Therīgāthā — Versos das Monjas Anciãs — 16.1 — Sumedhā

1In Mantāvatī city, Sumedhā,
the daughter of King Koñca’s chief queen,
was converted by those
who practice the Buddha’s teaching.

2She was virtuous, a brilliant speaker,
learned, and trained in the Buddha’s instructions.
She went up to her mother and father and said:
“Pay heed, both of you!

3I delight in extinguishment!
No state of life is eternal, not even that of the gods;
what then of sensual pleasures, so hollow,
offering little gratification and much distress.

4Sensual pleasures are bitter as the venom of a snake,
yet fools are infatuated by them.
Sent to hell for a very long time,
they are beaten and tortured.

5Those who grow in wickedness
ever lament in the underworld <j>due to their own bad deeds.
They’re fools, unrestrained in body,
mind, and speech.

6Those witless, senseless fools,
trapped by the origin of suffering,
are ignorant, not understanding the noble truths
when they are being taught.

7Most people, mum, ignorant of the truths
taught by the excellent Buddha,
look forward to a state of life,
longing for rebirth among the gods.

8Yet even rebirth among the gods
in an impermanent state of life is not eternal.
But fools are not scared
of being reborn time and again.

9Four lower realms and two other realms
may be gained somehow or other.
But for those who end up in a lower realm,
there is no way to go forth in the hells.

10May you both grant me permission to go forth
in the dispensation of him of the ten powers.
Living at ease, I shall apply myself
to giving up rebirth and death.

11Why look forward to a new state of life
in this useless, insubstantial body?
Grant me permission, I shall go forth
to make an end of craving for a new life.

12A Buddha has arisen, the time has come,
the unlucky moment has passed.
As long as I live I’ll never betray
my ethical precepts or my chaste path.”

13Then Sumedhā said to her parents:
“So long as I remain a layperson,
I’ll refuse to eat any food,
until I’ve fallen under the sway of death.”

14Upset, her mother burst into tears,
while her father, though grieved,
tried his best to persuade her
as she lay collapsed upstairs in the longhouse.

15“Get up child, why do you grieve so?
You’re already betrothed to be married!
King Anīkaratta the handsome
is in Vāraṇavatī: he is your betrothed.

16You shall be the chief queen,
wife of King Anīkaratta.
Ethical precepts, the chaste path—
going forth is hard to do, my child.

17As a royal there is command, wealth, authority,
and the happiness of possessions.
Enjoy sensual pleasures while you’re still young!
Let your wedding take place, my child!”

18Then Sumedhā said to him:
“Let this not come to pass! Existence is hollow!
I shall either go forth or die,
but I shall never marry.

19Why cling to this rotting body so foul,
stinking of fluids,
a horrifying water-bag carcass,
always oozing, full of filth?

20Knowing it like I do, what’s the point?
A carcass is vile, smeared with flesh and blood,
food for birds and swarms of worms—
why have we been given it?

21Before long the body, bereft of consciousness,
is carried out to the charnel ground,
to be discarded like an old log
by relatives in disgust.

22When they’ve discarded it in the charnel ground,
to be eaten by others, your own parents
bathe themselves, disgusted;
what then of people at large?

23They’re attached to this hollow carcass,
this mass of sinews and bone;
this rotting body
full of saliva, tears, feces, and pus.

24If anyone were to dissect it,
turning it inside out,
the unbearable stench
would disgust even their own mother.

25Rationally examining
the aggregates, elements, and sense fields
as conditioned, rooted in birth, suffering—
why would I wish for marriage?

26Let three hundred sharp swords
fall on my body everyday!
Even if the slaughter lasted a hundred years
it’d be worth it if it led to the end of suffering.

27One who understands the Teacher’s words
would put up with this slaughter:
‘Long for you is transmigration
being killed time and time again.’

28Among gods and humans,
in the realm of animals or that of titans,
among the ghosts or in the hells,
endless killings are seen.

29The hells are full of killing,
for the corrupt who have fallen to the underworld.
Even among the gods there is no shelter,
for no happiness excels extinguishment.

30Those who are committed to the dispensation
of him of the ten powers attain extinguishment.
Living at ease, they apply themselves
to giving up rebirth and death.

31On this very day, dad, I shall renounce:
what’s to enjoy in hollow riches?
I’m disillusioned with sensual pleasures,
they’re like vomit, made like a palm stump.”

32As she spoke thus to her father,
Anīkaratta, to whom she was betrothed,
approached from Vāraṇavatī
at the time appointed for the marriage.

33Then Sumedhā took up a knife,
and cut off her hair, so black, thick, and soft.
Shutting herself in the longhouse,
she entered the first absorption.

34And as she entered it there,
Anīkaratta arrived at the city.
Then in the longhouse, Sumedhā
well developed the perception of impermanence.

35As she investigated in meditation,
Anīkaratta quickly climbed the stairs.
His limbs adorned with gems <j>and honey-yellow gold,
he begged Sumedhā with cupped palms:

36“As a royal there is command, wealth, authority,
and the happiness of possessions.
Enjoy sensual pleasures while you’re still young!
Sensual pleasures are hard to find in the world!

37I’ve handed royalty to you—
enjoy riches, give gifts!
Don’t be sad;
your parents are upset.”

38Sumedhā, having no use for sensual pleasures,
and having done away with delusion, <j>spoke right back:
“Do not take pleasure in sensuality!
See the danger in sensual pleasures!

