Violence (Dhammapada verses)

Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.), Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero (eds), Wisdom Quarterly, Dandavagga: "Violence," Dhammapada 10 (Dhp X) PREV-NEXT

The Buddha, sunrise over Borobudur, Java, Indonesia (Ulambert/flickr.com)

 

The Dhammapada

Dhammapada Verse 129. All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

 

130. All tremble at violence; life is dear to all. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

 

131. One who, while seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter.

 

132. One who, while seeking happiness, does not oppress with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will find happiness hereafter.

 

133. Speak not harshly to anyone, for those thus spoken to might retort. Indeed, angry speech hurts, and one may be overtaken by retaliation.

 

134. If, like a broken gong, one silences oneself, one has approached nirvana, for vindictiveness is no longer in one.

 

135. Just as a cowherd drives the cattle to pasture with a staff, so do old age and death drive the life force of beings (from existence to existence in samsara).

 

Reflecting on the world, on the causes of violence and peace (Ulambert/flickr.com)

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136. When the fool commits unskillful deeds, the fool does not realize (their harmful nature). The witless person is tormented by those very deeds, like one burned by fire.

 

137. One who inflicts violence on those who are unarmed, and offends those who are inoffensive, will soon come upon one of these ten states:

 

138-140. Sharp pain, or disaster, bodily injury, serious illness, or derangement of mind, trouble from the government, or grave charges, loss of relatives, or loss of wealth, or houses destroyed by ravaging fire; upon dissolution of the body that ignorant person is reborn in hell.

 

Indian ascetics in Nepal (galuzzi.it)

141. Neither [engaging in ascetic extremes of mortification like] going about naked, nor wearing matted locks, nor wallowing in filth, nor fasting, nor lying on the ground, nor smearing oneself with pyre-ashes and dust, nor sitting on heels (in penance) can purify a person who has not overcome doubt (skepticism).

 

142. Even though one be well-attired, yet if one is poised, calm, controlled, and established in the pure life, having set aside violence towards all beings -- one, truly, is a holy person (sadhu), a renunciate, a monastic (samana, wandering ascetic).

 

143. Only rarely is there a person in this world who, restrained by modesty, avoids reproach, as a thoroughbred horse avoids the goad (whip).

 

144. Like a thoroughbred horse touched by the goad, be strenuous, be filled with spiritual yearning (to strive). By confidence and virtue, by effort and meditation, by investigation of the truth, by being rich in knowledge and purity, and by being mindful, destroy this unlimited suffering (of samsara).

 

145. Irrigators regulate the waters, fletchers straighten arrow shafts, carpenters shape wood, and the good control themselves.

The First Day of Summer (inspiring verses)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.), Maggavagga: Verses on the Path (Dhammapada XX)

Sun (Surya, Sol) in hand on the Ganges in India (Immortal Technique, Point of No Return)

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Sol, European gate (Bryan1974/flickr)

273. Of all the paths the Noble Eightfold Path is best; of all the truths the Four Noble Truths are best; of all things passionlessness [freedom from craving] is best: of all humans the One Who Sees (the Buddha) is best.

• What is Eightfold Path to noble attainments (stages of enlightenment)? It is the cultivation of virtue (precepts, restraints), concentration (mental collectedness, absorption), and wisdom (right view, insight).
• What are the  Four Ennobling Truths? Meditative contemplation of the causal links of Dependent Origination for the direct realization of disappointment, its cause, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation, which is the Noble Eightfold Path.

274. This is the straight path without deviation for the purification of liberating-insight. Tread this path and you will bewilder Mara [the Corrupter, Death personified, the Killer, the Obstructer of liberation].

275. Traveling this path you will make an end of all suffering. Having discovered how to pull out the thorn of lust [craving], I make known the path [to deathlessness].

276. You yourselves must strive [to win the stream]; the buddhas only point the way. Those meditative ones who tread the path are released from the bonds of Mara.

