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Sumangala – Freedom Through Jhana
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Introduction
This poem is from the Theragatha. The Theragatha preserves 264 poems of elder monks and is the eighth 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.
In this poem, The awakened monk Sumangala concisely describes the quality of an awakened mind through Right Meditation practiced as part of the Eightfold Path. [1,2,3]
Sumangala – Freedom Through Jhana
Theragatha 1:43
Freedom, Freedom!
I am completely free
From three crooked things.
Sickles, shovels, and plows.
Even if they were right here,
I would still be free of them.
(Affirming to himself)
Do Jhana, Sumangala,
Always mindful, Sumangala,
Do Jhana.
End Of Poem
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My Dhamma articles and talks are based on the Buddha's teachings (suttas) as preserved in the Sutta Pitaka, the second book of the Pali Canon. I have relied primarily on Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s excellent and insightful translation of the Pali generously made freely available at his website Dhammatalks.org, as well as the works of Acharya Buddharakkhita, Nyanaponika Thera, John Ireland, Maurice Walsh, Hellmuth Hecker, and Sister Khema, among others, as preserved at Access To Insight.
Also, I have found Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations from Wisdom Publications Pali Canon Anthologies to be most informative and an excellent resource.
I have made edits to the suttas from these sources for further clarity, to modernize language, to minimize repetition, and maintain contextual relevance to Dependent Origination and Four Noble Truths.
Becoming-Buddha.com and Dhamma articles and recordings by John Haspel are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
