SN 2.22 - SN 2:22 Khema the Deva’s Son | Khema Sutta
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN2_22.html
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Copyright: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017
License notice: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Attribution: From Handful of Leaves, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu; https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/Ebooks/SuttaPitaka_251113.epub. Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
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.

Khema the Deva’s Son
 Khema Sutta (SN 2:22)

Standing to one side, Khema the deva’s son recited these verses in the Blessed One’s presence.

“Foolish people, lacking wisdom,
behave like enemies to themselves.
They do1 evil deeds
that bear bitter fruit.

It’s not good,
the doing of the deed
that, once it’s done,
you regret,
whose result you reap crying,
your face in tears.

It’s good,
the doing of the deed
that, once it’s done,
you don’t regret,
whose result you reap gratified,
    happy at heart.2

You should do prudently, right away,
what you know is for your own benefit.
A thinker, enlightened, you shouldn’t strive
for the sake of the cart driver’s thinking.

Just as a cart driver who—having left
the smoothed,3 even highway,
and climbed onto an uneven path—
    his axle broken, broods;
in the same way,
a fool—having departed from Dhamma
to follow non-Dhamma,
having fallen into the mouth of death—
    his axle broken, broods.”

Notes

1. Reading karonti with the Thai edition.

2. These two verses = Dhp 67–68.

3. Reading maṭṭhaṁ with the Burmese edition. The Thai has pasatthaṁ, “recommended,” which makes sense, but pasatthaṁ doesn’t fit the meter. The PTS edition has panthaṁ, “road.”