19. Equity

256

No man is he of equity
Who judges cases hastily;
But one who sifts the wrong from right
Is one who’s truly erudite.

257

The one who judges patiently,
And lawfully, impartially,
Astute, upholding probity,
Is called a man of equity.

258

One can’t be called knowledgeable
If merely voluble,
But if one’s peaceable,
Fearless and genial.

259

He’s not a Dhamma specialist,
The one who merely speechifies;
But one, not lax, who learns a bit,
Then Dhamma does he realise.

260

A monk’s not deemed ‘an Elder’
Through hair that’s turning grey.
If he’s just matured in age,
He’s deemed ‘matured-in-vain’.

261

The bhikkhu of goodness and honesty,
Who’s peaceful, good-natured and tamed,
Who’s resolute, purged of impurity,
Is ‘Elder’ deservedly named.

262
&263

Not merely polished rhetoric,
Nor features that are beauteous,
Denote that someone’s excellent
Who’s stingy, sly and envious.

But, if these stains are quelled,
If uprooted and expelled,
Then, the sage who’s purged malevolence,
Is correctly known as excellent.

264

By shaving one’s head one is not a recluse.
The shaveling who’s lawless, who utters untruths,
Brimful of wishes, and laden with greed,
How could such a one a recluse be, indeed?

265

With the eradication of all forms of evil conduct, either gross or subtle, one becomes truly an ascetic.

266

A bhikkhu is one who commits
To the whole of the training, not bits.⁽¹⁾
Those people could never be said
True bhikkhus to be, who just beg.

267

He who has rejected both merit and evil, who lives in the world with a careful attitude, faring the holy life, should certainly be called a monk.

268

An ignorant man, and misguided,
No wisdom will gain by mere silence.
A sage is like someone
Who, using some scales,
Singles out what is good, having weighed it.

269

A sage shuns evil, and has fathomed all worlds; for these reasons, he is called a sage.

270

Saints are not those who show creatures barbarity;
Rather, who show all-embracing humanity.

271
&272

Not merely possessing much knowledge,
And precepts and practices honoured,
In solitary dwellings residing,
In jhanic absorption abiding,
Then, proud of the bliss that you’ve gained,
By the people at large unattained:
Not merely from this get complacent,
With asavas short of effacement.

Go to the next chapter