Reading guide
Praise from another voice, before the speaker's own testimony begins
The first nine verses describe Anuruddha in the third person, contrasting his former life ‘surrounded by song and dance, awakened by cymbals and gongs’ with his current rag-robe practice, closing each verse on the refrain ‘Anuruddha practices absorption’. Only from the tenth verse does his own voice take over for the remainder of the poem.
Fifty-five years without lying down to sleep
The thirteenth verse states a specific, dramatic claim: ‘for the last fifty-five years I have not lain down to sleep. Twenty-five years have passed since I eradicated drowsiness.’ Few claims of sustained physical discipline anywhere in this collection are this concretely quantified.
An eyewitness account of the Buddha's own parinibbāna
Verses fourteen through seventeen narrate, directly and without ceremony, the moment of the Buddha's death: ‘there was no more breathing for the unaffected one of steady heart... imperturbable, committed to peace, the Clear-eyed One was fully quenched’, ‘the liberation of his heart was like the extinguishing of a lamp’. This site's own DN 16, The Great Discourse on the Buddha's Extinguishment, already gives the fullest surviving account of this same event; no other poem in this collection offers a comparable first-person witness statement of it.
A name Sujato renders as a classical allusion
The seventeenth verse's English translation addresses ‘O Penelope, weaver of the web’ — Sujato's own rendering of ‘jālinī’, ‘she of the net’, into a Western literary reference rather than a literal name. This reading guide notes the translation choice without asserting a specific identity for the figure addressed.
A detailed catalogue of the speaker's own past lives
Verses nineteen through twenty-four trace a specific chain of prior existences: a poor fodder-carrier named Annabhāra who once gave alms to an ascetic; later reborn as Sakka among the Thirty-Three gods; then a human king seven times over, ‘governing by principle, without rod or sword’; and finally as Anuruddha of the Sakyan clan — ‘fourteen transmigrations in all’. Few poems in this collection name this many specific prior identities in sequence.
Foremost in the divine eye, and a foretold place of death
The closing verses attain ‘complete tranquility... my clairvoyance is purified’, matching this site's own AN 1.188–197, which already names Anuruddha ‘foremost in clairvoyance, the divine eye’. The poem's final verse then states, plainly, where his own life will end: ‘in the Vajjian village of Veḷuva... beneath a thicket of bamboos, being undefiled, I will be fully extinguished’.
Key terms
The text
§1Leaving my mother and father behind, as well as sisters, kinsmen, and brothers; having given up the five sensual titillations, Anuruddha practices absorption.
§2Surrounded by song and dance, awakened by cymbals and gongs, he did not find purification while delighting in Māra’s domain.
§3But he has gone beyond all that, and delights in the Buddha’s teaching. Having crossed over the entire flood, Anuruddha practices absorption.
§4Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches so delightful: having crossed over these as well, Anuruddha practices absorption.
§5Returning from almsround, alone, without partner, seeking rags from the dust heap, Anuruddha is without defilements.
§6The thoughtful sage selected rags from the dust heap; he picked them up, washed, dyed, and wore them; Anuruddha is without defilements.
§7The principles of someone who has many wishes and is not content, who socializes and is conceited, are wicked and corrupting.
§8But someone who is mindful, few of wishes, content and untroubled, delighting in seclusion, joyful, always resolute and energetic;
§9their principles are skillful, on the side of awakening; they are without defilements—so said the great seer.
§10“Knowing my thoughts, the supreme Teacher in the world came to me in a mind-made body, using his psychic power.
§11He taught me more than I had thought of. The Buddha who loves non-proliferation taught me non-proliferation.
§12Understanding that teaching, I happily did his bidding. I’ve attained the three knowledges, and have fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.
§13For the last fifty-five years I have not lain down to sleep. Twenty-five years have passed since I eradicated drowsiness.”
§14“There was no more breathing for the unaffected one of steady heart. Imperturbable, committed to peace, the Clear-eyed One was fully quenched.
§15He put up with painful feelings without flinching. The liberation of his heart was like the extinguishing of a lamp.”
§16“Now these touches and the other four are the last to be experienced by the sage; nor will there be other phenomena since the Buddha was fully quenched.
§17O Penelope, weaver of the web—there’s no more abodes in the host of gods. Transmigration through births is finished, now there’ll be no more future lives.”
§18“The mendicant by whom the galaxy with the age of the Divinity are known in an hour—that master of psychic ability sees the gods at the time they pass away and are reborn.”
§19“In the past I was Annabhāra, a poor carrier of fodder. I practiced as an ascetic, the renowned Upariṭṭha.
§20Then I was reborn in the Sakyan clan, where I was known as ‘Anuruddha’. Surrounded by song and dance, I was awakened by cymbals and gongs.
§21Then I saw the Buddha, the Teacher, fearing nothing from any quarter; filling my mind with confidence in him, I went forth to homelessness.
§22I know my past lives, the places I used to live. I was born as Sakka, and stayed among the thirty-three gods.
§23Seven times I was a king of men ruling a kingdom, victorious in the four quarters, lord of the Black Plum Tree Land. Without rod or sword, I governed by principle.
§24Seven from here, seven from there—fourteen transmigrations in all. I shall remember my past lives: at that time I stayed in the realm of the gods.
§25I have gained complete tranquility in immersion with five factors. Peaceful, serene, my clairvoyance is purified.
§26Steady in five-factored absorption, I know the passing away and rebirth of beings, their coming and going, their lives in this state and that.
§27I’ve served the teacher and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions. The heavy burden is laid down, the leash to existence is eradicated.
§28In the Vajjian village of Veḷuva, my life will come to an end. Beneath a thicket of bamboos, being undefiled, I will be fully extinguished.”
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