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"To set a-roll'n the Dhamma Wheel
I get me off to Kasi town
beating the drum of deathlessness
in a world gone blind."
A Roll'n a-tha Dhamma Wheel
I HEAR TELL:
Once upon a time, Bhagava, Baranasi-town, Deer Park, Isipatana came a revisiting.
There to The Group of Five Beggars he says this:
Two, me bhikkhus, are ends
not to be gone after
by one embarking on the seeker's life.
What two?
At the one end:
whatever is desire,
is yoked to desire for the sweet-life,
inferior, peasant-like,
of the common man,
not aristocratic,
destitute of character;
And at the other end:
whatever is yoked to causing self-torment,
is painful,
not aristocratic,
destitute of character.
It is by not attacking either end, beggars,
that the Tathagata woke up
to a way to go down the middle;
eye-opening,
instructive,
smoothing the way to higher knowledge,
self-awakening,
Nibbana.
§
And what, beggars,
is that way to go down the middle
awakened to by the Tathagata;
eye-opening,
instructive,
smoothing the way to higher knowledge,
self-awakening,
Nibbana?
It is this aristocratic multi-dimensional high way:
high view,
high principles,
high works,
high lifestyle,
high reign,
high mindedness, and
high get'n high.
This, beggars,
is that way to go down the middle
awakened to by the Tathagata;
eye-opening,
instructive,
smoothing the way to higher knowledge,
self-awakening,
Nibbana.
§
Here then, beggars,
this is the aristocrat of truths
with regard to pain:
birth is pain,
aging is pain,
sickness is pain,
death is pain;
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery,
and despair are pain;
being yoked to the unloved is pain,
being separated from the loved is pain
Not getting the desirable, that too is pain.
To be concise:
the five shitpiles binding up individuality are pain.
§
This, beggars, is the aristocrat of truths
with regard to the origin of pain:
it is in whatever thirst results in living;
delight;
lust for getting;
seeking delight now here now there;
it is just as well to say it is:
thirst for pleasures,
thirst for living,
thirst for escape.
§
This, beggars,
is the aristocrat of truths
with regard to the end of pain:
it is in the passing out,
the rejection,
the doing away with,
the ending with nothing remaining
of that lust.
§
This, beggars,
is the aristocrat of truths
with regard to the way
to get to the end of pain:
it is this aristocratic eight-dimensional high way:
high view,
high principles,
high works,
high lifestyle,
high reign,
high mindedness, and
high get'n high.
§
Beggars, this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to pain'
opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
When, Beggars, it occured to me
that this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to pain'
must be thoroughly and precisely understood,
it opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
When, Beggars, it occured to me
that this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to pain'
was thoroughly and precisely understood,
it opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
§
Beggars, this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the origin of pain'
opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
When, Beggars, it occured to me
that this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the origin of pain'
must be thoroughly and precisely understood,
it opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
When, Beggars, it occured to me
that this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the origin of pain'
was thoroughly and precisely understood,
it opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
§
Beggars, this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the end of pain'
opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
When, Beggars, it occured to me
that this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the end of pain'
must be thoroughly and precisely understood,
it opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
When, Beggars, it occured to me
that this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the end of pain'
was thoroughly and precisely understood,
it opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
§
Beggars, this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the way to get to the end of pain'
opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
When, Beggars, it occured to me
that this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the way to get to the end of pain'
must be thoroughly and precisely understood,
it opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
When, Beggars, it occured to me
that this previously unheard teaching
of 'the aristocrat of truths with regard to the way to get to the end of pain'
was thoroughly and precisely understood,
it opened my eyes and knowledge sprang up,
wisdom sprang up,
vision sprang up,
the light sprang up.
§
For just so long, me Beggars,
as I did not clearly know and see
this thrice-rolled
two-and-ten-part
four-quartered
aristocrat of truths,
neither, bhikkhus, did I declare
in this world
or it's heavens
with it's Maras,
with it's Brahmas,
with it's Shamen and Brhamen,
with it's gods and men
the highest self-awakening
of the HighestSelfAwakenedOne.
But, me Beggars,
just as soon as I did clearly know and see
this thrice-rolled
two-and-ten-part
four-quartered
aristocrat of truths,
I did declare
in this world
and it's heavens
with it's Maras,
with it's Brahmas,
with it's Shamen and Brahmen,
with it's gods and men
the highest self-awakening
of the HighestSelfAwakenedOne;
Knowledge had arisen in me,
sight had sprung up:
"Unshakable is the release of my heart!"
"This is the end of rebirth!"
"Further living has been cut off!"
§
That's what the Bhagava said.
And uplifted in mind by the Bhagava's words
the Group of Five Bhikkhus
were greatly delighted
and it happened during this exposition
that in the Ancient, Kondañña,
there sprang up
the untarnished,
unmuddied
dhamma eye that sees:
"Whatever thing has a beginning,
that also is a thing that ends."
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