Reading guide
A composite gathering nearly a whole existing chapter of this site
Like this site's own Thag 17.2 (Sāriputta) and Thag 20.1 (Mahāmoggallāna), this poem strings together many separately-occasioned episodes. Several correspond closely, in both content and title, to suttas already complete in this site's own SN 8, the Vaṅgīsasaṃyutta: the opening confrontation with Māra (1–5, echoing SN 8.1, Renounced), a teaching on well-spoken speech (19–22, echoing SN 8.5, Well-Spoken Words), praise of Sāriputta (23–25, echoing SN 8.6), the report that ‘over a thousand mendicants’ revere the Buddha (30, echoing SN 8.8, Over a Thousand), praise of Koṇḍañña (38–40, echoing SN 8.9), praise of Moggallāna (41–43, echoing SN 8.10), and Vaṅgīsa's own conversion story (45–49, echoing SN 8.12, With Vaṅgīsa, which bears his own name).
Standing firm against Māra from the very first verse
The poem opens with Vaṅgīsa ‘overrun by the rude thoughts of the Dark One’, but answering with defiance: even a thousand archers surrounding him, or however many women might come, ‘won't bother me, for I stand firm in the teaching’, closing ‘I'll make sure that you, Death, won't even see the path I take.’
A former wandering poet, drunk on poetry, converted by hearing the Dhamma
Verses forty-five through forty-nine give this poem's own autobiographical core: ‘we used to wander, drunk on poetry, from village to village, town to town’ — until seeing the Buddha and hearing him teach the aggregates, sense-fields, and elements, ‘faith arose in us’, and Vaṅgīsa went forth. This is the collection's own account of how a professional composer of verse became this collection's own final, and by traditional reckoning most gifted, poet.
Praise for fellow elders already met throughout this collection
The poem's middle section eulogizes several elders this site has already featured in their own poems: Sāriputta (this site's own Thag 17.2), whose ‘call, like a myna bird, overflows with inspiration’; Koṇḍañña (this site's own Thag 15.1), ‘the senior monk awakened after the Buddha... heir to the Buddha’; and Moggallāna (this site's own Thag 20.1), who ‘encompasses with his mind, scrutinizing’ the liberated minds of fellow disciples meditating on a mountain slope.
A final question, asked on behalf of the whole assembly
The poem's closing episode (55–71) has Vaṅgīsa asking the Buddha directly about a monk named Nigrodhakappa, who has died at Āḷavī — ‘well-known, famous, and quenched’. Speaking for ‘all’ who are gathered, ‘our ears are eager to hear’, Vaṅgīsa presses the Buddha for a definitive answer, and receives one: ‘he cut off craving for name and form right here... he has entirely crossed over birth and death.’ The poem, and with it the entire Theragātha, closes on Vaṅgīsa's own bow of homage to the Buddha and to Nigrodhakappa, ‘a giant, true-born son of a giant.’
The Theragātha's own closing tally, in its own words
Following the poem itself, two untranslated summary verses close out the entire collection in the source text: the Great Book's own tally (a single elder, seventy-one verses), and then the Theragātha's complete traditional count — ‘the verses total one thousand three hundred and sixty; the elders are two hundred and sixty-four’ — before a final closing line: ‘having roared the lion's roar, the Buddha's undefiled sons, having reached the sanctuary, are quenched like a mass of fire’, and the single closing word: ‘Theragāthāpāḷi niṭṭhitā, the Theragātha text is finished.’ This reading guide's own 264-poem selection closes here as well.
Key terms
The text
§1“Now that I’ve gone forth from the lay life to homelessness, I’m overrun by the rude thoughts of the Dark One.
§2Even if a thousand mighty princes and great archers, well trained, with strong bows, were to completely surround me; I would never flee.
§3And even if women come, many more than that, they won’t bother me, for I stand firm in the teaching.
§4I heard this with my own ears from the Buddha, kinsman of the Sun, about the path going to extinguishment; that’s what delights my mind.
§5Wicked One, if you come near me as I meditate like this, I’ll make sure that you, Death, won’t even see the path I take.”
§6“Giving up desire and discontent, along with all thought of domestic life, they wouldn’t get snarled in anything; unsnarled, free of snarls: that’s a real mendicant.
§7Whatever here is included in form—on earth, in the sky, or in planet’s deep—wears out, it is all impermanent: the self-examined live having comprehended this.
