Sutta Nipāta
5
Sutta 5. Dhotaka-manava-puccha Sutta
Dhotaka's Questions
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.
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 and mindful right here.
Then, having heard my pronouncement,
train for your own
Unbinding.
Dhotaka:
I see in the world of beings
divine and human,
a brahman 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 brahman,
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 and 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-.[1]
[1] 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 and death.
