Khuddaka Nikaya - Theragatha - Single Verses

Khuddaka Nikaya - Theragatha - Single Verses

Thag 1
Single Verses
(selected passages)
Translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro BhikkhuPTS: vv. 1-120



Source: Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.



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Subhuti (Thag 1.1) {v. 1}
My hut is roofed, comfortable,
free of drafts;
my mind, well-centered,
set free.
I remain ardent.
So, rain-deva.
Go ahead & rain.



Mahakotthika (Thag 1.2) {v. 2}
Calmed, restrained,
giving counsel unruffled,
he lifts off evil states of mind —
as the breeze,
a leaf from a tree.



Kankharevata (Thag 1.3) {v. 3}
See this:
the discernment
of the Tathagatas,
like a fire ablaze in the night,
giving light, giving eyes,
to those who come,
subduing their doubt.
See also: Ud 5.7 (Kankharevata = Revata the Doubter).



Bhalliya (Thag 1.7) {v. 7}
Who scatters the troops
of the King of Death —
as a great flood,
a very weak bridge made of reeds —
is victorious,
for his fears are dispersed.
He's tamed,
unbound,
steadfast in himself.



Vanavaccha (Thag 1.13) {v. 13}
The color of blue-dark clouds,
glistening,
cooled with the waters
of clear-flowing streams
covered with ladybugs:
those rocky crags
refresh me.



Vanavaccha's pupil (Thag 1.14) {v. 14}
My preceptor said to me:
Let's go from here, Sivaka.
My body stays in the village,
my mind has gone to the wilds.
Even though I'm lying down,
I go.
There's no tying down
one who knows.



Belatthasisa (Thag 1.16) {v. 16}
[Alternate translation: Hecker/Khema.]
Just as a fine thoroughbred steed,
with swishing tail & mane
runs with next-to-no effort,
so my days & nights
run with next-to-no effort
now that I've gained a happiness
not of the flesh.



Singalapita (Thag 1.18) {v. 18}
There was an heir to the One Awakened,
a monk in the Bhesakala forest,
who suffused this whole earth
with the perception of
"bones."
Quickly, I'd say, he abandoned
sensual passion.



Nigrodha (Thag 1.21) {v. 21}
I'm not afraid of danger,
of fear.
Our Teacher's adept
in the Deathless.
Where danger, where fear
do not remain:
that's the path
by which the monks go.



Cittaka (Thag 1.22) {v. 22}
Peacocks,
crested, blue, with gorgeous necks,
cry out
in the Karamvi woods,
thrilled by the cold wind.
They awaken the sleeper
to meditate.



Gosala (Thag 1.23) {v. 23}
I — having eaten honey-rice
in a bamboo patch
and rightly grasping the aggregates'
arising-disbanding —
will return to the hillside, intent
on seclusion.



Nandiya (to Mara) (Thag 1.25) {v. 25}
Like splendor, his mind,
continually fruitful:
Attack a monk like that,
you Dark One,
and you'll fall
into pain.



Abhaya (Thag 1.26) {v. 26}
Hearing the well-spoken words
of the Awakened One,
Kinsman of the Sun,
I pierced what is subtle —
as if, with an arrow,
the tip of a horse-tail hair.



Harita (Thag 1.29) {v. 29}
Harita,
raise yourself up-
right
and, straightening your mind
— like a fletcher, an arrow —
shatter ignorance
to bits.



Suppiya (Thag 1.32) {v. 32}
I'll make a trade:
aging for the Ageless,
burning for the Unbound:
the highest peace,
the unexcelled rest
from the yoke.



Tissa (Thag 1.39) {v. 39}
As if struck by a sword,
as if his head were on fire,
a monk should live the wandering life
— mindful —
for the abandoning of sensual passion.



Sirivaddha (Thag 1.41) {v. 41}
Lightning lands on the cleft
between Vebhara & Pandava,
but,
having gone to the cleft in the mountains,
he's absorbed in jhana — the son
of the one without compare,
the one who is Such.



Sumangala (Thag 1.43) {v. 43}
So freed! So freed!
So thoroughly freed am I
from three crooked things:
my sickles, my shovels, my plows.
Even if they were here,
right here,
I'd be done with them,
done.
Do jhana, Sumangala.
Do jhana, Sumangala.
Sumangala, stay heedful.



