Suyāmana — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Eight · Poem 4 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; a compact doctrinal enumeration
Speaker
An unnamed voice describing, in terms of ‘a monk’ rather than ‘I’, what is absent from him
Form
One four-line verse, listing five qualities as wholly absent
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 naming a well-known list
Why this text
Chapter Eight's fourth poem returns to the teaching register of its opener: a compact list of five qualities — sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness, and doubt — declared ‘not found in a monk at all’. It is the collection's first explicit enumeration of the five hindrances, a standard doctrinal category well known throughout the wider canon.
Reading guide
The five hindrances, named in one breath
The verse lists, in order, kāmacchanda (‘sensual desire’), byāpāda (‘ill will’), thīnamiddha (‘dullness and drowsiness’, treated as one combined item), uddhacca (‘restlessness’), and vicikicchā (‘doubt’). Together these are the five hindrances (pañca nīvaraṇāni), a standard and well-known category throughout the wider canon — broadly comparable, as a piece of basic doctrinal background, to the numeric formula Thag 1.15 (Kuṇḍadhāna) relied on without unpacking its terms either.
A fourth item, alone
In its most common canonical form, the fourth hindrance is a compound, uddhacca-kukkucca (‘restlessness and remorse’). This verse names only uddhaccaṁ, ‘restlessness’, without its usual paired companion. Read together with the four other named items, the list still totals the traditional five hindrances; this is most likely a matter of verse meter rather than a different accounting of the standard set, though the verse itself gives no comment on the omission.
A monk, not an 'I'
The verse's grammar speaks of ‘a monk’ (bhikkhuno) rather than using the first person. This could describe Suyāmana himself, spoken of indirectly, or a general ideal that any monk might meet; the verse does not distinguish between the two, and this reading guide does not resolve it. Either way, it shares its third-person, teaching-like register with Thag 1.71, which opened this chapter — the two general teaching-poems bracketing the chapter's more personal and narrative verses so far.
Key terms
kāmacchanda — “sensual desire” — the first of the five hindrances named in this verse.
byāpāda — “ill will” — the second hindrance.
thīnamiddha — “dullness and drowsiness” — the third hindrance, treated as one combined item.
uddhacca — “restlessness” — named alone here, without its usual paired companion kukkucca (‘remorse’).
vicikicchā — “doubt” — the fifth and final hindrance named in this verse.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness, and doubt are not found in a monk at all.
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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 five qualities does this verse list as absent?
Correct: C. Pañca nīvaraṇāni, a standard doctrinal category.
Question 2 of 10
What does 'thīnamiddha' name?
Correct: D. The third of the five hindrances in this verse's list.
Question 3 of 10
Does this verse speak in the first person ('I') or of 'a monk' in general?
Correct: A. The verse's grammar; this reading guide does not resolve whether it describes the speaker himself.
Question 4 of 10
What does this reading guide note about the verse's fourth item, 'uddhaccaṁ'?
Correct: B. The list still totals the traditional five hindrances.
Question 5 of 10
What is this verse's significance for the collection so far?
Correct: C. No prior poem in the collection has listed this standard set.
Question 6 of 10
What does 'vicikicchā' mean?
Correct: D. The fifth hindrance named in the verse.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'byāpāda' mean?
Correct: A. The second of the five hindrances in this verse's list.
Question 8 of 10
How does this poem's register compare to Thag 1.72 and Thag 1.73, the two poems before it?
Correct: B. It shares its register instead with Thag 1.71, the chapter's opener.
Question 9 of 10
What comparable earlier poem in this collection uses a similarly unglossed doctrinal list?
Correct: A. Both rely on standard categories without unpacking them within the verse.
