This discourse was taught by the Blessed One, taught by the Arahant, the fully enlightened Supreme Buddha. This is as I heard:
“Monks, hoping for three kinds of happiness, a wise person practices virtue. What are the three? Thinking ‘May praise come to me,’ a wise person practices virtue. Thinking ‘May wealth come to me,’ a wise person practices virtue. Thinking ‘At the break-up of the body, after death, may I be reborn in a good destination, a heavenly world,’ a wise person practices virtue.
Monks, hoping for these three kinds of happiness, a wise person practices virtue.”
This is the meaning of what the Blessed One said. So, with regard to this, it was said:
The wise person practices virtue hoping for three kinds of happiness: the praise of others, obtaining wealth, and rejoicing in a heavenly rebirth.
If one does no evil but associates with an evil-doer, people will suspect him of doing evil and his reputation will suffer.
The type of person one chooses for a friend, the type one associates with, is the type of person one becomes. One becomes like one’s companion.
One who associates and one who is associated with; one who makes contact and one who is contacted are like arrows coated with poison that contaminate the quiver. Fearing contamination, the wise person must not associate with evil people.
A person who wraps rotting fish with some kusa-grass makes the grass smelly. So it is with those who associate with evil-doers.
But a person who wraps powdered incense in the broad leaf of a tree makes the leaf fragrant. So it is with those who associate noble people.
Therefore, understanding one’s own outcome with the grass smeared with fish, one must not associate with evil-doers.
A wise person must associate with noble people, knowing that evil people will lead him to hell and noble people will help him reach a good destination.
This, too, is the meaning of what was said by the Blessed One. This is exactly as I heard.
