English
Chapter on Self If one knows the self is dear, one should guard it well protected; Of the three watches, one the wise person should keep vigil. First, one should establish oneself in what is proper; Then one should instruct others, so the wise person is not defiled. If one makes oneself as one instructs others; Well-tamed, one should tame others, for the self is indeed hard to tame. The self is indeed the master of the self, who else could be the master? By the self well-tamed, one obtains a master hard to find. Evil done by oneself, self-born, self-originated; Crushes the fool, as a diamond crushes a stone gem. Whose extreme immorality is like a creeper overspreading a sal tree; He makes himself as his enemy wishes him to be. Easy are the bad deeds, and those harmful to oneself; But what is truly beneficial and good, that is truly extremely difficult. Whoever, the fool, rejects the teaching of Arahants, of Noble Ones, who live by Dhamma; Relying on a wicked view; He bears fruit like a reed, for his own destruction. By oneself indeed is evil done, by oneself one is defiled; By oneself is evil not done, by oneself one is purified; Purity and impurity are individual, no one purifies another. One should not neglect one's own welfare for the sake of another's, however great; Having understood one's own welfare, one should be devoted to one's true aim. The Chapter on Self, the twelfth, is finished.