Thag 1
Single Verses: (selected passages)
(excerpt)
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
X

The updated version is freely available at

This version of the text might be out of date. Please click here for more information

Subhuti (Thag 1.1)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 29}

Harita, raise yourself up- right and, straightening your mind — like a fletcher, an arrow — shatter ignorance to bits.

Suppiya (Thag 1.32)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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]

Note

1.
Compare Dhp 153-154.

Vappa (Thag 1.61)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 68}

Exalted in mind & heedful: a sage trained in sagacity's ways. He has no sorrows, one who is Such, [1] calmed & ever mindful.

Note

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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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]

Note

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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 113}

With clear waters & massive boulders, frequented by monkeys & deer, covered with moss & water weeds, those rocky crags refresh me.

Kimbila (Thag 1.118)   {Thag 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)   {Thag 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.