Latest / Sacred Texts Archive / 18 - Impurity - The Dhammapada
Transcript
- 0:00Chapter eighteen Impurity. Thou art now like a sere leaf. The messengers of
- 0:10death Yama have come near to thee. Thou standest at the door of thy
- 0:16departure, and thou hast no provision for thy journey. Make thyself an island.
- 0:25Work hard, be wise. When thy impurities are blown away, and
- 0:31thou art free from guilt, thou wilt enter into the heavenly world of thee
- 0:36elect Riya. Thy life has come to an end. Thou art come near
- 0:45to death Yama. There is no resting place for THEE on the road,
- 0:51and thou hast no provision for thy journey. Make thyself an island. Work
- 0:59hard, be wise. When thy impurities are blown away, and thou art
- 1:06free from guilt, thou wilt not enter again into birth and decay. Let
- 1:14a wise man blow off the impurities of his self, as a smith blows
- 1:19off the impurities of silver, one by one, little by little, and
- 1:26from time to time, as the impurity which springs from the iron, when
- 1:34it springs from it destroys it. Thus do a transgressor's own works lead him
- 1:41to the evil path. The taint of prayers is non repetition. The taint
- 1:49of houses non repair. The taint of the body is sloth, the taint
- 1:56of a watchman, thoughtlessness, bad conduct is the taint of woman, greediness
- 2:04the taint of a benefactor. Tainted are all evil ways in this world and
- 2:12in the next. But there is a taint worse than all taints. Ignorance
- 2:17is the greatest taint. Oh mendicants, throw off that taint and become taintless.
- 2:29Life is easy to live for a man who is without shame, a
- 2:32crow hero, a mischief maker, an insulting, bold and wretched fellow.
- 2:40But life is hard to live for a modest man who always looks for what
- 2:46is pure, who is disinterested, quiet, spotless, and intelligent. He
- 2:55who destroys life, who speaks truth, who in this world takes what is
- 3:02not given him, who goes to another man's wife, And the man who
- 3:08gives himself to drinking intoxicating liquors, He, even in this world, digs
- 3:16up his own root. O man, know this that the unrestrained are in
- 3:25a bad state. Take care that greediness and vice do not bring thee to
- 3:32grief. For a long time, the world gives according to their faith or
- 3:39according to their pleasure. If a man frets about the food and the drink
- 3:46given to others, he will find no rest, either by day or by
- 3:51night. He in whom that feeling is destroyed and taken out with the very
- 3:58root, finds rapt by day and by night. There is no fire like
- 4:05passion. There is no shark like hatred. There is no snare like folly.
- 4:13There is no torrent like greed. The fault of others is easily perceived,
- 4:19but that of one's self is difficult to perceive. A man winnows his
- 4:25neighbor's faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides as a cheat hides
- 4:31the bad dye from the gambler. If a man looks after the faults of
- 4:38others and is always inclined to be offended, his own passions will grow,
- 4:45and he is far from the destruction of passions. There is no path through
- 4:51the air. A man is not a somana by outward acts. The world
- 5:00delights in vanity. The toetogetas the Buddhas are free from vanity. There is
- 5:09no path through the air. A man is not a surmona by outward acts.
- 5:15No creatures are eternal, but the awakened Buddha are never shaken. End
- 5:26of chapter eighteen.