So you should train like this: ‘I won’t get into arguments.’ That’s how you should train. When there’s an argument, you can expect there’ll be lots of talking. When there’s lots of talking, people become restless. Being restless, they lose restraint. And without restraint the mind is far from immersion. Moggallāna, I don’t praise all kinds of closeness. Nor do I criticize all kinds of closeness. I don’t praise closeness with laypeople and renunciates. I do praise closeness with those lodgings that are quiet and still, far from the madding crowd, remote from human settlements, and fit for retreat.”

When he said this, Venerable Moggallāna asked the Buddha, “Sir, how do you briefly define a mendicant who is freed through the ending of craving, who has reached the ultimate end, the ultimate sanctuary from the yoke, the ultimate spiritual life, the ultimate goal, and is best among gods and humans?”

“Take a mendicant who has heard: ‘Nothing is worth insisting on.’ When a mendicant has heard that nothing is worth insisting on, they directly know all things. Directly knowing all things, they completely understand all things. Completely understanding all things, when they experience any kind of feeling—pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral— they meditate observing impermanence, dispassion, cessation, and letting go in those feelings. Meditating in this way, they don’t grasp at anything in the world. Not grasping, they’re not anxious. Not being anxious, they personally become extinguished.

They understand: ‘Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is nothing further for this place.’ That’s how I briefly define a mendicant who is freed through the ending of craving, who has reached the ultimate end, the ultimate sanctuary from the yoke, the ultimate spiritual life, the ultimate goal, and is best among gods and humans.”

Numbered Discourses 7.62 6. The Undeclared Points Don’t Fear Good Deeds