As a great flood carries away
a sleeping village,
so death seizes and carries away
the man with a clinging mind,
doting on his children and cattle.

“Here shall I live during the rains,
here in winter and summer” –
thus thinks the fool.
He does not realize the danger
(that death might intervene).

Cut off your affection in the manner
a man plucks with his hand
an autumn lotus.
Cultivate only the path to peace,
Nibbana, as made known
by the Exalted One.

For so long as the underbush of desire,
even the most subtle,
of a man towards a woman
is not cut down,
his mind is in bondage,
like the sucking calf to its mother.

Cut down the forest (lust),
But not the tree;
from the forest springs fear.
Having cut down the forest
and the under-bush (desire),
be passionless, O monks!

Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes.
Having known these two paths of progress and decline,
let a man so conduct himself that his wisdom may increase.

Let a man be watchful of speech
well controlled in mind,
and not commit evil in bodily action.
Let him purify
these three courses of action, and win the path made known by the great sage.

The idler who does not exert himself
when he should,
who though young and strong
is full of sloth,
with a mind full of vain thoughts –
such an indolent man

"all things are not-self" -
when one sees this with wisdom,
one turn away from suffering.
This is the path to purification.

“All conditioned things are impermanent”
- when one sees this with wisdom,
one turns away from suffering.
This is the path to purification.