Sutta Nipāta 4-2: Guhaṭṭhakasutta

1. A man that lives adhering to the cave (i.e. the body), who is covered with much (sin), and sunk into delusion, such a one is far from seclusion, for the sensual pleasures in the world are not easy to abandon. (772)

2. Those whose wishes are their motives, those who are linked to the pleasures of the world, they are difficult to liberate, for they cannot be liberated by others, looking for what is after or what is before, coveting these and former sensual pleasures. (773)

3. Those who are greedy of, given to, and infatuated by sensual pleasures, those who are niggardly, they, having entered upon what is wicked, wail when they are subjected to pain, saying: ‘What will become of us, when we die away from here?’ (774)

4. Therefore let a man here learn, whatever he knows as wicked in the world, let him not for the sake of that (?) practise (what is) wicked; for short is this life, say the wise. (775)

5. I see in the world this trembling race given to desire for existences; they are wretched men who lament in the mouth of death, not being free from the desire for reiterated existences. (776)

6. Look upon those men trembling in selfishness, like fish in a stream nearly dried up, with little water; seeing this, let one wander about unselfish, without forming any attachment to existences. (777)

7. Having subdued his wish for both ends, having fully understood touch without being greedy, not doing what he has himself blamed, the wise (man) does not cling to what is seen and heard. (778)

8. Having understood name, let the Muni cross over the stream, not defiled by any grasping; having pulled out the arrow (of passion), wandering about strenuous, he does not wish for this world or the other. (779)

Guhaṭṭhakasutta is ended.