南傳法句經 第十二 自己品（157～166偈）
〈简〉
法增比丘譯
（Dhammavaro Bhikkhu）
157、
若人知自愛，
應善自守護，
夜間三時中*，
智者常覺醒。
*（初夜、中夜、後夜分）
158、
智者先立己，
而後教他人，
智者行如是，
方不染諸垢。
159、
若欲教他人，
己行應如是，
自御能御人，
御己最艱難。
160、
以自為依怙，
何有他依怙？
自己善調御，
得難獲依怙。
161、
惡業由己作，
己生己因起，
惡業毀愚者，
如金剛毀寶。
162、
破戒如蔓藤1，
纏死娑羅樹2，
招受諸苦果，
如怨敵所願。
1.蔓藤（maluva）。
2.娑羅樹（Sala）。
163、
不善害己事，
實乃極易行，
善與利己事，
實乃極難行。
164、
愚人謗聖法，
譏毀羅漢教，
因彼邪見故，
將自取毀滅，
如彼香蕉樹，
結果後覆亡。
165、
惡業由己作，
污垢由己染，
惡業己不作，
污垢己不染，
清淨由自己，
何能由他淨？
166、
行利他大事，
勿疏忽自利*，
善觀於己利，
不忘失所求。
*自利：生死解脫事。
Attavagga: Self
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
157
If you hold yourself dear then guard, guard yourself well. The wise person would
stay awake nursing himself in any of the three watches
of the night, the three stages of life.
158
First he'd settle himself in what is correct, only then teach others. He wouldn't stain his name : he is wise.
159
If you'd mold yourself the way you teach others, then, well-trained, go ahead & tame — for, as they say, what's hard to tame is you yourself.
160
Your own self is your own mainstay, for who else could
your mainstay be? With you yourself well-trained you obtain the mainstay hard to obtain.
161
The evil he himself has done — self-born, self-created — grinds down the dullard, as a diamond, a precious stone.
162
When overspread by
extreme vice — like a sal tree
by a vine — you do to yourself what an enemy would wish.
163
They're easy to do — things of no good & no use to yourself. What's truly useful & good is truly harder than hard to do.
164
The teaching of those
who live the Dhamma, worthy ones, noble: whoever maligns it — a dullard, inspired by evil view — bears fruit for his own destruction, like the fruiting of the bamboo.
165
Evil is done by oneself by oneself is one defiled. Evil is left undone by oneself by oneself is one cleansed. Purity & impurity are
one's own doing. No one purifies another. No other purifies one.
166
Don't sacrifice your own welfare for that of another, no matter how great. Realizing your own true welfare, be intent on just that.