129 |
All shrink from flagellation,
And of death feel trepidation.
If we saw the correlation
To our parallel position,
We would stop all persecution
And, of creatures, violation.(1)
|
130 |
All shrink from flagellation
Hold their lives in great affection.
If we saw the correlation
To our parallel position,
We would stop all persecution
And, of creatures, violation.
|
131 |
Whoever attacks pleasure-loving beings, though himself longing for pleasure, will find no pleasure in his future life.
|
132 |
Whoever does not attack pleasure-loving beings, and is one who himself longs for pleasure, will find pleasure in his future life.
|
133 |
To no one speak offensively -
The victim might reciprocate.
Your angry words are agony:
Requital might eventuate.
|
134 |
Once you’ve no reverberation,
Like a fractured metal gong,
Then Nibbana have you realised:
Wars of words, for you, are gone.
|
135 |
Age-and-death the life from us expels
Like herd, with stick, his cows to grass compels.
|
136 |
When evil’s done by those unwise,
Its harm they do not realise.
It’s like a very fire they light
By which they set themselves alight.
|
137
-140
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A fool who might menace one morally upright,
Or using a cudgel a pure man should strike,
Would swiftly encounter a terrible plight:
Loss of relations;
Or racking sensations;
Or body calamity;
Loss of his sanity;
Terrible health;
Or the loss of his wealth;
Or his home’s devastation
In wild conflagration;
Or king, or authority,
Show him barbarity;
Then after death,
An infernal finality.
|
141 |
He wanders nude;
Abstains from food;
His filthy body’s smearings too.
He plaits his locks;
On heels he squats;
The earth is all the bed he’s got.
Such acts won’t clean
This mortal being
In whom is doubt still lingering.
|
142 |
If he’s chaste and restrained,
If he’s calmed and he’s tamed,
From the hurting of all forms of life he abstains:
Though this man walks his way
Well-adorned and arrayed,
He can ‘brahman’ or ‘monk’ or ‘ascetic’ be named.
|
143 |
A human restrained
By his feelings of shame
Will avoid being blamed,
Like a horse that’s well-tamed
Doesn’t suffer the pain
Of the lash of a cane.
|
144 |
Like a horse one might train
That’s aroused with a cane,
You must smother your vast tribulation:
Be zealous, one-pointed and cultivate purity;
Trust, have composure, be mindful, have energy!
Blessed with discernment,
Endowed with good conduct,
Make effort in Dhamma enquiry.
|
145 |
Farmers channel water;
Craftsmen fashion timber;
Fletchers trim their arrowshafts;
Those of virtue train themselves.
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Go to the next chapter |
