Theragāthā 223

Verses of the Senior Monks 6.14

The Book of the Sixes

Chapter One

Sabbakāmi

1 This two-legged body is dirty and stinking,

full of different carcasses,

and oozing all over the place—

but still it is cherished!

2 Like a lurking deer by a trick,

like a fish by a hook,

like a langur by tar—

they trap an ordinary person.

3 Sights, sounds, tastes, smells,

and touches so delightful:

these five kinds of sensual stimulation

are seen in a woman’s body.

4 Those ordinary people, their minds full of lust,

who pursue those women:

they swell the horrors of the charnel ground,

piling up future lives.

5 One who, being mindful,

avoids them

like a snake’s head with their foot,

gets over clinging to the world.

6 Seeing the danger in sensual pleasures,

seeing renunciation as sanctuary,

I’ve escaped all sensual pleasures,

and attained the ending of defilements.