Chapter 12

If a man (really) regards himself as dear, let him well and truly protect himself. During one or another of the three watches (of the night) the spiritually mature person should keep wide awake.

First establish yourself in what is suitable, then advise others. The spiritually mature person should not besmirch himself (by acting otherwise).

Should you act as you advise others to act, then it would be (a case of) one who was (self-) controlled exercising control (over others). The self is truly difficult to control.

One is indeed one’s own saviour (or: protector). What other saviour should there be? With oneself well-controlled, one finds a saviour (who is) hard to find.

The evil done by oneself, born of oneself, produced by oneself, destroys the man of evil understanding as a diamond pulverizes a piece of rock crystal.

He whose unprincipled behaviour is without limit, like a maluva(-creeper) overspreading a sal tree, does to his own self that which his enemy wishes (to do to him).

Easily done are things which are bad and not beneficial to oneself. What is (both) beneficial and good, that is exceedingly difficult to do.

The man of evil understanding who, on account of his (wrong) views, obstructs (or: rejects) the message of the (Supremely) Worthy, the noble ones, the men of authentic life, that wicked person, like a katthak(-reed), brings forth fruit (i.e., performs actions) to his own destruction.

A man besmirches himself by the evil he personally commits. (Similarly) he purifies himself by personally abstaining from evil. Purity and impurity are matters of personal experience: one man cannot purify another.

(Consequently) one should not neglect one’s own (spiritual) welfare for the welfare of others, great as that may be. Clearly perceiving (what constitutes) one’s personal welfare, one should devote oneself to one’s own good.