The Dhammapada Chapters 5 - 9 With Music For Contemplation

Chapters five through nine of the original 1928 translation of the Dhammapadathat silas had recorded to not only be used for contemplation and entertainment but to deepen your understanding of the original Buddhist communities perspective and see the way our translations have gotten better and grown, though this translation still has merit. . A version that includes just silence in the background is also available.

Transcript

Long is the night to him who is awake,

Long is a mile,

He who is tired.

Long is life to the foolish who does not know the Dharma.

If a traveler does not meet with one who is his better or his equal,

Let him firmly keep to his solitary journey.

There is no companionship with a fool.

These sons belong to me and this wealth belongs to me.

With such thoughts a fool is tormented.

He himself does not belong to himself.

How much less sons and wealth!

The fool who knows his foolishness is wise at least so far,

But a fool who thinks himself wise,

He is called a fool indeed.

If a fool is associated with a wise man,

Even all his life,

He will perceive the truth as little as a spoon perceives the taste of soup.

If an intelligent man be associated for one minute only with a wise man,

He will soon perceive the truth as the tongue perceives the taste of soup.

Fools of little understanding have themselves for their greatest enemy,

For they do evil deeds which must bear bitter fruits.

That deed is not well done of which a man must repent,

And the reward of which he receives crying and with a tearful face.

No,

That deed is well done of which a man does not repent,

And the reward of which he receives gladly and cheerfully.

As long as the evil deed done does not bear fruit,

The fool thinks it is like honey,

But when it ripens,

Then the fool suffers grief.

Let a fool month after month eat his food with the tip of a blade of grass,

Yet he is not worth the sixteenth particle of those who have well weighed the law.

An evil deed like newly drawn milk does not turn suddenly,

Smoldering like fire covered by ashes,

It follows a fool,

And when the evil deed,

After it has been known,

Brings sorrow to the fool,

Then it destroys his bright lot.

Let the fool wish for a false reputation,

For precedence among monks,

For lordship in the covenants,

And for worship among other people.

May both the layman and he who has left the world think that this is done by me,

May they be subject to me in everything which is to be done or is not to be done.

Thus is the mind of the fool,

And his desire and pride increase.

One is the road that leads to wealth,

Another the road that leads to awakening.

If the monk,

The disciple of Buddha,

Has learnt this,

He will not yearn for honour,

He will not be a fool,

And he will strive for awakening in this world.

If you see an intelligent man who tells you where true treasures are to be found,

Who shows you what is to be avoided,

And administers reproofs,

Follow that wise man,

It will be better not worse.

It will be better not worse for those who follow him honestly.

Let him admonish,

Let him teach,

Let him forbid what is improper.

He will be beloved of the good,

And by the bad he will be hated.

Do not have evil doers for friends.

Do not have evil people for friends.

Have virtuous people for friends.

Have for friends the best of people.

He who drinks in the Dharma lives happily with a serene mind.

The sage rejoices always in the law.

As preached by the Dharma,

Well-makers lead the water wherever they like.

Letchers bend the arrow,

Carpenters bend a log of wood.

Wise people fashion themselves.

As solid as a rock is not shaken by the wind,

Wise people falter not amidst blame or praise.

Wise people,

After they have listened to the Dharma,

Become serene,

Like a deep,

Smooth,

And still lake.

Good people walk on whatever befall.

The good do not prattle,

Longing for pleasure,

Whether touched by happiness or sorrow.

Wise people never appear elated or depressed,

But rest in understanding.

If,

Whether for their own sake or for the sake of others,

A man wishes neither for a son nor wealth nor lordship,

And if he does not wish for his own success by unfair means,

Then he is good,

Wise,

And virtuous.

Few are there among people who arrive at the other shore of awakening.

The other people here run up and down the shore,

But those who,

When the Dharma has been well preached to them,

Follow the Dharma,

Will pass across the dominion of death,

However difficult to overcome.

But those who,

When the Dharma has been well preached to them,

Follow the Dharma,

Will pass across the dominion of death,

However difficult to overcome.

A wise man should leave the dark state of ordinary life and follow the bright state of awakening.

After going from his home to a monastery,

He should in his retirement look for enjoyment where there seemed to be no enjoyment.

Leaving all pleasures behind and calling nothing his own,

The wise man should purge himself from all the troubles of the mind.

Those whose mind is well grounded in the seven elements of knowledge,

Who without clinging to anything rejoice in freedom from attachment,

Whose appetites have been conquered and who are full of light,

Are free even in this world.

There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey and abandoned grief,

Who has been freed on all sides and thrown off all fetters.

