Vāraṇa — The Book of the Threes · Chapter One · Poem 7 of 16
Setting
General teaching, not autobiography, without a translated attribution
Speaker
Vāraṇa, teaching on harm, love, and training
Form
Three four-line verses — a warning about harming creatures, its opposite, and a quoted training verse
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 notable textual seam
Why this text
Vāraṇa teaches that anyone who harms other creatures falls from both this world and the next, while one with a mind of love brims with merit — then closes with a third verse that Sujato's own comment identifies as grammatically distinct from the first two, and traceable to an already-translated poem elsewhere on this site.
Reading guide
Harm and love, in direct contrast
The first two verses set up a plain contrast: whoever harms other creatures ‘will fall both from this world and the next’, while whoever holds ‘a mind of love, sympathetic for all creatures’ ‘brims with much merit’. Both verses speak in the third person about a hypothetical ‘anyone’.
A seam in the grammar, caught by the comment
The third verse shifts: ‘you should all train to learn well-spoken words’. Sujato's comment notes that sikkhetha is second person plural — addressing ‘you all’ directly — where the previous two verses spoke about a third party. The ancient commentary itself already tried to smooth this over, reading the verb as third person singular to match the surrounding verses — which Sujato takes as a sign that the commentators themselves noticed the same seam this reading guide is pointing out.
A quotation, findable elsewhere on this site
The comment further notes that this same verse exists independently at SN 2.1 (With Kassapa), already translated on this site, where it appears in the Devaputtasaṁyutta as part of an exchange between the Buddha and a godling also named Kassapa — and there too, it reads as a quotation rather than as the discourse's own original composition. Taken together, the grammar, the commentary's own smoothing, and this independent appearance all point the same way: verse 3 most likely began life apart from verses 1 and 2, later joined to them under Vāraṇa's name.
Key terms
parapāṇāni hiṁsati — “harms other creatures” — the offense named in the first verse.
mettena cittena — “with a mind of love” — the contrasting quality of the second verse.
subhāsitassa sikkhetha — “you should all train to learn well-spoken words” — the second-person-plural opening of the third, quoted verse.
samanūpāsanassa — “to attend closely to ascetics” — one of the trainings named in the closing verse.
cittavūpasamassa — “to calm the mind” — the final training named, closing the poem.
The text
The text in full: three verses, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Anyone among men who harms other creatures: that person will fall both from this world and the next.
§2But someone with a mind of love, sympathetic for all creatures: a person like that brims with much merit.
§3You should all train to learn well-spoken words, to attend closely to ascetics, to sit alone in hidden places, and to calm the mind.
· · ·
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 first verse say happens to one who harms other creatures?
Correct: B. Asmā lokā paramhā ca, ubhayā dhaṁsate naro.
Question 2 of 10
What does the second verse say about one with a mind of love?
Correct: A. Sabbapāṇānukampati — sympathetic for all creatures.
Question 3 of 10
What grammatical detail does Sujato's comment note about the third verse?
Correct: C. A seam the ancient commentary itself already tried to smooth over.
Question 4 of 10
How did the ancient commentary treat this grammatical shift?
Correct: B. Which Sujato reads as a sign the seam was already noticed anciently.
Question 5 of 10
Where does this same third verse also appear, already translated on this site?
Correct: D. Part of an exchange between the Buddha and a godling in the Devaputtasaṁyutta.
Question 6 of 10
What does the comment's evidence suggest about verse 3's origin?
Correct: C. Grammar, commentary, and independent appearance all point the same way.
Question 7 of 10
What four things does the closing verse urge training in?
Correct: B. Subhāsitassa, samaṇūpāsanassa, ekāsanassa, cittavūpasamassa.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'mettena cittena' mean?
Correct: A. The quality contrasted with harming other creatures.
Question 9 of 10
What godling appears in SN 2.1, alongside this verse?
Correct: A. The same name as several unrelated Kassapas already noted elsewhere in this collection.
Question 10 of 10
Where does this poem fall in the Book of the Threes?
Correct: D. Following Aṅgaṇikabhāradvāja, Paccaya, Bākula, Dhaniya, Mātaṅgaputta, and Khujjasobhita.
