4:5  The Supreme Octet

When dwelling on views

as “supreme,”

a person makes them

the utmost thing in the world,

&, from that, calls

all others inferior

and so he’s not gone beyond disputes.

When he sees his own advantage

in what’s seen, heard, sensed,

or in habits & practices,

seizing it there

he sees all else, all others,

as inferior.

That, too, say the skilled,

is a binding knot: that

in dependence on which

you regard another

as inferior.

So a monk shouldn’t be dependent

on what’s seen, heard, or sensed,

or on habits & practices;

nor should he theorize a view in the world

in connection with knowledge

or habits & practices;

shouldn’t take himself

to be “equal”;

shouldn’t think himself

inferior or superlative.

Abandoning what he’d embraced,

not clinging,

he doesn’t make himself dependent

even in connection with knowledge;

doesn’t follow a faction

among those who are split;

doesn’t fall back

on any view whatsoever.

One who isn’t inclined

toward either side

—becoming or not-,

here or beyond—

who has no entrenchment

when considering what’s grasped among doctrines,

hasn’t the least

theorized perception

with regard to what’s seen, heard, or sensed.

By whom, with what,

should he be pigeonholed

here in the world?

—this brahman

who hasn’t adopted views.

They don’t theorize, don’t yearn,

don’t adhere even to doctrines.

A brahman not led

by habits or practices,

gone to the beyond

—Such—

doesn’t fall back.

vv. 796–803

See also: AN 4:199; AN 6:49