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Sutta Nipata V.5

Dhotaka-manava-puccha

Dhotaka's Questions

For free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma

Context of this sutta


Dhotaka:
I ask you, O 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 brahmin who lives
possessing        nothing.
    I pay homage to him
    the All-around Eye.
From my doubts, O Sakyan, release me!
The Buddha:
No one in the world, Dhotaka,
can I release from doubting.
But knowing the most excellent Dhamma,
you will cross over the flood.
Dhotaka:
Teach with compassion, O brahmin,
the Dhamma of seclusion
so that I may know --
so that I, unafflicted as space,
may live right here,
    independent,
    at peace.
The Buddha:
I will teach you peace
    -- in the 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-.

Note

Craving for becoming and non-becoming (or dis-becoming) are the two most subtle forms of craving that lead to continued existence -- and suffering -- in the round of birth & death.


Revised: Sat 17 October 1998