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5:5 Dhotaka’s Questions I ask you, Blessed One. Please tell me. I hope for your words, Great Seer. Having heard your pronouncement, I’ll train for my own unbinding. The Buddha: In that case, be ardent— astute & mindful right here. Then, having heard my pronouncement, train for your own unbinding. Dhotaka: I see in the world of beings divine & human, a brahman who lives possessing nothing. I pay homage to him, the All-around Eye.1 From my perplexities, Sakyan, release me! The Buddha: No one in the world, Dhotaka, can I release from perplexity. But knowing the most excellent Dhamma, you will cross over this flood. Dhotaka: Teach with compassion, brahman, the Dhamma of seclusion so that I may know— so that I, unafflicted as space, may go about right here, independent, at peace. The Buddha: I will expound to you peace —here-&-now, not quoted words— knowing which, living mindfully, you’ll go beyond entanglement in the world. Dhotaka: And I relish, Great Seer, that peace supreme, knowing which, living mindfully, I’ll go beyond entanglement in the world. The Buddha: Whatever you’re alert to, above, below, across, in between: Knowing it as a bond in the world, don’t create craving for becoming or non-.2 vv. 1061–1068 Notes 1. See Sn 2:12, note 2. 2. Craving for becoming and non-becoming are the two most subtle forms of craving that lead to continued existence—and suffering—in the round of birth and death. See Sn 5:4, note 5.