Dhammapada Book Review
The Dhammapada (“Path of the Buddha’s Teachings”) is an inspiration for millions all over the world. It is believed to have been spoken by the Buddha himself over 2,500 years ago and it contains most of Buddhism’s central teachings.
Composed in verse form in the ancient language of Pali, it depicts of three levels of our human existence the fool, the wise one, and the enlightened one.
Read it to understand the path to enlightenment.
Dhammapada Book Summary
Note: This summary is made up of my notes, thoughts and highlights of important passages while reading the book. I keep updating the summary when I revisit it, and occasionally may edit it to reduce summary length. Don’t be surprised if it has changed between visits. The author’s words are in normal font, while my interpretations are in italics.
Translator’s Note
All created things are impermanent. Strive with diligence for your release. These are Buddha’s last words.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
Through meditation, wisdom is won. Through lack of meditation, wisdom is lost.
Your own self is your master. Who else could it be? With self well subdued, you gain a master hard to find.
The evil done by one’s self, born of one’s self, suckled by one’s self, crushes the foolish including oneself, even as a diamond cuts a stone.
If a fool is associated with a wise person for an entire lifetime, that fool will perceive the truth as little as a spoon perceives the taste of soup.
The age from the seventh to the third centuries b.c.e. was when a new spirituality flowered in China, India, and Greece.
To imply that the teachings of the Buddha, as set forth in the Dhammapada, have limitations is not to deny their grandeur or truth.
Look upon the world as you would on a bubble. Look upon it as a mirage.
There is a creeping new orthodoxy in modern society that is sometimes called ‘positive thinking.’
At its worst, the habit of optimism allows us to bury our heads in the sand, deny the ubiquity of pain in ourselves and others, and to immure ourselves in a state of deliberate heartlessness to ensure our emotional survival.
One of the most beloved and accessible texts in Buddhism, the Dhammapada was first put into writing during the period from approximately 50 b.c.e. to 50 c.e., when the earliest recorded body of Buddhist scriptures, the Pali Canon, was created.
Certain Sanskrit words like dharma, karma, and nirvana have even been adopted into the English language.
A comparatively small work of only 422 verses, the Dhammapada forms part of the Khuddaka Nikaya (‘Short Collection’) in the Pali Canon’s Sutta Pitaka (‘Basket of Writings’).
The Pali word dhamma (Skt. dharma) means ‘law’ in the sense of universal truth,
During a long night of intense meditation, he became enlightened and realized what came to be known as the Four Noble Truths:
- There is suffering in the world
- Suffering has a cause
- Suffering has an end
- A path exists to end suffering.
Among other things, he taught that all human beings are capable of evolving into buddhas or, in other words, of ‘waking up’ to full consciousness of their oneness with other beings and the universe. This realization involves a dropping away of the illusion of ‘self’ as a separate entity.
Buddhism is not a ‘religion of the book,’ like Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, all of which are based on a primary body of scriptures.
The virtue of the Dhammapada is that it beautifully, concisely, and viscerally gives the reader a sense of the route a person travels as he or she advances toward realization of his or her inherent perfection.
The Twin Verses
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. It is founded on our thoughts. It is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows one, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the wagon.
If one speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows one, like a shadow that never leaves.
She abused me, he beat me, she defeated me, he robbed me: In those who harbor such thoughts, hatred will never cease.
For never does hatred cease by hatred at any time. Hatred ceases by love. This is an eternal law.
Everyone in the world does not know that we must all come to end here; but those who do know, their quarrels cease at once.
One who does not live looking for pleasures only, well-controlled sensually, moderate in diet, diligent, and strong’this one Mara will surely not overthrow, any more than the wind blows down a mountain of stone.
One who knows reality as real and falsehood as false arrives at truth and follows worthy aspirations.
As rain breaks through a poorly thatched house, lust breaks through an unvigilant mind. Lust does not break through a vigilant mind.
