Verse 37 — (Story and Verse “Sīho” / “The Lion”)
Story (literal–faithful translation)
It is heard that there was a king of Benares who had a royal garden at a distance. One morning he rose and went to the royal garden. He dismounted from his carriage on the way, thinking, “When I reach the bathing-place I shall wash my face.” In that country a lioness had given birth to a lion-cub and gone hunting. A royal retainer saw the cub and said, “A lion-cub, sire.” The king thought, “I have heard that lions do not fear; let us test that cub.” He ordered drums and other noise-making instruments to be sounded to try the cub. The cub heard the sound and kept lying as before. The king ordered a second sounding; the cub still lay as before. He ordered the third sounding: at the third, the cub raised its head, looked round at the whole company, and then lay down as before.
Then the king said, “Until the mother returns we will not go.” As he was going, he reflected, “If the cub was born today and did not startle or fear, then at what time (in what state) does one not startle? We should cut off startlement produced by craving and view; we should not startle, we should not fear.” He took up that recollection/vision and proceeded. He saw nets spread and drying on the branches where the fishermen had hung their fish-catch; he took that omen (nimitta) also: “At what time, then, shall we destroy the net — that is, craving and view — and it will not catch us, will not entangle us, as these nets are not held fast by the wind?”
Later he went into the royal garden and sat upon the stone slab by the edge of the pond. He saw lotuses (paduma) that, when the wind blows, lean over and touch the water, but when the wind subsides they stand upright again and are not wet. He took that omen (nimitta) too: “When shall it be that, even though born in the world, we shall not be attached in the world — like these lotuses born in water yet not wet by water?”
That king often reflected, “We ought not to startle, not to be attached, not to be wetted — like the lion, the wind, and the lotus.” Having so reflected, he renounced the throne and entered the homeless life. He practised insight (vipassanā) and realized the knowledge of arahantship for himself. Then he uttered this exclamatory stanza:
Pāli stanza (as in the tradition) Siho vā sottesu asantasanto Vāto ca chālambhi asacchamāno Padumaṃ va toyeñ ālimpamāno Eko jare khakkavissāṇagappo
Verse — natural-language rendering (faithful to sense)
The lion — not startled among sounds, undisturbed; The wind — not caught by nets, not bound; The lotus — though lying in water, not wetted; Alone go forth — like the rhinoceros-solitary one.
(In sense: one who does not startle at impermanent phenomena, who is not entangled by sense-nets, who though arising in the world remains unsoiled by it — should go forth alone like the solitary rhinoceros.)
Short explanatory commentary (summary of the practice point)
• The king uses three natural similes to point to stages of practice: lion = freedom from startlement (free from reactive fright produced by self-love/craving); wind = freedom from being entangled (free from moha/ignorance so that sense-nets do not hold one); lotus = freedom from being soiled (born in the world yet not soaked by sensual clinging). • The text then links means and results: craving (taṇhā) and view (diṭṭhi) are the “nets” that cause startle and entanglement; to abandon craving one cultivates samatha (tranquillity, concentration) and to abandon moha/avijjā one cultivates vipassanā (insight/wisdom). • Moral: with morality (śīla) as foundation, samatha and vipassanā mature — and with restraint in the three khandhas (sense-aggregates) one becomes unstartled, unattached, unsoiled: the liberated or one going forth “alone” (ekako) — the classic solitary rhinoceros image — is the natural outcome.
Short Pāli Glossary (concise · intensive)
(terms that appear in the passage or are essential for its doctrinal point)
siha / sīha — lion; used here as simile for one who does not startle at sense-sounds (i.e., fearless toward sensual disturbance). vāta / vāto — wind; used as simile for that which passes through nets (sense-traps) without being caught — image of non-entanglement. paduma / padumaṃ — lotus; image of arising in water but not being wetted — born in the world yet unsoiled by worldly clinging. eka-cara / eka-cara (“one who goes alone”) — solitary rhinoceros image (ekaka-cara) — classic simile for solitary renunciate or one who goes forth alone on the path. taṇhā — craving, thirst; the driving fuel of clinging and becoming (nets = taṇhā which trap beings). diṭṭhi — view; here, views that solidify self-attachment; taṇhā and diṭṭhi often operate together. lobha — greed; as active aspect of craving; mentioned in passage as root of clinging. moha — delusion / bewilderment; the obscuring factor that allows entanglement. avijjā — ignorance; deep unseeing; the text equates the non-investigative clinging with moha/avijjā. sīla — moral restraint; called here the basis (pattaṭṭhāna) of samatha. samatha — calm/tranquillity practice (resulting in samādhi), used to weaken taṇhā and produce steadiness (non-startle). samādhi — collectedness / concentration; the settled mind that supports insight and release. vipassanā — insight meditation / wisdom; used as the means to remove moha/avijjā (non-seeing). paññā — wisdom; result of vipassanā; understanding reality as impermanent, unsatisfactory, non-self. khandha — the five aggregates; passage alludes to being free of being “in” the khandhas (not identified with the aggregates). āyatana — sense-bases / sense-realms; passage mentions being not entangled in āyatana. āsava — influxes / underlying tendencies; the passage earlier connected liberation with absence of influxes (relevant background doctrine).