Reading guide
A composite of several distinct episodes
Like this site's own Thag 17.2 (Sāriputta) and Thag 18.1 (Mahākassapa), this poem moves through several separable scenes rather than one continuous narrative: an opening exhortation to fellow forest monks (1–4), a confrontation with an unnamed attacker later revealed as Māra (5–18), Sāriputta's death (19–20), impermanence teachings (21–24), the famous toe-shaking of Migāra's mother's palace (25), an embedded scene defending Mahākassapa against a hostile brahmin (26–36), praise of Sāriputta and then of Moggallāna himself by 10,000 gods (37–47), and a full, direct confrontation with Māra (48–69) closing the poem.
Disgust for the body, turned into a weapon against an attacker
Verses five through eight give one of this collection's most visceral body-disgust passages — ‘you sack of dung encased in skin! You demoness with horns on your chest!’ — addressed not inward as self-reflection but outward, at an unnamed attacker who responds, tellingly, ‘so it is, great hero!’ Verses ten and eleven then reveal the confrontation's true stakes: ‘this mind is like the sky, serene inside itself. Evil-minded one, don't attack me, you'll end up like a moth in a mass of fire’ — the poem's first hint that Moggallāna is being harassed by Māra himself, a threat that returns and resolves fully in the poem's closing section.
Sāriputta's death, echoing this collection's own recurring formula
Verses nineteen and twenty record, in language nearly identical to this site's own Thag 17.3 (Ānanda) describing the Buddha's own death, the death of Sāriputta: ‘then there was terror! Then they had goosebumps!... conditions are impermanent, their nature is to rise and fall.’ Sāriputta and Moggallāna, tradition holds, died within months of each other and of the Buddha himself; this poem is the collection's own record of that first loss.
Shaking a palace with a single toe
Verse twenty-five states directly: ‘urged by the developed one, who bore his final body, I shook the stilt longhouse of Migāra's mother with my big toe’ — the same celebrated feat of psychic power told at greater length in this site's own MN 37, The Shorter Discourse on the Ending of Craving, where Moggallāna uses it to test whether Sakka has understood the Buddha's teaching. The poem's closing section (verse 53) repeats the same feat almost verbatim.
An embedded scene defending Mahākassapa
Verses twenty-seven through thirty-six shift, without explanation, into a scene defending ‘Kassapa’ — this site's own already-completed Thag 18.1, Mahākassapa — against a brahmin who values ritual and lineage over attainment: ‘even if someone were to be born again and again a hundred times... a master of the three Vedas: honoring such a person isn't worth a sixteenth’ of honoring one who has attained the eight liberations. ‘Don't attack such a mendicant! Don't ruin yourself, brahmin!’ A striking, obscure line follows in the brahmin's dismissive reply — naming someone called Poṭṭhila as ‘consumed by gain and honor... hollow’ — which this reading guide presents as stated in the text without asserting a specific identity behind the name.
Two mirrored homage scenes, echoing Mahākassapa's own poem
Verses thirty-seven through forty-seven closely mirror the embedded homage scene in this site's own Thag 18.1: first praise of Sāriputta passing by (‘freed in both ways, serene inside himself’), then 10,000 gods honoring Moggallāna himself with the identical formula (‘homage to you, O thoroughbred!’), and finally Moggallāna's own direct comparison of himself to Sāriputta: ‘Sāriputta is full of wisdom... but in a moment I can create the likenesses of ten million times 100,000 people! I'm skilled in transformations; I'm a master of psychic powers’ — the same wisdom/psychic-power pairing already named in this site's own AN 1.188–197.
