“Having heard of a hero not desiring the desirable,”
said the venerable Jatukaṇṇī,
“I came to ask that undesiring one, gone beyond the flood.
Tell the state of peace, innately sighted one.
As to its reality, Auspicious One, tell me this.
Since the Auspicious One fares having surmounted desirable things,
like the incandescent sun the earth with its glare,
O, you of vast comprehension! To me of limited understanding,
describe the order such that I could understand,
the leaving behind of aging and birth here.”
“Lead away greed for desirable things, Jatukaṇṇī,”
said the Auspicious One,
“seeing renunciation as safety,
let nothing at all be found
taken up or rejected by you.
What was before, let wither away,
afterwards let nothing be for you.
If in the middle you do not grasp,
at peace you shall fare.
For one in every way rid of greed
in regard to name-and-form, brahmin,
inundations do not exist,
by which he would come under death's control.”
Notes
In the translators’ booklet this is Snp 5.12, following SuttaCentral’s numbering.