Sutta-nipata - The Ultimate

The Ultimate

If you have a set view
of the best spiritual path
in the world
and go round saying,
“This is the best
and everything else
is inferior,”
you’re stuck
in discrimination.

If you see some gain
for yourself
through the senses
or the ideas you use
in rites and rituals
and grasp hold of it
right there and then
you’ll jeer at
every other way.

The wise point out
that you’re bound
if you see your way
as best
and the rest as inferior.
Anyone who wants
to understand the way things
are
doesn’t rely
on his senses or ideas
or ritual practices.

Use neither knowledge
nor rite and ceremony
to invent some view.
Don’t consider yourself
as anybody’s equal or

their better or inferior.
No comparison at all.

You’ve abandoned the self!
Are free of grasping!
Depend not even on knowledge
and follow no learned group.
You hold no view
at all!

You yearn for no extreme:
being or non-being
in this world
or the next.
You’ve investigated
everything you’ve clung to
and need not cling to anything
again.

You formulate no theories
about the experience
of your senses.
No one can define you,
wise one,
free of ideas
and opinions.

The wise have
no set views,
no opinions
or preferences,
form no theories
about truth,
can’t be led
by ceremonial.
They have truly
gone beyond,
need not come back
from the free
and further shore.

Download PDF  HERE