Verses of the Senior Monks 14.1

The Book of the Fourteens

Chapter One

Revata of the Acacia Wood

Since I’ve gone forth

from the lay life to homelessness,

I’ve not been aware of any thought

that is ignoble and hateful.

“May these beings be killed!

May they be slaughtered! May they suffer!”—

I’ve not been aware of any such thought

in all this long while.

I have been aware of loving-kindness,

limitless and well-developed;

gradually consolidated

as it was taught by the Buddha.

I’m friend and comrade to all,

sympathetic for all beings!

I develop a mind of love,

always delighting in harmlessness.

The unfaltering, the unshakable:

I gladden that mind.

I develop a divine meditation,

which reprobates do not cultivate.

When in a meditation free of placing the mind,

a disciple of the Buddha

is at that moment blessed

with noble silence.

As a rocky mountain

is unwavering and well grounded,

so when delusion ends,

a monk, like a mountain, doesn’t tremble.

To the man who has not a blemish

who is always seeking purity,

even a hair-tip of evil

seems as big as a stormcloud.

As a frontier city

is guarded inside and out,

so you should ward yourselves—

don’t let the moment pass you by.

I don’t long for death;

I don’t long for life;

I await my time,

like a worker waiting for their wages.

I don’t long for death;

I don’t long for life;

I await my time,

aware and mindful.

I’ve served the teacher

and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.

The heavy burden is laid down,

the leash to existence is eradicated.

I’ve attained the goal

for the sake of which I went forth

from the lay life to homelessness—

the ending of all fetters.

Persist with diligence:

this is my instruction.

Come, I’ll be fully quenched—

I’m liberated in every way.