This translation of the Theragāthā was made by Bhikkhu Sujato with Jessica Walton. It is based on the Mahāsaṅgīti edition of the Pali text.

The translation relies heavily on the translation and notes by K.R. Norman for the Pali Text Society, published as Elders’s Verses I, first published 1965. For a few verses we have also consulted translations by Bhikkhu Thanissaro and Bhikkhu Bodhi. In all cases, however, the final translation was made directly from the Pali text.

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Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.

Theragāthā

Verses of the Senior Monks

Chapter of the Twos

2.17. Tissa

When your head is shaven, and you’re wrapped in the outer robe,
You’ll have many enemies
When you receive food and drink,
Clothes and lodgings.

Knowing this danger,
This great fear in honours,
A monk should go forth mindfully,
With few possessions, and not full of desire.