Meṇḍasira — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Eight · Poem 8 of 10
Setting
A retrospective declaration of liberation, opening with a well-known shared formula
Speaker
Meṇḍasira, in the first person
Form
One four-line verse: a borrowed opening, then an independent close
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 notable borrowing
Why this text
This verse's first two lines — ‘Transmigrating through countless rebirths, I've journeyed without reward’ — are identical, word for word in both Pali and Sujato's English, to the opening of Dhammapada verse 153: the celebrated couplet traditionally recited as the Buddha's own exultant cry on the night of his awakening, as this site's own Dhammapada guide (Dhp 11) describes it. But where Dhp 153 continues into the famous ‘house-builder’ image, completed in Dhp 154, this verse takes the same opening somewhere else entirely.
Reading guide
A famous opening, borrowed
Compared directly against this site's own Dhammapada pages, this verse's first two lines match Dhp 153 exactly: the same Pali, and the same English translation. Dhp 153 opens the Dhammapada's celebrated 'house-builder' couplet (153–154), traditionally associated with the moment of the Buddha's own awakening — a genuinely famous piece of shared canonical language, not an obscure coincidence.
A different ending
Dhp 153 continues, 'searching for the house-builder; painful is birth again and again', resolved in Dhp 154's triumphant 'I've seen you, house-builder!' This verse instead closes with 'for me, born to suffering, the mass of suffering is now shattered' — no house-builder, no construction imagery at all. This reading guide does not assert why the opening was redirected this way: whether this reflects an independent verse built on a common formulaic opening, or a deliberate variation on the famous couplet, is not something the text itself settles.
A name describing an animal's head
Meṇḍasira reads literally as meṇḍa (‘ram, sheep’) plus sira (‘head’) — ‘ram's head’. The verse gives no account of why this elder carried the name, and this reading guide does not speculate beyond the plain meaning of the compound itself.
Key terms
saṁsāra — “the cycle of rebirth” — the countless transmigration named in this verse's opening line, shared word for word with Dhp 153.
gahakāraka — “house-builder” — the central image of Dhp 153–154, notably absent from this verse despite its shared opening.
dukkhakkhandha — “the mass of suffering” — what this verse says has ‘fallen away’, in place of Dhp 153–154's house-building imagery.
Meṇḍasira — “ram's head” — meṇḍa (‘ram’) plus sira (‘head’).
Jarāvagga — “Old Age”, the Dhammapada chapter (verses 146–156) containing Dhp 153–154, this verse's shared opening.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Transmigrating through countless rebirths, I’ve journeyed without reward. I’ve suffered, but now the mass of suffering has fallen away.
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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 do this verse's first two lines match, word for word?
Correct: D. Confirmed by direct comparison with this site's own Dhammapada pages.
Question 2 of 10
What moment is Dhp 153–154 traditionally associated with, according to this site's own Dhammapada guide?
Correct: A. As described on this site's Dhp 11 (Jarāvagga) page.
Question 3 of 10
Does this verse continue into the Dhammapada's famous 'house-builder' image after its shared opening?
Correct: B. The shared wording is limited to the opening two lines.
Question 4 of 10
What does this verse actually conclude with, instead of the house-builder image?
Correct: D. Dukkhakkhandho aparaddho, the verse's own closing line.
Question 5 of 10
What does the name Meṇḍasira literally mean?
Correct: D. Meṇḍa ('ram') plus sira ('head').
Question 6 of 10
What does 'gahakāraka' mean?
Correct: A. The central image of Dhp 153–154, absent from this verse's own ending.
Question 7 of 10
Does this reading guide assert a specific reason why this verse's ending diverges from Dhp 153–154?
Correct: B. The text itself does not settle the question.
Question 8 of 10
In which Dhammapada chapter does Dhp 153 appear?
Correct: C. Verses 146–156, on the body's fragility and decay.
Question 9 of 10
How much of Dhp 153–154's wording, in total, is shared with this verse?
Correct: C. The match is a shared opening, not a full-verse repetition.
Question 10 of 10
What kind of textual connection does this verse have to the Dhammapada, according to this reading guide?
