Khemā (THIG6.3)

Verses of the Senior Nuns 6.3

The Book of the Sixes

Khemā

“You’re so young and beautiful!

I too am young, just a youth.

Come, Khemā, let us enjoy

the music of a five-piece band.”

“This body is rotting,

ailing and frail,

I’m horrified and repelled by it,

and I’ve eradicated sensual craving.

Sensual pleasures are like swords and spears;

the aggregates are their chopping block.

What you call erotic delight

is now no delight for me.

Relishing is banished in every respect,

and the mass of darkness is shattered.

So know this, Wicked One:

you’re beaten, terminator!”

“Worshiping the stars,

serving the sacred flame in a grove;

failing to grasp the true nature of things,

foolish me, I thought this was purity.

But now I worship the Awakened One,

supreme among men.

Doing the Teacher’s bidding,

I am released from all suffering.”