Vanasaṁyutta 6

Linked Discourses 9.6

1. In the Woods

With Anuruddha

1 At one time Venerable Anuruddha was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove.

Then a certain deity of the company of the thirty-three named Penelope had been Anuruddha’s partner in a former life. She went up to Anuruddha, and recited these verses:

2 “Set your heart there,

where you used to live:

among the gods of the thirty-three,

whose every desire is granted!

At the fore of a retinue

of divine maidens, you’ll shine!”

3 “Divine maidens are in a sorry state,

stuck in substantial reality.

And those beings too are in a sorry state,

who are attached to divine maidens.”

4 “They don’t know pleasure

who don’t see the Garden of Delight!

It’s the abode of lordly gods,

the glorious host of Thirty!”

5 “Fool, don’t you understand

the saying of the perfected ones:

All conditions are impermanent,

their nature is to rise and fall;

having arisen, they cease;

their settling is such bliss.

6 O Penelope, weaver of the web—

there are no more abodes for me in the heavenly host.

Transmigration through births is finished,

now there’ll be no more future lives.”