06 - The Wise

Khuddaka Nikaya
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Dhammapada

A Translation

Translated from the Pali

by Thanissaro Bhikkhu(Geoffrey DeGraff)

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Dhammapada VI

The Wise

76-77:

Regard him as one who
points out
treasure,
the wise one who
seeing your faults
rebukes you.
Stay with this sort of sage.
For the one who stays
with a sage of this sort,
things get better,
not worse.

Let him admonish, instruct,
deflect you
away from poor manners.
To the good, he's endearing;
to the bad, he's not.

78:

Don't associate with bad friends.
Don't associate with the low.
Associate with admirable friends.
Associate with the best.

79*:

Drinking the Dhamma,
refreshed by the Dhamma,
one sleeps at ease
with clear awareness & calm.
In the Dhamma revealed
by the noble ones,
the wise person
always delights.

80:

Irrigators guide the water.
Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.
Carpenters shape the wood.
The wise control
themselves.

81:

As a single slab of rock
won't budge in the wind,
so the wise are not moved
by praise,
by blame.

82:

Like a deep lake,
clear, unruffled, & calm:
so the wise become clear,
calm,
on hearing words of the Dhamma.

83*:

Everywhere, truly,
those of integrity
stand apart.
They, the good,
don't chatter in hopes
of favor or gains.
When touched
now by pleasure,
now pain,
the wise give no sign
of high
or low.

84:

One who wouldn't --
not for his own sake
nor that of another --
hanker for
wealth,
a son,
a kingdom,
his own fulfillment,
by unrighteous means:
he is righteous, rich
in virtue,
discernment.

85-89*:

Few are the people
who reach the Far Shore.
These others
simply scurry along
this shore.
But those who practice Dhamma
in line with the well-taught Dhamma,
will cross over the realm of Death
so hard to transcend.

Forsaking dark practices,
the wise person
should develop the bright,
having gone from home
to no-home
in seclusion, so hard to enjoy.
There he should wish for delight,
discarding sensuality --
he who has nothing.
He should cleanse himself -- wise --
of what defiles the mind.

Whose minds are well-developed
in the factors of self-awakening,
who delight in non-clinging,
relinquishing grasping --
resplendent,
their effluents ended:
they, in the world,
are Unbound.