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 14 (“The Shroud of Ignorance”) — together, craving and ignorance are the two forces the tradition names as sustaining the entire cycle of transmigration
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — a single image, stated and then developed in verse
Why this discourse, fifteenth
Immediately after naming ignorance as the shroud that covers beings most thoroughly, the Itivuttaka turns to a second image for a second cause: craving as a fetter, binding beings to the same long wandering. Where Iti 14 pictured something that covers, this discourse pictures something that binds and travels alongside — craving as a fellow traveler on a journey no one chose to take.
Reading guide
A fetter, not a shroud
The shift in image from the previous discourse is deliberate and worth noticing. A shroud covers; a fetter (saṃyojana) binds and restrains movement while still permitting a kind of forced motion — exactly the paradox the verse develops, where craving is described not as something that stops a person but as a “partner” that travels with them precisely because they are bound to it. The prose statement itself is direct: “I do not see a single fetter, fettered by which people wander and transmigrate for a long time like the fetter of craving.”
Craving as companion, not merely obstacle
The verse’s central image is unusually intimate for this kind of spare text: “Craving is a person’s partner as they transmigrate on this long journey.” A partner accompanies; it is close, familiar, perhaps even trusted. That framing captures something the more clinical language of “fetter” alone might miss — craving doesn’t simply block or restrain from outside, it rides along, state to state, precisely because it has been mistaken for something worth keeping.
“From this state to another”
The verse’s next line names the mechanism directly: “They go from this state to another, but don’t escape transmigration.” Movement alone, in other words, isn’t freedom. A being can change states, circumstances, even entire realms of rebirth, and still remain exactly as bound as before, because what binds them — craving itself — has travelled along unchanged.
The second stanza: knowing the danger
The verse turns, in its second half, from diagnosis to response: “Knowing this danger, that craving is the cause of suffering — rid of craving, free of grasping, a mendicant would wander mindful.” Notably, the verb “wander” recurs here too, but transformed: the aimless wandering of transmigration becomes, for the mendicant who has seen craving’s danger clearly, a different kind of wandering altogether — free of grasping, undertaken mindfully rather than compelled.
Reading it beside Iti 14
Taken together, these two discourses name what the wider tradition treats as the two principal forces sustaining rebirth: ignorance, clouding what is seen, and craving, pulling toward what is wanted. Neither discourse explains how the two relate to each other technically; each simply gives its own cause the fullest possible weight, in its own image, before moving on.
Key terms
taṇhā — craving, the subject of this discourse, named as a fetter binding beings to prolonged rebirth.
saṃyojana — “fetter,” the discourse’s central image, distinct from the “shroud” image used for ignorance in Iti 14.
“a person’s partner” — the verse’s intimate image for craving, accompanying a being through the long journey of transmigration.
“from this state to another” — the verse’s observation that mere change of circumstance, without giving up craving, does not amount to escape.
wandering, transformed — the verse’s closing image of a mendicant who, free of craving and grasping, “would wander mindful” — the same verb used for aimless transmigration, now describing something deliberate.
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 fetter, fettered by which people wander and transmigrate for a long time like the fetter of craving. Fettered by craving, people wander and transmigrate for a long time.”
The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3–4“Craving is a person’s partner as they transmigrate on this long journey. They go from this state to another, but don’t escape transmigration.
Knowing this danger, that craving is the cause of suffering— rid of craving, free of grasping, a mendicant would wander mindful.”
§5This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
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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 fetters beings to long transmigration more than anything else?
Correct: C. “I do not see a single fetter… like the fetter of craving.”
Question 2 of 10
What image does the verse use to describe craving?
Correct: B. “Craving is a person’s partner as they transmigrate on this long journey.”
Question 3 of 10
According to the verse, is simply moving “from this state to another” enough to escape transmigration?
Correct: D. Movement alone is not freedom; craving itself must be given up.
Question 4 of 10
What does the verse's second stanza say a mendicant who knows craving's danger will do?
Correct: A. The same verb, “wander,” is transformed from aimless transmigration into mindful practice.
Question 5 of 10
How does the reading guide distinguish this discourse's central image from Iti 14's?
Correct: B. The shift from covering to binding-and-accompanying is a deliberate change of figure.
Question 6 of 10
What two forces do Iti 14 and Iti 15, read together, present as sustaining the entire cycle of rebirth?
Correct: C. Ignorance clouds what is seen; craving pulls toward what is wanted.
Question 7 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 8 of 10
What, according to the verse, is craving explicitly called?
Correct: D. “Knowing this danger, that craving is the cause of suffering…”
Question 9 of 10
How are the verse's two stanzas held together in the source text, according to the reading guide?
Correct: A. Reproduced here exactly as found in the source.
Question 10 of 10
What word does the verse use twice, first for aimless transmigration and then for the mendicant's mindful practice?
Correct: C. The same verb is transformed from compelled wandering into deliberate, mindful wandering.
