“They who explained to me in the past,”
said the venerable Hemaka,
“outside of Gotama’s teaching:
‘So it was,’ ‘So will it be,’
all that is hearsay,
all that is the growing of speculation.
I did not rejoice in that.
But you, sage — declare to me the order,
the extirpation of craving,
understanding which, faring recollected,
I shall cross over entanglement in the world.”
“The dispelling of desire and passion here, Hemaka,
in regard to things that are dear —
seen, heard, thought, and cognized —
this is the state of Extinguishment, the unfalling.
Those recollected ones who have understood this,
fully extinguished in this very life,
they, ever at peace,
have gone beyond entanglement in the world.
Notes
In the translators’ booklet this is Snp 5.9, following SuttaCentral’s numbering.