Theragāthā (Psalms of the Brethren)

As by day, so by night; as by night, so by day. As before, so behind; as behind, so before.

Even the music of a five-piece band can never give such pleasure as when, with unified mind, you rightly discern the Dhamma.

When a man lives heedlessly, craving grows in them like a camel’s foot creeper. They jump from one thing to the next, like a langur greedy for fruit in a forest grove.

Whoever is beaten by this wretched craving, this attachment to the world, their sorrow grows, like grass in the rain.

But whoever prevails over this wretched craving, so hard to get over in the world, their sorrows fall from them, like a drop from a lotus-leaf.

I say this to you, good people, all those who have gathered here: dig up the root of craving, as you’d dig up the grass in search of roots. Don’t let Māra break you again and again, like a stream breaking a reed.

Act on the Buddha’s words, don’t let the moment pass you by. For if you miss your moment you’ll grieve when sent to hell.

Negligence is always dust; dust follows right behind negligence. Through diligence and knowledge, pluck out the dart from yourself.

In the twenty-five years since I went forth, I have not found peace of mind, even as long as a finger-snap.

Since I couldn’t get my mind unified, I was racked by desire for pleasures of the senses. Wailing, with outstretched arms, I left my dwelling.

Or shall I commit suicide? What’s the point of living? For how on earth can one such as me die after resigning the training?

Then I picked up a razor, I sat on a cot: the razor was ready to slice my vein.

Then the realization came upon me— the danger became clear, and I was firmly disillusioned.

Then my mind was freed— behold the clear rightness of the teaching! I’ve attained the three knowledges, and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.

Get up, Kātiyāna, and sit! Don’t sleep too much, be wakeful. Don’t be lazy and let the kinsman of the negligent, the King of Death, catch you in his trap.

Like a wave in the mighty ocean, rebirth and old age sweep you under. Make a safe island of yourself, for you have no other shelter.

The teacher has mastered this path, which transcends chains, <j>and the fear of birth and old age. Be diligent in the first and final watches of the night, and dedicate yourself to practice.

Free yourself from your former bonds! Wearing your outer robe, with shaven head, <j>eating almsfood, don’t delight in play or sleep, dedicate yourself to absorption, Kātiyāna.

Meditate and conquer, Kātiyāna, you’re an expert in the path <j>to sanctuary from the yoke. Having arrived at unexcelled purity, you’ll be extinguished as a flame by water.

A lamp of feeble flame is bent down by the wind, like a creeper; just so, kinsman of Indra, shake off Māra, without grasping. Free of lust for feelings, await your time here, cooled.

It was well-taught by the Clear-eyed One, the Buddha, Kinsman of the Sun, who has transcended all fetters, and destroyed all rolling-on.

Emancipating, it leads across, drying up the root of craving, and, having cut off the poisonous root, <j>the slaughterhouse, it leads to quenching.

By breaking the root of unknowing, it smashes the mechanism of deeds, and drops the thunderbolt of knowledge on the taking up of consciousnesses.

It informs us of our feelings, releasing us from grasping, contemplating with understanding all states of existence as a pit of burning coals.

It’s very sweet and very deep, holding birth and death at bay; it is the noble eightfold path— the stilling of suffering, bliss.

Knowing deed as deed and result as result; seeing dependently originated phenomena as if they were in a clear light; leading to the great sanctuary and peace, it’s excellent at the end.

I was drunk with the pride of birth and wealth and authority. I wandered about intoxicated with my own gorgeous body.

No one was my equal or my better— or so I thought. I was such an arrogant fool, stuck up, waving my own flag.

I never paid homage to anyone: not even my mother or father, nor others esteemed as respectable. I was stiff with pride, lacking regard for others.

When I saw the foremost leader, the most excellent of charioteers, shining like the sun at the fore of the mendicant Saṅgha,

I discarded conceit and vanity, and, with a clear and confident heart, I bowed down with my head to the supreme among all beings.

