Dhammapada

The Path of Dhamma

XIII. Lokavagga: The World (167-178)

By Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

[167] Don't associate with lowly qualities.
Don't consort with heedlessness.
Don't associate with wrong views.
Don't busy yourself with the world.

[168] Get up! Don't be heedless.
Live the Dhamma well.
One who lives the Dhamma
sleeps with ease
in this world and the next.

[169] Live the Dhamma well.
Don't live it badly.
One who lives the Dhamma
sleeps with ease
in this world and the next.

[170] See it as a bubble,
see it as a mirage:
one who regards the world this way
the King of Death doesn't see.

[171] Come look at this world
all decked out
like a royal chariot,
where fools plunge in,
while those who know
don't cling.

[172] Who once was heedless,
but later is not,
brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.

[173] His evil-done deed
is replaced with skillfulness:
he brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.

[174] Blinded this world --
how few here see clearly!
Just as birds who've escaped
from a net are
few, few
are the people
who make it to heaven.

[175] Swans fly the path of the sun;
those with the power fly through space;
the enlightened flee from the world,
having defeated the armies of Mara.

[176] The person who tells a lie,
who transgresses in this one thing,
transcending sense of compunction for the world beyond:
there's no evil
he might not do.

[177] No misers go
to the world of the devas.
Those who don't praise giving
are fools.
The enlightened
express their approval for giving
and so find ease
in the world beyond.

[178] Sole dominion over the earth,
going to heaven,
lordship over all worlds:
the fruit of Stream-entry
excels them.

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