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About the man in decline we ask Gotama;
having come to ask the Blessed One:
what is the door of one who declines?
One who prospers is easy to know; one who declines is hard to know:
one who loves the Dhamma is the one who prospers; one who hates the Dhamma is the one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the first decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the second: what is the door of one who declines?
The bad are dear to him; he does not hold the good dear;
he approves of the dhamma of the bad — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the second decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the third: what is the door of one who declines?
The man who is given to sleep, given to company, and without exertion,
lazy, marked by anger — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the third decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the fourth: what is the door of one who declines?
Whoever, though able, does not support his mother or his father
when aged, their youth gone — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the fourth decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the fifth: what is the door of one who declines?
Whoever deceives with false speech (musāvāda) a brahmin
or an ascetic or any other beggar — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the fifth decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the sixth: what is the door of one who declines?
A man of abundant wealth, with gold, with food,
who eats his delicacies alone — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the sixth decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the seventh: what is the door of one who declines?
The man who, stiff with pride of birth, stiff with pride of wealth,
and stiff with pride of clan, despises his own relatives — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the seventh decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the eighth: what is the door of one who declines?
The man who is a rake with women, a drunkard,
and a gambler with dice, who squanders whatever he gains — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the eighth decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the ninth: what is the door of one who declines?
Not content with his own wives, he transgresses with courtesans
and transgresses with the wives of others — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the ninth decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the tenth: what is the door of one who declines?
A man past his youth brings home a girl with breasts like the timbaru fruit;
out of jealousy over her he does not sleep — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the tenth decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the eleventh: what is the door of one who declines?
He places in authority a woman given to drink and squandering,
or even a man of the same kind — that is the door of one who declines.
Thus indeed we understand this: that is the eleventh decline.
Tell, Blessed One, the twelfth: what is the door of one who declines?
One of little wealth but great craving (taṇhā) is born in a khattiya family,
and he aspires to kingship — that is the door of one who declines.
Having considered well these declines in the world,
the wise man, endowed with noble vision, resorts to the auspicious world.
The Parābhava Sutta, the sixth.
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In the Sutta Nipāta, the seventh of the Uraga Vagga: the Vasala Sutta.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.