Alavaka Sutta Sutta Nipata SN1.10

... Then Alavaka addressed the Blessed One in verse:

1. What wealth here is best for man?
What well practiced will happiness bring?
What taste excels all other tastes?
How lived is the life they say is best?

[The Buddha:]

2. Faith is the wealth here best for man;
Dhamma well practiced shall happiness bring;
Truth indeed all other tastes excels;
Life wisely lived they say is best.

[Alavaka:]
3. How does one the currents cross?
How is ocean's existence crossed?
How is one's suffering quelled?
How is one purified?

[The Buddha:]
4. By faith are currents crossed;
By diligence is the ocean crossed;
By effort is one's suffering quelled;
By wisdom is one purified;

[Alavaka:]
5. How does one wisdom win?
How does one wealth obtain?
How does one come to fame?
How does one friendship win?
How does one without sorrow fare
When from this world to another he's gone?

[The Buddha:]
6. The mindful and discerning one,
Who in the Dhamma plead his faith;
By his will to hear that Dhamma
Wins the wisdom of Nibbana.

7. Who is tactful and energetic,
And gains wealth by his own effort;
Fame will he acquire by truth,
And friendship by his giving.

8. He who has faith and is also truthful,
virtuous, firm, and fond of giving;
By virtue of these four conditions
Will never in the hereafter grieve.

9. Truth and Restraint,
Charity and Forbearance,
Are the great reformers of man;
If there be any better
Ask of other samanas and brahmanas.

[Alavaka:]
10. Why should I now try to ask
From other samanas and brahmanas
When this day I came to learn
What weal is here and hereafter?

11. This for my weal indeed
The Buddha to Alavi came;
A gift always bears a fruit;
This too I learned today.

12. From village to village and town to town
I shall now wander along
Praising that Supreme Buddha
And the Dhamma well preached by him.