English
Chapter 18: The Chapter on Impurities You are now like a withered leaf, And the messengers of Death have come near you; You stand at the threshold of departure, And provisions for your journey you have none. So make an island for yourself, Strive quickly, be wise; With impurities removed, without blemish, You will reach the divine noble state. Your life is now brought to an end, You have gone near to Death; There is no resting place for you in between, And provisions for your journey you have none. So make an island for yourself, Strive quickly, be wise; With impurities removed, without blemish, You will not again come to birth and decay. Gradually, the wise one, Little by little, moment by moment, Like a smith purifies silver, Should remove his own impurities. As rust sprung from iron, Arising from it, eats that very iron; So do their own deeds lead The transgressors to a woeful state. Non-recitation is the impurity of scriptures, Non-exertion is the impurity of houses; Laziness is the impurity of beauty, Heedlessness is the impurity of a guard. Ill-conduct is the impurity of a woman, Stinginess is the impurity of a giver; Indeed, evil deeds are impurities, In this world and in the next. Worse than these impurities, Ignorance is the supreme impurity; Having abandoned this impurity, Be free from impurities, O monks! Easy is the life For the shameless, the bold as a crow, the destroyer, The arrogant, the presumptuous, The defiled. But difficult is the life for the modest, Who ever seeks purity; The unattached, the unpresumptuous, The pure in livelihood, the discerning. Whoever destroys life, And speaks falsehood; Takes what is not given in the world, And goes to another's wife. And whoever indulges In drinking intoxicating liquors; That person, right here in this world, Digs up his own root. Thus, O man, know this: Evil qualities are unrestrained. Let not greed and unrighteousness Long torment you for suffering. Indeed, people give According to their faith, According to their devotion. Whoever is vexed therein At the food and drink of others, He does not attain concentration, By day or by night. But for whom this is cut off, Uprooted, removed; He indeed attains concentration, By day or by night. There is no fire like passion, There is no grip like hatred. There is no net like delusion, There is no river like craving. Easy to see are the faults of others, But hard to see are one's own. For he winnows the faults of others Like chaff; But he conceals his own, Like a cunning gambler hides his losing throw. For one who always looks for others' faults, Always fault-finding; His defilements increase, He is far from the destruction of defilements. There is no path in the sky, No ascetic outside. People delight in proliferation, The Tathāgatas are free from proliferation. There is no path in the sky, No ascetic outside. There are no eternal formations, There is no wavering for the Buddhas.