39Mandhātā, king of four continents,
foremost in enjoying sensual pleasures,
died unsated,
his desires unfulfilled.

40Were the seven jewels to rain from the sky
all over the ten directions,
there would be no sating of sensual pleasures:
people die insatiable.

41Like a butcher’s knife and chopping board,
sensual pleasures are like a cobra’s head.
They burn like a fire-brand,
they resemble a skeleton.

42Sensual pleasures are impermanent and unstable,
they’re full of suffering, a terrible poison;
like a hot iron ball,
the root of gloom, their fruit is pain.

43Sensual pleasures are like fruits of a tree,
like scraps of meat, painful,
they trick you like a dream;
sensual pleasures are like borrowed goods.

44Sensual pleasures are like swords and spears;
a disease, a boil, gloom and trouble.
Like a pit of glowing coals,
the root of gloom, fear and slaughter.

45Thus sensual pleasures have been explained
to be obstructions, so full of suffering.
Please leave! As for me,
I have no trust in any state of life.

46What can someone else do for me
when their own head is burning?
When stalked by old age and death,
you should strive to destroy them.”

47She opened the door
and saw her parents with Anīkaratta,
sitting crying on the floor.
And so she said this:

48“Transmigration is long for fools,
crying again and again <j>at that with no known beginning—
the death of a father,
the killing of a brother or of themselves.

49Remember the ocean of tears, of milk, of blood—
transmigration with no known beginning.
Remember the bones piled up
by beings transmigrating.

50Remember the four oceans
compared with tears, milk, and blood.
Remember bones piled up high as Mount Vepulla
in the course of a single eon.

51Transmigration with no known beginning
is compared to this broad Black Plum Tree Land;
if divided into lumps the size of jujube seeds,
they’d still be fewer than his mother’s mothers.

52Remember the grass, sticks, and leaves,
compare that with no known beginning:
if split into chips four inches in size,
they’d still be fewer than his father’s fathers.

53Remember the one-eyed turtle <j>and the yoke with a hole
blown in the ocean from east to west—
sticking the head in the hole
is a metaphor for gaining a human birth.

54Remember the form of this unlucky body,
insubstantial as a lump of foam.
See the aggregates as impermanent,
remember the hells so full of distress.

55Remember those swelling the charnel grounds
again and again in life after life.
Remember the danger of gharials!
Remember the four truths!

56When freedom from death is there to be found,
why would you drink the five bitter poisons?
For all erotic delights
are so much more bitter than them.

57When freedom from death is there to be found,
why would you burn for sensual pleasures?
For all erotic delights
are burning, boiling, bubbling, seething.

58When there is freedom from enmity,
why would you want your enemy, sensual pleasures?
Many enemies take a share of your sensual pleasures:
kings, fire, robbers, flood, and unloved heirs.

59When liberation is there to be found,
what good are sensual pleasures that kill and bind?
For though unwilling, <j>when sensual pleasures are there,
they are subject to the pain of killing and binding.

60As a blazing grass torch
burns one who grasps it without letting go,
sensual pleasures are like a grass torch,
burning those who do not let go.

61Don’t give up abundant happiness
for the trivial joys of sensual pleasure.
Don’t fret later,
like a catfish on a hook.

62Deliberately control yourself <j>among sensual pleasures!
You’re like a hound fixed to a chain:
sensual pleasures will surely devour you
as hungry corpse-workers would a hound.

63Harnessed to sensual pleasure,
you undergo endless pain,
along with much mental anguish:
relinquish sensual pleasures, they don’t last!

64When the unaging is there to be found,
what good are sensual pleasures in which is old age?
All rebirths everywhere
are bonded to death and sickness.

65This is freedom from old age, freedom from death!
This is freedom from old age and death, the sorrowless state!
Free of enmity, unconstricted,
faultless, fearless, without tribulations.

66This freedom from death has been realized by many;
even today it can be obtained
by those who rationally apply themselves;
but it’s impossible if you don’t try.”

67So said Sumedhā,
lacking delight in conditioned things.
Soothing Anīkaratta,
Sumedhā cast her hair on the ground.

68Standing up, Anīkaratta
raised his cupped palms to her father and begged:
“Let go of Sumedhā, so that she may go forth!
She will see the truth of liberation.”

69Released by her mother and father,
she went forth, afraid of grief and fear.
While still a trainee nun <j>she realized the six direct knowledges,
along with the highest fruit.

70The extinguishment of the princess
was incredible and amazing;
on her deathbed, she declared
her several past lives.

71“In the time of the Buddha Koṇāgamana,
we three friends gave the gift
of a newly-built dwelling
in the Saṅgha’s monastery.

72Ten times, a hundred times,
a thousand times, ten thousand times,
we were reborn among the gods,
let alone among humans.

73We were mighty among the gods,
let alone among humans!
I was queen to a king with the seven treasures—
I was the treasure of a wife.

74That was the cause, that the origin, that the root,
that was the acceptance of the dispensation;
that first meeting culminated in extinguishment
for one delighting in the teaching.

75So say those who have faith in the words
of the one unrivaled in wisdom.
They’re disillusioned with any state of life,
and being disillusioned they become dispassionate.”

76That is how these verses were recited by the senior nun Sumedhā.

80The Verses of the Senior Nuns are finished.