Evildoers mourn in this world and mourn in the next one. They mourn in both. They mourn and grieve when they see the filthiness of their own deeds.
Virtuous ones delight in this world and delight in the next one. They delight in both. They delight and rejoice when they see the purity of their own deeds.
Virtuous ones are happy in this world and in the next. They are happy when they think of the good they have done. They are even happier when they continue on the good path.
Thoughtless ones, even if they can recite many sacred verses but do not follow them, have no claim to a religious life, but are like cowherders counting the cows of others.
Thoughtful ones, even if they can recite only a few verses but do follow the law and, forsaking lust, hatred, and delusion, possess true knowledge and peace of mind’they, clinging to nothing in this world or the next, have indeed a claim to a religious life.
Vigilance
Vigilance is the path of freedom beyond life and death; thoughtlessness, the path of death.
Those who are vigilant do not die. Those who are thoughtless are as if dead already.
These wise people’meditative, perseverant, always exerting power’attain freedom from life and death, the supreme happiness.
By rousing themselves, by vigilance, by temperance and self-control, wise people make for themselves an island that no flood can overwhelm.
Follow not after vanity, nor after the enjoyment of sensual pleasures and lust! The one who is vigilant and meditative knows ample joy.
When people of right understanding drive away vanity by staying vigilant, they climb the terraced heights4 of wisdom and look down on the fools.
Vigilant among the slothful, awake among the sleeping, the wise one advances like a racer, leaving behind the mere trotter.
People praise vigilance; thoughtlessness is always blamed.
Walkers of the way who delight in vigilance, fearing thoughtlessness, move like a fire, burning away all obstacles large and small.
As fletchers1 make straight their arrows, wise ones make straight their trembling, unsteady minds, which are difficult to guard, difficult to hold back.
The Mind
It is good to tame the mind, which is flighty and difficult to restrain, rushing wherever it will. A tamed mind brings happiness.
Let wise ones monitor the mind, which is subtle, difficult to perceive, and restless. A mind well monitored brings happiness.
If one’s mind is unsteady, if one does not know the true law, one’s wisdom will never be perfect.
If one’s mind is free from lust and unperplexed, if one has renounced the notions of merit and demerit, if one remains awake and watchful, then one never has to fear.
Whatever a hater may do to another hater, or an enemy to an enemy, one’s own mind wrongly directed will do to one even greater harm.
Neither a mother, nor a father, nor any other relative will do to one as great a service as one’s own well-directed mind.
Flowers
Death carries off a person who is gathering flowers with a distracted mind, just as a flood carries off a sleeping village.
Death overpowers a person who is gathering flowers for pleasure before this person can achieve any satisfaction.7
As the bee collects nectar and flies away without harming the flower, its color, or its scent, so let a wise person go among the people and things of this life.
Let not a wise person note the perversities of others, nor what they have done or left undone.
Like a beautiful flower full of scent are the fair and fruitful words of the one who speaks of virtue and acts accordingly.
The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind, nor that of sandalwood, rosebay, or jasmine. But the fragrance of good people travels even against the wind. Thus a good person pervades the universe.
Perfume of virtue is the best.
Even as a lotus may grow from roadside garbage and spread joy to many traveling souls with its scent, so a true follower of the Buddha shines and brings light to multitudes of blind mortals.
The Fool
Long is the night to the one who is awake. Long is the road to the one who is tired. Long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.
If a traveler does not meet with someone better or equal in wisdom, that traveler should keep to a solitary journey. There is no true companionship with a fool.
‘These children belong to me!’ and ‘This wealth belongs to me!’ With such thoughts fools are tormented. They do not even belong to themselves.
Fools who know their foolishness are wise at least so far. But fools who think themselves wise’they are called fools indeed.
If a fool is associated with a wise person for an entire lifetime, that fool will perceive the truth as little as a spoon perceives the taste of soup.
If an intelligent person is associated with a wise one for only a minute, that intelligent person will soon perceive the truth just as the tongue perceives the taste of soup.
