Sutta Nipata 5.5: Mettagumanavapuccha

‘I ask thee, O Bhagavat, tell me this,’—so said the venerable Mettagu,—‘I consider thee accomplished and of a cultivated mind, why are these (creatures), whatsoever they are of many kinds in the world, always subject to pain?’

‘Thou mayest well ask me concerning the origin of pain,—O Mettagu,’ so said Bhagavat,—‘I will explain that to thee in the way I myself know it: originating in the upadhis pains arise, whatsoever they are, of many kinds in the world.

‘He who being ignorant creates upadhi, that fool again undergoes pain; therefore let not the wise man create upadhi, considering (that this is) the birth and origin of pain.’

Mettagu: ‘What we have asked thee thou hast explained to us; another (question) I ask thee, answer that, pray: How do the wise cross the stream, birth and old age, and sorrow and lamentation? Explain that thoroughly to me, O Muni, for this thing (dhamma) is well known to thee.’

‘I will explain the Dhamma to thee,—O Mettagu,’ so said Bhagavat;—‘if a man in the visible world, without any traditional instruction, has understood it, and wanders about thoughtful, he may overcome desire in the world.’

Mettagu: ‘And I take a delight in that, in the most excellent Dhamma, O great Isi, which if a man has understood, and he wanders about thoughtful, he may overcome desire in the world.’

‘Whatsoever thou knowest,—O Mettagu,’ so said Bhagavat,—‘(of what is) above, below, across, and in the middle, taking no delight and no rest in these things, let thy mind not dwell on existence.

‘Living so, thoughtful, strenuous, let the Bhikkhu, wandering about, after abandoning selfishness, birth, and old age, and sorrow, and lamentation, being a wise man, leave pain in this world.’

Mettagu: ‘I delight in these words of the great Isi; well expounded, O Gotama, is (by thee) freedom from upadhi (i.e. Nibbana). Bhagavat in truth has left pain, for this Dhamma is well known to thee.

‘And those also will certainly leave pain whom thou, O Muni, constantly mayest admonish; therefore I bow down to thee, having come hither, O chief (naga), may Bhagavat also admonish me constantly.’

Buddha: ‘The Brahmana whom I may acknowledge as accomplished, possessing nothing, not cleaving to the world of lust, he surely has crossed this stream, and he has crossed over to the other shore, free from harshness (akhila), (and) free from doubt.

‘And he is a wise and accomplished man in this world; having abandoned this cleaving to reiterated existence he is without desire, free from woe, free from longing, he has crossed over birth and old age, so I say.’