Khuddaka Nikaya - Dhammapada - Dandavagga

Dhp X
Dandavagga
The Rod
Translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Alternate translation:BuddharakkhitaThanissaro
PTS: Dhp 129-145



Source: Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.



Copyright © 1997 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Access to Insight edition © 1997
For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted,
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129-130
All
tremble at the rod,
all
are fearful of death.
Drawing the parallel to
yourself,
neither kill nor get others to kill.

All
tremble at the rod,
all
hold their life dear.
Drawing the parallel to
yourself,
neither kill nor get others to kill.



131-132
Whoever takes a rod
to harm living beings desiring ease,
when he himself is looking for ease,
will meet with no ease after death.

Whoever doesn't take a rod
to harm living beings desiring ease,
when he himself is looking for ease,
will meet with ease after death.



133
Speak harshly to no one,
or the words will be thrown
right back at you.
Contentious talk is painful,
for you get struck by rods in return.



134
If, like a flattened metal pot
you don't resound,
you've attained an Unbinding;
in you there's found
no contention.



135
As a cowherd with a rod
drives cows to the field,
so aging & death
drive the life
of living beings.



136
When doing evil deeds,
the fool is oblivious.
The dullard
is tormented
by his own deeds,
as if burned by a fire.



137-140
Whoever, with a rod,
harasses an innocent man, unarmed,
quickly falls into any of ten things:

harsh pains, devastation, a broken body, grave illness,
mental derangement, trouble with the government,
violent slander, relatives lost, property dissolved,
houses burned down.

At the break-up of the body
this one with no discernment,
reappears in
hell.



141-142
Neither nakedness nor matted hair
nor mud nor the refusal of food
nor sleeping on the bare ground
nor dust & dirt nor squatting austerities
cleanses the mortal
who's not gone beyond doubt.

If, though adorned, one lives in tune
with the chaste life
— calmed, tamed, & assured —
having put down the rod toward all beings,
he's a contemplative
a brahman
a monk.



143
Who in the world
is a man constrained by conscience,
who awakens to censure
like a fine stallion to the whip?



144
Like a fine stallion
struck with a whip,
be ardent & chastened.
Through conviction
virtue, persistence,
concentration, judgment,
consummate in knowledge & conduct,
mindful,
you'll abandon this not-insignificant pain.



145
Irrigators guide the water.
Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.
Carpenters shape the wood.
Those of good practices control
themselves.