Khuddaka Nikaya
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Theragatha

Verses of the Elder Monks

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Theragatha III

(Selected suttas)

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

III.5 -- Matangaputta

It's too cold,
too hot,
too late in the evening --
people who say this,
shirking their work:
the moment passes them by.
Whoever regards cold & heat
as no more than grass,
doing his manly duties,
won't fall away
from ease.
With my chest
I push through wild grasses --
spear-grass,
ribbon-grass,
rushes --
cultivating
a seclusion heart.

III.8 -- Yasoja

His limbs knotted
like a kala plant,
his body lean
& lined with veins,
knowing moderation
in food & drink:
the man of undaunted heart.

Touched by gnats
& horseflies
in the wilds,
the great wood,
like an elephant
at the head of a battle:
he, mindful,
should stay there
endure.

One alone is like Brahma,
two, like devas,
three, like a village,
more than that:
a hullabaloo.

[See also: Ud III.3.]

III.12 -- Abhibhuta

Listen, kinsmen, all of you,
as many as are assembled here.
I will teach you the Dhamma:
Painful is birth,
again & again.

Rouse yourselves.
Go forth.
Apply yourselves
to the Awakened One's bidding.
Scatter the army of Death
as an elephant would
a shed made of reeds.

He who,
in this doctrine & discipline,
remains heedful,
abandoning birth,
the wandering-on,
will put an end
to suffering & stress.

III.14 -- Gotama

While wandering on
I went to hell;
went again & again
to the world of the hungry shades;
stayed countless times, long,
in the pain of the animal womb;
enjoyed
the human state;
went to heaven
from time to time;
settled in the elements of form,
the elements of formlessness,
neither-perception, perception-less.

Ways of taking birth
are now known:
devoid of essence,
unstable,
conditioned,
always driven along.
Knowing them
as born from my self,
mindful
I went right to peace.

III.15 -- Harita (2)

Whoever wants to do later
what he should have done first,
falls away from the easeful state
& later repents.

One should speak
as one would act,
& not
as one wouldn't.
When one speaks without acting,
the wise, they can tell.

How very easeful:
Unbinding,
as taught by the Rightly
Self-awakened One --
sorrowless,
dustless,
secure,
where stress
& suffering
cease.