"When embraced,
the rod of violence
	breeds danger & fear:
Look at people quarreling.
	I will tell of how
	I experienced
		dismay.
Seeing people floundering
like fish in small puddles,
competing with one another — 
	as I saw this,
	fear came into me.
The world was entirely
	without substance.
All the directions
			were knocked out of line.
Wanting a haven for myself,
I saw nothing that wasn't laid claim to.
Seeing nothing in the end
but competition,
I felt discontent.
And then I saw
an arrow here,
	so very hard to see,
	embedded in the heart.
Overcome by this arrow
you run in all directions.
But simply on pulling it out
	you don't run,
	you don't sink.

[Here the trainings are recited.] 

Whatever things are tied down in the world,
you shouldn't be set on them.
Having totally penetrated
sensual pleasures,
sensual passions,
you should train for your own
		Unbinding.
Be truthful, not insolent,
not deceptive, rid
of divisiveness.
Without anger, the sage
should cross over the evil
	of greed & avarice.
He should conquer laziness,
			weariness,
			sloth;
shouldn't consort with heedlessness,
shouldn't stand firm in his pride — 
	the man with his heart set
		on Unbinding.
He shouldn't engage in lying,
shouldn't create a sense of allure in form,
should fully fathom conceit,
and live refraining from impulsiveness;
shouldn't 	delight in what's old,
		prefer what's new,
		grieve over decline,
		get entangled in
			what's dazzling & bright.

I call greed
	a 'great flood';
hunger, a swift current.
Preoccupations are ripples;
sensuality, a bog
	hard to cross over.
Not deviating from truth,
a sage stands on high ground
		: a brahman.

Having renounced All,
he is said to be at peace;
having clearly known, he
is an attainer-of-wisdom;
knowing the Dhamma, he's
	independent.
Moving rightly through the world,
	he doesn't envy
	anyone here.

Whoever here has gone over & beyond
sensual passions — 
an attachment hard
to transcend in the world,
doesn't sorrow,
doesn't fret.
He, his stream cut, is free
	from bonds.

Burn up what's before,
and have nothing for after.
If you don't grasp
at what's in between,
	you will go about, calm.

For whom, in name & form,
		in every way,
there's no sense of mine,
and who doesn't grieve
over what is not:
	he, in the world,
	isn't defeated,
	suffers no loss.

To whom there doesn't occur
	'This is mine,'
for whom nothing is others,'
feeling no sense of mine-ness,
doesn't grieve at the thought
	'I have nothing.'

Not harsh,
not greedy, not
	perturbed,
	everywhere
in tune:
	this is the reward
	— I say when asked — 
	for those who are free
	from pre-
	conceptions.

For one unperturbed
 — who knows — 
there's no accumulating.
Abstaining, unaroused,
he everywhere sees
	security.
	The sage
doesn't speak of himself
as among those who are higher,
	equal,
or lower.
At peace, free of selfishness,
he doesn't embrace, doesn't
		reject,"

			the Blessed One said.