Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
An astute person who wishes for three kinds of happiness — to be praised, to become rich, and to be reborn in a heavenly realm after death — should, on that basis alone, take care to protect their ethics.
A pragmatic case for ethics
Notice what kind of argument this is. The discourse doesn’t appeal to compassion, to liberation, or to the nature of reality as the reason to keep one’s precepts — it appeals directly to self-interest, and fairly ordinary self-interest at that: reputation, prosperity, and a good afterlife. It’s a notably down-to-earth entry point for ethical conduct, useful precisely because it doesn’t require any prior conviction about deeper Buddhist teachings to make sense.
The pivot to friendship
Having made its case in the opening stanza, the verse then turns almost entirely to a different concern: who you associate with. “Though you do no wrong, if you associate with one who does, you’re suspected of wrong, and your disrepute grows.” The connection back to the three wishes is implicit rather than restated — bad company threatens exactly the reputation, and by extension the other two forms of happiness, that the opening lines cared about.
Two similes, still quoted today
The verse builds its case with images that have outlasted the discourse itself in popular memory: “an arrow smeared with poison that contaminates the quiver” for contact with wrongdoing in general, then a matched pair — “a man who wraps putrid fish in blades of grass makes the grass stink,” against “one who wraps sandalwood incense in leaves makes the leaves fragrant.” The conclusion follows the logic of the images exactly: “knowing they’ll end up like the wrapping, the astute would shun the wicked, and befriend the good.”
Key terms
The text
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, an astute person who wishes for three kinds of happiness should take care of their ethics. What three? ‘May I be be praised!’ ‘May I become rich!’ ‘When my body breaks up, after death, may I be reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm!’ An astute person who wishes for these three kinds of happiness should protect their precepts.” The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3“Wishing for three kinds of happiness—
praise, prosperity,
and to delight in heaven after passing away—
the wise would take care of their ethics.
§4Though you do no wrong,
if you associate with one who does,
you’re suspected of wrong,
and your disrepute grows.
§5Whatever kind of friend you make,
with whom you associate,
that’s how you become,
for so it is when you share your life.
§6The one who associates and the one associated with,
the one contacted and the one who contacts another,
are like an arrow smeared with poison
that contaminates the quiver.
The attentive, fearing contamination,
would never have wicked comrades.
§7A man who wraps
putrid fish in blades of grass
makes the grass stink—
so it is when associating with fools.
§8But one who wraps
sandalwood incense in leaves
makes the leaves fragrant—
so it is when associating with the attentive.
§9So, knowing they’ll end up
like the wrapping, the astute
would shun the wicked,
and befriend the good.
The wicked lead you to hell,
the good help you to a good place.”
§10This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
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