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Collection of Minor Texts Verses of Dhamma Chapter on Self If one values oneself, then one should guard oneself well; during any of the three phases of the night, a wise person should remain alert. First one should settles oneself in what is proper, then one may instruct others; a wise person should not become defiled. One should act the same way that one instructs others to act; one who is well-trained can train others - for it is truly hard to train oneself. One is one’s own protector - how could another protect you? One who has trained oneself well has acquired a protector that is truly hard to acquire. Evil is done by oneself, born from oneself, produced by oneself; in this way a fool self-destructs, like a diamond cutting through stone. One who is excessively immoral, like a tree overgrown by vines, does to oneself what an enemy wants. It is easy to do things that are worthless and of no benefit to oneself; but to do what is beneficial and worthwhile is extremely difficult. A foolish person who, based on a harmful perspective, reviles the teachings of the Worthy One, brings about their own destruction like a monocarpic plant. By oneself evil is done, by oneself one becomes defiled; by oneself evil is not done, by oneself one becomes purified; purity and impurity depend on oneself - no one can purify another. One should not abandon one’s own welfare for the sake of others, no matter how many; having understood one’s own welfare, one should be intent upon it.