§8People are bound to their attachments, to impingement of the seen and heard, and to what is thought. Unstirred, dispel desire for these things; for one called ‘a sage’ does not cling to them.
§9Trapped in the sixty wrong views, full of their own opinions, ordinary people are fixed in wrong principles. But that mendicant wouldn’t join a sect, still less would they utter lewd speech.
§10Clever, long serene, free of deceit, alert, without envy, the sage has reached the state of peace; quenched, he awaits his time.”
§11“Give up conceit, Gotama! Completely abandon the different kinds of conceit! Besotted with the different kinds of conceit, you’ve had regrets for a long time.
§12Smeared by smears and slain by conceit, people fall into hell. When people slain by conceit are reborn in hell, they grieve for a long time.
§13But a mendicant who practices rightly, a path-victor, never grieves. They enjoy happiness and a good reputation, and they rightly call him a ‘Seer of Truth’.
§14So being not hard-hearted, but energetic, with hindrances given up, pure; and having completely given up conceit, the one who makes an end with knowledge is assuaged.”
§15“I’ve got a burning desire for pleasure; my mind is on fire! Please, out of compassion, Gotama, tell me how to quench the flames.”
§16“Your mind is on fire because of a perversion of perception. Turn away from the sign that’s attractive, provoking lust.
§17With your mind unified and serene, meditate on the ugly aspects of the body. With mindfulness immersed in the body, be full of disillusionment.
§18Meditate on the signless, give up the tendency to conceit; and when you comprehend conceit, you will live at peace.”
§19“Speak only such words that do not hurt yourself nor harm others; such speech is truly well spoken.
§20Speak only pleasing words, words gladly welcomed. Pleasing words are those that bring nothing bad to others.
§21Truth itself is undying speech: this is an ancient teaching. Good people say that the teaching and meaning are grounded in truth.
§22The words spoken by the Buddha for finding the sanctuary, extinguishment, for making an end of suffering: this really is the best kind of speech.”
§23“Deep in wisdom, intelligent, expert in the path and what is not the path; Sāriputta, so greatly wise, teaches Dhamma to the mendicants.
§24He teaches in brief, or he speaks at length. His call, like a myna bird, overflows with inspiration.
§25While he teaches the mendicants listen to his sweet voice, sounding attractive, clear and graceful. They listen joyfully, their hearts elated.”
§26“Today, on the fifteenth day sabbath, five hundred monks have gathered together to purify their precepts. These untroubled sages have cut off their fetters and bonds, they will not be reborn again.
§27Just as a wheel-rolling monarch surrounded by ministers travels all around this land that’s girt by sea.
§28So disciples with the three knowledges, conquerors of death, revere the winner of the battle, the unsurpassed caravan leader.
§29All are sons of the Blessed One—there is no rubbish here. I bow to the Kinsman of the Sun, destroyer of the dart of craving.”
§30“Over a thousand mendicants revere the Holy One as he teaches the immaculate Dhamma, extinguishment, fearing nothing from any quarter.
§31They listen to the immaculate Dhamma taught by the fully awakened Buddha; the Buddha is so brilliant, at the fore of the mendicant Saṅgha.
§32Blessed One, your name is ‘Giant’, seventh of the seers. You are like a great cloud that rains on your disciples.
§33I’ve left my day’s meditation, out of desire to see the teacher. Great hero, your disciple Vaṅgīsa bows at your feet.”
§34“Having overcome Māra’s wrong path, you wander with hard-heartedness dissolved. See him, the liberator from bonds, dissecting the unattached section by section.
§35You have explained in many ways the path to cross the flood. The Seers of Truth stand unfaltering in the freedom from death you’ve explained.
§36As the bringer of light who has pierced the truth, you’ve seen what lies beyond all planes. When you saw and realized this for yourself, you taught it first to the group of five.
§37When the Dhamma has been so well taught, how could those who know it be negligent? That’s why, being diligent, we should always train respectfully in the Buddha’s teaching.”
§38“The senior monk awakened after the Buddha, Koṇḍañña, is keenly energetic. He regularly gains the blissful meditations of seclusion.
§39Whatever can be attained by a disciple who does the Teacher’s bidding, he has attained it all, through diligently training himself.
§40With great power and the three knowledges, expert in encompassing the minds of others, Koṇḍañña, the heir to the Buddha, bows at the Teacher’s feet.”
