23. Happiness (T210.23)

We already live in happiness,
Hating not amidst the hateful.
While others harbour hatred,
We live without hating.

We already live in happiness,
Not falling sick among the sick.
While others fall sick,
We course without sickness.

We already live in happiness,
Worrying not amidst the worried.
While others have worries,
We course without worrying.

We already live in happiness,
Pure, desiring naught.
We feed on joy,
Even as Radiant Devas.

We already live in happiness
Living a simple life, contented.
The fire of Mithila kingdom
—How can it burn us?

Victory begets hatred;
The defeated feels inferior.
Renouncing thoughts of victory and defeat,
One is happy, without combating.

There is no heat like lust,
There is no poison like anger;
There is no misery like the body;
There is no happiness like the quiescence [of Nirvāṇa].

Without being happy with small happiness,
Small eloquence, small intelligence;
He who sets up his mind on the big ones,
Will achieve big happiness.

I am the World Honoured One,
Forever released, sorrowless.
I have perfectly transcended the triple existence;
And alone, defeated the evil ones.

Happiness is seeing the holy ones.
Happiness is the association [with them].
Being able to part with fools
Is good and uniquely happy.

Happiness is the keeping to the Right Path.
Happiness is the skillful preaching of Dharma.
By not disputing with the world,
And endowed with precepts, one is always happy.

Happiness is living with the virtuous,
Like [that of] meeting with kinsfolk.
He who draws near to the virtuous and wise
Will hear much and get far away.

Few are those who live long,
And many are those who leave the world.
In one’s training one should seize the means
Which gives happiness till old age.

For those wishing for the ambrosia,
The cessation truth—the removal of craving—is bliss.
Those wishing to transcend the suffering of saṁsāra;
Should take the taste of ambrosia.

Translated from the Chinese by Bhikkhu Kuala Lumpur Dhammajoti

From his book The Chinese Version of Dharmapada, Translated with introduction and annotations.

Published here with the kind permission of the author.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Ayya Vimala.