Chapter 26: The Brahmana

The Buddha commands the Brahmana to resist desires and understand the distinction between what is made (conditioned reality) and what is not made (the unconditioned, likely Nirvana).

A Brahmana who has mastered both restraint and contemplation transcends all bonds through knowledge.

The true Brahmana is one who stands beyond all dualities and attachments, embodying fearlessness and liberation.

A Brahmana is characterized by mindfulness, moral purity, emotional control, and having reached the highest spiritual end.

The Buddha's spiritual illumination exceeds that of all other entities—sun, moon, warriors, and meditating Brahmanas—shining continuously.

The terms Brahmana, Samana, and Pravragita derive not from birth but from the qualities of having eliminated evil, walked quietly, and purified oneself.

A Brahmana should not be attacked, and if attacked should not retaliate, as both harming and responding violently bring consequences.

When a Brahmana restrains desire for worldly pleasures and conquers the wish to harm others, suffering ceases.

A true Brahmana maintains control over body, speech, and mind, refraining from harmful action in all three domains.

Once one understands the Buddha's doctrine, one should venerate it with the same devotion a Brahmana shows to sacrificial fire.

True Brahmana status comes not from external markers like hair, family, or birth, but from possessing truth and righteousness.

The Buddha criticizes those who groom their appearance while harboring internal greed and uncleanliness, exposing the hypocrisy of external practices.

A true Brahmana is one who practices severe asceticism and solitary meditation in the forest.

Brahmana status is not determined by origin or mother, but by freedom from attachments regardless of economic status.

A Brahmana is one who has severed all bonds, eliminating fear and dependency.

A Brahmana is one who has broken free from all restraints and impediments, achieving full awakening.

A Brahmana possesses the strength to bear suffering and insult without complaint, having cultivated endurance as their greatest power.

A Brahmana is free from anger and appetite, virtuous and dutiful, having reached their final existence.

A true Brahmana maintains such complete detachment from pleasures that they cannot adhere, like water on a lotus leaf or a seed on a needle point.

A Brahmana has realized the end of suffering in this very life, set down their burden, and achieved complete liberation.

A Brahmana possesses profound wisdom, discerning right from wrong and having attained the supreme spiritual goal.

A Brahmana maintains distance from both householders and mendicants, avoiding social entanglement and minimizing desires.

A Brahmana refrains from fault-finding with all beings regardless of strength and neither kills nor encourages slaughter.

A Brahmana embodies tolerance toward the intolerant, gentleness toward critics, and passion-free presence among the passionate.

A Brahmana has shed anger, hatred, pride, and envy so completely that these emotions no longer adhere, like seeds falling from a needle.

A Brahmana speaks only truth that is instructive and free from harshness, avoiding causing offense.

A Brahmana takes nothing from the world that is not freely given, regardless of its nature or value.

A Brahmana has eliminated desires for both this world and the next, possessing no inclinations and complete detachment.

A Brahmana has understood the truth so deeply that they cease questioning, having penetrated the depths of the Immortal (Nirvana).

A Brahmana stands beyond the duality of good and evil, free from bondage to both and liberated from grief and impurity.

A Brahmana shines with pure serenity like the moon, undisturbed and free from all frivolous joy.

A Brahmana has traversed the difficult path of worldly existence, reaching the other shore with mindfulness, sincerity, freedom from doubt, and contentment.

A Brahmana travels without a fixed dwelling, having abandoned all worldly desires and lustful inclinations.

A Brahmana wanders without a home, having transcended all covetous desires and attachments.

A Brahmana has escaped bondage to both human and divine realms, achieving complete liberation from all constraints.

A Brahmana transcends pleasure and pain, achieving coolness and freedom from the seeds of rebirth, becoming a hero who conquers all existence.

A Brahmana comprehends the arising and passing of all beings, achieving freedom, welfare, and awakening.

A Brahmana's path transcends the knowledge of gods and spirits, with all passions extinct, achieving the status of a venerable Arhat.

A Brahmana claims ownership of nothing in any time or place, living in poverty and free from worldly attachment.

A Brahmana is manly, noble, heroic, and a great sage who has conquered all, is impassible, accomplished, and awakened.

A Brahmana possesses perfect knowledge, remembering former lives, seeing all realms, having transcended rebirth, and achieving complete spiritual perfection.