The conceit of superiority <j>and the conceit of inferiority have been given up and eradicated. The conceit “I am” is cut off, and every kind of conceit is destroyed.

I was only seven years old and had just gone forth when I overcame the mighty serpent king with my psychic powers.

I brought water for my mentor from the great lake Anotatta. When he saw me, my teacher declared:

“Sāriputta, see this young boy coming, carrying a water pot, serene inside himself.

His conduct inspires confidence, he is of lovely deportment: he is Anuruddha’s novice, self-assured in psychic powers.

Made a thoroughbred by a thoroughbred, made good by the good, educated and trained by Anuruddha, who has completed his task.

Having attained ultimate peace and witnessed the unshakable, that novice Sumana has the wish: ‘May no one find me out!’”

“Struck by a wind ailment while dwelling in a forest grove, you’ve entered a tough resort for gathering alms— how will you get by, monk?”

“Pervading this bag of bones with abundant rapture and happiness, putting up with what’s tough, I’ll dwell in the forest.

Developing the seven awakening factors, the faculties and the powers, endowed with subtle absorptions, I’ll dwell without defilements.

Freed from corruptions, my pure mind is unclouded. Frequently reviewing this, I’ll meditate without defilements.

Those defilements that were found in me, internally and externally, are all cut off without remainder, and will not arise again.

The five aggregates are fully understood, they remain, but their root is cut. I have reached the ending of suffering, now there’ll be no more future lives.”

Whence anger for one free of anger, tamed, living justly, freed by right knowledge, peaceful and unaffected?

When you get angry at an angry person you just make things worse for yourself. When you don’t get angry at an angry person you win a battle hard to win.

When you know that the other is angry, you act for the good of both yourself and the other if you’re mindful and stay calm.

People inexpert in the teaching consider one who heals both oneself and the other to be a fool.

If anger arises in you, reflect on the simile of the saw; if craving for flavors arises in you, remember the simile of the child’s flesh.

If your mind runs off to sensual pleasures and future lives, quickly curb it with mindfulness, as one would curb a greedy cow eating grain.

The rain saturates things that are covered up; it doesn’t saturate things that are open. Therefore you should open up a covered thing, so the rain will not saturate it.

The world is beaten down by death and surrounded by old age. The dart of craving has struck it down, and it’s always fuming with desire.

The world is beaten down by death, caged by old age, beaten constantly without respite, like a criminal being flogged.

Three things are coming, like a wall of flame: death, disease, and old age. No power can stand before them, and no speed’s enough to flee.

Don’t waste your day, a little or a lot. Every night that passes shortens your life by that much.

Walking or standing, sitting or lying down: your final night draws near; you have no time to be careless.

This two-legged body is dirty and stinking, full of different carcasses, and oozing all over the place— but still it is cherished!

Like a lurking deer by a trick, like a fish by a hook, like a langur by tar— they trap an ordinary person.

Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches so delightful: these five kinds of sensual stimulation are seen in a woman’s body.

Those ordinary people, their minds full of lust, who pursue those women: they swell the horrors of the charnel ground, piling up future lives.

One who, being mindful, avoids them like a snake’s head with their foot, gets over clinging to the world.

Seeing the danger in sensual pleasures, seeing renunciation as sanctuary, I’ve escaped all sensual pleasures, and attained the ending of defilements.

Adorned with jewelry and all dressed up, with her garland and her makeup on, and her feet so brightly rouged: the courtesan was wearing slippers.

Taking off her slippers in front of me, her palms joined in greeting, smiling, she spoke to me so softly and so sweet:

“You’re too young to go forth— come, stay in my teaching! Enjoy human sensual pleasures, I’ll give you riches. I promise this is the truth— I swear it by the Sacred Flame.

And when we’ve grown old together, both of us leaning on staffs, we shall both go forth, and hold a winning hand on both counts.”

