This is a new translation of a classic scripture text, the Therigatha. The introduction tells us that theris means “senior ones” who are Buddhist women, and gatha means “poems.”

Written more than two thousand years ago, these poems have been counted as “inspired” within Buddhism since at least the sixth century C.E. They are from India and represent the earliest collection of literature by women, and spiritual writings of women, in history.

The Therigatha is included in the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism. The tradition offers a rich context of interpretation for these religious verses.

The translator, Charles Hallisey, writes in the introduction: “In general, the poems of the Therigatha wear their Buddhist doctrine quite lightly, and they avoid most specifics of Buddhist practice, whether it be the disciplinary practices of monastics or the mental training of meditators. The poems celebrate individual transformation that ends in liberation.”

Some of the poems are verses “received” as teachings from the Buddha, such as this one by a woman named Mutta about asceticism, want, and freedom:

“The name you are called by means freed, Mutta, …
When nothing is owed because the mind is completely free
you can relish food collected as alms.”

And this one, by a woman named Tissa: “Tissa, hold fast to good things, don’t let the moment escape.”

This picturesque poem by Dhammadinna is for preparing to meditate:

“She who has given rise to the wish for freedom
and is set on it, shall be clear in mind.
One whose heart is not caught in the pleasures of the senses,
one who is bound upstream, will be freed.”

There are many poems praising renunciation of human passions, common in Buddhist scriptures, and the passion for sex in particular, which is common for nuns of any time period. One of these concludes: “Its burning fever broken, I have become cool, free.”

We found these reminders of passion’s excesses and the dangerous enticements of greed and illusory pleasure to be helpful overall. For a long passage about sense urges, see the excerpt with this review, by an ordained woman two millennia ago named Subha.