The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Uruveḷakassapa

thag6.1:1 Seeing the demonstrations of the renowned Gotama was not enough for me to bow to him— I was blinded by jealousy and conceit.

thag6.1:2 Knowing my thoughts, the trainer of men scolded me. I was struck with a sense of urgency, so astonishing and hair-raising!

thag6.1:3 Setting aside the petty powers I had before as a matted-hair ascetic, I then went forth in the victor’s instruction.

thag6.1:4 I used to be content with sacrifice, the realm of sensual pleasures was my priority. But later I eradicated desire, and hatred and also delusion.

thag6.1:5 I remember the lessons of the past; my clairvoyance is clarified; I have psychic powers, and know the minds of others; I have attained clairaudience.

thag6.1:6 I’ve attained the goal for the sake of which I went forth from the lay life to homelessness— the ending of all fetters.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Tekicchakāri

thag6.2:1 “The rice has been harvested and gathered on the threshing-floor— but I don’t get any almsfood! How will I get by?”

thag6.2:2 “In faith, recollect the immeasurable Buddha! Your body soaked with rapture, <j>you’ll always be full of joy.

thag6.2:3 In faith, recollect the immeasurable teaching! Your body soaked with rapture, <j>you’ll always be full of joy.

thag6.2:4 In faith, recollect the immeasurable Saṅgha! Your body soaked with rapture, <j>you’ll always be full of joy.”

thag6.2:5 “You stay in the open, though these winter nights are cold. Don’t perish, overcome with cold; enter your dwelling, with door shut fast.”

thag6.2:6 “I’ll realize the four immeasurable states, and meditate happily in them. I won’t perish, overcome with cold; I’ll dwell unperturbed.”

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Mahānāga

thag6.3:1 Whoever has no respect for their spiritual companions falls away from the true teaching, like a fish in a little puddle.

thag6.3:2 Whoever has no respect for their spiritual companions doesn’t thrive in the true teaching, like a rotten seed in a field.

thag6.3:3 Whoever has no respect for their spiritual companions is far from extinguishment, in the teaching of the Dhamma king.

thag6.3:4 Whoever does have respect for their spiritual companions doesn’t fall away from the true teaching, like a fish in plenty of water.

thag6.3:5 Whoever does have respect for their spiritual companions thrives in the true teaching, like a fine seed in a field.

thag6.3:6 Whoever does have respect for their spiritual companions is close to extinguishment in the teaching of the Dhamma king.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Kulla

thag6.4:1 I, Kulla, went to a charnel ground and saw a woman’s body abandoned there, dumped in a cemetery, full of worms that devoured.

thag6.4:2 “See this bag of bones, Kulla— diseased, filthy, rotten, oozing and trickling, a fool’s delight.”

thag6.4:3 Taking the teaching as a mirror for realizing knowledge and vision, I examined this body, hollow, inside and out.

thag6.4:4 As this is, so is that; as that is, so is this. As below, so above; as above, so below.

thag6.4:5 As by day, so by night; as by night, so by day. As before, so behind; as behind, so before.

thag6.4:6 Even the music of a five-piece band can never give such pleasure as when, with unified mind, you rightly discern the Dhamma.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Māluṅkyaputta (1st)

thag6.5:1 When a man lives heedlessly, craving grows in them like a camel’s foot creeper. They jump from one thing to the next, like a langur greedy for fruit in a forest grove.

thag6.5:2 Whoever is beaten by this wretched craving, this attachment to the world, their sorrow grows, like grass in the rain.

thag6.5:3 But whoever prevails over this wretched craving, so hard to get over in the world, their sorrows fall from them, like a drop from a lotus-leaf.

thag6.5:4 I say this to you, good people, all those who have gathered here: dig up the root of craving, as you’d dig up the grass in search of roots. Don’t let Satan break you again and again, like a stream breaking a reed.

