by Vasubandhu

This short verse text by Vasubandhu (དབྱིག་གཉེན, c. 4th–5th century CE) uses one of Buddhism's most vivid parables: five animals, each destroyed by a single sense pleasure. The deer is slain by the hunter's song. The elephant is led to death by the female's touch. The moth flies into the flame. The fish swallows the hook. The bee dies in the fragrant pot. Each falls to one sense alone. The devastating conclusion: human beings are beset by all five, day and night. How could they ever find peace?

The text is preserved in the Degé Tengyur (Tohoku 4180) in the Epistles section. No Sanskrit title is recorded; the original is presumably lost. The Tibetan was translated by the Indian paṇḍita Dharmaśrībhadra (དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི་བྷ་དྲ) and the great reviser-translator Rinchen Zangpo (རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ, 958–1055 CE). It has never been translated into English — this is the first.

Homage to Mañjuśrī, the eternally youthful!

The deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish,
and the bee — these five are each destroyed by one.
If each is destroyed by a single sense pleasure,
why would one who always displays all five not be destroyed?

The deer eats the pure shoots of grass
and can travel very far —
yet by the hunter's melody,
it is surely led to its own slaughter.

It rivals even the guardians of the earth,
the elephant, famed king of mountains —
yet by the touch of the cow-elephant,
it is surely led to the place of death.

Though it sees the mass of blazing fires,
the great conflagration —
through great attachment to form,
the moth enters into the flame.

It goes on unobstructed paths
and is always free to roam —
yet through attachment to taste,
the fish is destroyed by the iron hook.

It always travels the sky,
its form most pleasing to behold —
yet by the fault of the pot's fragrance,
it surely meets its death.

The deer by mere sound.
By touch, the elephant is destroyed.
By form itself, the moth.
By taste, the fish is utterly destroyed.
The bee is attached to smell.

These are destroyed by a single cause each.
Yet for human beings,
all five are constantly present
and overwhelm them day and night —
how, then, could they ever attain a place of peace?

The Explanation of the Faults of the Five Sense Pleasures, composed by Ācārya Vasubandhu, is complete.

Translated into Tibetan from Sanskrit by the Indian paṇḍita Dharmaśrībhadra and the great reviser-translator Rinchen Zangpo.

Colophon

Good Works Translation from Classical Tibetan. Translated by Lhundrup (ལྷུན་གྲུབ), Tibetan Translator, Life 44, New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026. The translation is independently derived from the Tibetan source text of the Degé Tengyur edition, as preserved in the Esukhia digital corpus (CC0). No prior English translation of this text is known to exist; this is the first.

The five-animals parable is one of Buddhism's most widely attested teachings on the dangers of sensory attachment. Versions appear in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya, in the Mahābhārata (XII.173), in the Jātaka commentary tradition, and in numerous Abhidharma texts. What distinguishes Vasubandhu's version is its economy. Eight verses. No commentary, no narrative frame, no qualification. Five animals, five deaths, five senses — then the razor: if one sense destroys an animal, what hope has a being enslaved by all five? The final question goes unanswered. That silence is the teaching.

The five correspondences are: the deer is destroyed by sound (the hunter's song lures it), the elephant by touch (the female elephant leads the bull into the trap), the moth by form (attachment to the flame's light), the fish by taste (the bait on the hook), and the bee by smell (fragrance in the pot). Each animal possesses natural advantages — the deer's speed, the elephant's power, the fish's freedom in the water — yet a single sensory attachment undoes them all.

Verse 6 presents a textual interest: the word བུམ་པ (bum pa, "pot" or "vessel") rather than the expected བུང་བ (bung ba, "bee") as the subject. The bee is implied from the five-animals list established in verse 1; the "pot" is the trap — likely a vessel containing fragrant flowers or nectar. The bee enters, attracted by the scent, and cannot escape. The image is quietly horrifying: the most beautiful and free-ranging of the five, killed by the gentlest of the senses.

No Sanskrit title is recorded in the Tibetan colophon. The title འདོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྔའི་ཉེས་དམིགས་བཤད་པ (Explanation of the Faults of the Five Qualities of Desire) would reconstruct to something like Pañcakāmaguṇādīnavanirdeśa in Sanskrit, but this is speculative. 84000.co catalogues the text as "A Teaching on Observed Objects [endowed] with the Five Qualities of Desire" (Toh 4180, v 0.0.2, 2023 — catalogued only, no translation).

