“Bhikkhus, Uddaka Ramaputta used to make this declaration:
“‘This, surely a knowledge-master—
This, surely a universal conqueror—
This, surely he has excised
The tumour’s root not excised before!’
“Bhikkhus, though Uddaka Ramaputta was not himself a knowledge-master, he declared: ‘I am a knowledge-master.’ Though he was not himself a universal conqueror, he declared: ‘I am a universal conqueror.’ Though he had not excised the tumour’s root, he declared: ‘I have excised the tumour’s root.’ But here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu speaking rightly might say:
“‘This, surely a knowledge-master—
This, surely a universal conqueror—
This, surely he has excised
The tumour’s root not excised before!’
“And how, bhikkhus, is one a knowledge-master? When a bhikkhu understands as they really are the origin, the passing away, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in regard to the six bases for contact, such a bhikkhu is a knowledge-master.
“And how, bhikkhus, is a bhikkhu a universal conqueror? When, having understood as they really are the origin, the passing away, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in regard to the six bases for contact, a bhikkhu is liberated by nonclinging, such a bhikkhu is a universal conqueror.
“And how, bhikkhus, does a bhikkhu excise the tumour’s root not excised before? ‘The tumour,’ bhikkhus: this is a designation for this body consisting of the four great elements, originating from mother and father, built up out of rice and gruel, subject to impermanence, to rubbing and pressing, to breaking apart and dispersal. ‘The tumour’s root’: this is a designation for craving. When craving has been abandoned by a bhikkhu, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated so that it is no more subject to future arising, in such a case the bhikkhu has excised the tumour’s root not excised before.
“Bhikkhus, though Uddaka Ramaputta was not himself a knowledge-master, he declared: ‘I am a knowledge-master.’… But here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu speaking rightly might say:
“‘This, surely a knowledge-master—
This, surely a universal conqueror—
This, surely he has excised
The tumour’s root not excised before!’”