Sagāthā sutta: With Verses

At Sāvatthī.

“Mendicants, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions. In the past …

In the future …

At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions.

It’s like how dung joins together with dung, urine with urine, spit with spit, pus with pus, and blood with blood. In the same way, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions. In the past … In the future … At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions.

Sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions. In the past …

In the future … At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.

It’s like how milk joins together with milk, oil with oil, ghee with ghee, honey with honey, and molasses with molasses. In the same way, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions. In the past … In the future … At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.”

That is what the Buddha said. Then the Holy One, the Teacher, went on to say:

“Socializing creates a snarl;
they’re cut off by being aloof.
If you’re lost in the middle of a great sea,
and you clamber up on a little log, you’ll sink.

So too, a person who lives well
sinks by relying on a lazy person.
Hence you should avoid such
a lazy person who lacks energy.

Dwell with the noble ones
who are secluded and determined
and always energetic;
the astute who practice absorption.”