{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/thig/thig14.htm","path":"bud/thig/thig14.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/thig/thig14.htm","text":"'What wrong have I done you\nthat you stand in my way?\nIt's not proper, my friend,\nthat a man should touch\na woman gone forth.\nI respect the Master's message,\nthe training pointed out by the one well-gone.\nI am pure, without blemish:\nWhy do you stand in my way?\nYou -- your mind agitated, impassioned;\nI -- unagitated, unimpassioned,\nwith a mind entirely freed:\nWhy do you stand in my way?'\n'You are young & not bad-looking,\nwhat need do you have for going forth?\nThrow off your ochre robe -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Come, let's delight in the flowering grove.\nA sweetness they exude everywhere,\nthe towering trees with their pollen.\nThe beginning of spring is a pleasant season -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Come, let's delight in the flowering grove.\nThe trees with their blossoming tips\nmoan, as it were, in the breeze:\nWhat delight will you have\nif you plunge into the grove alone?\nFrequented by herds of wild beasts,\ndisturbed by elephants rutting & aroused:\nyou want to go\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 unaccompanied\ninto the great, lonely, frightening grove?\nLike a doll made of gold, you will go about,\nlike a goddess in the gardens of heaven.\nWith delicate, smooth Kasi fabrics,\nyou will shine, O beauty without compare.\nI would gladly do your every bidding\nif we were to dwell in the glade.\nFor there is no creature dearer to me\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 than you, O nymph with the languid regard.\nIf you do as I ask, happy, come live in my house.\nDwelling in the calm of a palace,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 have women wait on you,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 wear delicate Kasi fabrics,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 adorn yourself with garlands & creams.\nI will make you many & varied ornaments\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of gold, jewels, & pearls.\nClimb onto a costly bed,\nscented with sandalwood carvings,\nwith a well-washed coverlet, beautiful,\nspread with a woolen quilt, brand new.\nLike a blue lotus rising from the water\nwhere no human beings dwell,\nyou will go to old age with your limbs unseen,\nif you stay as you are in the holy life.'\n'What do you assume of any essence,\nhere in this cemetery grower, filled with corpses,\nthis body destined to break up?\nWhat do you see when you look at me,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you who are out of your mind?'\n'Your eyes are like those of a fawn,\nlike those of a sprite in the mountains.\nSeeing your eyes, my sensual delight\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 grows all the more.\nLike tips they are, of blue lotuses,\nin your golden face\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 -- spotless:\nSeeing your eyes, my sensual delight\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 grows all the more.\nEven if you should go far away,\nI will think only of your pure,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 long-lashed gaze,\nfor there is nothing dearer to me\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 than your eyes, O nymph with the languid regard.'\n'You want to stray from the road,\nyou want the moon as a plaything,\nyou want to jump over Mount Sineru,\nyou who have designs on one born of the Buddha.\nFor there is nothing anywhere at all\nin the cosmos with its gods,\nthat would be an object of passion for me.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don't even know what that passion would be,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 for it's been killed, root & all, by the path.\nLike embers from a pit -- scattered,\nlike a bowl of poison -- evaporated,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don't even see what that passion would be,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 for it's been killed, root & all, by the path.\nTry to seduce one who hasn't reflected on this,\nor who has not followed the Master's teaching.\nBut try it with this one who knows\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and you suffer.\nFor in the midst of praise & blame,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 pleasure & pain,\nmy mindfulness stands firm.\nKnowing the unattractiveness\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of things compounded,\nmy mind cleaves to nothing at all.\nI am a follower of the one well-gone,\nriding the vehicle of the eightfold way:\nMy arrow removed, effluent-free,\nI delight, having gone to an empty dwelling.\nFor I have seen well-painted puppets,\nhitched up with sticks & strings,\nmade to dance in various ways.\nWhen the sticks & strings are removed,\nthrown away, scattered, shredded,\nsmashed into pieces, not to be found,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in what will the mind there make its home?\nThis body of mine, which is just like that,\nwhen devoid of dhammas doesn't function.\nWhen, devoid of dhammas, it doesn't function,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in what will the mind there make its home?\nLike a mural you've seen, painted on a wall,\nsmeared with yellow orpiment,\nthere your vision has been distorted,\nmeaningless your human perception.\nLike an evaporated mirage,\nlike a tree of gold in a dream,\nlike a magic show in the midst of a crowd -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you run blind after what is unreal.\nResembling a ball of sealing wax,\nset in a hollow,\nwith a bubble in the middle\nand bathed with tears,\neye secretions are born there too:\nThe parts of the eye\nare rolled all together\nin various ways.'\nPlucking out her lovely eye,\nwith mind unattached\nshe felt no regret.\n'Here, take this eye. It's yours.'\nStraightaway she gave it to him.\nStraightaway his passion faded right there,\nand he begged her forgiveness.\n'Be well, follower of the holy life.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This sort of thing\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 won't happen again.\nHarming a person like you\nis like embracing a blazing fire,\nIt is as if I have seized a poisonous snake.\nSo may you be well. Forgive me.'\nAnd released from there, the nun\nwent to the excellent Buddha's presence.\nWhen she saw the mark of his excellent merit,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 her eye became\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 as it was before.","title":"Therigatha XIV","type":"page"}