Sutta Nipāta
4
Sutta 1. Kama Sutta
Sensual Pleasure
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.
If one, longing for sensual pleasure,
achieves it, yes,
he's enraptured at heart.
The mortal gets what he wants.
But if for that person
-- longing, desiring --
the pleasures diminish,
he's shattered,
as if shot with an arrow.
Whoever avoids sensual desires
-- as he would, with his foot,
the head of a snake --
goes beyond, mindful,
this attachment in the world.
A man who is greedy
for fields, land, gold,
cattle, horses,
servants, employees,
women, relatives,
many sensual pleasures,
is overpowered with weakness
and trampled by trouble,
for pain invades him
as water, a cracked boat.
So one, always mindful,
should avoid sensual desires.
Letting them go,
he'd cross over the flood
like one who, having bailed out the boat,
has reached the far shore.
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