[825] **A man with mind set on Nibbāna (nibbānamanaso naro):** here someone, while giving a gift, undertaking virtue, performing the Uposatha observance, setting out drinking water and water for use, sweeping the monastery courtyard, venerating a shrine, offering fragrances and garlands at a shrine, circumambulating a shrine with his right side towards it — while performing any wholesome volitional formation (kusalābhisaṅkhāra) pertaining to the three elements (tedhātuka) — performs it not for the sake of a destination, not for the sake of rebirth, not for the sake of rebirth-linking (paṭisandhi), not for the sake of existence, not for the sake of saṃsāra, not for the sake of the round (vaṭṭa); desiring disjunction from all that, sloping toward Nibbāna, slanting toward Nibbāna, inclining toward Nibbāna, he performs it — thus too is he a man with mind set on Nibbāna. Or alternatively, having turned the mind (citta) back from the element of all formations, he directs the mind toward the deathless element (amatā dhātu): "This is peaceful, this is sublime, namely, the stilling of all formations, the relinquishment of all acquisitions (upadhi), the destruction of craving (taṇhā), dispassion, cessation, Nibbāna" — thus too is he a man with mind set on Nibbāna.
The wise do not give gifts for the sake of the happiness bound up with acquisitions,
for renewed existence;
rather, they give a gift for the utter ending of acquisitions,
for no renewed existence.
The wise do not develop the jhānas for the sake of the happiness bound up with acquisitions,
for renewed existence;
rather, they develop the jhānas for the utter ending of acquisitions,
for no renewed existence.
Intent upon quenching, they give,
their minds sloping toward that, resolved upon that;
as rivers that have reached the ocean,
so do they have Nibbāna as their final destination.
A man with mind set on Nibbāna. Therefore the Blessed One said:
One should overcome sleep, lassitude, and dullness (thīna);
one should not dwell with heedlessness;
one should not persist in contempt (atimāna) —
a man with mind set on Nibbāna.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.