![[info icon]](./../../../img/question_16.gif "Summary: After wandering relentlessly through hell, heaven, and the animal world, finally: peace!")
While wandering on
I went to hell;
went again & again
to the world of the hungry shades;
stayed countless times, long,
in the pain of the animal womb;
enjoyed
the human state;
went to heaven
from time to time;
settled in the elements of form,
the elements of formlessness,
neither-perception, perception-less.
Ways of taking birth
are now known:
devoid of essence,
unstable,
conditioned,
always driven along.
Knowing them
as born from my self,
mindful
I went right to peace.
©1998 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
The text of this page ("Gotama", 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): "Gotama" (Thag 3.14), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 4 August 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thag/thag.03.14.than.html .