The Tibetan Dhammapada: 29 – 33 » Free Dharma Teachings Project for the benefit of all sentient beings – Insegnamenti di Dharma a beneficio di tutti gli esseri senzienti

The Tibetan Dhammapada, the Udanavarga (capp 29 – 33) – Compiled by DHARMATRATA

Translated into English from Tibetan by Gareth Sparham with guidance from Lobsang Gyatso and Ngawang Thekchok. English editing by Beth Lee. First published in 1979 by The Tibetan Cultural Printing Press (Dharmasala, India). Published in 1983 by Mahayana Publications (New Delhi, India). Re-published in 1986 by Wisdom Publications (London, England) (out of print). The text herein has been checked against the Tibetan, lightly edited and reformatted. Preface, Introduction, Poem and endnotes are omitted.

Chapter 29 – ANTITHESES

1 Just as the fireflies appear

Until the sun begins to shine,

And when the sun is shining

Turn dowdy and do not appear,

So too philosophers appearUntil the Ones Thus Gone start to shine

And when the Universal Buddha shines

Those [philosophers] with their listeners do not show up.

2 Liking what is not likeable

Not liking what is likeable

Those whose conduct is misconceived

Do not attain the likeable.

3 Discerning in the true light

What is likeable and what is not,

Those whose conduct is well conceived

Attain that which is likeable.

4 [Those who are] clinging to their beliefs,

and to what they’ve heard,

Making a new and increasing their bonds:

They race and live within this cyclic world

Like moths flying into the flames.

5 By striving, good work, and cogitation,

Completely give up all that is

Experienced here or in another [life],

And all one’s present various doubts.

6 Those who wear the saffron robes

[While] in a state of degeneracy,

Have no right to put them on

Since they lack calmness and resolve.

7 Those who’ve given up degeneracy

And have fine ethics and equipoise,

Are fit to put on saffron robes

Since they have calmness and resolve.

8 Mere good color or good build,

Or a mere way with words,

Does not place in the first rank

Those who are crafty, false and miserly.

9 Whoever has severed those three,

Like cutting the top of a palmyra,

And who is wise and free of fault

Is said to be in the first rank.

10 Most people in this world who aren’t controlled

Deceive [others] with signs of good control.

Check well before you trust someone: don’t trust

From seeing build or colour once or twice.

11 Those noble outside but bad within,

Like brass that is not what it seems,

Or iron-alloy gilded with gold,

Roam this world with their retinue.

12 People who bloat themselves and fall asleep

And spend all night and day in sloth,

Like fat hogs wallowing in mud,

Time and again enter a lowly womb.

13 Humans who always are mindful

And know the right amount to eat

Find less misery, and their slow

Digestion also gives longer life.

14 The lazy and forgetful people

Who do not control their senses

And know the right amount to eat,

View and deal with [the body] as if clean.

They are destroyed by attachment,

Like unstable trees by wind.

15 Those who strive hard and are mindful

And know the right amount to eat,

Who keep their senses under control

And view and deal with [the body] as unclean

Are not ruffled by attachment,

Like unmoving mountains and the wind.

16 People don’t like hermitages

Although they should really be enjoyed.

Those free from desires enjoy them;

Those chasing after desires do not.

17 Wheresoever Superiors live,

In towns or in a hermitage,

In deep valleys or on the plains,

That place is ever beautiful.

18 Holy beings are seen from afar

Like a range of snow mountains;

Cruel persons, like arrows shot in gloom,

Do not appear though close at hand.

19 If one befriends a wise and holy being

Who thinks about the truth,

The analytic realization

Of the profound and vast meaning occurs.

20 Show forbearance to the jeering

Of the hoards of profligates,

Like an elephant pricked by the archers’

Sharp arrows [when] drawn up for war.

{Translator notes verse missing verse from his copy of the Kangyur:} I have seen fearful cyclic existence

And its recurrence.

Therefore I have no liking of existence

And no clinging that will cause rebirth.

21 Humans who pierce through their home,

Have no faith, do not pay back what is made,

Destroy their chance, and eat vomit ―

They are the holy ones.

