Tissa
Attached to sexual intercourse:
Sir, tell its disadvantages,
having heard your Teaching then,
secluded we will train ourselves.Buddha
Attached to sexual intercourse,
forgetful of the Teaching then,
wrong things that person practices,
and does what is not Noble.Who formerly fared on alone
but now in sex indulges,
“Low” they say’s that common worldly one,
like vehicle swerving off the track.That one who had renown and fame—
that, for sure, diminishes,
having seen this, train yourself,
renouncing sexual intercourse.Overcome by (lustful) thoughts,
that one broods as a beggar does,
and hearing reproach of others, then
such a person is depressed.For yourself creating “arms”
of others reprimanding words,
so with great entanglement
sinks down into untruthfulness.Well-known as “one who’s wise”
when vowing to the single life,
but later then engaged in sex
will be “a fool defiled”.The disadvantage having known,
the sage, at start and afterwards,
should stablish fast the single life,
having no recourse to sex.So train yourself in solitude,
for that’s the life of Noble Ones,
but not conceive oneself as “best”—
them near indeed to Nirvāṇa.The sage who’s rid of sense-desires,
who to them’s indifferent,
who’s crossed the flood, is envied then,
by those enmeshed with pleasures of sense.
snp.4.7 Suttanipata
To Tissametteyya on the Disadvantages of Sex
- Translator: Laurence Khantipalo Mills
With Tissametteyya
“When someone indulges in sex,”said Venerable Tissametteyya,
“tell us, sir: what trouble befalls them?
After hearing your instruction,
we shall train in seclusion.”
“When someone indulges in sex,”
replied the Buddha,
“they forget their instructions
and go the wrong way—
that is something ignoble in them.
Someone who formerly lived alone
and then resorts to sex
is like a chariot careening off-track;
in the world they call them a low, ordinary person.
Their former fame and reputation
also fall away.
Seeing this, they’d train
to give up sex.
Oppressed by thoughts,
they brood like a wretch.
When they hear what others are saying,
such a person is embarrassed.
Then they lash out with verbal daggers
when reproached by others.
This is their great blind spot;
they sink to lies.
They once were considered astute,
committed to the solitary life.
But then they indulged in sex,
dragged along by desire like an idiot.
Knowing this danger
in falling from a former state here,
a sage would firmly resolve to wander alone,
and would not resort to sex.
They’d train themselves only in seclusion;
this, for the noble ones, is highest.
One who wouldn’t conceive themselves “best” due to that—
they have truly drawn near to extinguishment.
People tied to sensual pleasures envy them:
the isolated, wandering sage
who has crossed the flood,
unconcerned for sensual pleasures.