Exercept from The Buddhavaga, and a summary of the Ovada-Patimokkha. This verse is viewed by many as describing the heart of the Buddha's teachings.
39. "I don't envision a single thing that -- when untamed, unguarded, unprotected, unrestrained -- leads to such great harm as the mind. The mind -- when untamed, unguarded, unprotected, unrestrained -- leads to great harm."
40. "I don't envision a single thing that -- when tamed, guarded, protected, restrained -- leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind -- when tamed, guarded, protected, restrained -- leads to great benefit."
Ekadhamma Suttas: A Single Thing, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Excerpt from the Sallatha Sutta: The Arrow. The Blessed One said, "When touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats his breast, becomes distraught. So he feels two pains, physical & mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, were to shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pains of two arrows; in the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats his breast, becomes distraught. So he feels two pains, physical & mental.
Excerpt from the Salla Sutta: The Arrow. Seeking your own happiness,
you should pull out your own arrow:
your own lamentation,
longing,
& sorrow. [2]
With arrow pulled out,
independent,
attaining peace of awareness,
all grief transcended,
griefless you are
unbound.
42-43 Whatever an enemy might do to an enemy, or a foe to a foe, the ill-directed mind can do to you even worse. Whatever a mother, father or other kinsman might do for you, the well-directed mind can do for you even better.
80 Irrigators guide the water.
Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.
Carpenters shape the wood.
The wise control themselves.
239 One by one, little by little, moment by moment, a wise man should remove his own impurities, as a smith removes his dross from silver.
158
First
he'd settle himself
in what is correct,
only then
teach others.
He wouldn't stain his name
: he is wise.
50 Focus, not on the rudenesses of others, not on what they've done or left undone, but on what you have & haven't done yourself.
178
Sole dominion over the earth,
going to heaven,
lordship over all worlds:
the fruit of stream-entry
excels them.
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.
76-77
Regard him as one who
points out
treasure,
the wise one who
seeing your faults
rebukes you.
Stay with this sort of sage.
For the one who stays
with a sage of this sort,
things get better,
not worse.
Let him admonish, instruct,
deflect you
away from poor manners.
To the good, he's endearing;
to the bad, he's not.
103-105
Greater in battle
than the man who would conquer
a thousand-thousand men,
is he who would conquer
just one --
himself.
Better to conquer yourself
than others.
186-187
Not even if it rained gold coins
would we have our fill
of sensual pleasures.
'Stressful,
they give little enjoyment' --
knowing this, the wise one
finds no delight
even in heavenly sensual pleasures.
He is one who delights
in the ending of craving,
a disciple of the Rightly
Self-Awakened One.
172-173
Who once was heedless,
but later is not,
brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.
His evil-done deed
is replaced with skillfulness:
he brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.
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.
69As long as evil has yet to ripen, the fool mistakes it for honey. But when that evil ripens, the fool falls into pain.
41 All too soon, this body will lie on the ground cast off, bereft of consciousness, like a useless scrap of wood.
21-24 Heedfulness: the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness: the path to death. The heedful do not die. The heedless are as if already dead.
63 A fool with a sense of his foolishness is -- at least to that extent -- wise. But a fool who thinks himself wise really deserves to be called a fool.
25 Through initiative, heedfulness, restraint, & self-control, the wise would make an island no flood can submerge.
26 They're addicted to heedlessness -- dullards, fools -- while one who is wise cherishes heedfulness as his highest wealth.
27 Don't give way to heedlessness or to intimacy with sensual delight -- for a heedful person, absorbed in jhana, attains an abundance of ease.
13-14 As rain seeps into an ill-thatched hut, so passion, the undeveloped mind. As rain doesn't seep into a well-thatched hut, so passion does not, the well-developed mind.
1-2 Phenomena are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart. If you speak or act with a corrupted heart, then suffering follows you -- as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it. Phenomena are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart. If you speak or act with a calm, bright heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves
3-6 'He insulted me, hit me, beat me, robbed me' -- for those who brood on this, hostility isn't stilled. 'He insulted me, hit me, beat me, robbed me' -- for those who don't brood on this, hostility is stilled. Hostilities aren't stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth. Unlike those who don't realize that we're here on the verge of perishing, those who do: their quarrels are stilled.
"Even though a disciple of the noble ones has clearly seen as it has come to be with right discernment that sensuality is of much stress, much despair, & greater drawbacks, still -- if he has not attained a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental qualities, or something more peaceful than that -- he can be tempted by sensuality. But when he has clearly seen as it has come to be with right discernment that sensuality is of much stress, much despair, & greater drawbacks, and he has attained a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful qualities, or something more peaceful than that, he cannot be tempted by sensuality."
MN 14, as translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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