| It.091 | Jiivika Sutta | Jiivita Sutta | Bhikkhus, this is a contemptible means of subsistence, this gathering of alms. In the world, bhikkhus, it is a form of abuse to say, 'You alms-gatherer! Wandering about clutching a bowl!' Yet this means of subsistence has been taken up by young men of good family, for a reason, for a purpose. They have not been reduced to it by kings nor by robbers nor because of debt nor through fear nor from loss of an alternative means of livelihood, but with the thought: 'We are beset by birth, ageing and death, by sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair; overcome by suffering, afflicted by suffering. Perhaps an end can be discerned of this whole mass of suffering.' "So this young man of good family has gone forth (into homelessness), but he may be covetous for objects of desires, strongly passionate, malevolent-minded, corrupt in thought, unmindful, uncomprehending, unconcentrated, of wandering mind and uncontrolled faculties. Just as a brand from a funeral pyre, burned at both ends and in the middle smeared with excrement, can be used as timber neither in the village nor in the forest, so with such a comparison do I speak about this person: he has missed out on the enjoyments of a householder, yet he does not fulfil the purpose of recluseship." He has missed both a layman's pleasure And his recluseship, too, the luckless man! Ruining it, he throws it away And perishes like a funerary brand. Far better for him to swallow A fiery hot iron ball Than that immoral and uncontrolled He should eat the country's alms. | 45/572 | Itivuttaka | Khuddhaka | It.089 | subsistence |