A full confrontation with Māra, retelling MN 50 almost whole
The poem's closing section (48–69) retells, nearly verse for verse, this site's own MN 50, The Rebuke of Māra: the story of Dūsī, a Māra of a past age, roasted in a hundred-spiked hell for attacking the disciple Vidhura under the Buddha Kakusandha; a refrain warning the current Māra, ‘Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, you'll fall into suffering’, repeated after each of Moggallāna's own psychic feats — shaking Migāra's mother's palace, shaking Sakka's Palace of Victory, questioning Sakka directly, and (verses 59–61) questioning a Brahmā in the Hall of Clear Right, who admits, ‘I don't have that view that I had in the past... how could I say today that I am permanent and eternal?’, closely echoing this site's own MN 49, On the Invitation of Brahmā. The poem closes on a fire simile: ‘attacking the Realized One, you'll only burn yourself, like a fool touching the flames’, and a narrator's note that Māra, downcast, ‘disappeared right there.’
Key terms
The text
§1“Living in the wilderness, eating only almsfood, happy with the scraps in our bowls, let us tear apart the army of death, while remaining serene within.
§2Living in the wilderness, eating only almsfood, happy with the scraps in our bowls, let us crush the army of death, as an elephant a hut of reeds.
§3Living at the foot of a tree, persistent, happy with the scraps in our bowls, let us tear apart the army of death, while remaining serene within.
§4Living at the foot of a tree, persistent, happy with the scraps in our bowls, let us crush the army of death, as an elephant a hut of reeds.”
§5“You hut, made of a chain of bones, sewn together with flesh and sinew; curse you mortal frame, you stink, you cherish the parts of others!
§6You sack of dung encased in skin! You demoness with horns on your chest! O body, you have nine streams that are flowing all the time.
§7With its nine streams, your body stinks, full of dung. A monk seeking purity would avoid it like excrement.
§8If they knew you like I do, they’d keep far away, like a cesspit in the monsoon.”
§9“So it is, great hero! As you say, ascetic! But some founder here like an old bull stuck in a bog.”
§10“Whoever might think of making the sky yellow, or some other color, would only trouble themselves.
§11This mind is like the sky: serene inside itself. Evil-minded one, don’t attack me, you’ll end up like a moth in a mass of fire.”
§12“See this fancy puppet, a body built of sores, diseased, obsessed over, in which nothing lasts at all.
§13See this fancy figure, with its gems and earrings; it is bones encased in skin, made pretty by its clothes.
§14Rouged feet and powdered face may be enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore.
§15Hair in eight braids and eyeshadow may be enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore.
§16A 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.
§17The 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.
§18The hunter’s trap 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.”
§19“Then there was terror! Then they had goosebumps! When Sāriputta, endowed with many fine qualities, became quenched.
§20Oh! Conditions are impermanent, their nature is to rise and fall; having arisen, they cease; their settling is such bliss.”
§21“Those who see the five aggregates as other, not as self, penetrate a subtle thing, like a hair-tip with an arrow.
§22Those who see conditions as alien, not as self, pierce a fine thing, like a hair-tip with an arrow.”
§23“Like they’re struck by a sword, like their head was on fire, a mendicant should wander mindful, to give up sensual desire.
§24Like they’re struck by a sword, like their head was on fire, a mendicant should wander mindful, to give up desire for rebirth.”
§25“Urged by the developed one, who bore his final body, I shook the stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother with my big toe.”
§26“Not by being slack, or with little strength may this be realized—extinguishment, the release from all ties.”
§27“This young monk, this best of men, bears his final body, having vanquished Māra and his legions.”
§28“Lightning flashes down on the cleft of Vebhāra and Paṇḍava. But in the mountain cleft he is absorbed in jhāna—the son of the Buddha, inimitable and unaffected.”
§29“Calm and still, the sage in his remote lodging, the heir to the best of Buddhas, is honored even by the Divinity.
§30Calm and still, the sage in his remote lodging, is heir to the best of Buddhas: Brahmin, you should honor Kassapa!
§31Even if someone were to be born again and again a hundred times in the human realm, and always as a brahmin, a student accomplished in the Vedas;
§32and if he were to become a reciter, a master of the three Vedas: honoring such a person isn’t worth a sixteenth of that.
§33One who attains the eight liberations forwards and backwards before breakfast, and then goes on almsround—
§34don’t attack such a mendicant! Don’t ruin yourself, brahmin! Let your heart have trust in the perfected one, the unaffected; quickly venerate him with cupped palms: don’t let your head explode!”
