Sutta Nipāta 4.2 Guh'-aṭṭaka-suttaṃ

Triṣṭubh metre [11 – 11 – 11 – 11]

Verses 772–779 [8 verses]

"In a Hole

A man in a hole is one deeply hidden,
a person remaining deep sunk in delusion,
one like that really is far from detachment;
the world's pleasures aren't so quickly abandoned.

Those trapped in life's joys, the cause of desire,
are hard to release, none other can free them.
Sooner or later their longings arise,
for the very same pleasures they're yearning once more.

Greedy for pleasures conceived in delusion,
stingy are they, at home in what's wrong.
When life leads them to suffer they only lament,
"What will become of us when we pass away?"

Therefore a person should train in this place,
knowing whatever is called "wrong" in the world,
is not a reason why one might live wrongly;
"Brief is this life" say the wise.

I see these people trembling in the world,
obsessed with craving for forms of existence;
miserable people babbling before death,
not free from craving repeated existence.

See them flapping over what they have cherished,
like fish in a puddle in a dried up stream;
Having seen just this, one should live without 'mine',
not forming attachments in states of existence.

Getting rid of desire for both extremes,
fully knowing each contact without any greed;
Not doing what one would reproach oneself for,
the sage is not tainted by what's seen or heard.

Understanding perception, crossing the flood,
a wise man's not attached to possessiveness;
his arrow pulled out, living attentively,
he does not desire this world or another.