Theragatha
The Triple Verses
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
III.5 — Matangaputta
It’s too cold,
too hot,
too late in the evening —
people who say this,
shirking their work:
the moment passes them by.
Whoever regards cold & heat
as no more than grass,
doing his manly duties,
won’t fall away from ease.
With my chest
I push through wild grasses
spear-grass, ribbon-grass,
rushes cultivating a seclusion heart.
III.8 — Yasoja
His limbs knotted
like a kala plant,
his body lean
& lined with veins,
knowing moderation
in food & drink:
the man of undaunted heart.
Touched by gnats
& horseflies in the wilds,
the great wood,
like an elephant
at the head of a battle:
he, mindful,
should stay there endure.
One alone is like Brahma,
two, like devas,
three, like a village,
more than that:
a hullabaloo.
III.13 — Abhibhuta
Listen, kinsmen, all of you,
as many as are assembled here.
I will teach you the Dhamma:
Painful is birth,
again & again.
Rouse yourselves.
Go forth.
Apply yourselves
to the Awakened One’s bidding.
Scatter the army of Death
as an elephant would
a shed made of reeds.
He who,
in this doctrine & discipline,
remains heedful,
abandoning birth,
the wandering-on,
will put an end
to suffering & stress.
III.14 — Gotama
While wandering on
I went to hell;
went again & again
to the world of the hungry shades;
stayed countless times, long,
in the pain of the animal womb;
enjoyed the human state;
went to heaven from time to time;
settled in the elements of form,
the elements of formlessness,
neither-perception, perception-less.
Ways of taking birth are now known:
devoid of essence,
unstable,
conditioned,
always driven along.
Knowing them
as born from my self,
mindful
I went right to peace.
III.15 — Harita (2)
Whoever wants to do later
what he should have done first,
falls away from the easeful state
& later burns with remorse.
One should speak
as one would act,
& not as one wouldn’t.
When one speaks without acting,
the wise, they can tell.
How very easeful:
Unbinding,
as taught by the Rightly
Self-awakened One
sorrowless,
dustless,
secure,
where stress& suffering cease.