None given — like almost every Itivuttaka discourse, no place, audience, or occasion is named
Form
The same three defilements as Iti 56, followed by a single verse describing the person who has ended all three, with no separate closing frame line
Segments
14 (iti57:1.1–4.1)
Length
Under 1 minute to read
Parallel
No complete Chinese Itivuttaka survives for comparison; no specific parallel is asserted here
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — brief, but its closing image of Māra’s defeat gives it more color than Iti 56
Why this discourse, fifty-seventh
Iti 57 returns to the same three defilements named in Iti 56 — sensuality, desire to be reborn, ignorance — but where Iti 56’s verse described the process of understanding, this one describes the person on the far side of it: someone who has ended the defilement of sensuality, whose ignorance has faded, whose desire to be reborn is finished, “having vanquished Māra with his legions.” It is also structurally distinct: this is one of the discourses in this run of ten whose closing frame line is compressed into a single final segment rather than following a separate short paragraph.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The same three defilements as Iti 56 — sensuality, desire to be reborn, ignorance — are here described from the far side of their ending: a liberated person, bearing their final body, who has “vanquished Māra with his legions.”
From process to portrait
Iti 56 described a method: understand the defilements, their cause, their cessation, the path to that cessation. Iti 57 skips the method and paints a finished portrait instead — someone for whom sensuality has “ended,” ignorance has “faded away,” and the desire to be reborn is “finished.” The three verbs are not identical in shape (ended, faded, finished), which reads less like a rigid formula and more like three slightly different ways of describing the same completed release, matched loosely to the specific character of each defilement.
“Their final body”
The phrase “they bear their final body” is a standard description of an arahant, someone for whom no further rebirth will occur; the body currently alive is, by definition, the last one. Pairing this description directly with the ending of the three defilements makes explicit what the āsavas are ultimately about: not moral failings in a narrow sense, but the specific conditions that keep rebirth going.
Māra and his legions
The verse’s final image — “having vanquished Māra with his legions” — is more vivid than anything in Iti 56, and it connects this discourse forward to Iti 59, which describes slipping free of “Māra’s dominion” through mastery of ethics, immersion, and wisdom. Māra, personifying death and the forces that bind beings to further existence, is defeated here specifically through the ending of the desire to be reborn — the very thing that, according to the tradition, keeps beings within his reach.
Key terms
the defilement of sensuality, ended — the first of the three defilements, here described as already brought to completion.
ignorance, faded away — the third defilement, described with a gentler verb than the others, suggesting a gradual dissolving rather than a sudden cutting-off.
their final body — the standard description of an arahant, for whom the currently living body is the last one there will be.
Māra — the personification of death and of the forces binding beings to further existence; defeated here through the ending of the desire to be reborn.
“with his legions” — an image of Māra’s army, developed at length elsewhere (see Snp 3.2) as a list of specific unwholesome forces.
The text
The discourse in full — brief prose and a single verse, ending directly on the closing frame line without a separate final segment. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, there are these three defilements. What three? The defilements of sensuality, desire to be reborn, and ignorance. These are the three defilements.” The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3“One who has ended the defilement of sensuality, whose ignorance has faded away, and whose desire to be reborn is finished— liberated, free of attachments, they bear their final body, having vanquished Māra with his legions.”
§4This 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 are the “three defilements” named in this discourse?
Correct: C. The same three defilements named in Iti 56.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse say the liberated person has vanquished?
Correct: B. “Having vanquished Māra with his legions.”
Question 3 of 10
What phrase describes this person's relationship to future rebirth?
Correct: D. The standard description of an arahant, for whom no further rebirth will occur.
Question 4 of 10
According to the reading guide, how does this discourse differ from Iti 56 in its approach to the same three defilements?
Correct: A. The reading guide describes this as a shift “from process to portrait.”
Question 5 of 10
What verb does the verse use for the fading of ignorance, as distinct from the other two defilements?
Correct: C. A gentler verb than “ended” (sensuality) or “finished” (desire to be reborn).
Question 6 of 10
According to the reading guide, what does Māra personify?
Correct: B. Defeated here specifically through the ending of the desire to be reborn.
Question 7 of 10
Which later discourse in this same run does the reading guide connect to this one via the image of Māra?
Correct: D. Both discourses use Māra imagery to describe the same underlying freedom.
Question 8 of 10
How many segments make up this discourse, and what is distinctive about its structure compared to most others in this run?
Correct: A. Unlike Iti 51–56 and Iti 58, its final frame line is segment 4.1 rather than a separate 5.1.
Question 9 of 10
Does this discourse give a narrative setting?
Correct: C. The text moves directly from the opening formula to the teaching.
Question 10 of 10
What word describes this person's state in the verse, alongside “liberated”?
Correct: B. “Liberated, free of attachments, they bear their final body.”