Radiant golden Buddha, blue aura (WQ)

277. "All conditioned things are impermanent" -- when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

278. "All conditioned things are disappointing [unsatisfactory]" -- when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

279. "All things are impersonal [not-self]" -- when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

280. The idle person who does not exert when one should, who although young and strong is full of sloth, with a mind full of vain thoughts -- such an indolent person does not find the path to wisdom.

281. Let a person be watchful of speech, well controlled in mind, and not commit harm in bodily action. Let one purify these three courses of action and win the path made known by the Great Sage.

282. Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes. Having known these two paths of progress and decline, let a person so conduct oneself that wisdom may increase.

283. Cut down the forest (lust) but not the tree; from the forest springs fear. Having cut down the forest and the underbrush (desire), be passionless, O meditators! ["Cut down the forest of lust, but do not mortify the body."]

284. For so long as the underbrush of desire, even the most subtle, of a man towards a woman [or a woman towards a man] is not cut down, one's mind is in bondage, like the sucking calf to its mother.

 

Golden Buddha with vast sky behind, track-free birds like arhats (mahabodhisociety.com)

285. Cut off this affection [attachment] in the manner of a person who plucks with hand an autumn lotus. Cultivate only the path to peace, nirvana, as made known by the Exalted One.

286. "Here shall I live during the rains, here in winter and summer" -- thus thinks the fool. One does not realize the danger (that death might intervene).

287. As a great flood sweeps away a sleeping village, so death seizes and carries away the person with a clinging mind/heart, doting on one's children and cattle [property, synonymous with "riches" in agrarian societies].

288. For one who is assailed by death there is no protection by one's kin. None there are to save one -- no sons[, nor daughters, nor mother], nor father, nor relatives.

289. Realizing this fact, let the wise person, restrained by virtue, hasten to clear the path leading to nirvana.

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"Affection" (verses from the Dhammapada)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Acharya Buddharakkhita, Dhammapada, XVI, "Affection"*

Inspiring quotes from the Dhammapada, the imprint or path of Dharma (House of Doves)

 

Verse 209. Giving oneself over to things to be shunned then not exerting where exertion is needed, one who craves and seeks after [sensual] pleasures, having given up one's own true welfare, envies those intent upon theirs.
210. Seek no intimacy with the desired nor with the undesired, for not to see the desired or to see the undesired, both are anguish.
 

(The Dhammapada/flickr.com)

211. Therefore, cling not to what is held dear. For loss of or separation from the dear is painful. Yet, there are no bonds for those who cling to nothing desired or undesired.
212. From endearment springs grief, from endearment springs fear. For one who is wholly free of endearment there is no grief. How then any fear?
 
213. From addiction springs grief, from addiction springs fear. For one who is wholly free of addiction there is no grief. How then any fear?
214. From attachment springs grief, from attachment springs fear. For one who is wholly free of attachment there is no grief. How then any fear?
215. From lust springs grief, from lust springs fear. For one who is wholly free of craving there is no grief. How then any fear?
216. From craving springs grief, from craving springs fear. For one who is wholly free of craving there is no grief. How then any fear?

• How can one possibly be free of clinging, endearment, addiction, attachment, lust, and craving? It is only possible through liberating absorption (jhana) and insight (vipassana), not by a triumph of will, deprivation, or austere self-torment.

(The Dhammapada/flickr.com)

217. People consider dear one who embodies virtue and insight, who is principled, who has realized the (liberating) truth, and who does what one ought to be doing.
218. One who is intent upon complete freedom (nirvana) dwells with heart/mind inspired (by supramundane wisdom) and is no more trapped by sense pleasures -- such a person is called "One Moving Upstream." 
219. When, after a long absence, a person safely returns from afar, relatives, friends, and well-wishers welcome one home on arrival.
220. As relatives welcome a dear one on arrival, even so one's own good deeds will welcome the doer of skillful deeds who has gone from this world to the next. More
 

*Edited from Buddhist Publication Society's The Dhammapada: The Buddha's Path of Wisdom, translated by Acharya Buddharakkhita introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi (Kandy, BPS, 1985).