SN 1:25 · An Arahant (Arahanta Sutta)
“An arahant monk,
one who is done,
effluent-free, bearing his last body:
Would he say, ‘I speak’?
Would he say, ‘They speak to me’?”
“An arahant monk,
one who is done,
effluent-free, bearing his last body:
He would say, ‘I speak’;
would say, ‘They speak to me.’
Skillful,
knowing harmonious gnosis
with regard to the world,
he uses expressions
just as expressions.”
“An arahant monk,
one who is done,
effluent-free, bearing his last body:
Is it from conceit
that he’d say, ‘ I speak’?—
that he’d say, ‘They speak to me’?”1
“For one whose conceit is abandoned,
whose knot of conceit is dispersed,
no knots exist
at all.
He, beyond any concept, wise,
would say, ‘I speak’;
would say, ‘They speak to me.’
Skillful,
knowing harmonious gnosis
with regard to the world,
he uses expressions
just as expressions.”
Note
1. This question confuses the conceit, “I am” (asmimāna) with the simple concept, “I.” The former is a fetter, in that it involves one in a tangle of views as to what the “I” is, and what it means to be. (See MN 2.) The latter, as this verse shows, is simply a conventional expression, and if it can be separated from the conceit “I am,” it need not fetter the mind.
See also: DN 9; MN 102; AN 4:159; AN 4:200; AN 6:13; AN 9:1; AN 10:13
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).
