Read, reflect, pray
Sutta Nipāta 2-9: Kiṁsīlasutta
Viggo Fausböll, 1881 · Historical English translation
1. By what virtue, by what conduct, and performing what works, will a man be perfectly established (in the commandments) and obtain the highest good? (323)
2. Let him honour old people, not be envious, let him know the (right) time for seeing his teachers, let him know the (right) moment for listening to their religious discourses, let him assiduously hearken to their well-spoken (words). (324)
3. Let him in due time go to the presence of his teachers, let him be humble after casting away obstinacy, let him remember and practise what is good, the Dhamma, self-restraint, and chastity. (325)
4. Let his pleasure be the Dhamma, let him delight in the Dhamma, let him stand fast in the Dhamma, let him know how to enquire into the Dhamma, let him not raise any dispute that pollutes the Dhamma, and let him spend his time in (speaking) well-spoken truths. (326)
5. Having abandoned ridiculous talk, lamentation, corruption, deceit, hypocrisy, greediness and haughtiness, clamour and harshness, depravity and foolishness, let him live free from infatuation, with a steady mind. (327)
6. The words, the essence of which is understood, are well spoken, and what is heard, if understood, contains the essence of meditation; but the understanding and learning of the man who is hasty and careless, does not increase. (328)
7. Those who delight in the Dhamma, proclaimed by the venerable ones, are unsurpassed in speech, mind and work, they are established in peace, tenderness and meditation, and have gone to the essence of learning and understanding. (329)
Kiṁsīlasutta is ended.
Translation, numbering and rights
Viggo Fausböll, 1881. Public-domain 1881 translation, from the free non-commercial EPUB distributed by Reading Faithfully (edition 1.0, February 2012), transcribed by Christopher M. Weimer for the Internet Sacred Text Archive. This reader is free and non-commercial. Pali diacritics follow the EPUB. Translator introductions and footnotes are omitted; discourse prose, verses and the concluding passages are retained.
This 1881 edition uses consecutive verse numbers ending at 1148. It differs from the Japanese edition and must not be aligned by verse number alone. The final reading includes the concluding praises and Piṅgiya’s dialogue. The source’s printed numbering is retained, including gaps. A repeated “1041” in the source is retained; the expected “1047” is not silently substituted. No verse text is supplied by guesswork.
This historical English translation uses older vocabulary. It is independent of the Japanese translation linked from this site. The Japanese edition’s translator and license are credited there.