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The Dhammapada
Chapter Twenty: The Path
The best of paths is the Eightfold Path;
The best of truths, the Four Noble Truths.
The best of qualities is dispassion;
And the best among gods and humans
Is the one with eyes to see.
This is the path
For purifying one's vision; there is no other.
Follow it,
You'll bewilder Mara.
Follow it,
You'll put an end to suffering.
This is the path I have proclaimed,
Having pulled out the arrows.
It is up to you to make strong effort;
Tathagatas merely tell you how.
Following the path, those absorbed in meditation
Will be freed from Mara's bonds.
"All created things are impermanent."
Seeing this with insight,
One becomes disenchanted with suffering.
This is the path to purity.
"All created things are suffering."
Seeing this with insight,
One becomes disenchanted with suffering.
This is the path to purity.
"All things are not-self."
Seeing this with insight,
One becomes disenchanted with suffering.
This is the path to purity.
Inactive when one should be active,
Lazy though young and strong,
Disheartened in one's resolves,
Such an indolent, lethargic person
Doesn't find the path of insight.
Watchful in speech and well-restrained in mind,
Do nothing unskillful with your body.
Purify these three courses of action;
Fulfill the path taught by the sages.
Wisdom arises from spiritual practice;
Without practice it decays.
Knowing this two-way path for gain and loss,
Conduct yourself so that wisdom grows.
Cut down the forest of desire, not real trees.
From the forest of desire, fear is born.
Having cut down both the forest and the underbrush,
Monks, be deforested of desire.
As long as even the slightest underbrush of desire
Between man and woman is not cut away,
For that long, the mind is bound
Like a suckling calf is to its mother.
Destroy attachment to self
As you could an autumn lily in your fist.
Cultivate the path to peace,
The Nirvana taught by the Well-Gone-One.
"Here I'll live during the rainy season,
And here during the winter and summer."
So the fool ponders,
Unaware of danger.
Intoxicated by children and cattle,
That addict
Is swept away by Death,
As a sleeping village is by a great flood.
Children, parents, and relatives
Are not a protection;
For someone seized by Death,
Relatives are no protection.
Knowing this,
The wise person, restrained by virtue,
Should quickly clear the path
To Nirvana.
...excerpt from The Dhammapada
Continue to Chapter Twenty One...
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