Nikaya

Where Suffering Subsides

Verses of the Senior Nuns 5.7

The Book of the Fives

Sakulā

While staying at home

I heard the teaching from a monk.

I saw the stainless Dhamma,

extinguishment, the state that does not pass.

Leaving behind my son and my daughter,

my riches and my grain,

I had my hair cut off,

and went forth to homelessness.

As a trainee nun,

I developed the direct path.

I gave up greed and hate,

along with associated defilements.

When I was fully ordained as a nun,

I recollected my past lives,

and purified my clairvoyance,

immaculate and fully developed.

Conditions are born of causes, crumbling;

having seen them as other,

I gave up all defilements,

I’m cooled and quenched.