Dhammapada:
The Wise Man
& The Master
WORDS OF BUDDHA
The Wise Man
From the Dhammapada, Sayings of Buddha
Written in the 6th century BC
The Wise Man
The wise man tells you where you have fallen
And where you yet may fall -
Invaluable secrets!
Follow him, follow the way.
Let him chasten and teach you
And keep you from mischief.
The world may hate him.
But good men love him.
Do not look for bad company
Or live wit men who do not care.
Find friends who love the truth.
Drink deeply.
Live in serenity and joy.
The wise man delights in the truth
And follows the law of the awakened.
The farmer channels water to his land.
The fletcher whittles his arrows.
And the carpenter turns his wood.
So the wise man directs his mind.
The wind cannot shake a mountain.
Neither praise nor blame moves the wise man.
He is clarity.
He is truth.
He is like a lake.
Pure and tranquil and deep.
The Wise Man (cont.)
Want nothing.
Where there is desire,
Say nothing.
Happiness or sorrow -
Whatever befalls you,
Walk on
Untouched, unattached.
Do not ask for family or power or wealth,
Either for yourself or for another.
Can a wise man wish to rise unjustly?
Few cross over the river.
Most are stranded on this side.
On the riverbank they run up and down.
But the wise man, following the way,
Crosses over, beyond the reach of death.
He leaves the dark way
For the way of light.
He leaves his home, seeking
Happiness on the hard road.
Free from desire,
Free from possessions,
Free from the dark places of the heart.
Free from attachment and appetite,
Following the seven lights of awakening,
And rejoicing greatly in his freedom,
In this world the wise man
Becomes himself a light,
Pure, shining, free.
The Dhammapada, Trans. Thomas Byrom,
Shambhala, p. 23-26
In this world
the Wise man becomes himself
a light,
pure, shining, free.
From the DHAMMAPADA, Sayings of the Buddha
7. The Master
At the end of the way
The master finds freedom
From desire and sorrow -
Freedom without bounds.
Those who awaken
Never rest in one place.
Like swans, they rise
And leave the lake.
On the air they rise
And fly an invisible course,
Gathering nothing, storing nothing.
Their food is knowledge.
They live upon emptiness.
They have seen how to break free.
Who can follow them?
Only the master.
Such is his purity.
Like a bird,
He rises on the limitless air
And flies an invisible course.
He wishes for nothing.
His food is knowledge.
He lives upon emptiness.
He has broken free.
He is the charioteer.
He has tamed his horses,
pride and his senses.
Even the gods admire him.
Yielding like the earth,
Joyous and clear like the lake,
Still as the stone at the door,
He is free from life and death.
7. The Master
His thoughts are still.
His words are still.
His work is stillness.
He sees his freedom and is free.
The master surrenders his beliefs.
He sees beyond the end and the beginning.
He cuts all ties.
He gives up all his desires.
He resists all temptations.
And he rises.
And wherever he lives,
In the city or the country,
In the valley or in the hills,
There is great joy.
Even in the empty forest
He finds joy
Because he wants nothing.
Dhammapada, The Sayings of Buddha
Number 7. The Master
Translation by Thomas Byrom
Shambhala, p. 27-30
The Saint
Even the gods envy the saints,
whose senses obey them like well-trained horses who are free from pride.
Wisdom has stilled their minds, and their thoughts, words, and deeds are filled with peace.
Freed from illusion and from personal ties,
they have renounced the world of appearance
to find reality. Thus they reached the highest.
They make holy wherever they dwell, in village or forest, on land or at sea. With their senses at peace and their minds full of joy, they make the forests holy.
The Dhammapada, Translated by Eknath Easwaran, Nilgiri Press, p. 102-103
8. The Thousands
Better than a thousand hollow words
is one word that brings peace.
Better than a thousand hollow verses
is one verse that brings peace.
Better than a hundred hollow lines
is one line of the law, bringing peace.
It is better to conquer yourself
Than to win a thousand battles.
Then the victory is yours.
It cannot be taken from you,
Not by angels or by demons,
Heaven or hell.
Better than a hundred years of worship,
Better than a thousand offerings,
Better than giving up a thousand worldly ways
In order to win merit,
Better even than tending in the forest
A sacred flame for a hundred years -
Is one moment's reverence
For the man who has conquered himself.
8. The Thousands (cont.)
To revere such a man,
A master old in virtue and holiness,
Is to have victory over life itself,
And beauty, strength, and happiness.
Better than a hundred years of mischief
Is one day spent in contemplation.
Better than a hundred years of ignorance,
Is one day spent in reflection.
Better than a hundred years of idleness
Is one day spent in determination.
Better to live one day
Wondering
How all things arise and pass away.
Better to live one hour
Seeing
The one life beyond the way.
Better to live one moment
In the moment
Of the way beyond the way.
When Buddha decided to break from the worldly life, he made four great vows -
To save all people,
to renounce all worldly desires;
to learn all the teachings;
and to attain perfect Enlightenment.
These vows were manifestations of the love and compassion that are fundamental to the nature of Buddhahood.
Buddha first trained himself to be kind to all animate life and to avoid the sin of killing any living creature, by virtue of which he wished that all people might know the blessedness of a long life.
Buddha trained himself to avoid the sin of stealing, by virtue of which that he wished all people might have everything they needed.
Buddha trained himself to avoid committing adultery, by virtue of which he wished that all people might know the blessedness of a pure spirit and not suffer from insatiable desires.
Buddha, aiming at his ideal, trained himself to remain free from all deception, by virtue of which he wished that all people might know the tranquility of mind that would follow in speaking the truth.
He trained himself to avoid all double-tongue, by virtue of which he wished that all people might know the joy of fellowship.
THE ONLY REAL FAILURE IN LIFE
IS NOT TO BE TRUE TO THE BEST
ONE KNOWS. - Buddha
