76
&77 |
A sage who chides with words of censure,
Showing faults like showing treasure:
If with her you’d pair together,
Then you’d be not worse, but better.
Let her censure, give instruction,
And restrain you from corruption.
Though by wastrels she’s abhorred,
By the sterling, she’s adored. |
78 |
With evil friends don’t socialise;
With vulgar folk don’t fraternise.
With virtuous comrades congregate;
With noble beings collaborate. |
79 |
One who drinks Dhamma abides
Happy, with purified mind.
The learned ones ever will savour
The teachings made known by the Buddha. |
80 |
Farmers channel water;
Craftsmen fashion timber;
Fletchers trim their arrowshafts;
Those of wisdom train themselves. |
81*
|
A solid rock by wind is undisturbed:
The wise by praise and blame are unperturbed. |
82 |
A fathomless water serene
That sparkles like glass is idyllic.
The person who Dhamma receives
Is someone who’s likewise pacific. |
83 |
True men shed things altogether;
Pure men hint not seeking pleasure.
Touched by joy or tribulation,
They grieve not, nor show elation. |
84 |
Not for another, and not for yourself,
Should you seek for an empire, for sons or for wealth.
Nor should you long for dishonest success,
But rather should aim to be wise and righteous.
|
85 |
Few amongst mortals will cross to that land:
Most will just stroll about here on the strand. |
86 |
Conducting themselves in conformity
To Dhamma, expounded so thoroughly,
They will transcend the vast sphere of mortality,
Freedom from which is achieved with great difficulty. |
87
&88
|
Having left their homes for homelessness,
The learned ones, possessionless,
Should aim for inner happiness
In hard-to-relish loneliness.
They must leave all states of murkiness
And cultivate what’s luminous,
Abandon all voluptuousness,
And purge their minds’ uncleanliness. |
89 |
Their minds are well-developed in components of enlightenment;
They’re free of all attachment, and delight in disentanglement;
Their cankers are extinguished and their mental states are brilliant:
The people in this world who’ve gained that freedom most magnificent. |
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Go to the next chapter |
