{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/thig/thig5.htm","path":"bud/thig/thig5.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/thig/thig5.htm","text":"Intoxicated with my complexion\nfigure, beauty, & fame;\nhaughty with youth,\nI despised other women.\nAdorning this body\nembellished to delude foolish men,\nI stood at the door to the brothel:\na hunter with snare laid out.\nI showed off my ornaments,\nand revealed many a private part.\nI worked my manifold magic,\nlaughing out loud at the crowd.\nToday, wrapped in a double cloak,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 my head shaven,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 having wandered for alms,\nI sit at the foot of a tree\nand attain the state of no-thought.\nAll ties -- human & divine -- have been cut.\nHaving cast off all effluents,\ncooled am I,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 unbound.\n\"Sick, putrid, unclean:\nlook, Nanda, at this physical heap.\nThrough contemplation of the foul,\ndevelop your mind,\nmake it one, well-centered.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As this [your body], so that.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As that, so this.\nIt gives off a foul stench,\nthe delight of fools.\"\nConsidering it thus,\nuntiring, both day & night,\nI, with my own discernment\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 dissecting it,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 saw.\nAnd as I, heedful,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 examined it aptly,\nthis body -- as it actually is -- \nwas seen inside & out.\nThen was I disenchanted with the body\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 & dispassionate within:\nHeedful, detached,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 calmed was I.\nUnbound.\nGoing forth through conviction\nfrom home into homelessness,\nI wandered this place & that,\ngreedy for tribute & gains.\nMissing out on the foremost goal,\nI pursued a lowly one.\nUnder the sway of defilements\nI surrendered the goal\nof the contemplative life.\nThen, sitting in my dwelling,\nI suddenly came to my senses:\nI'm following a miserable path.After watching, as it actually was,\nI'm under the sway of\ncraving.\nNext to nothing, my life --\ncrushed\nby aging & illness.\nBefore the body breaks apart,\nI have no time\nfor heedlessness.\nthe rising & falling of aggregates,\nI stood up with mind released,\nthe Awakened One's bidding\ndone.\nTen children I bore\nfrom this physical heap.\nThen weak from that, aged,\nI went to a nun.\nShe taught me the Dhamma:\naggregates, sense spheres, & elements.\nHearing her Dhamma,\nI cut off my hair & ordained.\nHaving purified the divine eye\nwhile still a probationer,\nI know my previous lives,\nwhere I lived in the past.\nI develop the theme-less meditation,\nwell-focused oneness.\nI gain the liberation of immediacy --\nfrom lack of clinging, unbound.\nThe five aggregates, comprehended,\nstand like a tree with its root cut through.\nI spit on old age.\nThere is now no further becoming.\n\"Plowing the field with plows,\nsowing the ground with seed,\nsupporting their wives & children,\nyoung men gather up wealth.\nSo why is it that I,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 consummate in virtue,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a doer of the teacher's bidding,\ndon't gain Unbinding?\nI'm not lazy or proud.\"\nWashing my feet, I noticed\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 water.\nAnd in watching it flow from high\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 to\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 low,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 my heart was composed\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 like a fine thoroughbred steed.\nThen taking a lamp, I entered the hut,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 checked the bedding,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sat down on the bed.\nAnd taking a pin, I pulled out the wick:\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like the flame's unbinding\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 was the liberation\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of awareness.\n\"Taking the pestle,\nyoung men grind the corn.\nSupporting their wives & children,\nthey gather up wealth.\nDo the Awakened One's bidding,\nwhich, having done,\nyou'll have no regret.\nIntent on tranquillity of awareness,\ndo the Awakened One's bidding.\nQuickly:\nHaving washed your feet,\ngo sit to one side.\"\nHearing these words,\nPatacara's bidding,\nthey washed their feet\nand retired to one side.\nIntent on tranquillity of awareness,\nthey did the Awakened One's bidding.\nIn the first watch of the night,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 they recollected their previous lives.\nIn the middle watch,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 purified the divine eye.\nIn the last,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 burst the mass of darkness.\nGetting up, they bowed down to her feet.\n\"We have done your bidding.\nLike the thirty devas honoring Indra,\nunvanquished in battle,\nwe -- endowed with the three knowledges,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 effluent-free -- \nwill continue honoring you.\"\nBefore, I had fallen on evil times:\nno husband, no children,\nno relatives, friends,\nno way to obtain clothing & food.\nSo, taking a staff & bowl in hand,\nbegging for alms from house to house,\nfeverish from the cold & heat,\nI wandered for seven full years.\nThen seeing a nun\nobtaining food & drink,\nI approached her & said:\n\"Let me go forth into homelessness.\"\nShe, Patacara, from sympathy,\nlet me go forth;\nthen, exhorting me,\nurged me on to the highest goal.\nHearing her words,\nI did her bidding.\nHer exhortation was not in vain.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Endowed with the three knowledges,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I'm effluent-free.","title":"Therigatha V","type":"page"}