2:13  Right Wandering

“I ask the sage of abundant discernment,

crossed over to the far shore,

totally unbound, steadfast in mind:

Leaving home, rejecting sensuality,

how does one wander rightly in the world?”1

The Buddha:

“Whoever’s omens are uprooted,

as are meteors, dreams, & marks,2

whose fault of omens is completely abandoned:

He would wander rightly in the world.

A monk should subdue passion

for sensualities human

& even divine.

Having gone past becoming,

and met with the Dhamma,

he would wander rightly in the world.

Putting behind him

divisive tale-bearing,

a monk should abandon anger & meanness.

With favoring & opposing

totally abandoned,

he would wander rightly in the world.

Having abandoned dear & undear,

independent—through no-clinging—of anything at all,

fully released from fetters,

he would wander rightly in the world.

He finds no essence in acquisitions,

having subdued passion-desire for graspings,

independent is he, by others unled:

He would wander rightly in the world.

Having rightly found the Dhamma,

he is unobstructed in speech, mind, & act.

Aspiring to unbinding,

he would wander rightly in the world.

A monk who’d not gloat, “He venerates me,”

or brood when insulted,

or be elated on receiving food from another:

He would wander rightly in the world.

Fully abandoning greed & becoming,

abstaining from cutting & binding (other beings),

he, having crossed over doubt, de-arrowed,

he would wander rightly in the world.

Having found what’s appropriate for himself,

the monk wouldn’t harm anyone in the world,

Having found the Dhamma as it actually is,

he would wander rightly in the world.

In whom there are no obsessions,

his unskillful roots uprooted,

with no longing, no

expectations:

He would wander rightly in the world.

His effluents ended, conceit abandoned,

beyond reach of every road to passion,

tamed, totally unbound, steadfast in mind:

He would wander rightly in the world.

Convinced, learned, having seen certainty,

not following factions among those who are factious,

enlightened; his greed, aversion, & irritation subdued:

He would wander rightly in the world.

Victorious, pure, his roof opened up,3

a master of dhammas, gone beyond

& unperturbed,

skilled in the knowledge of fabrication-cessation:

He would wander rightly in the world.

Gone beyond speculations

about futures & pasts,

and—having passed by—

purified in his discernment,

fully released from all sense-media4:

He would wander rightly in the world.

Knowing          the state,

meeting          the Dhamma,

seeing          the opened-up

when his effluents

are abandoned

from the ending

of all acquisitions:

He would wander rightly in the world.”

“Yes, Blessed One, that’s just how it is.

Any monk dwelling thus,

tamed, gone totally beyond

all things

conducive for fetters5:

He would wander rightly in the world.”

vv. 359–375

Notes

1. SnA maintains that this sutta took place on the same day as the Mahāsamaya Sutta (The Great Meeting, DN 20).

2. DN 2 lists various forms of fortune telling dealing with omens, meteors, dreams, and marks as types of wrong livelihood for a monk.

3. See Ud 5:5 and Thag 6:13:

Rain soddens what’s covered

& doesn’t sodden what’s open.

So open up what’s covered up,

so that it won’t get soddened by the rain.

4. See SN 35:117 and AN 4:173.

5. Reading sabba-saṁyojaniye vītivatto with the Thai edition. The Burmese edition reads sabba-saṁyojanayoga vīticatto, “totally released from all yoking to fetters.”