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Buddhism

Thig 3:2 · Uttamā

Thai temple painting: Prince Vessantara gives away the white elephant
Vessantara Jātaka, Chapter 2 (Himavanta Forest) · Thai, Rattanakosin, c. 1850–1870 · Walters Art Museum

Four times, five, I ran amok from my dwelling,

having gained no peace of awareness,

my thoughts out of control.

So I went to a trustworthy nun.

She taught me the Dhamma:

aggregates, sense media, properties.1

Hearing the Dhamma,

I did as she said.

For seven days I sat in one spot,

absorbed in rapture & bliss.

On the eighth, I stretched out my legs,

having burst the mass

of darkness.

Note

1. On the aggregates (khandha), see SN 22:59 and SN 22:79; on the sense media (āyatana), SN 35:28; on the properties (dhātu), MN 140. On the relationships among these frameworks for analyzing experience, see MN 28.


Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 licence, for free distribution only. Source: dhammatalks.org (Metta Forest Monastery).

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