In this section, I have used the overall numbering of the verses (rather than chapter + verse numbering) as the means of keying the notes. For each verse or group of verses, any explanatory notes are followed by a very brief retelling of the commentarial stories from the Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā. Many of these stories, particularly those concerning leading followers of the Buddha, are based on material from the Pali Canon: further information about the sources can be found in the Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names (Malalasekhara 1937–8), available in its online version at <http://www.palikanon.com/english/pali_names/dic_idx.html>. On matters connected with meditation and spiritual attainments, an excellent source is Sarah Shaw’s Buddhist Meditation (Shaw 2006a), which draws extensively on the canonical and commentarial literature of the Theravāda tradition.
CHAPTER 1
TWINS
1. mental states: dhamma – see Glossary.
made of mind: manomayā; K. R. Norman (1997: 1, 61) takes as ‘made by mind’. All traditions apart from the Pali Dhammapada have manojavā, ‘swift as mind’ (or forms corresponding to that).
suffering: dukkha.
of the ox: i.e. that draws the cart.
STORY: A blind monk who is an Arahat unknowingly crushes insects under his feet as he walks. Because there is no intention to kill, he commits no offence. The Buddha explains the action in a past life that caused the monk to lose his sight. (For a fuller account of the commentarial stories on this verse, see the section on Commentaries in the Introduction.)
2. mental states … made of mind: See comments on v. 1.
happiness: sukha.
STORY: A miser’s young son dies because his father is too mean to spend money on a doctor. As he dies, the boy mentally takes refuge in the Buddha, and is reborn in a heavenly realm. Appearing to his former father in his divine form, he causes him to mend his ways. (See also the section on Commentaries in the Introduction for more on this verse.)
3–4. does not cease … ceases completely: na sammati … upasammati. The latter implies a complete end, with reference to upasama = nibbāna.
STORY: This concerns a stubborn monk, Tissa the Fat, who harbours resentment against other monks who do not treat him with the deference which he thinks he deserves. Tissa is a common name in the commentaries, and it is not always possible to determine which stories relate to the same person, but the Tissa of the present story seems to be one who later became an Arahat. (For the Buddha’s teaching to him, see Shaw 2006a: 53–6.)
5. here: i.e. in this world.
By freedom from hatred: averena, ‘by non-hatred’. In Pali, such negative expressions are stronger than in English, though there is some debate about the
exact shade of meaning here. Some translators think it means ‘the opposite of hatred’, i.e. ‘loving kindness’; the equivalent
passage in the Udāna (14.11) has kṣāntyā, ‘by patience’, implying the simple refusal to respond to hatred with hatred (Fišer 1979).
This is a perennial truth: esa dhammo sanantano, here in the sense of a fact that is always (and naturally) true, without the connotations of a universal religion implied
in modern Hindu uses of sanātana dharma.
STORY: This concerns a quest for vengeance pursued over many lives. A man takes two wives, marrying the junior wife when the senior proves unable to have children. When the junior wife becomes pregnant, the senior, fearing to lose her own status within the household, gives her drugs to bring about a miscarriage. She does this twice more, but, the third time, the junior wife herself dies along with the baby. Her dying wish is to devour children of the senior wife, and she is reborn as a cat. When the husband finds out what has happened, he batters the senior wife. She dies, and is reborn as a hen. The cat that was the junior wife eats her eggs. The hen is then reborn as a leopardess, and the cat as a doe, and the cycle of revenge continues. Finally the senior wife is reborn as a human woman and the junior wife as a child-eating yakkhinī, who tries to attack her baby.
Fleeing from the yakkhinī, the woman rushes into the monastery where the Buddha is staying, and lays the baby at his feet. Because of the Buddha’s power, the yakkhinī is unable to follow her there until he himself sends for her. He speaks to the yakkhinī about the need to end hatred, uttering the present verse. She attains Stream-Entry. Encouraged by the Buddha, the woman hands the baby to the yakkhinī, who kisses and caresses him and gives him back unharmed. But the yakkhinī, no longer a child-eater, is now worried about how she is going to get enough to eat. The Buddha instructs the woman to take the yakkhinī home, install her in a shrine in the village, and bring her offerings of food. Through her prophecies, the yakkhinī brings great good fortune to the woman, who becomes wealthy and respected, and takes the opportunity to make regular offerings to the monks.
6. we must control ourselves: yamāmase, probably a first-person-plural imperative form from yam-, ‘to control’, ‘to restrain’. Others take it as a denominative from Yama, the name of the god of Death, so that the sentence would mean, ‘Others here do not understand that we must die.’
STORY: The Commentary retells the story, found in the Vinaya of the Pali Canon (Mahā Vagga 5.1–5) of the Buddha’s sojourn in the Pārileyyaka Forest, where he is attended by an elephant (also called Pārileyyaka).
At a monastery in Kosambi, 500 monks fall out. The matter begins with a small infraction of the Vinaya, but, as the accusations fly and no one will apologize, the situation gets progressively worse until the monastery splits into two factions. Three times the Buddha himself tries to reconcile them, but the monks pay no attention. Eventually the Buddha decides to leave them, and goes off alone to the forest. The elephant, who has also grown tired of living with the herd, comes to attend him, keeping predators away, bringing him water when he needs it, and carrying his bowl and robe when he goes on alms-round. In the commentarial version, a monkey, too, comes to offer honey to the Buddha. When the Buddha accepts it, the monkey is so delighted that he leaps from branch to branch; when a branch breaks, and he falls, he is reborn as a deity in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven. (The scene of the Buddha attended by these two animals is a popular one in Buddhist art, particularly in Thailand.)
Meanwhile the quarrelsome monks are having an uncomfortable time of it, since the laypeople no longer wish to support them. At the end of the Rains Retreat, when they are free to travel, Ānanda visits the Buddha to request him to come back to Kosambi. (When he expresses concern as to the hardships the Buddha must have experienced, alone in the forest, the Buddha reassures him with vv. 328–30.)
The Buddha leaves, parting with the elephant at the point where the animal might have been in danger from human beings if he had followed him. The elephant dies of a broken heart, but because of his faith in the Buddha is reborn in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven.
When the Buddha arrives back at Kosambi, he once more speaks to the monks about the importance of restraint and reconciliation and speaks the verse. Understanding, the monks attain Stream-Entry.
7–8. the fair … the foul: subha … asubha, probably used here in a technical sense. If a person constantly dwells on the attractive aspects of the body, his or her
sense-desire will grow stronger. Asubha meditation is designed to break this attachment: as in the story, the meditator contemplates a dead body, and watches the
various stages of change and decay in it. (This is not regarded as a suitable subject for all meditators, and would normally
be attempted only on the advice of a skilled teacher: see Shaw 2006a: 101–8.)
Māra: The tempter, who seeks to bind beings to the world – see Glossary.
ill-rooted: Literally, ‘weak’ (dubbala).
STORY: Two brothers, Mahākāḷa and Cūlakāḷa (Great and Small Kāḷa, ‘Black’), formerly merchants, become monks. Mahākāḷa achieves Arahatship, through contemplating a corpse in a cremation ground, but Cūlakāḷa goes on thinking about his former married life. When the monks pay a visit to their home town, Cūlakāḷa is sent ahead. He is seized by his two former wives and made to disrobe and return to the household life. The Buddha then sends Mahākāḷa. Other monks have misgivings about this, in view of what has happened to the younger brother, but the Buddha reassures them with the verses. Mahākāḷa is unaffected by the blandishments of his former wives, even though there are eight of them, not just two.
9–10. There is an untranslatable pun here on the words kasāva, ‘stain’, ‘impurity’, and kāsāva, the monk’s robe, dyed in various natural shades of yellow, orange, ochre or brown.
STORY: This concerns an occasion when Devadatta’s followers give him a robe, offered by a benefactor, that should have been given to Sāriputta. The Buddha tells the story of a previous life, when an elephant-hunter put on a monk’s robe to trick the elephants into approaching him. The hunter was Devadatta, while the leader of the elephants, who saw through the trick and reproached the hunter, was the future Buddha.
11–12. Those who imagine value where there’s none, / And don’t see value where there’s value: Literally, ‘Those imagining value in the valueless, / And seeing valuelessness in value [sāra, “genuine worth”]’. Similarly with the opposite in v. 12.
Dwellers in the realm of wrong thought … right thought: micchā-saṅkappa-gocarā … sammā-saṅkappa-gocarā: ‘having wrong/right thought as their range/scope’ – with a clear reference to the second element of the Eightfold Path,
sammā-saṅkappa, ‘right thought’ or ‘right intention’.
STORY: The Commentary here summarizes the traditional account of the Buddha’s search for awakening, and the attainment of Arahatship by his leading followers.
Many aeons in the past, a young Brahmin ascetic called Sumedha (‘Wise’) encounters a Fully Awakened Buddha, Dīpaṅkara (‘Light-maker’). He feels great reverence towards him, and forms a profound wish to attain what Dīpaṅkara has attained. Seeing him, Dīpaṅkara recognizes his qualities and foretells that Sumedha will one day become a Fully Awakened Buddha by the name of Gotama. From that time on, through many thousands of years and the eras of twenty-four Buddhas from Dīpaṅkara on, Sumedha works towards developing the qualities of a Buddha. After thousands of rebirths, the Bodhisatta who had been Sumedha is reborn in the Tusita heaven, where all Buddhas-to-be spend the life before the last.
