Translated in the Later Qin Dynasty by the Tripiṭaka Kumārajīva
Female beauty is a fetter of the world. Ordinary beings cling to it with craving and attachment and are unable to free themselves. Female beauty is a grave affliction of the world. Ordinary beings are trapped by it and, even at death, cannot escape it. Female beauty is a calamity of decline in the world. When ordinary beings encounter it, there is no misfortune that does not descend upon them. A practitioner who has already been able to abandon it, yet turns back to long for it again, is like one who has left a prison yet wishes to reenter it; like one restored from madness who delights in returning to madness; like one cured of illness who again desires to fall ill. The wise feel compassion for such people, knowing that in their delusion they will fall and lose their lives, and that their remaining time is already very little.
Ordinary beings prize physical beauty and willingly become its servants. Throughout their lives they labor and toil for it. Even if they were to be cut apart inch by inch by axes and halberds, with blades and arrowheads striking from all sides, they would accept it willingly and would not regard it as a calamity. A madman’s delight in madness does not exceed this. If a practitioner is able to renounce beauty and not dwell upon it, this is to shatter the fetters and cast off the shackles, to loathe madness and reject illness, to distance oneself from decline and misfortune. One then gains both peace and auspiciousness, emerges from the prison, and forever remains free from disaster and suffering.
The appearance and speech of women are like honey, yet their intentions are like poison. It is like a still and silent abyss, clear as a bright mirror, yet with a fierce nāga dwelling within; like a treasure cavern of golden mountains, yet with a lion abiding inside. One should understand that such dangers must not be approached. Disharmony within the household arises because of women; the destruction of clans is due to the fault of women. They are truly hidden bandits who extinguish the light of human wisdom; they are also like the hunter’s encirclement, from which few are able to escape. They are like a net spread high in the air, into which flocks of birds fall, unable again to exert themselves in flight; like a tightly woven fishing net, into which many fish plunge, only to have their bellies split open and their bodies cut apart; like a dark and deep pit into which the blind fall; like moths rushing into a flame. Therefore, the wise understand and keep far away from it, and do not suffer its harm. They loathe and disdain it, and are not deluded by such things.
Dharma Torch 