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Buddhism

Iti 55 · uttaka 55

Thai temple painting: Prince Vessantara gives away the white elephant
Vessantara Jātaka, Chapter 2 (Himavanta Forest) · Thai, Rattanakosin, c. 1850–1870 · Walters Art Museum

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Monks, there are these three searches. Which three? The search for sensuality, the search for becoming, the search for a holy life. These are the three searches.”

Sensuality-search, becoming-search,

together with the holy-life search–

i.e., grasping at ‘such is the truth’

based on an accumulation

of viewpoints:

through the relinquishing of searches

& the abolishing of viewpoints

of one dispassionate to

all passion,

and released in the ending

of craving,

through the ending of searches, the monk

is without perplexity, free

of longing.


Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 licence, for free distribution only. Source: dhammatalks.org (Metta Forest Monastery).

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