Furthermore, a mendicant lives supported by a town or village. He robes up in the morning and, taking his bowl and robe, enters a village or town for alms without guarding body, speech, and mind, without establishing mindfulness, and without restraining the sense faculties. There he sees a lady scantily clad, with revealing clothes. Lust infects his mind, and his body and mind burn with it. He thinks: ‘Why don’t I visit the monastery and tell the monks:

“Reverends, I am overcome with lust, mired in lust. I am unable to keep up the spiritual life. I declare my inability to continue training. I resign it and will return to a lesser life.”’ He goes to the monastery and tells the monks: ‘Reverends, I am overcome with lust, mired in lust. I am unable to keep up the spiritual life. I declare my inability to continue training. I resign it and will return to a lesser life.’

His spiritual companions advise and instruct him: ‘Reverend, the Buddha says that sensual pleasures give little gratification and much suffering and distress, and they are all the more full of drawbacks. With the simile of a skeleton … a scrap of meat … a grass torch … a pit of glowing coals … a dream … borrowed goods … fruit on a tree … a butcher’s knife and chopping board … swords and spears … a cobra’s head, the Buddha says that sensual pleasures give little gratification and much suffering and distress, and they are all the more full of drawbacks. Be happy with the spiritual life. Venerable, please don’t declare your inability to continue training, resign it and return to a lesser life.’