iti91:0.1So It Was Said 91
iti91:0.2The Book of the Threes
iti91:0.3Chapter Five
iti91:0.4Lifestyle
iti91:1.1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
iti91:2.1“This is the last of lifestyles, mendicants, namely relying on alms.
iti91:2.2The world curses you: ‘You beggar, walking bowl in hand!’
iti91:2.3Yet earnest gentlemen take it up for a good reason.
iti91:2.4Not to escape a summons by a king or a summons for a bandit, or because you were in debt or in fear, or in order to make a living.
iti91:2.5Rather, because they think: ‘I’m swamped by rebirth, old age, and death; by sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. I’m swamped by suffering, mired in suffering.
iti91:2.6Hopefully I can make an end to this entire mass of suffering.’
iti91:2.7That’s how this gentleman has gone forth.
iti91:2.8Yet they covet sensual pleasures; they’re infatuated, full of ill will and malicious intent. They are unmindful, lacking situational awareness and immersion, with straying minds and undisciplined faculties.
iti91:2.9Suppose there was a firebrand for lighting a funeral pyre, burning at both ends, and smeared with dung in the middle. It couldn’t be used as timber either in the village or the wilderness.
iti91:2.10I say that individual is just like this. They’ve missed out on the pleasures of the lay life, and haven’t fulfilled the goal of the ascetic life.”
iti91:2.11The Buddha spoke this matter.
iti91:2.12On this it is said:
iti91:3.1“They’ve left behind the pleasures of the lay life,
iti91:3.2and miss out on the goal of the ascetic life.
iti91:3.3Ruining it, they throw it away,
iti91:3.4and perish like a funeral firebrand.
iti91:4.1Many who wear a scrap of ocher cloth
iti91:4.2are unrestrained and wicked.
iti91:4.3Being wicked, they are reborn in hell
iti91:4.4due to their bad deeds.
iti91:5.1It’d be better for the immoral and unrestrained
iti91:5.2to eat an iron ball,
iti91:5.3scorching, like a burning flame,
iti91:5.4than to eat the nation’s alms.”
iti91:6.1This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.