Verses of the Elder Bhikkhunīs

Chapter of the Sixes

Verses of the Five Hundred Elders

“You do not know how

a being comes and goes,

or whence that being came,

yet you weep, ‘oh, my child!’

If you really knew how

one comes and goes,

you would not mourn,

for you would understand that this is the nature of a being.

Uninvited they come,

without permission they leave.

Whence did they come?

How long will they stay?

Departing from one place,

they go to another.

One who has died in the form of a human being,

will be reborn again and again.

As one comes, so one goes;

why lament since that is so?”

“At last, you pulled out the thorn,

difficult to see, stuck in my heart.

I was overcome with grief after the loss of my child,

but now that grief has been dispelled.

Today the thorn has been pulled out,

I am free of craving, fully quenched.

I go to the Sage for refuge

in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.”

In this way Five Hundred Elder Bhikkhunīs spoke…