When the time comes for him to be reborn, the Bodhisatta chooses as his family the royal household of the Sākiyas. He is brought up with every possible comfort and luxury; but when he is twenty-nine years old, he sees, on three successive days, three heavenly messengers – an old man, a sick man and a corpse – and he becomes aware of the suffering of all existence. On the fourth day, as he ponders a way to become free from suffering, he sees a fourth heavenly messenger, a man who has left the household life and become a monk, and he himself determines to do the same. Receiving word that a son, Rāhula, has been born to him, he understands that if he does not go now he will never be able to go at all. Aided by his charioteer Channa and a multitude of deities, he escapes from the palace by night, cuts off his hair, puts on an ochre robe, and embarks on the life of a wandering holy man.
He spends the next six years in search of the path to freedom from suffering (see the Introduction, ‘Life of the Buddha’), studying first with the meditation teachers Āḷāra and Uddaka, and then with five monks practising strict asceticism. At last he sits under the Bodhi tree, determined to find his goal. In the course of the night he is assailed by temptation, in the form of the renegade deity Māra, his ferocious armies and his voluptuous daughters, symbolizing all the defilements of the mind; but he refuses to give up the quest, and attains the goal.
The Buddha, as he now is, spends seven weeks at Bodh Gayā, pondering the implications of the knowledge that he has attained. He wonders whether to teach it to others, experiencing misgivings as to whether anyone will be able to understand it. But the deity Brahmā Sahampati, who oversees ten thousand worlds, requests him on behalf of all beings to teach the Dhamma, and he assents. Looking around the world for people who will understand his teaching, the Buddha sees that Āḷāra and Uddaka are both dead, but the five monks who attended him through his period of asceticism are still alive, and capable of understanding his teaching. He goes to them at Isipatana, near Varanasi, where he gives his first teaching. First Koṇḍañña and then the other four understand, and attain Arahatship. Other followers join them and follow the Buddha’s teaching. Soon there are sixty-one Arahats in the world, and the Buddha sends them out in all directions to teach others.
The Commentary now tells of two Brahmin youths from wealthy families, great friends, named Upatissa and Kolita. They live happily until they go together to a festival which lasts several days. To begin with they enjoy all the entertainment on offer, laughing when everyone else laughs, weeping when everyone else weeps, and giving alms when everyone else gives alms. But it then occurs to each of them separately that in a hundred years’ time all these people will be dead, and they laugh, weep and give alms no more.
Noticing the change in one another, they find that both have had the same experience, and they decide to leave the household life and seek the way to the deathless. They become followers of a holy man called Sañjaya, but in a few days they have learned all that he knows and are still dissatisfied. So they travel India, trying to find a teacher who can help them achieve their quest. They make a pact that whichever of them first attains the deathless is to find and tell the other.
At Rājagaha, Upatissa meets the Elder Assaji, one of the five who heard the Buddha’s first teaching. Upatissa recognizes that Assaji has a quality that he has not seen before. He seeks a meeting with him, and engages him in discussion. Assaji speaks to him one of the most famous summaries of the Buddha’s teaching:
Of all things (dhamma) that come from a cause,
The Tathāgata has taught the cause
at which point Upatissa attains Stream-Entry. Assaji completes the verse:
And the cessation, too,
The Great Wanderer* has spoken.
But at this point Upatissa does not progress any further in the higher attainments.
Overjoyed to learn from Assaji that a Buddha has appeared in the world, Upatissa seeks out his friend Kolita. He speaks the same verse to him, on which he too attains Stream-Entry. They determine to go together to see the Buddha, but before they do they will visit their first teacher, Sañjaya, and invite him to come with them. However, Sañjaya is too attached to his reputation and status and refuses to go.
The two friends go to the Buddha, who ordains them as monks. Through his teaching, both attain Arahatship. But since then Upatissa has generally been known as Sāriputta, and Kolita as Moggallāna. (These are ‘metronymic’ names, taken from their mothers – a common ancient Indian custom. Upatissa is the son of Rūpasārī (‘Sārī the Beautiful’ – see the story for v. 400), and Moggallāna of a woman named Moggallī.) And as Sāriputta and Moggallāna they were named by the Buddha as his two chief monks.
Verse 12 is taken to refer to the attainment of the great Arahats; v. 11 to Sañjaya, who refused the opportunity to follow the Buddha.
13–14. STORY: The Commentary retells the very popular story of Nanda, the Buddha’s cousin, who is lured by the Buddha into becoming a monk when he has just married the most beautiful woman in the country. Nanda is discontented as a monk, and constantly misses his bride. Eventually the Buddha shows him a heavenly realm full of 500 celestial nymphs (accharā), in comparison with whom his bride appears ugly. He tells Nanda that if he perseveres in the monastic life he will win these nymphs. Nanda applies himself to the practice with vigour, and eventually achieves Arahatship. Having no longer any desire for women or nymphs, he releases the Buddha from his promise. The Buddha speaks these verses, and tells a story of a previous birth when Nanda was controlled through his sexual desire, when the future Buddha was a merchant and Nanda his donkey, who desired a mate.
15. Seeing his own action was defiled: ‘Seeing the defilement of his own action’.
STORY: This tells of Cunda, a butcher. He makes his living by fattening pigs, slaughtering them in cruel ways, and selling the meat; and he never has a generous or compassionate thought. In his last illness he sees a vision of the Avīci hell that awaits him. In his terror, he begins to behave like a pig, grunting and crawling on all fours, to the horror of his family. After seven days of this, he dies and is reborn in the Avīci hell.
16. Seeing his own action was pure: ‘Seeing the purity of his own action’.
STORY: A pious layman lives well and generously, and encourages his family to do the same. As he lies dying, monks chant the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 1.56–83: Sutta 10), which teaches how to practise meditation through mindfulness, successively, of body, feelings, mind and dhammas. (For a translation and discussion, see Shaw 2006a: 76–85.) The man suddenly cries, ‘Wait!’ His family are appalled, thinking that he is afraid of death; but, as the Buddha later explains, he is in fact addressing the gods who have come to escort him to a heavenly realm, since he wishes to hear the rest of the Sutta before he goes.
17. a bad place: duggati, a bad gati (see Glossary), i.e. birth in a hell realm, the animal realm, or the realm of the petas (hungry ghosts).
STORY: The long Commentary on this verse retells the story of Devadatta and his evil deeds. He is ordained as a monk along with five other princes of the Sākiya clan (including Ānanda and Anuruddha) and their barber Upāli, all of whom become great Elders. Devadatta gains psychic powers (iddhi – see Glossary), but without any of the higher attainments. He becomes jealous of the Buddha and the great Arahats. He plots to oust the Buddha as leader of the Order, and even tries to have him assassinated. The Buddha never loses patience with him. Eventually, when Devadatta has caused a schism in the Order, he is swallowed by the earth* and is reborn in the Avīci hell.
18. He rejoices here: As often in the Dhammapada, masculine terms are intended to be understood in an inclusive sense, as shown by the fact that
the commentarial story refers to a woman (or in this case a girl).
a good place: suggati, a good gati (cf. note 17) – birth in a heaven or the human realm. (The form suggatiṃ replaces the expected sugatiṃ for metrical reasons: see K. R. Norman 1997: 65.)
STORY: The generous banker Anāthapiṇḍika has three daughters, and places each in turn in charge of giving alms to the monks: first Mahāsubhaddā, then Cullasubhaddā, and then, when these are both married, Sumanādevī. Sumanādevī attains the state of Once-Return, but falls ill and is unable to eat. She sends for her father, but as she lies dying she calls him ‘youngest brother’, leading those around to speculate that her mind is wandering. But the Buddha explains that she uses these words because she has reached a higher state than her father, who is just a Stream-Enterer. She has been reborn in the Tusita (Joyful) heaven.
Burlingame (1921: I, 242–4), followed it seems by Malalasekhara (1937–8: II, 1243–4), has misunderstood this story, taking it that Sumanādevī has refused food out of grief because she is unmarried, when her sisters are married, and has fallen ill as a result. He has over-interpreted the word kumārikā, ‘young girl’, ‘maiden’, assuming it to mean specifically ‘virgin’, ‘unmarried woman’, and taking it as the reason for her distress. In fact she has given up eating because she is ill, and has sent for her father because she is still a young girl. (My thanks to L. S. Cousins for pointing this out.) A Once-Returner would not suffer from grief or disappointment at her lot, since she would already have let go of the ill will that gives rise to such feelings. As Anāthapiṇḍika says to the Buddha, ‘Bhante, here my daughter went about among her relatives rejoicing, and now that she’s gone from here she has been reborn in the place of rejoicing.’ The Buddha replies with the Dhammapada verse.
19–20. scripture: sahitaṃ, accusative of sahitā, equivalent to Sanskrit saṃhitā, which is generally used of the Vedic literature.
If you go from dhamma to dhamma: dhammassa hoti anudhammacārī – ‘[if one] is practising anudhamma of the dhamma’. An obscure expression, often translated simply as ‘if one acts in accordance with Dhamma’. Anudhamma could mean ‘subsidiary dhamma’ or ‘following-dhamma’. But the most likely sense here seems to be that of progressively following
the Buddhist path.
wanderer’s life: sāmañña, the condition of a samaṇa (see Glossary).
