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Theragatha IV

(Selected suttas)

IV.8 -- Rahula

    In both ways
    consummate,[1]
I'm known as Rahula
    the Fortunate:
because     I'm the son of the Buddha,
because     I've the eye that sees Dhammas,
because     my fermentations are ended,
because     I've no further becoming.
I'm deserving of offerings,
a worthy one
    a three-knowledge man,[2]
    with sight
    of the Deathless.
    Those
blinded     by sensuality
covered     by the net,
veiled     by the veil of craving,
bound     by the Kinsman of the heedless,[3]
    are like fish in the mouth of a trap.

Throwing that sensuality aside,
cutting through Mara's bond,
pulling out craving, root & all,
    cooled am I,
    Unbound.

Notes

1. This phrase can be taken in two ways: (a) consummate in that he has a pure lineage on both his mother's and his father's side; and (b) consummate in that he belongs both to a well-born lineage in the worldly sense and, by means of his meditative attainments, to the lineage of the noble ones. [Go back]

2. One with knowledge of past lives, knowledge of the passing away and rearising of living beings, and knowledge of the ending of mental fermentations. [Go back]

3. Mara. [Go back]

Source: ATI - For Free Distribution Only, as a Gift of Dhamma.

Dhamma Essay:
Skillful Means by Ayya Khema