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### Sutta Nipata IV.5

# Paramatthaka Sutta

# Supreme

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

Read an alternate translation by John D. Ireland

> When dwelling on views
> as "supreme,"
> a person makes them
> the utmost thing
> in the world,
> &, from that, calls
> all others inferior
> and so he's not free
> from disputes.
> When he sees his advantage
> in what's seen, heard, sensed,
> or in precepts & practices,
> seizing it there
> he sees all else
> as inferior.

> That, too, say the skilled,
> is a binding knot: that
> in dependence on which
> you regard another
> as inferior.
> So a monk shouldn't be dependent
> on what's seen, heard, or sensed,
> or on precepts & practices;
> nor should he conjure a view in the world
> in connection with knowledge
> or precepts & practices;
> shouldn't take himself
> to be "equal";
> shouldn't think himself
> inferior or superlative.

> Abandoning what he had embraced,
> abandoning self,[1]
> not clinging,
> he doesn't make himself dependent
> even in connection with knowledge;
> doesn't follow a faction
> among those who are split;
> doesn't fall back
> on any view whatsoever.

> One who isn't inclined
> toward either side
> -- becoming or not-,
> here or beyond --
> who has no entrenchment
> when considering what's grasped among doctrines,
> hasn't the least
> preconceived perception
> with regard to what's seen, heard, or sensed.
> By whom, with what,
> should he be pigeonholed
> here in the world?
> -- this brahman
> who hasn't adopted views.

> They don't conjure, don't yearn,
> don't adhere even to doctrines.

> A brahman not led
> by precepts or practices,
> gone to the beyond
> -- Such --
> doesn't fall back.

### Note

1. Self... what he had embraced: two meanings of the Pali word, attam. [Go back]

See also: MN 72; AN X.93

Revised: Mon 10 September 2001