In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [104]
12. “Again, with sensual pleasures as the cause ... men take swords and shields and buckle on bows and quivers, and they charge into battle massed in double array with arrows and spears flying and swords flashing; and there they are wounded by arrows and spears, and their heads are cut off by swords, whereby they incur death or deadly suffering. Now this too is a danger in the case of sensual pleasures, a mass of suffering visible in this present life, having sensual pleasures as its cause, source, and basis, the cause being simply sensual pleasures.
13. “Again, with sensual pleasures as the cause ... men take swords and shields and buckle on bows and quivers, and they charge slippery bastions, with arrows and spears flying and swords flashing; and there they are wounded by arrows and spears and splashed with boiling liquids and crushed under heavy weights, and their heads are cut off by swords, whereby they incur death or deadly suffering. Now this too is a danger in the case of sensual pleasures, a mass of suffering visible in this present life, having sensual pleasures as its cause, source, and basis, the cause being simply sensual pleasures.
14. “Again, with sensual pleasures as the cause ... men break into houses, plunder wealth, commit burglary, ambush highways, seduce others’ wives, and when they are caught, kings have many kinds of torture inflicted on them ... whereby they incur death or deadly suffering. Now this too is a danger in the case of sensual pleasures, a mass of suffering visible in this present life, having sensual pleasures as its cause, source, and basis, the cause being simply sensual pleasures.
15. “Again, with sensual pleasures as the cause ... people indulge in misconduct of body, speech, and mind. Having done so, on the breakup of the body, after death, they are reborn in a state of misery, in a bad destination, in the lower world, in hell. Now this is a danger in the case of sensual pleasures, a mass of suffering in the life to come,2 having sensual pleasures as its cause, source, and basis, the cause being simply sensual pleasures.
16. (iii) “And what, monks, is the escape in the case of sensual pleasures? It is the removal of desire and lust, the abandonment of desire and lust for sensual pleasures. This is the escape in the case of sensual pleasures.
17. “That those ascetics and brahmins who do not understand as it really is the gratification as gratification, the danger as danger, and the escape as escape in the case of sensual pleasures, can either themselves fully understand sensual pleasures or instruct others so that they can fully understand sensual pleasures—that is impossible. That those ascetics and brahmins who understand as it really is the gratification as gratification, the danger as danger, and the escape as escape in the case of sensual pleasures, can themselves fully understand sensual pleasures and instruct others so that they can fully understand sensual pleasures—that is possible.
[form]
18. (i) “And what, monks, is the gratification in the case of form? Suppose there were a girl of the khattiya class or the brahmin class or of householder stock, in her fifteenth or sixteenth year, neither too tall nor too short, neither too thin nor too fat, neither too dark nor too fair. Is her beauty and loveliness then at its height?”—“Yes, venerable sir.”—“Now the pleasure and joy that arise in dependence on that beauty and loveliness are the gratification in the case of form.
19. (ii) “And what, monks, is the danger in the case of form? Later on one might see that same woman here at eighty, ninety, or a hundred years, aged, as crooked as a roof bracket, doubled up, supported by a walking stick, tottering, frail, her youth gone, her teeth broken, gray-haired, scanty-haired, bald, wrinkled, with limbs all blotchy. What do you think, monks? Has her former beauty and loveliness vanished and the danger become evident?