Snp 2.6 - Sn 2:6 The Dhamma Life
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp2_6.html
License: CC-BY-NC-4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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.
Publisher references (not part of the sutta): See also: SN 35:200; AN 3:83; AN 3:129; AN 8:13–14; Ud 5:5
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.

2:6 The Dhamma Life

Living the Dhamma life,
living the holy life:
  This, they say, is the highest power.
But if, having gone forth
from home into homelessness,
you are harsh-mouthed,
delighting in injury, a stupid beast,
  your life is more evil.
  You increase your own dust.
A monk delighting in quarrels,
shrouded under delusion,
doesn’t know the Dhamma
even when proclaimed by the Awakened One.
Injuring those developed in mind,1
he, surrounded by ignorance,
doesn’t know defilement
to be the path
that leads to hell.
Arriving at deprivation,
from womb to womb,
from darkness to darkness,
a monk of this sort, after death,
comes to suffering.
Just like a cesspit, full, used for many years,
one of this sort, befouled,
would be hard to clean.

Monks, whoever you know
to be like this,
  depending on homes,
  evil in his desires,
  evil in his resolves,
  evil in behavior & range,
all of you, united, shun him.

Sweep away the sweepings,
throw away the trash,
then remove the chaff:
  non-contemplatives
  who think they’re contemplatives.
Having swept away those of evil desires, evil
in behavior & range,
then pure, affiliate mindfully
with the pure.
Then, united, astute,
you will put an end
to suffering & stress.2

vv. 274–283

Notes

1. According to MN 36, “developed in mind” means able to experience painful feelings without their invading and remaining in the mind.

2. These last two verses are quoted in the Milinda Pañhā.