28. The Path (T210.28)

The best of paths is the eight-fold right [path]
The Four-Truths are the track of Dharma
The best of practices is the giving up of lust.
The giving of lamps ensures the obtaining of eyes

This is the Path, there is no more fear;
When views are purified, one will transcend existence,
This [Path] can crush Mara’s army;
Walk on with effort to end suffering

I have already opened up the Right Path,
To fully display the unique splendour.
Having heard it you must train yourself;
Treading it leads to release from the evil bonds

Phenomenal existence is impermanent and unsatisfactory;
He who sees this is a wise one.
If one wishes to be greed from unsatisfactoriness,
Tread the Path, and it will all be removed

Phenomenal existence is impermanent and empty.
He who sees this is a wise one.
One wishing to be freed from unsatisfactoriness,
Has only to tread the Path with diligence

One should get up when it’s time to do so
Don’t be life the fools drowned in deep water,
Who assemble with the lazy and indifferent,
And feel too tired to advance on the Path

Mindfulness of that to be mindful of is right,
Mindfulness of that not to be mindful of is wrong.
Be wise and don’t give rise to wrong [thoughts]
Thoughts being rectified, the Goal will be reached

Cautious in speech and watchful of the mind,
And doing no bodily act which is unskillful
—He who thus removes the threefold [unskillful] deeds
The Buddha declares, has achieved the Goal

If the tree is cut without being uprooted;
The root still remaining, it will grow again.
Remove the root, then there will be no tree,
And the bhikṣu will gain Nirvāṇa

So long as one cannot cut down the trees;
There being mutual attachment between relations,
One binds oneself with the greedy mind
Like a calf after [the mother’s] milk

He who can cut off the root of craving
[The root of] the endless cycle of rebirths,
Is said to be near the Way
And will soon attain Nirvāṇa

Lust results in aging;
Hatred results in sickness;
Delusion results in death;
The three removed, one will reach the Goal.

Released at the beginning, released at the end,
Released in the middle-one crosses to the other [shore]
All thoughts having been extinguished,
there will be no more old-age and death.

To one entangled with wife and sons,
Not contemplating on the ill [nature of] dharmas,
Death will come abruptly,
Like the rapid flow of flood waters.

Neither father nor son can save,
What hope then from other kinsmen?
To lean for support from kinsmen at life’s end,
Is like a blind relying on a lamp.

The wise who understands this meaning,
Should put into practice the sūtra and vinaya,
Practicing diligently to transcend the world,
And unsatisfactoriness will be completely removed.

Get far away from the deep-water
Like the wind banishing the clouds
All conceptions having ceased;
It is said to be the vision of wisdom.

Wisdom is the world’s foremost;
[With it] one contentedly delights in the unconditioned,
And knows the true teachings,
Bringing an end to birth death.

He who knows the conditioning to be empty,
—This is seeing with wisdom—
Becomes disgusted with worldly unsatisfactoriness;
And from this Path [unsatisfactoriness] is removed.

He who knows the conditioning to be unsatisfactory
—This is seeing with wisdom—
Becomes disgusted with worldly unsatisfactoriness;
And from this Path [unsatisfactoriness] is removed.

He who knows conditioning to be non-self
—This is seeing with wisdom—
Becomes disgusted with worldly unsatisfactoriness;
And from this Path [unsatisfactoriness] is removed.

I expound to you the Dharma,
Having [myself once] been shot with the arrows of craving
You should endeavor yourself
And accept the Tathāgata’s words.

I am one who have completely destroyed [the defilement]
And ended the coming and going—birth and death.
*It is for the liberation of not [just] one single being,
What has been expounded, the Path-eye.

Just as rivers flow into the sea,
*And the water in turn flows on to quickly fill up.
Therefore is [the Path] taught to the wise,
By which they can be led to taking the amṛta.

The hitherto unheard of dharma-wheel
[The Buddha] turned, out of compassion for beings.
Those who devote themselves to Him
Salute Him, and transcend the triple existence.

Three thoughts are to be cultivated; being skillful
Three also are to be removed, being unskillful.
From thoughts, there arises actions;
These ceased, it is true abandonment.

Three meditations can transform thoughts.
Give up attachment and practice the immeasurable.
Attaining these three, three dens are removed.
To be freed from the fetters, be mindful.

He who knows to restrain from evil with the precepts,
Contemplative and wise, delighting in mindfulness,
Has understood the arising and perishing of the world,
His thoughts having ceased, he is liberated from all.

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.