[574] **Free of sensual desire, without the woods, a nāga (nikkāmo nibbano nāgo):** As to "sensual pleasures (kāmā)," by way of the summary (uddāna): there are two kinds of sensual pleasures — objective sensuality (vatthukāma) and subjective sensuality (kilesakāma) … these are called objective sensuality … these are called subjective sensuality. The Buddha, the Blessed One, has fully understood objective sensuality and has abandoned subjective sensuality. Because objective sensuality has been fully understood, because subjective sensuality has been abandoned, the Blessed One does not desire sensual pleasures, does not long for sensual pleasures, does not yearn for sensual pleasures, does not hanker after sensual pleasures. Those who desire sensual pleasures, long for sensual pleasures, yearn for sensual pleasures, hanker after sensual pleasures — they are desirers of sensual pleasures, impassioned with passion, percipient with perception. The Blessed One does not desire sensual pleasures, does not long for sensual pleasures, does not yearn for sensual pleasures, does not hanker after sensual pleasures; therefore the Buddha is without sensual desire, free of sensual desire, one who has given up sensual pleasures, vomited up sensual pleasures, released sensual pleasures, abandoned sensual pleasures, relinquished sensual pleasures; devoid of lust, rid of lust, one who has given up lust, vomited up lust, released lust, abandoned lust, relinquished lust; hungerless, quenched, become cool, an experiencer of bliss, he dwells with a self become Brahma (brahmabhūtena attanā). Thus he is "free of sensual desire (nikkāmo)."
**Without the woods (nibbano):** Lust is a wood (vana), hatred is a wood, delusion is a wood, anger (kodha) is a wood, grudge (upanāha) is a wood … all unwholesome volitional formations (akusalābhisaṅkhārā) are woods. Those woods have been abandoned by the Buddha, the Blessed One, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated, no longer subject to arising in the future; therefore the Buddha is woodless, without the woods, gone away from the woods, one who has abandoned the woods, one released from the woods, one who has passed beyond all woods. Thus he is "without the woods (nibbano)."
**A nāga (nāgo):** The Blessed One does no evil (āguṃ na karoti), thus he is a nāga. He does not go (na gacchati), thus he is a nāga. He does not come back (na āgacchati), thus he is a nāga … Thus the Blessed One does not come back, thus he is a nāga. Hence: "free of sensual desire, without the woods, a nāga."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.