Verses of the Senior Monks 16.2

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1. Verses of the Senior Monks 16.2
2. The Book of the Twenties
3. Chapter One
4. Pārāsariya (2nd)
5. This thought came to the ascetic,
6. the monk Pārāsariya,
7. as he was seated alone
8. meditating in seclusion:
9. “Following what procedure,
10. what observance, what conduct,
11. may a person do what they need for themselves,
12. without harming anyone else?
13. The faculties of human beings
14. can lead to both welfare and harm.
15. Unguarded they lead to harm;
16. guarded they lead to welfare.
17. By protecting the faculties,
18. taking care of the faculties,
19. I can do what I need for myself
20. without harming anyone else.
21. If your eye wanders
22. among sights without check,
23. not seeing the danger,
24. you’re not freed from suffering.
25. If your ear wanders
26. among sounds without check,
27. not seeing the danger,
28. you’re not freed from suffering.
29. If, not seeing the escape,
30. you indulge in a smell,
31. you’re not freed from suffering,
32. being besotted by smells.
33. Recollecting the sour,
34. the sweet and the bitter,
35. captivated by craving for taste,
36. you don’t understand the heart.
37. Recollecting lovely
38. and pleasurable touches,
39. full of desire, you experience
40. many kinds of suffering because of lust.
41. Unable to protect
42. the mind from such thoughts,
43. suffering follows them
44. because of all five.
45. This body is full of pus and blood,
46. it’s home to many carcasses;
47. but cunning people decorate it
48. like a lovely painted casket.
49. You don’t understand that
50. the sweetness of honey turns bitter,
51. and the bonds to those we love cause pain,
52. like a razor’s edge smeared with honey.
53. Full of lust for the sight of a woman,
54. for the voice and the smells of a woman,
55. for a woman’s touch,
56. you experience many kinds of suffering.
57. All of a woman’s streams
58. flow from five to five.
59. Whoever, being energetic,
60. is able to curb these,
61. purposeful and firm in principle,
62. is clever and clear-seeing.
63. Though he might enjoy himself,
64. his duty is connected with the teaching and its goal.
65. One who’s diligent and discerning,
66. thinking, “This ought not be done”,
67. would avoid a useless task
68. that’s doomed to failure.
69. Whatever is meaningful,
70. and whatever happiness is principled,
71. let one undertake and follow that:
72. this is the best happiness.
73. They want to get hold of what belongs to others
74. by any means, fair or foul.
75. They kill, injure, and torment,
76. violently plundering what belongs to others.
77. Just as a strong person when building
78. knocks out a peg with a peg,
79. so the skillful person
80. knocks out the faculties with the faculties.
81. Developing faith, energy, immersion,
82. mindfulness, and wisdom;
83. destroying the five with the five,
84. the brahmin walks on untroubled.
85. Purposeful and firm in principle,
86. having fulfilled in every respect
87. the instructions spoken by the Buddha,
88. that person prospers in happiness.”