Kisāgotamī

“Pointing out how the world works,
the sages have praised good friendship.
Associating with good friends,
even a fool becomes astute.

Associate with good people,
for that is how wisdom grows.
Should you associate with good people,
you would be freed from all suffering.

And you would understand suffering,
its origin and cessation,
the eightfold path,
and so the four noble truths.”

“‘A woman’s life is painful,’
explained the Buddha, guide for those who wish to train,
‘and for a co-wife it’s especially so.
After giving birth just once,

some women even cut their own throat,
while refined ladies take poison.
Being guilty of killing a person,
they undergo ruin both here and beyond.’”

“I was on the road and about to give birth.,
when I saw my husband dead.
I gave birth there on the road
before I’d reached my own house.

My two children have died,
and on the road my husband lies dead—oh woe is me!
Mother, father, and brother
all burning up on the same pyre.”

“Oh woe is you whose family is lost,
your suffering has no measure;
you have been shedding tears
for many thousands of lives.”

“While staying in the charnel ground,
I saw my son’s flesh being eaten.
With my family destroyed, condemned by all,
and my husband dead, I realized the deathless.

I’ve developed the noble eightfold path
leading to the deathless.
I’ve realized quenching,
as seen in the mirror of the Dhamma.

I’ve plucked out the dart,
laid down the burden, and done what needed to be done.”
The senior nun Kisāgotamī,
her mind released, said this.


The Book of the Elevens is finished.