24. Craving

Craving is like a creeper,  
it strangles the fool.
He bounds like a monkey, from one birth to another,
looking for fruit.

When craving, like poison,  
takes hold of a man,
his sorrows increase
like wild grass.

When this terrible craving,  
fierce to subdue, is subdued,
sorrows slip off like  
drops on a lotus leaf.

This is my advice:
"Root out craving! Root it out,  
like wild grass is rooted out.  
Do not let death destroy you
as river waters destroy reeds."

Like a tree recovering and growing
if its roots are not destroyed,  
suffering recovers and grows  
if craving is not conquered.
 
Thirty-six streams of sense flow in a man  
looking for pleasure.
They seek passion,
their waves will sweep him away.

The streams are everywhere!  
They flow everywhere!  
Passion is everywhere!  
Everywhere is the creeper!
Cut its roots with the help of wisdom.

Pleasures and affections are the lot of creatures.  
Craving and fulfilling, the normal way.
Birth and old age are the usual fruits.




Crazed with craving,
men flee like hunted hares.  
They are bound in chains,  
they suffer again and again.

Crazed with craving,
men flee like hunted hares.
O bhikku, freedom comes only  
from the conquest of craving.  

Look at him!-
Having conquered the forest of desire,  
he runs to the forest of new desires;  
freed from the forest of desire,
he runs to the forest of new desires.  
-All in vain; for he runs into bondage.

"Iron chains are strong,
there are wood fetters and fiber fetters,"  
is wisdom, but wiser to say,
"No fetters like those of desire,
fetters of wealth, wives, sons,
fetters of consuming passion."

It is wisdom to say,
"Such fetters degrade, are hard to break."  
Break them!
Renounce the world, discard desire,  
forsake the pleasures of the senses.

Like the spider woven in its own web  
is the man gripped by his craving.
Wise men renounce craving and leave the world,  
wise men do not grieve, having discarded sorrow.
 
Give up what is before, what is behind,
Give up what is now, and cross the stream.  
Then will your mind be free,
then will you cross birth and old age.

Craving grows
in a man restless, passionate, pleasure-seeking:  
he strengthens his own fetters.

Who meditates quietly, discriminates,
and thinks of that which does not please the senses,  
cuts the fetters of death.

The fearless, sinless, desireless man
escapes the thorns of life-this body is his last.

He is the great saint,
who quickly catches subtleties of words and meanings  
who is desireless, who knows what comes before what
He is the mahapurush-this body is his last.

"I have conquered myself, I know all,  
I am in all things sinless.
I have renounced all, I am free from craving,  
I have no teacher, I have taught myself."  

No gift is greater than the Dhamma,  
no rasa sweeter than the Dhamma,  
no bliss is greater than the Dhamma,
no conquest than being without craving.

Wealth hurts the foolish, not the seekers of Nirvana.  
Who craves wealth destroys himself as well as others.

Weeds are the poison of fields  
and passion the poison of man.  
Honor the man without passion  
and earn high reward.

Weeds are the poison of fields  
and hate is the poison of man.  
Honor the man without hate  
and earn high reward.

Weeds are the poison of fields  
and folly the poison of man.  
Honor the man without folly  
and earn high reward.
 
Weeds are the poison of fields  
and desire the poison of man.  
Honor the man without desire  
and earn high reward.