Fools with little understanding are their own greatest enemies, for they do evil deeds which must bear bitter fruits.
A deed is well done if one does not repent it, and if the reward is happiness and good cheer.
As long as their evil deeds do not bear fruit, fools think the deeds are like honey; but when they ripen, then these same fools suffer grief.
An evil deed does not begin to sour right away like newly drawn milk. Instead, smoldering like fire covered with ashes, it follows the fool.
Far from profiting them, the knowledge that fools acquire destroys their good fortune and even their minds.
Fools will desire a false reputation, precedence among monks, lordship in the monasteries, and honor among laypeople.
One road leads to wealth, the other leads to nirvana. If disciples of the Buddha have learned this fact, they will not delight in the praise of people. They will strive for freedom from worldly matters.
The Wise One
If you encounter someone who is intelligent, shows you what is to be avoided, and gives reproof where it is due, follow that wise person as you would someone who reveals hidden treasures. It will be better, not worse, for you.
Have for friends the best of people.
Irrigators guide the water; fletchers straighten the arrows; carpenters carve the wood; wise people shape themselves.
As a solid rock is not moved by the wind, wise people are not shaken by blame or by praise.
Wise people walk on, whatever may happen. They do not speak out of a desire for sensual gratification.
Few among all people reach the other shore. The others merely run up and down this shore.
The Enlightened One
There is no suffering for those who have finished their journey, foresworn grievous desires, and freed themselves fully from all bonds.
The mindful ones ever exert themselves. They do not delight in having a fixed abode. Like swans who fly from their lake, they leave their house and home.
Wherever enlightened ones dwell, in a village or wilderness, on a mountain or on a coast’that is indeed a place of joy.
Better than a Thousand
Even though a speech is composed of a thousand words, but those words are senseless, one word of sense is better; when people hear it, they become quiet.
One’s self conquered is better than all other people conquered.
If one maintains the practice of reverence and respect for the wise, four things will increase for that person: health, beauty, happiness, and vigor.
But as for a life of a hundred years lived viciously and unrestrained’a life of one day of virtue and self-control is better.
And as for a life of a hundred years lived foolishly and wantonly’a life of one day of wisdom and rightness is better.
Evil
Let one be vigorous in doing good. Let one take pains not to do evil.
The accumulation of evil is painful.
The accumulation of good is joyful.
Even by the falling of tiny water drops, a water pot is filled. Wise ones become full of good, even if they gather it little by little.
Poison does not affect one who has no wound, nor does evil befall one who does not commit evil.
Not in the sky, not in the sea, not in the clefts of the mountain is there known a spot in the whole world where one might live free from an evil deed.
Punishment
Those who, seeking their own happiness, punish beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after death.
Angry speech breeds pain: Blows for blows will touch you.
If, like a shattered gong, you say nothing harsh, then you have reached nirvana; anger is not known to you.
As cowherds with sticks drive their cows into the stable, so old age and death drive the lives of human beings.
Old Age
For a while, a house is built around these bones, with a cover of flesh and blood, and within it dwell old age and death, pride and illusion.
The brilliant chariots of kings wear away. The health of the body likewise erodes, but the virtue of good people knows not age. Thus do the good themselves testify.
One who has learned little grows old like a dumb ox: Flesh may increase, but not wisdom.
Self
First direct yourself to what is right, then teach others. Thus the wise do not suffer.
One’s own self is indeed difficult to subdue.
Your own self is your master. Who else could it be? With self well subdued, you gain a master hard to find.
Even as a creeping vine overcomes a tree, so the deeds of evildoers pull them down to a state their enemies would wish for them.
By one’s self the evil is done; by one’s self one suffers. By one’s self evil is left undone; by one’s self one is purified.
Do not forget your duty to yourself for the sake of someone else’s need, however great that might be. After you have discerned your own duty, be diligent in fulfilling it.
The World
Do not obey evil laws! Do not live on in thoughtlessness! Do not follow false doctrines! Do not be enamored of the world!
