Thag 16.1 PTS: Thag 705-725- Adhimutta: Adhimutta and the Bandits

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Thag 16.1 PTS: Thag 705-725- Adhimutta: Adhimutta and the Bandits
(The bandit chief:) Those who for the sake of sacrifice for the sake of wealth we have killed in the past, against their will have trembled & babbled from fear. But you — you show no fear; your complexion brightens. Why don't you lament in the face of what's greatly to be feared

(Ven. Adhimutta:) There are no painful mental states, chieftain, in one without longing. <p style="text-align:center;">In one whose fetters are ended, <p style="text-align:center;">all fears are overcome. <p style="text-align:center;">With the ending of (craving) <p style="text-align:center;">the guide to becoming, <p style="text-align:center;">when phenomena are seen <p style="text-align:center;">for what they are, <p style="text-align:center;">then just as in the laying down of a burden, <p style="text-align:center;">there's no fear in death.

<p style="text-align:center;">I've lived well the holy life, <p style="text-align:center;">well-developed the path. <p style="text-align:center;">Death holds no fear for me. <p style="text-align:center;">It's like the end of a disease.

<p style="text-align:center;">I've lived well the holy life, <p style="text-align:center;">well-developed the path, <p style="text-align:center;">seen states of becoming <p style="text-align:center;">as devoid of allure, <p style="text-align:center;">like poison spit out <p style="text-align:center;">after it's drunk.

<p style="text-align:center;">One gone to the far shore <p style="text-align:center;">without clinging <p style="text-align:center;">without effluent <p style="text-align:center;">his task completed, <p style="text-align:center;">welcomes the ending of life, <p style="text-align:center;">as if freed from a place of execution. <p style="text-align:center;">Having attained the supreme Rightness, <p style="text-align:center;">unconcerned with all the world, <p style="text-align:center;">as if released from a burning house, <p style="text-align:center;">he doesn't sorrow at death.

<p style="text-align:center;">Whatever's compounded, <p style="text-align:center;">wherever a state of becoming's obtained, <p style="text-align:center;">all that has no one in charge: <p style="text-align:center;">so says the Great Seer. <p style="text-align:center;">Whoever discerns this, <p style="text-align:center;">as taught by the Awakened One, <p style="text-align:center;">would no more grasp hold of any state of becoming <p style="text-align:center;">than he would a hot iron ball. <p style="text-align:center;">I have no 'I was,' <p style="text-align:center;">no 'I will be.' <p style="text-align:center;">Fabrications will simply go out of existence. <p style="text-align:center;">What's to lament there in that? <p style="text-align:center;">For one who sees, as it actually is, <p style="text-align:center;">the pure arising of phenomena, <p style="text-align:center;">the pure seriality of fabrications, <p style="text-align:center;">there's no fear. <p style="text-align:center;">When seeing the world with discernment <p style="text-align:center;">as on a par with grass & twigs, <p style="text-align:center;">finding no 'mine-ness,' <p style="text-align:center;">thinking, 'There's nothing of mine,' <p style="text-align:center;">he feels no sorrow. <p style="text-align:center;">Dissatisfied with this carcass, <p style="text-align:center;">I'm unconcerned with becoming. <p style="text-align:center;">This body will break up <p style="text-align:center;">and there will not be another. <p style="text-align:center;">Do as you like with this carcass. <p style="text-align:center;">From that I will feel <p style="text-align:center;">neither hatred nor love. <p style="text-align:center;">Hearing these awesome, hair-raising words, the young men threw down their weapons & said:

<p style="text-align:center;">What have you done, sir, <p style="text-align:center;">or who have you taken as mentor? <p style="text-align:center;">Because of whose teachings <p style="text-align:center;">is this lack of sorrow acquired?

<p style="text-align:center;">(Ven. Adhimutta:) <p style="text-align:center;">The all-knowing, <p style="text-align:center;">all-seeing conqueror: <p style="text-align:center;">He is my mentor. <p style="text-align:center;">Greatly compassionate teacher, <p style="text-align:center;">all the world's healer, <p style="text-align:center;">this doctrine is his, <p style="text-align:center;">unexcelled, leading to ending. <p style="text-align:center;">Because of his teachings <p style="text-align:center;">is this lack of sorrow acquired.

<p style="text-align:center;">The bandits, hearing the good words of the seer, <p style="text-align:center;">threw down their swords & their weapons. <p style="text-align:center;">Some relinquished their life of crime, <p style="text-align:center;">some chose the Going Forth. <p style="text-align:center;">Having gone forth in the teachings <p style="text-align:center;">of the one well-gone, <p style="text-align:center;">developing the powers & factors for Awakening, <p style="text-align:center;">wise, happy, <p style="text-align:center;">exultant in mind, <p style="text-align:center;">their faculties ripened, <p style="text-align:center;">they touched uncompounded Unbinding.