Sabbakāmi (THAG6.14)

Verses of the Senior Monks 6.14

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Sabbakāmi

This two-legged body is dirty and stinking,

full of different carcasses,

and oozing all over the place—

but still it is cherished!

Like a lurking deer by a trick,

like a fish by a hook,

like a langur by tar—¹

they trap an ordinary person.

Sights, sounds, tastes, smells,

and touches so delightful:

these five kinds of sensual stimulation

are seen in a woman’s body.

Those ordinary people, their minds full of lust,

who pursue those women:

they swell the horrors of the charnel ground,

piling up future lives.

One who, being mindful,

avoids them

like a snake’s head with their foot,

gets over clinging to the world.

Seeing the danger in sensual pleasures,

seeing renunciation as sanctuary,

I’ve escaped all sensual pleasures,

and attained the ending of defilements.