Theragatha
Chapter XIV — The Fourteens

245

Godatta

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

For free distribution only.

[Pali][pts]

 

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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
    of becoming-becoming,
people fall subject to pain
        and they grieve.

Elated by the causes of pleasure,
and 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 and 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 and anger,
    whose minds are calmed
    from becoming and non-,
go through the world
            unattached.
For them there is nothing
        dear or undear.
Developing
    the factors for Awakening,
    faculties,
    and strengths,
attaining the foremost peace,
without effluent, they
    are entirely
    Unbound.