Rouse yourself! Do not be idle! Follow the law of virtue! The virtuous rest in bliss in this world and the next.
Look upon the world as you would on a bubble. Look upon it as a mirage.
Come, look at this world, glittering like a royal chariot. The foolish are immersed in it, but the wise are not attached to it.
One who formerly was reckless and afterward became sober brightens up this world like the moon3 when freed from the clouds.
This world is shrouded in darkness. Few can see here. Few go to heaven, like birds escaped from the net.
The Buddha
The one who is the conqueror and cannot be conquered, the one whose conquest no one in this world can challenge. By what track can you lead this person: the awakened, the all-seeing, the trackless?
Even the gods envy those who are awakened and not forgetful, who are given to meditation, who are wise, and who delight in the repose of retirement from the world.
Not to commit any sin, to do only good, and to purify one’s mind: That is the teaching of all the awakened.
The awakened say that patience is the best kind of penance; self-control, the greatest good.
Not to blame, not to strike, to live restrained under the law, to be moderate in eating, to sleep and sit alone, and to dwell on the highest thoughts’that is the teaching of the awakened.
A buddha is not easily found, a buddha is not born everywhere. Wherever such a sage is born, the people around that sage prosper.
Happiness
We live happily indeed when we are not hating those who hate us!
We live happily indeed when we are free from ailments among the ailing!
We live happily indeed when we are free from greed among the greedy!
We live happily indeed when we call nothing our own!
Victory breeds hatred, for the conquered are unhappy. Those who have given up both victory and defeat are content and happy.
There is no fire like passion, there is no evil like hatred, there is no pain like this bodily existence, there is no happiness higher than peace.
Hunger is the worst of diseases, bodily demands are the greatest of evils. If one knows these things truly, that is nirvana, the highest happiness.
Health is the greatest of gifts, contentment is the finest of riches, trust is the best of relationships, nirvana is the highest happiness.
The one who has tasted the sweetness of solitude and tranquility becomes free from fear and free from sin, while drinking in the honey of the law.
The one who walks in the company of fools suffers a long way.
Pleasure
Let no one ever cling to what is pleasant and what is unpleasant. Otherwise, not to see what is pleasant is painful, and it is painful to see what is unpleasant.
Let no one be attached to anything. Loss of the beloved is evil. Those who are attached to nothing and hate nothing have no fetters.
From pleasure comes grief, from pleasure comes fear. The one who is free from pleasure knows neither grief nor fear.
The one who is free from affection knows neither grief nor fear.
The one who is free from lust knows neither grief nor fear.
The one who is free from desire knows neither grief nor fear.
The one who is free from craving knows neither grief nor fear.
Those who possess compassion and wisdom, who are just, speak the truth, and take responsibility for themselves’those the world holds dear.
Anger
Let us leave aside anger, let us forsake pride, let us overcome all bondage! No sufferings befall those who are not attached to name and form, and who call nothing their own.
Speak the truth; do not yield to anger; give if you are asked, even if you give but a little. By these three steps you will come near the gods.
They blame the one who sits silent, they blame the one who speaks much, they blame the one who says little.
There is no one in worldly affairs who escapes blame.
There never was, there never will be, and there is not now a person blamed all the time or praised all the time.
The resolute who control body, tongue, and mind are indeed well-controlled.
Impurity
Make of yourself an island, work hard, practice wisdom! When your impurities are blown away and you are free from guilt, you will enter into the heavenly world of the worthy ones.
As rust sprung from iron eats into its own source, so do the evil deeds of transgressors bring them to an evil end.
Lewdness is the taint of women; stinginess, the taint of a benefactor. All evil ways taint in this world and the next.
Ignorance is the greatest taint.
Life is easy to live for one who is without shame.
life is difficult to live for a modest person, who always aims toward what is pure, who is free from attachment, unassuming, unblemished, and clear-seeing.
Take care that greed and corruption do not bring you to long-lasting grief.