22 Those who murder their parents,

Then overcome king and also saints,

The country, and all the retinue

Are said to become purified.

23 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out migrations

Of those who amass nothing at all,

Who know full well the food,

And are concerned with detachment,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

24 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out the footprints

Of those who amass nothing at all,

Who know full well the food,

And are concerned with detachment,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

25 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out migrations

Of those who amass nothing at all,

Who know full well the food,

And are always concerned with samadhi,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

26 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out the footprints

Of those who amass nothing at all,

Who know full well the food,

And are always concerned with samadhi,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

27 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out migrations

Of those who amass nothing at all,

Who know full well the food,

And are concerned with detachment,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

28 {This is a duplicates of verse 24 in the Tibetan Kangyur}

Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out the footprints

Of those who amass nothing at all,

Who know full well the food,

And are concerned with detachment,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

29 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out migrations

Of those without the basis for beyond,

Who know fully contamination’s end,

And are concerned with detachment,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

30 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out the footprints

Of those without the basis for beyond,

Who know fully contamination’s end,

And are concerned with detachment,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

31 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out migrations

Of those without the basis for beyond,

Who know fully contamination’s end,

Always concerned with samadhi,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

32 Like tracks left by birds in the sky

It’s hard to make out the footprints

Of those without the basis for beyond,

Who know fully contamination’s end,

Always concerned with samadhi,

And emptiness, and signlessness.

33 These ordinary living beings

Are racing into that beyond.

Few are those human beings

Who travel to the other side.

34 Beings who [hear] the excellent doctrine,

And have the view that follows from dharma

Pass over this great sea

Of birth and death that is so hard to cross.

35 The Protector has untied all the knots.

In a state of complete release,

Beyond time and without anguish,

He does not feel sorrow.

36 Passing across the fearful path,

Quitting the precipice for good,

Set free from clasps and knots,

He overcomes the poison of desire.

37 There is no swamp-land like desire.

There is no harmful being like hate.

There is no snare like ignorance.

There is no river like craving.

38 Just as no footprints mark the sky

There are no non-Buddhist religious beings.

Infants like elaborations,

Ones Thus Gone have no liking at all.

39 Since infants are guided by clasps,

Those who are wise destroy them.

The wise who have overcome all

The clasps of humans and the gods,

Are freed from every misery

Since they are free from all clasps.

40 The clasps give rise to existence.

Without the clasps existence ends.

Know these two: the way of existence

And the way of no existence.

Those who are wise will train

In order to fully remove the clasps.

41 Sorrow arises from wicked conduct,

And after bad migration sorrow comes.

Pleasure arises from good conduct,

And after good migration pleasure comes.

42 It is better not to do wrong

Since from that comes two-fold sorrow;

It’s better to have good conduct

Since sorrow does not come from that.

43 One does not know the infants from the wise

When silent and mixed together.

One knows them by their words

When discoursing about the state of peace.

44 The Seer’s ensign is eloquence

Since the ensign is the dharma.

By explaining and clarifying it

Raise up the ensign of the Seer.

45 This world know, nothing but abuse.

When speaking gently, or even

When silent or speaking at length,

There is adverse criticism.

46 Someone abused or praised by all

Does not exist now at this time,

And such a one has never been

And such a one will never be.

50 {Verse 50 in the English appears here in the Tibetan Kangyur}

Though they walk forth, this world with all its gods

Does not perceive the Mighty, who are free

From craving, turned from the sorrowful clasp,

And without the base elaborations.

47 To the extent they have understood,

They glorify the flawless ones having faith,

And ethics, and awareness.

Like gold ornaments of this world

Nobody should disparage them.

48 Just as the mountains and the rocks

Are not made restless by the wind,

Similarly praise and abuse

Do not stir up those who are wise.

49 How can there be leaves and stalks

In a land devoid of roots?

None should insult that steadfast one

Discovered to be free from bonds.

51 With what and to what state are those

Unmoving omniscient Buddhas led,

Whose conquest of the world

Is complete and knows no decline?

52 With what and to what state are those

Unmoving omnipotent Buddhas led,

Whose conquest of the world

Is complete and knows no decline?

