Dhammapada verse 212
Chapter 16, The Beloved (Piyavagga) · verses 209–220
“Sorrow springs from what we hold dear, fear springs from what we hold dear; one free from holding anything dear has no sorrow, let alone fear.”
Piyato jāyatī soko, piyato jāyatī bhayaṁ; Piyato vippamuttassa, natthi soko kuto bhayaṁ.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 212 mean?
Verse 212 belongs to chapter 16, The Beloved (Piyavagga), which gathers verses 209–220 on the beloved, and the grief that follows. It is filed under suffering & grief. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 211 and verse 213 are part of the same passage.
Twelve verses on the beloved, and this is the chapter that explains grief. Its argument is that sorrow follows from affection — the one you love, the thing you cannot lose — and it does not tell the reader to love less so much as to see what they have taken on. Verses 209–211 are the ones most often quoted.
More verses on this