Mendicants in general — no named individual, no location, no occasion is given
Form
A single prose declaration followed by a two-stanza verse, all held within one continuous quotation
Length
Under a minute to read
Pairing
Companion to Iti 15 (“The Fetter of Craving”) — together, ignorance and craving are the two roots the tradition names for the entire cycle of transmigration
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — a single image, stated and then developed in verse
Why this discourse, fourteenth
Having spent seven discourses working through specific mental states one at a time — greed, hate, delusion, anger, disdain — the Itivuttaka steps back here to name something more fundamental: not a particular unwholesome state but the condition that keeps every one of them possible. Ignorance, this discourse says, is a shroud — a single covering — and no other thing shrouds beings and keeps them circling through birth after birth as long as this one does.
Reading guide
A single image, not a list
Unlike the run of discourses just before it, this text doesn’t apply a formula across a series of defilements. It makes one claim about one thing: “I do not see a single shroud… like the shroud of ignorance.” The image is worth sitting with. A shroud covers completely; it doesn’t merely obscure part of the view, it wraps around the whole of it. The claim is comparative and absolute at once — among everything that might keep a being covered over and circling through rebirth, nothing does it as thoroughly, or for as long, as ignorance.
“Wander and transmigrate for a long time”
The phrase repeated in both the prose and the verse — wandering and transmigrating — names the long, repeated cycle of rebirth (saṅsāra) without needing to spell the word out. What ignorance does, on this account, is not cause a single bad rebirth but sustain the entire ongoing process: as long as the shroud remains, the wandering continues, day after day, night after night, for however long it takes for the covering to be removed.
The verse: darkness named twice
The verse’s two stanzas mirror the prose’s own two-part structure. The first restates the claim in slightly different language — “there is no other thing that shrouds people like ignorance,” now paired with “veiled by delusion, they transmigrate day and night,” drawing the same connection between ignorance and delusion made elsewhere in this literature. The second stanza turns to what happens when the shroud is removed: “those who have given up delusion, shattering the mass of darkness, wander no more.” The image of shattering a “mass of darkness” is stronger than simply lifting a covering — it suggests something dense and solid enough to require real force to break through.
“The root is not found in them”
The verse’s closing line is easy to read past too quickly. It doesn’t just say that those who have given up delusion stop transmigrating; it says the root itself — whatever it is that would cause further wandering — can no longer be located in them at all. That is a claim about a change in what a person fundamentally is, not merely about what they do or where they end up next.
A pair with what follows
Read together with Iti 15 immediately after it, this discourse forms a natural pair. Ignorance (avijjā) and craving (taṇhā) are named elsewhere in the tradition as the two forces that, between them, drive and sustain the entire process of rebirth — ignorance clouding what is seen, craving pulling toward what is wanted. Placing these two discourses back to back, each built on its own central image (a shroud, then a fetter), lets each cause be considered fully on its own terms before the next one is introduced.
Key terms
avijjā — ignorance or nescience, the “shroud” this discourse names as the single greatest cause of prolonged wandering through rebirth.
wander and transmigrate — the discourse’s repeated phrase for the ongoing cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra), named through its motion rather than defined abstractly.
the mass of darkness — the verse’s image for what must be “shattered,” not merely lifted, for the shrouding to end.
“the root is not found in them” — the verse’s closing claim: a change in what a person fundamentally is, once delusion is given up, not merely in their next destination.
avijjā and taṇhā — ignorance and craving, named as a pair across this discourse and the one immediately following it (Iti 15).
The text
The discourse in full. The verse’s two stanzas are held within a single continuous quotation in the source text, reproduced here as one block. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, I do not see a single shroud, shrouded by which people wander and transmigrate for a long time like the shroud of ignorance. Shrouded by ignorance, people wander and transmigrate for a long time.”
The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3–4“There is no other thing that shrouds people like ignorance. Veiled by delusion, they transmigrate day and night.
Those who have given up delusion, shattering the mass of darkness, wander no more, the root is not found in them.”
§5This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
· · ·
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What single thing does the Buddha say shrouds beings and keeps them transmigrating longer than anything else?
Correct: B. “I do not see a single shroud… like the shroud of ignorance.”
Question 2 of 10
What image does this discourse use for ignorance?
Correct: C. The shroud image is the discourse’s central figure, distinguishing it from Iti 15’s fetter image.
Question 3 of 10
What must happen, according to the verse, for the shrouding to end?
Correct: A. “Shattering the mass of darkness” suggests something dense enough to require real force to break through.
Question 4 of 10
What does the verse's closing line, “the root is not found in them,” claim about those who have given up delusion?
Correct: D. The reading guide highlights this as a claim about a person’s fundamental nature, not just their circumstances.
Question 5 of 10
Which discourse does the reading guide identify as this one’s natural pair, immediately following it?
Correct: B. Ignorance and craving are named together elsewhere in the tradition as the two forces sustaining rebirth.
Question 6 of 10
Does this discourse follow the “complete understanding” formula used in Iti 7 through Iti 13?
Correct: C. This discourse steps back from the specific-defilement formula to name a more fundamental condition.
Question 7 of 10
What phrase does the discourse use, in both prose and verse, for the ongoing cycle of rebirth?
Correct: A. This phrase appears in both the prose statement and the verse.
Question 8 of 10
Does this discourse name a specific place, audience member, or occasion?
Correct: B. No location or named individual appears anywhere in the text.
Question 9 of 10
How are the verse’s two stanzas held together in the source text, according to the reading guide?
Correct: C. The reading guide reproduces this exactly as found in the source rather than adding a mark that isn’t there.
Question 10 of 10
What connection does the reading guide draw between ignorance and delusion in this discourse?
Correct: D. The verse’s language links ignorance and delusion without treating them as identical terms.
