Catukkanipāta 3

Numbered Discourses 4.3

1. At Wares Village

Broken (1st)

1 “When a foolish, incompetent untrue person has four qualities they keep themselves broken and damaged. They deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they brim with much wickedness. What four? Without examining or scrutinizing, they praise those deserving of criticism, and they criticize those deserving of praise. They arouse faith in things that are dubious, and they don’t arouse faith in things that are inspiring. When a foolish, incompetent untrue person has these four qualities they keep themselves broken and damaged. They deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they brim with much wickedness.

2 When an astute, competent true person has four qualities they keep themselves intact and unscathed. They don’t deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they brim with much merit. What four? After examining and scrutinizing, they criticize those deserving of criticism, and they praise those deserving of praise. They don’t arouse faith in things that are dubious, and they do arouse faith in things that are inspiring. When an astute, competent true person has these four qualities they keep themselves healthy and whole. They don’t deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they brim with much merit.

3 When you praise someone worthy of criticism,

or criticize someone worthy of praise,

you choose a losing hand with your own mouth:

you’ll never find happiness that way.

4 A losing hand at dice is a trivial thing,

if all you lose is your money

and all you own, even yourself.

What’s a really terrible hand

is to hate the holy ones.

5 For a hundred thousand times a hundred million,

times five hundred and thirty-six times

a thousand times ten million years

a slanderer of noble ones goes to hell,

having aimed bad words and thoughts at them.”