53 With what and to what state are those

Unmoving omniscient Buddhas led,

Who have no craving for objects,

Are free from craving’s drawing net?

54 With what and to what state are those

Unmoving omnipotent Buddhas led,

Who have no craving for objects,

Are free from craving’s drawing net?

55 Those who have cleared conceptual thought

And have no inner conceptualizations,

Are past all clasping, forms, and discrimination,

Are free from the four yogas, and have no birth.

56 When free from what has gone before,

From the future, and the middle,

Beyond craving and free in mind

One has no further birth and age.

This completes the chapter of ANTITHESES.

Chapter 30 – HAPPINESS

1 From conquest comes vindictiveness.

Vanquishing others brings misery.

The happiness of peace is found

When both of these are given up.

2 Those who, wanting happiness, cause

Misery to others, befriend

Their enemies and tormentors

And aren’t released from misery.

3 Those who harm and beat an irksome being

For their own happiness,

Want to be happy, but do not

Find happiness beyond this world.

4 All those who, wanting happiness,

Don’t harm and beat an irksome being,

Find the happiness they want

In the world that lies beyond.

5 Do not engage in wicked conduct.

Engage well in religious conduct.

Both in this life and future lives

Religious conduct brings happiness.

6 Engaging well in religious conduct

Which brings bliss has these benefits:

One is guarded by that dharma

And does not go to a bad migration.

7 Like a wide summer parasol,

Engaging well in religious conduct

Has these benefits: one is guarded

And does not go to a bad migration.

8 Any careless migrator goes

To bad migrations from irreligion.

Like grasping a black snake by the middle,

Those who are irreligious are ruined.265

9 The fruition of religion

And irreligion are not the same.

Irreligion sends one to hell.

Religion gives good migrations.

10 It is said giving and war are similar.

From the point of view of time

And functioning as causes they are alike.

[The similarity of] these qualities is not based

On the common person.

11 Just as a solitary, well-armed person

Scatters and conquers those who’re not well armed,

So too a small gift offered out of faith

Brings happiness in all those other [lives].

12 Those who resist the foe miserliness,

And give without attachment in their minds,

I say these people are greater heroes than

The champion in, one hundred wars.

13 Merit results in happiness,

The endowment of realizing

One’s wishes, and the quick

Gaining of holy nirvana.

14 Other noxious influences,

And heavenly and demonic beings

Are not able to interfere

With the effects of making merit.

15 If one who is a Superior

And has wisdom and benevolence

Endeavors to end misery,

It is by insight this is gained.

16 Those who have great faith in their hearts

And enjoy dharma, find happiness.

They know and always enjoy the path

Taught by the Superior ones.

17 Those who enjoy concentrations

Of mind, enjoy what is not born,

And the four mindfulnesses,

The seven branches of enlightenment,

Enjoy the four miraculous limbs,

And the eightfold path

And eat their alms in happiness.

They stroll in happiness

Throughout the mountains and the woods,

They get the happy [path they want]

And happily achieve nirvana in this life,

They pass from vindictiveness and fears

And from the craving of this world.

18 Happiness is to hear and see

Doctrine and enjoy detachment;

Happiness is pure vows, and not

Hurting worldly, irksome beings.

19 Happiness is leaving all desires

And freedom from attachment to the world

And supreme is the happiness

Of those who calm pride in the self.

20 Happiness is ethics in old age.

Happiness is having a strong faith.

Happiness is liking meaningful words.

Happiness is not doing evil deeds.

21 Happiness in this world

Is adhering to father and mother.

Happiness in this world is adhering

To Brahmins and religious persons.

22 Happiness is the advent of Buddhas,

And the Dharma teachings;

Happiness is Community in accord,

And the according austerities.

23 Happiness is seeing those with ethics

And those who have heard much.

Happiness is seeing the Foe Destroyers

Who have been freed from further births.

24 Happy the river in its happy course,

And happy the Dharma Conqueror.

Happy the achievement of intelligence,

Happy the end of pride in self.

25 From seeing Superiors

And friendship with the holy beings,

And not seeing infantile beings

There is continual happiness.

26 Misery comes from friendship

With infants who are just like an enemy.

One will regret friendship with them

For a long time afterwards.

