FREE FROM SORROW, ASCEND TO THE PALACE OF WISDOM
Heedfulness is the path to the deathless, heedlessness is the path to death.
The heedful do not die; the heedless are like the dead.
Distinctly understanding this, the heedful wise ones rejoice inheedfulness,
delighting in the realm of the Noble Ones.
The constantly meditative, the ever steadfast ones
realize the bond-free, supreme nibbāna.
The glory of him who is energetic, mindful, pure in deed, considerate,
self-controlled, right-living, and heedful steadily increases.
By sustained effort, earnestness, discipline, and self-control let the wise
man make for himself an island, which no flood can overwhelm.
The ignorant, foolish folk indulge in heedlessness; the wise man guards
earnestness as the greatest treasure.
Indulge not in heedlessness; have no intimacy with sensual delights. The
earnest meditator obtains abundant bliss.
When a wise man discards heedlessness by heedfulness, he, free from
sorrow, ascends to the palace of wisdom and surveys the sorrowing
ignorant folk as a mountaineer surveys those below.
Heedful among the heedless, wide awake among the slumbering, the
wise man advances as does a swift horse, leaving a weak jade behind.
By earnestness Maghavā rose to the lordship of the gods.
Earnestness is ever praised; negligence is ever despised.
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