The Path
This chapter names the eightfold path the best of paths and the four truths the best of statements, and says plainly that you yourselves must do the work; the Realized Ones just show the way. Three verses state that all conditions are impermanent, all conditions are suffering, and all things are not-self, and that seeing this with wisdom is the path to purity. Other verses say wisdom springs from meditation, that laziness hides the path, and that death takes the person absorbed in children and cattle like a flood sweeping away a sleeping village. Family, it says, is no shelter when death arrives.
A note on these verses. Verses 274 and 276 name Māra; verse 284 speaks of cutting the tie “to women” and reads harshly today; verses 285 and 289 mention “extinguishment”, the end of suffering.
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · public domain (CC0) · about 2 min · on SuttaCentral
273Of paths, the eightfold is the best;of truths, the four statements;dispassion is the best of things,and the Clear-eyed One is the best of humans.
274This is the path, there is no otherfor the purification of vision.You all must practice this,it is the way to baffle Māra.
275When you all are practicing this,you’ll make an end of suffering.I have explained the path to youfor extracting the thorn with wisdom.
276You yourselves must do the work,the Realized Ones just show the way.Meditators practicing absorptionare released from Māra’s bonds.
277All conditions are impermanent—when this is seen with wisdom,one grows disillusioned with suffering:this is the path to purity.
278All conditions are suffering—when this is seen with wisdom,one grows disillusioned with suffering:this is the path to purity.
279All things are not-self—when this is seen with wisdom,one grows disillusioned with suffering:this is the path to purity.
280They don’t get going when it’s time to start;they’re young and strong, but given to sloth.Their mind depressed in sunken thought,lazy and slothful, they can’t discern the path.
281Guarded in speech, restrained in mind,doing no unskillful bodily deed.Purify these three ways of performing deeds,and win the path known to seers.
282From meditation springs wisdom,without meditation, wisdom ends.Knowing these two paths—of progress and decline—you should conduct yourselfso that wisdom grows.
283Cut down the jungle, not just a tree;from the jungle springs fear.Having cut down jungle and snarl,be free of jungles, mendicants!
284So long as the vine, no matter how small,that ties a man to women is not cut,his mind remains trapped,like a calf suckling its mother.
285Cut out affection for oneself,like plucking an autumn lotus.Foster only the path to peace,the extinguishment the Holy One taught.
286“Here I will stay for the rains;here for winter, here the summer”;thus the fool thinks,not realizing the danger.
287As a mighty flood sweeps away a sleeping village,death steals away a manwho dotes on children and cattle,his mind caught up in them.
288Children provide you no shelter,nor does father, nor relatives.When you’re seized by the terminator,there’s no shelter in family.
289Knowing the reason for this,astute, and ethically restrained,one would quickly clear the paththat leads to extinguishment.