27 A true thoroughbred is a rarity

Not found everywhere.

A happiness like meeting relatives

Comes from befriending [such] steadfast beings.

28 The steadfast ones find happiness

In whatever lineage they are born.

Brahmins who are in nirvana

Engage in total happiness.

29 Those not tainted by desire,

Without defilement, fully freed,

Those who have chopped up all craving,

And cleared infection from the heart,

Those who attain peace with their minds

Enter the happiness of nirvana.

30 Wanting extensive happiness

And wanting to throw off small pleasures,

The steadfast see extensive happiness

When small pleasure is given up.

31 Happiness in worlds of desire,

And the happiness of the heavens,

Is not the match for a tenth part

Of the happiness when craving ends.

32 Having taken up a load is misery,

When it’s thrown down there’s happiness.

When burdens are thrown down for good

They’ll not be taken up again.

33 Banish all craving, in order that

All clasps can be brought to an end.

If the aggregates are thoroughly known

One does not go to future lives.

34 Happiness is helpers in a task.

Happiness is merit at life’s end.

Happiness is contentment with just meager things,

And the final sinking down of misery.

35 Just as it is not understood

How color leaves the red hot iron

That gradually cools down

As it is struck by the hammer,

[Similarly], those who pass from

The soggy swamp-lands of desire,

And attain the unwavering state,

And the excellent liberation

Are not designated migrators.

36 The gods look on but do not comprehend

Those in whose hearts turmoil does not exist:

Fearless, happy, and in nirvana,

Who are turned from craving and non-craving.

37 Someone who has heard much and realized

Dharma, is happy here though destitute,

Seeing how, their minds clinging to [other] beings,

People are ruined through just little things.

38 Those who realize the good in poverty

Are happy here though destitute,

Seeing how, their minds clinging to [other] beings,

People are ruined through just little things.

39 Those who realize the good in poverty

Are happy here though destitute,

Seeing how, clinging to [other] beings’ bodies,

People are ruined through just little things.

40 Wretched are those in servitude.

Happy those with independence.

Clasping that is hard to give up

And common to all simply ruins one.

41 To be without attachment

Amongst those who have attachments,

Ah! Not being attached amongst the attached

Is a very happy way to live.

42 To be without sickness

Amongst those stricken with disease,

Ah! Not being sick amongst the sick

Is a very happy way to live.

43 To live without giving injury

Amongst injurious people,

Ah! Giving no injury amongst the injurious

Is a very happy way to live.

44 To be without malice

Amongst malicious people,

Ah! Bearing no malice amongst the malicious

Is a very happy way to live.

45 To be without vindictiveness

Amongst vindictive people,

Ah! Forgiveness amongst the vindictive

Is a very happy way to live.

46 Although [the town of] Mithila is all ablaze

Nothing of mine is burning up.

Ah! I am destitute, which is

A very happy way to live

47 It’s true that I am destitute

But then, I dine on happiness.

Ah! I Like a god of the Clear Light

Is a very happy way to live.

48 Freed from the fearful collections,

It’s true that I am destitute.

Ah! in that I dine on happiness

It is a very happy way to live.

49 Since attachment, which is the condition

For connection and contact, is gone,

In town or wilds, the feelings that arise

From self and others are not experienced.

50 The pains and pleasures of this world

Do not affect the holy beings.

Steadfast, unswayed in the face of desires,

The holy beings travel everywhere.

This completes the chapter of HAPPINESS

Chapter 31 – THE MIND

1 The mind is hard to grasp, and light,

Going any place it likes;

To calm it down is excellent ―

A calm mind leads to peace.

2 When eliminating the base

Of demons, my mind, cast up

From the sea, leaps to and fro ―

Just like a fish tossed on the land.

3 Like rays proceeding from the sun

My mind goes racing everywhere.

Like an elephant with a hook

The skilled prevent this happening.

4 I refer to the mind so that

Conduct which has no use to me,

And mind, unseen and essenceless,

Will be forever pacified.

5 Like mahouts do a wild elephant with hooks,

Now work in the right way, hold this mind

That earlier was doing as it pleased,

Chasing about and enjoying itself.

