[114] **He here has gone beyond the seamstress**: craving (taṇhā) is called the seamstress (sibbanī) — that lust, that passion … covetousness, greed, the unwholesome root. In whom this seamstress, craving, has been abandoned, cut off, stilled, calmed, rendered incapable of arising again, burnt up by the fire of knowledge (ñāṇa), he has gone beyond, passed beyond, transcended, fully transcended, gone past the seamstress, craving. Therefore, "he here has gone beyond the seamstress."
Hence the Blessed One said:
> One who lives the holy life amid sensual pleasures
> ("Metteyya," said the Blessed One),
> free from craving, ever mindful (sati),
> a bhikkhu who, having comprehended, is quenched —
> for him there are no perturbations.
> Having directly known both ends,
> with wisdom he does not cling to the middle.
> Him I call a great man:
> he here has gone beyond the seamstress.
[Footnote ¹: The Burmese edition reads "mahāpuriso mahāpuriso" (repeated).]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.