Snp 4.7 - Tissa Metteyya Sutta: Tissa Metteyya
Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.07.than.html
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Copyright: ©1994 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
License notice: The text of this page ("Tissa Metteyya Sutta: Tissa Metteyya", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions.
Attribution: ©1994 Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The text of this page ("Tissa Metteyya Sutta: Tissa Metteyya", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. Last revised for Access to Insight on 29 August 2012. How to cite this document (a suggested style): "Tissa Metteyya Sutta: Tissa Metteyya" (Sn 4.7), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 29 August 2012, https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.07.than.html .
Changes: Presentation only: original HTML markup reflowed into plain text; wording, numbering and source repetitions retained. No repetitions expanded.
Completeness: ABBREVIATED. Every source-unit character is preserved, including introductions, notes and verse structure. Thanissaro's collection-level note explicitly states that repetitions were cut: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/about.html. This is evidence about the translation method, not an assertion that every individual unit contains an omission; no repetitions reconstructed.

"Tell the danger, 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's confused 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 fool. Seeing 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 ones, is supreme. He wouldn't, because of that, think himself better than others: He's on the verge of Unbinding. People enmeshed in sensual pleasures, envy him: free, a sage leading his life unconcerned for sensual pleasures — one who's crossed over the flood." 

See also: AN 4.159; AN 5.75; AN 5.76.