Cattāri Brahmavihārā

All
tremble at the rod,
all
are fearful of death.
Drawing the parallel to
yourself,
neither kill nor get others to kill.

All
tremble at the rod,
all
hold their life dear.
Drawing the parallel to
yourself,
neither kill nor get others to kill.

Whoever takes a rod
to harm living beings desiring ease,
when he himself is looking for ease,
will meet with no ease after death.

Whoever doesn’t take a rod
to harm living beings desiring ease,
when he himself is looking for ease,
will meet with ease after death.

Speak harshly to no one,
or the words will be thrown
right back at you.
Contentious talk is painful,
for you get struck by rods in return.

If, like a flattened metal pot
you don’t resound,
you’ve attained an Unbinding;
in you there’s found
no contention.

As a cowherd with a rod
drives cows to the field,
so aging & death
drive the life
of living beings.

When doing evil deeds,
the fool is oblivious.
The dullard
is tormented
by his own deeds,
as if burned by a fire.

Whoever, with a rod,
harasses an innocent man, unarmed,
quickly falls into any of ten things:

harsh pains, devastation, a broken body, grave illness,
mental derangement, trouble with the government,
violent slander, relatives lost, property dissolved,
houses burned down.

At the break-up of the body
this one with no discernment,
reappears in
hell.

Neither nakedness nor matted hair
nor mud nor the refusal of food
nor sleeping on the bare ground
nor dust & dirt nor squatting austerities
cleanses the mortal
who’s not gone beyond doubt.

If, though adorned, one lives in tune
with the chaste life
— calmed, tamed, & assured —
having put down the rod toward all beings,
he’s a contemplative
a brahman
a monk.

Who in the world
is a man constrained by conscience,
who awakens to censure
like a fine stallion to the whip?

Like a fine stallion
struck with a whip,
be ardent & chastened.
Through conviction
virtue, persistence,
concentration, judgment,
consummate in knowledge & conduct,
mindful,
you’ll abandon this not-insignificant pain.

Irrigators guide the water.
Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.
Carpenters shape the wood.
Those of good practices control
themselves.