{"collection":"Khuddaka Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_thag19.1/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_thag19.1","id":"suttacentral_thag19.1","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/thag19.1/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Khuddaka Nikaya"],"text":"Oh, when will I stay in a mountain cave, alone, with no companion, discerning all states of existence as impermanent? This hope of mine, when will it be? Oh, when will I stay happily in the forest, a sage wearing a torn robe, dressed in ocher, unselfish, with no need for hope, with greed, hate, and delusion destroyed? Oh, when will I stay alone in the wood, fearless, discerning this body as impermanent, a nest of death and disease, harried by death and old age; when will it be? Oh, when will I live, having grasped the sharp sword of wisdom and cut the creeper of craving that tangles around everything, the mother of fear, the bringer of suffering? When will it be? Oh, when will I, seated on the lion\u2019s throne, swiftly grasp the sword of the seers, forged by wisdom, of awesome might, and swiftly break M\u0101ra and his army? When will it be? Oh, when will I be seen in the assemblies with those who are virtuous, unaffected, respecting the Dhamma, seeing things as they are, with faculties subdued? When will it be? Oh, when will I focus on my heart\u2019s goal in the Mountainfold, free of oppression by laziness, hunger, thirst, wind, heat, bugs, and reptiles? When will it be? Oh, when will I, serene and mindful, understand the four truths, that were realized by the great seer, and are so very hard to see? When will it be? Oh, when will I, devoted to serenity, see with understanding the infinite sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas as burning? When will it be? Oh, when will I not be distraught because of criticism, nor elated because of praise? When will it be? Oh, when will I discern the aggregates and the infinite varieties of phenomena, those interior and exterior, as no more than wood, grass, and creepers? When will it be? Oh, when will the monsoon clouds in season freshly wet me in my robe in the forest, walking the path trodden by the seers? When will it be? Oh, when will I rise up, intent on attaining freedom from death, hearing, in the mountain cave, the cry of the crested peacock in the forest? When will it be? Oh, when will I cross by psychic power unobstructed the Ganges, Yamun\u0101, and Sarasvat\u012b; and that place where one is thrown in the abyss, the horrifying Mare\u2019s Mouth? When will it be? Oh, when will I be devoted to absorption, shunning all the signs of beauty, splitting apart desire for sensual stimulation, like an elephant that wanders free of ties? When will it be? Oh, when will I realize the teaching of the great seer and be content, like a pauper in debt harassed by creditors, who finds a hidden treasure? When will it be? For many years you begged me, \u201cEnough of living in a house for you!\u201d Why do you not urge me on, mind, now that I\u2019ve gone forth as an ascetic? Didn\u2019t you entice me, mind: \u201cIn the Mountainfold, the birds with colorful wings, greeting the thunder, Mahinda\u2019s voice, will delight you as you meditate in the forest?\u201d In my family circle, friends, loved ones, and relatives; and in the world, sports and play, and sensual pleasures; all these I gave up when I entered this life: and even then you\u2019re not content with me, mind! This is mine alone, it doesn\u2019t belong to others; when it is time to don your armor, why lament? Observing that all this is unstable, I went forth, seeking the state free of death. He whose words are well-composed, supreme among people, great physician, guide for those fit to train, said: \u201cThe mind fidgets like a monkey, so it\u2019s very hard to control if you are not free of lust.\u201d Sensual pleasures are diverse, sweet, delightful; an ignorant ordinary person is bound to them. Seeking to be reborn again, they wish for suffering; led on by their mind, they\u2019re banished to hell. \u201cStaying in the grove resounding with cries of peacocks and herons, and adorned by leopards and tigers, abandon concern for the body, without fail!\u201d So you used to urge me, mind. \u201cDevelop the absorptions and spiritual faculties, the powers, awakening factors, and immersion; realize the three knowledges in the teaching of the Buddha!\u201d So you used to urge me, mind. \u201cDevelop the eightfold path to realize freedom from death emancipating, its objective being the end of all suffering, and cleansing all defilements!\u201d So you used to urge me, mind. \u201cReflect rationally on the aggregates as suffering, and abandon that from which suffering arises; make an end of suffering in this very life!\u201d So you used to urge me, mind. \u201cRationally discern that impermanence is suffering, that emptiness is non-self, and that gloom is death. Uproot the wandering mind!\u201d So you used to urge me, mind. \u201cBald, unsightly, accursed, seek alms amongst families, bowl in hand. Devote yourself to the word of the Teacher, the great seer!\u201d So you used to urge me, mind. \u201cWander among the street markets well-restrained, mentally unchained to families and sensual pleasures, like the full moon on a bright night!