The Blood Rule: This translation is independently derived from the Classical Tibetan source text. No existing English translation was consulted, as none is known to exist. The translator parsed the Tibetan verse by verse, identified the five-animals structure, and produced independent English.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

Other texts from the Tengyur Epistles section: Discourse on Transcending Existence — Nagarjuna · Advice Universally Proclaiming the Seven Good Qualities — Vasubandhu · Advice on the Meaning of Impermanence — Ramendra · Advice on Ethics — Vasubandhu · A Letter from Avalokitesvara to the Monk Luminous Youth · Advice in Categorical Statements — Maharshi Candra · Discourse on the Age of Strife — Maticitra

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Source Text: འདོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྔའི་ཉེས་དམིགས་བཤད་པ།

Classical Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Unicode etext of the Degé Tengyur (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0). File 173 (སྤྲིང་ཡིག_ངེ), D4180 marker, folio 39b.1–39b.6. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

།རི་དགས་གླང་པོ་ཕྱེ་མ་ལེབ་དང་ཉ། །སྦྲང་མ་ལྔ་པོ་དེ་ཡང་ལྔ་ཡིས་བཅོམ་འགྱུར་ཏེ། །གཅིག་གིས་བཅོམ་ན་གང་ཞིག་ལྔ་རྣམས་ནི། །རྟག་ཏུ་བསྟན་པ་ཅི་ཕྱིར་བཅོམ་མི་འགྱུར།

།རྩྭ་ཡི་མྱུ་གུ་གཙང་མ་ཟ། །ཤིན་ཏུ་རིང་དུ་འགྲོ་ནུས་པ། །རི་དགས་རྔོན་པའི་གླུ་དབྱངས་ཀྱིས། །ངེས་པར་གསོད་པ་ཚོལ་བར་འགྱུར།

།ས་སྲུང་དང་ནི་རབ་འགྲན་ཅིང་། །རི་ཡི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱུན་ཤེས་བྱའི། །བན་གླང་མོ་ཡི་ཉེ་རེག་གིས། །ངེས་པར་གླང་པོ་བསད་སར་སོང་།

།འབར་བ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཚོགས་དག་གི །མེ་ཆེན་དག་ནི་མཐོང་ནས་ཀྱང་། །གཟུགས་ལ་ཆགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡང་། །ཕྱེ་ལེབ་མེ་ལ་འཇུག་པར་འགྱུར།

།བཀག་པ་མེད་པའི་ལམ་འགྲོ་ཞིང་། །རྟག་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱུ་བ་ཡིན། །རོ་མྱང་བ་ལ་ཆགས་པ་ཡི། །ཉ་ནི་ལྕགས་ཀྱུས་རླག་པར་བྱེད།

།རྟག་ཏུ་ནམ་མཁའ་ལ་རྒྱུ་ཞིང་། །གཟུགས་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡིད་འོང་བའི། །བུམ་པ་དྲི་ཡིས་ཉེས་པ་ཡིས། །ངེས་པར་འཆི་བར་འགྱུར་བ་ཡིན།

།རི་དགས་ཉིད་ནི་སྒྲ་ཙམ་གྱིས། །རེག་པས་གླང་པོ་བརླག་པར་འགྱུར། །གཟུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ནི་ཕྱེ་ལེབ་སྟེ། །རོ་ཡིས་ཉ་ནི་རྣམ་པར་རླག །བུང་བ་དྲི་ལ་ཆགས་པ་སྟེ།

།འདི་དག་རྒྱུ་ནི་རེ་རེ་ཡིས། །སྐྱེས་བུ་དག་ནི་གཅིག་ལ་ཡང་། །ལྔ་པོ་འདི་དག་རྟག་ལྡན་ཞིང་། །ཉིན་མཚན་དུ་ནི་རབ་འཇོམས་ན། །བདེ་བ་གནས་ཇི་ཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར།

།འདོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྔའི་ཉེས་དམིགས་བཤད་པ་སློབ་དཔོན་དབྱིག་གཉེན་གྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།

།།རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི་བྷ་དྲ་དང་། །ཞུ་ཆེན་གྱི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་ཅིང་ཞུས་ཏེ་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པའོ།།

Source Colophon

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Unicode etext of the Degé Tengyur, file 173 (སྤྲིང་ཡིག_ངེ.txt), D4180 marker. GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur (CC0 license). Folio 39b.1–39b.6 of the Degé blockprint.

The Degé Tengyur (སྡེ་དགེ་བསྟན་འགྱུར) was printed from woodblocks at Degé Printing House in Kham, eastern Tibet, 1737–1744 CE. The Esukhia etexts were produced by the Esukhia research group, proofread against the woodblock prints, and released into the public domain.

No Sanskrit title is recorded in the Tibetan colophon. The text is attributed to "Ācārya Vasubandhu" (སློབ་དཔོན་དབྱིག་གཉེན). The Tibetan translation was produced by the Indian paṇḍita Dharmaśrībhadra (དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི་བྷ་དྲ) and the great reviser-translator Rinchen Zangpo (ཞུ་ཆེན་གྱི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ).

Variant readings from the Esukhia etext: (རི་དགས་,རི་དྭགས་) in verses 1 and 7; (འགྲེན་,འགྲན་) in verse 3. The primary Degé reading is followed throughout. Folio markers and Esukhia editorial marks (#) have been removed for readability.

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