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Sutta Nipata V.15

Mogharaja-manava-puccha

Mogharaja's Question

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

Read an alternate translation by John D. Ireland


Mogharaja:
Twice now, O Sakyan,
    I've asked you,
but you, One with vision,
    haven't answered me.
When asked the third time
the celestial seer answers:
    so I have heard.
This world, the next world,
the Brahma world with its devas:
    I don't know how they're viewed
    by the glorious Gotama.
So to the one who has seen
to the far extreme,
I've come with a question:
    How does one view the world
    so as not to be seen
        by Death's king?
The Buddha:
View the world, Mogharaja,
        as empty --
always mindful
to have removed any view
        about self.

This way one is above & beyond death.
    This is how one views the world
    so as not to be seen
        by Death's king.


Note

On viewing the world as void, see S.XXXV.85.


Revised: Saturday 2005.01.29
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/khuddaka/suttanipata/snp5-15.html