Homage to Him, the Blessed One, the
Perfected One, the Supremely
Enlightened One!
The Dhammapada
Chapter One -- The Pairs
- Mind precedes all mental states. Mind
is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If
with an impure mind one speaks or acts,
suffering follows one like the wheel that follows
the foot of the ox.
- Mind precedes all mental states. Mind
is their chief; they are all mind wrought. If
with a pure mind one speaks or acts, happiness
follows one like one's never-departing shadow.
- "He abused me, he struck me, he overpowered
me, he robbed me"--those who harbour such
thoughts do not still their hatred.
- "He abused me, he struck me, he overpowered
me, he robbed me"--those who do not harbour
such thoughts still their hatred.
- Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this
world; by non-hatred alone is hatred appeased.
This is an Eternal Law.
- There are those who do not realize that one
day we all must die, but those who realize this
settle their quarrels.
- Just as a storm throws down a weak tree,
so does Mara overpower the person who
lives for
the pursuit of pleasures, who is uncontrolled in one's
senses, immoderate in eating, indolent and dissipated.
- Just as a storm cannot throw down a rocky
mountain, so Mara can never
overpower the person
who lives meditating on the impurities, who
is
controlled in one's senses, moderate in eating, and
filled with faith and earnest effort.
- Whoever being depraved, devoid of self-control
and truthfulness, should don the monk's yellow
robe, that person surely is not worthy of the robe.
- But whoever is purged of depravity, well
established in virtues and filled with self-control
and truthfulness, that person indeed is worthy of the robe.
- Those who mistake the unessential to
be essential and the essential to be unessential
dwelling in wrong thoughts, never arrive at the essential.
- Those who know the essential to be
essential and the unessential to be unessential,
dwelling in right thoughts, arrive at the essential.
- Just as the rain breaks through an ill-
thatched house, even so passion penetrates an
undeveloped mind.
- Just as rain does not break through a
well-thatched house, even so passion never
penetrates a well-developed mind.
- Evil-doers grieves here and hereafter;
they grieve in both worlds. They lament and are
afflicted, recollecting their own impure deeds.
- Doers of good rejoice here and hereafter;
they rejoice in both worlds. They rejoice
and exult, recollecting their own pure deeds.
- Evil-doers suffer here and hereafter;
they suffer in both worlds. The thought, "Evil
have I done," torments them, and they suffer even
more when gone to realms of woe.
- Doers of good delight here and hereafter;
they delight in both worlds. The thought,
"Good have I done," delights them, and they delight
even more when gone to realms of bliss.
- Much though one recites the sacred texts,
but acts not accordingly, that heedless person is
like a cowherd who only counts the cows of
others--one does not partake of the blessings
of a holy life.
- Little though one recites the sacred texts,
but puts the Teaching into practice, forsaking
lust, hatred and delusion, with true wisdom and
emancipated mind, clinging to nothing in this or
any other world--one, indeed, partakes of the
blessings of a holy life.
v.7. Mara: the Tempter in Buddhism,
represented in the
scriptures as an evil-minded deity who tries to lead people from
the path to liberation. The commentaries explain Mara as
the lord of evil forces, as mental defilements and as death. 
v.8. The impurities (asubha):
subjects of meditation which focus on the inherent repulsiveness
of the body, recommended especially as powerful antidotes to
lust. 