Intoxicated by the promises of pleasure I started a fire in my heart that almost burned everything to the ground. And so, today, I begin again.
244. Easy is life for the shameless one who is impudent as a crow, is backbiting and forward, arrogant and corrupt.
245. Difficult is life for the modest one who always seeks purity, is detached and unassuming, clean in life, and discerning.
246-247. One who destroys life, utters lies, takes what is not given, goes to another man’s wife, and is addicted to intoxicating drinks — such a man digs up his own root even in this world.
248. Know this, O good man: evil things are difficult to control. Let not greed and wickedness drag you to protracted misery.
249. People give according to their faith or regard. If one becomes discontented with the food and drink given by others, one does not attain meditative absorption, either by day or by night.
250. But he in who this (discontent) is fully destroyed, uprooted and extinct, he attains absorption, both by day and by night.
251. There is no fire like lust; there is no grip like hatred; there is no net like delusion; there is no river like craving.
Dhp XVIII – Malavagga: Impurity
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