{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/snp/snp5-3.htm","path":"bud/snp/snp5-3.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/snp/snp5-3.htm","text":"To the one unperturbed,\nwho has seen the root [of all things],\nI have come with a question.\nBecause of what\nhave many human seers\n-- noble warriors, brahmins --\noffered sacrifices to devas\nhere in the world?\nI ask you, O Blessed One.\nPlease tell me.\nThose many human seers\n-- noble warriors, brahmins --\nwho have offered sacrifices to devas\nhere in the world, Punnaka,\nhoping for more of this state of being,\noffered their sacrifices\nbecause of aging.\nThose many human seers\n-- noble warriors, brahmins --\nwho have offered sacrifices to devas\nhere in the world:\nHave they, O Blessed One,\nheeding the path of sacrifice,\ncrossed over birth & aging?\nI ask you, O Blessed One.\nPlease tell me.\nThey hoped for, liked,\nlonged for,\nso sacrificed --\nthey longed for sensuality,\ndependent on gain.\nI tell you:\nthose who take on the yoke\nof sacrifice,\nimpassioned with\nthe passion for becoming,\nhave not crossed over birth & aging.\nIf those who take on the yoke of sacrifice\nhaven't crossed over the flood, dear sir,\nthen who in the world\nof beings divine & human\nhas crossed over birth & aging?\nI ask you, O Blessed One.\nPlease tell me.\nHe who has fathomed\nthe far & near in the world,\nfor whom there is nothing\nperturbing in the world --\nhis vices evaporated,\nundesiring, untroubled,\nat peace --\nhe, I tell you, has crossed over birth\n& aging.\nA.III.32 and A.IV.41 contain discussions of the last verse in this poem.\nIn A.III.32, Ven. Ananda asks the Buddha, \"Could it be that a monk could attain a concentration of such a sort such that, with regard to this conscious body, he would have no 'I'-making or 'mine'-making or underlying tendency to conceit, such that with regard to all external themes [topics of concentration] he would have no 'I'-making or 'mine'-making or underlying tendency to conceit, and that he would enter & remain in the release of awareness & release of discernment in which there is no 'I'-making or 'mine'-making or underlying tendency to conceit?\"\nThe Buddha answers that it is possible, and that such a concentration can be attained when one is percipient in this way: \"This is peace, this is exquisite -- the resolution of all mental processes; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.\" He then adds that it was in connection to this state of mind that he uttered the last verse in this poem.\nIn A.IV.41, the Buddha identifies four ways of developing concentration: \"There is the development of concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to a pleasant abiding in the here & now. There is the development of concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to the attainment of knowledge & vision. There is the development of concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to mindfulness & alertness. There is the development of concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to the ending of the effluents.\" (For details, see A.IV.41) The Buddha then adds that he uttered the last verse of this poem in connection with these four ways of developing concentration.","title":"Sn V.3: Punnaka-manava-puccha","type":"page"}