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# Theragatha

## Chapter III -- The Threes

### (Selected suttas)

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

III.5 -- Matangaputta {vv. 231-233}

> 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 {vv. 243-245}

> 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.

[See also: Ud III.3.]

III.12 -- Abhibhuta {vv. 255-257}

> 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 {vv. 258-260}

> 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) {vv. 261-263}

> Whoever wants to do later
> what he should have done first,
> falls away from the easeful state
> & later repents.

> 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.

Revised: Fri 12 April 2002