Wake up! It is time to wake up!
You are young, strong, why do you waver,
why are you lazy and irresolute?
This is not the way to wisdom.
Be strict with speech, control your mind,
let not the body do evil.
This is the way to wisdom,
these the three roads leading to it.
Meditation brings wisdom,
lack of meditation is folly.
These are the two roads,
one leading forward, one backwards.
Choose the right one,
the one that leads to wisdom.
Not one tree – cut down the whole forest!
There is danger in the forest.
Cut down the forest of desires, O man,
and discover the road to liberation.
Take the ego like an autumn lily-
and snap it with your fingers!
Proceed then on the path to Nirvana
with one who has reached as your guide.
“This I choose for my winter home;
this for the monsoon, this for summer.”
-The words of a fool.
He fails to see his final destination.
Like floods that come and sweep away
a sleeping village, death descends on the drowsy
mind greedy for children and cattle.
a sleeping village, death descends on the drowsy
mind greedy for children and cattle.
Nothing saves!
Not father, not sons, not kinsmen.
They cannot save a man from death.
Therefore, think deeply.
Like the wide and virtuous man,
stay on the path that leads to liberation.
Impurity:
Be a lamp to yourself,
Be like an island.
Struggle hard, be wise.
Cleansed of weakness, you will find heaven,
The land which few find.
Life is over, and you stand
In Death’s presence.
O unprepared for the journey,
There is no rest on this road!
Be a lamp to yourself,
Be like an island.
Struggle hard, be wise.
Cleansed of weakness, you will find freedom,
From birth and old age.
As a smith removes flaws in silver,
A wise man removes flaws in himself,
Slowly, one by one, carefully.
Iron breeds rust, and rust devours iron,
So ill deeds devour their doer.
As a house unrepaired decays,
Goodness unrepeated declines.
Neglect of one’s appearance decays it,
Neglected, the mind stagnates.
Impure the calculating giver;
Impure are all evil deeds
Now and forever.
But nothing is more impure,
O man, Than ignorance.
O man, Than ignorance.
Cast aside ignorance, and all becomes pure.
Life is easy for the shameless crow-strutter,
The mischief-maker, the minder of other people’s business,
The insolent and the evil-minded.
Hard is life for the humble man,
Hard for the pure, the clear-thinking,
The disinterested, and the gentle person.
Who takes life, tells a lie,
Covets others’ wealth, commits adultery,
And surrenders himself to strong liquors,
Even in this world, digs his own grave.
Listen, O man!
Indiscipline begets evil.
Avarice and ill deed bring long misery.
No fire like passion, no jailer like hate,
no snare like delusion, no torrent like craving.
How easy to see the faults of others–
we winnow them like chaff.
How hard to see one’s own!–
How hard to see one’s own!–
We hide them, like cheating at dice.
How will he destroy his own passions,
who rouses them by watching others’ faults,
who is forever finding something to condemn?
There is no path in the sky,
there is no refuge anywhere!
All is of the world, worldly–
only the Buddhas are free of the world.
There is no path in the sky,
there is no refuge anywhere!
Nothing in the changing world is unchanging–
only the Buddhas are free from change.
Of paths, the best is the Eightfold,
the Four Truths are the best truths;
the best virtue is detachment,
best among men he who follows Dhamma.
This is the path.
It leads to insight. It liberates.
Follow it.
Mara the temptress is helpless before it.
End your suffering. Follow it.
This is my path, preached
after the arrows fell away from me.
Work out your Nirvana with diligence.
The Buddhas only set examples.
Those who follow Dhamma and practice meditation
are freed from the traps of Maya the temptress.
Whatever consists of component parts must perish.
It is wisdom to know this.
This knowledge destroys grief and leads to liberation.
This knowledge destroys grief and leads to liberation.
Whatever consists of component parts is not the real self.
It is wisdom to know this.
This knowledge destroys grief and leads to liberation.
- Excerpt from Dhammapada
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