Reading guide
The only monk in this saṃyutta who speaks first
Every other discourse in Vanasaṃyutta opens with the deity initiating contact; here the monk's own complaint, spoken to no one in particular, comes first, and only then does the sympathetic deity respond to what it overhears.
Self-pity built from a specific, sensory trigger
The complaint isn't abstract loneliness; it's provoked by something concrete and audible — the sound of musical instruments carrying from the city's all-night celebration — giving the monk's self-pity a precise, situational origin.
An image of self-abandonment: a discarded log
‘Like a log dumped in the forest’ is a striking, almost bitter image for the monk's own chosen solitude, framing deliberate forest-dwelling as involuntary discard rather than intentional practice.
The deity's reply reusing, not replacing, his own words
Rather than offering a fresh image of its own, the deity's verse repeats the monk's exact description — alone in the wilderness, a log dumped in the forest — word for word, before attaching an entirely different conclusion to the same picture.
A reversal built on genuine envy, not mere consolation
The closing simile doesn't simply reassure the monk that his situation isn't so bad; it claims the opposite of his complaint entirely — that many people envy him, the way beings in hell might envy those bound for heaven — turning his exact self-description into evidence of enviable standing.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time a certain Vajjian mendicant was staying near Vesālī in a certain forest grove. Now at that time the Vajjis were holding an all-night event in Vesālī. Then that mendicant, complaining at the noise of musical instruments being beaten and played, on that occasion spoke this verse:
§2“We dwell alone in the wilderness, like a log dumped in the forest. On a night like this, who’s worse off than me?”
§3The deity haunting that forest had sympathy for that mendicant, and wanted what’s best for them. So they approached that mendicant wanting to stir them up, and addressed them in verse:
§4“You dwell alone in the wilderness, like a log dumped in the forest. Lots of people are jealous of you, like beings in hell of those going to heaven.”
§5Impelled by that deity, that mendicant was struck with a sense of urgency.
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