If one frets about the food and drink given by others, one will not attain peace by day or night.
There is no fire like lust, there is no dart like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.
The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of one’s self is difficult to perceive.
Nothing in the everyday world abides, but enlightened ones are never shaken.
The Just
One is not just if one carries a matter by violence.
People cannot be called wise because they talk a great deal.
The person who is patient and free from hatred or fear’that person is truly wise.
People cannot be called elders4 just because their hair is gray.
The one in whom there is also truth, goodness, gentleness, self-control, and moderation, the one who is steadfast and free from impurity’that one is rightly called an elder.
Envious, stingy, deceitful people do not become respectable merely by much talking or by the fineness of their complexion.
Not by shaving his head does an undisciplined, lying person become a monk.
The one who is beyond merit and demerit, who lives in purity, who passes through the world with knowledge, that one is truly called a bhikku.
One is not a great one because one defeats or harms other living beings.
Monk, do not be confident about the way you are living as long as you have not yet attained the extinction of desire.
The Way
The best of paths is the eightfold.
The best of truths are the four.
The best of mental states is freedom from attachments.
The best of human beings is the one who sees.
This is the way. There is no other that leads to purity of vision. Go on this way!
The way was taught by me after I had understood the removal of the arrow of suffering.
If you go on this way, you will make an end of suffering.
All conditioned things are impermanent. The one who knows and perceives this fact ceases to be miserable. This is the way to purity of vision.
All conditioned things are involved in suffering.
All states are selfless and unreal.
One who does not arise when it is time to arise, who is full of sloth though vital and strong, who is weak in will and thought, that lazy and idle one will never find the way to wisdom.
Watching speech and carefully restraining the mind, let one never commit any wrong with the body.
Through meditation, wisdom is won. Through lack of meditation, wisdom is lost.
Cut down the whole forest, not one tree only! Danger comes out of the forest. When you have cut down the forest and its undergrowth, then you will be free!
Cut out the love of self, like uprooting a lotus in autumn with your hand!
Death comes and carries off the one whose mind is wholly caught up in children and possessions, as a flood carries off a sleeping village.
Children are no help, nor a parent, nor other relations. There is no help from kinfolk for one whom Death has seized.
One who is wise and good and knows the meaning of what is said here should quickly clear the way to nirvana.
Miscellany
If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a great pleasure, let a wise person leave the small pleasure and look to the great.
Those who, by causing pain to others, wish to obtain pleasure for themselves’they, entangled in the bonds of hatred, will never be free from hatred.
What they ought to do is neglected, what they ought not to do is done. The desires of unruly, thoughtless people are always increasing.
A true brahman goes through life unharmed and is free from sorrow and remorse, even though such a one may have killed father and mother and two kings of the warrior caste, even though such a one has destroyed a kingdom with all its subjects.
The disciples of Gautama are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on the Buddha.
Hard is the life of a hermit, hard to enjoy. The life of one who lives in the world is also difficult and burdensome. And it is painful to live in the world and yet have no like companion. The life of anyone who travels from world to world is filled with suffering. Therefore, one should not be such a wayfarer, and then one will not have to suffer.
Good people shine from afar, like the peaks of the Himalayas. Bad people are dark and unremarkable even up close, like arrows shot by night.
Those who can sit alone, sleep alone, and walk alone without getting weary’those who can subdue themselves all on their own, they will find delight on the outskirts of the forest.
The Downward Course
The one who says what is not goes to hell. So does the one who, having done a thing, says, ‘I have not done it.’ After death both are equal.
Better it would be to swallow an iron ball as hot as a flaring fire than to live as a bad, unrestrained person on the charity of the land.
Four things befall the heedless one who pursues a neighbor’s spouse, first, acquisition of demerit; second, an uncomfortable bed; third, evil report; and, fourth and lastly, hell.
As a grass blade, if badly grasped, cuts the hand, so badly practiced asceticism leads to hell.
An evil deed is better left undone, for one feels remorse for it afterward. A good deed is better done, for having done it, one does not feel remorse.
