snp.2.6 Suttanipata

A Righteous Life

A righteous life, a spiritual life,
they call this the supreme treasure.
But if someone goes forth
from the lay life to homelessness
who is of scurrilous character,
a beast and a bully,
their life gets worse,
as poison grows inside them.
A mendicant who loves to argue,
wrapped in delusion,
doesn’t even know what’s been explained
in the Dhamma taught by the Buddha.
Harassing those who are evolved,
governed by ignorance,
they don’t know that corruption
is the path that leads to hell.
Entering the underworld,
passing from womb to womb, from darkness to darkness,
such a mendicant
falls into suffering after death.
One such as that is
like a sewer
brimful with years of filth
for it’s hard to clean one full of grime.
Mendicants, knowing that someone is like this,
attached to the lay life,
of wicked desires and wicked intent,
of bad behavior and alms-resort,
then having gathered in harmony,
you should expel them.
Throw out the trash!
Get rid of the rubbish!
And sweep away the scraps—
they’re not ascetics, they just think they are.
When you’ve thrown out those of wicked desires,
of bad behavior and alms-resort,
dwell in communion, ever mindful,
the pure with the pure.
Then in harmony, alert,
you’ll make an end to suffering.”