Khuddaka Nikaya
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Theragatha

Verses of the Elder Monks

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Theragatha XIV

(Selected suttas)

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

XIV.1 -- Revata's Farewell

Since I went forth
from home into homelessness,
I haven't known
an ignoble, aversive resolve.
"May these beings
be destroyed,
be slaughtered,
fall into pain" --
I've not known this resolve
in this long, long time.
But I have known good will,
unlimited,
fully developed,
nurtured step after step,
as taught by the One
Awake:
to all, a friend;
to all, a comrade;
for all beings, sympathetic.
And I develop a mind of good will,
delighting in non-malevolence -- always.
Unvanquished, unshaken,
I gladden the mind.
I develop the sublime abiding,
not frequented by
the lowly.

Attaining no-thinking,
the disciple of the Rightly
Self-awakened One
is endowed with noble silence
straightaway.

As a mountain of rock
is unmoving,
firmly established,
so a monk, with the ending of delusion,
like a mountain, doesn't quake.

To a person without blemish,
constantly in search of what's pure,
a hair-tip of evil
seems a storm cloud.

As a frontier fortress is guarded
within & without,
you should safeguard yourselves.
Don't let the moment
pass you by.

I don't delight in death,
don't delight in living.
I await my time
like a worker his wage.
I don't delight in death,
don't delight in living.
I await my time
mindful, alert.

The Teacher has been served by me;
the Awakened One's bidding,
done;
the heavy load, laid down;
the guide to becoming, uprooted.
And the goal for which I went forth
from home life into homelessness
I've reached:
the end
of all fetters.

Attain completion through heedfulness:
that is my message.
So then, I'm about to be
Unbound.
I'm released
everywhere.

XIV.2 -- Godatta

Just as a fine, well-bred bull
yoked to a load,
enduring his load,
crushed
by the heavy burden,
doesn't throw down his yoke;
so, too, those who are filled with discernment
-- as the ocean, with water --
don't look down on others.
This is nobility among beings.

Having fallen in time
under the sway of time,
having come under the sway
of becoming-becoming,
people fall subject to pain
& they grieve.

Elated by the causes of pleasure,
& cast down by causes of pain,
fools are destroyed by both,
not seeing them for what they are.
While those who, in the midst of
pleasure & pain
have gone past the seamstress of craving,
stand firm
like a boundary pillar,
neither elated nor cast down.

Not to gain or loss
not to status or honor,
not to praise or blame,
not to pleasure or pain:
everywhere
they do not adhere --
like a water bead
on a lotus.
Everywhere
they are happy, the enlightened,
everywhere
un-
defeated.

No matter what
the unrighteous gain
or the righteous loss,
righteous loss is better
than if there were unrighteous gain.
No matter what
the status of the unaware
or the lowliness of those who know,
the lowliness of those who know
is better,
not the status of those
unaware.
No matter what
the praise from fools
or the censure from those who know,
the censure from those who know
is better
than if there were praise
from fools.
And as for the pleasure
from sensuality
and the pain from seclusion,
the pain from seclusion
is better
than if there were pleasure
from sensuality.
And as for living through unrighteousness
and dying for righteousness,
dying for righteousness
is better,
than if one were to live
through unrighteousness.

Those who've abandoned
sensuality & anger,
whose minds are calmed
from becoming & non-,
go through the world
unattached.
For them there is nothing
dear or undear.
Developing
the factors of Awakening,
faculties,
& strengths,
attaining the foremost peace,
without fermentation, they
are entirely
Unbound.