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### Sutta Nipata V.5

# Dhotaka-manava-puccha

# Dhotaka's Questions

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

Dhotaka:

> I ask you, O Blessed One.
> Please tell me.
> I hope for your words, Great Seer.
> Having heard your pronouncement,
> I'll train for my own
> Unbinding.

The Buddha:

> In that case,
> be ardent --
> astute & mindful right here.
> Then, having heard my pronouncement,
> train for your own
> Unbinding.

Dhotaka:

> I see in the world of beings
> divine & human,
> a brahman who lives
> possessing nothing.
> I pay homage to him
> the All-around Eye.
> From my doubts, O Sakyan, release me!

The Buddha:

> No one in the world, Dhotaka,
> can I release from doubting.
> But knowing the most excellent Dhamma,
> you will cross over the flood.

Dhotaka:

> Teach with compassion, O brahman,
> the Dhamma of seclusion
> so that I may know --
> so that I, unafflicted as space,
> may live right here,
> independent,
> at peace.

The Buddha:

> I will teach you peace
> -- in the here & now,
> not quoted words --
> knowing which, living mindfully,
> you'll go beyond
> entanglement in the world.

Dhotaka:

> And I relish, Great Seer,
> that peace supreme,
> knowing which, living mindfully,
> I'll go beyond
> entanglement in the world.

The Buddha:

> Whatever you're alert to,
> above, below,
> across, in between:
> knowing it as a bond in the world,
> don't create craving
> for becoming or non-.

### Note

Craving for becoming and non-becoming (or dis-becoming) are the two most subtle forms of craving that lead to continued existence -- and suffering -- in the round of birth & death.

Revised: Wed 16 May 2001