45(3)Debt
(1)"Bhikkhus,isn't poverty suffering in the world for one who enjoys sensual pleasures?"
"Yes,Bhante."
(2)"If a poor,[352]destitute,indigent person gets into debt,isn't his indebtedness,too,suffering in the world for one who enjoys sensual pleasures?"
"Yes,Bhante."
(3)"If a poor,destitute,indigent person who has gotten into debt promises to pay interest,isn't the interest,too,suffering in the world for one who enjoys sensual pleasures?"
"Yes,Bhante."
(4)"If a poor,destitute,indigent person who has promised to pay interest cannot pay it when it falls due,they reprove him.
Isn't being reproved,too,suffering in the world for one who enjoys sensual pleasures?"
"Yes,Bhante."
(5)"If a poor,destitute,indigent person who is reproved does not pay,they prosecute him.
Isn't prosecution,too,suffering in the world for one who enjoys sensual pleasures?"
"Yes,Bhante."
(6)"If a poor,destitute,indigent person who is prosecuted does not pay,they imprison him.
Isn't imprisonment,too,suffering in the world for one who enjoys sensual pleasures?"
"Yes,Bhante."
"So,bhikkhus,for one who enjoys sensual pleasures,poverty is suffering in the world;getting into debt is suffering in the world;having to pay interest is suffering in the world;beingreproved is suffering in the world;prosecution is suffering inthe world;and imprisonment is suffering in the world.
(1)“So too,bhikkhus,when one does not have faith in [cultivating]wholesome qualities,when one does not have a sense of moral shame in[cultivating]wholesome qualities,when one does not have moral dread in [cultivating]wholesome qualities,when one does not have energy in [cultivatingl wholesome qualities,when one does not have wisdom in[cultivating] wholesome qualities,in the Noble One's discipline one is called a poor,destitute,indigent person.
(2)"Having no faith,no sense of moral shame,no moral dread,no energy,no wisdom in [cultivating]wholesome qualities,that poor,destitute,indigent person engages in misconduct by body,speech,and mind.
This,I say,is his getting into debt.
(3)"To conceal his bodily misconduct,he nurtures an evil desire.
He wishes:'Let no one know me';he intends[with the aim]:'Let no one know me';[353]he utters statements [with the aim]:'Let no one know me';he makes bodily endeavors [with the aim]:'Let no one know me.'
"To conceal his verbal misconduct...To conceal his mental misconduct,he nurtures an evil desire.He wishes:'Let no oneknow me';he intends [with the aim]:'Let no one know me';he utters statements [with the aim]:'Let no one know me';he makes bodily endeavors [with the aim]:'Let no one know me.'
This,I say,is the interest he must pay.
(4)"Well-behaved fellow monks speak thus about him:
"This venerable one acts in such a way,behaves in such a way.'
This,I say,is his being reproved.
(5)"When he has gone to the forest,to the foot of a tree,or to an empty dwelling,bad unwholesome thoughts accompanied by remorse assail him.
This,I say,is his prosecution.
(6)"Then,with the breakup of the body,after death,that poor,destitute,indigent person who engaged in misconduct by body,speech,and mind is bound in the prison of hell or the prison of ihe animal realm.
I do not see,bhikkhus,any other prison that is as terrible and harsh,[and]such an obstacle to attaining the unsurpassed security from bondage,as the prison of hell or the prison of the animal realm."
Poverty is called suffering in the world;so too is getting into debt.
A poor person who becomes indebted is troubled while enjoying himself.
Then they prosecute him
and he also incurs imprisonment.
This imprisonment is indeed suffering for one yearning for gain and sensual pleasures.
Just so in the Noble One's discipline,one in whom faith is lacking,
[354]who is shameless and brash,heaps up a mass of evil kamma.
Having engaged in misconduct by body,speech,
and mind,he forms the wish:"May no one find out about me."
He twists around with his body,[twists around] by speech or mind;
he piles up his evil deeds,in one way or another,repeatedly.
This foolish evil doer,knowing his own misdeeds,is a poor person
who falls into debt,troubled while enjoying himself.
His thoughts then prosecute him;painful mental states born of remorse
[follow him wherever he goes]whether in the village or the forest.
This foolish evil doer,
knowing his own misdeeds,
goes to a certain [animal]realm or is even bound in hell.
This indeed is the suffering of bondage
I have divided the stanzas as is done in Be, which I find more satisfactory than Ce. In Ee the lines of verse are not grouped into separate stanzas. from which the wise person is freed,giving [gifts]with wealth righteously gained,settling his mind in confidence.
The householder endowed with faith has made a lucky throw in both cases:
for his welfare in this present life and happiness in future lives.
Thus it is that for home-dwellers this merit increases through generosity.
All three editions read evam etam gahatthdnam cago punnam pavaddhati. The syntax is not satisfactory yet no variants are noted. Mp attempts to resolve the problem with its gloss, cagoti sahkham gatam punnam vaddhati, "merit which is designated 'generosity' increases,’ but this is implausible. Could there have originally been an ablative cāgā here, or an instrumental cāgena (with the verb vaḍḍhati, to support the meter), which was changed to cāgo by error? The Chinese parallel, MA 125, lends some support to this hypothesis at T I 614c2o::因施福增多， "because of generosity merit increases."Just so,in the Noble One's discipline,one whose faith is firm,
who is endowed with shame,dreading wrong,wise and restrained by virtuous behavior,
is said to live happily in the Noble One's discipline.
Having gained spiritual happiness,one then resolves on equanimity.
Having abandoned the five hindrances,always arousing energy,
he enters upon the jhānas,unified,alert,and mindful.
Having known things thus as they really are,through complete non-clinging
the mind is rightly liberated with the destruction of all fetters.
With the destruction of the fetters of existence,for the stable one,rightly liberated,
the knowledge occurs:"My liberation is unshakable."
This is the supreme knowledge;this is unsurpassed happiness.
Sorrowless,dust-free,and secure,this is the highest freedom from debt.[355]