26.1
Exert strong effort, brahmin.
Cut entirely the stream.
Abandon all sense desires.
Witnessing the dissolution of Creation,
perceive the uncreated.
26.2
When the brahmin has crossed over
with both tranquility and insight,
then, for that one, all bonds are broken.
26.3
One for whom there is neither here nor beyond
nor both, who is free of distress, untethered,
I call a "brahmin."
26.4
One who is aware, mindful, untouched by desire,
one whose work is ended, who is free of impurities,
who has realized the supreme state –
such a one is a brahmin.
26.5
The sun shines by day.
The moon lights the night.
The warrior is bright in armor.
The brahmin glows in meditation.
Day and night, the Awakened One
is ablaze in splendor.
26.6
One in whom ignorance has been dispelled
is a brahmin.
One who lives in simple peace is an ascetic.
One who has left behind impure habits
is said to have "gone forth."
26.7
One should never strike a brahmin,
nor should a brahmin, if struck, return anger.
Shame on one who strikes a brahmin.
Greater shame on one who returns anger.
26.8
The brahmin likes nothing better
than restraining the mind from the pleasant.
When harmful thoughts are abandoned,
suffering ends.
26.9
One who does no harm
with body, speech, or mind,
and who in all three areas is restrained,
I call a brahmin.
26.10
As the brahmin pays homage to the sacred fire,
so should homage be paid to one who teaches
the Dhamma of the Awakened One.
26.11
Not by matted hair, or ancestry, or fortunate birth
does one come to be a brahmin.
One who realizes the Truth of Dhamma
is the pure one. He is a brahmin.
26.12
You fool! What does it matter if your hair is matted?
What does it matter if you wear antelope robes?
The jungle of defilements is within you,
yet you tend the outside!
26.13
I call him brahmin who,
clothed in rags, lean in body,
sits alone in the forest, absorbed in Awareness,
veins showing.
26.14
I do not call one a brahmin
because he was born to a brahmin family,
sprung from a brahmin womb.
He may be just a proud fool with possessions.
I call him a brahmin
who is bereft of possessions and attached to nothing.
26.15
I call him a brahmin
who has cut himself free from bondage
and does not tremble,
who has unburdened himself of attachments.
26.16
I call him a brahmin
who has cut the strap of hate and thong of greed,
who has severed the cord of delusion
and bridle of bias, who has lifted the bar of ignorance
and realized Truth.
26.17
I call him a brahmin
who endures without anger,
abuse, torture, imprisonment,
whose forbearance is as strong as an army.
26.18
I call him a brahmin
who is without anger and devoted to practice,
who is virtuous, restrained, free of craving,
who is a bearer of the final body.
26.19
I call him a brahmin
who, like a raindrop on a lotus leaf,
like a mustard seed on the point of an awl,
does not cling to sensual pleasure.
26.20
I call him a brahmin
who even in this life has ceased to suffer,
who has laid down the burden,
who is freed from bondage.
26.21
I call him a brahmin
who is possessed of wisdom and clarity,
who sees the Way and the not-Way,
who has realized the supreme state.
26.22
I call him a brahmin
who associates with neither householders
nor renunciants, who lives without shelter,
indifferent, desiring nothing.
26.23
I call him a brahmin
who has laid down his rod and renounced violence,
who is harmless to beings, both animal and rooted,
who neither kills nor causes others to kill.
26.24
I call him a brahmin
who is harmonious among the hostile,
serene among the violent,
detached among the clinging.
26.25
I call him a brahmin
from whom desire, hatred, pride, and hypocrisy
have fallen away,
like a mustard seed from the point of an awl.
26.26
I call him a brahmin
who speaks only what is instructive, useful, and true,
who offers offense to no one.
26.27
I call him a brahmin
who in this world takes nothing that is not given,
whether long or short, small or great,
pleasant or unpleasant.
26.28
I call him a brahmin
who has no yearnings for this world or another,
who is untethered, aloof, indifferent.
26.29
I call him a brahmin
who is attached to nothing,
whose clarity has dispelled all doubt,
who has realized deathlessness.
26.30
I call him a brahmin
who is beyond good and evil,
who is free of sorrow,
immaculate, pure.
26.31
I call him a brahmin
who is clear and pure as the moon, serene, tranquil,
who is no longer delighted by existence.
26.32
I call him a brahmin
who has passed through this quagmire of existence
and gone beyond the swirl of illusion,
who abides in Awareness, free of craving and doubt,
who has crossed the torrential river
and rests on the far shore.
26.33
I call him a brahmin
who wanders homeless,
sense desires extinguished,
whose desire for sensory existence is exhausted.
26.34
I call him a brahmin
who wanders homeless,
feverish cravings extinguished,
whose craving for conditioned existence is extinct.
26.35
I call him a brahmin
who is free of all bondage,
who has abandoned the bondage of birth
and transcended the bondage of heaven.
26.36
I call him a brahmin
who is free of preferences and aversions,
who is cool and indifferent to Creation –
a hero who conquers every world.
26.37
I call him a brahmin
who sees clearly the arising and passing away,
who is unattached, well-gone, Awakened.
26.38
I call him a brahmin
whose destiny is unknown to mortals,
guardians, or gods,
who is pure and immaculate – an arahant.
26.39
I call him a brahmin
for whom there is no future, no past,
no moment in between,
who has nothing, wants nothing.
26.40
I call him a brahmin
who is a powerful bull – splendid, heroic –
who is a great sage, a victorious conqueror,
who is desireless, washed clean, Awake.
26.41
I call him a brahmin
who knows other lives,
who knows heaven and the realms of woe,
who has reached the end of birth and death,
who has realized the supreme state,
who is in all ways, perfect.