STORY: Two friends become monks. One learns the Tipiṭaka by heart, while the other, who is not so good at studying, devotes himself to meditation. The learned monk looks down on the unlearned one, but when both are questioned by the Buddha it turns out that the latter has attained Arahatship, while the former just knows the theory.
CHAPTER 2
AWARENESS
The Pali word translated here as ‘awareness’ is appamāda, the opposite of pamāda, ‘intoxication’, ‘carelessness’, ‘unawareness’. As often in Pali, the negative suffix has a stronger force than in English, and appamāda is one of the most important qualities for a Buddhist to develop: that of constant mindfulness. The pair form one of the most important oppositions in Buddhist literature. Other commonly found translations are ‘heedfulness’ and ‘heedlessness’ and ‘diligence’ and ‘negligence’. In v. 309, I have translated the related adjective pamatta as ‘reckless’.
21–3. peace of yoga: yoga-kkhema – a compound word that seems to change its meaning over the course of Pali literature (and Sanskrit literature, where it appears as yogakṣema). Sometimes it is taken as a dvandva compound, ‘yoga and khema’ (e.g. ‘getting and enjoyment’), and sometimes as a tatpuruṣa, with various possible relationships between the two: ‘the khema of yoga’, ‘the khema from yoga’ etc. Unfortunately, both the individual words vary greatly in their meanings. I have taken it as the peace (khema) reached through practice (yoga). K. R. Norman (1997: 4, 67) takes it as ‘rest from exertion’; Carter and Palihawadana (1987: 112) as ‘freedom from bonds’.
STORY: A cycle of stories concerns the adventures of King Udena (or Udayana) and his wives Vāsuladattā, the chief queen, Sāmāvatī, the daughter of a banker (seṭṭhi – see Glossary), and Māgandiyā, a Brahmin woman. Sāmāvatī and her maids are devoted followers of the Buddha, having heard his teaching reported by a hunchbacked slave woman called Khujjuttarā, who first hears him teach when sent out to buy flowers for the queen, and attains Stream-Entry. Sāmāvatī notices a change in Khujjuttarā when she starts to bring twice as many flowers back as before. Previously, it appears, she used to keep half the flower money for herself, but now she spends it all on flowers. Far from being angry, Sāmāvatī continues to send Khujjuttarā to hear the Buddha’s teaching and to report to them what she has heard. (Khujjuttarā becomes the laywoman most skilled in teaching the Dhamma.)
Māgandiyā, in contrast, hates the Buddha, because he rejected her when her father offered her to him in marriage – see the story for vv. 179–80. She tries to stir up the mob against him (see the story for vv. 320–22). She also tries to poison the king’s mind against Sāmāvatī, making it appear that she is plotting against him. This fails, and indeed the king joins Sāmāvatī in taking refuge in the Buddha.
Finally, Māgandiyā has Sāmāvatī and her maids burned to death in their house. At the point of death, all of them meditate on loving kindness, and are reborn in higher states. When the king finds out the truth about what has happened, he has Māgandiyā and her accomplices put to death.
The Buddha speaks the verses as a comment on the contrasting fates of Sāmāvatī and Māgandiyā.
24. STORY: In a time of plague, a layman called Kumbhaghosaka leaves his native city and lives as a hired hand, despite having a secret store of treasure. After a number of adventures, he becomes the banker (seṭṭhi) of King Bimbisāra and marries the king’s daughter. The Buddha praises his wisdom with this verse.
25. STORY: Two brothers, Mahāpanthaka and Cūḷapanthaka (or Cullapanthaka), ‘Big Wayman and Little Wayman’, become monks. Mahāpanthaka is quick to learn, and soon attains Arahatship. Cūḷapanthaka is slow, and his brother turns him out of the monastery. To help Cūḷapanthaka, the Buddha gives him a clean cloth as a meditation object. Rubbing the cloth, he sees how it gradually becomes dirty; realizing impermanence, he attains Arahatship. He then becomes a great scholar of the Tipiṭaka.
26–7. guards … as the finest treasure: dhanaṃ seṭṭhaṃ va rakkhati. In the equivalent verse (4.10), the Udānavarga has ‘guards … as the banker [guards] his wealth’ (dhanaṃ śreṣṭhīva rakṣati).
STORY: It is a Fools’ Holiday in Sāvatthi – seven days given over to coarse behaviour and rude language. (The ‘fools’ keeping the holiday would smear themselves with ashes and cow dung and hang about in doorways uttering crude remarks until people gave them money to go away.) While it goes on, the Buddha’s followers arrange for him to receive food outside the city. When it is over, they tell him about the unpleasant time they have had over the last seven days, and he speaks the verses.
28. STORY: The Buddha observes the Elder Kassapa contemplating the coming into existence and passing away of beings in saṃsāra. He remarks that, as a Fully Awakened Buddha, he himself sees far more of this even than a great Arahat like Kassapa. He causes a likeness of himself to appear before Kassapa and utter this verse.
29. The wise one goes, leaving them behind / As a swift horse leaves a weak horse behind: Literally, ‘The wise one goes, having left [the unaware etc.] as a swift horse a weak horse.’ The equivalent in the Udāna (19.4) appears to be corrupt, as it seems to have the other horse winning.
STORY: This concerns a diligent monk and a lazy monk. The diligent monk works hard at his meditation practice; the lazy monk wastes time, while accusing his colleague of laziness. The diligent one attains Arahatship.
30. Maghavan: Sakka, king of the Thirty-Three Gods.
STORY: The Buddha explains that in a previous life Sakka was a prince called Mahāli. He attained the rank of Sakka by keeping seven observances: supporting his parents; supporting his elders; using courteous and friendly speech; avoiding divisive speech; avoiding avarice (i.e. practising generosity); being truthful; and overcoming anger. The splendid state of Sakka and his wives, and his victories over the asuras, are described.
31. fetters: saṃyojana – see Glossary.
STORY: A monk cannot make progress with his meditation subject, and goes to visit the Buddha to request a new one. On the way, he sees a forest fire burning up everything before it, and resolves to progress in the same way. The Buddha sends a likeness of himself to appear before him and speak the verse, and the monk attains Arahatship.
32. STORY: A monk called Nigama Tissa lives in a small town (nigama), and is content with the alms he receives there, never going to the neighbouring city of Sāvatthi to receive alms from wealthy donors such as Anāthapiṇḍika. He is praised for his frugality in eating.
CHAPTER 3
THE MIND
33–4. As the fletcher makes straight the arrow: cf. v. 80.
out of its watery home: oka-m-okata, taking the first oka as equivalent to ogha, ‘flood’, hence ‘its home, the water’ – cf. the notes to v. 91 (K. R. Norman 1997: 6, 69–70; Carter and Palihawadana 1987:
122).
STORY: A monk called Meghiya refuses to stay with the Buddha when requested, but insists on going alone to a mango grove, where he thinks he will be able to meditate better. He is unable to calm his mind there, and, beset by distractions, realizes his error and returns to the Buddha. Learning his lesson, Meghiya attains Stream-Entry.
This story comes from the Canon – Aṅguttara 4.354–8 and Udāna 34–7; for a translation and discussion, see Shaw 2006a: 24–8.
35. STORY: A laywoman (referred to only as ‘Mātika’s mother’, her son being the village headman) supports a group of sixty monks. Impressed by their behaviour, she asks them to teach her meditation, and soon attains the state of Non-Return, together with the ability to read minds. She then realizes that the monks – her ‘sons’ – have not yet attained this state: they have the capacity, as well as suitable lodgings and good companions, but they are not receiving the right kind of food to support their practice. Using her insight, she provides them with excellent food which helps to nourish their practice, and all attain Arahatship. Another monk, who has heard about the laywoman’s good food, goes to her village. Every time he wishes for a particular thing, Mātika’s mother provides it, and he soon realizes that she can read his thoughts. Fearing what she will do to him if he ever has an evil thought, he leaves and goes back to the Buddha.
However, the Buddha tells him that that laywoman’s village is precisely where he ought to be, in order to learn how to control his thoughts: he speaks the verse, and sends him back there. Guarding his thoughts and sustained by the wholesome food provided by Mātika’s mother, the monk attains Arahatship. Recollecting to see whether she has supported him in previous lives too, the monk discovers that in fact in ninety-nine of a hundred previous lives she has been an unfaithful wife of his who conspired with other men to cause his death. He thinks, ‘What wicked deeds this laywoman has done!’
Perceiving his thought, Mātika’s mother herself recollects and realizes that in a hundredth previous life as his wife she had spared him. She telepathically urges him to remember that life too. Filled with joy and gratitude for her support, the monk gives up every trace of clinging to existence and attains parinibbāna.
36. STORY: A monk becomes dissatisfied with the teaching he receives, since his teacher and preceptor are specialists in the Vinaya and the Abhidhamma respectively, and neither teaches him the way to become free from suffering. Feeling trapped by their constant emphasis on the rules, the monk gives up his practice and thinks of disrobing. He becomes very ill. When his teacher hears of this, he takes him to the Buddha, who instructs him in the one thing necessary in order to take care of all the rest: the way to guard his mind.
37. STORY: A young monk attends an older one, his uncle. While fanning him, the younger monk feels resentment and his mind starts to wander. He thinks about returning to the household life, marrying, and having a son. In the course of the daydream, he and his wife have an argument about who should carry the child on a journey. Refusing to let her husband have him, the wife insists on carrying the boy, but, growing weary, lets him fall under the wheels of a cart. Meaning to strike the imaginary wife, the young monk hits his uncle on the head with the fan. In shame, he tries to run away from the monastery, but is caught and taken to the Buddha, who counsels him with the verse.
