[430] 6. "Alone, O Sakyan (Sakka), unsupported, (thus said the Venerable Upasīva)
I am not able to cross the great flood (ogha).
Declare to me a support (ārammaṇa), O All-seeing One (samantacakkhu),
relying on which I might cross this flood."
"Contemplating nothingness (ākiñcañña), mindful (satimā), ('Upasīva,' said the Blessed One)
relying on 'there is nothing,' cross the flood.
Having abandoned sensual pleasures, abstaining from talk,
night and day behold the destruction of craving (taṇhā)."
"One who is devoid of lust for all sensual pleasures, (thus said the Venerable Upasīva)
relying on nothingness, having left all else behind,
liberated in the supreme liberation of perception (saññāvimokkha) —
would he remain there without departing?"
"One who is devoid of lust for all sensual pleasures, ('Upasīva,' said the Blessed One)
relying on nothingness, having left all else behind,
liberated in the supreme liberation of perception —
he would remain there without departing."
"If he should remain there without departing
even for a multitude of years, O All-seeing One,
would he become cool right there, liberated?
Would the consciousness (viññāṇa) of one such as that come to be?"
"As a flame tossed by the force of the wind ('Upasīva,' said the Blessed One)
goes out and no longer comes within reckoning (saṅkhā),
so the sage (muni), liberated from the mental body (nāmakāya),
goes out and no longer comes within reckoning."
"He who has gone out — does he then not exist?
Or is he for eternity free from illness?
Declare that to me well, O sage,
for thus is this Dhamma known to you."
"For one who has gone out there is no measure; ('Upasīva,' said the Blessed One)
that by which they might speak of him does not exist for him.
When all dhammas have been uprooted,
uprooted too are all pathways of speech."
The Questions of the Young Brahmin Upasīva, the Sixth.
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In the Suttanipāta, the Fifth Chapter, the Pārāyanavagga: the Questions of Nanda, the Seventh.
[Variant readings in the edition's apparatus: 1. Po., Ma.: hitvāmaññaṃ; 2. Po.: parame 'dhimutto ("resolved upon the supreme"); 3. Ma., Yu.: anānuyāyī.]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.