All tremble at violence. All fear death. Having compared oneself [with others], one would neither kill nor cause to kill.

All tremble at violence. Life is dear to all. Having compared oneself [with others], one would neither kill nor cause to kill.

A person who, seeking happiness for himself, injures with a stick beings who [likewise] desire happiness finds no happiness when he passes on.

A person who, seeking happiness for himself, does not injure with a stick beings who [likewise] desire happiness finds happiness when he passes on.

Speak not harshly to anyone. Those spoken to might retort. Aggressive speech is unpleasant. Retaliation might befall you.

[When you are spoken to abusively], if you do not tremble [either in body or mind], [you are] like a broken gong. You have realised the Untroubled. No aggressiveness is to be found in you.

Just as a herdsman with a stick drives cows to pasture, so old age and death torment the lives of living beings.

While performing unvirtuous deeds the fool does not realise that [later it will be bitter for him. The karmic consequence will be truly wretched]. The fool is tormented by his own accumulated demerit, like being burned by fire.

One who wrongs with violence those who are free of violence and hatred, comes to one of ten states. He incurs intense physical pain, the forceful loss of property, the amputation of hands and feet, serious physical illness, or mental derangement, or trouble from the king, or a serious accusation, or the loss of his relatives, or the loss of his possessions, or else blazing fire burns down his homes. [And] with the demise of the body, the fool is reborn in hell.

Neither wandering naked, nor matted hair, nor [covering oneself with] mud, nor fasting, nor lying on the bare ground, nor the practice of uncleanliness, nor inward striving through squatting on one’s heels, will purify a mortal who has not overcome his unsureness [about the excellence of the teaching].

Though dressed in fine feather, if one fares in [mental] tranquillity, if one is peaceful, inwardly tamed, one who is assured of deliverance, one who lives the religious life having renounced violence towards all creatures, he is a Brahman. He is an ascetic. He is a bhikkhu.

Is there anywhere found in the world a man restrained by shame of wrongdoing who stays clear of criticism like a good horse stays clear of the whip?

Like a good horse touched by the whip, be vigorously applied [to the practice] and have an earnest attitude [to the practice]. Through faith [in the perfection of the Perfect One’s enlightenment], virtue, energy, inward collectedness, and a [proper] analysis of the teaching, being perfect in insightfulness into reality and in conduct, and being mindful, you will abandon this not inconsiderable suffering.

Irrigators channel water. Fletchers straighten arrows. Carpenters shape wood. Those with noble practices tame themselves.