45.34. Going Beyond (SN45.34)

At Savatthī. “Bhikkhus, these eight things, when developed and cultivated, lead to going beyond from the near shore to the far shore. What eight? Right view … right concentration. These eight things, when developed and cultivated, lead to going beyond from the near shore to the far shore.”

This is what the Blessed One said. Having said this, the Fortunate One, the Teacher, further said this:

“Few are those among humankind
Who go beyond to the far shore.
The rest of the people merely run
Up and down along the bank.

“When the Dhamma is rightly expounded
Those who practise in accord with the Dhamma
Are the people who will go beyond
The realm of Death so hard to cross.

“Having left behind the dark qualities,
The wise man should develop the bright ones.
Having come from home into homelessness,
Where it is hard to take delight—

“There in seclusion he should seek delight,
Having left behind sensual pleasures.
Owning nothing, the wise man
Should cleanse himself of mental defilements.

“Those whose minds are well developed
In the factors of enlightenment,
Who through nonclinging find delight
In the relinquishment of grasping:
Those luminous ones with taints destroyed
Are fully quenched in the world.”

© Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2000)

This excerpt from The Connected Discourses of the Buddha by Bhikkhu Bodhi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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