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The Dhammapada
Chapter Eight: Thousands
Better than a thousand meaningless statements
Is one meaningful word,
Which, having been heard,
Brings peace.
Better than a thousand meaningless verses
Is one meaningful line of verse
Which, having been heard,
Brings peace.
Better than reciting a hundred meaningless verses
Is one line of Dharma
Which, having been heard,
Brings peace.
Greater in combat
Than a person who conquers
A thousand times a thousand people
Is the person who conquers himself.
Certainly it is better to conquer
Oneself than others.
For someone who is self-restrained
And always lives with mastery,
Neither a god, a gandhabba,
Nor Mara and Brahma together
Could turn conquest into defeat.
Better than a thousand ritual sacrifices
Offered every month for a hundred years
Is one moment's homage offered
To one who has cultivated herself.
Better than a hundred years
In the forest tending a ritual fire
Is one moment's homage offered
To one who has cultivated himself.
Whatever sacrifice or offering a merit seeker
Might perform in an entire year
Is not worth one-fourth as much as
Expressing respect to those who are upright.
For the person who shows respect
And always reveres worthy people,
Four things increase:
Life span, beauty, happiness, and strength.
Better than one hundred years lived
With an unsettled mind,
Devoid of virtue,
Is one day lived
Virtuous and absorbed in meditation.
Better than one hundred years lived
With an unsettled mind,
Devoid of insight,
Is one day lived
With insight and absorbed in meditation.
Better than one hundred years lived
Lazily and lacking in effort
Is one day lived
With vigor and exertion.
Better than one hundred years lived
Without seeing the arising and passing of things
Is one day lived
Seeing their arising and passing.
Better than one hundred years lived
Without seeing the Deathless
Is one day lived
Seeing the Deathless.
Better than one hundred years lived
Without seeing the ultimate Dharma
Is one day lived
Seeing the ultimate Dharma.
...excerpt from The Dhammapada
Continue to Chapter Nine...
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