The idea of the would-be meditator who becomes lost in daydream (or sometimes the illusory power of a deity) until he performs some foolish and violent act becomes a recurrent theme in Indian folklore.
38–9. STORY: A man who is unable to settle keeps going backwards and forwards between the monastic and the household life. The seventh time he goes back to the household life he sees his wife asleep, dribbling and snoring, and the sight reminds him of a corpse. Recollecting impermanence and suffering, he returns to the monastery. The monks are naturally somewhat doubtful about how long he is likely to stay, but this time he attains Arahatship. When he tells the monks that he has no longer any desire for the household life, they disbelieve him, but the Buddha confirms his claim, speaking these verses.
40. like a pot: According to the Commentary, as fragile as a pot.
territory: jita, originally ‘[that which has been] conquered’, but in Pali it has taken on the regular meaning of ‘empire’ or ‘territory’.
without resting: Following K. R. Norman (1997: 6). The Commentary takes anivesana as ‘without remnant of clinging’.
STORY: Five hundred monks who spend the Rains Retreat in a pleasant grove are harassed by the deities who live in the place, who send uncanny sights and afflict them with ailments to try to drive them away. The Buddha gives them a weapon to deal with these beings: the Mettā Sutta, a famous chant on the development of loving kindness towards all beings (Sutta Nipāta 143–52) – translated in many places: for translation and discussion see e.g. Shaw 2006a: 166–7.
41. STORY: A monk called Tissa becomes very ill with boils, which eat into his flesh and even into his bones, causing them to break. No medicine can help him, and so disgusting is his state that his fellow monks will have nothing to do with him. The Buddha visits his monastery and sets an example by himself heating water, cleaning the monk, and washing his robes. Once Tissa has been made comfortable, the Buddha teaches him with this verse. Tissa attains Arahatship and dies, entering parinibbāna.
The Buddha explains that in a previous birth Tissa was a bird-catcher, who broke the legs and wings of the birds he had caught to stop them flying away. However, he eventually saw the error of his ways and offered food to an Arahat, with the wish that he too might attain the same state.
42. STORY: The Buddha visits the herdsman Nanda to give him a teaching, and Nanda attains Stream-Entry. Nanda accompanies the Buddha on his way, but after bidding him farewell and leaving his presence he is accidentally killed by a hunter’s arrow. The monks remark that, if the Buddha had not come to Nanda on that occasion, Nanda would not have been killed. The Buddha tells them that, whether he had come or not, Nanda would not have escaped death. But, we are told, the monks did not ask the Buddha what Nanda had done in a previous life, so the reason for his sudden death remains unexplained.
43. What mother or father cannot do: As K. R. Norman points out (1997: 71), we would expect a parallel to v. 42, ‘Whatever mother or father can do’, but the change in wording, if there has been one, took place early, since it has also happened in the equivalent Udāna verse (31.10).
STORY: The commentarial story is somewhat reminiscent of the Greek myth of Tiresias. Soreyya, a banker’s son, who is married with two sons, sees the great Arahat Kaccāyana and feels desire for him because of his radiant golden body. As a result, Soreyya immediately turns into a woman, Soreyyā. Embarrassed, Soreyyā dares not return home, but travels to another town, where she marries a man and has two more sons. Years later, after meeting the Arahat again and confessing her earlier fault to him, she again becomes a man and ordains as a monk. People often ask the monk Soreyya which pair of sons he loves better, those he fathered or those he mothered, and he always replies that the ones he mothered are dearer to him than the ones he fathered. But later, when he has attained Arahatship, he says instead that he does not feel attachment for any beings.
CHAPTER 4
FLOWERS
44–5. These verses seem to suggest a half-pun on vijessati, ‘will conquer’, a derivative of ji-, ‘conquer’, and pacessati, ‘will pluck’, a derivative of ci-, ‘pick’. Some manuscripts actually have vicessati, ‘Who will discern this earth … ?’, ‘The Learner will discern this earth …’, from vi-ci-, another derivative of ci-. In some Prakrits the verbs ci- and ji- would have been been identical in form, making the pun a full one.
word of Dhamma: dhammapada.
a skilled one: A florist or garland-maker.
The Learner: sekkha, generally used of a follower of the Buddhist path who has reached one of the stages from Stream-Entry to Non-Return, but
not yet attained Arahatship.
STORY: The Buddha overhears some monks talking about the qualities of different kinds of soil that they have seen on their journey. He points out that it is more important to cleanse the soil of the heart.
46. foam … mirage: there seems to be a reference here to Saṃyutta Nikāya 3.142, in which the five khandhas (see Glossary) are compared to things that are empty and unreal: rūpa, ‘form’, to a mass of foam on water; vedanā, ‘feeling’, to a bubble; saññā, ‘perception’, to a mirage; saṅkhāra, ‘mental creations’, to a banana tree (which is hollow within); and viññāna, ‘consciousness’, to a magical trick.
nature: dhamma.
STORY: A monk has difficulty with the meditation object given to him by the Buddha, and determines to go and see him to ask for another one. On the way, he sees first a mirage, and then a rainstorm that causes bubbles to rise up and burst along a terrace. He understands that ‘self’ is just as unreal and transitory as the mirage and the bubbles. The Buddha sends a likeness of himself to him to speak the verse, and the monk attains Arahatship.
47. STORY: The Commentary has a long story of rivalry between princes of the Sākiya clan. Viḍūḍabha is the son of a king by the daughter of a slave woman, and feels himself slighted by his more aristocratic relatives. He takes bloody vengeance on them, but on the way home he himself and his retinue are swept away and drowned by a river in flood. The monks wonder why the innocent followers perished along with the prince. The Buddha explains that, although they have done nothing to deserve it in the present life, in a previous life they had poisoned the river, killing large numbers of fish.
48. STORY: That of Patipūjikā (‘Husband-Worshipper’). A god called Mālabhārin (‘Garland-Bearer’) is enjoying himself with a thousand nymphs (accharā) in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven. One of the nymphs, who is sitting in a tree picking blossoms to make garlands for him, suddenly disappears. She is reborn in the human world, where she grows up, marries, and has four children; but she never forgets her divine husband. She becomes a devoted Buddhist laywoman, and every time she performs an act of merit she makes a wish to be reborn with Mālabhārin (hence her nickname). Suddenly she becomes ill, dies, and is reborn in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven, where the other nymphs are still making garlands. Mālabhārin greets her with the cry ‘We haven’t seen you since morning! Where have you been?’ When he hears her story, and learns how short human life is, Mālabhārin wants to know whether human beings spend their lives in meritorious actions. He is quite shocked to learn the answer.
Back in the human realm, the monks themselves are shocked by the sudden death of Patipūjikā, who had given them alms that very morning. The Buddha speaks the stanza to remind them of the briefness of earthly existence.
49. In the village … nectar: The right attitude for a monk going into a village for alms.
Flower, colour or scent: K. R. Norman (1997: 8, 73) takes pupphaṃ vaṇṇa-gandhaṃ as an unusual compound, broken to avoid running over the caesura in the line of verse, in which case it would mean ‘the colour
and scent of a flower’.
STORY: The miser Kosiya and his wife do not wish to offer alms to the Buddha and the monks, so they prepare their meal in an upstairs room where they think no one will see them. This does not prevent the Elder Moggallāna, famous for his psychic powers, from standing outside the window. Kosiya then tells his wife to cook a very small pancake to offer in alms to Moggallāna, but each time she tries to do this the pancake destined for him becomes enormous. In the end, they offer the whole basketful to Moggallāna, who teaches them about generosity. Rather than simply accept the food for himself, Moggallāna brings Kosiya and his wife to offer their alms to the Buddha and 500 monks.
The Buddha, too, gives a teaching on generosity, and Kosiya and his wife attain Stream-Entry. The Buddha speaks the verse in praise of Moggallāna, encouraging the other monks to be like him.
50. STORY: The Ājīvika ascetic Pāṭhika seeks to undermine a laywoman’s attempts to offer alms to the Buddha: among other tricks, he tries to mislead the Buddha about the route to her house. When the Buddha finds his way there in spite of his efforts, Pāṭhika behaves so rudely that the laywoman is too upset to concentrate on the Buddha’s teaching. The Buddha speaks the verse to her to encourage her not to mind Pāṭhika’s behaviour, but to pay attention to her own conduct.
51–2. STORY: While the layman Chattapāṇi, a Once-Returner, is sitting listening to the Buddha, King Pasenadi also comes to visit. Since the Buddha is sitting down, Chattapāṇi does not get up. Pasenadi is angry, until the Buddha calms him by talking of Chattapāṇi’s good qualities. Another day, Pasenadi sees Chattapāṇi passing his palace, and sends for him. Now Chattapāṇi prostrates himself before Pasenadi and pays him every respect. Pasenadi wants to know why Chattapāṇi did not stand up for him on the previous occasion. Chattapāṇi points out that, if one were in the presence of a king of kings, and a subject king were to arrive, it would be insulting to the king of kings if one were to stand up for the subject king.
