Text
4:7 To Tissa-metteyya
Tissa-metteyya:
“Tell the damage, dear sir,
for one given over
to sexual intercourse.
Having heard your teaching,
we’ll train in seclusion.”
The Buddha:
“In one given over
to sexual intercourse,
the teaching is muddled
and he practices wrongly:
This is ignoble
in him.
Whoever once went alone,
but then resorts
to sexual intercourse
—like a carriage out of control—
is called vile in the world,
a person run-of-the-mill.
His earlier honor & dignity:
lost.
Seeing this,
he should train himself
to abandon sexual intercourse.
Overcome by resolves,
he broods
like a miserable wretch.
Hearing the scorn of others,
he’s chagrined.
He makes weapons,
attacked by the words of others.
This, for him, is a great entanglement.
He
sinks
into lies.
They thought him wise
when he committed himself
to the life alone,
but now that he’s given
to sexual intercourse
they declare him a dullard.
Knowing these drawbacks, the sage
here—before & after—
stays firm in the life alone;
doesn’t resort to sexual intercourse;
would train himself
in seclusion—
this, for the noble,
is highest.
He wouldn’t, because of that,
suppose himself
to be better than others:
He’s on the verge
of unbinding.
People enmeshed
in sensual pleasures,
envy him:
a sage remote,
leading his life
unconcerned for sensual pleasures
—one who’s crossed over the flood.”
vv. 814–823