6 It is the house builder who caused

The misery of often taking birth,

The many cyclic births which

You have taken, up to now.

7 When you the house builder are seen,

The great beams of the house are all

Destroyed, the frames all broken up.

Then house building is done no more.

The mind is freed from volition,

This very [birth] accepted as the end.

8 Mind is fickle and moves about,

It travels off, is hard to stop.

Secure it with sincerity,

Like arrow smiths straighten [arrows] with fire.

9 Whoever pacifies the mind

That is not form, dwelling within,

That travels alone and goes far,

Is liberated from great fears.

10 The mind that has perverted aims

Causes one greater misery

Than the hater [does] the hated,

Than enemies do enemies.

11 The mind that has perfected aims

Brings happiness to oneself.

Fathers, mothers, and other friends

Don’t cause such happiness as that.

12 Just as the rain keeps dripping in

A house that has a damaged roof,

Desires completely overcome

The unhabituated mind.

13 Just as the rain does not drip in

A house with an undamaged roof,

Desires do not overcome

The well-habituated mind.

14 Just as the rain keeps dripping in

A house that has a damaged roof,

Anger completely overcomes

The unhabituated mind.

15 Just as the rain does not drip in

A house with an undamaged roof,

Anger does not overcome

The well-habituated mind.

16 Just as the rain keeps dripping in

A house that has a damaged roof,

Ignorance completely overcomes

The unhabituated mind.

17 Just as the rain does not drip in

A house with an undamaged roof,

Ignorance does not overcome

The well-habituated mind.

18 Just as the rain keeps dripping in

A house that has a damaged roof,

Pride completely overcomes

The unhabituated mind.

19 Just as the rain does not drip in

A house with an undamaged roof,

Pride does not overcome

The well-habituated mind.

20 Just as the rain keeps dripping in

A house that has a damaged roof,

Attachments completely overcome

The unhabituated mind.

21 Just as the rain does not drip in

A house with an undamaged roof,

Attachments do not overcome

The well-habituated mind

22 Just as the rain keeps dripping in

A house that has a damaged roof,

Craving completely overcomes

The unhabituated mind.

23 Just as the rain does not drip in

A house with an undamaged roof,

Craving does not overcome

The well-habituated mind.

24 Thinking mind precedes all phenomena,

For it is swift and principal.

Whether it be a word or deed,

If motivated by vicious thought

It brings the person misery,

Like [the man] whose head was cut by the wheel.

25 Thinking mind precedes all phenomena,

For it is swift and principal.

Whether it be a word or deed,

If motivated by a pious thought

It brings the person happiness,

Like [the man] followed by the shade.

26 Eloquence is not well understood

By those who glory in dispute

And seek with an afflicted mind

Chances to come out on top.

27 Angry or agitated minds,

Or minds without faith, are unable

To comprehend all the holy doctrine

Which the completed Buddha taught.

28 Whoever calms down wrathfulness,

And the lack of faith in the mind,

And banishes malevolence ―

Their [minds] understand eloquence.

29 A mind lacking in constancy

Does not perceive holy doctrine.

Where faith recedes, wisdom does not

Become completely perfected.

30 Where, [based] on the attachment

To conceptualization,

The streams of the thirty-six horrid views

Gush from the stream of thinking mind, [fame declines].

31 The good repute of those who have

Coarse enjoyments and sensibilities

And feeble power of mind grows less,

Like birds in trees stripped of their fruit.

32 Mind, do not delight in ruinous desires,

Be hard working and cautious.

From carelessness you boil in hell.

Don’t cry [then] from swallowing the lumps of iron.

33 Those people who sit when it is time to rise,

Stay home and do not work when young and strong,

Who are lazy when their minds mature,

Do not realize the path of wisdom.

34 Because of trifling tiny conceptions

One’s inner thought searches out faults.

If those conceptual thoughts are not recognized

Mistaken mind, time and again, goes [through cyclic existence].

35 When those with discernment, remembrance,

Perseverance, and skill in conceptions,

Know them, each and every inner thought

Which searches out faults is banished with the mind.

36 Looking upon the body as a pot

And as a city that the mind endures,

Fight and subdue the demons with the sword

Of wisdom, and guard the exclusive place.