Pasenadi is impressed, and invites Chattapāṇi to teach the Dhamma in the women’s quarters of his palace. But Chattapāṇi says that it would be improper for him, as a layman, to do this, and recommends that the king ask the Buddha to send a monk. (There would have been no obstacle to a layman’s giving a Dhamma teaching: the problem is the question of his visiting the women’s quarters. Clearly Chattapāṇi does not wish to give Pasenadi any cause for suspicion, particularly in view of their previous misunderstanding.)
The Buddha sends Ānanda, who teaches the Dhamma to King Pasenadi’s two wives and their attendants. Mallikā learns and practises what she has heard, while Vāsabhakhattiyā does not. The Buddha speaks the verses on the different attitudes of the two queens.
53. STORY: This concerns the early life and marriage of the great laywoman Visākhā, known for her beauty, generosity and good sense. The story culminates in her donating a monastery to the Saṅgha. When it is complete, she walks around the monastery, accompanied by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and appears to be singing. In view of her usual extremely proper behaviour, the monks are shocked; however, the Buddha explains that she is not singing, but uttering an udāna, full of joy that her wish to make this great donation has been fulfilled. He explains that she originally conceived this wish hundreds of thousands of aeons before, in the times of the earlier Buddhas Padumuttara and Kassapa. He speaks the verse in praise of Visākhā.
54–5. tagara: The plant Tabernaemontana coronaria, whose roots were ground to make a fragrant powder.
STORY: Ānanda asks the Buddha whether there is any kind of perfume that can be wafted against the wind. The Buddha describes the qualities of the man or woman who takes refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha.
56. STORY: The Elder Kassapa refuses alms from 500 nymphs (accharā), wives of the god Sakka, because he wishes to accept alms from someone who is very poor. But Sakka and one of his ladies disguise themselves as an impoverished weaver-couple and give alms. The fragrance of the food they offer fills the city.
57. STORY: A monk called Godhika makes great efforts, and almost reaches the point of attaining Arahatship; however, because of illness, he keeps falling away from it. He determines to free himself by cutting his own throat. As he dies, he attains Arahatship and enters nibbāna. Māra looks for him, but cannot find him, and the Buddha utters the verse.
The story is a canonical one, from the Saṃyutta Nikāya (1.120f.): the Commentary on that (SA 1.144f.) explains that the chief monks tried to dissuade Godhika from this course, and that the Buddha tried to reach him but arrived too late. It was through controlling his pain and meditating at the point of death that Godhika attained Arahatship. The texts are very careful not to give any sort of encouragement to suicide, which is normally considered to bring kammic consequences as serious as those of any other kind of killing.
58–9. STORY: The (not apparently very edifying) story of two laymen, Sirigutta and Garahadinna, respectively the followers of the Buddha and of the Nigaṇṭhas (Jains). Garahadinna maintains that the Nigaṇṭhas know everything, past, present and future, while Sirigutta claims the same for the Buddha. Each tries to prove his point by inviting the other’s teacher or teachers for alms, and setting up a booby trap for them to fall into. The ascetics are caught, but the Buddha is not: indeed, some dishes that Garahadinna had deliberately left empty are found to be full of delicious alms-food for the Buddha and his monks. Garahadinna is profoundly moved and pays homage to the Buddha, inviting him to speak the traditional words of thanks in the form of a Dhamma talk, at the end of which both Sirigutta and Garahadinna attain Stream-Entry.
CHAPTER 5
FOOLS
60. league: Representing the Pali yojana, derived from the distance that can be ploughed by an ox-team in one day. It appears to have varied between about 4.5 and 9 miles (7.2 and 14.4 km) – see Rau 1959: 162–3.
STORY: The Commentary has a complex sequence of stories, pointing out the perils of adultery, and praising the wisdom of a good wife. King Pasenadi conceives a desire for the wife of a poor man, and seeks a pretext to get rid of her husband. He makes him his servant, and sets him a difficult task: to bring him red earth and blue and white lotuses from a river a yojana away, and be back with them by the time the king goes to bathe in the evening. Not only is this a long journey on foot, but the river is inhabited by nāgas. Not daring to stop to eat before he goes, the man takes his lunch of curry and rice with him in a basket. On his way he gives a portion of the food to a traveller, and when he reaches the river he throws in some rice for the nāgas. He offers to give the merit of these good actions to the nāgas in return for their red earth and blue and white lotuses. The nāga king appears in the form of an old man and gives him what he needs, and the man returns to the palace with the earth and flowers. However, Pasenadi, seeking to frustrate him, has had the doors locked early. The man leaves the gifts at the palace door, calling all to witness that he has obeyed the king’s command. He then takes refuge for the night in the monastery where the Buddha is staying.
Meanwhile, Pasenadi has a sleepless night, disturbed by strange and terrible sounds. In the morning he consults his household priest, who claims that they are sounds of ill omen, whose effects he should avert by sacrificing hundreds of living beings, including human boys and girls. Pasenadi’s wife, Mallikā, becoming aware of the preparations for the sacrifice, tells her husband that he is a fool for thinking that a man can save his own life through the death of another. She persuades him instead to go with her to visit the Buddha.
When they are in his presence, the king is too full of fear to speak, so Mallikā tells the Buddha about the unearthly sounds. The Buddha explains that these are the sounds made by four beings in a hell realm, who are suffering the consequences of lives spent committing adultery by being boiled for aeons in a giant kettle. King Pasenadi takes the point, and silently makes up his mind never again to set his heart on another man’s wife.
The king now knows how long the night is; the poor man knows how long a yojana is; and the adulterers know how long saṃsāra is – in confirmation of which the Buddha speaks the verse. The king sets free the poor man and all the chosen sacrificial victims, who praise Queen Mallikā for saving their lives. The Buddha tells the story of a previous life in which Mallikā saved the lives of herself, a hundred kings and a hundred princes.
61. steadfastly: K. R. Norman (1997: 10, 76) takes daḷhaṃ as ‘certainly’.
with fools: Taking bāle as a rare form of the instrumental plural. Alternatively, taking it as locative singular, ‘in a fool’.
STORY: The Elder Kassapa has a novice who persistently misbehaves, resents correction, and eventually burns down his master’s hut. The Buddha consoles Kassapa by speaking the verse. He tells the story of a previous life, in which a foolish monkey destroys the nest of a wise siṅgila (apparently a mythical horned bird): the novice was the monkey, and Kassapa the bird.
62. STORY: Ānanda the Banker (seṭṭhi) is a miser. He passes on some of his wealth to his son, Mūlasiri, but keeps the bulk of it hidden. He dies suddenly, and is reborn in a Caṇḍāla (‘untouchable’) family, as a deformed child who seems to bring bad luck on those around him. Even his mother, reduced to begging, eventually sends him away to beg by himself.
He finds his way into Mūlasiri’s house, where the sight of him frightens the children, and the servants throw him out. But the Buddha comes by, and sends for Mūlasiri. He tells the former Ānanda the Banker to point out to his son where he formerly hid his treasure.
63. STORY: Two friends are part of a crowd that has gathered to listen to the Dhamma. One of them listens and attains Stream-Entry, while the other steals a purse. The thief has food to eat that night, while the Stream-Enterer has nothing. The thief and his wife make fun of the Stream-Enterer, saying that he is too wise for his own good. The Stream-Enterer thinks about the thief, ‘At least this man, in his folly, doesn’t think he is wise.’
64. dhammas: Or ‘the Dhamma’, but here dhammaṃ seems to be used in a plural sense. Similarly with rasaṃ: ‘flavours’ or ‘flavour’.
STORY: The Elder Udāyi fancies himself as wise, and likes to sit in the teacher’s seat. However, when there he proves unable to answer the most elementary questions.
65. STORY: Thirty men are in a forest looking for a woman (presumably for sexual purposes). However, instead they meet the Buddha, who ordains them with the words, ‘Come, monks!’ They work hard at practising the Buddha’s teaching, and quickly attain Arahatship. When other monks remark on the speed of their attainment, he speaks the verse.
66. STORY: Suppabuddha (‘Well-Awakened’) suffers from leprosy. He hears the Buddha’s teaching and attains Stream-Entry. He wishes to speak to the Buddha about it, but, not daring to force his way through the crowd that is there, he decides to go and see him at the monastery later on.
While he is on his way there, the god Sakka decides to tempt him. He offers him enormous wealth to deny his faith in the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha, but Suppabuddha rejects the offer with scorn. Sakka reports his experience to the Buddha, who confirms that it would not be possible to prevail upon a Stream-Enterer like Suppabuddha to deny his faith.
Suppabuddha himself then goes to see the Buddha, who welcomes him in a friendly way. But, after he leaves, Suppabuddha is killed by a cow, and afterwards is reborn in the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods. The Buddha recounts the wrong actions in past lives which led to his dying in this way and to his having contracted leprosy. The verse is a comment on these actions.
67. working-out: vipāka, literally, ‘ripening’, the result of previous action (kamma).
STORY: A farmer who finds a stolen purse on his land is arrested and wrongly accused of theft. He calls on the Buddha, who knows what really happened, and is set free. Presumably the farmer’s trouble is thought to be the result of wrong actions in a previous life, but this is not explicitly stated.
68. working-out: See the note on v. 67.
STORY: King Bimbisāra’s gardener, Sumana, offers to the Buddha the flowers intended for the king. Such is his joy that he does not mind whether the king kills or banishes him for his action. The flowers hover round the Buddha all day, following him like a moving canopy. The king does not punish Sumana, but rewards him lavishly, and the Buddha foretells that one day the gardener will become a Paccekabuddha called Sumana. (Sumana means ‘Good Mind’, but also suggests sumanā, ‘jasmine’.)
