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Thag 14.2
PTS: Thag 659-672
Godatta
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1998
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 from becoming & non-, 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.