The Dhammapada · Traditional
129. All men tremble at punishment, all men fear death; remember that
you are like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter.
130. All men tremble at punishment, all men love life; remember that
thou art like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter.
131. He who seeking his own happiness punishes or kills beings who also
long for happiness, will not find happiness after death.
132. He who seeking his own happiness does not punish or kill beings who
also long for happiness, will find happiness after death.
133. Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are spoken to will
answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful, blows for blows
will touch thee.
134. If, like a shattered metal plate (gong), thou utter not, then thou
hast reached Nirvana; contention is not known to thee.
135. As a cowherd with his staff drives his cows into the stable, so do
Age and Death drive the life of men.
136. A fool does not know when he commits his evil deeds: but the wicked
man burns by his own deeds, as if burnt by fire.
137. He who inflicts pain on innocent and harmless persons, will soon
come to one of these ten states:
138. He will have cruel suffering, loss, injury of the body, heavy
affliction, or loss of mind,
139. Or a misfortune coming from the king, or a fearful accusation, or
loss of relations, or destruction of treasures,
140. Or lightning-fire will burn his houses; and when his body is
destroyed, the fool will go to hell.
141. Not nakedness, not platted hair, not dirt, not fasting, or lying on
the earth, not rubbing with dust, not sitting motionless, can purify a
mortal who has not overcome desires.
142. He who, though dressed in fine apparel, exercises tranquillity, is
quiet, subdued, restrained, chaste, and has ceased to find fault with
all other beings, he indeed is a Brahmana, an ascetic (sramana), a friar
(bhikshu).
143. Is there in this world any man so restrained by humility that he
does not mind reproof, as a well-trained horse the whip?
144. Like a well-trained horse when touched by the whip, be ye active
and lively, and by faith, by virtue, by energy, by meditation, by
discernment of the law you will overcome this great pain (of reproof),
perfect in knowledge and in behaviour, and never forgetful.
145. Well-makers lead the water (wherever they like); fletchers bend the
arrow; carpenters bend a log of wood; good people fashion themselves.
· · ·
End of part 10 of 26
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