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.