Mala Vagga

235. You are now like a withered yellow leaf; the messengers of death stand right before you. You stand on the threshold of departure, yet you have made no provisions for your journey!

236. Therefore make an island of refuge for yourself! Strive quickly, become wise! Cleansed of impurities and free from stain, you will reach the heavenly realm of the Noble Ones.

237. Your life has now drawn to its close; you are advancing toward the presence of Yama. There is no resting place along the way, yet you have made no provisions for your journey!

238. Therefore make an island of refuge for yourself! Strive quickly, become wise! Cleansed of impurities and free from stain, you will not return again to birth and decay.

239. Gradually, little by little, moment by moment, the wise person purges away his own impurities, just as a smith blows away the dross from refined silver.

240. Just as rust springs from iron and devours the very iron from which it arose, so the transgressor's own deeds lead him directly to states of woe.

241. Lack of recitation is the rust of sacred texts; lack of repair is the rust of houses; laziness is the rust of physical beauty; and heedlessness is the taint of a guard.

242. Misconduct is the taint of a woman; stinginess is the taint of a giver; evil states are indeed taints both in this world and the next.

243. But worse than all these taints is ignorance (avijjā), the greatest taint of all. Casting off this supreme taint, be taintless, O monks!

244. Easy is life for the shameless person, brazen as a crow, slanderous, aggressive, impudent, and corrupt in lifestyle.

245. But hard is life for the modest person, constantly seeking purity, unattached, unpretentious, leading a clean livelihood, and seeing clearly.

246. Whoever in this world destroys life, speaks falsehood, takes what is not given, and goes to another person's spouse...

247. ...And gives himself over to intoxicating drinks—such a person, even in this very world, digs up his own root.

248. Know this, O human being: evil deeds lack restraint! Let not greed and lawlessness subject you to long suffering.

249. People give according to their faith, according to their pleasure. Whoever is disgruntled over the food and drink given to others attains no concentration by day or by night.

250. But he in whom this envious feeling is completely severed, uprooted, and eradicated—he indeed attains concentration by day and by night.

251. There is no fire like lust; there is no grip like hatred; there is no snare like delusion; there is no torrent like craving.

252. Easy to see are others' faults, but hard to see are one's own. For one winnows others' faults like chaff, but conceals one's own like a cunning cheat concealing an unlucky die.

253. For one who constantly observes the faults of others and is irritable, his own mental defilements grow; he is far from the eradication of defilements.

254. There is no track in the sky; there is no true recluse outside the Noble Path. Mankind delights in mental proliferation and conceptual clingings, but the Tathāgatas are free from all proliferation.

255. There is no track in the sky; there is no true recluse outside the Noble Path. There are no conditioned things that are eternal; there is no perturbation in the Awakened Ones.