20. The Path

1 Of paths, the eightfold is the best;

2 of truths, the four statements;

3 dispassion is the best of things,

4 and the Clear-eyed One is the best of humans.

1 <em>This</em> is the path, there is no other

2 for the purification of vision.

3 You all must practice this,

4 it is the way to baffle Māra.

1 When you all are practicing this,

2 you’ll make an end of suffering.

3 I have explained the path to you

4 for extracting the thorn with wisdom.

1 You yourselves must do the work,

2 the Realized Ones just show the way.

3 Meditators practicing absorption

4 are released from Māra’s bonds.

1 All conditions are impermanent—

2 when this is seen with wisdom,

3 one grows disillusioned with suffering:

4 this is the path to purity.

1 All conditions are suffering—

2 when this is seen with wisdom,

3 one grows disillusioned with suffering:

4 this is the path to purity.

1 All things are not-self—

2 when this is seen with wisdom,

3 one grows disillusioned with suffering:

4 this is the path to purity.

1 They don’t get going when it’s time to start;

2 they’re young and strong, but given to sloth.

3 Their mind depressed in sunken thought,

4 lazy and slothful, they can’t discern the path.

1 Guarded in speech, restrained in mind,

2 doing no unskillful bodily deed.

3 Purify these three ways of performing deeds,

4 and win the path known to seers.

1 From meditation springs wisdom,

2 without meditation, wisdom ends.

3 Knowing these two paths—

4 of progress and decline—

5 you should conduct yourself

6 so that wisdom grows.

1 Cut down the jungle, not just a tree;

2 from the jungle springs fear.

3 Having cut down jungle and snarl,

4 be free of jungles, mendicants!

1 So long as the vine, no matter how small,

2 that ties a man to women is not cut,

3 his mind remains trapped,

4 like a calf suckling its mother.

1 Cut out affection for oneself,

2 like plucking an autumn lotus.

3 Foster only the path to peace,

4 the extinguishment the Holy One taught.

1 “Here I will stay for the rains;

2 here for winter, here the summer”;

3 thus the fool thinks,

4 not realizing the danger.

1 As a mighty flood sweeps away a sleeping village,

2 death steals away a man

3 who dotes on children and cattle,

4 his mind caught up in them.

1 Children provide you no shelter,

2 nor does father, nor relatives.

3 When you’re seized by the terminator,

4 there’s no shelter in family.

1 Knowing the reason for this,

2 astute, and ethically restrained,

3 one would quickly clear the path

4 that leads to extinguishment.