Itivuttaka 95
This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Monks, there are these three ways of obtaining sensual pleasures. Which three? Those whose sensual pleasures are already provided, those who delight in creating, those with control over what is created by others.1 These are the three ways of obtaining sensual pleasures.”
Devas whose pleasures are already provided,
those with control,
those who delight in creation,
and any others enjoying sensual pleasures
in this state here
or anywhere else,
don’t go beyond
the wandering-on.
Knowing this drawback
in sensual pleasures, the wise
should abandon all sensual desires,
whether human
or divine.
Having cut the flow of greed
for lovely, alluring forms
so hard to transcend,
having, without remainder,
comprehended stress,
they are, without remainder,
totally unbound.
They, the wise, with an attainer-of-wisdom’s
noble vision,
right gnosis,
directly knowing the ending of birth,
come to no further becoming.
Note
1. As the verse makes clear, these three categories denote three levels of devas in the heavens of sensual pleasure. “Those in control” are at the highest of these levels.