thag6.5:5 Act on the Buddha’s words, don’t let the moment pass you by. For if you miss your moment you’ll grieve when sent to hell.

thag6.5:6 Negligence is always dust; dust follows right behind negligence. Through diligence and knowledge, pluck out the dart from yourself.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Sappadāsa

thag6.6:1 In the twenty-five years since I went forth, I have not found peace of mind, even as long as a finger-snap.

thag6.6:2 Since I couldn’t get my mind unified, I was racked by desire for pleasures of the senses. Wailing, with outstretched arms, I left my dwelling.

thag6.6:3 Or shall I commit suicide? What’s the point of living? For how on earth can one such as me die after resigning the training?

thag6.6:4 Then I picked up a razor, I sat on a cot: the razor was ready to slice my vein.

thag6.6:5 Then the realization came upon me— the danger became clear, and I was firmly disillusioned.

thag6.6:6 Then my mind was freed— behold the clear rightness of the teaching! I’ve attained the three knowledges, and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Kātiyāna

thag6.7:1 Get up, Kātiyāna, and sit! Don’t sleep too much, be wakeful. Don’t be lazy and let the kinsman of the negligent, the King of Death, catch you in his trap.

thag6.7:2 Like a wave in the mighty ocean, death and old age sweep you under. Make a safe island of yourself, for you have no other shelter.

thag6.7:3 The teacher has mastered this path, which transcends chains, <j>and the fear of birth and old age. Be diligent in the first and final watches of the night, and dedicate yourself to practice.

thag6.7:4 Free yourself from your former bonds! Wearing your outer robe, with shaven head, <j>eating almsfood, don’t delight in play or sleep, dedicate yourself to absorption, Kātiyāna.

thag6.7:5 Meditate and conquer, Kātiyāna, you’re an expert in the path <j>to sanctuary from the yoke. Having arrived at unexcelled purity, you’ll be extinguished as a flame by water.

thag6.7:6 A lamp of feeble flame is bent down by the wind, like a creeper; just so, noble kinsman, shake off Satan, without grasping. Free of lust for feelings, await your time here, cooled.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Migajāla

thag6.8:1 It was well-taught by the Clear-eyed One, the Buddha, Kinsman of the Sun, who has transcended all fetters, and destroyed all rolling-on.

thag6.8:2 Emancipating, it leads across, drying up the root of craving, and, having cut off the poisonous root, <j>the slaughterhouse, it leads to quenching.

thag6.8:3 By breaking the root of unknowing, it smashes the mechanism of deeds, and drops the thunderbolt of knowledge on the taking up of consciousnesses.

thag6.8:4 It informs us of our feelings, releasing us from grasping, contemplating with understanding all states of existence as a pit of burning coals.

thag6.8:5 It’s very sweet and very deep, holding birth and death at bay; it is the noble eightfold path— the stilling of suffering, bliss.

thag6.8:6 Knowing deed as deed and result as result; seeing dependently originated phenomena as if they were in a clear light; leading to the great sanctuary and peace, it’s excellent at the end.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Jenta, the High Priest’s Son

thag6.9:1 I was drunk with the pride of birth and wealth and authority. I wandered about intoxicated with my own gorgeous body.

thag6.9:2 No one was my equal or my better— or so I thought. I was such an arrogant fool, stuck up, waving my own flag.

thag6.9:3 I never paid homage to anyone: not even my mother or father, nor others esteemed as respectable. I was stiff with pride, lacking regard for others.

thag6.9:4 When I saw the foremost leader, the most excellent of charioteers, shining like the sun at the fore of the mendicant Saṅgha,

thag6.9:5 I discarded conceit and vanity, and, with a clear and confident heart, I bowed down with my head to the supreme among all beings.

thag6.9:6 The conceit of superiority <j>and the conceit of inferiority have been given up and eradicated. The conceit “I am” is cut off, and every kind of conceit is destroyed.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Sumana (2nd)

thag6.10:1 I was only seven years old and had just gone forth when I overcame the mighty serpent king with my psychic powers.