69. STORY: The canonical story of the great Arahat Uppalavaṇṇā. The daughter of a wealthy merchant, she is so beautiful that many kings and princes desire to marry her. (Her name means ‘Having the Complexion of the [Dark-Blue] Water Lily’.) Not wishing to offend any of these great men, her father asks her to become a nun – which happens to be her own dearest wish, cultivated through many lives. She soon attains Arahatship through meditation while gazing at the flame of a lamp.
One night, while living in a hut in a forest, she is raped by a suitor from her earlier life. Afterwards, as a result of his crime against an awakened being, her attacker is swallowed up by the earth, and is reborn in the Avīci hell (cf. the story for v. 17). It is in relation to this man’s behaviour and subsequent fate that the Buddha speaks the verse.
Some people, discussing Uppalavaṇṇā’s misadventure, begin to speculate that perhaps Arahats are not free of sense-desire. The Buddha corrects them, speaking Dhammapada v. 401. He also makes a rule that, in future, nuns should not live alone in the forest, and the king provides them with accommodation within the city.
70. kusa: A grass (Sanskrit kuśa) used in Vedic rituals. It is regarded as sacred, but has very sharp blades.
Of those who’ve mastered dhammas: saṅkhāta-dhammānaṃ – i.e. by investigating them in insight meditation.
This verse is closely paralleled in a Jain text, the Uttarajjhayaṇa Sutta (9.44): see Roth 1976.
STORY: Jambuka, an Ājīvika ascetic, pretends to live on next to nothing, but is secretly surviving by eating his own excrement. The Buddha understands what is really happening, visits him, and explains to him the reason for his current degraded state – a series of coarse insults offered to an Arahat in the time of the Buddha Kassapa. The Buddha gives Jambuka a garment. Then Jambuka listens to the Buddha’s teaching, attains Arahatship, and ordains as a monk. When his lay followers come to visit him, he now directs them to the Buddha, as his master. The Buddha points out that, even if Jambuka were genuinely to abstain from food, as he previously pretended to do, this ascetic practice would not be worth a sixteenth part of the feeling of remorse that had led him to change his ways.
71. curdles: Added for clarity. Following Patna Dharmapada 107 and Udānavarga 9.17, K. R. Norman (1997: 11, 79) takes muccati as representing mucchati (< mūrcchati), ‘coagulates’, ‘goes off’. The Pali commentary takes sajju-khīraṃ as a compound, ‘that day’s milk’, ‘fresh milk’, so that the first two lines of the verse would then mean, ‘For an evil deed that is done, / Like fresh milk, does not ripen [at once]’. However, the alternative versions both have it as two separate words (sajjaṃ chīraṃ, PDhp 107; sadyaḥ kṣīraṃ, Uv 9.17), giving Norman’s reading, which I have followed here.
STORY: Two stories about ghosts (petas) seen by the Elders Moggallāna and Lakkhaṇa. When they report what they have seen to the Buddha, he explains the reason for the beings’ rebirth in this form. (1) A crow steals food brought by villagers for the Buddha Kassapa. It is reborn in the Avīci hell, and afterwards as a gigantic ghostly crow. (2) A farmer, angry because people visiting a Paccekabuddha have trampled his fields, destroys the holy man’s hut. He too is reborn in the Avīci hell, and afterwards as a ghostly snake.
72. reputation for knowledge: ñattaṃ, probably equivalent to Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit jñātra (K. R. Norman 1997: 11, 80).
causes his head to split [or ‘fall’]: The Commentary interprets ‘head’ as a synonym for ‘wisdom’: see Carter and Palihawadana 1987: 156. However, in ancient
Indian literature we find a persistent belief that a person’s head could split (or fall off) through overweening arrogance.
(It is described as happening to the sage Vidagdha Śākalya in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, III.9.26 (Roebuck 2000: 69; 2003:
59).)
STORY: Another tale of a ghost seen by the Elders Moggallāna and Lakkhaṇa. A disabled man has great skill in throwing stones, using it to cut the leaves of a banyan tree into amusing shapes and so earn a living. An apprentice learns the craft from him, but uses it to kill a Paccekabuddha. Finding out what has happened, the local people, who loved the Paccekabuddha, beat the apprentice to death. He is reborn first in the Avīci hell, and afterwards as a ‘sledgehammer ghost’: a figure, three-quarters of a league in height, being repeatedly battered on the head by burning sledgehammers.
73–4. respect among bad people: Taking asataṃ as genitive plural, following K. R. Norman (1997: 11, 80) and the Patna Dharmapada 178. The Commentary takes it as accusative
singular: ‘undue respect’.
renouncers: pabbajitā, those who have ‘gone forth’.
Let me be in charge / Of everything: Literally, ‘Let it be controlled by me in everything.’
STORY: A proud monk called Sudhamma feels slighted by the layman Citta because the latter pays attention to another monk who is a Once-Returner. He behaves badly to Citta, but eventually the Buddha prevails upon him to apologize. He repents his rudeness and attains Arahatship. Citta visits the Buddha, who praises him with v. 303.
75. Reminiscent of Kaṭha Upaniṣad II.1ff., which, interestingly in view of the commentarial story, concerns a young boy choosing between wealth and the spiritual path (tr. Roebuck 2000: 318; 2003: 277):
The better is one thing, the pleasanter another:
Both bind a man, to different ends.
Of the two, it is well for the one who chooses the better.
The one who chooses the pleasanter fails of his end.
. . . . . . . . .
These two are far apart, disparate,
Ignorance and what is called wisdom …
STORY: Tissa, a seven-year-old novice, attains Arahatship. When the monks remark on the immensely wealthy background that the boy has renounced, the Buddha speaks the verse.
CHAPTER 6
THE WISE MAN
76. such a one: tādisaṃ. In the Dhammapada, tādisa, ‘[one/s] like that’, seems always to be used as a term of respect – cf. vv. 196, 208.
STORY: A poor Brahmin called Rādha lives at a monastery and works for the monks. Despite his attentiveness, they are not willing to admit him to the Order. But Sāriputta, remembering a kindness on the part of Rādha, ordains him and takes him on his alms-round. Rādha is attentive in following Sāriputta’s instructions, and Sāriputta is grateful for his help.
77. then: Word added for clarity.
STORY: A group of monks behave badly, breaking all sorts of Vinaya rules. The Buddha tells Sāriputta and Moggallāna to admonish them. Some listen and reform, others voluntarily return to the household life, while the hardest cases are expelled from the Order.
78. STORY: The Elder Channa repeatedly insults Sāriputta and Moggallāna. After the Buddha’s death, when punished by being boycotted by the Order, he repents and soon attains Arahatship.
79. Dhamma-drinker: There is a pun here on pīti (< Sanskrit pīti), ‘drinking’, and pīti (< Sanskrit prīti), ‘joy’: ‘Dhamma-drinker’/ ‘One who takes joy in the Dhamma’. The commentator takes it purely in the former sense, while the Udānavarga, PDhp and GDhp all have prīti: see K. R. Norman 1997: 82.
STORY: A king and queen, Kappina and Anojā, become followers of the Buddha, and they and all their entourage are ordained as monks and nuns. All attain Arahatship. Kappina is heard wandering around the monastery exclaiming, ‘Oh, happiness! Oh, happiness!’ Some hearers think he is referring to his previous life as a monarch, but the Buddha explains that he is referring to the peace of nibbāna.
80. shape: Literally, ‘bend’ – cf. v. 145.
STORY: Paṇḍita Dāraka (‘Little Boy Wiseman’) is a seven-year-old novice. One day he accompanies Sāriputta into a village on the alms-round, carrying the Elder’s robe and bowl. On the way, he sees a drainage ditch directing the course of water, fletchers making arrows, and carpenters making chariot wheels. Seeing that even inanimate objects are capable of being led or shaped, he is inspired to strive for Arahatship.
Paṇḍita Dāraka hands the Elder’s robe and bowl back to him, and asks him to bring food for him too. Sāriputta is not offended by the novice’s behaviour, but sends him back to the monastery as he wishes. As the boy meditates, the sun and moon stand still. The Buddha becomes aware that Sāriputta is returning with food for the boy, so, to prevent him from interrupting the boy’s meditation, he detains him by asking him four tricky questions about food. While Sāriputta is answering them, the novice attains Arahatship. The Buddha then utters this verse.
81. STORY: The Arahat Elder Lakuṇṭaka Bhaddiya – said elsewhere to have been a very tiny man – is teased and tormented by novices and others, but remains unperturbed. (For more on this Elder, see the stories for vv. 260–61, 294–5.)
82. Dhamma teachings: dhammāni – an odd usage if it simply means ‘dhammas’, since it seems to be neuter instead of the expected masculine. K. R. Norman (1997: 83) takes it as an Eastern form of the masculine. I take it as a derivative (equivalent to Sanskrit dhārmyāṇi) meaning ‘things connected with the Dhamma’.
STORY: A girl called Kāṇā resents Buddhist monks because her mother gave away to some monks the food that the girl was meant to take to her future husband’s house, so the marriage that had been arranged for her fell through. However, when she actually hears the Buddha’s teaching, she becomes calm and generous towards the monks. She is rewarded by the king, who adopts her as his daughter and arranges her marriage to a kind and wealthy nobleman.
