![[info icon]](./../../../img/question_16.gif "Summary: May I never lie with my head cracked open again!")
This swarthy woman
[preparing a corpse for cremation]
— crow-like, enormous —
breaking a thigh & then the other
thigh,
breaking an arm & then the other
arm,
cracking open the head,
like a pot of curds,
she sits with them heaped up beside her.
Whoever, unknowing,
makes acquisitions
— the fool —
returns over & over
to suffering & stress.
So, discerning,
don't make acquisitions.
May I never lie
with my head cracked open
again.
©2005 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
The text of this page ("Mahakala", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions.
Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. Last revised for Access to Insight on 4 August 2010.
How to cite this document (a suggested style): "Mahakala" (Thag 2.16), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 4 August 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thag/thag.02.16.than.html .