Pārāyanavagga - The Chapter on the Way to the Far Shore

The venerable Ajita asks the Buddha a series of questions about the nature of the world, the currents of defilements, how to overcome name and form and the conduct of those who have comprehended the Dhamma.

The Buddha answers the venerable Tissa Metteyya's questions about who is content in the world, who is not perturbed, and who has gone beyond the net of existence.

The Buddha answers the venerable Puṇṇaka’s questions about the sacrifices made by sages and brahmins, the nature of their desires, and who has truly crossed over birth and old age.

The venerable Mettagū asks the Blessed One about the arising of suffering and how the wise cross the flood of birth and sorrow. The Buddha shares a Dhamma that is directly visible, revealing that sufferings have acquisitions as their source and showing the path for the wise to reach the far shore, free from craving and untroubled.

The venerable Dhotaka asks the Buddha to free him from doubt and teach the principle of peace. The Buddha explains that liberation cannot be bestowed by another but arises from directly knowing the Dhamma. He instructs Dhotaka to see even the act of knowing as a ‘sticking point’ in the world, and to abandon craving for any state of existence.

The venerable Upasīva asks the Buddha for a basis to rely upon to cross the great flood of existence. He then inquires about the destiny of one who is fully liberated.

The venerable Nanda asks: Is a sage defined by knowledge or by way of life? The Buddha replies that neither views nor observances lead to liberation. Only by abandoning all fixed ways and by completely comprehending craving does one cross over the flood.

The venerable Hemaka dismisses the hearsay and speculation of previous teachers, asking instead for the Dhamma that leads to the destruction of craving.

The venerable Todeyya asks the Buddha about the characteristic of deliverance of one free from sensual desires and without doubt.

The venerable Kappa asks the Buddha about the island for those overwhelmed by the flood of aging and death.

The venerable Jatukaṇṇi asks the Buddha on how to attain the state of peace and abandon birth and old age. The Buddha advises him to remove greed for sensual pleasures by seeing renunciation as safety, and to cease all grasping related to name and form in the past, future, as well as present.

Responding to Bhadrāvudha’s request to teach the gathered crowd, the Buddha warns that Māra pursues beings through the very things they cling to. He instructs the mindful bhikkhu to dispel all acquisitive craving—above, below, and across—recognizing that the world is ensnared in the realm of death solely through attachment.

The venerable Udaya approaches the Buddha with questions about liberation through final knowledge, the fettering of the world, and how to live mindfully for consciousness to cease.

The venerable Posāla asks the Buddha how to guide a meditator who has transcended all perception of form and is established in the sphere of Nothingness.

The venerable Mogharāja asks the Buddha how to look upon the world so that the King of Death does not see one. The Buddha advises to look upon the world as empty, being ever mindful, and to uproot the sense of self.

The venerable Piṅgiya, enfeebled by old age, asks the Buddha for a teaching to abandon birth and aging in this very life.