Theragatha

Since I went forth
from home into homelessness,
I haven't known
an ignoble, aversive resolve.
"May these beings
        be destroyed,
        be slaughtered,
        fall into pain" —
I've not known this resolve
in this long, long time.
But I have known good will,
    unlimited,
    fully developed,
    nurtured step after step,
as taught by the One
        Awake:
    to all, a friend;
    to all, a comrade;
    for all beings, sympathetic.
And I develop a mind of good will,
delighting in non-malevolence — always.
Unvanquished, unshaken,
I gladden the mind.
I develop the sublime abiding,
    not frequented by
    the lowly.

Attaining no-thinking,
the disciple of the Rightly
Self-awakened One
is endowed with noble silence
    straightaway.

As a mountain of rock
    is unmoving,
    firmly established,
so a monk, with the ending of delusion,
like a mountain, doesn't quake.

To a person without blemish,
constantly in search of what's pure,
a hair-tip of evil
seems a storm cloud.

As a frontier fortress is guarded
    within & without,
you should safeguard yourselves.
Don't let the moment
        pass you by.

I don't delight in death,
don't delight in living.
I await my time
like a worker his wage.
I don't delight in death,
don't delight in living.
I await my time
mindful, alert.

The Teacher has been served by me;
the Awakened One's bidding,
            done;
the heavy load,         laid down;
the guide to becoming,     uprooted.
And the goal for which I went forth
from home life into homelessness
I've reached:
            the end
            of all fetters.

Attain completion through heedfulness:
        that is my message.
So then, I'm about to be
Unbound.
I'm released
            everywhere.

Just as a fine, well-bred bull
    yoked to a load,
    enduring his load,
            crushed
    by the heavy burden,
        doesn't throw down his yoke;
so, too, those who are filled with discernment
    — as the ocean, with water —
        don't look down on others.
This is nobility among beings.

Having fallen in time
    under the sway of time,
having come under the sway
    of becoming-becoming,
people fall subject to pain
        & they grieve.

Elated by the causes of pleasure,
& cast down by causes of pain,
fools are destroyed by both,
not seeing them for what they are.
While those who, in the midst of
    pleasure & pain
have gone past the seamstress of craving,
stand firm
    like a boundary pillar,
    neither elated nor cast down.

Not to gain or loss
not to status or honor,
not to praise or blame,
not to pleasure or pain:
    everywhere
they do not adhere —
    like a water bead
    on a lotus.
    Everywhere
they are happy, the enlightened,
    everywhere
        un-
    defeated.

No matter what
    the unrighteous gain
    or the righteous loss,
righteous loss is better
    than if there were unrighteous gain.
No matter what
    the status of the unaware
    or the lowliness of those who know,
the lowliness of those who know
            is better,
    not the status of those
    unaware.
No matter what
    the praise from fools
    or the censure from those who know,
the censure from those who know
            is better
    than if there were praise
    from fools.
And as for the pleasure
    from sensuality
and the pain from seclusion,
    the pain from seclusion
            is better
    than if there were pleasure
    from sensuality.
And as for living through unrighteousness
and dying for righteousness,
    dying for righteousness
            is better,
    than if one were to live
    through unrighteousness.

Those who've abandoned
    sensuality & anger,
    whose minds are calmed
    from becoming & non-,
go through the world
            unattached.
For them there is nothing
        dear or undear.
Developing
    the factors for Awakening,
    faculties,
    & strengths,
attaining the foremost peace,
without fermentation, they
    are entirely
    Unbound.