Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Therigatha · 6.7

Guttā

Guttā — The Book of the Sixes · Poem 7 of 8

Setting
No narrative setting beyond what the verses state; no closing attribution
Speaker
Not identified; direct, second-person instruction addressed to the nun Guttā throughout
Form
Six four-line verses, entirely instructional
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
★★★★☆ — the most doctrinally dense named list of fetters in this collection

Why this text

Unlike most poems in this book, Guttā never speaks in her own voice here: an unnamed instructor addresses her directly, second person throughout, naming the fetters that bind beings to rebirth in unusually complete detail — and framing her release not as something already accomplished, but as a prediction of what will follow once she has let them go.

Reading guide

An instruction with no reply, like Abhirūpanandā's

‘Guttā, you have given up your child, your wealth, and all that you love. Foster the goal for which you went forth’ opens an address that, like Thig 2.1's instruction to Nandā, receives no first-person reply within this poem itself — only the instruction survives here.

Five lower fetters, named completely

‘Sensual desire and ill will, and substantialist view; misapprehension of precepts and observances, and doubt as the fifth’ lists a specific, standard category — the five lower fetters — more completely and technically than any doctrinal list earlier in this collection.

A second set, named further on

‘When you're rid of desire, conceit, ignorance, and restlessness, having cut the fetters, you'll make an end to suffering’ adds a further set of defilements, extending past the five already named.

Prediction, not report

Every verb describing her release is future tense: ‘you won't come back... you'll make an end... you will live at peace’ — this poem promises an outcome rather than confirming one already reached, a different grammatical stance from most first-person accounts in this collection.

Key terms

Guttā — the nun addressed throughout this poem, who is given no first-person reply within it.
saṅyojana — “fetters” — the central doctrinal category this poem names in unusually complete detail.
sakkāyadiṭṭhi — “substantialist view” — one of the five lower fetters named explicitly in this poem's third verse.
orambhāgamaniya — “lower”, describing the specific category of five fetters this poem lists completely.
uddhacca — “restlessness” — the last of a second set of defilements named further on in the poem.

The text

The text in full: six verses, entirely instructional. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1Guttā, you have given up your child, your wealth, and all that you love. Foster the goal for which you went forth; do not fall under the mind’s control.

§2Beings deceived by the mind, playing in Māra’s domain, ignorant, they journey on, transmigrating through countless rebirths.

§3Sensual desire and ill will, and substantialist view; misapprehension of precepts and observances, and doubt as the fifth.

§4O nun, when you have given up these lower fetters, you won’t come back to this world again.

§5And when you’re rid of desire, conceit, ignorance, and restlessness, having cut the fetters, you’ll make an end to suffering.

§6Having wiped out transmigration, and fully understood rebirth, hungerless in this very life, you will live at peace.

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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 does this poem's opening verse remind Guttā she has already given up?
Correct: B. Named directly as the cost of her going forth, in the poem's first line.
Question 2 of 10
Does Guttā reply in her own first-person voice anywhere in this poem?
Correct: C. An instruction with no reply within the poem itself.
Question 3 of 10
What five things does this poem name as the 'lower fetters'?
Correct: C. A complete, technical enumeration of a standard category.
Question 4 of 10
What second set of defilements does the poem name further on?
Correct: B. Extending past the five lower fetters already named.
Question 5 of 10
What grammatical tense dominates this poem's description of Guttā's release?
Correct: C. 'You won't come back... you'll make an end... you will live at peace.'
Question 6 of 10
What does 'sakkāyadiṭṭhi' mean?
Correct: A. Named explicitly among the five lower fetters.
Question 7 of 10
How does this poem's structure compare to Thig 2.1's instruction to Nandā?
Correct: D. A shared structure, extended into more complete doctrinal detail.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'saṁyojana' mean?
Correct: A. The recurring category structuring this entire poem's instruction.
Question 9 of 10
What position does this poem hold in the Book of the Sixes?
Correct: D. Following Thig 6.6, continuing the Book of the Sixes.
Question 10 of 10
What does 'uddhacca' mean?
Correct: D. Named alongside desire, conceit, and ignorance in this poem's later verses.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousThig 6.6 · Mahāpajāpati Gotamī