iti.103 Itivuttaka

Ascetics and Brahmins

Able to make an end,
they don’t continue to be reborn and grow old.”
This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
“Mendicants, there are ascetics and brahmins who don’t truly understand about suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.
I don’t regard them as true ascetics and brahmins. Those venerables don’t realize the goal of life as an ascetic or brahmin, and don’t live having realized it with their own insight.
There are ascetics and brahmins who truly understand about suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.
“There are those who don’t understand suffering
and suffering’s cause,
and where all suffering
cease with nothing left over;
And they don’t know the path
that leads to the stilling of suffering.
They lack the heart’s release,
as well as the release by wisdom.
Unable to make an end,
they continue to be reborn and grow old.
But there are those who understand suffering
and suffering’s cause,
and where all suffering
cease with nothing left over;
And they understand the path
that leads to the stilling of suffering.
They’re endowed with the heart’s release,
as well as the release by wisdom.
This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.