The World (DHP167-178)

Do not follow an inferior teaching;
Do not live by negligence;
Do not embrace wrong views;
Do not be a world-enhancer.

Arise and be not negligent.
Follow the Dhamma, practice well.
Happy the one who dwells in Dhamma,
Both in this world and in the next.

Practice the Dhamma well, not poorly.
Happy the one who dwells in Dhamma,
Both in this world and in the next.

Look upon the world as a bubble;
Look upon the world as a mirage.
One who looks thus is unseen by the
king of Death.

Come, look at this world as an adorned king’s
chariot.
While fools sink down, the discriminating are free.

One who was once negligent but becomes diligent,
Illumines the world,
Like a moon released from a cloud.

One whose evil conduct is replaced by good,
Illumines the world,
Like a moon released from a cloud.

Blind is this world where few see clearly.
As birds who escape from the snare are few,
So too are those who go to a higher plane.

Geese travel by the path of the sun,
By power they move through the sky.
The wise are led from the world,
Having conquered Māra and his army.

Of the one who has transgressed the law,
Rejected the world beyond,
And speaks falsely:
There is no evil that he could not do.

Truly, the selfish do not enter the realm of the gods.
Fools do not praise generosity.
But the wise one, rejoicing in generosity,
Is thereby happy in the next world.

Over sole sovereignty of the earth,
Or going to a heaven,
Or lordship over all worlds,
The fruit of stream-winner is supreme.

© Peter Feldmeier, 2013.

First published in Dhammapada — The Way of Truth : A Fresh Translation and Commentary on Buddhism’s Most Beloved Text by Buddhist Publication Society.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Aminah Borg-Luck.