Dhammapada
The Path of Dhamma
XIV. Buddhavagga: The Buddha (179-196)
By Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.
[179] Whose conquest can't be undone,
whose conquest no one in the world
can reach;
awakened, his pasture endless,
pathless:
by what path will you lead him astray?
[180] In whom there's no craving
-- the sticky ensnarer --
to lead him anywherever at all;
awakened, his pasture endless,
pathless:
by what path will you lead him astray?
[181] They, the enlightened, intent on jhāna,
delighting in stilling
and renunciation,
self-awakened and mindful:
even the devas
view them with envy.
[182] Hard the winning of a human birth.
Hard the life of mortals.
Hard the chance to hear the true Dhamma.
Hard the arising of Awakened Ones.
[183] The non-doing of any evil,
the performance of what's skillful,
the cleansing of one's own mind:
this is the teaching
of the Awakened.
[184] Patient endurance:
the foremost austerity.
Unbinding:
the foremost,
so say the Awakened.
He who injures another
is no contemplative.
He who mistreats another,
no monk.
[185] Not disparaging, not injuring,
restraint in line with the Pāṭimokkha,
moderation in food,
dwelling in seclusion,
commitment to the heightened mind:
this is the teaching
of the Awakened.
[186-187] Not even if it rained gold coins
would we have our fill
of sensual pleasures.
'Stressful,
they give little enjoyment' --
knowing this, the wise one
finds no delight
even in heavenly sensual pleasures.
He is one who delights
in the ending of craving,
a disciple of the Rightly
Self-Awakened One.
[188-189] They go to many a refuge,
to mountains and forests,
to park and tree shrines:
people threatened with danger.
That's not the secure refuge,
not the supreme refuge,
that's not the refuge,
having gone to which,
you gain release
from all suffering and stress.
[190, 191, 192] But when, having gone
to the Buddha, Dhamma,
and Saṅgha for refuge,
you see with right discernment
the four noble truths --
stress,
the cause of stress,
the transcending of stress,
and the noble eightfold path,
the way to the stilling of stress:
that's the secure refuge,
that, the supreme refuge,
that is the refuge,
having gone to which,
you gain release
from all suffering and stress.
[193] It's hard to come by
a thoroughbred of a man.
It's simply not true
that he's born everywhere.
Wherever he's born, an enlightened one,
the family prospers,
is happy.
[194] A blessing: the arising of Awakened Ones.
A blessing: the teaching of true Dhamma.
A blessing: the concord of the Saṅgha.
The austerity of those in concord
is a blessing.
[195-] If you worship those worthy of worship,
-- Awakened Ones or their disciples --
who've transcended
complications,
lamentation,
and grief,
who are unendangered,
fearless,
unbound:
there's no measure for reckoning
that your merit's 'this much.'
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