Craving Dharmapada T210

This is simply a reading of the sutta called Craving, from the Dharmapada T210. There is no commentary, just the words of the sutta itself read by myself. The topic is craving. I would mention that the language is very dated, and could to a modern ear be heard as suggesting that sexuality is bad. It is my sincere belief that this would be a misunderstanding of this text. Please keep your discernment with you.

Trigger Warning: This practice may include references to death, dying, and the departed.

Transcript

This is from the Dhammapada T2 10 32 on craving If one's mind is set on sexual activities once craving increases like a creeper's branches Spreading and growing ever more luxuriantly And the mind keeps leaping like a monkey greedy for fruits One for who the sake of lust endures sorrow who owning to craving is attached to the world His sorrow increases day and night Growing and spreading like a vine Men are deluded because of passionate love They are unable to give up passions Thus do sorrow and passionate love increase like flowing water filling up a pond That there are sorrow grief and suffering in the world of not just one kind is due to none but craving Craving is ceasing. There is no sorrow One's own mind being at peace craving is abandoned Without craving, Where is the world? Not grieving nor seeking with defilement Nor craving whence is the world? Some grieve because at the time of death They want many kinsfolks to gather Traversing a long journey of sorrow they crave and suffer always falling into distress One devoted to the spiritual life must not befriend craving First cut off the root of craving so that it can no more take root Don't be like cutting reeds lest craving would arise again Like a tree with a deep and firm root Though cut down grows yet again Craving thoughts not completely removed One should expect further suffering Like a monkey having left behind the trees returns to the trees having been freed Even so do people of the world Get out of hells only to return to hells Greedy thoughts constitute an incessant flow Which habitually joined joins force with conceit When one's thoughts are inclined to lust one conceals oneself and sees nothing all thoughts flow and spread The craving fetter is like a rattan creeper The wise alone can discern with discrimination and cut off the source of craving thoughts Nourished by craving one's thoughts grow and spread Craving is deep and fathomless Adding strength to old age and death the tributaries produced are incessant feeding on craving alone To nourish enemies and multiply graves the fools are ever restlessly striving though in prison There are hooks and chains The wise do not regard them as strong The fool is seeing their wives sons and daughters-in-law Become attached this craving is indeed strong The wise say that craving is a prison deep strong and difficult to escape Therefore should be cut and abandoned Not bothered with desire one is happy At the sight of a female he is tempted Not meditating on impermanence the fool thinks of her as beautiful. How does he know it's unreality? The fool envelops himself with sexual pleasure like the silkworms making their cocoons The wise can give it up and not being bothered by it end all suffering One whose mind is bent on heedlessness Use sexual indulgence as being pure His thoughts of passionate love being intensified he thus creates a prison He whose thoughts cease in sexual craving is ever mindful of craving as impure Thus does he leave the prison of evil and then the problem of old age and death The fool entangles himself with cravings net and he gets himself covered up by lust's lust Being self indulgent he's in prison like a fish entering a trap Old age and death await their chance like calves wanting their mother's milk Craving abandoned and lusts tracks obliterated The wise leaves the net disentangled He who has completed the way freed from prison Understanding all from one end to the other Has transcended the practice of extra extremity Such a man is a great wise one Don't be close to those remote from the Dhamma Don't be strained by lust either He who has not cut off the three times Will fall again to the practice of extremity If one is awakened to the true nature of all Dhammas One will then not be attached to the Dhamma Having been freed from all thoughts of lust one is said to have mastered the sage's thoughts Of all gifts the gift of Buddha's discourses excels Of all flavors the flavor of truth excels of all bliss the bliss of Dhamma excels the exhaustion of lust excels all sufferings The fool binds himself with greed and seeks not to cross over to the other shore Owing to greed for wealth and lust he kills others as well as himself The craving mind is in the field lust hatred and delusion are the seeds Thus giving to those having transcended the world one gains immeasurable amount of merit With a few companions but plenty of goods a merchant trembles with fear Craving is a robber that kills therefore the wise do not crave where the mind agrees their craving is Why then? Only the fivefold craving The agreement defied and the fivefold craving cut one becomes a hero indeed Where there is no craving there is no fear Where there is contentment there is no sorrow When craving is removed and fetters undone one is said to be far out from the sea Will craving I know your source you are born of thoughts in the mind the moment I cease thinking of you you will exist no more In cutting trees of craving don't stop so long as the trees grow there will be evil When each and every tree is cut the bhikkhu will attain nirvana If the trees of craving are not cut Even if there be a tiny bit of passion remaining the mind will get hung up there Like the calves wanting milk from their mother