(5.1–16)
60. Long is night for the wakeful;
Long is a league for the weary.
Long is saṃsāra for fools
Who do not know the true Dhamma.
61. If, as you travel, you meet
None better than yourself, or equal,
You should steadfastly travel alone.
There’s no companionship with fools.
62. A fool is troubled, thinking,
‘I have sons, I have wealth’;
But even himself doesn’t belong to himself –
Let alone sons, let alone wealth.
63. The fool who knows his folly
Becomes wise by that fact.
But the fool who thinks he’s wise –
He’s called ‘a fool’ indeed!
64. Even if lifelong
A fool attends upon a wise man,
He no more knows dhammas
Than a spoon knows the flavours of soup.
65. Even if for a moment
An intelligent man attends upon a wise man,
He quickly knows dhammas
As the tongue knows the flavours of soup.
66. Fools, lacking intelligence,
Go on with a self that’s like an enemy,
Doing evil action
Which bears bitter fruit.
67. That action that’s done is not good
That you repent when you’ve done it –
If, weeping, with tear-stained face
You experience its working-out.
68. That action that’s done is good
That you don’t repent when you’ve done it –
If happy and cheerful
You experience its working-out.
69. Until the evil ripens
The fool thinks it’s honey-sweet;
But when the evil ripens
The fool’s plunged into suffering.
70. Though month after month he eats
Food with the tip of a kusa-grass blade,
A fool’s not worth a sixteenth part
Of those who’ve mastered dhammas.
71. For an evil deed that is done does not ripen
The same day, as milk curdles:
It follows the fool, burning,
Like a fire covered with ashes.
72. A fool gets a reputation for knowledge
Only to his disadvantage:
It destroys the fool’s bright part
And causes his head to split.
73. He may wish for respect among bad people,
Precedence among the monks,
Lordship in the dwelling places,
Honour among the families of others.
74. ‘I did this – so let
Both laymen and renouncers think;
Let me be in charge
Of everything, things to be done or not done.’
Such is the fool’s intention.
His desire and pride increase.
75. One is the way that leads to gain,
Another the way to nibbāna.
Understanding this,
The monk who is a disciple of the Buddha
Should not delight in honour,
But devote himself to solitude.