Like a fish out of water, thrown on dry ground, the mind thrashes about,
Trying to escape Mara’s command.

The mind is hard to control, flighty, and alighting where it wishes.
One does well to tame the mind because the disciplined mind brings happiness.

The mind is hard to see.
It is subtle and alighting where it wishes.
The sage protects the mind because the watched mind brings happiness.

Far-ranging and solitary, incorporeal and hidden is the mind.
Those who restrain it will be freed from Mara’s bonds.

For those who are unsteady of mind and who do not know the true Dharma,
And whose serenity wavers, wisdom does not mature.

For one who is awake and whose mind isn’t overflowing and whose heart isn’t afflicted,
And who has abandoned both merit and demerit, fear does not exist.

Knowing this body to be like a clay pot,
Establishing this mind like a fortress,
One should battle Mara with a sword of insight,
Protecting what has been won, clinging to nothing.

All too soon this body will lie on the ground,
Cast aside and deprived of consciousness,
Like a useless scrap of wood.

Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy or haters to one another,
Far worse is the harm from one’s own wrongly directed mind.