Thag 10:2 Ekavihāriya—“Dwelling Alone”

Come then! Alone

I will go to the wilderness

praised     by the Awakened One

pleasant     for a resolute monk

dwelling alone.

Alone,

astute in my goal,

I’ll quickly enter the grove

—refreshing,

giving rapture

to meditators—

the haunt

of elephants in rut.

When the Cool Forest’s in full flower,

in a cool mountain gorge,

having bathed my limbs

I’ll walk back & forth

alone.

Ah, when will I dwell,

alone and free from companions,

in the refreshing great forest—

my task done,

effluent-free?

As I desire to do this,

may my purpose succeed.

I myself

will bring it about.

No one can do it

for anyone else.

* * *

I myself

bind on my armor.

I will enter the grove

and will not emerge

without having attained

the end of the effluents.

While soft breezes blow—

cool,

heavily, fragrantly scented—

I’ll make ignorance burst,

as I sit on a mountaintop.

In the forest covered with blossoms

or perhaps on a cool hillside,

blessed with the bliss of release,

on Giribbaja I’ll delight.1

* * *

I am now he

whose resolves are fulfilled

like the moon on a full-moon night.

With effluents all

totally ended,

there is now no further becoming.