Buddhist shelf · Pali Canon · Jātaka 134 · Ekakanipāta · Asampadānavagga
JhānasodhanajātakaJātaka 134 · Volume 1, translated by Robert Chalmers (1895)
Public domain. Robert Chalmers’s translation was published in 1895. The Pali is the Mahāsaṅgīti edition published by SuttaCentral under CC0. The canonical Pali Jātaka consists of the verses only (1 verse here); the prose story around them comes from the later commentary, which the English translates in full. So the verses are shown beside the whole English story, not verse by verse.
Pali verses
“Ye saññino tepi duggatā,
Yepi asaññino tepi duggatā;
Etaṁ ubhayaṁ vivajjaya,
Taṁ samāpattisukhaṁ anaṅgaṇan”ti.
English Chalmers 1895
"With conscious."--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about the interpretation by Sāriputta, Captain of the Faith, at the gate of Saṁkassa town, of a problem tersely propounded by the Master. And the following was the story of the past he then told.
Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares,...&c.... the Bodhisatta, as he expired in his forest-home, exclaimed, "Neither conscious nor unconscious." And the recluses did not believe the interpretation which the Bodhisatta's chief disciple gave of the Master's words. Back came the Bodhisatta from the Radiant Realm, and from mid-air recited this stanza:--
With conscious, with unconscious, too,
Dwells sorrow. Either ill eschew.
Pure bliss, from all corruption free,
Springs but from Insight's ecstasy.
His lesson ended, the Bodhisatta praised his disciple and went back to the Brahma Realm. Then the rest of the recluses believed the chief disciple.
His lesson taught, the Master identified the Birth by saying, "In those days Sāriputta was the chief disciple, and I Mahā-Brahma."