12. The Self

1 If you knew your self as beloved,

2 you’d look after it so well.

3 In one of the night’s three watches,

4 an astute person would remain alert.

1 The astute would avoid being corrupted

2 by first grounding themselves

3 in what is suitable,

4 and then instructing others.

1 If one were to treat oneself

2 as one instructs another,

3 the well-tamed indeed would tame:

4 for the self, it seems, is hard to tame.

1 One is indeed the lord of oneself,

2 for who else would be one’s lord?

3 By means of a well-tamed self,

4 one gains a lord that’s rare indeed.

1 For the evil that is done by oneself,

2 born and produced in oneself,

3 grinds down a simpleton,

4 as diamond grinds a lesser gem.

1 One choked by immorality,

2 as a sal tree by a creeper,

3 does to themselves

4 what a foe only wishes.

1 It’s easy to do bad things

2 harmful to oneself,

3 but good things that are helpful

4 are the hardest things to do.

1 On account of wicked views—

2 scorning the guidance

3 of the perfected ones,

4 the noble ones living righteously—

5 the idiot begets their own self’s demise,

6 like the bamboo bearing fruit.

1 For it is by oneself that evil’s done,

2 one is corrupted by oneself.

3 It’s by oneself that evil’s not done,

4 one is purified by oneself.

5 Purity and impurity are personal matters,

6 no one can purify another.

1 Never neglect what is good for yourself

2 for the sake of another, however great.

3 Knowing well what is good for yourself,

4 be intent upon your heart’s goal.