iti.91 Itivuttaka

Lifestyle

This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
“Mendicants, this relying on alms is an extreme lifestyle.
The world curses you: ‘You beggar, walking bowl in hand!’
Yet earnest gentlemen take it up for a good reason.
Not because they’ve been forced to by kings or bandits, or because they’re in debt or threatened, or to earn a living.
Rather, because they think: ‘I’m swamped by rebirth, old age, and death; by sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. I’m swamped by suffering, mired in suffering.
Hopefully I can find an end to this entire mass of suffering.’
That’s how this gentleman has gone forth.
Yet they covet sensual pleasures; they’re infatuated, full of ill will and malicious intent. They are unmindful, lacking situational awareness and immersion, with straying mind and undisciplined faculties.
Suppose there was a firebrand for lighting a funeral pyre, burning at both ends, and smeared with dung in the middle. It couldn’t be used as timber either in the village or the wilderness.
I say that person is just like this. They’ve missed out on the pleasures of the lay life, and haven’t fulfilled the goal of the ascetic life.
The Buddha spoke this matter.
On this it is said:
“They’ve left behind the pleasures of the lay life,
and miss out on the goal of the ascetic life.
Ruining it, they throw it away,
and perish like a funeral firebrand.
Many who wrap their necks in ocher robes
are unrestrained and wicked.
Being wicked, they are reborn in hell
due to their bad deeds.
It’d be better for the immoral and unrestrained
to eat an iron ball,
scorching, like a burning flame,
than to eat the nation’s alms.”
This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.