The Pāsāṇaka Shrine in Magadha, within Bāvarī’s frame narrative (see Snp 5.1)
Questioner
Kappa, the tenth of Bāvarī’s sixteen student-brahmins
Form
Four verses built around a single extended image: a flood, and the island that ends it
Length
~1 minute to read
Position
Tenth of sixteen questions in the Pārāyanavagga
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a single vivid image carrying the entire teaching
Why this discourse
Kappa asks for something almost anyone facing hardship has wanted at some point: an island, solid ground amid a flood that is sweeping everything away. His flood is old age and death; his island turns out to be a description of nibbāna itself, given here in some of the most stripped-down language found anywhere in the canon — “having nothing, taking nothing.” It is one of the collection’s most quoted definitions of the goal, precisely because it offers no elaborate metaphysics, only a complete letting go.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
To those “stuck mid-stream” in the flood of old age and death, the Buddha names an island that ends the flood for good: having nothing and taking hold of nothing at all — which he calls, directly, extinguishment (nibbāna), the ending of old age and death.
Stuck mid-stream
Kappa’s request is urgent and concrete: “for those overwhelmed by old age and death, stuck mid-stream as the terrifying flood arises, tell me an island, good fellow.” The flood (ogha) is a standing image across the early texts for the forces that sweep beings through repeated rebirth — sensuality, becoming, views, and ignorance are elsewhere named as its four specific currents. Here the image stays general and visceral: a person caught in open water, with nothing solid underfoot, watching the shore recede. Kappa doesn’t ask for a raft or a route across; he asks for an island — something that simply stops the sweeping motion where a person already stands.
An island with nothing further
The Buddha’s answer is exact and repeats Kappa’s own language back to him before supplying the image: “having nothing, taking nothing: this is the island with nothing further.” The phrase is worth sitting with. It doesn’t describe a place to stand so much as a complete absence of grasping — no possessions held onto, inwardly or outwardly, and no further act of taking hold of anything at all. Because there is nothing left to lose, there is nothing left for the flood to sweep away. The Buddha then names this state outright: “I call it extinguishment, the ending of old age and death” — one of the plainest, least mystified definitions of nibbāna offered anywhere in the Pāli canon.
Quenched in this very life
The closing verse locates this not in some future rebirth but in the present: “those who have fully understood this, mindful, are quenched in this very life” (diṭṭheva dhamme). They no longer “fall under Māra’s sway, nor are they his footmen” — Māra, the personification of death and of everything that keeps beings circling within it, no longer has anything to hold onto in such a person, since they hold onto nothing themselves.
Two different islands
It is worth distinguishing this island from a more famous one elsewhere in the canon. In the Buddha’s final teaching before his death (DN 16), he tells Ānanda to be “your own island” (attadīpā), taking the self and the teaching as refuge rather than looking outward for one. That image is about where to stand while still practicing. Here, the island is not the self at all but the complete absence of anything grasped as self or possession — nibbāna itself, not a support for the path but its very culmination. The two similes share an image without sharing a referent, and it is easy to conflate them if read quickly.
Key terms
ogha — “flood,” a standard image for the forces (elsewhere enumerated as sensuality, becoming, views, and ignorance) that sweep beings through repeated rebirth.
akiñcanaṃ anādānaṃ — “having nothing, taking nothing,” the discourse’s central phrase, offered here as a direct definition of nibbāna.
diṭṭheva dhamme — “in this very life,” locating the “quenching” this discourse describes in present experience rather than a future rebirth.
Māra’s footmen — those still under Māra’s sway, contrasted with the one who, having nothing, gives Māra nothing to hold onto.
The text
The discourse in full — four verses, the entirety of Kappa’s exchange with the Buddha. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“For those overwhelmed by old age and death,”
said Venerable Kappa,
“stuck mid-stream
as the terrifying flood arises,
tell me an island, good fellow.
Explain to me an island
so this may occur no further.”
§2“For those overwhelmed by old age and death,”
replied the Buddha,
“stuck mid-stream
as the terrifying flood arises,
I shall tell you an island, Kappa.
§3Having nothing, taking nothing:
this is the island with nothing further.
I call it extinguishment,
the ending of old age and death.
§4Those who have fully understood this, mindful,
are quenched in this very life.
They don’t fall under Māra’s sway,
nor are they his footmen.”
· · ·
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 does Kappa ask the Buddha for?
Correct: B. He asks specifically for an island, not a route across — something that stops the sweeping motion entirely.
Question 2 of 10
According to the reading guide, what does the "flood" (ogha) represent in early Buddhist texts generally?
Correct: C. It is a standing image across the early texts, not unique to this passage.
Question 3 of 10
What is the Buddha's answer, describing the island?
Correct: A. The Buddha repeats Kappa's own opening language before supplying this image.
Question 4 of 10
What does the Buddha explicitly call this "island with nothing further"?
Correct: D. The reading guide calls this one of the plainest definitions of nibbāna offered anywhere in the Pāli canon.
Question 5 of 10
When does the discourse say this "quenching" occurs for those who fully understand it?
Correct: B. The text locates the quenching in present experience, not a future state.
Question 6 of 10
What does the closing verse say about such a person's relationship to Māra?
Correct: C. This connects directly to the "having nothing" theme of the whole discourse.
Question 7 of 10
How does the reading guide distinguish this island from the "be your own island" (attadīpā) image in DN 16?
Correct: A. The reading guide flags this as easy to conflate if read quickly.
Question 8 of 10
Kappa is which of Bāvarī's sixteen student-brahmins?
Correct: D. He follows Todeyya (ninth) and precedes Jatukaṇṇī (eleventh).
Question 9 of 10
What Pali phrase does the reading guide identify as the discourse's central definition of nibbāna?
Correct: B. This phrase is repeated by the Buddha directly back to Kappa before he names it as extinguishment.
Question 10 of 10
Why does the reading guide call this discourse's definition of the goal notably "stripped-down"?
Correct: C. This directness is part of why the phrase is so frequently quoted on its own.
