Thag 6.4 - Kulla
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato
Source: https://suttacentral.net/thag6.4/en/sujato
License: CC0-1.0

Verses of the Senior Monks 6.4
The Book of the Sixes
Chapter One
Kulla
I, Kulla, went to a charnel ground
and saw a woman’s body abandoned there,
dumped in a cemetery,
full of worms that devoured.
“See this bag of bones, Kulla—
diseased, filthy, rotten,
oozing and trickling,
a fool’s delight.”
Taking the teaching as a mirror
for realizing knowledge and vision,
I examined this body,
hollow, inside and out.
As this is, so is that;
as that is, so is this.
As below, so above;
as above, so below.
As by day, so by night;
as by night, so by day.
As before, so behind;
as behind, so before.
Even the music of a five-piece band
can never give such pleasure
as when, with unified mind,
you rightly discern the Dhamma.