The Book of the Sixteens

Puṇṇikā

thig12.1:1 “I used to be a water-carrier. Even when it was cold, I would always plunge into the water, afraid of my masters’ beatings, harassed by fear of abuse and anger.

thig12.1:2 Brahmin, what are you afraid of, that you always plunge into the water, your limbs trembling in the freezing cold?”

thig12.1:3 “Oh, but you already know, Madam Puṇṇikā, when you ask me: I am doing good deeds, to ward off the wickedness I have done.

thig12.1:4 Whosoever young or old performs a wicked deed, by ablution in water they are released from their wicked deed.”

thig12.1:5 “Who on earth told you this, one ignoramus to another: ‘Actually, by ablution in water one is released from a wicked deed.’

thig12.1:6 Would not they all go to heaven, then: all the frogs and the turtles, dragons, dolphins, and other water-dwellers too?

thig12.1:7 Butchers of sheep and pigs, fishermen, animal trappers, bandits, executioners, and others of evil deeds: by ablution in water they too would be released from their wicked deeds.

thig12.1:8 If these rivers had carried away your bad deeds in the past, they would also carry away your good deeds, from which you’d be prevented.

thig12.1:9 Brahmin, the thing that you are afraid of, when you always plunge into the water, do not do that very thing, don’t let the cold harm your skin.”

thig12.1:10 “I have been on the wrong path, and you’ve guided me to the noble path. Madam, I give to you this ablution cloth.”

thig12.1:11 “Keep the cloth for yourself, I do not want it. If you fear suffering, if you don’t like suffering,

thig12.1:12 then don’t do bad deeds either openly or in secret. If you should do a bad deed, or you’re doing one now,

thig12.1:13 you won’t be freed from suffering, though you fly away and flee. If you fear suffering, if you don’t like suffering,

thig12.1:14 go for refuge to the Buddha, the unaffected, to his teaching and to the Saṅgha. Undertake the precepts, that will be good for you.”

thig12.1:15 “I go for refuge to the Buddha, the unaffected, to his teaching and to the Saṅgha. I undertake the precepts, that will be good for me.

thig12.1:16 I used to be brahmin only by kin, today I truly am a brahmin! Master of the three knowledges, <j>accomplished in wisdom, I’m a scholar, a bathed initiate.”