thag6.10:2 I brought water for my mentor from the great lake Anotatta. When he saw me, my teacher declared:

thag6.10:3 “Sāriputta, see this young boy coming, carrying a water pot, serene inside himself.

thag6.10:4 His conduct inspires confidence, he is of lovely deportment: he is Anuruddha’s novice, self-assured in psychic powers.

thag6.10:5 Made a thoroughbred by a thoroughbred, made good by the good, educated and trained by Anuruddha, who has completed his task.

thag6.10:6 Having attained ultimate peace and witnessed the unshakable, that novice Sumana has the wish: ‘May no one find me out!’”

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Nhātakamuni

thag6.11:1 “Struck by a wind ailment while dwelling in a forest grove, you’ve entered a tough resort for gathering alms— how will you get by, monk?”

thag6.11:2 “Pervading this bag of bones with abundant rapture and happiness, putting up with what’s tough, I’ll dwell in the forest.

thag6.11:3 Developing the seven awakening factors, the faculties and the powers, endowed with subtle absorptions, I’ll dwell without defilements.

thag6.11:4 Freed from corruptions, my pure mind is unclouded. Frequently reviewing this, I’ll meditate without defilements.

thag6.11:5 Those defilements that were found in me, internally and externally, are all cut off without remainder, and will not arise again.

thag6.11:6 The five aggregates are fully understood, they remain, but their root is cut. I have reached the ending of suffering, now I await only my return to God.”

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Brahmadatta

thag6.12:1 Whence anger for one free of anger, tamed, living justly, freed by right knowledge, peaceful and unaffected?

thag6.12:2 When you get angry at an angry person you just make things worse for yourself. When you don’t get angry at an angry person you win a battle hard to win.

thag6.12:3 When you know that the other is angry, you act for the good of both yourself and the other if you’re mindful and stay calm.

thag6.12:4 People inexpert in the teaching consider one who heals both oneself and the other to be a fool.

thag6.12:5 If anger arises in you, reflect on the simile of the saw; if craving for flavors arises in you, remember the simile of the child’s flesh.

thag6.12:6 If your mind runs off to sensual pleasures and worldly becoming, quickly curb it with mindfulness, as one would curb a greedy cow eating grain.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Sirimaṇḍa

thag6.13:1 The rain saturates things that are covered up; it doesn’t saturate things that are open. Therefore you should open up a covered thing, so the rain will not saturate it.

thag6.13:2 The world is beaten down by death and surrounded by old age. The dart of craving has struck it down, and it’s always fuming with desire.

thag6.13:3 The world is beaten down by death, caged by old age, beaten constantly without respite, like a criminal being flogged.

thag6.13:4 Three things are coming, like a wall of flame: death, disease, and old age. No power can stand before them, and no speed’s enough to flee.

thag6.13:5 Don’t waste your day, a little or a lot. Every night that passes shortens your life by that much.

thag6.13:6 Walking or standing, sitting or lying down: your final night draws near; you have no time to be careless.

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Sabbakāmi

thag6.14:1 This two-legged body is dirty and stinking, full of different carcasses, and oozing all over the place— but still it is cherished!

thag6.14:2 Like a lurking deer by a trick, like a fish by a hook, like a langur by tar— they trap an ordinary person.

thag6.14:3 Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches so delightful: these five kinds of sensual stimulation are seen in a woman’s body.

thag6.14:4 Those ordinary people, their minds full of lust, who pursue those women: they swell the horrors of the charnel ground, piling up burdens.

thag6.14:5 One who, being mindful, avoids them like a snake’s head with their foot, gets over clinging to the world.

thag6.14:6 Seeing the danger in sensual pleasures, seeing renunciation as sanctuary, I’ve escaped all sensual pleasures, and attained the ending of defilements.