Vimala — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Five · Poem 10 of 10
Setting
A storm of celestial origin: a mythical lake pouring, a Vedic wind-god's breeze, lightning across the sky
Speaker
Vimala, reporting his own stilled mind
Form
One four-line verse, followed in the Pali by an untranslated chapter colophon and mnemonic summary 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
★☆☆☆☆ — mythological storm imagery closing a chapter that opened the same way
Why this text
‘The celestial lake Dharaṇī pours, the heavenly gale blows, and lightning flashes across the sky!’ Vimala's verse closes Chapter Five exactly as it opened — a storm, drawn from inherited mythological vocabulary, set against a mind ‘stilled’ and ‘serene’.
Reading guide
A chapter's bookend, completed
Sirivaḍḍha's verse (Thag 1.41) opened this chapter with lightning over a mountain cleft, absorption undisturbed inside it. This closing poem returns to the same pairing — storm outside, stillness within — completing a matched frame around all ten poems of Chapter Five.
Storm imagery drawn from named mythology
Sujato's note identifies Dharaṇī as an allusion to a specific celestial lake, the traditional source of rain, and Māluto as a poetic word for ‘breeze’ derived from the Maruts, the Vedic storm gods — this verse's weather is not generic, but built from inherited, named mythological vocabulary.
A closing word shared with Samiddhi's verse
Susamāhitaṁ, ‘serene’ or ‘well immersed’, closes this verse exactly as it closed Samiddhi's (Thag 1.46) earlier in this same chapter — a small echo of vocabulary within Chapter Five's own ten poems.
A chapter's own close, left untranslated
As at the end of Chapters One through Four, the Pali text here carries vaggo pañcamo, ‘the fifth chapter is finished’, followed by an uddāna naming all ten monks of this chapter in sequence: Sirivaḍḍha, Revata of the Acacia Wood, Sumaṅgala, Sānu, Ramaṇīyavihārin, Samiddhi, Ujjaya, Sañjaya, Rāmaṇeyyaka, and Vimala. Sujato's translation leaves both untranslated, and neither appears in this page's text below.
Key terms
Dharaṇī — the celestial lake traditionally understood as the source of rain, per a reference at DN 32.
Māluto — a poetic word for “breeze”, derived from the Maruts, Vedic gods of the thunderstorm.
vijjutā — “lightning” — closing this verse's list of storm imagery.
vitakka — “thoughts” — what this verse says are stilled, despite the storm around them.
susamāhita — “serene” or “well immersed” — the same word closing Samiddhi's verse (Thag 1.46) earlier in this chapter.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1The celestial lake Dharaṇī pours, the heavenly gale blows, and lightning flashes across the sky! But my thoughts are stilled, my mind is serene.
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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 three elements of a storm does this verse name?
Correct: A. The verse's opening list of celestial storm imagery.
Question 2 of 10
According to Sujato's note, what does 'Dharaṇī' refer to?
Correct: C. An allusion referenced at DN 32.
Question 3 of 10
What does 'Māluto' derive from, per the note?
Correct: B. Inherited mythological vocabulary for 'breeze'.
Question 4 of 10
What earlier poem in this chapter does this verse's structure echo, opening and closing the chapter alike?
Correct: D. A matched pair of storm-and-stillness poems bookending Chapter Five.
Question 5 of 10
What word closes this verse and also closes Samiddhi's verse (Thag 1.46)?
Correct: D. A small echo of vocabulary within this chapter's own poems.
Question 6 of 10
What does the Pali text carry immediately after this poem, left untranslated by Sujato?
Correct: B. The same untranslated colophon pattern seen at the end of Chapters One through Four.
Question 7 of 10
Does this page's text include that closing uddāna?
Correct: B. Consistent with how this site handles untranslated structural material.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'vitakka' mean?
Correct: A. What this verse says are stilled, despite the storm around them.
Question 9 of 10
How many monks' verses make up Chapter Five in total?
Correct: A. Sirivaḍḍha through Vimala, named in sequence in the untranslated uddāna.
Question 10 of 10
How many more chapters remain in the Book of the Ones after this one?
Correct: C. Twelve chapters in total make up the Book of the Ones.
