( The Buddha // Vedanāsamyutta, Samyutta Nikāya, Pali Canon )
One who cannot endure
the arisen painful feelings [sensations],
Bodily feelings that sap one’s life,
Who trembled when they touch him,
A weakling of little strength
Who weeps out loud and wails:
This one has not risen up in the bottomless abyss,
Nor has this one even gained a foothold.
But one who is able to endure them —
The arisen painful feelings,
Bodily feelings that sap one’s life —
Who trembles not when they touch:
This one has risen up in the bottomless abyss,
And this one has also gained a foothold.
One who has seen the pleasant as painful
And the painful as a dart,
Seen as impermanent the peaceful feeling
Neither painful nor pleasant:
This is a wise one who sees rightly,
One who fully understands feelings.
Having fully understood feelings,
One is taintless in this very life.
Standing in the Dharma, with the body’s breakup
The knowledge master cannot be reckoned.
The wise one, learned, does not feel
The pleasant and painful mental feelings
[Only the pleasant and painful bodily feelings]
This is the great different between
The wise one and the worldling.
For the learned one who has comprehended Dharma,
Who clearly sees this world and the next,
Desirable things do not provoke one’s mind,
Towards the undesired one has no aversion.
For this one, attraction and repulsion no more exist;
Both have been extinguished, brought to an end.
Having known the dust-free, sorrowless state,
The transcender of existence rightly understands.