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76. The one who sees one’s faults,
Who speaks reprovingly, wise,
Whom one would see as an indicator of treasures,
With such a sagacious person, one would associate.
To one associating with such a person,
The better it will be, not the worse.
77. He would counsel, instruct,
And restrain [one] from rude behaviour.
To the good, he is pleasant;
To the bad is he unpleasant.
78. Let one not associate
With low persons, and friends.
But let one associate
With noble persons, worthy friends.
79. One who drinks of dhamma sleeps at ease,
With mind calmly clear.
In dhamma made known by noble ones,
The wise one constantly delights.
80. Irrigators guide the water.
Fletchers bend the arrow shaft.
Wood the carpenters bend.
Themselves the wise ones tame.
81. Even as a solid rock
Does not move on account of the wind,
So are the wise not shaken
In the face of blame and praise.
82. Even as a deep lake
Is very clear and undisturbed,
So do the wise become calm,
Having heard the words of dhamma.
83. Everywhere, indeed, good persons “let go”.
The good ones do not occasion talk, hankering for pleasure.
Touched now by ease and now by misery,
The wise manifest no high and low.
84. Neither for one’s own sake nor for the sake of another,
A son would one wish, or wealth, or kingdom.
One would not wish one’s own prosperity by un-dhammic means.
Such a one would be possessed of virtue, wisdom, dhamma.
85. Few are they among humans,
The people who reach the shore beyond.
But these other folk
Only run along the [hither] bank.
86. But those who live according to dhamma –
In dhamma well proclaimed –
Those people will reach the shore beyond.
The realm of death is hard to cross.
87. Having forsaken a shadowy dhamma,
The wise one would cultivate the bright,
Having come from familiar abode to no abode
In disengagement, hard to relish.
88. There he would wish for delight,
Having discarded sensual desires – he who has nothing.
The wise one would purify himself
Of the defilements of the mind.
89. Whose mind is fully well cultivated in the factors of enlightenment,
Who, without clinging, delight in the rejection of grasping,
Lustrous ones, who have destroyed intoxicants,
They have, in [this] world, attained Nibbana.
90. To one who has gone the distance,
Who is free or sorrows, freed in every respect;
To one who has left behind all bonds,
Fever there exists not.
91. The mindful ones gird up [themselves].
In no abode do they delight.
Like swans having left behind a pond,
One shelter after another they leave.
92. Those for whom there is no hoarding,
Who have fully understood [the nature] of food,
And whose pasture is freedom
That is empty, that has no sign,
Their course is hard to trace
As that of birds in the sky.
93. In whom the influxes are fully extinct,
Who is not attached to sustenance,
And whose pasture is freedom
That is empty and signless,
His track is hard to trace,
As [that] of birds in the sky.
94. Whose senses have reached an even temper,
Like horses well trained by a charioteer,
Who has discarded self-estimation, who is free of influxes,
Even the gods cherish such a one.
95. Like the earth, he does not oppose.
A firm pillar is such a one, well cultured,
Like a lake rid of mud.
To such a one, travels in samsara there are not.
96. Of such a one, pacified,
Released by proper understanding,
Calm is the mind,
Calm his speech and act.
97. Who has no faith, the ungrateful one,
The man who is a burglar,
Who has destroyed opportunities, ejected with,
Truly he is a person supreme.
98. Where in village or in forest,
Whether in valley or on plateau,
Delightful is the ground
Where Arahants dwell.
99. Delightful are forests
Where people do not take delight.
[There] those without passions will delight;
They no sensual pleasures seek.