The Dhammapada

by Eknath Easwaran

This state is not the extinction of personality but its fulfillment, and it is not achieved after death but in the midst of life.

“Right purpose follows from right understanding. It means willing, desiring, and thinking that is in line with life as it is. As a flood sweeps away a slumbering village, death sweeps away those who are unprepared. Remembering this, order your life around learning to live: that is right purpose.

“Right attention follows from right effort. It means keeping the mind where it should be. The wise train the mind to give complete attention to one thing at a time, here and now. Those who follow me must be always mindful, their thoughts focused on the dharma day and night. Whatever is positive, what benefits others, what conduces to kindness or peace of mind, those states of mind lead to progress; give them full attention. Whatever is negative, whatever is self-centered, what feeds malicious thoughts or stirs up the mind, those states of mind draw one downward; turn your attention away.

When the Buddha mentions with what determination he sat down for meditation that night, I remember the look I have seen on the face of championship athletes waiting to launch the performance that will win them an Olympic gold medal. They have trained their body for years, sharpened their concentration, unified their will, and that moment they have one thing on their mind and one thing only.

This is only the first leg of a very long journey, but even in itself it is a rare achievement. The concentration it requires will bring success in any field, along with a deep sense of well-being, security, and a quiet joy in living. No great flashes of insight come at this level, but you do begin to see connections between personal problems and their deeper causes, and with this comes the will to make changes in your life.

There is no “real” world-in-itself apart from our perceiving it. This doesn’t make physical reality any less physical; it only reminds us that what we see in the world is shaped by the structure of consciousness.

karma follows wherever we go. “Fly in the sky, burrow in the ground,” says the Buddha, “you cannot escape the consequences of your actions.”

In the second watch, he saw the world “as if in a spotless mirror” – the countless deaths and rebirths of other creatures, their context in life determined by the karma of past action. “And compassion welled up within him,” for he saw only blind paths of stimulus and response: no understanding of the laws that govern what we call “fate,” no awareness that we can take our lives into our own hands.

Nirvana is aroga, freedom from all illness; shiva, happiness; kshema, security; abhaya, the absence of fear; shanta, peace of mind; anashrava, freedom from compulsions; ajara, untouched by age; amata, unaffected by death. It is, in sum, parama sukha, the highest joy.

If life were not a process, if thought were continuous, we would have no freedom of choice, no alternative to the human condition. It is because each thought is a moment of its own that we can change.

“He was angry with me, he attacked me, he defeated me, he robbed me” – those who dwell on such thoughts will never be free from hatred. 4 “He was angry with me, he attacked me, he defeated me, he robbed me” – those who do not dwell on such thoughts will surely become free from hatred. 5 For hatred can never put an end to hatred; love alone can. This is an unalterable law. 6 People forget that their lives will end soon. For those who remember, quarrels come to an end.

Those who recite many scriptures but fail to practice their teachings are like a cowherd counting another’s cows. They do not share in the joys of the spiritual life. 20 But those who know few scriptures yet practice their teachings, overcoming all lust, hatred, and delusion, live with a pure mind in the highest wisdom. They stand without external supports and share in the joys of the spiritual life.

Earnest among those who are indolent, awake among those who slumber, the wise advance like a racehorse, leaving others behind. 30 It was through earnest effort that Indra became lord of the gods. The earnest are always respected, the indolent never.

But a trained mind brings health and happiness.

Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do.

Good people keep on walking whatever happens. They do not speak vain words and are the same in good fortune and bad. 84 If one desires neither children nor wealth nor power nor success by unfair means, know such a one to be good, wise, and virtuous.

Better to live in virtue and wisdom for one day than to live a hundred years with an evil and undisciplined mind. 111 Better to live in goodness and wisdom for one day than to lead an ignorant and undisciplined life for a hundred years. 112 Better to live in strength and wisdom for one day than to lead a weak and idle life for a hundred years. 113 Better to live in freedom and wisdom for one day than to lead a conditioned life of bondage for a hundred years.

One day’s glimpse of the deathless state is better than a hundred years of life without it. 115 One day’s glimpse of dharma is better than a hundred years of life without it.

Because it is easiest to follow the worn path of stimulus and response, harmful samskaras are easy to form and to get trapped in. Actively asserting the responses that do not come naturally – forgiveness, patience, compassion in the face of hatred – is the only way to avoid gradually succumbing to evil

The Buddha’s emphasis is always on choice, and his prognosis is always hopeful. He shows us the power of evil habits, then reminds us that good habits are just as strong (121–122). If we do not try to shape our lives, the conditioning of our samskaras will shape them for us, little by little; but if we do try – again, little by little, in the numberless decisions of everyday life – then any one of us can become good, as a bucket is filled drop by drop.

Not in the sky, not in the ocean, not in mountain canyons is there a place anywhere in the world where a person can hide from his evil deeds.

By oneself is evil done; by oneself one is injured. Do not do evil, and suffering will not come. Everyone has the choice to be pure or impure. No one can purify another. 166 Don’t neglect your own duty for another, however great. Know your own duty and perform it.

Do not find fault with others, do not injure others, but live in accordance with the dharma. Be moderate in eating and sleeping, and meditate on the highest. This sums up the teaching of the Buddhas.

In this chapter the Buddha tells us how we can recognize those who have attained this inner joy: they live not to experience pleasure but to give, to relieve others’ sorrows and return good for evil

Health is the best gift, contentment the best wealth, trust the best kinsman, nirvana the greatest joy. 205 Drink the nectar of the dharma in the depths of meditation, and become free from fear and sin.

“Do not accept something merely from tradition or out of blind faith,” he says. “Do not accept it even on the word of your teacher. Ehi passika: go and see for yourself, through the practice of meditation.”

Refrain from evil deeds, which cause suffering later. Perform good deeds, which can cause no suffering. 315 Guard yourself well, both within and without, like a well-defended fort. Don’t waste a moment, for wasted moments send you on the downward course.

Any craving for an experience that one thinks will add to personal pleasure, comfort, or happiness is an expression of kama-trishna, whose soft bonds to objects of sensory satisfaction are stronger than iron chains or fetters of wood or rope (345). Even of himself, the Buddha says that if he had had to contend with another desire as strong as that of sex – the most powerful expression of kama-trishna – then he would not have been able to achieve his goal. Mara is the personification of the strong hold such desires have

Bhava-trishna is the urge to go on upholding and strengthening one’s individuality, in pursuit not only of wealth, fame, and power but also of beliefs, opinions, and dogmas.

The Buddha would trace every conflict, even war, back to these basic selfish drives, occasionally couched in self-righteous language or elevated into national or corporate policies.

Vibhava-trishna, by contrast, is the oppressive desire for self-oblivion or self-destruction, prompted in Buddhist psychology by the revulsion with life that comes as the fruits of selfishness turn rotten or bitter.

In Buddhist psychology, any activity that is potentially self-destructive stems from the urge for extinction. Even that second double martini intended to deaden the strains of the day is an example of the urge to escape oneself for a few hours. This desire for extinction is present in everyone, but in a normal, healthy person it is held in balance by the desire for becoming.

In their immense enthusiasm to move in exactly the opposite direction in which their senses were pulling, however, they often forgot that the Buddha also emphasized the importance of keeping the body strong and fit. He rejected asceticism completely.

he does not grieve over what is not.

That one I call a brahmin who is never hostile to those who are hostile toward him, who is detached among those who are selfish and at peace among those at war.