Within the Udāna, certain verses have come to be regarded as especially luminous, often cited as concise expressions of the path and its goal. One of the most renowned is the declaration on the “unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned,” which states that there is such an unconditioned reality, and that only because it exists is there an escape from what is born, become, made, and conditioned. Closely related is the verse that speaks of “that base where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air,” where name-and-form are wholly brought to an end and, with the cessation of consciousness, all this ceases. Together, these passages point toward a dimension beyond the constructed world, and they have often been read as poetic evocations of Nibbāna and the cessation of clinging to conditioned phenomena.

Another cluster of verses turns toward the transformation of view and identity. One verse speaks of the one for whom the notions “it is mine,” “it is not mine,” “I am,” and “I am not” do not occur, describing such a person as having gone beyond all views of existence and non-existence. Another famous utterance describes how the flood was crossed “without standing and without struggling,” not standing in any object and not being drawn in or sinking; this image suggests a way of relating to experience that avoids both grasping and resistance. There is also the verse that says one does not reach the far shore by views, learning, knowledge, virtue, or vows; rather, when these are abandoned as objects of clinging, and with the cessation of clinging, there is Nibbāna. These teachings collectively emphasize release from fixation on views, identities, and supports, rather than the accumulation of spiritual credentials.

The Udāna also preserves a more intimate instruction on refuge and self-reliance. In one well-known passage, practitioners are urged to dwell with themselves as an island and refuge, with no other refuge, and likewise to dwell with the Dhamma as island and refuge, with no other refuge. This does not deny the value of teachers or community, but it shifts the center of gravity back to direct realization and to the Dhamma itself as the ultimate guide. Read together, these verses reveal a consistent movement: from dependence on conditioned supports to confidence in the unconditioned, from entanglement in “I” and “mine” to a way of seeing that neither clings nor resists, and from external reliance to an inward anchoring in the Dhamma as the true island amid the flood.