“When embraced,

the rod of violence

breeds danger & fear:

Look at people in strife.

I will tell how

I experienced

terror:

Seeing people floundering

like fish in small puddles,

competing with one another—

as I saw this,

fear came into me.

The world was entirely

without substance.

All the directions

were knocked out of line.

Wanting a haven for myself,

I saw nothing that wasn’t laid claim to.

Seeing nothing in the end

but competition,

I felt discontent.

And then I saw

an arrow here,

so very hard to see,

embedded in the heart.

Overcome by this arrow

you run in all directions.

But simply on pulling it out

you don’t run,

you don’t sink.

[Here the trainings are recited.]

Whatever things are tied down in the world, you shouldn’t be set on them. Having totally penetrated sensual pleasures, sensual passions, you should train for your own unbinding.

Be truthful, not insolent, not deceptive, remote from divisiveness. Without anger, the sage should cross over the evil of greed & avarice. He should conquer drowsiness, weariness, sloth; shouldn’t consort with heedlessness, shouldn’t stand firm in his pride— the man with his heart set on unbinding.

He shouldn’t engage in lying, shouldn’t create affection for form, should fully fathom conceit, and live refraining from impulsiveness; shouldn’t delight in what’s old, prefer what’s new, grieve over decline, get entangled in what’s dazzling & bright.

I call greed a great flood; hunger, a swift current. Preoccupations are ripples; sensuality, a bog hard to cross over. Not deviating from truth, a sage stands on high ground : a brahman.

Having relinquished in every way, he is said to be at peace; having clearly known, he is an attainer-of-knowledge; knowing the Dhamma, he’s independent. Moving rightly through the world, he doesn’t envy anyone here.

Whoever here has gone beyond sensual passions— an attachment hard to transcend in the world— doesn’t sorrow, doesn’t fret. He, his stream cut, is free from bonds.

Burn up what’s before, and have nothing for after. If you don’t grasp at what’s in between, you will go about, calm.

For whom, in name-&-form, in every way, there’s no sense of mine, and who doesn’t grieve over what is not: He, in the world, isn’t defeated, suffers no loss.

To whom there doesn’t occur ‘This is mine,’ for whom nothing is others’: He, feeling no sense of mine-ness, doesn’t grieve at the thought ‘I have nothing.’

Not harsh, not greedy, not perturbed, everywhere concordant : This is the reward —I say when asked— for those who are free from theorizing.

For one unperturbed —who knows— there’s no accumulating. Abstaining, unaroused, he everywhere sees security. The sage doesn’t speak of himself as among those who are higher, equal, or lower. At peace, free of stinginess, he doesn’t embrace, doesn’t reject,”