Knowing this body is like a clay vessel, establishing the mind like a fortified city, fighting Māra with the sword of wisdom, let one guard what is conquered without attachment.

Kumbhūpamakāya — body comparable to a clay pot: kumbha is the clay vessel, fragile, temporal, formed of earth and destined to return to earth. Seeing the body as such is not denigration but realism: recognizing its impermanent nature without identifying with it nor rejecting it.

Nagarūpamakāya — mind like a fortified city: the contrast is instructive. The body is fragile as clay; the mind can be solid as a well-defended city. But only if worked on. A city without defenses falls before any attack; a mind without practice falls before any disturbance.

Paññāvudhena — with the sword of wisdom: pañña as weapon. Wisdom cuts through illusions, attachments, patterns of thought that generate suffering. Not violently, like one who destroys, but with the precision of a surgeon freeing what is trapped.

Jito ca rakkheyya anāvaraṃ — guard what is conquered without attachment: the second part is as important as the first. Conquering attention is not enough if there is then attachment to that achievement. Anāvara — without obstacle, without obstruction — suggests the fluidity of the practitioner who does not cling even to their own conquests.