{"collection":"Khuddaka Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_snp5.7/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_snp5.7","id":"suttacentral_snp5.7","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/snp5.7/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Khuddaka Nikaya"],"text":"\u201cAlone and independent, O Sakyan,\u201d said Venerable Upas\u012bva, \u201cI am not able to cross the great flood. Tell me a support, All-seer, depending on which I may cross this flood.\u201d \u201cMindfully contemplating nothingness,\u201d replied the Buddha, \u201cdepending on the perception \u2018there is nothing\u2019, <j>cross the flood. Giving up sensual pleasures, <j>refraining from chatter, watch day and night for the ending of craving.\u201d \u201cOne who is free of desire for sensual pleasures,\u201d said Venerable Upas\u012bva, \u201cdepending on nothingness, all else left behind, freed in the ultimate liberation of perception: might they remain there without traveling on?\u201d \u201cOne free of desire for sensual pleasures,\u201d replied the Buddha, \u201cdepending on nothingness, all else left behind, freed in the ultimate liberation of perception: they might remain there without traveling on.\u201d \u201cIf they were to remain there without traveling on, even for myriad years, All-seer, and, being freed, were to grow cool right there, would the consciousness of that sort pass away?\u201d \u201cAs a flame tossed by a gust of wind,\u201d replied the Buddha, \u201ccomes to an end and cannot be reckoned; so too, a sage freed <j>from the set of mental phenomena comes to an end and cannot be reckoned.\u201d \u201cOne who has disappeared\u2014do they not exist? Or are they free from disease for eternity? Please, sage, answer me clearly, for truly you understand this matter.\u201d \u201cOne who has disappeared cannot be defined,\u201d replied the Buddha. \u201cThey have nothing <j>by which others might describe them. When all things have been eradicated, eradicated, too, are all ways of speech.\u201d","title":"The Questions of Upas\u012bva","tradition":"Khuddaka Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":254}