37 Looking upon the transient as a pot

And as a city that the mind endures,

Fight and subdue the demons with the sword

Of wisdom, and guard the exclusive place.

38 Looking upon this body as foam

And as a city that the mind endures,

Fight and subdue the demons with the sword

Of wisdom, and guard the exclusive place.

39 Looking upon this world as foam

And as a city that the mind endures,

Fight and subdue the demons with the sword

Of wisdom, and guard the exclusive place.

40 Those whose minds are well conversant

With the seven branches of enlightenment,

Who dislike and banish grasping,

End contamination, and remove

All flaws: such persons pass beyond

The sorrows of every world.

41 Whoever looks after the mind,

Like the yak protects his tail,

And feels affection for irksome beings:

That one’s happiness does not decline.

42 The great among the elephants

And elephants long in the tusk –

[Both] rejoice in the woods alone,

Because [Buddha’s] mind and

[the elephant-like] mind are alike.

43 Those without malicious thoughts

And those with love for irksome beings,

Feeling affection for them all,

Encounter no vindictiveness.

44 Those whose minds are without malice

And with love for irksome beings,

Feeling affection for all that live,

Encounter no vindictiveness.

45 Those whose minds are without malice

And with love for irksome beings,

Feeling affection for all sentient beings,

Encounter no vindictiveness.

46 From being a relative and friend to all,

Feeling affection for irksome beings,

And cultivating a loving mind,

Happiness finds great increase.

47 If one feels affection and has no hate

For any living being, virtue is thereby done.

A Superior’s total merit is achieved

By having love for every sentient being.

48 Humans who meditate

With joyful minds and intrepid thought

On the doctrine of virtue

Obtain happiness and accomplishments.

49 Right understanding sets one free

And liberates one from sadness;

It pacifies one’s thoughts

And the actions of speech and body.

50 Even a five-piece serenade

Does not give such enjoyment

As the single-pointed mind

That sees well all phenomena.

51 Those who enjoy stability

Of thought don’t dally with desires.

Those Saviors with no anguish

At all will sleep in happiness.

52 Those who enjoy stability

Of thought, don’t dally with desires.

The Mighty with no anguish

At all, Ah! they become happy.

53 How could someone feel miserable

Whose mind, just like the mountain crag,

Is deeply unmovable,

And whose thoughts have become

Unattached to objects of desire,

And unmoved by objects of rage?

54 Here is the teaching of Buddha:

Do not find fault. Do not harm.

Protect personal liberation vows.

Understand the amount to eat.

Cloistered beyond the edge of town,

Practise the yoga of exalted mind.

55 Those skilled in mental signs,

Who find the taste of detachment,

Fully mindful with careful intent,

Enjoy possession-less pleasure.

56 The sincere, who like and adhere to truth,

And always guard their physical conduct,

Their words, and thoughts, give up sorrow

And don’t encounter misery.

57 The minds that are left unguarded

Are destroyed by perverse views,

And overcome by sleep and fog

They fall under the demon’s power.

58 Having therefore guarded the mind

And being led by the right view,

Pondering the right conceptions

And knowing right birth and perishing,

The monk who overcomes sleep and fog

Attains the end of misery.

59 Happiness is a subdued mind and pure vows.

Be cautious and protect the mind.

Those creatures with mistaken minds

Are sentient beings who burn in hell.

60 Happiness is a subdued mind and pure vows.

Be cautious and protect the mind.

Those creatures with mistaken minds

Burn in the realms of animals.

61 Happiness is a subdued mind and pure vows.

Be cautious and protect the mind.

Those creatures with mistaken mind

Burn in the realms of hungry ghosts.

62 Happiness is a subdued mind and pure vows.

Be cautious and protect the mind.

Those creatures who protect the mind

Enjoy themselves in the realm of humans.

63 Happiness is a subdued mind and pure vows.

Be cautious and protect the mind.

Those creatures who protect the mind

Enjoy themselves in a high rank.

64 Happiness is a subdued mind and pure vows.

Be cautious and protects the mind.

Those creatures who protect the mind

Achieve the state of nirvana.

