[217] "Forms, sounds, odors, tastes,
tactile objects, and mental phenomena — all of them —
wished for, lovely, and agreeable,
so long as it is said 'they exist':
these are deemed happiness
by the world together with its devas;
but where these cease,
that they deem to be suffering (dukkha).
The noble ones have seen as happiness
the cessation of identity (sakkāya);
this [vision] of those who see
runs counter to the entire world.
What others speak of as happiness,
that the noble ones speak of as suffering;
what others speak of as suffering,
that the noble ones know as happiness.
Behold a Dhamma hard to comprehend:
here the ignorant are bewildered;
for those who are shrouded there is gloom,
darkness for those who do not see.
But for the good it lies open,
like light for those who see;
though it is near, they do not understand it —
those unskilled in the path of the Dhamma.
By those overcome by lust for existence,
flowing along the stream of existence,
gone into Māra's domain,
this Dhamma is not easily awakened to.
Who indeed, apart from the noble ones,
is worthy to fully awaken to that state —
the state which, having rightly known,
the taintless attain final Nibbāna?"
The Third.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.