Chapter 24

The craving of a careless person spreads like a vine; he leaps from one life to the next, like a monkey searching for fruit in the forest.

Whoever is overcome in this world by this fierce, poisonous craving finds his sufferings multiply like rampant Birana grass.

But whoever overcomes this fierce craving—so hard to defeat in this world—finds sufferings sliding off him, like water drops off a lotus leaf.

Here is sound advice for all of you gathered here: dig up the root of craving, just as one who wants the fragrant Usira root must dig up the Birana grass. Do this so that Mara, the tempter, cannot crush you again and again, the way a flood crushes reeds.

A tree, even if cut down, stays firm as long as its root is intact, and it grows back. In the same way, unless what feeds craving is destroyed, the pain of life keeps returning.

If someone’s craving for pleasure runs powerfully through the thirty-six channels, his desires—fixed on passion—will sweep that misguided man away like waves.

The channels run everywhere; the creeper of passion keeps sprouting. When you see this creeper springing up, cut its root with wisdom.

A person’s pleasures are excessive and indulgent; sunk in lust and chasing pleasure, people undergo birth and decay over and over.

Driven by craving, people scurry about like a trapped hare; bound in chains and fetters, they suffer again and again for a long time.

Driven by craving, people scurry about like a trapped hare; so let the monk drive craving out of himself by striving for freedom from passion.

Consider the person who, having escaped the forest of lust (that is, having reached Nirvana), then gives himself back to that forest; once freed from it, he runs straight back into it. Look at him! Though he was free, he runs back into bondage.

The wise do not consider fetters made of iron, wood, or rope to be the strong ones. Far stronger is attachment to jewels and rings, to sons and a wife.

That, the wise say, is the strong fetter: the one that pulls you down, gives way under you, yet is hard to loosen. Cutting even this at last, people leave the world behind, free of cares, abandoning desires and pleasures.

Those enslaved to their passions are swept along by the current of desire, like a spider running down the web it spun itself. Cutting even this at last, the wise leave the world behind, free of cares, abandoning all attachment.

Let go of what came before, let go of what comes after, let go of what is in between, as you cross to the far shore of existence. If your mind is completely free, you will not return to birth and decay.

If a person is tossed about by doubts, filled with strong passions, and longing only for what pleases him, his craving will only grow, and he will make his fetters all the stronger.

But if a person takes pleasure in quieting his doubts, and through steady reflection dwells on what is not pleasing (such as the impurity of the body), he will surely loosen—indeed, cut through—the fetter of Mara.

The one who has reached the goal, who does not tremble, who is free of craving and free of sin—he has broken all the thorns of life. This will be his last body.

The one without craving and without attachment, who understands the words and their meaning, who knows the order of letters (which come first and which come after)—he has received his last body; he is called the great sage, the great man.

“I have conquered everything, I know everything, in every condition of life I am untainted; I have given up everything and, with craving destroyed, I am free. Having learned this by myself, whom should I call my teacher?”

The gift of the dharma surpasses every gift; the sweetness of the dharma surpasses every sweetness; the delight in the dharma surpasses every delight; the extinction of craving overcomes all pain.

Pleasures destroy the foolish, who do not look toward the far shore; through his craving for pleasures, the fool destroys himself, as if he were his own enemy.

Fields are ruined by weeds; humankind is ruined by passion. Therefore, a gift given to those free from passion brings great reward.

Fields are ruined by weeds; humankind is ruined by hatred. Therefore, a gift given to those free from hatred brings great reward.

Fields are ruined by weeds; humankind is ruined by vanity. Therefore, a gift given to those free from vanity brings great reward.

Fields are ruined by weeds; humankind is ruined by lust. Therefore, a gift given to those free from lust brings great reward.