Catukkanipāta 38

Numbered Discourses 4.38

4. Situations

Withdrawn

1 “Mendicants, a mendicant has cast aside idiosyncratic interpretations of the truth, has totally given up searching, has stilled the physical process, and is said to be ‘withdrawn’.

And how has a mendicant cast aside idiosyncratic interpretations of the truth? Different ascetics and brahmins have different idiosyncratic interpretations of the truth. For example: the cosmos is eternal, or not eternal, or finite, or infinite; the soul and the body are one and the same, or the soul is one thing, the body another; after death, a realized one still exists, or no longer exists, or both still exists and no longer exists, or neither still exists nor no longer exists. A mendicant has cast out, cast aside, thrown out, discarded, let go of, given up, and relinquished all these. That’s how a mendicant has cast aside idiosyncratic interpretations of the truth.

2 And how has a mendicant totally given up searching? It’s when they’ve given up searching for sensual pleasures, for continued existence, and for a spiritual path. That’s how a mendicant has totally given up searching.

3 And how has a mendicant stilled the physical process? It’s when, with the giving up of pleasure and pain and the disappearance of former happiness and sadness, they enter and remain in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness. That’s how a mendicant has stilled the physical process.

4 And how is a mendicant withdrawn? It’s when they’ve given up the conceit ‘I am’, cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s how a mendicant is withdrawn. A mendicant has cast aside idiosyncratic interpretations of the truth, has totally given up searching, has stilled the physical process, and is said to be ‘withdrawn’.

5 The search for sensual pleasures,

for continued existence,

and the search for a spiritual path;

the holding tight to the thought, ‘this is the truth’,

and the mass of grounds for views—

6 for one detached from all lusts,

freed by the ending of craving,

that searching has been relinquished,

and those grounds for views eradicated.

7 That mendicant is peaceful and mindful,

tranquil and undefeated.

And when they’re awakened

by comprehending conceit,

they’re called ‘withdrawn’.”