5:11 Jatukaṇṇin’s Question
Hearing, hero,
of one with no desire for sensuality,
I’ve come to ask
the one gone beyond the flood,
sensuality-free:
Tell me the state of peace,
Blessed One, Simultaneous Eye.1
Tell me
as it actually is.
For the Blessed One lives
having conquered sensuality,
as the radiant sun, in its radiance,
the earth.
Limited my discernment,
O Deeply Discerning.
Teach me to know the Dhamma,
the abandoning here
of birth
& aging.
The Buddha:
Subdue greed for sensuality,
& see renunciation as rest.
Let there be nothing grasped
or rejected by you.
Burn up what’s before,
and have nothing for after.
If you don’t grasp
at what’s in between,2
you will go about, calm.
One completely devoid of greed
for name-&-form, brahman,
has
no effluents
by which he would go
under Māra’s sway.
vv. 1096–1100
Notes
1. According to Nd II, the Buddha is called the Simultaneous Eye because the Eye of his omniscience arose simultaneously with his awakening to Buddhahood. It’s hardly likely, though, that Jatukaṇṇin would have this idea in mind when speaking to the Buddha for the first time. More likely, he might be alluding to the idea that the Buddha is able to see things, and to understand them for what they are, the moment they arise.
2. According to Nd II, ‘before’ stands for defilements related to the past, ‘after’ for defilements related to the future, and ‘in between’ for the five aggregates—form, feeling, perception, thought-fabrications, sensory consciousness—in the present.
