PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto II. Psalms of Two Verses
Canto II.
Psalms of Two Verses
CLII
Sivaka
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
Reborn in this Buddha-age at Rājagaha in a brahmin's family, he was named Sivaka. And when he had acquired a complete education, he followed his inclination to leave the world. Coming as a Wanderer to hear the Master teach the Norm, he received faith, entered the Order, and eventually won arahantship. He then thus confessed aññā:
[183] Transient the little houses [of our life],
Built here, built there, again, ever again.
Hunting the house-builder [thus far I come];
Birth is but woe again, ever again.
[184] [140] Thou'rt found, house-maker thou, thou'rt seen at last!
Never again shalt fashion house [for me]:
Broken are all thy walls, shattered thy roofs.
Stayed is the further rise of consciousness;
Blown 'twill be even here to nothingness.[1]
[1] Legend has assigned these famous verses as the Buddha's first logion, after his attainment of Buddhahood (Bud. Birth Stories, p. 103 f.; Sum. V., i. 16); but they do not occur in the canonical descriptions of that event (cf. the slightly different Gāthās, Dhp., 153, 154; SBE, x. 42, n.). Dhammapāla is briefer than usual, apparently ignorant of the tradition given in Buddhaghosa. He makes no allusion to it. The house-builder, he points out, is craving, taṇhā vaḍḍhaki. Cf. Dhp. Comy, iii. 127.