32. Craving (T210.32)

If one’s mind is set on sexual activities,
One’s craving increases, like [a creeper’s] branches
Spreading and growing ever more luxuriantly;
And the mind keeps leaping, like a monkey greedy for fruits.

One who for the sake of lust endures sorrow,
Who owing to craving is attached to the world;
His sorrow increases day and night,
Growing and spreading like a vine.

Men are deluded because of passionate love;
They are unable to give up passions.
Thus do sorrow and passionate love increase,
Like flowing water filling up a pond.

That there are sorrow, grief,
And suffering in the world, of not [just] one kind,
Is due to none but craving.
Craving ceasing, there is no sorrow.

One’s own mind being at peace, craving is abandoned,
Without craving, where is the world?
Not grieving, nor seeking with defilement.
Nor craving; whence is the world?

Some grieve because at the time of death.
They want many kinsfolks to gather.
Traversing a long journey of sorrow;
They crave and suffer, always falling into distress.

One devoted to the spiritual life
Must not befriend craving.
First cut off the root of craving,
So that it can no more take root.
Don’t be like cutting reeds;
Lest craving would arise again.

Like a tree with deep and firm root,
Though cut down grows yet again;
Craving thoughts not completely removed,
One should expect further suffering.

Like a monkey, having left behind the trees,
Returns to the trees having been freed;
Even so do people in the world,
Get out of hells only to return to hells.

Greedy thoughts constitute an incessant flow,
Which habitually joins force with conceit.
When one’s thoughts are inclined to lust,
One conceals oneself, and sees nothing.

All thoughts flow and spread;
The craving-fetter is like a rattan creeper.
The wise alone can discern with discrimination,
And cut off the source of [craving] thoughts.

Nourished by craving,
One’s thoughts grow and spread.
Craving is deep and fathomless,
Adding strength to old-age and death.

The tributaries produced are incessant,
Feeding on craving alone.
To nourish enemies and multiply graves,
The fools are ever restlessly striving.

Though in prison, there are hooks and chains,
The wise do not regard them as strong;
The fools seeing their wives, sons and daughters-in-law
Become attached—this craving is indeed strong.

The wise say that craving is a prison,
Deep, strong, and difficult to escape.
Therefore should it be cut and abandoned;
Not bothered with desire, one is happy.

At the sight of a female, he is tempted,
Not meditating on impermanence.
The fool thinks [of her] as beautiful
—How does he know its unreality?

[The fool] envelopes himself with sexual pleasure,
Like the silkworms making their cocoons.
The wise can give it up,
And not being bothered by it, end all sufferings.

One whose mind is bent on heedlessness,
Views sexual indulgence as being pure;
His thoughts of passionate love being intensified,
He thus creates a prison.

He whose thoughts cease in sexual craving,
Is ever mindful of craving as impure.
Thus does he leave the prison of evil,
And end the problem of old age and death.

[The fool] entangles himself with craving’s net,
And gets himself covered up by lust’s lust.
Being self-indulgent, he is imprisoned;
Like a fish entering a trap.

Old-age and death await their chance
Like calves wanting their mother’s milk.
Craving abandoned and lust’s tracks obliterated,
[The wise] leaves the net disentangled.

He who has completed the Way, freed from prison,
Understanding all from one [end] to the other;
Has transcended the practice of extremity.
Such a man is a great wise one.

Don’t be close to those remote from the Dharma,
Don’t be stained by lust either.
He who has not cut off the three times,
Will fall again into practice of extremity.

If one is awakened to [the true nature of] all dharmas,
One will then not be attached to the dharmas;
Having been freed from all thoughts of lust,
One is said to have mastered the sages’ thoughts.

Of all gifts, the gift of Buddha’s discourses excels.
Of all flavours, the flavour of Truth excels.
Of all bliss, the bliss of Dharma excels.
The exhaustion of lust excels all sufferings.

The fool binds himself with greed,
And seeks not to cross over to the other shore.
Owing to greed for wealth and lust,
He kills others as well as himself.

The craving mind is the field;
Lust, hatred and delusion are the seeds.
Thus giving to those having transcended the world,
One gains immeasurable amount of merit.

With a few companions but plenty of goods,
A merchant trembles with fear.
Craving is a robber that kills,
Therefore the wise do not crave.

Where the mind agrees, there craving is.
—Why then only the five-fold craving?
The agreement defied and the five-fold craving cut,
One becomes a hero indeed.

Where there is no craving, there is no fear;
Where there is contentment there is no sorrow.
When craving is removed and fetters undone,
One is said to be far out from the sea.

O craving! I know your source:
You are born of thoughts in the mind.
The moment I cease thinking of you,
You will exist no more.

In cutting trees [of craving], don’t stop.
So long as the trees grow, there will be evil,
When each and every tree is cut,
The bhikṣu will attain Nirvāṇa.

If the trees [of craving] are not cut
—Even if there be a tiny bit of passion remaining,
The mind will get hung up there
Like the calves wanting [milk from] the mother.

Translated from the Chinese by Bhikkhu Kuala Lumpur Dhammajoti

From his book The Chinese Version of Dharmapada, Translated with introduction and annotations.

Published here with the kind permission of the author.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Ayya Vimala.