Khuddaka Nikaya - Theragatha 10

Khuddaka Nikaya - Theragatha 10

Thag 10.1
Kaludayin Thera
Crossing the Rohini
(excerpt)
Translated from the Pali by
Andrew OlendzkiPTS: vv. 527-529



Source: Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.



Copyright © 2005 Andrew Olendzki.
Access to Insight edition © 2005
For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted,
reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish,
however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available
to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and
other derivative works be clearly marked as such.



Crimson now, Sir, are the trees of the forest,
Having shed their foliage, they're eager to fruit,
(Their flowers are) blazing forth like brilliant flames,
— It is a luscious time of year, Great Hero.

The blossoming trees, so pleasing to the mind,
Spread their fragrance in every direction,
Surrendering their leaves and longing for fruit;
— The time has come to depart from here, Hero.

It is neither too cold, nor again too hot,
The season is pleasant, suited for travel.
My Lord, let the Sakyas and Koliyas see you
— Facing westward and crossing the Rohini.



Translator's note
These verses are said to have been uttered by Udayin (nick-named Kala Udayin or
"Dark Udayin"). He was the son of king Suddhodhana's chief minister, and is said
to have been the childhood companion of prince Siddhartha. Soon after Gotama's
awakening, the king sent several messengers to ask his son to return home. Each
one, upon hearing the Buddha's teaching, apparently joined his movement and gave
up the king's mission. Finally Suddhodhana sends Kaludayin, who agrees on
condition that he can become a follower of the Buddha upon getting him to return
home for a visit.
The Rohini river runs through the heart of the Buddha's homeland, marking the
border between the lands of the Sakyas and the Koliyas (his father's and
mother's families, respectively). Since the verses are uttered in Rajagaha, well
to the southeast, a returning journey would face the traveler westward. One
commentary says that Kaludayin went on for sixty stanzas of this beautiful
nature poetry before asking the Buddha to return, but we only have the first few
of these. The language is rich and evocative of spring sights and smells. It is
composed in a meter of eleven syllables per line.
The Buddha does indeed go home soon after his awakening, where he picks up a
number of family members to join his order. These include his half brother
(Nanda), several cousins (Ananda, Anuruddha, and Devadatta), and his son
(Rahula). Eventually his wife (Yosodhara), step-mother (Mahapajapati) and many
other Sakyas will also become nuns and monks.


Thag 10.2
Ekavihariya
Dwelling Alone

Copyright © 2003 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Access to Insight edition © 2003
For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted,
reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish,
however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available
to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and
other derivative works be clearly marked as such.



Translator's note: This poem, which is attributed to King Asoka's younger
brother, falls into three parts: the first expresses his initial desire to leave
the life of the palace and go into the forest; the second depicts his going
forth; and the third announces his Awakening. Some scholars have suggested that
many of the poems dealing with events in the lives of the early Buddhist monks
and nuns may have originally been intended for dramatic performance, and this
poem could easily have been written with that intent. The language of the
original, with its heavy use of poetic terms, certainly indicates that the
author had a literate background and was writing for a sophisticated audience.



If, in front or behind,
there is no one else,
it's extremely pleasant
for one staying alone
in the forest.

Come then! Alone
I will go to the wilderness
praised by the Awakened One
pleasant for a resolute monk
dwelling alone.

Alone,
astute in my goal,
I'll quickly enter the grove
— refreshing,
giving rapture
to meditators —
the haunt
of elephants in rut.

When the Cool Forest's in full flower,
in a cool mountain gorge,
having bathed my limbs
I'll walk back & forth.
alone.

Ah, when will I dwell,
alone and free from companions,
in the refreshing great forest —
my task done,
fermentation-free?

As I desire to do this,
may my purpose succeed.
I myself
will bring it about.
No one can do it
for anyone else.



I myself
bind on my armor.
I will enter the grove
and will not emerge
without having attained
fermentations' end.

While soft breezes blow —
cool,
heavily, fragrantly scented —
I'll make ignorance burst,
as I sit on a mountaintop.

In the forest covered with blossoms
or perhaps on a cool hillside,
blessed with the bliss of release,
on Giribbaja I'll delight. 1



I am now he
whose resolves are fulfilled
like the moon on a full-moon night.
With all fermentations
totally ended,
there is now no further becoming.



Note
1. Giribbaja is the ring of mountains surrounding Vulture's Peak.


Thag 10.5
Kappa

Full of the many clans of impurities,
the great manufacturer of excrement,
like a stagnant pool,
a great tumor,
great wound,
full of blood & lymph,
immersed in a cesspool,
trickling liquids, the body
is oozing foulness — always.
Bound together with sixty sinews,
plastered with a stucco of muscle,
wrapped in a jacket of skin,
this foul body is of no worth at all.
Linked together with a chain of bones,
stitched together with tendon-threads,
it produces its various postures,
from being hitched up together.
Headed surely to death,
in the presence of the King of Mortality,
the man who learns to discard it right here,
goes wherever he wants.

Covered with ignorance,
the body's tied down with a four-fold tie,1
sunk in the floods,2
caught in the net of latencies,3
conjoined with five hindrances,4
given over to thought,
accompanied with the root of craving,
roofed with delusion's roofing.
That's how the body functions,
compelled by the compulsion of kamma,
but its attainment ends
in ruin.
Its many becomings go
to ruin.

These who hold to this body as mine
— blind fools, people run-of-the-mill —
fill the horrific cemetery,
taking on further becoming.
Those who stay uninvolved with this body
— as they would with a serpent
smeared with dung —
disgorging the root of becoming,5
from lack of effluent,
will be totally Unbound.



Notes
1. The four-fold tie: greed, ill will, attachment to precepts & practice, and
dogmatic obsession with views.
2. Floods: passion for sensuality, becoming, views, and ignorance.
3. Latencies: pride, ignorance, lust, aversion, uncertainty, delusion, and
craving for becoming.
4. Hindrances: sensual desire, ill will, sloth & drowsiness, restlessness &
anxiety, and uncertainty.
5. The root of becoming: craving.