Dhammapada Verses on the Path

“They who regularly meditate, always staunchly vigorous; the attentive realize extinguishment, the supreme sanctuary from the yoke.”

“Don’t devote yourself to negligence, or delight in erotic intimacy. For if you’re diligent and meditate, you’ll attain abundant happiness.”

“For those accomplished in ethics, meditating diligently, freed through the highest knowledge, Māra cannot find their path.”

“For the means to profit and the path to quenching are two quite different things. A mendicant disciple of the Buddha, understanding what this really means, would never delight in honors, but rather would foster seclusion.”

“When the teaching is well explained, the people who practice accordingly will cross over Death’s dominion so hard to pass.”

“Those with nothing stored up, who have understood their food, whose domain is the liberation of the signless and the empty: their path is hard to trace, like birds in the sky.”

“Better to live a single day ethical and absorbed in meditation than to live a hundred years unethical and lacking immersion.”

“Better to live a single day wise and absorbed in meditation than to live a hundred years witless and lacking immersion.”

“Dressed up they may be, but if they live well— peaceful, tamed, committed to the spiritual path, having laid aside violence toward all creatures— they are a brahmin, an ascetic, a mendicant.”

“When young they spurned the spiritual path and failed to earn any wealth. Now they brood like old cranes in a pond bereft of fish.”

“When young they spurned the spiritual path and failed to earn any wealth. Now they lie like spent arrows, bemoaning over things past.”

“Swans fly by the sun’s path, psychic sages fly through space. The attentive leave the world, having vanquished Māra with his legions.”

“The attentive intent on absorption, who love the peace of renunciation, the Buddhas, ever mindful, are envied by even the gods.”

“suffering, suffering’s origin, suffering’s transcendence, and the noble eightfold path that leads to the stilling of suffering.”

“Therefore: An attentive one, wise and learned, a behemoth of virtue, true to their vows, noble: follow a true and intelligent person such as this, as the moon tracks the path of the stars.”

“Not by precepts and observances, nor by much learning, nor by meditative immersion, nor by living in seclusion,”

“Of paths, the eightfold is the best; of truths, the four statements; dispassion is the best of things, and the Clear-eyed One is the best of humans.”

“<em>This</em> is the path, there is no other for the purification of vision. You all must practice this, it is the way to baffle Māra.”

“When you all are practicing this, you’ll make an end of suffering. I have explained the path to you for extracting the thorn with wisdom.”

“You yourselves must do the work, the Realized Ones just show the way. Meditators practicing absorption are released from Māra’s bonds.”

“All conditions are impermanent— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”

“All conditions are suffering— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”

“All things are not-self— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”

“They don’t get going when it’s time to start; they’re young and strong, but given to sloth. Their mind depressed in sunken thought, lazy and slothful, they can’t discern the path.”

“Guarded in speech, restrained in mind, doing no unskillful bodily deed. Purify these three ways of performing deeds, and win the path known to seers.”

“From meditation springs wisdom, without meditation, wisdom ends. Knowing these two paths— of progress and decline— you should conduct yourself so that wisdom grows.”

“Cut out affection for oneself, like plucking an autumn lotus. Foster only the path to peace, the extinguishment the Holy One taught.”

“Knowing the reason for this, astute, and ethically restrained, one would quickly clear the path that leads to extinguishment.”

“The disciples of Gotama always wake up refreshed, whose minds day and night delight in meditation.”

“A mendicant who meditates on love, devoted to the Buddha’s teaching, would realize the peaceful state, the blissful stilling of conditions.”

“Practice absorption, don’t be negligent! Don’t let the mind delight in the senses! Don’t heedlessly swallow a hot iron ball! And when it burns, don’t cry, “Oh, the pain!””

“No absorption for one without wisdom, no wisdom for one without absorption. But one with absorption and wisdom— they have truly drawn near to extinguishment.”

“This is the very start of the path for a wise mendicant here: guarding the senses, contentment, and restraint in the monastic code.”

“The sun blazes by day, the moon radiates at night, the aristocrat shines in armor, and the brahmin shines in absorption. But all day and all night, the Buddha blazes with glory.”

“A personage who wears robes of rags, lean, their limbs showing veins, meditating alone in the forest, that’s who I declare a brahmin.”

“Deep in wisdom, intelligent, expert in the path and what is not the path; arrived at the highest goal: that’s who I declare a brahmin.”

“They’ve got past this grueling swamp of delusion, transmigration. Meditating in stillness, free of indecision, they have crossed over to the far shore. They’re quenched by not grasping: that’s who I declare a brahmin.”