Reading guide
A second unnamed nun, opening a new book
This poem's title, ‘An Unnamed Nun (2nd)’, points directly back to Thig 1.1, the collection's very first poem — an anonymous voice opens the Book of the Fives just as one opened the Book of the Ones.
Twenty-five years, told more viscerally than before
‘In the twenty-five years since I went forth, I have not found peace of mind, even for as long as a finger-snap’ echoes Thig 3.1's identical span, but adds a physical image absent there: ‘I cried with flailing arms as I entered a dwelling’.
The identical teaching phrase reused from Thig 3.2
‘She taught me the Dhamma: the aggregates, sense fields, and elements’ repeats, word for word, the compound term ‘khandhāyatanadhātuyo’ that Uttamā's teacher used in Thig 3.2 — the same instruction, given by a different trusted nun to a different anonymous student.
The fullest list yet of the six direct knowledges
Where earlier poems named three knowledges, this one's closing verse names all six in sequence: past lives, clairvoyance, reading others' minds, clairaudience, psychic powers, and the ending of defilements — the most complete enumeration of this standard list anywhere in the collection so far.
Key terms
The text
§1In the twenty-five years since I went forth I have not found peace of mind, even for as long as a finger-snap.
§2Failing to find peace of heart, festering with sensual desire, I cried with flailing arms as I entered a dwelling.
§3I approached a nun in whom I had faith. She taught me the Dhamma: the aggregates, sense fields, and elements.
§4When I heard her teaching, I retired to a discreet place. I know my past lives; my clairvoyance is purified;
§5I encompass the minds of others; my clairaudience is purified; I’ve realized the psychic powers, and attained the ending of defilements. I have realized the six kinds of direct knowledge, and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.
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