Devasabha — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Ten · Poem 10 of 10
Setting
A description, closing this chapter's tenth and final poem
Speaker
An unnamed voice describing, in grammatically third-person terms, a person accomplished in practice
Form
One four-line verse, followed by the chapter's formulaic double closing
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching text for this poem in other Buddhist literatures.
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — plain vocabulary, one striking image
Why this text
Devasabha closes Chapter Ten describing someone accomplished in the four right efforts, ranging in mindfulness meditation, ‘festooned with the flowers of liberation’, who will be fully quenched. It also completes a pair begun in Chapter Nine: Thag 1.89, Devasabha (1st), and this verse are the two halves of the same disambiguated name.
Reading guide
Completing a pair begun last chapter
Thag 1.89 (Devasabha, 1st) was a first-person testimony listing five obstacles overcome — bogs, chasms, floods, ties, conceit. This verse, closing the pair, is the opposite in voice: entirely a description of someone else, with no first-person claim at all. The two same-named elders' verses could hardly differ more in register.
Grammatically third person, translated as 'you'
Sammappadhānasampanno, satipaṭṭhānagocaro, and the verse's other descriptive words are nominative singular forms — grammatically describing ‘he’ or ‘one who’, not addressing ‘you’ directly. Sujato's English nonetheless reads as direct address throughout. This is the third poem in this chapter, after Thag 1.98 and Thag 1.99, where the English ‘you’ represents a Pali construction that is grammatically impersonal or third person rather than a literal second-person address.
Two flowers, two chapters apart
Vimuttikusumasañchanno, ‘festooned with the flowers of liberation’, closes this chapter with a metaphorical bloom — liberation itself pictured as flowers covering the person who has attained it. This echoes, without repeating, Thag 1.96's actual single flower offering earlier in this same chapter: one a literal gift with an immense karmic result, the other a figurative garland standing for the result itself.
The chapter's double closing
As in every chapter so far, two more lines follow the poem itself, both left untranslated by Sujato: vaggo dasamo (‘the tenth chapter [ends]’), then an uddāna listing all ten names. This uddāna adds two more epithets not found in either elder's own verse: Mettaji becomes mettajī muni (‘Mettaji the sage’), and Uttiya becomes uttiyo mahāpañño (‘Uttiya of great wisdom’) — continuing the same pattern already seen in the uddānas closing Chapter Eight and Chapter Nine.
Key terms
sammappadhāna — “right effort” — traditionally counted as four, a standard doctrinal category.
satipaṭṭhāna — “mindfulness meditation”, literally “establishment of mindfulness” — also traditionally counted as four.
vimuttikusuma — “flower of liberation” — vimutti (‘liberation’) plus kusuma (‘flower’), this verse's central image.
sañchanna — “covered, festooned, strewn over” — describing how these flowers cover the person.
parinibbissati — “will be fully quenched” — a future-tense verb, closing the verse.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Accomplished in the four right efforts, mindfulness meditation is your range; festooned with the flowers of liberation, undefiled, you’ll be fully quenched.
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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 does this verse say the person it describes is accomplished in?
Correct: A. Sammappadhānasampanno, the verse's opening description.
Question 2 of 10
How does this verse's voice compare to Thag 1.89, Devasabha (1st)?
Correct: B. The two same-named elders' verses differ sharply in register.
Question 3 of 10
What image does this verse use for liberation?
Correct: A. Vimuttikusumasañchanno, 'festooned with the flowers of liberation'.
Question 4 of 10
How does this image relate to Thag 1.96, earlier in this same chapter?
Correct: C. A literal single-flower gift, versus a metaphorical garland of liberation.
Question 5 of 10
What two untranslated lines follow this verse, as in every chapter so far?
Correct: D. Vaggo dasamo, then the uddāna.
Question 6 of 10
What epithet does the chapter's uddāna add to Mettaji's name?
Correct: D. Mettajī muni, not found in his own verse.
Question 7 of 10
What epithet does the uddāna add to Uttiya's name?
Correct: C. Uttiyo mahāpañño, not found in his own verse.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'sañchanna' mean?
Correct: A. Describing how the flowers of liberation cover the person.
Question 9 of 10
Grammatically, are this verse's descriptive words nominative (describing 'he/one who') or vocative (addressing 'you')?
Correct: B. Sujato's English 'you' represents an impersonal or third-person Pali construction.