The Buddha speaks the verse referring to Kāṇā’s change from the sadness in her past to the peace of her present state.
83. go everywhere: Reading vajanti, ‘they go’; variant, cajanti, ‘they renounce’, giving ‘… practise renunciation everywhere’ – the reading that seems to be followed by the Commentary.
boast: Or possibly ‘chatter’/‘cause to chatter’ (lapayanti) – see Carter and Palihawadana 1987: 167–8; K. R. Norman 1997: 83.
from desire for sensual things: Taking kāma-kāmā as an ablative singular – literally, ‘from desire for desires (i.e. sense-pleasures)’. Some take it as a nominative plural
agreeing with ‘the good’ – ‘desiring desires’.
excitement or depression: uccāvacaṃ (literally ‘up-and-down-ness’) – a common pairing which refers to one of the hindrances to meditation, the tendency of the
mind to excessive highs and lows. (See ‘hindrance’ in Glossary.) K. R. Norman (1997: 12, 83) translates uccāvacaṃ as ‘variation’.
STORY: This concerns the contrasting behaviour of monks and others during a period of famine.
84. injustice: adhamma.
just: dhammika.
STORY: A layman wishes to become a monk, but his wife puts him off, first until she gives birth to the child she is expecting, then until the child is able to walk, then until the child is of age. At this point the layman decides that he does not care about her permission, and gets ordained anyway, after which he achieves Arahatship. Eventually the son and wife too are ordained, and they too attain Arahatship.
The message of the story seems to be that one should not desire worldly satisfactions at all, whereas that of the verse seems to be primarily that one should not seek them through improper means.
85–6. STORY: The residents of a street in Sāvatthi get together to give alms, and spend a whole night listening to the Dhamma. But some are overcome by desire or ill will and wander away, while others fall prey to lethargy and fall asleep. None of them manages to listen all night through.
87–9. states: dhammas (taking dhammaṃ as accusative plural). enlightenment factors: Often listed as seven: mindfulness (sati), investigation of dhammas (dhammavicaya), effort/courage (viriya), joy (pīti), calming (passaddhi), concentration (samādhi) and equipoise (upekkhā).
have attained nibbāna: parinibbutā, ‘are fully liberated’ – participle form from the same verb as parinibbāna.
STORY: A brief account of the Buddha’s teaching to a group of fifty monks who visit him at Jetavana, at the end of the Rains Retreat.
CHAPTER 7
THE ARAHAT
90. STORY: When Devadatta attempts to kill the Buddha by dropping a rock on him, the rock splits and passes the Buddha by, but a splinter injures his foot. The physician Jīvaka dresses the wound, but is unable to return at the appointed time to remove the bandage. He is extremely troubled, fearing that the Buddha will experience pain as a result. The Buddha, perceiving his thought at a distance, asks Ānanda to remove the dressing, and all is well. When Jīvaka returns, he tells the Buddha of his worry, and the Buddha speaks the verse in reply.
91. geese: The haṃsa is not a ‘swan’, as in Carter and Palihawadana 1987: 174–5, but a goose, greatly admired in ancient Indian literature for
the strength and beauty of its flight. Specifically, it probably refers to the bar-headed goose (Anser indicus), a bird that is remarkable for both the height and the speed of its flight on its migrations over the Himalayas between
India and Tibet. (For a discussion of the goose in Indian art and literature, see Vogel 1962.)
any kind of home: okamokaṃ. A variant reading is okam oghaṃ, ‘their watery home’, ‘their home, the water’ – cf. v. 34. This agrees with the Udāna reading (17.1). For the geese, this
would apply to the pools where they have been living before migration; for the mindful, it would mean the flood of saṃsāra (K. R. Norman 1997: 14, 85–6). Carter and Palihawadana (1987: 174) translate the line as ‘One shelter after another they
leave,’ but offer the alternative of ‘Home they abandon, the flood.’
STORY: Other monks misunderstand the actions of the Elder Kassapa, thinking that they stem from attachment to particular households of lay supporters. The Buddha explains that Kassapa is not attached to the households, but is obeying the Buddha’s instructions. Kassapa is as free as the (migrating) goose in the verse.
92. STORY: The monk Belaṭṭhasīsa, intent on spending time in meditation, stores food overnight to avoid going on an alms-round every day. The Buddha, on hearing of this, makes a Vinaya rule against it. But he declares that Belaṭṭhasīsa himself has not done wrong, because the rule had not yet been given, and also because he had stored only a modest amount of boiled rice.
93. STORY: When the Elder Anuruddha’s robes are worn out, a goddess called Jālinī, who was his wife in a previous existence, leaves celestial cloth in a rubbish heap so that he will find it. The Buddha and the chief Elders sew the cloth into robes. Meanwhile, the goddess inspires villagers to bring them all sumptuous food. When some monks express disapproval, believing that Anuruddha had asked his supporters for these gifts, the Buddha puts them right with the verse.
94. calm: samatha, the concentration aspect of meditation.
STORY: Sakka himself comes to do honour to the great Arahat Kaccāyana. When some other monks are offended that he has done this only for Kaccāyana, and not all the Elders, the Buddha speaks the verse in praise of Kaccāyana.
95. royal pillar: indakhīla, the main pillar before the gate of a town.
Like the earth … royal pillar: The Commentary points out that the earth doesn’t mind whether pure things, like garlands of flowers, or impure ones, like
urine and excrement, are thrown on it; and similarly the pillar in front of the town gate doesn’t mind whether people hang
offerings on it or little boys relieve themselves against it.
no more wanderings in saṃsāra: Literally, ‘no more saṃsāras [i.e. rebirths in this world or that]’.
STORY: A monk fancies himself injured by Sāriputta, and works up a tremendous head of resentment against him. But, when he sees the forbearance of the Elder, he repents. The Buddha speaks the verse in praise of Sāriputta.
96. STORY: A seven-year-old novice, attending upon an Elder, loses an eye when it is accidentally caught by the handle of the Elder’s fan. Far from being angry, the boy attempts to conceal his injury, and when it is found out he reassures the Elder, saying that it was neither the Elder’s fault nor his own, but that of the round of existence.
97. That man who’s faithless … brave fellow indeed: assaddho akataññū ca sandhicchedo ca yo naro / hatāvakāso vantāso sa ve uttamaporiso. An elaborate sequence of puns, whose most obvious meanings are all disparaging, but which on reflection reveal a set of
meanings that express praise. For example sandhiccheda means ‘burglar’, but the context here shows that it is also to be taken in its literal sense as ‘breaker/cutter of links’.
Full understanding of the double meanings seems to have been lost in the Pali commentarial tradition, but remembered in the
Chinese commentaries on the Sanskrit version (Hara 1992).
Here, meaning (1) is the bad, and (2) the good sense:
faithless/desireless: assaddha. (1) Without faith (saddhā) in its usual sense of confidence in the Buddha’s path. It can also refer to the quality that causes a person to practise
generosity, so a-ssaddha would then mean ‘miserly’. (2) More rarely, saddhā can mean ‘desire’ (confidence in the wrong things?), so I have taken assaddha in its laudatory sense as meaning ‘free from desire’. Some translators have taken assaddha in its laudatory sense to mean ‘not credulous’; however, there is little evidence that in ancient times saddhā was ever regarded as equivalent to credulity, since ‘faith’ in the Buddhist tradition has never meant ‘believing in’ dogmas
etc. In the story below, Sāriputta is complimented not on lack of excessive credulity, but on the fact that, as one who has
experienced attainments for himself, he no longer needs saddhā (K. R. Norman 1979).
Ungrateful/Who knows the unmade: akataññū. (1) a-kataññū, ‘ungrateful’ (< ‘not (a-) knowing (ññū) what has been done (kata) [for him]’). (2) akata-ññū, ‘knowing (ññū) the unmade (akata [= nibbāna])’ (cf. v. 383). Ingratitude is regarded with particular disapproval in Buddhism, and this pun is a fairly common one.
burglar/breaker of links: sandhiccheda. (1) ‘Breaker of links’, i.e. ‘burglar’ (one who broke his way through the partition walls (probably of wood or clay) in
ancient Indian homes). (2) ‘Breaker of the links’ that bound him to existence.
Who’s blown his chances/Who’s gone beyond chances: hatāvakāsa, ‘having destroyed opportunity’. (1) Having destroyed his chances of performing good actions. (2) Having destroyed occasions
for quarrels, or, perhaps, having destroyed occasions for good and bad kamma to arise – the interpretation I have followed here.
an eater of forbidden food/who’s got rid of desire: vantāsa – vanta + āsa. (1) An eater (āsa) of that which is vomited (vanta) – i.e. leftover food, regarded as unclean. (2) One who has vomited out (vanta) hope or expectation (āsā).
brave fellow/fine person: uttamaporisa, taken by most translators as equivalent to uttama purisa (Sanskrit uttama puruṣa), ‘topmost man/person’; but, as Hara (1992) has pointed out, it is more likely to mean ‘possessing the highest manliness/courage’
(Sanskrit uttamapauruṣa), which is appropriate either to (1) a daring criminal or (2) an Arahat who has made the supreme effort to attain liberation.
STORY: The Buddha praises Sāriputta, who relies not on belief but on experience to know the truth of his teaching.
