No narrative setting beyond what the verses state; no closing attribution
Speaker
The nun Uttamā, describing her own failed attempts, then a breakthrough guided by another nun's teaching
Form
Three verses of four, four, and six lines
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
★★★☆☆ — introduces three technical categories of analysis in a single line
Why this text
This poem opens with the same confession of failure heard twice already in this book — but where Thig 2.10's Sāmā and Thig 3.1's Sāmā broke through on their own, Uttamā names her turning point precisely: a nun she trusted, who taught her a specific threefold analysis of experience, after which seven days of unmoving meditation produced her release.
Reading guide
A confession repeated for the third time
‘Four or five times I left my dwelling. I had failed to find peace of heart, or any control over my mind’ opens this poem exactly as it opened Thig 2.10 — the same words now used by a third woman to describe the same early failure, three poems running.
A teacher, trusted and named only by that trust
Uttamā does not name her teacher, only the relationship: ‘a nun in whom I had faith’. What this teacher gave her was not comfort but a specific analysis — ‘the aggregates, sense fields, and elements’, three standard categories for examining experience systematically rather than as a single undivided self.
Seven days motionless, then release on the eighth
Following that teaching exactly, Uttamā sat ‘cross-legged for seven days without moving, given over to rapture and bliss’, then on the eighth day stretched out her feet, her meditation complete — a specific, embodied account of sustained absorption rather than a general claim of progress.
A phrase that will return
Her closing image, ‘having shattered the mass of darkness’, is not unique to this poem: the same phrase, almost word for word, closes two later poems in this same book, Thig 3.7 and Thig 3.8 — a stock image for a breakthrough, reused across several different women's accounts.
Key terms
Uttamā — this poem's speaker, whose breakthrough followed specific instruction from a trusted teacher.
khandhāyatanadhātuyo — “the aggregates, sense fields, and elements” — three standard analytical categories, taught to her as a single compound term in this line.
pītisukha — “rapture and bliss” — the quality of her seven motionless days of meditation.
tamokkhandha — “the mass of darkness” — shattered at her breakthrough, a phrase repeated almost word for word by two later poems in this book.
cariyā — not used here; like the poem before it, this one closes with no formal attribution note.
The text
The text in full: three verses. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Four or five times I left my dwelling. I had failed to find peace of heart, or any control over my mind.
§2I approached a nun in whom I had faith. She taught me the Dhamma: the aggregates, sense fields, and elements.
§3When I had heard her teaching, in accordance with her instructions, I sat cross-legged for seven days without moving, given over to rapture and bliss. On the eighth day I stretched out my feet, having shattered the mass of darkness.
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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 confession opens this poem, word for word identical to Thig 2.10's opening?
Correct: A. The same confession of failure, now used by a third woman in three consecutive poems.
Question 2 of 10
How does Uttamā identify the nun who taught her?
Correct: C. The relationship is named directly; the teacher's own name is not.
Question 3 of 10
What did this teacher instruct her in?
Correct: B. 'Khandhāyatanadhātuyo' — three standard categories, named together as a single teaching.
Question 4 of 10
How long did Uttamā sit without moving after receiving this instruction?
Correct: C. 'I sat cross-legged for seven days without moving, given over to rapture and bliss.'
Question 5 of 10
What happened on the eighth day?
Correct: B. A specific, embodied close to seven days of sustained absorption.
Question 6 of 10
What phrase from this poem's closing line reappears in two later poems of this same book?
Correct: D. Thig 3.7 and Thig 3.8 both close on nearly the identical image.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'pītisukha' mean?
Correct: A. Named directly as what filled her while seated cross-legged.
Question 8 of 10
How does this poem's account of breakthrough differ from Thig 2.10 and Thig 3.1's?
Correct: D. A named teaching relationship and a concrete meditative account, distinct from the other two poems' shorter narratives.
Question 9 of 10
What position does this poem hold in the Book of the Threes?
Correct: B. Following the second Sāmā's poem that opened this book.
Question 10 of 10
What does 'khandhāyatanadhātuyo' name?
Correct: C. A compound term bundling three standard frameworks for examining experience.
