iti.73 Itivuttaka

More Peaceful

This was said by the Lord…

“Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realm, and cessation is more peaceful than the formless.”

Those beings who reach the form realm
And those established in the formless,
If they do not know cessation
Come back to renewal of being.

Those who fully understand forms
Without getting stuck in the formless,
Are released into cessation
And leave Death far behind them.

Having touched with his own person
The deathless element free from clinging,
Having realized the relinquishment of clinging,
His taints all gone,
The Fully Enlightened One proclaims
The sorrowless state that is void of stain.

- Translator: John D. Ireland

- Editor: Bhikkhu Sujato

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More Peaceful

This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
“Mendicants, formless states are more peaceful than states of form; cessation is more peaceful than formless states.”
The Buddha spoke this matter.
On this it is said:
“There are beings in the realm of luminous form,
and others stuck in the formless.
Not understanding cessation,
they return in future lives.
But the people who completely understand form,
not stuck in the formless,
released in cessation—
they are conquerors of death.
Having directly experienced the deathless element,
free of attachments;
having realised relinquishment
of attachments, the undefiled
fully awakened Buddha teaches
the sorrowless, stainless state.”
This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.