There are in the world
sages, they say
    -- in what way?
Do they call one a sage
for possessing knowledge
or possessing a way of life?

Not for what he has seen,
    heard,
    or known
do the skilled here, Nanda,
        call one a sage.
Those who live
    disarmed,
    undesiring,
    untroubled:
        those, I say, are called sages.

Whatever priests & contemplatives
    say that purity's found
        through what's seen & heard,
    say that purity's found
        through precepts & practices,
    say that purity's found
        in manifold ways:
have they, dear sir, living there in that way,
crossed over birth & aging?
    I ask you, O Blessed One.
    Please tell me.

Whatever priests & contemplatives
    say that purity's found
        through what's seen & heard,
    say that purity's found
        through precepts & practices,
    say that purity's found
        in manifold ways:
none of them, living there in that way,
I tell you, have crossed over birth & aging.

Whatever priests & contemplatives
    say that purity's found
        through what's seen & heard,
    say that purity's found
        through precepts & practices,
    say that purity's found
        in manifold ways:
if, sage, as you say,
they've not crossed over the flood,
then who in the world
of beings divine & human
has crossed over birth & aging?
    I ask you, O Blessed One.
    Please tell me.

I don't say that all priests & contemplatives
are shrouded in birth & aging.
Those here who've abandoned
    what's seen, heard, & sensed,
    precepts & practices [1]
        -- all --
who've abandoned their manifold ways
        -- again, all --
who, comprehending craving,
    are effluent-free:
they are the ones, I tell you,
who've crossed over the flood.

I relish, Gotama, the Great Seer's words
well-expounded, without acquisition.
Those here who've abandoned
    what's seen, heard, & sensed,
    precepts & practices
        -- all --
who've abandoned their manifold ways
        -- again, all --
who, comprehending craving,
    are effluent-free:
I, too, say they've crossed over the flood.

Note

1. For a discussion of the abandoning of precepts and practices, see The Mind Like Fire Unbound, Chapters 3 and 4. [Go back]