Sutta Nipata II.10

Utthana Sutta

On Vigilance

"Rouse yourself! Sit up! What good is there in sleeping? For those afflicted by disease (suffering), struck by the arrow (craving), what sleep is there?

"Rouse yourself! Sit up! Resolutely train yourself to attain peace.[1] Do not let the king of death,[2] seeing you are careless, lead you astray and dominate you.

"Go beyond this clinging,[3] to which devas and men are attached, and (the pleasures) they seek. Do not waste your opportunity. When the opportunity has passed they sorrow when consigned to Niraya-hell.

"Negligence is a taint, and so is the (greater) negligence growing from it. By earnestness and understanding withdraw the arrow (of sensual passions)."

-- vv. 331-334

Notes

  1. "Peace" is a synonym for Nibbana, the final goal. [Go back]
  2. The king of death (maccuraja), or Mara (death), is the personification of everything that binds us to this world and prevents the gaining of deliverance. [Go back]
  3. This clinging to pleasures of the senses. [Go back]