Dhammapada

Dhammapada
The Path of Dhamma
V. Balavagga: The Fool

60
Long for the wakeful is the night.
Long for the weary, a league.
For fools
unaware of True Dhamma,
samsara
is long.

61
If, in your course, you don't meet
your equal, your better,
then continue your course,
firmly,
alone.
There's no fellowship with fools.

62
'I have sons, I have wealth' —
the fool torments himself.
When even he himself
doesn't belong to himself,
how then sons?
How wealth?

63
A fool with a sense of his foolishness
is — at least to that extent — wise.
But a fool who thinks himself wise
really deserves to be called
a fool.

64-65
Even if for a lifetime
the fool stays with the wise,
he knows nothing of the Dhamma —
as the ladle,
the taste of the soup.

Even if for a moment,
the perceptive person stays with the wise,
he immediately knows the Dhamma —
as the tongue,
the taste of the soup.

66
Fools, their wisdom weak,
are their own enemies
as they go through life,
doing evil
that bears
bitter fruit.

67-68
It's not good,
the doing of the deed
that, once it's done,
you regret,
whose result you reap crying,
your face in tears.

It's good,
the doing of the deed
that, once it's done,
you don't regret,
whose result you reap gratified,
happy at heart.

69
As long as evil has yet to ripen,
the fool mistakes it for honey.
But when that evil ripens,
the fool falls into
pain.

70
Month after month
the fool might eat
only a tip-of-grass measure of food,
but he wouldn't be worth
one sixteenth
of those who've fathomed
the Dhamma.

71
An evil deed, when done,
doesn't — like ready milk —
come out right away.
It follows the fool,
smoldering
like a fire
hidden in ashes.

72-74
Only for his ruin
does renown come to the fool.
It ravages his bright fortune
& rips his head apart.

He would want unwarranted status,
preeminence among monks,
authority among monasteries,
homage from lay families.

'Let householders & those gone forth
both think that this
was done by me alone.
May I alone determine
what's a duty, what's not':
the resolve of a fool
as they grow —
his desire & pride.

75
The path to material gain
goes one way,
the way to Unbinding,
another.
Realizing this, the monk,
a disciple to the Awakened One,
should not relish offerings,
should cultivate seclusion
instead.

Dhammapada

Dhammapada
The Path of Dhamma
IV. Pupphavagga: Flowers

44-45
Who will penetrate this earth
& this realm of death
with all its gods?
Who will ferret out
the well-taught Dhamma-saying,
as the skillful flower-arranger
the flower?

The learner-on-the-path
will penetrate this earth
& this realm of death
with all its gods.

The learner-on-the-path
will ferret out
the well-taught Dhamma-saying,
as the skillful flower-arranger
the flower.

46
Knowing this body
is like foam,
realizing its nature
— a mirage —
cutting out
the blossoms of Mara,
you go where the King of Death
can't see.

47-48
The man immersed in
gathering blossoms,
his heart distracted:
death sweeps him away —
as a great flood,
a village asleep.

The man immersed in
gathering blossoms,
his heart distracted,
insatiable in sensual pleasures:
the End-Maker holds him
under his sway.

49
As a bee — without harming
the blossom,
its color,
its fragrance —
takes its nectar & flies away:
so should the sage
go through a village.

50
Focus,
not on the rudenesses of others,
not on what they've done
or left undone,
but on what you
have & haven't done
yourself.

51-52
Just like a blossom,
bright colored
but scentless:
a well-spoken word
is fruitless
when not carried out.

Just like a blossom,
bright colored
& full of scent:
a well-spoken word
is fruitful
when well carried out.

53
Just as from a heap of flowers
many garland strands can be made,
even so
one born & mortal
should do
— with what's born & is mortal —
many a skillful thing.

54-56
No flower's scent
goes against the wind —
not sandalwood,
jasmine,
tagara.

But the scent of the good
does go against the wind.
The person of integrity
wafts a scent
in every direction.

Sandalwood, tagara,
lotus, & jasmine:
Among these scents,
the scent of virtue
is unsurpassed.

Next to nothing, this fragrance
— sandalwood, tagara —
while the scent of the virtuous
wafts to the gods,
supreme.

57
Those consummate in virtue,
dwelling in heedfulness,
released through right knowing:
Mara can't follow their tracks.

58-59
As in a pile of rubbish
cast by the side of a highway
a lotus might grow
clean-smelling
pleasing the heart,
so in the midst of the rubbish-like,
people run-of-the-mill & blind,
there dazzles with discernment
the disciple of the Rightly
Self-Awakened One.

Dhammapada

Dhammapada
The Path of Dhamma
III. Cittavagga: The Mind

33-37
Quivering, wavering,
hard to guard,
to hold in check:
the mind.
The sage makes it straight —
like a fletcher,
the shaft of an arrow.

Like a fish
pulled from its home in the water
& thrown on land:
this mind flips & flaps about
to escape Mara's sway.

Hard to hold down,
nimble,
alighting wherever it likes:
the mind.
Its taming is good.
The mind well-tamed
brings ease.

So hard to see,
so very, very subtle,
alighting wherever it likes:
the mind.
The wise should guard it.
The mind protected
brings ease.

Wandering far,
going alone,
bodiless,
lying in a cave:
the mind.
Those who restrain it:
from Mara's bonds
they'll be freed.

38
For a person of unsteady mind,
not knowing true Dhamma,
serenity
set adrift:
discernment doesn't grow full.

39
For a person of unsoddened mind,
unassaulted
awareness,
abandoning merit & evil,
wakeful,
there is no danger
no fear.

40
Knowing this body
is like a clay jar,
securing this mind
like a fort,
attack Mara
with the spear of discernment,
then guard what's won
without settling there,
without laying claim.

41
All too soon, this body
will lie on the ground
cast off,
bereft of consciousness,
like a useless scrap
of wood.

42-43
Whatever an enemy might do
to an enemy,
or a foe to a foe,
the ill-directed mind
can do to you
even worse.

Whatever a mother, father
or other kinsman
might do for you,
the well-directed mind
can do for you
even better.