Ramaneyyaka (Thag 1.49) {v. 49}
Even with all the whistles & whistling,
the calls of the birds,
this, my mind, doesn't waver,
for my delight is in
oneness.



Vimala (Thag 1.50) {v. 50}
The earth's sprinkled
with rain, wind
is blowing, lightning
wanders the sky,
but my thoughts are stilled,
well-centered
my mind.



Kutiviharin (1) (Thag 1.56) {v. 56}
Who's in the hut?
A monk's in the hut —
free from passion,
with well-centered mind.
Know this, my friend:
The hut you built
wasn't wasted.



Kutiviharin (2) (Thag 1.57) {v. 57}
This was your old hut,
and you aspire to another,
new hut.
Discard your hope for a hut, monk.
A new hut will be
painful all over again.1
1. Compare Dhp 153-154.



Vappa (Thag 1.61) {v. 61}
One who sees
sees who sees,
sees who doesn't.
One who doesn't see
doesn't
see who sees
or who doesn't.



Ekuddaniya (Thag 1.68) {v. 68}
Exalted in mind & heedful:
a sage trained in sagacity's ways.
He has no sorrows, one who is Such,1
calmed & ever mindful.
1. Tadi: "Such," an adjective to describe one who has attained the goal. It
indicates that the person's state is indefinable but not subject to change or
influences of any sort.



Manava (Thag 1.73) {v. 73}
On seeing an old person;
&
a person in pain, diseased;
&
a person dead, gone to life's end,
I left
for the life gone forth,
abandoning the sensuality
that entices the heart.



Susarada (Thag 1.75) {v. 75}
Good the sight
of the well-rectified:
Doubt is cut off,
intelligence grows.
Even fools
they make wise —
so the company of the true
is good.



Nita (Thag 1.84) {v. 84}
Asleep the whole night,
delighting in company by day:
when, when
will the fool
bring suffering & stress
to an end?



Sunaga (Thag 1.85) {v. 85}
Adept in a theme for the mind,
sensing the savor of solitude,
practicing jhana,
masterful, mindful,
you'd attain a pleasure
not of the flesh.



Nagita (Thag 1.86) {v. 86}
Outside of this path,
the path of the many
who teach other things
doesn't go to Unbinding
as does this:
Thus the Blessed One
instructs the Community,
truly showing the palms of his hands.1
1. This is a reference to the fact that the Buddha was an "open-handed" teacher
who held nothing back. See DN 16. The suttas addressed to Nagita are among the
most plain-spoken passages in the Canon. See AN 5.30, AN 6.42, and AN 8.86.



Eraka (Thag 1.93) {v. 93}
Sensual pleasures are stressful,
Eraka.
Sensual pleasures aren't ease.
Whoever loves sensual pleasures
loves stress, Eraka.
Whoever doesn't,
doesn't love stress.



Cakkhupala (Thag 1.95) {v. 95}
I'm blind,
my eyes are destroyed.
I've stumbled
on a wilderness track.
Even
if I must crawl,
I'll go on,
but not with an evil companion.



Khitaka (Thag 1.104) {v. 104}
How light my body!
Touched by abundant
rapture & bliss,
— like a cotton tuft
borne on the breeze —
it seems to be floating
— my body!



Jenta (Thag 1.111) {v. 111}
Going forth is hard;
houses are hard places to live;
the Dhamma is deep;
wealth, hard to obtain;
it's hard to keep going
with whatever we get:
so it's right that we ponder
continually
continual
inconstancy.



Vanavaccha (Thag 1.113) {v. 113}
With clear waters &
massive boulders,
frequented by monkeys &
deer,
covered with moss &
water weeds,
those rocky crags refresh me.



Kimbila (Thag 1.118) {v. 118}
As if sent by a curse,
it drops on us —
aging.
The body seems other,
though it's still the same one.
I'm still here
& have never been absent from it,
but I remember myself
as if somebody else's.



Isidatta (Thag 1.120) {v. 120}
The five aggregates,
having been comprehended,
stand with their root
cut through.
For me
the ending of stress
is reached;
the ending of fermentations,
attained.