When we have “eaten” the fruits of sin, the sufferings are painful! But, while suffering for his former sins, the damned man engenders new sins.
23) To possess this blessing called a human life and not to apply myself to good: is there a greater delusion or a greater folly?
24) If, knowing what I know, I am foolish enough to remain inactive, what long sorrows await me when the messengers of the god of the dead come to hunt me down once more!
25) How long will this body be burned by the unbearable fire of hell! How long will the fire of remorse burn this mind that has not submitted to the rules!
26) By some miracle I have obtained this ground of salvation, so difficult to obtain; and, in full awareness, I let myself be led back into those same hells!
27) I truly know not what to think: like a man possessed by magic spells, I know not who makes me mad, I know not who possesses me.
28) [The passions, you will say? But] these enemies, foremost among them greed and hatred, have neither feet nor hands, nor courage nor intelligence! How have they reduced me to slavery?
29) It is because they dwell in my mind and wage war on me without my noticing. — And I am not angered against them: misplaced and shameful forbearance!
23) To possess this blessing called a human life and not to apply myself to good: is there a greater delusion or a greater folly?
24) If, knowing what I know, I am foolish enough to remain inactive, what long sorrows await me when the messengers of the god of the dead come to hunt me down once more!
25) How long will this body be burned by the unbearable fire of hell! How long will the fire of remorse burn this mind that has not submitted to the rules!
26) By some miracle I have obtained this ground of salvation, so difficult to obtain; and, in full awareness, I let myself be led back into those same hells!
27) I truly know not what to think: like a man possessed by magic spells, I know not who makes me mad, I know not who possesses me.
28) [The passions, you will say? But] these enemies, foremost among them greed and hatred, have neither feet nor hands, nor courage nor intelligence! How have they reduced me to slavery?
29) It is because they dwell in my mind and wage war on me without my noticing. — And I am not angered against them: misplaced and shameful forbearance!
30) Even if all the gods together with men became my enemies, they could not drag me to the fire of Avîci.
31) Yet into that fire, wherein Mount Meru itself would be consumed to ashes, these mighty enemies, the passions, cast me in an instant.
32) [Mighty] are they also in their endurance: however long my other enemies may live, their life is far longer!
33) [They are also intractable:] One may win over even one’s enemies by treating them as is fitting. But when one treats the passions well, they become only more pernicious.
34) In a word, they are relentless enemies, long-lived; they alone are the source of the ocean of miseries; they dwell in my own heart: and shall I taste, secure, the joys of life?
35) Guardians of the prison of births, and likewise executioners of the high deeds in the hells, so long as the passions dwell in my mind as in a house, in my desire as in a cage, what happiness can I hope for?
36 a) Until the day I see them destroyed, I shall not lay down my weapons, mindfulness and effort.
36 b-37) How is it that we see proud men, to avenge some insult, attach their anger to the offender and sleep not until they have slain him: behold them at the front of battle, eager to slay wretches whom nature, alas, has already condemned to death; they count as nothing the painful bite of arrows or javelins; they turn not their heads until they have finished;
31) Yet into that fire, wherein Mount Meru itself would be consumed to ashes, these mighty enemies, the passions, cast me in an instant.
32) [Mighty] are they also in their endurance: however long my other enemies may live, their life is far longer!
33) [They are also intractable:] One may win over even one’s enemies by treating them as is fitting. But when one treats the passions well, they become only more pernicious.
34) In a word, they are relentless enemies, long-lived; they alone are the source of the ocean of miseries; they dwell in my own heart: and shall I taste, secure, the joys of life?
35) Guardians of the prison of births, and likewise executioners of the high deeds in the hells, so long as the passions dwell in my mind as in a house, in my desire as in a cage, what happiness can I hope for?
36 a) Until the day I see them destroyed, I shall not lay down my weapons, mindfulness and effort.
36 b-37) How is it that we see proud men, to avenge some insult, attach their anger to the offender and sleep not until they have slain him: behold them at the front of battle, eager to slay wretches whom nature, alas, has already condemned to death; they count as nothing the painful bite of arrows or javelins; they turn not their heads until they have finished;
38) And I, who have risen to fight enemies born to be the perpetual authors of all suffering, how and under what sufferings shall I surrender and bend the knee?
39) Soldiers glory in the wounds they have received from the foe, though they be useless; and I, engaged in so great a work, shall be cast down by suffering?
40) The sinners, the Candalas, the tillers of the soil, intent only on securing their livelihood, endure cold, heat... What is there they do not endure? And for the salvation of the world, could I not do as much?
41-42) [Alas], myself a slave to the passions, when I undertook to deliver from their yoke all the creatures contained in the expanse toward the ten cardinal points, I knew not my own measure; I spoke like a fool: [to deliver others, must I not first be delivered myself?] Therefore, henceforth and without return, I wage war on the passions.
43) Oh! I shall cling to the passions! Girded with anger and resentment, I shall strike them! I keep but one passion: that of destroying the passions!
44) Let them, if they will, scatter my entrails and bring down my head: but I am resolved never to fall into the power of the passions, my enemies.
45) Let an enemy, an ordinary enemy, be driven away: he withdraws to some place, regains his strength, and returns to the attack; but it is not so with the enemy called passion.
39) Soldiers glory in the wounds they have received from the foe, though they be useless; and I, engaged in so great a work, shall be cast down by suffering?
40) The sinners, the Candalas, the tillers of the soil, intent only on securing their livelihood, endure cold, heat... What is there they do not endure? And for the salvation of the world, could I not do as much?
41-42) [Alas], myself a slave to the passions, when I undertook to deliver from their yoke all the creatures contained in the expanse toward the ten cardinal points, I knew not my own measure; I spoke like a fool: [to deliver others, must I not first be delivered myself?] Therefore, henceforth and without return, I wage war on the passions.
43) Oh! I shall cling to the passions! Girded with anger and resentment, I shall strike them! I keep but one passion: that of destroying the passions!
44) Let them, if they will, scatter my entrails and bring down my head: but I am resolved never to fall into the power of the passions, my enemies.
45) Let an enemy, an ordinary enemy, be driven away: he withdraws to some place, regains his strength, and returns to the attack; but it is not so with the enemy called passion.
46) Whither shall he go, this guest of my heart, when I have driven him forth? Where shall he stand to work my ruin?—The sole cause of my bondage is lack of effort, the folly of the mind: the passions, the wretched passions, can be destroyed only by the vision of truth.
47) The passions dwell neither in the objects of the senses, nor in the organs, nor between the objects and the organs, nor anywhere else: where do they dwell? And yet they trouble this whole universe!—The passions are but an illusion of the mind: therefore, O my soul, cast off all fear; strive towards the truth, and do not, without cause, torment thyself in the hells.
48) I fix all this in my mind, and strive to observe the rules [of the bodhisattva] as [the Buddha] taught them: the remedy may heal the sick, but if one scorns the physician’s command, how shall one recover health?
47) The passions dwell neither in the objects of the senses, nor in the organs, nor between the objects and the organs, nor anywhere else: where do they dwell? And yet they trouble this whole universe!—The passions are but an illusion of the mind: therefore, O my soul, cast off all fear; strive towards the truth, and do not, without cause, torment thyself in the hells.
48) I fix all this in my mind, and strive to observe the rules [of the bodhisattva] as [the Buddha] taught them: the remedy may heal the sick, but if one scorns the physician’s command, how shall one recover health?