Those who are ashamed of what they ought not to be ashamed of, and are not ashamed of what they ought to be ashamed of’such people, embracing false doctrines, enter the downward course.
Those who fear when they ought not to fear, and fear not when they ought to fear
Those who see sin where none exists, and do not see sin where it does exist
The Elephant
Mules are good if trained, and so are noble horses and great elephants, but humans who train themselves are better still.
For riding these animals, no human reaches the untrodden country. One must go there upon one’s own, well-tamed self.
If a person becomes lazy and a great eater, if a person is sleepy and rolls around like a great hog fed on wash, that fool is born again and again.
This mind of mine went formerly wandering about as it liked, as it listed, as it pleased, but I shall now hold it in firmly, as the rider who wields the hook holds in the furious elephant.
Be not thoughtless, watch your thoughts!
If you find a prudent companion who walks with you, is wise, and lives soberly, it is well to walk with this companion, overcoming all dangers, happy but considerate.
In such a case it is better to live alone. There is no companionship with a fool.
If the occasion arises, friends are pleasant. Enjoyment is pleasant, whatever the cause may be. A good deed is pleasant in the hour of death. The giving up of all grief is pleasant.
Thirst
The thirst of a thoughtless person grows like a creeper. That person runs from life to life, like a monkey seeking fruit in the forest.
Whoever is overcome by this fierce, poisonous thirst, in this world, that person’s sufferings increase.
The currents run in all directions, the creeper keeps on sprouting. If you see the creeper springing up, cut its roots by means of wisdom.
Wise people do not call a fetter strong that is made of iron, wood, or hemp. A far stronger fetter is the desperate craving for precious stones and rings, for a spouse and children.
Wise people call the bond strong that drags one wholly downward and though capable of yielding is very difficult to undo. After having cut this bond at last, people leave this world free from cares and free from sensual cravings.
Those who are slaves to passion follow the stream of desires, as a spider runs down the web it has made.
Give up what is ahead, give up what is behind, give up what is between, when you go to the other shore of existence.
If your mind is altogether free, you will not again enter into birth and decay.
Riches destroy the foolish, not those who seek the other shore.
Fields are damaged by weeds, people are damaged by greed. Therefore, a gift bestowed on those who are free from greed brings great reward.
The Monk
Restraint in the eye is good, good is restraint in the ear; in the nose restraint is good, good is restraint in the tongue.
In the body restraint is good, good is restraint in speech; in thought restraint is good, good is restraint in all things.
Those who control their hands, those who control their feet, those who control their speech, those who are well controlled, those who delight inwardly, those who are collected, those who are solitary and content’let them be called monks.
Those who never identify themselves with name and form and do not grieve over what is no more’those ones indeed are rightly called monks.
O monk, bail out this boat! If emptied it will go quickly; having cut off lust and hatred, you will reach nirvana.
Without wisdom there is not meditation, without meditation there is no wisdom. The one who is both meditative and wise is near to nirvana.
The Brahman
When you have understood the destruction of all that was made, you will understand that which was not made.
The one for whom there is neither this nor that shore, nor both’such a one, fearless and unshackled, I call indeed a brahman.
People do not become brahmans by virtue of their matted locks, their lineage, or their birth. Those in whom there is truth and righteousness’they are blessed, they are brahmans.
Those who wear cast-off rags, who are emaciated so you can see their veins, who meditate alone in the forest’these people I call indeed brahmans.
I do not call people brahmans because of their background or their parents. People attached to such things are indeed arrogant and likely to be rich in a worldly way.
The ones I call indeed brahmans who, after cutting all fetters, never tremble but stand free and clear.
- are unimpeded and awakened.
- have patience as their force and strength as their army.
- who are free from anger, dutiful, virtuous, temperate, and self-controlled’who have received their last body.
- who know the right way and the wrong way and have attained the highest end.
The ones I call indeed brahmans who are valiant, noble, and heroic.
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