24.1
The cravings of the careless man
grow like a clinging vine.
He jumps from experience to experience
like a monkey seeking fruit in the forest.
24.2
When a man is overcome
by miserable, clinging cravings,
his sorrows grow like rain-soaked grass.
24.3
When a man overcomes
his miserable, clinging cravings,
sorrows fall away like raindrops from a lotus.
24.4
I tell you this – and you who are gathered
have the good fortune to hear it:
Dig up desire by the root, as you would birana grass.
Do not let Mara break you again and again,
as a river breaks reeds in a flood.
24.5
Cut down a tree and it will grow back
if the root is undamaged and strong.
So too will suffering arise again and again
if the root of craving is not destroyed.
24.6
One in whom the thirty-six streams of experience
flow mightily towards pleasure
cannot see rightly,
and is swept away by currents of lustful intent.
24.7
The streams flow everywhere.
Clinging vines sprout everywhere.
Seeing the vine sprout up,
sever its root with the blade of insight.
24.8
Beings experience pleasing sensations.
Craving pleasure, one is bound to pleasure.
Being bound to pleasure,
one is bound to birth and death.
24.9
Driven by desire, the mass of men
scurry about like a hunted hare.
Bound by their clingings and attachments,
they suffer and suffer for a very long time.
24.10
Driven by desire, the mass of men
scurry about like a hunted hare.
Therefore, let the practitioner drive out desire
and seek the freedom of dispassion.
24.11
One who is free of the jungle of desire
yet still attached to desire,
will, though free, return to the jungle
and re-enter bondage.
24.12
Bindings of iron, wood, or rope
are not called strong by the wise.
Attraction to jewels and finery,
affection for wives and children,
24.13
these are strong bindings, say the wise.
Though supple, they drag one down
and are hard to loosen.
Some men simply cut them,
renounce the world of sensory delights,
and follow the Way without a backward glance.
24.14
Those who are attached to desire
return to the stream of experience,
as a spider returns to the center of its web.
The wise sever all attachments,
and free from craving, leave suffering behind.
24.15
Hold no thought of future.
Hold no thought of past.
Hold no thought of a moment between.
Transcend experience and cross over.
You are finished with birth and death.
24.16
For one gripped by restless thoughts,
whose cravings are acute, who seeks only pleasure,
desire grows all the more
as he draws his fetters tighter.
24.17
But one who delights in stilling thought,
who is ever mindful,
who meditates on the sorrows of experience –
that one will surely break the bonds of Mara.
24.18
For one who has reached the goal,
who is fearless, desireless, unclouded,
who has plucked out the arrows of experience,
this is the final body.
24.19
Free of desire and attachment,
well-versed in language and expression,
skilled in the teaching of meaning within meaning,
one is called "wise" and "great" and
a “bearer of the final body."
24.20
All-conquering, all-knowing, I Am.
Touched by nothing, released of everything,
absent of desire, I am free.
Having realized I alone Am,
to whom should I attribute this?
24.21
The gift of Dhamma surpasses all gifts.
The taste of Dhamma surpasses all flavors.
The joy of Dhamma surpasses all joys.
The dissolution of desire removes all sorrows.
24.22
Wealth destroys the ignorant,
but not those seeking beyond.
Craving wealth, the ignorant man
destroys himself and those around him.
24.23
Weeds make fields unsuitable for seeding.
Greed makes people unsuitable to receive.
Hence, what is given to those free of greed
bears the most abundant fruit.
24.24
Weeds make fields unsuitable for seeding.
Hatred makes people unsuitable to receive.
Hence, what is given to those free of hate
bears the most abundant fruit.
24.25
Weeds make fields unsuitable for seeding.
Delusion makes people unsuitable to receive.
Hence, what is given to those free of delusion
bears the most abundant fruit.
24.26
Weeds make fields unsuitable for seeding.
Desire makes people unsuitable to receive.
Hence, what is given to those free of desire
bears the most abundant fruit.