{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/snp/snp1-12.htm","path":"bud/snp/snp1-12.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/snp/snp1-12.htm","text":"From That the True Dhamma Might Last a Long Time: Readings Selected by King Asoka, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.\nDanger is born from intimacy,[1]\nsociety gives birth to dust.[2]\nFree from intimacy,\nfree from society:\nsuch is the vision of the sage.\nWho, destroying what's born, would not plant again\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 or nourish what will arise:\nThey call him the wandering, singular sage.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has seen the state of peace.\nConsidering the ground,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 crushing the seed,\nhe wouldn't nourish the sap[3]\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 -- truly a sage -- \nseer of the ending of birth,\nabandoning conjecture, he cannot be classified.\nKnowing all dwellings,[4]\nnot longing for any one anywhere\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 -- truly a sage -- \nwith no coveting, no greed,\nhe does not build,[5] for he has gone beyond.\n* * * \nOvercoming all\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 knowing all,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 wise.\nWith regard to all things: unsmeared.\nAbandoning all,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in the ending of craving,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 released:\nThe wise call him a sage.\nStrong in discernment,\nvirtuous in his practices,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 composed,\ndelighting in meditation,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 mindful,\nfreed from attachments,\nno constraints :: no effluents:[6]\nThe wise call him a sage.\nThe wandering solitary sage,\nuncomplacent, unshaken by praise or blame.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unstartled, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 like a lion at sounds.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unsnared, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 like the wind in a net.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unsmeared,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 like a lotus in water.\nLeader of others, by others unled:\nThe wise call him a sage.\nLike the pillar at a bathing ford,[7]\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 when others speak in extremes.\nHe, without passion, his senses well-composed:\nThe wise call him a sage.\nTruly poised, straight as a shuttle,[8]\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 he loathes evil actions.\nPondering what is on-pitch and off:[9]\nThe wise call him a sage.\nSelf-restrained, he does no evil.\nYoung and middle-aged, the sage self-controlled,\nnever angered, he angers none:\nThe wise call him a sage.\nFrom the best\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the middling\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the leftovers\nhe receives alms.\nSustaining himself on what others give,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 neither flattering\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 nor speaking disparagement:\nThe wise call him a sage.\nThe wandering sage\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 not delighting in sex,\nin youth bound by no one,\nnot delighting in \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 heedlessness\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 intoxication[10]\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 totally freed:\nThe wise\ncall him a sage.\nKnowing the world,\nseeing the highest goal,\ncrossing the ocean,[11] the flood[12]\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 -- Such -- [13]\nhis chains broken,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 unbound\nwithout fermentation:\nThe wise call him a sage.\n* * * \nThese two are different,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 they dwell far apart:\nthe householder supporting a wife\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and the unselfish one, of good practices.\nSlaying other beings, the householder\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 is unrestrained.\nConstantly the sage protects other beings,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 is controlled.\nAs the crested, blue-necked peacock, when flying,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 never matches the wild goose in speed:\nEven so the householder never keeps up with the monk,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the sage secluded,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 doing jhana\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in the forest.\n1. Dangers in intimacy: Craving and views. [Go back]\n2. Dust: Passion, aversion, and delusion. [Go back]\n3. Ground, seed, and sap: The khandhas (body, feelings, perceptions, thought formations, and consciousness), sense spheres, and elements form the ground in which grows the seed of constructive consciousness -- the consciousness that develops into states of being and birth. The sap of this seed is craving and views. [Go back]\n4. Dwellings: States of becoming and birth. [Go back]\n5. He does not build: He performs none of the good or bad deeds that give rise to further states of becoming and birth. [Go back]\n6. No effluents (asava): He has none of the forms of defilement -- sensual desire, views, states of becoming, or ignorance -- that \"flow out\" of the mind and give rise to the flood of the cycle of death and rebirth. [Go back]\n7. The pillar at a bathing ford: The Cullavagga (V.l) describes this as an immovable pillar, standing quite tall and buried deep in the ground near a bathing place, against which young villagers and boxers would rub their bodies while bathing so as to toughen them. The \"extremes\" in which others speak, according to the Commentary, are extremes of praise and criticism: These leave the sage, like the pillar, unmoved. [Go back]\n8. Straight as a shuttle: Having a mind unprejudiced by favoritism, dislike, delusion, or fear. [Go back]\n9. On-pitch and off (sama and visama): Throughout ancient cultures, the terminology of music was used to describe the moral quality of people and acts. Discordant intervals or poorly-tuned musical instruments were metaphors for evil; harmonious intervals and well-tuned instruments were metaphors for good. In Pali, the term sama -- \"even\" -- described an instrument tuned on-pitch: There is a famous passage where the Buddha reminds Sona Kolivisa -- who had been over-exerting himself in the practice -- that a lute sounds appealing only if the strings are neither too taut or too lax, but \"evenly\" tuned. This image would have special resonances with the Buddha's teaching on the middle way. It also adds meaning to the term samana -- monk or contemplative -- which the texts frequently mention as being derived from sama. The word sama\u00f1\u00f1a -- \"evenness,\" the quality of being in tune -- also means the quality of being a contemplative. The true contemplative is always in tune with what is proper and good. [Go back]\n10. Intoxication: The three intoxications are intoxication with youth, with good health, and with life. [Go back]\n11. Ocean: The way defilement splashes into undesirable destinations (so says the Commentary). [Go back]\n12. Flood: The flow of defilement: sensual desires, views, states of becoming, and ignorance. [Go back]\n13. Such: Unchanging; unaffected by anything. [Go back]","title":"Sn I.12: Muni Sutta","type":"page"}