Eight on the Cave

Trapped in a cave, thickly overspread,

sunk in delusion they stay.

That sort is far from seclusion,

for sensual pleasures in the world <j>are not easy to give up.

The chains of desire, the bonds of life’s pleasures

are hard to escape, for one cannot free another. ^[1]

Looking to the past or the future,

they pray for these pleasures or former ones. ^[2]

Greedy, fixated, infatuated by sensual pleasures,

they are incorrigible, habitually immoral.

When led to suffering they lament,

“What will become of us <j>when we pass away from here?”

That’s why a personage should train in this life:

should you know that anything in the world is wrong,

don’t act wrongly on account of that;

for the attentive say this life is short.

I see the world’s population floundering,

given to craving for future lives.

Base men wail in the jaws of death, ^[3]

not rid of craving for life after life.

See them flounder over belongings,

like fish in puddles of a dried-up stream.

Seeing this, live unselfishly,

forming no attachment to future lives.

Rid of desire for both ends, ^[4]

having completely understood contact, free of greed,

doing nothing for which they’d blame themselves,

the attentive don’t cling to the seen and the heard.

Having completely understood perception <j>and having crossed the flood, ^[5]

the sage, not clinging to possessions,

with dart plucked out, living diligently,

does not hope for this world or the next.