THE BAHIYA SUTTA

Thus have I heard.

Once, the awakened one was staying near a great city, in a grove kept for shelter.

At that time, in a town by the sea far away, there lived a man who wore rough bark for clothing. The people honored him, gave him gifts, and held him high, and he had come to believe of himself that he was one who had arrived, or at least well on the way.

A spirit who in a former life had been of his own blood saw the thought in his mind, and out of care for him spoke: “You are not one who has arrived. You are not even on the way. You do not have the practice by which a person arrives.”

The man was shaken. “Then who, in all the world, is one who has arrived?”

The spirit said, “Far to the north, in a great city, there lives the awakened one, who has truly arrived. He teaches the way to arrive.”

Stirred to his depths, the man left that very moment. He crossed the whole long distance without resting, and came at last to the grove. There he found some of the awakened one’s followers walking in the open air, and he asked them where the awakened one was. They told him: he has gone into the city to beg for food.

The man turned and hurried into the great city. There he saw the awakened one going from door to door for his meal, calm and collected, a sight of great peace. He ran to him, threw himself down with his head at the awakened one’s feet, and said, “Teach me the truth, awakened one. Teach me for my lasting good, for my happiness.”

The awakened one said, “This is not the time. We are begging for food.”

A second time the man asked, “Teach me the truth.” And a second time the awakened one said, “This is not the time.”

A third time the man pleaded, “But I do not know how long you will live, or how long I will live. Teach me now.”

Then the awakened one said, “Then, this is how you must train yourself.

In the seen, let there be only the seen. In the heard, only the heard. In the sensed, only the sensed. In what is known, only the known. That is how you must train.

When for you there is only the seen in the seen, only the heard in the heard, only the sensed in the sensed, only the known in the known, then there is no you to be found in it. And when there is no you in it, there is no you anywhere, not here, not there, not between the two.

This, just this, is the end of suffering.”

Hearing these few words, the man’s mind, then and there, let go of everything and was free.

The awakened one went on his way. Not long after, as the man walked through the city, a cow with a young calf charged him, and he died.

Later, when the awakened one had finished begging and was leaving the city with his followers, he came upon the man’s body lying in the road. He said, “Take up his body. Carry it away, burn it, and raise a marker over it. One who lived the holy life beside you has died.”

They did as he asked. Then they returned and asked him, “Awakened one, where has he gone? What has become of him?”

The awakened one said, “He was wise. He lived the truth as the truth should be lived. He did not trouble me with endless questions. He has passed into final peace, beyond all suffering.”

Then, seeing into this, the awakened one spoke:

“Where water, earth, fire, and wind find no place to stand, there no star shines, the sun gives no light, the moon does not gleam, and yet no darkness is found. When one who is wise, awakened, has known this within himself, then from form and from the formless, from pleasure and from pain, he is free.”