Iti 40 · uttaka 40
This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Monks, ignorance1 precedes the arrival of unskillful qualities; lack of shame & lack of compunction2 follow after. Clear knowing precedes the arrival of skillful qualities; shame & compunction follow after.”
Any bad destinations
in this world, in the next,
are rooted in ignorance–all–
accumulations
of desire & greed.
And when a person of evil desires
lacks shame & respect,
evil comes from that,
and by that he goes
to deprivation.
So cleansing away
ignorance, desire, & greed,
a monk giving rise to clear knowing
would abandon all bad destinations.
Notes
1. Ignorance (avijjā) means ignorance of stress, its origination, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation.
2. Shame (hiri) means a healthy sense of shame–derived from self-esteem–at the idea of doing evil. Compunction (ottappa) means fear of the consequences of doing evil.
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).
