Back to The Dhammapada
Chapter Twenty -- The Path
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Of all paths the Eightfold Path is the
best; of all truths the Four Noble Truths are the
best; of all things passionlessness is the best;
of people the Seeing One (the Buddha) is the best.
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This is the only way: there is none other
for the purification of insight. Tread this path,
and you will bewilder Mara.
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Walking upon this path you will make an
end of suffering. Having discovered how to pull
out the thorn of lust, I expound the path.
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You yourselves must strive; the Buddhas
only point the way. Those meditative ones who
tread the path are released from the bonds of Mara.
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"All conditioned things are impermanent"
--when one sees this with wisdom one
turns away from suffering. This is the
path to purification.
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"All conditioned things are unsatisfactory"
--when one sees this with wisdom one
turns away from suffering. This is the
path to purification.
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"All things are not self"--when one sees
this with wisdom one turns away from suffering.
This is the path to purification.
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The idler who does not exert oneself
when one should, who though 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.
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Watchful of speech, well controlled in
mind, let a person not commit evil with the body.
Let one purify these three courses of action,
and win the path made known by the Great Sage.
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Wisdom springs from meditation, without
meditation wisdom wanes. Having known these
two paths of progress and decline, let a person
so conduct oneself that one's wisdom may increase.
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Cut down the forest (of lust), but not
the tree. From the forest (of lust) springs fear.
Having cut down the forest and the underbrush
(of desire), be passionless, O renunciates!
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For so long as the underbrush of desire,
even the most subtle, of a person towards another
is not cut down, one's mind is in bondage, like
the sucking calf to its mother.
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Cut off your affection in the manner
a person plucks with one's hand an autumn lotus.
Cultivate only the path to peace, to Nibbana,
as made known by the Exalted One.
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"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).
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As a great flood carries away a sleeping
village, just so death seizes and carries away a
person with a clinging mind, doting on one's
children and cattle.
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For one who is assailed by death there is
no protection by kinsmen. None there are to save
one--no sons, nor father nor relatives.
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Realizing this fact, let the wise person,
restrained by morality, hasten to clear the
path leading to Nibbana.