Chapter 16: Pleasure
Clinging to pleasure and passion brings suffering; freedom brings peace.
12 argumentative units
- 01Vanity leads to envy of the meditative
Those who indulge in vanity and pleasure rather than meditation will eventually envy those who have disciplined themselves through meditative practice.
- 02Both seeking and avoiding create pain
The attempt to find what is pleasant and avoid what is unpleasant is itself painful; true freedom requires transcending this dualistic seeking.
- 03Detachment from love and hate liberates
Loving and hating bind one to suffering, but those who are indifferent to both love and hate are free from all fetters.
- 04Pleasure causes grief and fear
Attachment to pleasure inevitably produces both grief and fear; freedom from pleasure liberates one from these suffering states.
- 05Affection causes grief and fear
Like pleasure, affection generates grief and fear; the liberated person is freed from affection's constraints.
- 06Lust causes grief and fear
Lust similarly produces grief and fear; freedom from lust brings freedom from suffering.
- 07Love causes grief and fear
Love generates both grief and fear; the person free from love escapes these emotions.
- 08Greed causes grief and fear
Greed produces grief and fear; freedom from greed eliminates these suffering states.
- 09Virtue and wisdom are held dear by the world
The person who possesses virtue, intelligence, justice, truthfulness, and proper conduct is beloved and respected by society.
- 10Desire for Nirvana brings mental liberation
The person in whom aspiration for Nirvana has arisen, who has mental contentment, and whose mind is free from passionate attachments, achieves the state of upward spiritual progress.
- 11Kinsmen and lovers welcome safe return
As family members and loved ones joyfully greet someone who returns home safely after a long absence, good works similarly welcome the virtuous person.
- 12Good works receive the virtuous in the afterlife
Just as kinsmen welcome a friend's return, the good deeds one has performed in life welcome and receive the virtuous person in the next world.