Thag 14.1 - Thag 14:1 Revata’s Farewell
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Thag/thag14_1.html
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Copyright: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017
License notice: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
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Thag 14:1 Revata’s Farewell

Since I went forth
from home into homelessness,
I haven’t known
an ignoble, aversive resolve.
“May these beings
    be destroyed,
    be slaughtered,
    fall into pain”—
I’ve not known this resolve
in this long, long time.
But I have known goodwill,
    unlimited,
    fully developed,
    nurtured step after step,
as taught by the One
        Awake:
    to all, a friend;
    to all, a comrade;
    for all beings, sympathetic.1

And I develop a mind of goodwill,
  delighting in non-malevolence
        —always.
  Unvanquished, unshaken,
  I gladden the mind.
  I develop the sublime abiding,
    not frequented by
    the lowly.

Attaining no-thinking,
  the disciple of the Rightly
  Self-awakened One
  is endowed with noble silence2
    straightaway.

As a mountain of rock
    is unmoving,
    firmly established,
  so a monk,
  with the ending of delusion,
    like a mountain,
    doesn’t quake.

To a person without blemish,
  in constant quest of what’s pure,
  a hair-tip of evil
  seems a storm cloud.

As a frontier fortress is guarded
    within & without,
  you should safeguard yourselves.
  Don’t let the moment
        pass you by.

I don’t delight in death,
  don’t delight in living.
  I await my time
  like a worker his wage.
  I don’t delight in death,
  don’t delight in living.
  I await my time,
  mindful, alert.

The Teacher has been served by me;
  the Awakened One’s bidding,
            done;
  the heavy load, laid down;
  the guide to becoming, uprooted.
  And the goal for which I went forth
  from home life into homelessness
  I’ve reached:
            the end
            of all fetters.

    Attain consummation
    through heedfulness:
        That is my message.

So then, I’m about to
unbind.
I’m released
            everywhere.3

Notes

1. On the development of goodwill as an unlimited attitude, see MN 21 and SN 42:8.

2. Noble silence = the second jhāna.

3. AN 3:77 and AN 3:78 use the analogy of a field to describe becoming, in which kamma is the field, craving the moisture, and consciousness the seed. The logic of the analogy suggests that if consciousness is not watered by craving, and does not land in any place (see SN 12:64), it is like a seed without moisture or a field. Therefore it will not sprout into further becoming. Poems in the Canon often describe the arahant as being “everywhere released” (sabbattha vimutto—see Dhp 348) or “everywhere independent” (sabbattha anissito—see Sn 4:6), referring indirectly to this analogy. Translators, lacking a sense of the underlying image of the idiom, have tended to render it in more prosaic terms: “completely released in every respect,” “not dependent on anything,” “released from everything.” However, in light of the field analogy, the idiom means precisely what it says: The arahant is released from every possible “where,” whether fabricated or not—every possible spot for renewed becoming.