They depart with their thoughts well collected.

They are not happy in their abode like swans who have left their lake.

They leave their house and home.

Men who have no riches,

Who live on only given food,

Who have perceived void and unconditioned freedom,

Their path is difficult to understand like that of birds in the air.

He whose appetites are stilled,

Who is not absorbed in enjoyment,

Who has perceived void and unconditioned freedom,

His path is difficult to understand.

The gods even envy those whose senses like horses well broken in by the driver have been subdued,

Who is free from pride and free from clinging.

Such a one does his duty,

Is tolerant like the earth,

Like Indra's bolt.

He is like a lake without mud,

No new births are in store for him.

His thought is quiet,

Quiet are his word and deed.

When he has obtained freedom by true knowledge,

When he has thus become a quiet man,

The man who is free from credulity,

But knows the uncreated,

Who has cut all ties with the world,

Who has cut all ties,

Removed all temptations,

Renounced all desires,

He rests in awakening,

In a monastery or in a forest,

In the deep water or on dry land.

Whenever venerable awakened beings dwell,

That place is delightful.

Forests are delightful,

Where the world finds no delight,

There the passionless will find delight,

For they look not for pleasures.

Even though a speech be a thousand words,

But made up of senseless words,

One word of sense is better,

Which if a person hears,

Becomes quiet and full of wisdom.

Even though a poem be a thousand words,

But made up of senseless words,

One word of a poem is better,

If someone hears it and becomes quiet and full of wisdom.

Though a man recite a hundred poems made up of senseless words,

One word which affects them is better,

Which if a man hears,

He becomes quiet and filled with wisdom.

If one person conquers in a battle a thousand times with a thousand men,

And if another conquers himself,

They who conquer themselves are the greatest of conquerors.

One's own self-conquering is better than all other people,

Not even a god,

A deva,

Not more.

A god,

A deva,

Not Mara with Brahman could change into defeat the victory of a person who has vanquished themselves and lives in peace.

If a person for a hundred years sacrificed month after month with a thousand sacrifices,

And if he but for one moment pay homage to a man whose soul is grounded in true knowledge,

Or within the true knowledge within themselves,

Better is that homage than the sacrifice of a hundred years.

If a man for a hundred years worships Agni,

The god of fire in the forest,

And if he but for one moment pay homage to the spirit of fire and true knowledge within himself,

Better is that homage than the worship for a hundred years.

Whatever a man sacrifice in this world as an offering or as an oblation for a whole year in order to gain merit,

The whole of it is not worth a farthing.

Reverence for the true,

The good,

And the beautiful,

Shown to the righteousness,

Is better.

He who always greets and constantly reveres the aged,

Four things will increase to them,

Life,

Beauty,

Happiness,

Power.

But he who lives a hundred years,

Vicious and unrestrained,

A life of one day is better if a man is virtuous and reflecting.

If a man would hasten towards the good,

He should keep his thought away from evil.

If a man does what is good slothfully,

His mind delights in evil.

If a man commits a sin,

Let him not do it again.

Let him not delight in evil.

Only pain is the outcome of evil.

If a man does what is good,

Let him do it again.

Let him delight in it.

Happiness is the outcome of good.

Even an evildoer sees happiness as long as his evil deeds do not ripen.

But when his evil deeds do ripen,

Then does the evildoer see evil.

Even a good man sees evil days as long as his good deeds have not ripened.

But when his good deeds have ripened,

Then does the good man see happy days.

Let no person think lightly of evil,

Saying in their heart,

It will not come unto me.

Even by the falling of water drops,

A water pot is filled.

The fool becomes full of evil,

Even if he gathers it little by little.

Let no man think lightly of good,

Saying in his heart,

It will not come unto me.

Even by the falling of water drops,

A water pot is filled.

The wise man becomes full of good,

Even if he gathers it little by little.

Let a man avoid evil deeds.

As a merchant,

If he has few companions And carries much wealth,

Avoids a dangerous road.

As a man who loves life,

Avoids poison.

He who has no wound on his hand may touch poison with his hand.

Poison does not affect one who has no wound,

Nor is there evil for one who does not commit evil.

If a man offend a harmless,

Pure,

And innocent person,

The evil falls back upon that fool,

Like light dust thrown against the wind.

Some people are born again unto the world,

Some people are born again unto Samsara,

Some people born in other realms,

The god realms,

The hell realms.

Those who are free from all worldly desires attain nirvana.

Not in the sky,

Not in the midst of the sea,

Not if we enter into the clefts of a mountain,

Is there known a spot in the whole world Where death could not overcome the mortal.