Iti 72 · uttaka 72
This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Monks, there are these three properties for escape. Which three? This is the escape from sensuality: renunciation.1 This is the escape from form: formlessness. And as for whatever has come into being, is fabricated & dependently co-arisen, the escape from that is cessation. These are the three properties for escape.”
Knowing the escape from sensuality,
& the overcoming of forms
–ardent
always–
touching the stilling
of all fabrications:
he is a monk
who’s seen rightly.
From that he is there released.
A master of direct knowing,
at peace,
he is a sage
gone beyond bonds.
Note
1. Renunciation here means the first level of jhāna, which is attained when one is secluded from sensual passion and unskillful mental qualities. On formlessness and cessation, see the note to §51. See also AN 5:200.
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).
