Mahāvaccha — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Two · Poem 2 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; a short verse with no closing attribution
Speaker
An unnamed voice describing Mahāvaccha, or instructing in general terms
Form
One four-line verse
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
★☆☆☆☆ — a compact checklist of qualities
Why this text
Mahāvaccha's verse reads as a checklist: empowered by wisdom, precepts and observances intact, serene, absorbed, mindful, eating only what is needed — and on that basis, ‘await one's time here, free of desire’, a striking way to describe simply waiting for death.
Reading guide
A senior counterpart to the chapter's opening poem
‘Mahāvaccha’ means ‘senior Vaccha’, following directly on Cūḷavaccha, ‘junior Vaccha’. Where Cūḷavaccha's verse named a single cause (joy) and a single result (peace), this verse lists five or six qualities together without singling any one out as primary.
Waiting for death described as a practice
The verse's closing instruction, ‘await one's time here, free of desire’, treats the interval before death itself as something to be lived a certain way — not urgency to escape the body, but an ongoing discipline of eating only what is needed and remaining without craving.
Wisdom paired with ethical intactness, not opposed to it
The verse opens by pairing ‘empowered by wisdom’ directly with ‘precepts and observances intact’ in the same line — wisdom and ethical conduct presented as running together, not as separate or competing concerns.
Key terms
paññābalī — “empowered by wisdom” — the verse's opening quality.
sīlavatūpapanno — “endowed with precepts and observances” — paired directly with wisdom in the verse's first line.
jhānarato — “loving absorption” or “delighting in meditative absorption” — one of the verse's middle qualities.
vītarāgo — “free of desire” — the state in which this verse says one should await one's time.
kālaṁ — “one's time”, here meaning the time of death — the object of the verse's closing instruction, kaṅkhetha kālaṁ, ‘await your time’.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Empowered by wisdom, with precepts and observances intact, serene, loving absorption, mindful, eating just the needed food, one should await one’s time here, free of desire.
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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 'Mahāvaccha' mean, following on Cūḷavaccha's verse just before it?
Correct: B. Senior to Cūḷavaccha's 'junior Vaccha' in the poem right before this one.
Question 2 of 10
How does this verse's structure compare to Cūḷavaccha's verse just before it?
Correct: A. A checklist rather than a single cause-and-effect claim.
Question 3 of 10
What does the verse's closing instruction, 'await one's time here, free of desire', describe?
Correct: D. Death treated as something to be lived toward a certain way, not merely awaited passively.
Question 4 of 10
How does the verse relate wisdom and ethical conduct?
Correct: C. Named side by side, not in competition.
Question 5 of 10
What does this verse say about eating?
Correct: D. One of the qualities named among the verse's checklist.
Question 6 of 10
What does 'vītarāgo' mean?
Correct: C. The state in which this verse says one should await one's time.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'jhānarato' describe?
Correct: A. One of several qualities named in this verse's checklist.
Question 8 of 10
Does this verse's closing instruction describe urgency to escape the body?
Correct: B. Waiting itself framed as the practice, not something to rush past.
Question 9 of 10
How many qualities does this verse's checklist name in total?
Correct: A. Wisdom, precepts, calm, absorption, mindfulness, and moderate eating.
Question 10 of 10
Where does this poem fall in Chapter Two?
Correct: B. Following directly on the chapter's first poem.
