Near Sāvatthī, Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery, at night, in the open air
Speakers
None — the Buddha silently observes moths falling into his oil lamps
Form
Observation of a natural scene, then a four-line verse
Length
~1 minute to read
Image
Moths crashing into burning oil lamps
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a vivid, self-contained image
Why this heartfelt saying
Night has fallen at Jeta’s Grove, oil lamps are burning in the open air, and moths keep flying into the flame. The Buddha watches them fall. What he says next turns a small, ordinary tragedy of insects and firelight into one of the Udāna’s sharpest short images for craving.
Reading guide
A night scene
The setting is spare and entirely visual: the Buddha is “meditating in the open during the dark of night, while oil lamps were burning.” No one else is mentioned as present. What draws his attention is the moths: “many moths were falling down and crashing down into the lamps, coming to grief and ruin.” As in Ud 6.3 and Ud 6.7, nothing is asked and no one else speaks; the entire occasion for the heartfelt saying is something the Buddha simply watches happen.
From moths to a diagnosis
The verse extends the image outward without ever losing hold of it: “Hastening by, they miss the essence, sprouting ever more new bonds. Like moths falling in the flame, some have become fixed in what is seen or heard.” The comparison is doing careful work. The moths aren’t condemned simply for approaching the light — the verse’s complaint is about the manner of the approach: “hastening by,” rushing past rather than actually reaching “the essence.” And the cost of that rushing isn’t escape or relief but the opposite — “sprouting ever more new bonds,” more attachment generated by the very motion meant to satisfy it.
“Fixed in what is seen or heard”
The verse’s final phrase, “fixed in what is seen or heard,” uses language that recurs elsewhere in the canon in discussions of how ordinary perception gets overlaid with reactive elaboration — taking the raw fact of seeing or hearing something and spinning it into attachment, aversion, and further proliferation. This sutta doesn’t develop that idea any further than the image itself allows; it simply names the fixation and leaves the comparison to do the rest of the work.
A small scene, a sharp point
Of the very short, observation-only suttas in this chapter — alongside Ud 6.3 and Ud 6.7 — this one is the most purely image-driven. There is no meditator to admire, no private review to puzzle over: just moths, fire, and a verse that turns a small nighttime tragedy into a warning about hurrying toward satisfaction and arriving, instead, at more binding.
Key terms
upātidhāvati — “hastening by” or overshooting — the verb that gives this sutta its Pali title, describing both the moths’ literal flight and, in the verse, a more general rushing past what matters.
adhipātaka — the moths themselves, described as “falling down and crashing down into the lamps, coming to grief and ruin.”
“they miss the essence” — the verse’s diagnosis of those who hasten by in this way — moving quickly, but past the point, not toward it.
“sprouting ever more new bonds” — the verse’s description of what such hastening produces, rather than what it escapes.
diṭṭhe sute — “in what is seen or heard” — the verse’s closing phrase for what some people become “fixed” in, echoing a phrase used more fully elsewhere in the canon (as in the teaching to Bāhiya) for direct, unelaborated sense experience.
The text
The complete text: the Buddha watching moths fall into his lamps at night, and the verse that follows. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Now at that time the Buddha was meditating in the open during the dark of night, while oil lamps were burning.
§2And many moths were falling down and crashing down into the lamps, coming to grief and ruin. The Buddha saw the moths coming to grief.
§3Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
§4“Hastening by, they miss the essence, sprouting ever more new bonds. Like moths falling in the flame, some have become fixed in what is seen or heard.”
· · ·
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 is the Buddha doing when this sutta opens?
Correct: B. The scene is set at Jeta’s Grove, in the dark of night.
Question 2 of 10
What does the Buddha observe?
Correct: D. The moths are described as “coming to grief and ruin.”
Question 3 of 10
Does anyone speak to the Buddha in this sutta?
Correct: A. The heartfelt saying arises purely from what the Buddha watches happen.
Question 4 of 10
What does the verse say those who “hasten by” miss?
Correct: C. “Hastening by, they miss the essence.”
Question 5 of 10
What does hastening by produce, according to the verse, rather than relief or escape?
Correct: B. The verse frames this rushing as generating further attachment, not satisfying it.
Question 6 of 10
What image does the verse use to describe this pattern?
Correct: D. The image is drawn directly from what the Buddha has just observed.
Question 7 of 10
What does the verse say some people have become “fixed” in?
Correct: A. This phrase echoes language used more fully elsewhere in the canon about unelaborated versus reactive perception.
Question 8 of 10
According to the reading guide, are the moths condemned simply for approaching the light?
Correct: C. The reading guide draws this distinction carefully from the verse’s own wording.
Question 9 of 10
What Pali verb gives this sutta its title?
Correct: B. This verb describes both the moths’ literal flight and the verse’s more general point.
Question 10 of 10
How does the reading guide compare this sutta to Ud 6.3 and Ud 6.7?
Correct: A. Ud 6.3 observes the Buddha’s own mind, Ud 6.7 observes Subhūti, and this one observes moths and a flame.
