Reading guide
A rebuff addressed to a specific, if unnamed, temptation
The opening three verses' catalogue of adornment — rouged feet, powdered face, eyeshadow, hair in eight braids — reads less like this collection's more general body-contemplation poems (Thag 6.4, Thag 10.5, Thag 16.2) and more like a direct response to a specific attempt at seduction, each verse closing on the identical refrain: ‘enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore’.
A deer that ate the bait but evaded the trap
Verses six and seven turn to a hunting simile with an unmistakably self-referential edge: ‘the hunter laid his snare, but the deer didn't spring the trap. I've eaten the bait and now I go, leaving the trapper to lament’. This site's own MN 82, With Raṭṭhapāla, already tells the episode this simile appears to recall directly: his father's attempt to win him back to lay life by dressing his former wives to seduce him, an attempt Raṭṭhapāla saw through entirely.
An extended teaching, addressed directly to a king
From the eighth verse onward, the poem shifts audience: ‘I see rich people in the world who, because of delusion, give not the money they've earned’, building through a king who ‘conquered the earth by force’ yet still yearns for more, to the universal fact that wealth cannot buy longevity, ward off old age, or follow anyone past death. Twice the poem addresses ‘rāja’, ‘O King’, directly — this same royal audience is already documented in MN 82, where Raṭṭhapāla's teaching to King Koravya is narrated at length in prose.
A funeral scene narrated in unflinching physical detail
Verses eleven and twelve don't merely mention death; they stage it: relatives with disheveled hair lamenting, the body wrapped in a shroud, placed on a pyre, ‘poked with stakes while being burnt, in just a single cloth, all wealth gone’. Few passages anywhere in this collection narrate a cremation this specifically.
A bandit caught and punished: karma as inevitable consequence
The eighteenth verse's simile is procedural rather than visceral: ‘as a bandit caught in a window is punished for his own bad deeds, so after departing, in the world beyond, people are punished for their own bad deeds’ — karma described not as cosmic justice from outside but as the same ordinary consequence that follows any caught wrongdoer.
A closing that names the king explicitly, twice
Unlike most poems in this collection, whose closing testimony addresses no one in particular, verses nineteen and twenty explicitly name ‘rāja’ as the poem's addressee at the exact hinge point where Raṭṭhapāla turns from general teaching to his own personal reason for going forth: ‘seeing danger in sensual stimulations, I went forth, O King.’
Key terms
The text
§1“See this fancy puppet, a body built of sores, diseased, obsessed over, in which nothing lasts at all.
§2See this fancy figure, with its gems and earrings; it is bones encased in skin, made pretty by its clothes.
§3Rouged feet and powdered face may be enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore.
§4Hair in eight braids and eyeshadow may be enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore.
§5A rotting body all adorned like a freshly painted makeup box may be enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore.
§6The hunter laid his snare, but the deer didn’t spring the trap. I’ve eaten the bait and now I go, leaving the trapper to lament.
§7The hunter’s snare is broken, but the deer didn’t spring the trap. I’ve eaten the bait and now I go, leaving the deer-hunter to grieve.”
§8“I see rich people in the world who, because of delusion, give not the money they’ve earned. Greedily, they hoard their riches, yearning for ever more sensual pleasures.
§9A king who conquered the earth by force, ruling the land from sea to sea, unsatisfied with the near shore of the ocean, would still yearn for the further shore.
§10Not just the king, but others too, reach death not rid of craving. They leave the body still wanting, for in this world sensual pleasures never satisfy.
§11Relatives lament, their hair disheveled, saying ‘Ah! Alas! They’re not immortal!’ They take out the body wrapped in a shroud, heap up a pyre, and burn it there.
§12It’s poked with stakes while being burnt, in just a single cloth, all wealth gone. Relatives, friends, and companions can’t help you when you’re dying.
§13Heirs take your riches, while beings fare on according to their deeds. Riches don’t follow you when you die; nor do children, wife, wealth, nor kingdom.
§14Longevity isn’t gained by riches, nor does wealth banish old age; for the attentive say this life is short, it’s perishable and not eternal.
§15The rich and the poor feel its touch; the fool and the attentive one feel it too. But the fool lies stricken by their own folly, while the attentive don’t tremble at the touch.
§16Therefore wisdom’s much better than wealth, since by wisdom you reach consummation in this life. But if because of delusion you don’t reach consummation, you’ll do evil deeds in life after life.
§17One who enters a womb and the world beyond, will transmigrate from one life to the next. While someone of little wisdom, placing faith in them, also enters a womb and the world beyond.
§18As a bandit caught in a window is punished for his own bad deeds; so after departing, in the world beyond, people are punished for their own bad deeds.
§19Sensual pleasures are diverse, sweet, delightful, appearing in disguise they disturb the mind. Seeing danger in sensual stimulations, I went forth, O King.
§20As fruit falls from a tree, so the sons of Manu fall, young and old, when the body breaks up. Seeing this, too, I went forth, O King; it’s a sure bet that the ascetic life is better.”
§21“I went forth out of faith joining the victor’s dispensation. My going forth wasn’t wasted; I enjoy my food free of debt.
§22I saw sensual pleasures as burning, gold as a cutting blade, conception in a womb as suffering, and the hells as very fearful.
§23Knowing this danger, I was struck with a sense of urgency. I was stabbed, but then I found peace, attaining the end of defilements.
§24I’ve served the teacher and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions. The heavy burden is laid down, the leash to existence is eradicated.
§25I’ve reached the goal for the sake of which I went forth from the lay life to homelessness—the ending of all fetters.”
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