26. Nirvāna (UV-KG26)

The Bhixu who concentrates within himself all the faculties of his mind as the tortoise draws its body into its shell, attached to nothing, injuring no one, does naught to impede (the attaining of) nirvāṇa.

Patience is the greatest penance; patience, the Buddha says, is the greatest nirvāṇa: he who is a priest and who injures others, who harms others, is not a Śramana (lit. one who practises virtue).

Use no harsh words, for as one has been spoken to so will he answer; quarrelsome words bring sorrow, they receive their punishment.

He who sends forth (evil-sounding words) like a bronze vase that has been struck, will suffer for a long time, wandering about from birth to old age.

He who does not send forth (evil-sounding words) like a bronze vase that has not been struck, occasioning no quarrels, he will find nirvāṇa.

Absence of disease is the best of possessions, contentedness the best of riches, a true friend the best of friends, nirvāṇa the greatest happiness.

All compound things (sanskāra) the greatest of pains, hunger the worst of diseases; if one has found this out, he has found the highest nirvāṇa.

Let one but consider the way to attain happiness and the way to go to perdition, and when he has thus formed an idea of sin, it will not be long ere he reaches nirvāṇa.

The way to attain happiness proceeds from a cause; the way to go to perdition has its cause; the way to nirvāṇa has its cause; they all have a cause.

The deer go chiefly to the woods, the birds fly into the air; he who devotes himself to the law goes to the nirvāṇa of the Arhat.

He who strives but feebly, who has little intelligence and no learning, will not find nirvāṇa, that destruction of all bonds.

The pilot of this boat makes it light; so if you cast away hatred and passions, you will reach nirvāṇa.

If what has formerly been born is not born, there will be produced that which is not born (the elementary); that which is not born (the elementary) not producing (compound things), there is an end to production itself.

He who perceives what is difficult to see (suffering), and who heeds not uncertain happiness, who understands the truth and has knowledge, who sees the nothingness of desires (trichnā) and (worldly) joy, he who is like unto this has put an end to suffering.

Having cast off desires (trichnā), having cast away passions, (I am) like unto a dried-up lake that flows no more; he who is like unto this puts an end to suffering.

He whose sensations (vedana) have become cool, whose perceptions (sandjā) are suppressed, whose being (sanskāra) is at rest, whose consciousness (viññaṇa) has disappeared; he who is like unto this puts an end to suffering.

He who has perceived what ought to be seen, who has heard what ought to be listened to, who has understood what ought to be understood, who knows perfectly what ought to be known perfectly; he who is like this puts an end to suffering: he who only longs for the thing which ought to be longed for (i.e., to be at rest), he who is like unto this puts an end to suffering.

He who delights not in what is tangible, who is at peace, who casts off every passion; he who is like unto this puts an end to suffering.

From the source (ignorance) springs the commission (of sins); from the commission springs the binding (to their consequences); from the binding springs that which is not to be removed (transmigration); from that which is not to be removed springs going and coming; from going and coming springs suffering another death; from having to suffer another death springs another birth, and old age, disease, death, sorrow, misery, affliction, unhappiness, disagreeabilities are created; and in this manner does one bring on oneself a great amount of suffering.

There being no source (ignorance), there is no commission; there being no commission (of sins), there is no binding to (their consequences); there being no binding, there is not that which is not to be removed; there not being that which is not to be removed, there is no going and coming; there being no going and coming, there is no suffering another death; there being no suffering another death, there is not another birth, and old age, disease, death, sorrow, misery, affliction, unhappiness, disagreeabilities are stopped; and in this way one puts an end to a great amount of suffering.

Bhixus, the uncreated, the invisible, the unmade, the elementary, the unproduced, exist (as well as) the created, the visible, the made, the conceivable, the compound, the produced; and there is an uninterrupted connection between the two.

Bhixus, if the uncreated, the invisible, the unmade, the elementary, the unproduced was nonentity, I could not say that the result of their connection from cause to effect with the created, the visible, the made, the compound, the conceivable was final emancipation.

Bhixus, it is because of the real existence of the uncreated, the invisible, the elementary, the unproduced that I say that the result of their connection from cause to effect with the created, the visible, the made, the compound, the conceivable is final emancipation.

The impermanency of the created, the visible, the made, the produced, the compound, the great torment of subjection to old age, death, and ignorance, what proceeds from the cause of eating; (all this) is destroyed, and there is found no delight in it; this is the essential feature of final emancipation. Then there will be no doubts and scruples; all sources of suffering will be stopped, and one will have the happiness of the peace of the sanskāra.

Bhixus, it (nirvāṇa) is neither in earth, or in water, fire, or wind.

It (nirvāṇa) is not in a spiritual state (āyatana) in the immensity of space, nor in a spiritual state of infinite wisdom, nor in a spiritual state in the region of nothing, nor in a spiritual state in the region where there is no conception (and) where there is not no (conception); it is not in this world or in another world; it is not in either the sun or the moon: these (ideas) are not, I assert, the correct conception (of it).

Bhixus, as I say it does not exist with going and coming, it is what is not existence; as I do not say it exists where there is death, it is not to be born: this then is the end of suffering.

It (nirvāṇa) does not exist in either earth, water, fire, or wind; in it white (and the other colours) are not visible; in it there is not even darkness; in it the moon does not shine, nor does the sun send forth its rays.

He who is a Muni and a Brāhmana, and who is consequently wise, is delivered from the material (rūpa) and the immaterial (arūpa), and from all kinds of suffering.

He who has reached the end and is without fear, is without pride and without sin; having left behind the pains of existence, he has a body for the last time.

This is the chief (beatitude) of those who have reached the end, perfect and unsurpassable peace (amatam padam), the destruction of all characteristics, the perfection of perfect purity, the annihilation of death.

The Muni having cast off the sanskāra of existence (and also) like and unlike, by delighting in perfect composure he has broken the shell of the egg of existence and goes out (of the world).

The greatest of gifts is the gift of the law; the greatest of delights is delight in the law; the greatest of strengths is the strength of patience; the greatest happiness is the destruction of desire (trichnā).

Chapter on Nirvāṇa, the Twenty-sixth.

Translated by Woodville Rockhill.

1975, Udânavarga: a collection of verses from the Buddhist canon compiled by Dharmatrâta, Oriental Press, Amsterdam (reprint of original from 1883).

Translated (into Tibetan) by the Indian Pandit Vidyaprabhakara and the Lotsāva Bande-rin-tchen-mtchog; revised and arranged by the corrector, the Lotsāva Bande-dpal-brtsegs.

Original taken from University of Oslo, faculty of humanities.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Yasoj and Ayya Vimala.