Who removes arisen anger as herbs a serpent’s venom spread; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who lust pulls up remainderless as in water, plants and blooms of lotuses; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who craving dams remainderless as drying of a river’s fierce and rapid flow; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who destroys conceit entire as a great flood a bridge of reeds so frail; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who in rebirths¹ no essence finds as a seeker of flowers on Udumbara trees; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who keeps no grudges inwardly but this “being-not being” has gone beyond; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
In who do thoughts no longer smoulder, internally curtailed, remainderless; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who neither goes too far nor lags behind, all mind-proliferation gone beyond; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who neither goes too far nor lags behind, who of the world has Known, “All is not thus”; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who neither goes too far nor lags behind, who free of greed has Known, “All is not thus”; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who neither goes too far nor lags behind, who free of lust has Known, “All is not thus”; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who neither goes too far nor lags behind, who free of hate has Known, “All is not thus”; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who neither goes too far nor lags behind, who delusion-free has Known, “All is not thus”; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
In whom are no latent tendencies at all— whose roots of evil completely are expunged; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
In whom is no anxiety at all to cause return to this existence here; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
In whom no attachment formed at all to cause return to all existences; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Who’s left behind five hindrances, serene then, crossed doubt, lacking inner barbs; a bhikkhu such leaves here and there as a serpent sloughs its worn-out skin.
Notes on the Serpent Sutta
A Sutta with many striking points, which perhaps determined the fact that it comes first in this collection. The half-verse refrain notes that it describes a bhikkhu with various attainments. As the great commentator Buddhaghosa explains bhikkhu should be taken to mean “anyone who practises mindfulness”, that is anyone who is devoted to maintaining mindfulness, the heart of Dharma, in their daily lives. These practitioners “leave here and there”: they have left attachment to “here”—this life—as well as “there”—any future life. The Pāli uses the compound word orapāra, which is literally “this shore or bank and the further shore”.
5: The fifth verse, which compares the one who finds no essence (sāra), with the lack of flowers upon fig-trees—udumbara, which the pts Dictionary informs us is Ficus glomerata—needs a little explanation. None of the 800 species of Ficus or fig seems to have flowers, though they all have fruits, one of which is the wellknown edible fig. But how could there be fruits without flowers first?The answer to this is that the receptacle, the small green figs, contain inside themselves the flowers which are pollinated there by small wasps, the eggs of which have been laid in there.
When pollination has been accomplished the unripe receptacles swell and eventually soften, releasing a generation of small wasps which carry this process on. Trying to find identifiable flowers on udumbara trees is a waste of time, a misleading venture as apart from the figs themselves there are no flowers. No “essential” flowers can be found.
6: The next verse which has the phrase: “this-being-not-being” (itibhavābhavataṁ) includes all kinds of being or existence, even non-existence. Some people may have craving for non-existence, holding nihilistic theories, rather than the more common craving for various sorts of existence which supports the many views of eternalism. God-worshiping religions generally have eternalist views.
8–13: These verses repeat their opening line, “Who neither goes too far nor lags behind” meaning one who does not resort to any sort of extreme. Extremes of views, speech and actions are popular in the world, now as they were in the Buddha’s time, while the Middle Way transcending all extremes is both hard to practise, and requires effort and mindfulness. Slipping into extremes is not hard, for the latent tendencies towards them are already embedded in our confused minds, with their conception of “I am” and “I want”. “Lags behind”—or in another translation, “hangs back”— refers to attachment to being, and hence to the wrong views of eternalism.
“Goes too far” or “overreaches” means the opposite: the extreme of non-being with its views on annihilation. (See the small Sutta at Itivuttaka 2.22). The second lines of these verses lists a number of areas in which it is possible to go too far or lag behind. In verse 8 this is “mind-proliferation”, papañca, which could not be cured by extreme means. A natural Dharmic cure of papañca is the Middle Way but most people, from heads of state round to nameless monks of various kinds, incline to extremes and so create for themselves and others more experience of saṁsāra, more suffering, more conflict.
“Mind-proliferation” is not just thinking too much but the indulging in extreme “solutions” based on ego, defiled mental states and of entrenched tendencies. Verses 9–13 have in their second lines “who of the world has known, “All is not thus”.This phrase “all is not thus” signifies that the world as it appears to most people is not as they commonly regard it. For instance, though change and impermanence are obvious in everything within the body and outside, yet generally people do not know and see this. They are blind to what they themselves are and blind to the world known through the senses.