4.1. Objects, Desires and Pleasures (SNP4.1)

If one with a desiring mind
Succeeds in gaining sensual pleasure,
A mortal such is pleased in mind
With wishes all fulfilled.

But if from this person passionate
all of these pleasures disappear,
then does this pleasure-addict feel,
as though by arrows pierced.

The one who shuns these pleasures of sense,
like treading not on a serpent’s head,
such a one with mindfulness
this tangled world transcends.

Obsessed with fields and property,
with money, estates and those employed,
with many pleasures, women and kin,
such a person greedily—

Do weaknesses bring down indeed,
by dangers is that person crushed,
and then by dukkhas stuck against—
as water into broken boat.

So let a mindful one avoid
at every turn these sense-desires,
with them abandoned, cross the flood,
as boat is baled for the Further Shore.

Translated by Laurence Khantipalo Mills.

This translation was edited by Bhikkhu Sujato as part of the full translation of the Sutta Nipāta with commentary prepared from a draft handwritten and typed manuscript of Laurence Khantipalo Mills in 2015. The project was managed by Laurence’s students Michael Wells and Gary Dellora, and initial digitizing of the text was by Sean Read. Full text is available at https://suttacentral.net/downloads

In addition to the suttas noted, Bhikkhu Sujato also translated verses 46, 78, 232, 465, 500, 589–597, 865, 885–890, 894–5, 897–901, 902–916, and 919–921.

This text is released dedicated to the Public Domain by way of Creative Commons Zero. No rights reserved.