Chapter on Violence (DHP129-145)

Collection of Minor Texts

Verses of Dhamma

Chapter on Violence

Everyone dreads violence,

everyone fears death;

recognizing that you are similar,

do not harm or cause others to harm.

Everyone dreads violence,

everyone likes to live;

recognizing that you are similar,

do not harm or cause others to harm.

Beings want pleasure;

if one harms them with violence

while seeking pleasure for oneself,

one will find no pleasure in the future.

Beings want pleasure;

if one does not harm them with violence

while seeking pleasure for oneself,

one will find pleasure in the future.

Say no harsh words to anyone;

they might respond in kind.

Hostile speech is painful,

and it may provoke a violent response.

If you are non-reactive,

like a broken bell,

then you have reached Nibbāna

and no conflict can be found in you.

Just as a cowherd, using a stick,

herds cattle through a pasture,

in the same way, decrepitude and death

herd the living through life.

Performing evil actions,

a fool does not attain awakening.

The unwise person is tormented by those actions

as if burned by fire.

One who is violent towards the nonviolent,

one who harms the harmless,

will soon experience

one of ten consequences:

Harsh sensations, deprivation,

physical injury,

severe illness,

mental derangement,

legal trouble,

severe accusations,

loss of relatives,

dissipation of wealth,

or their house

catching on fire.

Then, when the fool is separated from their body,

they will reappear in hell.

Nudity, tangled hair, filth,

fasting, sleeping on the ground,

squatting in the mud -

these cannot purify a mortal who has not yet gone beyond doubt.

However, if one who wears adornments is well-behaved,

peaceful, restrained, committed to spiritual practice,

and has renounced violence towards all beings,

then they are a saint, a contemplative, a monk.

What person can be found in this world

that is restrained by conscience?

Who wakes up when criticized,

like a fine horse struck by a whip?

Like a fine horse struck by a whip,

be ardent and filled with urgency.

By means of faith, virtue, determination,

concentration, investigation of Dhamma,

perfect knowledge, perfect conduct, and thorough awareness,

abandon this immense suffering.

Irrigators guide water,

fletchers shape arrows,

carpenters shape wood,

those who practice well train themselves.