to be at peace,
un-intent
on sensual pleasures,
with nothing at all
to tie him down:
one who’s crossed over attachment.
He has no
children
cattle,
fields,
land.
In him you can’t pin down
what’s embraced
or rejected.7
He has no preference
for that which people run-of-the-mill
or brahmans & contemplatives
might blame—
which is why
he is unperturbed
with regard to their words.
His greed gone,
not miserly,
the sage
doesn’t speak of himself
as among those who are higher,
equal,
or lower.
He,
theory-free,
goes to no theory.
For whom
nothing in the world
is his own,
who doesn’t grieve
over what is not,
who doesn’t enter into
doctrines
phenomena8:
He is said
to be
at peace.”
vv. 848–861
Notes
1. Nd I: “Independent of before & the end” = no craving or view with regard to past or future.
2. For discussions of how the awakened one cannot be classified even in the present, see MN 72 and SN 22:85–86.
3. Nd I: “He sees seclusion in the midst of sensory contacts” = he sees contact as empty of self. This passage may also refer to the fact that the awakened person experiences sensory contact as if disjoined from it. On this point, see MN 140 and MN 146, quoted in The Mind Like Fire Unbound, chapter 4.
4. See AN 10:93.
5. Beyond conviction & dispassion—The Pali here can also mean, “A person of no conviction, he does not put away passion.” This is an example of the kind of pun occasionally used in Pali poetry for its shock value. Other examples are at Dhp 97 and the end of Sn 4:13. For examples of what is meant by being beyond conviction, see SN 12:68 and SN 48:44. For an explanation of what is meant by being beyond dispassion, see Sn 4:6, note 2. An alternate explanation is that, as Sn 5:6 indicates, the arahant is beyond all dhammas, dispassion included.
6. The Pali word taṇhāya—by/through craving—functions here as a lamp.
7. This reading follows the Thai and PTS editions: attaṁ vā-pi nirattaṁ vā. The Burmese and Sri Lankan editions read, attā vā-pi nirattā vā: “self or what’s opposed to self.” The first reading seems preferable for two reasons: First, it follows the theme established in Sn 4:3 and Sn 4:4 (and also followed in Sn 4:15 and Sn 5:11) that the awakened person has gone beyond embracing or rejecting views. Second, the word nirattā is found nowhere else in the Canon aside from the two other verses in Sn (4:3 and 4:14) where it is offered as a possible alternative reading for niratta (released, rejected). As niratta is clearly the preferable alternative in Sn 4:3, I have adopted it here and in Sn 4:14 as well.
8. “Doctrines, phenomena”—two meanings of the Pali word, dhamma.