Itivuttaka 53

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Monks, there are these three feelings. Which three? A feeling of pleasure, a feeling of pain, a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain. A feeling of pleasure should be seen as stressful. A feeling of pain should be seen as an arrow. A feeling of neither pleasure nor pain should be seen as inconstant. When a monk has seen a feeling of pleasure as stressful, a feeling of pain as an arrow, and a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain as inconstant, then he is called a monk who is noble, who has seen rightly, who has cut off craving, destroyed the fetters, and who–from the right breaking-through of conceit–has put an end to suffering & stress.”

Whoever sees

pleasure as stress,

sees pain as an arrow,

sees peaceful neither pleasure nor pain

as inconstant:

he is a monk

who’s seen rightly.

From that he is there released.

A master of direct knowing,

at peace,

he is a sage

gone beyond bonds.

See also: MN 44; SN 36:4; SN 36:6