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# Theragatha

## Chapter XIV -- The Fourteens

### (Selected suttas)

For free distribution only.

XIV.1 -- Revata's Farewell {vv. 645-658}
[Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans.]

> Since I went forth
> from home into homelessness,
> I haven't known
> an ignoble, aversive resolve.
> "May these beings
> be destroyed,
> be slaughtered,
> fall into pain" --
> I've not known this resolve
> in this long, long time.
> But I have known good will,
> unlimited,
> fully developed,
> nurtured step after step,
> as taught by the One
> Awake:
> to all, a friend;
> to all, a comrade;
> for all beings, sympathetic.
> And I develop a mind of good will,
> delighting in non-malevolence -- always.
> Unvanquished, unshaken,
> I gladden the mind.
> I develop the sublime abiding,
> not frequented by
> the lowly.

> Attaining no-thinking,
> the disciple of the Rightly
> Self-awakened One
> is endowed with noble silence
> straightaway.

> As a mountain of rock
> is unmoving,
> firmly established,
> so a monk, with the ending of delusion,
> like a mountain, doesn't quake.

> To a person without blemish,
> constantly in search of what's pure,
> a hair-tip of evil
> seems a storm cloud.

> As a frontier fortress is guarded
> within & without,
> you should safeguard yourselves.
> Don't let the moment
> pass you by.

> I don't delight in death,
> don't delight in living.
> I await my time
> like a worker his wage.
> I don't delight in death,
> don't delight in living.
> I await my time
> mindful, alert.

> The Teacher has been served by me;
> the Awakened One's bidding,
> done;
> the heavy load, laid down;
> the guide to becoming, uprooted.
> And the goal for which I went forth
> from home life into homelessness
> I've reached:
> the end
> of all fetters.

> Attain completion through heedfulness:
> that is my message.
> So then, I'm about to be
> Unbound.
> I'm released
> everywhere.

XIV.2 -- Godatta {vv. 659-672}
[Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans.]

> Just as a fine, well-bred bull
> yoked to a load,
> enduring his load,
> crushed
> by the heavy burden,
> doesn't throw down his yoke;
> so, too, those who are filled with discernment
> -- as the ocean, with water --
> don't look down on others.
> This is nobility among beings.

> Having fallen in time
> under the sway of time,
> having come under the sway
> of becoming-becoming,
> people fall subject to pain
> & they grieve.

> Elated by the causes of pleasure,
> & cast down by causes of pain,
> fools are destroyed by both,
> not seeing them for what they are.
> While those who, in the midst of
> pleasure & pain
> have gone past the seamstress of craving,
> stand firm
> like a boundary pillar,
> neither elated nor cast down.

> Not to gain or loss
> not to status or honor,
> not to praise or blame,
> not to pleasure or pain:
> everywhere
> they do not adhere --
> like a water bead
> on a lotus.
> Everywhere
> they are happy, the enlightened,
> everywhere
> un-
> defeated.

> No matter what
> the unrighteous gain
> or the righteous loss,
> righteous loss is better
> than if there were unrighteous gain.
> No matter what
> the status of the unaware
> or the lowliness of those who know,
> the lowliness of those who know
> is better,
> not the status of those
> unaware.
> No matter what
> the praise from fools
> or the censure from those who know,
> the censure from those who know
> is better
> than if there were praise
> from fools.
> And as for the pleasure
> from sensuality
> and the pain from seclusion,
> the pain from seclusion
> is better
> than if there were pleasure
> from sensuality.
> And as for living through unrighteousness
> and dying for righteousness,
> dying for righteousness
> is better,
> than if one were to live
> through unrighteousness.

> Those who've abandoned
> sensuality & anger,
> whose minds are calmed
> from becoming & non-,
> go through the world
> unattached.
> For them there is nothing
> dear or undear.
> Developing
> the factors for Awakening,
> faculties,
> & strengths,
> attaining the foremost peace,
> without fermentation, they
> are entirely
> Unbound.

Revised: Fri 12 April 2002