Khuddaka Nikaya
---o0o---
Theragatha
Verses of the Elder Monks
---o0o---
Theragatha IV
(Selected suttas)
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
IV.8 -- Rahula
In both ways
consummate,[1]
I'm known as Rahula
the Fortunate:
because I'm the son of the Buddha,
because I've the eye that sees Dhammas,
because my fermentations are ended,
because I've no further becoming.
I'm deserving of offerings,
a worthy one
a three-knowledge man,[2]
with sight
of the Deathless.
Those
blinded by sensuality
covered by the net,
veiled by the veil of craving,
bound by the Kinsman of the heedless,[3]
are like fish in the mouth of a trap.
Throwing that sensuality aside,
cutting through Mara's bond,
pulling out craving, root & all,
cooled am I,
Unbound.
Notes
1.This phrase can be taken in two ways: (a) consummate in that he has a pure lineage on both his mother's and his father's side; and (b) consummate in that he belongs both to a well-born lineage in the worldly sense and, by means of his meditative attainments, to the lineage of the noble ones. [Go back]
2.One with knowledge of past lives, knowledge of the passing away and rearising of living beings, and knowledge of the ending of mental fermentations. [Go back]
3.Mara. [Go back]