Reading guide
Opening a new book with this collection's most sustained narrative
Where most poems in this collection open on reflection or a brief episode, this poem opens the Book of the Twenties with a full scene: a bandit gang who has just killed before, now facing a captive who shows no fear at all. The dialogue runs for four full exchanges before Adhimutta's own extended teaching even begins.
A dozen similes for fearlessness, in rapid succession
Verses four through ten pile up distinct images for why death holds no terror: laying down a burden, a disease finally passing, poison tasted then spat out, escaping a burning house, refusing to grab a red-hot iron ball. No single simile is asked to carry the whole argument; instead the poem overwhelms by sheer accumulation.
A brief rehearsal of not-self, before the crisis resolves
The eleventh verse states plainly: ‘it doesn't occur to me, “I existed in the past”; nor, “I will exist in the future”. Conditions will vanish — why weep over that?’ A doctrine usually unpacked at length elsewhere in the canon is compressed here into a single verse, delivered under genuine threat of death rather than in seated reflection.
An instruction for his own corpse
The fifteenth verse offers the bandits explicit permission: ‘do what you want with my corpse. I won't be angry or attached on account of that.’ This isn't merely philosophical detachment stated in the abstract; it's addressed directly to the people about to decide his body's fate.
Conversion narrated within the poem itself, not just claimed by the speaker
The final three verses report an outcome most poems in this collection leave implicit or don't address at all: the bandits, astonished, lay down their weapons; some abandon their former way of life, others go forth ‘in the teaching of the Holy One’ and themselves ‘realized the state of extinguishment, the unconditioned’. A single poem narrates not only Adhimutta's own equanimity but a group conversion and, implicitly, several further attainments.
A second Adhimutta, sharing only the name
This site's own Thag 1.114 already gives an entirely different Adhimutta a single sharp verse rebuking someone's false claim to ascetic contentment — unrelated in content, register, and setting to this poem's extended bandit narrative, disambiguated here by the same ordinal convention used throughout this collection for repeated names.
Key terms
The text
§1“Those who we killed in the past, whether for sacrifice or for wealth, without exception were afraid; they trembled and they squealed.
§2But you’re not scared; you look even calmer than before. Why don’t you cry out in such a terrifying situation?”
§3“There isn’t any mental suffering for one without concern, village chief. All fears are left behind by one whose fetters have ended.
§4When the leash to existence is ended, and the truth is seen as it is, there is no fear of death; it’s like laying down a burden.
§5I’ve lived the spiritual life well, and developed the path well, too. I do not fear death; it’s like the passing of a disease.
§6I’ve lived the spiritual life well, and developed the path well, too. I’ve seen that there’s nothing gratifying in existences, like someone who has tasted poison, then thrown it out.
§7One who has gone beyond, without grasping, they’ve completed the task and are free of defilements. They are content at the end of life, like someone released from execution.
§8Having realized the supreme Dhamma, without needing anything in the whole world, one doesn’t grieve at death; for it’s like escaping from a burning house.
§9Whatever has come to pass, wherever life is obtained, there is no Lord of all that: so said the great seer.
§10Whoever understands this as it was taught by the Buddha doesn’t grab on to any new life, like you wouldn’t grab a hot iron ball.
§11It doesn’t occur to me, ‘I existed in the past’; nor, ‘I will exist in the future’. Conditions will vanish—why weep over that?
§12Seeing truly the bare arising of phenomena, and the bare process of conditions, there is no fear, village chief.
§13The world is like grass and sticks: when this is seen with wisdom, not finding anything to be mine, you won’t grieve, thinking ‘I don’t have it’.
§14I’m fed up with the body; I have no need for another life. This body will be broken up, and there won’t be another.
§15Do what you want with my corpse. I won’t be angry or attached on account of that.”
§16When they heard these words, so astonishing and hair-raising, the young men laid down their swords and spoke these words:
§17“What have you practiced, Venerable? And who is your tutor? Whose instructions do we follow to gain the sorrowless state?”
§18“The knower of all, the seer of all: the victor is my tutor. He is a Teacher of great compassion, healer of the whole world.
§19He taught this Dhamma, leading to ending, unsurpassed. Following his instructions, you can gain the sorrowless state.”
§20When the bandits heard the good words of the seer, they laid down their swords and weapons. Some refrained from their former deeds, while others chose the going-forth.
§21Having gone forth in the teaching of the Holy One, those astute ones developed the awakening factors and the powers. Elated, happy, their faculties complete, they realized the state of extinguishment, the unconditioned.
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