With Khema

Standing to one side, the godling Khema recited these verses in the Buddha’s presence: ^[1]

“Fools and simpletons behave

like their own worst enemies,

doing wicked deeds

that ripen as bitter fruit.

It’s not good to do a deed

that plagues you later on,

for which you weep and wail,

as its effect stays with you.

It is good to do a deed

that doesn’t plague you later on,

that gladdens and cheers,

as its effect stays with you.” ^[2]

“As a precaution, you should do

what you know is for your own welfare.

A thinker, a wise one would not proceed

thinking like the cart driver.

Suppose a cart driver leaves the highway,

so even and well compacted.

They enter upon a rough road,

and fret as soon as their axle is broken.

So too, a dullard leaves the good

to follow what’s against the good.

Fallen in the jaws of death, ^[3]

they fret like one whose axle is broken.” ^[4]