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Thag 6:5 Māluṅkyaputta
When a person lives heedlessly,
his craving grows like a creeping vine.
He runs now here
& now there,
as if looking for fruit:
a monkey in the forest.
If this sticky, uncouth craving
overcomes you in the world,
your sorrows grow like wild grass
after rain.
If, in the world, you overcome
this uncouth craving, hard to escape,
sorrows roll off you,
like water beads off
a lotus.
To all of you gathered here
I say:
Good fortune.
Dig up craving
—as when seeking medicinal roots, wild grass—
by the root.
Don’t let Māra cut you down
—as a raging river, a reed—
over & over again.1
Do what the Buddha says.
Don’t let the moment pass by.
Those for whom the moment is past
grieve, consigned to hell.2
Heedlessness is dust.
Dust follows on heedlessness.
Through heedfulness, knowledge,
pull out
your own arrow
on your own.
Notes
1. The verses up to this point = Dhp 334–337.
2. See Dhp 315.