Itivuttaka 76

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Itivuttaka >> '''76. Sukhapatthanasuttam'''

Adapted From the Translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu(Geoffrey DeGraff)

Compared with the Pali Tipitaka at www.tipitaka.org

76. Sukhapatthanasuttam (Way to Bliss )

This was said by the Lord Buddha(Bhagavata), said by the Arahant, so I have heard:

“Aspiring to these three forms of bliss, monks, a wise person should guard his virtue(sheel). Which three? [Thinking,] ‘May praise come to me,’ a wise person should guard his virtue(sheel). [Thinking,] ‘May wealth come to me,’ a wise person should guard his virtue(sheel). [Thinking,] ‘At the break-up of the body, after death, may I reappear in a good destination, a heavenly world,’ a wise person should guard his virtue. Aspiring to these three forms of bliss, a wise person should guard his virtue(sheel).”

Intelligent, you should guard your virtue(sheel), aspiring to three forms of bliss: praise; the obtaining of wealth; and, after death, rejoicing in heaven. Even if you do no evil but seek out one who does, you’re suspected of evil. Your bad reputation grows. The sort of person you make a friend, the sort you seek out, that’s the sort you yourself become— for your living together is of <p style="text-align:center;">that sort. <p style="text-align:center;">The one associated with, <p style="text-align:center;">the one who associates, <p style="text-align:center;">the one who’s touched, <p style="text-align:center;">the one who touches another <p style="text-align:center;">—like an arrow smeared with poison— <p style="text-align:center;">contaminates the quiver. <p style="text-align:center;">So, fearing contamination, the wise <p style="text-align:center;">should not be comrades <p style="text-align:center;">with evil people. <p style="text-align:center;">A man who wraps rotting fish <p style="text-align:center;">in a blade of kusa grass <p style="text-align:center;">makes the grass smelly: <p style="text-align:center;">so it is <p style="text-align:center;">if you seek out fools. <p style="text-align:center;">But a man who wraps powdered incense <p style="text-align:center;">in the leaf of a tree <p style="text-align:center;">makes the leaf fragrant: <p style="text-align:center;">so it is <p style="text-align:center;">if you seek out <p style="text-align:center;">the wise. <p style="text-align:center;">So, <p style="text-align:center;">knowing your own outcome <p style="text-align:center;">as like the leaf-wrapper’s, <p style="text-align:center;">you shouldn’t seek out <p style="text-align:center;">those who aren’t good. <p style="text-align:center;">The wise would associate <p style="text-align:center;">with those who are. <p style="text-align:center;">Those who aren’t good <p style="text-align:center;">lead you to hell. <p style="text-align:center;">The good help you reach <p style="text-align:center;">a good destination.

See also: AN 8:54; AN 9:1; Ud 4:1