Chapter 6
Minor Collection
Sayings of the Dhamma 76–89
6. The Astute
76 Regard one who sees your faults
as a guide to a hidden treasure.
Stay close to one so intelligent and astute
who curbs you when you need it.
Sticking close to such an impartial person,
things get better, not worse.
77 Advise and instruct;
curb wickedness:
for you shall be loved by the good,
and disliked by the bad.
78 Don’t mix with bad friends,
nor with the worst of men.
Mix with spiritual friends,
and with the best of men.
79 Through joy in the teaching you sleep at ease,
with clear and confident heart.
An astute person always delights in the teaching
proclaimed by the Noble One.
80 While irrigators guide water,
fletchers bend arrows straight,
and carpenters bend timber straight,
the astute tame themselves.
81 As the wind cannot stir
a solid mass of rock,
so too blame and praise
do not affect the wise.
82 Like a deep lake,
clear and unclouded,
so clear are the astute
when they hear the teachings.
83 True persons give up everything,
they don’t cajole for the things they desire.
Though touched by sadness or happiness,
the astute appear neither depressed nor elated.
84 Never wish for success by unjust means,
for your own sake or that of another,
desiring children, wealth, or nation;
rather, be virtuous, wise, and just.
85 Few are those among humans
who cross to the far shore.
The rest just run around
on the near shore.
86 When the teaching is well explained,
the people who practice accordingly
will cross over
Death’s dominion so hard to pass.
87 Rid of dark qualities,
an astute person would develop the bright.
Having left home for homelessness
in seclusion, where joy is hard,
88 they’d long for satisfaction there.
Forsaking sensual pleasures, owning nothing,
an astute person would cleanse themselves
of mental corruptions.
89 And those whose minds are rightly developed
in the awakening factors;
who, letting go of attachments,
delight in not grasping:
with defilements ended, brilliant,
they are quenched in this world.