Near Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery
Occasion
The Buddha, on his own almsround through Sāvatthī, directly sees how attached the people are
Form
A first-person observation, closed by a six-line inspired utterance (udāna) — longer than most in this chapter
Length
<1 minute to read
Companion
Restages Ud 7.3, but the Buddha witnesses the scene himself rather than hearing of it secondhand
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — dense with imagery: a net, a fish-trap, a nursing calf, all in six lines
Why this discourse, seen firsthand
Ud 7.3 gave the Buddha a report. This discourse gives him the same scene directly: “He saw how attached the humans were” while walking Sāvatthī’s streets for alms, no mendicants needed as intermediaries. The verse that follows is markedly more elaborate than its companion’s — six lines instead of four, stacking three separate images of entrapment on top of one another, as if firsthand sight called for a fuller response than a secondhand account did.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Walking for alms through Sāvatthī, the Buddha sees the same widespread craving described in Ud 7.3 with his own eyes, and answers it with three stacked images — a net, a fish-trap, a nursing calf — each showing a different shape that unexamined craving takes.
Almsround as witness
The frame is almost a mirror of Ud 7.3’s opening description of the city’s condition, repeated here nearly word for word: people “lustful, greedy, tied, infatuated,” addicted to sensual pleasure. What changes is who does the observing. Rather than several mendicants coming back with a report, it is the Buddha himself, on his own ordinary morning almsround, who “saw how attached the humans were.” The text adds one further word not present in Ud 7.3’s description — the people are also “blinded” — a small addition, but one the closing verse immediately picks up and develops.
Three images, stacked
The verse opens with blindness and enclosure together: “blinded by sensual pleasures, wrapped in a net.” It then adds smothering: “they are smothered over by craving.” A third image names the source of the trap directly — “bound by the kinsman of the negligent,” a stock epithet in the early texts for Māra, cast here as a relative of anyone who lives without care or attention. The simile that follows makes the trap physical and immediate: “like a fish caught in a funnel-net trap” — a conical woven trap that lets a fish swim in easily but not back out, a precise image for how sensual craving is experienced as pursuit rather than confinement, right up until it is not.
The verse's final image shifts register entirely, from predator traps to something tender and, on the surface, blameless: “they chase old age and death, like a suckling calf its mother.” A calf’s pursuit of its mother is not villainous — it is instinctive, unexamined, and utterly reliable. The verse’s point is not that craving is monstrous in every instance, but that its ordinary, innocent-looking form — simply following what feels natural — leads just as surely toward old age and death as the more obviously predatory images that precede it.
Set beside its twin
Read next to Ud 7.3, the pairing invites a modest observation rather than a firm conclusion: the same scene, witnessed directly rather than reported, produces a longer, more elaborated verse. This reading guide does not claim the text explains this difference explicitly — only that it is there to notice, and that it fits a broader pattern in the Udāna of the Buddha’s inspired utterances varying in length and intensity with the vividness of what triggers them.
Key terms
pamattabandhu (kinsman of the negligent) — a stock canonical epithet for Māra, here named as the one who binds those who live carelessly, without attention.
kuminā (funnel-net trap) — a conical woven fish-trap that permits easy entry but not escape, used here as a simile for how craving is entered without resistance.
taṇhā (craving) — named directly in the verse as what “smothers,” the underlying force behind every image of net, trap, and blind pursuit in this discourse.
jarāmaraṇa (old age and death) — the destination the verse says unexamined craving instinctively chases, as naturally and unreflectively as “a suckling calf its mother.”
piṇḍapāta (almsround) — the same daily practice that occasioned Ud 7.3’s report now becomes the Buddha’s own vantage point for direct observation.
The text
The discourse in full — the Buddha's own observation on almsround, closed by a six-line inspired utterance. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Seen firsthand
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Now at that time most of the people in Sāvatthī clung to sensual pleasures. Lustful, greedy, tied, infatuated, attached, and blinded, they lived completely addicted to sensual pleasures.
§2Then the Buddha robed up in the morning and, taking his bowl and robe, entered Sāvatthī for alms. He saw how attached the humans were.
§3Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
The verse
§4“Blinded by sensual pleasures, wrapped in a net,
they are smothered over by craving;
bound by the kinsman of the negligent,
like a fish caught in a funnel-net trap.
They chase old age and death,
like a suckling calf its mother.”
· · ·
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
Who directly observes the people's attachment in this discourse?
Correct: B. This is the key difference from Ud 7.3, where mendicants report the same observation secondhand.
Question 2 of 10
What additional word describes the people of Sāvatthī here that is not used in Ud 7.3's parallel description?
Correct: D. The verse opens with exactly this image: "Blinded by sensual pleasures, wrapped in a net."
Question 3 of 10
What is "the kinsman of the negligent," according to the key terms section?
Correct: C. This phrase appears in the verse's third line.
Question 4 of 10
What is a "funnel-net trap" (kuminā), and how does the verse use it?
Correct: A. The verse compares those bound by craving to "a fish caught in a funnel-net trap."
Question 5 of 10
What does the verse's final image compare craving-driven pursuit to?
Correct: B. The reading guide notes this image shifts register from predatory traps to something tender and instinctive.
Question 6 of 10
According to the verse, what do people "chase," in the calf-and-mother image?
Correct: D. The verse's point is that even innocent-looking pursuit still leads toward this same end.
Question 7 of 10
How many lines does this discourse's verse have, compared to Ud 7.3's verse?
Correct: C. The reading guide notes this as part of a broader pattern of verse length varying with the vividness of what triggers it.
Question 8 of 10
What activity is the Buddha engaged in when he observes the people's attachment?
Correct: A. The same everyday activity — almsround — that occasioned the mendicants' report in Ud 7.3.
Question 9 of 10
What is "taṇhā," as named directly in the verse?
Correct: B. Craving is the thread connecting all three images in the verse.
Question 10 of 10
What relationship does the reading guide draw between this discourse and Ud 7.3?
Correct: D. The reading guide treats this as a deliberate pairing worth noticing, without asserting a stronger claim than the texts support.