This completes the chapter on THE MIND.

Chapter 32 – THE MONK

1 A monk’s alms are just to nourish himself,

They are not for sustenance of another.

Gods delight in this refuge who always has

Remembrance and constant peacefulness.

2 A monk’s alms are just to nourish himself,

They are not for sustenance of another.

All the gods delight in this refuge,

Not in those who want wealth and homage and fame.

3 The monk abandons all desires

And clears the dust that lies before.

Steadfast great beings [who live by] selflessness

Do not need to chat with others.

4 Although he hears the odious words

Spoken in malice by uncontrolled beings,

The monk free from anger gives them no thought,

Like elephants at war pricked by arrows.

5 Although he hears the odious words

Spoken in malice by uncontrolled beings,

The monk, his mind well placed, gives it no thought,

Like elephants at war pricked by arrows.

6 A monk does not live by trade, gives up excess,

Likes [to help] himself, is wholly free with senses calm,

Is unattached to home, selfless, and free

Of desire and craving, and works alone.

7 Rely on compatible friends

Who live pure lives and aren’t lazy.

Share with each [and everyone]

And be well versed in the forms of conduct.

8 A monk is said to be content,

With good restraint over his arms and legs,

And over all his speech and sense powers,

And to enjoy inner equipoise alone.

9 Monks who take pleasure in doctrine,

Who enjoy and think about doctrine,

And are then mindful of doctrine

Do not fall completely from it.

10 Those monks who live inside

An empty house and look inside [their minds]

And see all phenomena

Possess the enjoyments of the gods.

11 Happiness and joy are found

To just the same extent

That arising and perishing

Are excellently realized.

12 Monks find the end of misery

By their many happinesses.

13 Just as the wind does not at all

Disturb the craggy mountains,

Monks who have ended desires

Are completely unmoved at all [times].

14 Just as the wind does not at all

Disturb the craggy mountains,

So too, monks who have ended hate

Are completely unmoved at all [times].

15 Just as the wind does not at all

Disturb the craggy mountains,

Monks who have ended ignorance

Are completely unmoved at all [times].

16 Just as the wind does not at all

Disturb the craggy mountains,

So too, monks who have ended pride

Are completely unmoved at all [times].

17 Just as the wind does not at all

Disturb the craggy mountains,

Monks who have ended attachments

Are completely unmoved at all [times].

18 Just as the wind does not at all

Disturb the craggy mountains,

Monks who have ended craving

Are completely unmoved at all [times].

19 He is said to be a ‘monk’

Who does not gather anything,

Does not treat anything as `mine’

And feels no pain though destitute.

20 One who just begs from others now and then,

On reflection is not, I think, a monk.

One who holds on to city things,

On reflection is not, I think, a monk.

21 A ‘monk’ is said to be the one

Who is virtuous and banishes

Wrongs, has pure conduct, and gives up

Society and does the work.

22 Any monk who is kind, and has

Complete faith in the Buddha’s teaching

Achieves the state of peace,

The seeing of which will never pall.

23 Any monk who is kind, and has

Complete faith in the Buddha’s teaching

Finds the state of peacefulness

Where composites are pacified.

24 Any monk who is kind, and has

Complete faith in the Buddha’s teaching

Gradually experiences

The end of every clasping.

25 Any monk who is kind, and has

Complete faith in the Buddha’s teaching

Extracts himself from bad rebirths,

Like an elephant from the mud.

26 Any monk who is kind, and has

Complete faith in the Buddha’s teaching

Shakes out all evil phenomena,

Like wind shakes out the leaves from trees.

27 Any monk who is kind, and has

Complete faith in the Buddha’s teaching

Can not fully degenerate

Because he is close to liberation.

28 That monk with joyful mind and pure thoughts

Who overcomes likes and dislikes,

Will by his many joys

Achieve the end of misery.

29 Body and speech at peace, and mind at peace

And in excellent equipoise:

The monk who gives up worldly goods

Is called `the one in constant peace’.

30 Without stability there is no wisdom,

Without wisdom, no stability.

The ones who have stability

And wisdom are to be called ‘monks’.

