{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/thag/thag16.htm","path":"bud/thag/thag16.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/thag/thag16.htm","text":"Note: Unless otherwise indicated, these suttas were translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.\n[The bandit chief:]\nThose who\nfor the sake of sacrifice\nfor the sake of wealth\nwe have killed in the past,\nagainst their will\nhave trembled & babbled\nfrom fear.\nBut you --\nyou show no fear;\nyour complexion brightens.\nWhy don't you lament\nin the face of what's greatly to be feared\n[Ven. Adhimutta:]\nThere are no painful mental states, chieftain,\nin one without longing.\nIn one whose fetters are ended,\nall fears are overcome.\nWith the ending of [craving]\nthe guide to becoming,\nwhen phenomena are seen\nfor what they are,\nthen just as in the laying down of a burden,\nthere's no fear in death.\nI've lived well the holy life,\nwell-developed the path.\nDeath holds no fear for me.\nIt's like the end of a disease.\nI've \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 lived well the holy life,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 well-developed the path,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 seen states of becoming\nas devoid of allure,\nlike poison spit out\nafter it's drunk.\nOne gone to the far shore\nwithout clinging\nwithout effluent\nhis task completed,\nwelcomes the ending of life,\nas if freed from a place of execution.\nHaving attained the supreme Rightness,\nunconcerned with all the world,\nas if released from a burning house,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 he doesn't sorrow at death.\nWhatever's compounded,\nwherever a state of becoming's obtained,\nall that has no one in charge:\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 so says the Great Seer.\nWhoever discerns this,\nas taught by the Awakened One,\nwould no more grasp hold of any state of becoming\nthan he would a hot iron ball.\nI have no 'I was,'\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 no 'I will be.'\nFabrications will simply go out of existence.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What's to lament there in that?\nFor one who sees, as it actually is,\nthe pure arising of phenomena,\nthe pure seriality of fabrications,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 there's no fear.\nWhen seeing the world with discernment\nas on a par with grass & twigs,\nfinding no 'mine-ness,'\nthinking, 'There's nothing of mine,'\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 he feels no sorrow.\nDissatisfied with this carcass,\nI'm unconcerned with becoming.\nThis body will break up\nand there will not be another.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do as you like with this carcass.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From that I will feel\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 neither hatred nor love.\nHearing these awesome, hair-raising words,\nthe young men threw down their weapons & said:\nWhat have you done, sir,\nor who have you taken as mentor?\nBecause of whose teachings\nis this lack of sorrow acquired?\n[Ven. Adhimutta:]\nThe all-knowing,\nall-seeing conqueror:\nHe is my mentor.\nGreatly compassionate teacher,\nall the world's healer,\nthis doctrine is his,\nunexcelled, leading to ending.\nBecause of his teachings\nis this lack of sorrow acquired.\nThe bandits, hearing the good words of the seer,\nthrew down their swords & their weapons.\nSome relinquished their life of crime,\nsome chose the Going Forth.\nHaving gone forth in the teachings\nof the one well-gone,\ndeveloping the powers & factors of Awakening,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 wise, happy,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 exultant in mind,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 their faculties ripened,\nthey touched uncompounded Unbinding.","title":"Theragatha XVI","type":"page"}