[595] **Alone, dispelling darkness, seated (eko tamanudāsīno):** **Alone (eko)** — the Blessed One is alone by way of the going forth (pabbajjā); alone in the sense of being without a second; alone in the sense of the abandoning of craving (taṇhā); alone as one utterly without lust; alone as one utterly without hatred; alone as one utterly without delusion; alone as one utterly without defilements; alone as one gone by the one-way path (ekāyanamagga); alone as one who alone fully awakened to the unsurpassed perfect awakening.
How is the Blessed One alone by way of the going forth? The Blessed One, while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessing of youth, in the first stage of life, while his unwilling mother and father, with tearful faces, wept and lamented, abandoned the circle of his relatives; having cut off all the impediment of household life, having cut off the impediment of children and wife, having cut off the impediment of relatives, having cut off the impediment of friends and companions, having shaved off hair and beard, having put on the ochre robes, and having gone forth from the home life into homelessness, having entered upon the state of owning nothing, alone he walks, wanders, moves, proceeds, guards himself, keeps himself going, sustains himself. Thus the Blessed One is alone by way of the going forth.
How is the Blessed One alone in the sense of being without a second? He, having thus gone forth, resorts to remote lodgings in forest and woodland — of little sound, of little noise, with an atmosphere free of people, fit for lying concealed from human beings, suitable for seclusion. Alone he goes, alone he stands, alone he sits, alone he lies down, alone he enters the village for alms, alone he goes forward, alone he returns, alone he sits in private, alone he determines upon walking meditation; alone he walks, wanders, moves, proceeds, guards himself, keeps himself going, sustains himself. Thus the Blessed One is alone in the sense of being without a second.
How is the Blessed One alone in the sense of the abandoning of craving? He, dwelling thus alone, without a second, heedful, ardent (ātāpī), resolute, striving the great striving on the bank of the river Nerañjarā at the foot of the Bodhi tree, having vanquished Māra together with his army — Namuci, the kinsman of the negligent — abandoned, dispelled, made an end of, and brought to non-existence craving, the ensnaring net, the stream, the entanglement (visattikā).
> A person with craving as his companion, wandering this long journey,
> does not pass beyond saṃsāra, with its being thus and being otherwise.
> Having known this danger — that craving is the origin of suffering (dukkha) —
> free of craving, without grasping, mindful, let a bhikkhu wander forth.
Thus the Blessed One is alone in the sense of the abandoning of craving.
How is the Blessed One alone as one utterly without lust? Because lust has been abandoned, he is alone as one utterly without lust. Because hatred has been abandoned, he is alone as one utterly without hatred. Because delusion has been abandoned, he is alone as one utterly without delusion. Because the defilements have been abandoned, he is alone as one utterly without defilements.
How is the Blessed One alone as one gone by the one-way path? "The one-way path" is said of the four establishments of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) … the noble eightfold path.
> One who sees the end in the destruction of birth,
> compassionate for their welfare, understands the one-way path:
> by this path they crossed the flood before,
> and they will cross it, and they cross it now.
Thus the Blessed One is alone as one gone by the one-way path.
How is the Blessed One alone as one who alone fully awakened to the unsurpassed perfect awakening? "Awakening (bodhi)" is said of the knowledge (ñāṇa) in the four paths, the wisdom, the faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom … the awakening factor of investigation of dhammas, examination, insight, right view. With that knowledge of awakening the Blessed One awakened thus: "All formations are impermanent" … he awakened thus: "Whatever is subject to origination, all that is subject to cessation." Or else: whatever is to be awakened to, to be understood, to be discerned, to be fully awakened to, to be attained, to be touched, to be realized — all that, with that knowledge of awakening, he awakened to, understood, discerned, fully awakened to, attained, touched, and realized. Thus the Blessed One is alone as one who alone fully awakened to the unsurpassed perfect awakening.
**Dispelling darkness (tamanudo):** the Blessed One dispelled, drove out, abandoned, dispelled, made an end of, and brought to non-existence the darkness of lust, the darkness of hatred, the darkness of delusion, the darkness of conceit, the darkness of views, the darkness of the defilements, the darkness of misconduct — which makes for blindness, makes for sightlessness, makes for lack of knowledge, which brings wisdom to cessation, sides with vexation, and does not conduce to Nibbāna.
**Seated (āsīno):** the Blessed One was seated at the Pāsāṇaka Shrine — thus "seated."
> The sage, gone beyond suffering, seated on the mountain's flank,
> the disciples attend upon — bearers of the threefold knowledge, abandoners of death.
Thus the Blessed One was "seated." Or else the Blessed One is "seated" because all busyness has been stilled in him: he has lived out the dwelling, has fulfilled the conduct … for him there is no saṃsāra of birth, aging, and death, no renewed existence — in this way too the Blessed One is "seated." Thus: "Alone, dispelling darkness, seated."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.