Malitavambha — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Eleven · Poem 5 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; a general teaching about when to leave a place
Speaker
An unnamed voice giving general instruction
Form
One four-line verse, built on a paradox
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
★★☆☆☆ — compact, but its logic rewards a careful read
Why this text
This verse states a paradox: dissatisfied, one shouldn't stay; but even happy, one should still leave. The point isn't how a place makes you feel — it's whether the place actually serves ‘the goal’.
Reading guide
Leave regardless of feeling
The verse deliberately removes emotional state as the deciding factor: ukkaṇṭhitopi na vase, ‘dissatisfied, one should not stay’; ramamānopi pakkame, ‘even if happy, one should leave’. Both conditions — the negative and the positive — lead to the same instruction, which only makes sense once the verse reveals what the real criterion is.
The real criterion: does it serve the goal?
Anatthasaṁhita, ‘not conducive to the goal’, names what actually decides whether to stay or leave — not dissatisfaction, not happiness, but whether a place serves attha (‘the goal, the benefit’). Vicakkhaṇa, ‘one who sees clearly’, is the one credited with applying this criterion correctly, regardless of how the place happens to feel.
A structural cousin to an earlier paradox
Thag 1.76 (Piyañjaha), earlier in this collection, built an entire verse from four paired contrasts with no stated reason for any of them. This verse uses a similar structural move — instructing the same action under opposite conditions — but, unlike Thag 1.76, supplies its own reason: the goal, not the feeling, is what matters. Two poems using the same rhetorical pattern to opposite effect, one withholding an explanation and one supplying it.
Key terms
ukkaṇṭhita — “dissatisfied, discontented” — the verse's first named condition.
ramamāna — “delighting, happy” — the verse's second, opposite condition.
anatthasaṁhita — “not conducive to the goal” — an (negation) plus atthasaṁhita, describing what actually decides whether to stay.
attha — “the goal, the benefit” — what the verse says matters more than how a place feels.
vicakkhaṇa — “one who sees clearly, discerning” — the verse's term for someone who applies this criterion correctly.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Dissatisfied, one should not stay; and even if happy, one should leave. One who sees clearly wouldn’t stay in a place that was not conducive to the goal.
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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 the verse say one should do if dissatisfied with a place?
Correct: B. Ukkaṇṭhitopi na vase, the verse's first instruction.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse say one should do even if happy in a place?
Correct: C. Ramamānopi pakkame — feeling happy doesn't override the real criterion.
Question 3 of 10
What does the verse identify as the actual criterion for staying or leaving?
Correct: C. Anatthasaṁhitaṁ vase vāsaṁ vicakkhaṇo, the verse's key phrase.
Question 4 of 10
What does 'vicakkhaṇa' mean?
Correct: A. The verse's term for someone who applies the real criterion correctly.
Question 5 of 10
What earlier poem does this reading guide compare to this verse's paradoxical structure?
Correct: B. Both instruct the same action under opposite conditions.
Question 6 of 10
Does Thag 1.76 supply a stated reason for its own paradoxical instructions, the way this verse does?
Correct: D. This verse explicitly names the goal as its criterion; Thag 1.76 does not explain itself.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'ukkaṇṭhita' mean?
Correct: A. The first of the verse's two named conditions.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'attha' mean, as used in this verse?
Correct: D. What actually matters, according to the verse's own logic.
Question 9 of 10
What does 'ramamāna' mean?
Correct: A. The second, opposite condition named in the verse.
