‘Fools would flare up even more
if there were no constraints.
Thus an enlightened one
should restrain the fool
with a heavy stick.’
‘This, I think,
is the only constraint for a fool:
When, knowing the other’s provoked,
you mindfully grow calm.’
‘Vāsava 2, I see a fault
in this very forbearance:
When the fool thinks,
“He’s forbearing
out of fear of me,”
the idiot pursues you even more—
as a bull, someone who runs away.’
‘It doesn’t matter
whether he thinks,
“He’s forbearing
out of fear of me.”
One’s own true good
is the foremost good.
Nothing better
than patience
is found.
Whoever, when strong,
is forbearing
to one who is weak:
that’s the foremost patience.
The weak must constantly endure.
They call that strength
no strength at all:
whoever’s strength
is the strength of a fool.
There’s no reproach
for one who is strong,
guarding—guarded by—Dhamma.
You make things worse
when you flare up
at someone who’s angry.
Whoever doesn’t flare up
at someone who’s angry
wins a battle
hard to win.
You live for the good of both
—your own, the other’s—
when, knowing the other’s provoked,
you mindfully grow calm.
When you work the cure of both
—your own, the other’s—
those who think you a fool
know nothing of Dhamma.’
Notes
1. The devas & asuras were two groups of deities who fought for control of heaven (like the gods & titans in Greek mythology). The devas eventually won. The asuras, known for their fierce anger, later became classed as angry demons and, in some Buddhist cosmologies, are regarded as a class of being lower than human.
2. Vāsavant (vocative, Vāsava)—“Powerful”—is one of Sakka’s epithets.
Origin URL: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN11_5.html