\u201d So you used to urge me, mind. \u201cBe a wilderness-dweller and an alms-eater, one who lives in charnel grounds, a rag-robe wearer, one who never lies down, always delighting in ascetic practices.\u201d So you used to urge me, mind. Mind, when you urge me to the impermanent and unstable, you\u2019re acting like someone who plants trees, then, when they\u2019re about to fruit, wishes to cut down the very same trees. Incorporeal mind, far-traveler, lone-wanderer: I won\u2019t do your bidding any more. Sensual pleasures are suffering, painful, and very dangerous; I\u2019ll wander with my mind focused only on extinguishment. I didn\u2019t go forth due to bad luck or shamelessness, or due to a whim or banishment, nor for the sake of a livelihood; it was because I agreed to the promise you made, mind. \u201cHaving few wishes, abandoning disparagement, the settling of suffering: these are praised by true persons.\u201d So you used to urge me, mind, but now you keep on with your old habits! Craving, ignorance, the loved and unloved, pretty sights, pleasant feelings, and the delightful kinds of sensual stimulation: I\u2019ve vomited them up, I can\u2019t swallow them back. I\u2019ve done your bidding everywhere, mind! For many births, I\u2019ve done nothing to upset you. Yet the creation in myself is because of your ingratitude\u2014 for a long time I\u2019ve transmigrated in the suffering you\u2019ve made. Only you, mind, make a brahmin; you make an aristocrat or a royal seer. Sometimes we become peasants or menials; and life as a god is also on account of you. You alone make us titans; because of you we\u2019re born in hell. Then sometimes we become animals, and life as a ghost is also on account of you. Come what may, you won\u2019t betray me again, dazzling me with your ever-changing display! You play with me like I\u2019m mad\u2014 but how have I ever failed you, mind? In the past my mind wandered how it wished, where it liked, as it pleased. Now I\u2019ll carefully guide it, as a trainer with a hook guides a rutting elephant. The teacher willed that this world appear to me as impermanent, unstable, insubstantial. Mind, let me leap into the victor\u2019s teaching, carry me over the great flood, so hard to pass. Things have changed, mind! Nothing could make me return to your control! I\u2019ve gone forth in the teaching of the great seer, those like me don\u2019t come to ruin. Mountains, oceans, rivers, the earth; the four quarters, the intermediate directions, below and in the sky; the three realms of existence are all impermanent and harried\u2014 where can you go to find happiness, mind? Mind, what will you do to someone who has made the ultimate commitment? Nothing could make me a follower under your control, mind; I\u2019d never touch a bellows with a mouth open at each end; curse this mortal frame flowing with nine streams! You\u2019ve ascended the mountain peak, full of nature\u2019s beauty, frequented by boars and antelopes, a grove sprinkled with fresh water in the monsoon; and there you\u2019ll be happy in your cave-home. Peacocks with beautiful necks and crests, colorful tail-feathers and wings, crying out at the resounding thunder: they\u2019ll delight you as you meditate in the forest. When the heavens have rained, and the grass is four inches high, and the grove is full of flowers like a cloud, between the mountains, like the fork of a tree, I\u2019ll lie; it will be as soft as cotton-buds. I\u2019ll act rather as a master does: let whatever I get be enough for me. And that\u2019s why I\u2019ll make you as supple as a tireless worker makes a cat-skin bag. I\u2019ll act rather as a master does: let whatever I get be enough for me. I\u2019ll control you with my energy, as a skilled trainer controls an elephant with a hook. Now that you\u2019re well-tamed and reliable, I can use you, like a trainer uses a straight-running horse, to practice the path of grace, cultivated by those who take care of their minds. I shall strongly fasten you to a meditation subject, as an elephant is tied to a post with firm rope. You\u2019ll be well-guarded by me, well-developed by mindfulness, and unattached to rebirth in all states of existence. With wisdom you\u2019ll cut short the one following the wrong path, curb them by meditation, and settle them on the right path. Having seen arising and passing away with respect to the cause of suffering, you\u2019ll be an heir to the greatest teacher. Under the sway of the four distortions, mind, you dragged me around like a bull in a pit; but now you won\u2019t associate with the great sage of compassion, the cutter of fetters and bonds? Like a deer roaming free in the colorful forest, I\u2019ll ascend the lovely mountain wreathed in monsoon clouds, and rejoice to be on that hill, free of folk\u2014 there is no doubt you\u2019ll perish, mind. The men and women who live under your will and command, whatever pleasure they experience, they are ignorant and fall under M\u0101ra\u2019s control; loving life, they\u2019re your disciples, mind.","title":"T\u0101lapu\u1e6da","tradition":"Khuddaka Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":1710}