In the present one monk is discontent owing to his love of women. The Buddha tells a story about how in a previous life he had fallen in love through a woman’s voice, had run away with her, but when she tempted an ascetic, spurned her, and took up the ascetic life himself.

1. Abhijjamāne vārismiṁ sayaṁ āgamma iddhiyā,
Missībhāvitthiyā gantvā saṁsīdasi mahaṇṇave.

He came by his own super power, not breaking through the waters, going and mixing with a woman he sunk into the great sea.

2. Āvaṭṭanī mahāmāyā, brahmacariyavikopanā,
Sīdanti naṁ viditvāna, ārakā parivajjaye.

Temptress, great deceiver, upsetter of the spiritual life, knowing this they sink, he should avoid from afar.

3. Yaṁ etā upasevanti, chandasā vā dhanena vā,
Jātavedo va saṁ ṭhānaṁ, khippaṁ anudahanti nan-ti.

Those women frequent him, through desire or through wealth, like a fire in that place, they quickly burn him up.

In this connection, not breaking through the waters, not stirring, not shaking in the water, not touching the water, having come by his own super power through the sky. Again we see the absolutive used as a finite verb here.

Going and mixing with a woman means mixing together with a woman because of worldly things.

Temptress, great deceiver, certainly those women, through tempting with sensuality, from temptation, are temptresses, being endowed with women’s endless deceit, they are called great deceivers.

Therefore this is said: Ja 534 vs. 30.

They are deceivers, mirages, grief, disease and calamity, they are the harshest of bonds, the snare of death, hidden in the heart, the man who puts trust in those women, is the lowest among men.

Upsetter of the spiritual life, they are upsetters of the highest life, the spiritual life bereft of sexual intercourse.

They sink, through these women upsetting the spiritual life the sages sink into the various downfalls.

The rest should be applied according to the former method. I include the relevant explanations from the previous Jātaka Ja 262.

Knowing means knowing thus.

He should avoid from afar, knowing: “These women surely with sexual intercourse and so on, not being satisfied, after death, sink into the hells, these women, sinking themselves in this way, what else will they be happy with?” Knowing this the wise man avoids them from afar, this is the explanation.

Through desire or through wealth, through his own desire, liking, loving, or because of wealth received through wages, these women keep company, associate with that person.

Fire means fire. Even a new born experiences fire, it is understood, it is clearly seen, so Jātaveda is said. As in his place, when there is a cause, an opportunity, it burns, so those women keep company with someone, that person, though endowed with wealth, fame, virtue and wisdom, all of these, from the destruction of wealth and so on, from that abundance, making it not liable to arise again, quickly burn him up, set fire to it.

This is also said:

“Those who are strong become weak, and those who are firm dwindle away, those with eyes become blind, when under the control of women.

Those with virtue lose their virtue, those with wisdom dwindle away, the heedless lie in bondage, when under the control of women.

Study, asceticism, virtue, truth, sharing, mindfulness, wisdom, they cut these off from the heedless, like treacherous thieves on the road.

Fame, glory, resolution, heroism, much learning, and knowing, they waste away the heedless, like an inferno a bunch of sticks.”

 

last updated: November 2022