Verses of the Senior Monks 5.10

The Book of the Fives

Chapter One

Yasadatta

With fault-finding mind, the simpleton

listens to the victor’s instruction.

They’re as far from the true teaching

as the earth is from the sky.

With fault-finding mind, the simpleton

listens to the victor’s instruction.

They fall away from the true teaching,

like the moon in the waning fortnight.

With fault-finding mind, the simpleton

listens to the victor’s instruction.

They wither away in the true teaching,

like a fish in a little puddle.

With fault-finding mind, the simpleton

listens to the victor’s instruction.

They don’t thrive in the true teaching,

like a rotten seed in a field.

But one with contented mind

who listens to the victor’s instruction—

having wiped out all defilements;

having witnessed the unshakable;

having arrived at ultimate peace—

the undefiled are fully extinguished.”