sn35.243:5.1 Suppose there was a house made of reeds or straw that was dried up, withered, and decrepit.
sn35.243:5.2 If a person came to it with a burning grass torch from the east,
sn35.243:5.3 west,
sn35.243:5.4 north,
sn35.243:5.5 south,
sn35.243:5.6 below,
sn35.243:5.7 above,
sn35.243:5.8 or from anywhere, the fire would find a vulnerability, it would get an opportunity.
sn35.243:5.9 In the same way, when a mendicant lives like this, if Māra comes at them through the eye he finds a vulnerability and gets an opportunity.
sn35.243:5.10 If Māra comes at them through the ear … nose … tongue … body …
sn35.243:5.11 mind he finds a vulnerability and gets an opportunity.
sn35.243:5.12 When a mendicant lives like this, they’re mastered by sights,
sn35.243:5.13 sounds,
sn35.243:5.14 smells,
sn35.243:5.15 tastes,
sn35.243:5.16 touches,
sn35.243:5.17 and ideas, they don’t master these things.
sn35.243:5.18 This is called a mendicant who has been mastered by sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas. They’re mastered, not a master. Bad, unskillful qualities have mastered them, which are corrupting, leading to future lives, hurtful, and resulting in suffering and future rebirth, old age, and death.
sn35.243:5.19 That’s how someone is festering.