[240] Then, when that night had passed, the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus: "Bhikkhus, this past night the young deva (devaputta) named Tāyana, formerly a founder of a religious sect (purāṇatitthakara), when the night was far advanced, of surpassing beauty, illuminating the entire Jetavana, approached me; having approached, he paid homage to me and stood to one side. Standing to one side, the young deva Tāyana recited these verses in my presence:
'Having exerted yourself, cut the stream; dispel sensual pleasures, O brahmin!
Without having abandoned sensual pleasures, a sage (muni) does not attain unity.
If one would do it, one should do it; one should undertake it firmly;
for a lax wanderer's life scatters dust all the more.
Better left undone is an ill deed; an ill deed torments one afterwards.
But better done is a good deed which, having done, one does not repent.
Just as kusa grass, wrongly grasped, cuts the very hand,
so the ascetic life (sāmañña), wrongly handled, drags one down to hell (niraya).
Whatever deed is slack, whatever observance (vata) is defiled,
a holy life (brahmacariya) open to suspicion — that is not of great fruit.'
This, bhikkhus, is what the young deva Tāyana said. Having said this, he paid homage to me, circumambulated me keeping me on his right, and vanished right there. Learn the Tāyana verses, bhikkhus. Master the Tāyana verses, bhikkhus. Remember the Tāyana verses, bhikkhus. The Tāyana verses are beneficial, bhikkhus; they pertain to the fundamentals of the holy life."
The Ninth: The Candima Sutta
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.