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### Sutta Nipata IV.10

# Purabheda Sutta

# Before the Break-up of the Body

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

> "Seeing how,
> behaving how,
> is one said to be
> at peace?
> Gotama, tell me about
> -- when asked about --
> the ultimate person."

The Buddha:

> "Free from craving
> before the break-up
> [of the body],
> independent
> of before
> & the end,[1]
> not classified in between,[2]
> no yearning is his.

> Un- angered,
> un- startled,
> un- boastful,
> un- anxious,
> giving counsel unruffled,
> he is a sage,
> his speech
> under control.

> Free from attachment
> with regard to the future,
> not sorrowing
> over the past,
> he sees seclusion
> in the midst of sensory contacts.[3]
> He can't be led
> in terms of views.[4]

> Withdrawn, un-
> deceitful, not
> stingy, not
> miserly, not
> insolent, in-
> offensive,
> he doesn't engage in
> divisive speech.

> Not intoxicated with alluring things,
> nor given to pride,
> he's gentle, quick-witted,
> beyond conviction & dispassion.[5]

> Not in hopes of material gain
> does he take on the training;
> when without material gain
> he isn't upset.

> Unobstructed by craving,
> he doesn't through craving[6]
> hunger for flavors.

> Equanimous -- always -- mindful,
> he doesn't conceive himself as
> equal,
> superior,
> inferior,
> in the world.
> No swellings of pride
> are his.

> Whose dependencies
> don't exist
> when, on knowing the Dhamma,
> he's in-
> dependent;
> in whom no craving is found
> for becoming or not-:
> he is said
> to be at peace,
> un-intent
> on sensual pleasures,
> with nothing at all
> to tie him down:
> one who's crossed over attachment.

> He has no children
> cattle,
> fields,
> land.
> In him you can't pin down
> what's embraced
> or rejected,
> what's self
> or opposed to self.[7]
> He has no yearning
> for that which people run-of-the-mill
> or priests & contemplatives
> might blame --
> which is why
> he is unperturbed
> with regard to their words.

> His greed gone,
> not miserly,
> the sage
> doesn't speak of himself
> as among those who are higher,
> equal,
> or lower.
> He,
> conjuring-free,
> doesn't submit
> to conjuring,
> to the cycling of time.[8]

> For whom
> nothing in the world
> is his own,
> who doesn't grieve
> over what is not,
> who doesn't enter into
> doctrines
> phenomena:[9]
> he is said
> to be
> at peace."

### Notes

1. Nd.I: "Independent of before & the end" = no craving or view with regard to past or future. [Go back]

2. For discussions of how the awakened one cannot be classified even in the present, see MN 72 and SN XXII.85-86. [Go back]

3. Nd.I: "He sees seclusion in the midst of sensory contacts" = he sees contact as empty of self. This passage may also refer to the fact that the awakened person experiences sensory contact as if disjoined from it. On this point, see MN 140 and MN 146, quoted in The Mind Like Fire Unbound, pp. 116 and 113. [Go back]

4. See AN X.93. [Go back]

5. Beyond conviction & dispassion -- The Pali here can also mean, "A person of no conviction, he does not put away passion." This is an example of the kind of pun occasionally used in Pali poetry for its shock value. Other examples are at Dhp 97 and the end of Sn IV.13. For an explanation of what is meant by being beyond dispassion, see note 2 to Sn IV.6. [Go back]

6. The Pali word tanhaya -- by/through craving -- here is a "lamp," i.e., a single word that functions in two separate phrases. [Go back]

7. "Embraced/rejected, what's self/what lies against self" -- a pun on the pair of Pali words, attam/nirattam. [Go back]

8. "Conjuring, the cycling of time" -- two meanings of the Pali word, kappam. [Go back]

9. "Doctrines, phenomena" -- two meanings of the Pali word, dhamma. [Go back]

Revised: Tue 16 April 2002