The Pleasure Sweet at First, Bitter in the End
A pleasure that, when sense meets its object, is like sweet nectar at first but like poison in the end — this is joy of the restless grain.
This is the mirror of the prior verse.
Beguiled by the first sweetness, do I keep forgetting the bitterness to follow and repeat the same regret?
📝Reflection
This is the mirror of the prior verse. The old teacher calls sense-pleasure one 'sweet at first but poison in the end.' Overeating, oversleeping, gossip, impulse buying — sweet in the moment, bitter in the aftertaste. Beguiled again and again by the first sweetness, I repeat the same regret, because the brain reckons a reward before the eyes as larger than a distant cost. Wisdom is seeing through this time-distortion to foresee 'what comes after this sweetness.' Aesop's ant and grasshopper, and the Buddhist 'the first arrow is a sweet bait,' live here. Set the two verses side by side and life's fork grows clear — the sweet end of a bitter start, or the bitter end of a sweet one?
🌱Apply It Today
When an immediate pleasure beckons today, taste in advance 'what will its aftertaste be?' before you reach for it.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
