Poetry of the Pāḷi Canon
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Mostly for the canonical poetry collections of the Kn, but also for the miscellaneous poetry found throughout The Canon.
Caution! Under Construction
Please be aware that this tag is still under construction and as such is missing information and may be changed or removed at any time. Please pardon our dust as you peruse this incomplete bibliography.
Table of Contents
Books (9)
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A collection of K.R. Norman’s five-part series of articles on the different meters found in the 30th Sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya.
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Readings (3)
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⭐ Recommended
The notion of poetry I have in mind relates not so much to its formal properties, but to the realms of experience or types of consciousness it involves.
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⭐ Recommended
… the original composer of the gāthās was likely aware of and comfortable with the polyvocal nature of the teachings, which added a richer and deeper dimension to the teaching.
22 pages
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Audio/Video (1)
In the Library (75)
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The first book of the Khuddaka Nikāya, the Khuddakapāṭha was, in ancient times, a daily liturgy for novice monks.
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Even if a thousand mighty princes and great archers,
well trained, with strong bows,
were to completely surround me;
I would never flee. -
⭐ Recommended
They had come to him glittering with beauty—
Taṇha, Arati, and Raga—
But the Teacher swept them away right there
As the wind, a fallen cotton tuft. -
Oh, when will I stay in a mountain cave,
alone, with no companion,
discerning all states of existence as impermanent? -
But by fully understanding what is expressed
One does not misconceive the speaker.5 pages -
Learn the recitation passage and analysis of One Fine Night, mendicant, memorize it, and remember it. It is beneficial and relates to the fundamentals of the spiritual life.
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Abstaining from perceptions of sensuality,
overcoming all fetters,
having totally ended delight in becoming,
one doesn’t sink
into the deep. -
As I strove to subdue myself
beside the broad Nerañjarā… -
See this fancy puppet,
a body built of sores… -
I became profoundly dispassionate
towards all sensual pleasures.
Seeing fear in identity,
I longed for renunciation. -
What is this body full of piss and shit?
I wouldn’t even want to touch it with my foot. -
Some ascetics and brahmins regard the attainment of the meditation on universal water to be the ultimate.
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It seems that we are actually impermanent, though we thought ourselves permanent; it seems that we are actually transient, though we thought ourselves everlasting
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Suppose, bhikkhus, a man was being borne along by the current of a river…
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A deva gently encourages a group of wayward monks.
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Then Mara the Evil One, in the presence of the Blessed One, recited these verses of disappointment…
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Tell me how you’re a farmer when asked:
how am I to recognize your farming? -
Again & again farmers plow the fields.
Again & again grain comes to the kingdom. -
Possessions, honor, and popularity came to Devadatta for his own ruin and downfall.
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The nights and days do not afflict me,
I see for myself no decline in the world. -
The compassionate one, who sees the ending of rebirth,
understands the one-way path. -
relying on my youth,
I despised anyone who was not my equal… -
False pundits, totally muddled…
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Then at that time the Gracious One was sitting reflecting on his own abandonment of countless bad, unwholesome things, and how through development countless wholesome things had come to fulfilment.
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