Dhp XX : The Path

Just this

is the path

–there is no other–

to purify vision.

Follow it,

and that will be Mara’s

bewilderment.

When you see with discernment,

‘All fabrications are inconstant’–

you grow disenchanted with stress.

This is the path

to purity.

At the time for initiative

he takes no initiative.

Young, strong, but lethargic,

the resolves of his heart

exhausted,

the lazy, lethargic one

loses the path

to discernment.

Guarded

in speech,

well-restrained

in mind,

you should do nothing unskillful

in body.

Purify

these three courses of action.

Bring to fruition

the path that seers have proclaimed.

From striving comes wisdom;

from not, wisdom’s end.

Knowing these two courses

–to

development,

decline–

conduct yourself

so that wisdom will grow.

Cut down

the forest of desire,

not the forest of trees.

From the forest of desire

come danger & fear.

Having cut down this forest

& its underbrush, monks,

be deforested.

‘Here I’ll stay for the rains.

Here, for the summer & winter.’

So imagines the fool,

unaware of obstructions.