The Chapter about Anger (DHP221-234)

One should abandon anger, one should abandon conceit,
one should overcome every fetter,
without clinging to mind and bodily form,
sufferings never do befall the one having no possessions.

Whoever should hold back arisen anger just like a swerving chariot,
that one I say is a charioteer, other people are just rein-holders.

Through kindness one should overcome anger, through goodness one should overcome a lack of goodness,
through gifts one should overcome stinginess, through truth one should overcome lying speech.
One should speak out the truth, one should not get angry, when requested give, if only a little,
through these three conditions one can go to the presence of the gods.

Those sages without violence, constantly restrained in body,
go to the deathless Nibbāna, having gone there they do not grieve.
For those who are always wakeful, who train both by day and by night,
who are intent on Nibbāna, the pollutants are laid to rest.

This is something of old, Atula, this is not something of today:
they blame the one who sits silently, they blame the one who talks a lot,
they blame the one who talks in moderation, there is no one in the world not blamed.

There was not and there will not be, and at present there is not found
a person totally blameworthy, or one totally praiseworthy.

The one who, after being examined day by day, is praised by the wise,
faultless in conduct, sagacious, attending to virtue and wisdom,
one who is like a golden coin, who is there worthy to blame him?
That one is praised by the gods, and has been praised by the Brahmās too.

One should guard against bodily anger, one should be restrained bodily,
abandoning wrong bodily conduct, one should have good bodily conduct.

One should guard against verbal anger, one should be restrained verbally,
abandoning wrong verbal conduct, one should have good verbal conduct.
One should guard against mental anger, one should be restrained mentally,
abandoning wrong mental conduct, one should have good mental conduct.

The wise are restrained bodily, then they are restrained verbally,
the wise are restrained mentally, they are indeed very well-restrained.

Translated by Ānandajoti Bhikkhu.

2nd edition, November 2017.

The text and translation, together with detailed notes and discussions, may be found in multiple formats on the translator’s website, Ancient Buddhist Texts.

Used by kind permission of Bhikkhu Ānandajoti.

The original translation was released under the following licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Aminah Borg-Luck.