(18.1–21)
235. Now you are like a withered leaf.
Yama’s servants wait on you.
You stand at the start of an undertaking,
And you’ve no provision for your journey.
236. So make an island for yourself.
Strive quickly: become wise.
With rust blown away, stainless,
You will go to the Noble Ones’ celestial land.
237. Now you have reached old age.
You are on your way to meet Yama.
There’s no lodging for you on the way,
And you’ve no provision for your journey.
238. So make an island for yourself.
Strive quickly: become wise.
With rust blown away, stainless,
You will not go to birth and old age again.
239. Gradually, little by little,
Moment by moment, the wise one
Should blow away his own impurity
As a smith does that of silver.
240. As rust that’s arisen from iron,
Once arisen from it, eats it away,
His own actions lead to an evil destination
The one who misuses the requisites.
241. For texts, not practising is the rust;
For houses, lack of exertion.
Laziness is the rust of beauty;
Unawareness the rust of a guard.
242. The rust of a woman is misconduct;
Miserliness is the rust of a giver.
All evil ways are rusts,
In this world and the next.
243. A worse rust than this rust
Is ignorance, the worst rust.
Get rid of this rust
And be rustless, monks.
244. It’s easy to live like a shameless person,
A crow-hero,
Offensive, presumptuous,
Proud and corrupt.
245. But it’s hard to live like a modest person,
Always seeking what’s pure,
Sincere, not proud,
Of pure life, insightful.
246. Whoever in this world
Takes life, speaks falsehood,
Takes what is not given,
Resorts to another’s wife,
247. And whatever man
Gives himself up to strong drink,
By doing that he digs up his own root,
Right here, in this world.
248. Know this, my friend:
Evil states are unrestrained.
May greed and wrongdoing
Not deliver you to long suffering.
249. Indeed, people give according to
Their faith, to their clarity of mind.
Whoever is discontented about this,
About the food and drink of others,
Does not, day or night,
Achieve concentration.
250. But the one in whom this is cut off,
Pulled up, root and all,
Day or night
Achieves concentration.
252. Others’ faults are easy to see,
While your own are hard to see.
The faults of others
You winnow like chaff;
You hide your own
As a cunning gambler hides a bad throw.
253. If you contemplate the faults of others,
Always seeking cause for offence,
Your defilements increase:
You’re far from the destruction of the defilements.
254. In the sky there is no track;
Outside the Order there is no true wanderer.
Folk delight in proliferation;
Tathāgatas are free from proliferation.
255. In the sky there is no track;
Outside the Order there is no true wanderer.
Conditioned things are not eternal;
In the Buddhas there is no disturbance.