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Buddhism

Iti 28 · uttaka 28

Thai temple painting: Prince Vessantara gives away the white elephant
Vessantara Jātaka, Chapter 2 (Himavanta Forest) · Thai, Rattanakosin, c. 1850–1870 · Walters Art Museum

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Endowed with two things, monks, a monk lives in stress in the present life–troubled, distressed, & feverish–and at the break-up of the body, after death, a bad destination can be expected. Which two? A lack of guarding of the doors of the sense faculties, and knowing no moderation in food. Endowed with these two things, a monk lives in stress in the present life–troubled, distressed, & feverish–and at the break-up of the body, after death, a bad destination can be expected.”

Eye & ear & nose,

tongue, body & mind:

when a monk leaves these doors unguarded

–knowing no moderation in food,

not restraining his senses–

he experiences stress:

stress in body, stress

in mind.

Burning in body,

burning in mind,

whether by day or by night,

one like this

lives in suffering & stress.


Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 licence, for free distribution only. Source: dhammatalks.org (Metta Forest Monastery).

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