1At one time one of the mendicants was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove.

Now at that time that mendicant had previously been spending too much time in recitation. But some time later they adhered to passivity and silence. Not hearing the teaching, the deity haunting that forest approached that mendicant, and addressed them in verse:

2“Mendicant, why don’t you recite passages of the teaching,
living together with other mendicants?
When you hear the teaching confidence grows;
and the reciter is praised in the present life.”

3“I used to be enthusiastic about passages of the teaching,
so long as I’d not realized dispassion.
But then I realized dispassion, which the good call
the laying to rest by completely understanding
whatever is seen, heard, and thought.”

1Ekaṁ samayaṁ aññataro bhikkhu kosalesu vihārati aññatarasmiṁ vanasaṇḍe.

Tena kho pana samayena so bhikkhu yaṁ sudaṁ pubbe ativelaṁ sajjhāyabahulo vihārati so aparena samayena appossukko tuṇhībhūto saṅkasāyati. Atha kho yā tasmiṁ vanasaṇḍe adhivatthā devatā tassa bhikkhuno dhammaṁ asuṇantī yena so bhikkhu tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā taṁ bhikkhuṁ gāthāya ajjhabhāsi: 

2"Kasmā tuvaṁ dhammapadāni bhikkhu,
Nādhīyasi bhikkhuhi saṁvasanto;
Sutvāna dhammaṁ labhatippasādaṁ,
Diṭṭheva dhamme labhatippasaṁsan"ti.

3"Ahu pure dhammapadesu chando,
Yāva virāgena samāgamimha;
Yato virāgena samāgamimha,
Yaṁ kiñci diṭṭhaṁva sutaṁ mutaṁ vā;
Aññāya nikkhepanamāhu santo"ti.