§35“If you prioritize transmigration, you don’t see the true teaching. You’re following a twisted path, a bad path that will lead you down.
§36Like a worm smeared with dung, he is besotted with conditions. Consumed by gain and honor, Poṭṭhila goes on, hollow.”
§37“See Sāriputta coming! It is good to see him; he is freed in both ways, serene inside himself;
§38free of thorns, with yoking ended, master of the three knowledges, conqueror of death; worthy of offerings, a supreme field of merit for the people.”
§39“These many gods, powerful and glorious, all 10,000 of them, are priests of Divinity. They stand with cupped palms honoring Moggallāna:
§40‘Homage to you, O thoroughbred! Homage to you, supreme among men! Since your defilements are ended, you, good fellow, are worthy of teacher’s offerings.’
§41Venerated by the lordly god, he has arisen, the master of death. He is unsmeared by conditions, as a lotus-flower by water.”
§42“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.”
§43“Sāriputta is full of wisdom, ethics, and peace. Even a mendicant who has crossed over might at best equal him.
§44But in a moment I can create the likenesses of ten million times 100,000 people! I’m skilled in transformations; I’m a master of psyshic powers.
§45A member of the Moggallāna clan, attained to perfection and mastery in immersion and knowledge, wise in the teachings of the unattached, with serene faculties, has burst his bonds like an elephant bursts a vine.
§46I’ve served the teacher and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions. The heavy burden is laid down, the leash to existence is eradicated.
§47I’ve attained the goal for the sake of which I went forth from the lay life to homelessness—the end of all fetters.”
§48“What kind of hell was that, where Dūsī was roasted after attacking the disciple Vidhura along with the brahmin Kakusandha?
§49There were 100 iron spikes, each one uniquely painful. That’s the kind of hell where Dūsī was roasted after attacking the disciple Vidhura along with the brahmin Kakusandha.
§50Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you’ll fall into suffering.
§51There are mansions that last an eon standing in the middle of a lake. Sapphire-colored, brilliant, they sparkle and shine. Dancing there are nymphs shining in all different colors.
§52Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you’ll fall into suffering.
§53I’m the one who, urged by the Buddha, shook the stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother with his big toe as the Saṅgha of mendicants watched.
§54Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you’ll fall into suffering.
§55I’m the one who shook the Palace of Victory with his big toe owing to psychic power, inspiring deities to awe.
§56Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you’ll fall into suffering.
§57I’m the one who asked Sakka in the Palace of Victory: ‘Respectable sir, I hope you recall the one who is freed through the ending of craving?’ And I’m the one to whom Sakka admitted the truth when asked.
§58Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you’ll fall into suffering.
§59I’m the one who asked the Divinity in the Hall of Clear Right before the assembly: ‘Respectable sir, do you still have the same view that you had in the past? Or do you see the radiance surpassing the realm of divinity?’
§60And I’m the one to whom the Divinity admitted the truth when asked. ‘Good fellow, I don’t have that view that I had in the past.
§61I see the radiance surpassing the realm of divinity. So how could I say today that I am permanent and eternal?’
§62Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you’ll fall into suffering.
§63I’m the one who touched the peak of Mount Neru using the power of meditative liberation. I’ve visited the forests of the people who dwell in the land east of Videha.
§64Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you’ll fall into suffering.
§65Though a fire doesn’t think: ‘I’ll burn the fool!’ Still the fool who attacks the fire gets burnt.
§66In the same way, Māra, in attacking the Realized One, you’ll only burn yourself, like a fool touching the flames.
§67Māra’s done a bad thing in attacking the Realized One. Wicked One, do you imagine that your wickedness won’t bear fruit?
§68Your deeds heap up wickedness that will last a long time, Terminator! Give up on the Buddha, Māra! And hold no hope for the mendicants!”
§69That is how, in the Bhesekaḷā grove, the mendicant condemned Māra. That spirit, downcast, disappeared right there.
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