Snp 4.1 - Sn 4:1 Sensual Pleasure
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp4_1.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.
Publisher references (not part of the sutta): See also: MN 13–14; MN 22; MN 54; SN 1:20; SN 35:63; SN 35:115; SN 35:197; AN 6:63; Sn 2:8; Thag 5:1; Thag 7:1; Thag 10:5; Thig 5:4; Thig 13:5
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.

4:1 Sensual Pleasure

If one, longing for sensual pleasure,
  achieves it, yes,
he’s enraptured at heart.
The mortal gets what he wants.
  But if for that person
  —longing, desiring—
the pleasures diminish,
  he’s afflicted,
as if shot with an arrow.

Whoever avoids sensual desires
—as he would, with his foot,
the head of a snake—
goes beyond, mindful,
this attachment in the world.

A man who is greedy
  for fields, land, gold,
  cattle, horses,
  servants, employees,
  women, relatives,
  many sensual pleasures,
is overpowered with weakness
and trampled by trouble,
for pain invades him
as water, a cracked boat.1

So one, always mindful,
should avoid sensual desires.
  Letting them go,
he’d cross over the flood
like one who, having bailed out the boat,
  has reached the far shore.2

vv. 766–771

Notes

1. Asaṅga, in the Yogācārabhūmi, quotes a Sanskrit version of this poem whose verses correspond to the Pali up to this point, but then ends with another verse that has no direct Pali parallel.

2. The Chinese version of the Aṭṭhaka Vagga adds, at this point, the verses on grieving and separation found in AN 5:49.