§41“As the sage, who has gone beyond suffering, sits upon the mountain slope, he is revered by disciples with the three knowledges, conquerors of death.
§42Moggallāna, of great psychic power, encompasses with his mind, scrutinizing their minds, liberated, free of attachments.
§43That is how those endowed with many fine qualities revere Gotama, the sage gone beyond suffering, perfect in every respect.”
§44“Like the moon on a cloudless night, like the shining immaculate sun, so too Aṅgīrasa, O great sage, your glory outshines the entire world.”
§45“We used to wander, drunk on poetry, from village to village, town to town. Then we saw the Buddha, who has gone beyond all things.
§46He, the sage gone beyond suffering, taught me the Dhamma. When we heard the Dhamma, we became confident—faith arose in us.
§47Hearing him speak of the aggregates, the sense-fields, and the elements, I understood; and then I went forth to homelessness.
§48It is for the benefit of many that the Realized Ones arise—the men and women who follow his instructions.
§49It is truly for their benefit that the sage realized awakening—for the monks and for the nuns who see that they’ve reached certainty.
§50The Clear-eyed One, the Buddha, the Kinsman of the Sun, has well taught the four noble truths out of sympathy for living creatures.
§51Suffering, suffering’s origin, suffering’s transcendence, and the noble eightfold path that leads to the stilling of suffering.
§52As these things were taught, so I have seen them. I’ve realized my heart’s goal, and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.
§53It was so welcome for me to be in the presence of the Buddha. Of the well-explained teachings, I arrived at the best.
§54I’ve realized the perfection of direct knowledge; my clairaudience is purified; I am master of three knowledges, attained in psychic power, I’m expert at reading the minds of others.”
§55“I ask the teacher unrivaled in wisdom, who has cut off all doubts in this very life: a monk has died at Āḷavī’s premier shrine, who was well-known, famous, and quenched.
§56Nigrodhakappa was his name; it was given to that brahmin by you, Blessed One. He wandered in your honor, yearning for freedom, energetic, a resolute Seer of Truth.
§57O Sakyan, All-seer, we all wish to know about that disciple. Our ears are eager to hear, for you are the most excellent teacher.
§58Cut off our doubt, declare this to us; your wisdom is vast, tell us of his quenching! All-seer, speak among us, like the thousand-eyed Sakka in the midst of the gods!
§59Whatever ties there are, or paths to delusion, or things on the side of unknowing, or that are bases of doubt vanish on reaching a Realized One, for his eye is the best of all people’s.
§60If no man were ever to disperse corruptions, like the wind dispersing the stormclouds, darkness would veil the whole world; not even brilliant men would shine.
§61The attentive are bringers of light; my hero, that is what I think of you. We’ve come for your discernment and knowledge: here in this assembly, declare to us about Kappāyana.
§62Swiftly send forth your sweet, sweet voice, like a goose stretching its neck, gently honking, lucid-flowing, with lovely tone: alert, we all listen to you.
§63You have entirely abandoned birth and death; restrained and pure, speak the Dhamma! For ordinary people have no wish-granter, but Realized Ones have a comprehensibility-granter.
§64Your answer is definitive, and we will adopt it, for you have perfect understanding. We raise our cupped palms one last time, one of unrivaled wisdom, don’t deliberately confuse us.
§65Knowing the teaching of the noble ones from top to bottom, one of unrivaled energy, don’t deliberately confuse us. Like a man in the baking summer sun would long for water, I long for your voice, so let the sound rain forth.
§66Surely Kappāyana did not lead the spiritual life in vain? Did he realize quenching, or did he still have a residue? Let us hear what kind of liberation he had!”
§67“He cut off craving for name and form right here,” said the Buddha, “the river of darkness that had long lain within him. He has entirely crossed over birth and death.” So declared the Blessed One, the leader of the five.
§68“Now that I have heard your words, seventh of seers, I am confident. My question, it seems, was not in vain, the brahmin did not deceive me.
§69As he spoke, so he acted; he was a disciple of the Buddha. He cut the net of death the deceiver, so extended and strong.
§70Blessed One, Kappāyana saw the starting point of grasping. He has indeed gone far beyond Death’s dominion so hard to pass.
§71God of gods, best of men, I bow to you, and to your son, who followed your example, a great hero; a giant, true-born son of a giant.”
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