[This is just a few verses from a much longer sutta. The conversation takes place between the yakkha Hemavata and the Buddha.]
“What has the world arisen in?” said Hemavata,
What does it get close to?
By grasping what
is the world troubled in what?”
“The world’s arisen in six,” said the Buddha to Hemavata.
“It gets close to six.
By grasping at these six,
the world’s troubled in six.”
“What is that grasping
by which the world is troubled?
Tell us the exit when asked:
how is one released from all suffering?”
“The world has five kinds of sensual stimulation,
and the mind is said to be the sixth.
When you’ve discarded desire for these,
you’re released from all suffering.
This is the exit from the world,
explained in accord with the truth.
The way I’ve explained it is how
you’re released from all suffering.”
“Who here crosses the flood,
Who crosses the deluge?
Who, not standing and unsupported,
does not sink in the deep?”
“Someone who is always endowed with ethics,
wise and serene,
inwardly reflective, mindful,
crosses the flood so hard to cross.
Someone who desists from sensual perception,
who has escaped all fetters,
and is finished with relishing of rebirth,
does not sink in the deep.”
Read the entire translation of Snp 1.9 Hemavatasutta: With Hemavata by Bhikkhu Sujato on SuttaCentral.net.
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