179-180:
Whose conquest can't be undone,
whose conquest no one in the world
can reach;
awakened, his pasture endless,
pathless:
by what path will you lead him astray?
In whom there's no craving
-- the sticky ensnarer --
to lead him anywherever at all;
awakened, his pasture endless,
pathless:
by what path will you lead him astray?
181:
They, the enlightened, intent on jhana,
delighting in stilling
& renunciation,
self-awakened & mindful:
even the devas
view them with envy.
182:
Hard the winning of a human birth.
Hard the life of mortals.
Hard the chance to hear the true Dhamma.
Hard the arising of Awakened Ones.
The non-doing of any evil,
the performance of what's skillful,
the cleansing of one's own mind:
this is the teaching
of the Awakened.
Patient endurance:
the foremost austerity.
Unbinding:
the foremost,
so say the Awakened.
He who injures another
is no contemplative.
He who mistreats another,
no monk.
Not disparaging, not injuring,
restraint in line with the Patimokkha,
moderation in food,
dwelling in seclusion,
commitment to the heightened mind:
this is the teaching
of the Awakened.
186-187:
Not even if it rained gold coins
would we have our fill
of sensual pleasures.
'Stressful,
they give little enjoyment' --
knowing this, the wise one
finds no delight
even in heavenly sensual pleasures.
He is one who delights
in the ending of craving,
a disciple of the Rightly
Self-Awakened One.
They go to many a refuge,
to mountains and forests,
to park and tree shrines:
people threatened with danger.
That's not the secure refuge,
not the supreme refuge,
that's not the refuge,
having gone to which,
you gain release
from all suffering & stress.
But when, having gone
to the Buddha, Dhamma,
& Sangha for refuge,
you see with right discernment
the four noble truths --
stress,
the cause of stress,
the transcending of stress,
& the noble eightfold path,
the way to the stilling of stress:
that's the secure refuge,
that, the supreme refuge,
that is the refuge,
having gone to which,
you gain release
from all suffering & stress.
193:
It's hard to come by
a thoroughbred of a man.
It's simply not true
that he's born everywhere.
Wherever he's born, an enlightened one,
the family prospers,
is happy.
194:
A blessing: the arising of Awakened Ones.
A blessing: the teaching of true Dhamma.
A blessing: the concord of the Sangha.
The austerity of those in concord
is a blessing.
If you worship those worthy of worship,
-- Awakened Ones or their disciples --
who've transcended
complications,
lamentation,
& grief,
who are unendangered,
fearless,
unbound:
there's no measure for reckoning
that your merit's 'this much.'