Hell
This chapter is stern throughout. It says that liars and those who deny what they have done go to hell, as do people who wear the monastic robe while behaving badly; it would be better, one verse says, to swallow a hot iron ball than to live off alms while unrestrained. A verse lists four things that befall a man who sleeps with another’s wife. Other verses say that the ascetic life wrongly taken cuts like badly grasped grass, that a lax spiritual life bears little fruit, and that being ashamed of the wrong things goes with wrong view. The last verse turns to right view: knowing a fault as a fault.
A note on these verses. Nearly every verse names hell or “a bad place” as the result of wrongdoing; verses 309–310 concern adultery; verses 307–313 address monastics.
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · public domain (CC0) · about 2 min · on SuttaCentral
306A liar goes to hell,as does one who denies what they did.Both are equal in the hereafter,those men of base deeds.
307Many who wear a scrap of ocher clothare unrestrained and wicked.Being wicked, they are reborn in helldue to their bad deeds.
308It’d be better for the immoral and unrestrainedto eat an iron ball,scorching, like a burning flame,than to eat the nation’s alms.
309Four things befall a heedless manwho sleeps with another’s wife:wickedness, poor sleep,ill-repute, and rebirth in hell.
310He accrues wickedness and is reborn in a bad place,all so a frightened couplemay snatch a moment’s pleasure,for which rulers impose a heavy punishment.That’s why a man should notsleep with another’s wife.
311When kusa grass is wrongly graspedit only cuts the hand.So too, the ascetic life, when wrongly taken,drags you to hell.
312Any lax act,any corrupt observance,or suspicious spiritual life,is not very fruitful.
313If one is to do what should be done,one should staunchly strive.For the life gone forth when laxly ledjust stirs up dust all the more.
314A bad deed is better left undone,for it will plague you later on.A good deed is better done,one that does not plague you.
315As a frontier cityis guarded inside and out,so you should ward yourselves—don’t let the moment pass you by.For if you miss your momentyou’ll grieve when sent to hell.
316Unashamed of what is shameful,ashamed of what is not shameful;beings who uphold wrong viewgo to a bad place.
317Seeing danger where there is none,and blind to the actual danger,beings who uphold wrong viewgo to a bad place.
318Seeing fault where there is none,and blind to the actual fault,beings who uphold wrong viewgo to a bad place.
319Knowing a fault as a faultand the faultless as faultless,beings who uphold right viewgo to a good place.