31 Since stability and wisdom

Are thus the object of the wise,

Similarly, the first labour

Of intelligent monks is these.

32 Here is the teaching of the Buddha:

Being content, control your senses,

Protect personal liberation vows,

Understand the amount to eat,

Cloistered beyond the edge of town

Practise the yoga of exalted mind.

33 A monk is one whose body and whose speech

And thoughts are not engaged in wrong.

He has a sense of shame

And holds to virtuous ethics.

34 Because he has the virtuous aspect,

Cultivating well the seven

Factors of complete enlightenment,

[One] in equipoise is called `monk’.

35 Because he fully knows the end

Of personal misery here,

Is virtuous and has wisdom,

The uncontaminated one is called ‘monk’.

36 Unless they have attained the end

Of contamination, those with just

Ethics and conduct,359 or much hearing,

Or those who dwell in solitude,

Or gain stability yet grow tired,

Are not monks in the deepest sense.

37 The worldly beings who say

‘I’ of the aggregates suffer.

Superiors steadfastly actualize

The bliss of complete enlightenment.

38 To the extent they think [differently],

The [Superiors] become different from [ordinary beings].

39 Worldly beings who become different,

Are attached to and like and have

Pronounced attachment to the world,

They look on and like the world itself.

That which [ordinary beings] like is misery.

That which they fear is happiness.

40 So in order to banish the world

[Superiors] conduct themselves purely in this [dharma].

41 All [such] Brahmins and religious persons

Are called ‘renouncers of the world’.

All other [ordinary beings] are called

‘Those who have not renounced the world’.

42 All Brahmins and religious persons

Are called `liberated from the world’.

All other [ordinary beings] are called

‘Those not liberated from the world’.

43 Taking conditions misery,

And from misery comes taking.

If taking is completely finished,

Then misery does not arise.

If all aspects of existence, [all taking], are seen with perfect wisdom actually as they are: `impermanent, [in the nature of] misery and completely changeable’, all craving for existence is banished. When existence is no more there is joy. The Savior, the monk in nirvana, having no taking at another [time], does not take a future existence. For he has overcome the demons, and is victorious in battle. A complete transcendence of all existence such as this is the end of misery.

44 The monk who cuts the functioning [cause],

Peaceful, and with peace of mind,

Does not take future birth.

He has abandoned the cycle of births.

45 The monk who cuts the functioning [cause],

Peaceful, and with peace of mind,

Is liberated from the demon’s chains.

He has abandoned the cycle of births.

46 The monk who cuts the functioning [cause],

Whose mind becomes uncontaminated,

Does not take future birth.

He has abandoned the cycle of births.

47 The monk who cuts the functioning [cause],

Whose mind becomes uncontaminated,

Is liberated from the demon’s chains.

He has abandoned the cycle of births.

48 The monk who cuts the functioning [cause]

Who chops up craving for existence,

Does not take future birth.

He has abandoned the cycle of births.

49 The monk who cuts the functioning [cause]

Who chops up craving for existence,

Is liberated from the demon’s chains.

He has abandoned the cycle of births.

50 Whoever excellently fords the swamp,

Cuts down the thorns of the town

And is beyond the ending of desire:

This is the [person] called a monk.

51 Whoever excellently fords the swamp,

Cuts down the thorns of the town

And is beyond the ending of anger:

This is the [person] called a monk.

52 Whoever excellently fords the swamp,

Cuts down the thorns of the town

And is beyond the end of ignorance:

This is the [person] called a monk.

53 Whoever excellently fords the swamp,

Cuts down the thorns of the town
And is beyond the ending of pride:
This is the [person] called a monk.

54 Whoever excellently fords the swamp,

Cuts down the thorns of the town

And is beyond the end of attachment:

This is the [person] called a monk.

55 Whoever excellently fords the swamp,

Cuts down the thorns of the town

And is beyond the ending of craving:

This is the person called a monk.

56 A monk calms scolding and killing,

Restraining and the thorns of the town.

Unmoved by pain and happiness,

Mountain-like he is not led astray.

57 Those monks who neither deny nor fabricate

[Truth], and know the entire world is deceptive,

Go beyond and cast off what’s not beyond