Anūpama — The Book of the Twos · Chapter Five · Poem 7 of 9
Setting
A direct address to the speaker's own mind, without a translated attribution
Speaker
Anūpama, scolding his own conceited mind
Form
Two four-line verses — a description of the mind's self-destruction, then a direct rebuke
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
★★☆☆☆ — vivid, violent imagery in a compact frame
Why this text
Anūpama addresses his own mind directly — conceited, addicted to pleasure, impaling itself again and again on its own stake — declaring it ‘the loser mind’, ‘the insidious mind’, and pleading with it not to lead him away from a teacher so hard to find.
Reading guide
A mind, addressed as an adversary
The poem describes ‘the conceited mind, addicted to pleasure’ as impaling itself ‘on its own stake’, always going wherever ‘there's a stake, a chopping board’ — then turns to address that same mind directly, in the second person: ‘I declare you the loser mind! I declare you the insidious mind!’ The mind is treated less as an inner faculty than as something separate, almost an adversary within, closing with a plea — ‘don't lead me away from the goal’.
A visceral image, among this collection's more graphic
‘Impales itself on its own stake’ and ‘a stake, a chopping board’ (kaliṅgaraṁ, a butcher's block) are unusually violent images for describing habitual craving and conceit, joining a small set of the collection's more graphic metaphors, such as Thag 1.17's gorging pig in the Book of the Ones.
A genre this site has already translated in full
This site's own Dhammapada Chapter 3, The Mind, gathers eleven verses on the mind's flightiness and difficulty to tame, including the mind ‘trembling like a fish pulled from water’. This poem shares that chapter's basic move — personifying and directly addressing an unruly mind — though no specific verse is shared word for word; the kinship is one of genre and spirit, not a textual parallel.
A name that may sit ironically beside its own verse
Anūpama means ‘incomparable, without simile’ (an- + upamā). No surviving comment remarks on this, but a poem built entirely from simile — the mind as something that impales itself on a stake, upon a chopping block — spoken by a monk whose name literally denies the possibility of comparison, is worth noting as a plausible irony, offered here only as this reading guide's own observation.
Key terms
nandamānāgataṁ cittaṁ — “the mind, come under the sway of delight” — the poem's opening description.
sūlamāropamānakaṁ — “impaling itself upon a stake” — the poem's central, violent image.
kaliṅgaraṁ — “a chopping block” — paired with the stake as the mind's self-destination.
cittakali — “loser mind” — kali names a losing throw in dice, here applied to the mind as a term of defeat.
mānatthe — “toward the aim of conceit” — what the poem's closing line pleads not to be led toward.
The text
The text in full: two verses, without a translated attribution. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1The conceited mind, addicted to pleasure, impales itself on its own stake. It always goes where there’s a stake, a chopping board.
§2I declare you the loser mind! I declare you the insidious mind! You’ve found the teacher so hard to find—don’t lead me away from the goal.
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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 does the poem address directly?
Correct: A. Treated almost as an adversary within.
Question 2 of 10
What image describes the conceited mind's behavior?
Correct: C. Always going wherever there's a stake, a chopping block.
Question 3 of 10
What two names does the speaker declare for his own mind?
Correct: B. Cittakali and cittadubbhaka.
Question 4 of 10
What already-translated collection on this site gathers similar poems addressing the mind?
Correct: D. A kinship of genre and spirit, not a shared verse.
Question 5 of 10
What does the poem's closing line plead?
Correct: B. Mānatthe maṁ niyojayī — addressed to the mind itself.
Question 6 of 10
What does the speaker's own name, Anūpama, mean?
Correct: C. A name this reading guide notes may sit ironically beside a poem built from simile.
Question 7 of 10
What earlier poem in this collection uses similarly graphic imagery?
Correct: A. Joining a small set of this collection's more visceral metaphors.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'kaliṅgaraṁ' mean?
Correct: D. Paired with the stake as the mind's self-chosen destination.
Question 9 of 10
Is the observation about Anūpama's name confirmed by a surviving comment?
Correct: B. Flagged cautiously, without comment support.
Question 10 of 10
Where does this poem fall in Chapter Five?
Correct: D. Following Kassapa the Prince, Dhammapāla, Brahmāli, Mogharāja, Visākhapañcālaputta, and Cūḷaka.
