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# Thig 5:8 · Soṇā, Mother of Ten
- URL: https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/thig-5-8/
- Published: 2026-06-01T00:12:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-13T16:53:38.000Z
- Description: Therīgāthā · Thig 5:8. Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.
- Author: Ninth Heaven Literature & Arts Association (NHLAA)
- Tags: Buddhism, Sutta Piṭaka, Text, Indian, The Elder Nuns, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Therīgāthā, Verse, Pali, Early Buddhist, Library

Ten children I bore

from this physical heap.

Then weak from that, aged,

I went to a nun.

She taught me the Dhamma:

aggregates, sense media, & properties.

Hearing her Dhamma,

I cut off my hair & ordained.

Having purified the divine eye

while still a trainee,[1](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Thig/thig5%5F8.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co)

I know my previous lives,

where I lived in the past.

I develop the theme-less meditation,

well-focused oneness.

I gain the liberation of immediacy[2](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Thig/thig5%5F8.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co)—

from lack of clinging, unbound.

The five aggregates, comprehended,

stand like a tree with its root cut through.

I spit on wretched birth[3](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Thig/thig5%5F8.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co)

old age.

There is now no further becoming.

Notes

1\. Sikkhamānā: A candidate for full ordination as a nun first had to undergo a two-year period as a trainee, in which she undertook the ten precepts of a novice and had to observe the first six without break. If she broke any of those six, she had to go back and start the two-year period again.

2\. This is apparently equivalent to the concentration of unmediated knowing, mentioned in [Sn 2:1](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/sn-2-1/), and the concentration that is the fruit of gnosis, mentioned in [AN 9:37](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/an-9-37/).

3\. This line plays with the word jamme, which can mean either “wretched” or “birth.”

See also: [SN 48:41](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/sn-48-41/); [Thag 1:118](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/thag-1-118/)

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*Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) licence, for free distribution only. Source: [dhammatalks.org](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Thig/thig5%5F8.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) (Metta Forest Monastery).*