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Dhammapada
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  • VII - Arahants
    • 92-93*:
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92-93*92:

Not hoarding,
having understood food,
their pasture -- emptiness
& freedom without sign:
    their trail,
like that of birds through space,
    can't be traced.
Effluents ended,
independent of nutriment,
their pasture -- emptiness
& freedom without sign:
    their trail,
like that of birds through space,
    can't be traced.

 

94-96*94:

He whose senses are steadied
    like stallions
well-trained by the charioteer,
his conceit abandoned,
    free of effluent,
    Such:
even devas adore him.

Like95 the earth, he doesn't react --
    cultured,
    Such,
like Indra's pillar,
like a lake free of mud.
For him
        -- Such --
there's no traveling on.

Calm is his mind,
calm his speech
    & his deed:
one who's released through right knowing,
    pacified,
    Such.

 



92 -93: "Having understood food... independent of nutriment": The first question in the Novice's Questions (Khp 4) is "What is one?" The answer: "All animals subsist on nutriment." The concept of food and nutriment here refers to the most basic way of understanding the causal principle that plays such a central role in the Buddha's teaching. As S.XII.64 points out, "There are these four nutriments for the establishing of beings who have taken birth or for the support of those in search of a place to be born. Which four? Physical nutriment, gross or refined; contact as the second, consciousness the third, and intellectual intention the fourth." The present verses make the point that the arahant has so fully understood the process of physical and mental causality that he/she is totally independent of it, and thus will never take birth again. Such a person cannot be comprehended by any of the forms of understanding that operate within the causal realm.



94: "Such (tadin)": an adjective used to describe one who has attained the goal of Buddhist practice, indicating that the person's state is indefinable but not subject to change or influences of any sort. "Right knowing": the knowledge of full Awakening.



95: Indra's pillar = a post set up at the gate of a city. According to DhpA, there was an ancient custom of worshipping this post with flowers and offerings, although those who wanted to show their disrespect for this custom would urinate and defecate on the post. In either case, the post did not react.





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