Chapter One

kn / iti / vagga4
So It Was Said 28 · The Book of the Twos

This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.

“Mendicants, when a mendicant has two qualities they live unhappily in this very life—with distress, anguish, and fever—

and when the body breaks up, after death, they can expect a bad rebirth.

What two?

Not guarding the sense doors and eating too much.

When a mendicant possesses these two qualities they live unhappily in this very life—with distress, anguish, and fever—

and when the body breaks up, after death, they can expect a bad rebirth.”

The Buddha spoke this matter.

On this it is said:

“Eye, ear, nose,

tongue, body, and likewise mind:

a mendicant who leaves these

sense doors unguarded—

immoderate in eating,

sense faculties unrestrained—

reaps suffering

both physical and mental.

Burning in body,

burning in mind,

by day or by night

such a person lives in suffering.”

This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.