Numbered Discourses 4.25

1. At Uruvelā

The Spiritual Life

“Mendicants, this spiritual life is not lived for the sake of fawning or flattering people, nor for the benefit of possessions, honor, or popularity, nor for the benefit of winning debates, nor thinking, ‘So let people know about me!’

This spiritual life is lived for the sake of restraint, giving up, fading away, and cessation.

The Buddha taught the spiritual life

not because of tradition,

but for the sake of restraint and giving up,

and because its objective is extinguishment.

This is the path followed by the big-hearted,

the great seers.

Those who practice it

as it was taught by the Buddha,

doing the teacher’s bidding,

make an end of suffering.”