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]