Before the Breakup
“How does he see, how does he behave,
the one who is said to be ‘peaceful’?
When asked by me, O Gotama,
describe the supreme person.”
“Devoid of craving before the breakup,”
(said the Blessed One),
“not dependent on the past,
not to be reckoned in the middle,
for him there are no preferences.
“He is without anger, unafraid,
not boastful, not regretful,
of speaking with reflection, not restless:
he is truly a muni controlled in speech.
“He is without attachment to the future;
he does not sorrow over the past.
As a seer of seclusion in the midst of contacts,
he is not led astray among views.
“Withdrawn, not a schemer,
without longing, not miserly,
courteous, not [morally] repulsive,
not intent on slander.
“Not swept up by enjoyments,
and not swollen with arrogance;
gentle, gifted with ingenuity,
not credulous, not growing dispassionate.
“He does not train from a desire for gain,
nor is he irritated over lack of gain.
Not hostile, because of craving
he does not hanker after tastes.
“Equanimous, ever mindful,
in the world he does not conceive himself
to be equal, or superior, or inferior:
for him there are no swellings.
“He has no dependencies—
having known the Dhamma, he is independent.
No craving is found in him
for existence or nonexistence.
“I call him ‘peaceful’
who is indifferent to sensual pleasures.
In him no knots are found;
he has crossed over attachment.
“He has no sons or cattle,
nor does he possess fields or land. [168]
In him there is nothing to be found
as either taken up or rejected.
“That by which they might speak of him—
worldlings as well as ascetics and brahmins—
is not esteemed by him;
therefore he is not stirred up by words.
“Devoid of greed, without miserliness,
the muni does not speak [of himself]
as among superiors, or equals, or inferiors.
Not given to mental construction,
he does not enter upon mental constructs.
“One who takes nothing in the world as his own,
and who does not sorrow over what is absent,
who does not enter upon things:
he is truly said to be ‘peaceful.’”