Vajjita — The Book of the Twos · Chapter Five · Poem 8 of 9
Setting
A retrospective declaration, without a translated attribution
Speaker
Vajjita, describing his own long wandering and its end
Form
Two four-line verses — a blind history of rebirth, then its ending through heedfulness
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, a striking harvest image
Why this text
Vajjita describes transmigrating for a long time, blind and unenlightened, not seeing the noble truths — then, once heedful, watching his transmigrations ‘mown down’ like reeds, all states of rebirth cut off, no more future lives to come.
Reading guide
A blind history, named without flattery
The first verse describes the speaker's own past plainly: cycling through various states of rebirth, ‘not seeing the noble truths, a blind, unenlightened person’ — a stark, unflattering self-portrait of the time before practice, offered without excuse.
Transmigrations, mown down
The second verse's central image is agricultural rather than doctrinal: once heedful, ‘transmigrations were mown down’ (vinaḷīkatā, literally cut down like reeds or grass) — a harvest metaphor for the ending of rebirth this reading guide has not found used elsewhere in this collection so far.
A comment pointing directly to this site's Long Discourses
Sujato's comment on ‘saṁsārā vinaḷīkatā’ reads: ‘for saṁsāra in plural see DN 18:10.7’. That passage, already translated on this site, has the spirit Janavasabha (once King Bimbisāra) report ‘fourteen transmigrations in all’ — the same grammatical usage found here, saṁsāra treated as countable instances rather than a single abstract cycle.
A closing formula, echoing this chapter's own opening poem
This poem's closing line — ‘now there'll be no more future lives’ (natthi dāni punabbhavo) — is word for word identical to the closing line of Thag 2.41, this same chapter's opening poem. The two poems arrive there by entirely different routes — 2.41's meditation on all beings' final body after countless eons, against this poem's personal history of blind wandering finally mown down — but the chapter's first and second-to-last poems share this same closing tail.
Key terms
gatīsu parivattisaṁ — “cycled through various states of rebirth” — describing the speaker's long wandering.
ariyasaccāni — “the noble truths” — what the speaker did not see, in his blind past.
andhabhūto puthujjano — “a blind, unenlightened person” — the poem's stark self-description of that past.
vinaḷīkatā — “mown down [like reeds]” — the harvest image for transmigrations ended.
natthi dāni punabbhavo — “now there'll be no more future lives” — identical, word for word, to this chapter's opening poem's own closing line.
The text
The text in full: two verses, without a translated attribution. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Transmigrating for such a long time, I’ve cycled through various states of rebirth, not seeing the noble truths, a blind, unenlightened person.
§2But when I became heedful, transmigrations were mown down. All states of rebirth are cut off; now there’ll be no more future lives.
· · ·
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
How does the first verse describe the speaker's own past?
Correct: C. A stark, unflattering self-portrait, offered without excuse.
Question 2 of 10
What image describes transmigrations ending, once the speaker became heedful?
Correct: A. Vinaḷīkatā — an agricultural image not found elsewhere in this collection so far.
Question 3 of 10
What does Sujato's comment cross-reference for 'saṁsāra' in the plural?
Correct: A. Confirming saṁsāra as countable instances, not a single abstract cycle.
Question 4 of 10
What does DN 18's cross-referenced passage report?
Correct: D. Once King Bimbisāra, using saṁsāra in the same plural sense.
Question 5 of 10
What earlier poem in this same chapter shares this poem's closing line, word for word?
Correct: B. Natthi dāni punabbhavo — identical despite entirely different routes to it.
Question 6 of 10
What does 'andhabhūto puthujjano' mean?
Correct: C. The poem's stark description of the speaker's own past.
Question 7 of 10
What did the speaker not see, according to the first verse?
Correct: A. Apassaṁ ariyasaccāni.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'vinaḷīkatā' literally mean?
Correct: B. An agricultural harvest image for the ending of rebirth.
Question 9 of 10
How do this poem and Thag 2.41 differ in how they reach their shared closing line?
Correct: D. Different routes to the same formula.
Question 10 of 10
Where does this poem fall in Chapter Five?
Correct: B. The second-to-last poem, just before Sandhita's closing poem.
