[323] **"Those who, having fully understood craving (taṇhā), are without taints (āsava) — them I too call crossers of the flood (ogha)."** Herein, "craving" means: craving for forms, craving for sounds, craving for odours, craving for tastes, craving for tangibles, craving for dhammas.
"Having fully understood craving": having fully understood craving by the three full understandings (pariññā) — full understanding as the known (ñātapariññā), full understanding as scrutiny (tīraṇapariññā), and full understanding as abandoning (pahānapariññā).
What is full understanding as the known? One understands craving: one understands and sees, "This is craving for forms, this is craving for sounds, this is craving for odours, this is craving for tastes, this is craving for tangibles, this is craving for dhammas." This is full understanding as the known.
What is full understanding as scrutiny? Having made it known thus, one scrutinizes craving: as impermanent, as suffering (dukkha), as a disease, as a boil, as a dart, as a calamity, as an affliction, as alien, as disintegrating, as a plague, as a disaster, as a peril, as a menace, as unstable, as brittle, as unenduring, as without protection, as without shelter, as without refuge, as unavailing as a refuge, as void, as hollow, as empty, as not-self, as danger, as subject to change, as without core, as the root of calamity, as murderous, as accompanied by taints, as conditioned, as Māra's bait, as subject to birth, as subject to aging, as subject to illness, as subject to death, as subject to sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair, as origin, as passing away, as devoid of gratification, as danger, as devoid of escape — thus one scrutinizes it. This is full understanding as scrutiny.
What is full understanding as abandoning? Having scrutinized thus, one abandons craving, dispels it, makes an end of it, and brings it to non-existence. This is full understanding as abandoning. "Having fully understood that craving by these three full understandings" — thus, "having fully understood craving."
"Without taints": there are four taints — the taint of sensuality, the taint of existence, the taint of views, and the taint of ignorance. Those in whom these taints are abandoned, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump deprived of its base, brought to non-existence, of a nature not to arise again in the future — they are called "without taints." "Those who": the Arahants whose taints are destroyed.
"Those who, having fully understood craving, are without taints — them I too call crossers of the flood": those who, having fully understood craving, are without taints — them I too call, I declare, to have crossed the flood of sensuality, crossed the flood of existence, crossed the flood of views, crossed the flood of ignorance; to have crossed, crossed over, crossed beyond, passed over, surmounted, and transcended the entire course of saṃsāra. Thus: "Those who, having fully understood craving, are without taints — them I too call crossers of the flood." Therefore that brahmin said:
"I delight in this word of the Great Seer,
Well proclaimed, O Gotama, free of acquisitions (upadhi).
Those who here have abandoned all that is seen, heard, or sensed,
And virtue and vows as well — all of it —
Having abandoned, too, all of the manifold kind,
Those who, having fully understood craving, are without taints —
Them I too call crossers of the flood."
Together with the conclusion of the verse … "Venerable sir, the Blessed One is my Teacher; I am a disciple."
The Exposition of the Question of the Young Man Nanda, the Seventh, is finished.
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The Exposition of the Question of the Young Man Hemaka
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.