I saw the courtesan seducing me, her palms joined in greeting, adorned with jewelry and all dressed up, set up like a snare of death.

Then the realization came upon me— the danger became clear and I grew firmly disillusioned.

Then my mind was freed— see the excellence of the Dhamma! I’ve attained the three knowledges, and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.

Bhaddiya has plucked out craving, root and all, and in a jungle thicket on the far side of the Wild Mango Monastery, he practices absorption; he is truly well-favored.

Some delight in clay drums, in arched harps, and in cymbals. But here, at the foot of a tree, I delight in the Buddha’s teaching.

If the Buddha were to grant me one wish, and I were to get what I wished for, I’d choose for the whole world constant mindfulness of the body.

Those who’ve judged me on appearance, and those swayed by my voice, are full of desire and greed; they don’t know me.

Not knowing what’s inside, nor seeing what’s outside, the fool shut in on every side, gets carried away by a voice.

Not knowing what’s inside, but discerning what’s outside, seeing the fruit outside, they’re also carried away by a voice.

Understanding what’s inside, and discerning what’s outside, of unhindered vision, they don’t get carried away by a voice.

I was an only child, loved by my mother and father. They had me by practicing many supplications and observances.

Out of sympathy for me wishing me well and wanting the best for me, my mother and father took me to see the Buddha.

“We had this son with difficulty; he is delicate and pampered. We offer him to you, Lord, to attend upon the victor.”

The teacher, having accepted me, declared to Ānanda: “Quickly give him the going-forth— this one will be a thoroughbred!”

After he, the Teacher, had sent me forth, the victor entered his dwelling. Before the sun set my mind was freed.

Consequently, the Teacher didn’t neglect me; when he came out from seclusion, he said: “Come Bhadda!” That was my ordination.

At seven years old I received ordination. I’ve attained the three knowledges; oh, the clear rightness of the teaching!

I saw the supreme man walking mindfully in the shade of the terrace, so I approached, and bowed to the supreme among men.

Arranging my robe over one shoulder and clasping my hands together, I walked alongside that stainless one, supreme among all beings.

The wise one, expert in questions, questioned me. Brave and fearless, I answered the Teacher.

When all his questions were answered, the Realized One congratulated me. Looking around the mendicant Saṅgha, he said the following:

“It is a blessing for the people of Aṅga and Magadha that this person enjoys their robe and almsfood, requisites and lodgings, their respect and service— it’s a blessing for them,” he declared.

“Sopāka, from this day on you are invited to come and see me. And Sopāka, let this be your ordination.”

At seven years old I received ordination. I bear my final body— oh, the clear rightness of the teaching!

I broke the reeds off with my hands, made a hut, and stayed there. That’s how I became known as “Reed-breaker”.

But now it’s not appropriate for me to break reeds with my hands. The training rules have been laid down for us by Gotama the renowned.

Previously, I, Sarabhaṅga, didn’t see the disease in its entirety. But now I have seen the disease, as I’ve practiced what was taught <j>by he who is beyond the gods.

Gotama traveled by that direct route; the same path traveled by Vipassī, by Sikhī, Vessabhū, Kakusandha, Koṇāgamana, and Kassapa.

These seven Buddhas have plunged into the ending, free of craving, without grasping, having become Dhamma, unaffected. They have taught this Dhamma

out of compassion for living creatures— suffering, origin, path, and cessation, the ending of suffering. In these four noble truths,

the endless suffering of transmigration finally comes to an end. When the body breaks up, and life comes to an end, there are no future lives; I’m everywhere well freed.

Don’t get involved in lots of work, avoid people, and don’t try to acquire things. If you’re eager and greedy for flavors, you’ll miss the goal that brings such happiness.

They know it really is a bog, this homage and veneration in respectable families. Honor is a subtle dart, hard to extract, and hard for a reprobate to give up.

The deeds of a mortal aren’t bad because of what others do. You yourself should not do bad, for mortals have deeds as their kin.