[127] **Like a monkey grasping and releasing the branch in front of it** — just as a monkey, wandering in a forest, in a great wood, grasps a branch; having let go of that one, grasps another branch; having let go of that one, grasps another branch — even so, many ascetics and brahmins grasp and release, take up and cast off many speculative views (diṭṭhigata). Therefore it is said: "like a monkey grasping and releasing the branch in front of it." Hence the Blessed One said:
Abandoning the former, attached to the latter,
following after agitation (ejā), they do not cross over the tie (saṅga);
they seize and they cast off,
like a monkey grasping and releasing the branch in front of it.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.