Mitakali - A Nuns Path Completed Talks
These are the most recent talks on this subject. As of December, 2019, There are more than 600 Dhamma talks on this and other teachings of the Buddha in my audio and video archives:
Mittakali – A Nuns Path Completed
Introduction
This poem is from the Therigatha. The Therigatha preserves 73 poems of elder nuns and is the ninth section in the Khuddaka Nikāya. The Khuddaka Nikāya is a collection of short texts in (mostly) verse. The Khuddaka Nikāya is the last Nikaya (collection) of the Sutta Piṭaka, the second book of the Pāli Canon. [1]
In this poem, the nun Mittakali recounts her going forth still affected by continued clinging to wrong views ignorant of Four Noble Truths. [2] Finally, from a well-concentrated mind, free from influence of worldly associations, her mind cleared. [3]
Mittakālī – A Nuns Path Completed
Therigatha 5:6
Going forth with conviction
from home to homelessness.
I wandered here and there
always craving for recognition and material gain.
Chasing an ordinary goal
I missed the highest pursuit.
Driven by greed, aversion, and deluded thinking
I remained in ignorance, asleep.
Then, sitting in a quiet space
I suddenly came to my senses:
The path I am on is a miserable path.
My path is founded on craving, on desire.
Now, aging and illness are my constant companion.
Death is inevitable and I have no time left for mindlessness.
Seeing clearly impermanence
and the arising and passing away of the Five Clinging-Aggregates.
I arise as if from a deep slumber.
My mind released.
The Awakened One’s (Eightfold) Path complete. [4]
End of Poem
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