XVIII.MALAVAGGA. TAINTS

235. Like a withered leaf are you now; the messengers of death wait on you. On the threshold of decay you stand. Provision too there is none for you.

236. Make an island unto yourself; strive quickly; become wise; purged of stain and passionless, you shall enter the heavenly stage of the Ariyas.

237. Your life has come to an end now; to the presence of death you are setting out. No halting place is there for you by the way. Provision too there is none for you.

238. Make an island unto yourself. Strive without delay; fast; become wise. Purged of stain and passionless, you will not come again to birth and old age.

239. By degrees a wise man, little by little, from time to time, should remove his own impurities, as a smith removes (the dross) of silver.

240. As rust sprung from iron, eats itself away when arisen; even so his own deeds lead the transgressor to states of woe.

241. Non-recitation is the rust of doctrines ; non-exertion is the rust of homes ; sloth is the taint of beauty; carelessness is the flaw of a watcher.

242. Misconduct is the taint of a woman; stinginess is the taint of a donor. Taints, indeed, are all evil things both in this world and in the next.

243. A worse taint than these is Ignorance, the greatest taint. Abandoning this taint be taintless, O bhikkhus!

244. Easy is the life of a shameless one who, with the boldness of a crow, is back-biting, forward, arrogant, and corrupt.

245. Hard is the life of a modest one who ever seeks purity, is detached, humble, clean in life, and reflective.

246, 247. Whoso in this world destroys life, tells lies, takes what is not given, goes to others' wives, and the man who is addicted to intoxicating drinks, such a one digs up his own root in this very world.

248. Know thus, O good man! "Not easy of restraint are evil things." Let not greed and wickedness drag you to protracted misery.

249. People give according to their faith and as they are pleased. Whoever therein is envious of others' food and drink, gains no peace either by day or by night.

250. But he who has this (feeling) fully cut off, uprooted and destroyed, gains peace by day and by night.

251. There is no fire like lust, no grip like hate; there is no net like delusion, no river like craving.

252. Easily seen are others' faults, hard indeed to see are one's own; like chaff one winnows others' faults, but one's own one hides, as a crafty fowler covers himself.

253. He who sees others' faults, and is ever irritable, the corruptions of such a one grow. He is far from the destruction of the corruptions.

254. In the sky there is no track. Outside there is no Saint. Mankind delights in obstacles. The Tathãgatas are free from obstacles.

255. In the sky there is no track. Outside there is no Saint. There is no compound thing that is eternal. There is no instability in the Buddhas.