The Pali Commentary does not address the fact that the most obvious meaning of the words is disparaging or even criminal. Perhaps in an earlier version of the story the Buddha was being deliberately provocative by describing the great Elder in terms that would normally be applied to a bandit chief – cf. the startling words applied to Lakuṇṭaka Bhaddiya, notes to vv. 294–5.
98. What a lovely place it is: taṃ bhūmiṃ rāmaṇeyyakaṃ, following K. R. Norman (1997: 14, 88), who takes the odd syntax here as a split compound (cf. the note on v. 49), equivalent to taṃ bhūmi-rāmaṇeyyakaṃ, literally, ‘that is a loveliness of a place’. His interpretation is supported by PDhp 245, which has taṃ bhomaṃ rāmaṇīyakaṃ, ‘that is earthly delightfulness’. Probably there is an underlying sense of ‘that [i.e. the presence of Arahats] is what makes a place lovely’.
STORY: When the Buddha goes to visit Revata, the youngest brother of Sāriputta, Revata by his psychic power (iddhi) creates a wonderful residence for the Buddha in the forest. Monks who have seen that residence find the forest a wonderful place. However, two old monks who get lost in the same forest see it as merely a wilderness of thorny acacia trees. The Buddha explains the different perceptions people have of the forest, but points out that to an Arahat it does not matter what kind of forest it is.
99. Where folk find no delight: ‘Folk’ meaning ‘worldly folk’.
sensual things: Literally, ‘desires’, as in v. 83.
STORY: A monk is trying to meditate in the forest. A courtesan has arranged to meet a client there, and when he fails to turn up she turns her charms on the monk, who becomes distracted. The Buddha, at a distance, becomes aware of what is going on, and sends a likeness of himself to the monk, through which he teaches him and speaks this verse. The monk attains Arahatship.
CHAPTER 8
THOUSANDS
‘Thousands’ sequences seem to have been popular, as they occur in all known versions of the Dharmapada literature, though not always under that title. Verses of the same type occur also in Jain and Hindu texts: see Roth 1976. In my translation, I have adapted the syntax of the verses to convey what I feel to be a similarly proverbial feeling in English: see my comments on individual verses.
100. Better than a thousand sayings … Is one word of meaning: Literally, ‘If [there are] a thousand sayings … better [is] one word of meaning …’
word: pada, ‘word’ or ‘saying’.
Which calms you to hear it: Literally, ‘Hearing which, one is calmed’.
STORY: An executioner, who has just retired after killing hundreds of criminals, gives alms to Sāriputta. During Sāriputta’s talk after the meal, the executioner’s mind is distracted by the thought of his former bloody actions. The Elder reminds him that he did not originally undertake the post at his own will, but only because he had been ordered to do so by the king. The man’s mind then becomes calm, and he is able to profit by Sāriputta’s teaching. Later that day he is killed by a yakkhinī in the form of a cow, and is reborn in the Tusita heaven. When asked where the former executioner has been reborn, the Buddha utters the words:
On hearing the well-spoken word,
He who killed thieves in the city
Gained patience in accordance with that
And rejoices, having gone to heaven.
The monks express surprise that a man who had performed cruel acts for fifty-five years should attain such a state after hearing only a small amount of teaching. The Buddha explains that the Dhamma should not be thought of as little or much, and he speaks the Dhammapada verse.
101. Better than a thousand verses … Is one word of verse: Literally, ‘If [there are] a thousand verses … better [is] one word of verse … ’
Which calms you to hear it: As in v. 100.
STORY: A man called Bāhiya loses everything in a shipwreck, so on reaching the shore he makes himself a garment from tree-bark. Since ascetics often wore such garb, he is taken for a holy man, and people address him as ‘Arahat’. He starts to wonder if he really is an Arahat. A deity who meditated with him in an earlier life sees his danger, and encourages him to go and see the Buddha, who teaches him and offers to ordain him once he has equipped himself with robes and bowl. While he is trying to find them, he is killed by a yakkhinī in the form of a cow. The Buddha reveals that Bāhiya has attained Arahatship, after hearing just a few short words of teaching.
102–3. Better than speaking a hundred verses … Is one word of meaning: Literally, ‘Though someone might speak a hundred verses … better [is] one word of Dhamma (dhammapada) … ’
Which calms you to hear it: As in v. 100.
you … yourself: Literally, ‘one … oneself’ – and similarly in the following verses.
There is a close parallel in Jain literature to v. 103, Uttarajjhayaṇa Sutta 9.34: see Roth 1976.
STORY: Kuṇḍalakesī (‘Curly-Haired’ – also known elsewhere as Bhaddā) is the beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy merchant of Rājagaha, and her parents try to keep her secluded from men in order to find a suitable husband for her. But one day she looks out of the window and sees a captured bandit being brought back to the city in chains, and instantly falls in love with him. She refuses all food until her parents agree to make this man her husband. Her father bribes an official to save the bandit from execution (and execute somebody else), and the bandit and Kuṇḍalakesī are married.
Kuṇḍalakesī does everything possible to win her husband’s heart; but he has not really changed, and soon forms a plan to kill her and steal her jewels. He pretends to be troubled because he has a vow to fulfil: when he was facing execution, he says, he swore, if he were saved, to make a sumptuous offering to the deity of Robbers’ Cliff, the execution place, where robbers are thrown down to their deaths. So Kuṇḍalakesī prepares the offerings, dresses in her finest garments and jewellery, and accompanies her husband, alone, to the top of Robbers’ Cliff.
When they get there, he tells her to take off her jewels, as he is going to kill her. Her pleas fail to melt his heart, so she decides to rely on quick thinking. She begs permission to embrace him before she dies; and as she does so, she gets behind him, gives him a shove, and pushes him off the cliff. The deity of the place salutes her for her wisdom, but she is troubled. She dares not return to her parents, so she becomes a nun with the Nigaṇṭhas (Jains). A skilled disputant, she wanders India, challenging anyone to debate with her. If a householder beats her in debate, she will become his servant; if a renunciant does so, she will join his Order.
No one is able to defeat her, until one day she arrives at Sāvatthi when Sāriputta is there. He answers all her questions, but she cannot answer his. She asks to become his follower; but he takes her to the Buddha, who has her ordained as a nun. In a short time she becomes an Arahat with great powers, the quickest in understanding of all the nuns. The monks discuss the fact that Kuṇḍalakesī has become an Arahat after very little teaching; and that she has come to them after fighting a bandit* and defeating him. So the Buddha speaks the two verses.
104–5. Better to conquer yourself: Literally, ‘A better conquest is self’ – see K. R. Norman 1997: 89.
spirit: gandhabba – see Glossary.
STORY: A Brahmin asks the Buddha whether he knows about both winning and losing, and asks him about losing. The Buddha speaks of things that lead to loss. He then asks the man the reason for his interest in the topic, and the Brahmin reveals that he is a professional gambler. Sometimes he wins, and sometimes the other man wins. The Buddha says that such victories are trivial, and speaks the verse on the nature of the truest kind of victory.
106. offerings: Word added for clarity. The commentary takes it as ‘a thousand pieces of money’.
STORY: The uncle of Sāriputta – who comes from a Brahmin family – thinks he will win rebirth in the world of Brahmā by sacrificing every month with a thousand pieces of money. Sāriputta takes him to the Buddha, who points out that it would be better for the man if he were to offer a spoonful of boiled rice to Sāriputta.
107. STORY: As for v. 106, but told about Sāriputta’s nephew.
108. All that is not worth a quarter as much / As reverence to those who are upright: Literally, ‘All that does not go to a quarter, better is reverence to the straight-goers.’
STORY: As for v. 106, but told about a friend of Sāriputta.
109. A verse that is frequently recited in blessing after the giving of alms to monks. As was noted by Fausbøll (1855: 289), it is an almost exact translation of v. 2.121 of the Mānavadharmaśāstra, ‘The Laws of Manu’, an important Hindu text in Sanskrit dated to the late centuries BCE, except that in that text the four things said to increase are ‘life-span, knowledge, fame and strength’.
STORY: According to a prediction, a boy is fated to be killed at an early age by a yakkha called Avaruddhaka; however, the Buddha recites protective chants for him, benign deities gather round, and Avaruddhaka is unable to touch him. The boy survives, and there is a new prediction: that he will live to 120 years of age. When the monks later discuss the things that might cause an increase in life-span, the Buddha speaks the verse.
110. Better than living a hundred years … a meditator: Literally, ‘One who might live a hundred years … better [for him is] one day’s life [when he is] well behaved, a meditator.’
STORY: The seven-year-old novice Saṃkicca is a remarkable child who is in his last life and ripe for Arahatship. He joins a group of forest monks. The leader of a gang of 500 bandits demands one of the monks to use as a human sacrifice. Though each of the monks volunteers to go, Saṃkicca insists, and is taken to the bandits’ camp. The bandit leader proves miraculously unable to kill him, and he and his followers all become monks, followers of Saṃkicca. Commenting on the contrast between the present and past lives of these monks, the Buddha speaks the verse.
111. For the syntax, see the notes on v. 110.
STORY: The Elder Khāṇu Koṇḍañña sits so still in meditation in the forest that one night a gang of 500 bandits mistake him for a tree-stump (khāṇu, hence his name) and prop their bags of loot round him. In the morning, seeing him there, they think he is a spirit and start to run away. The Elder reassures them; they apologize, and ask him to ordain them as monks. The Buddha speaks the verse, as in v. 110.
112. For the syntax, see the notes on v. 110.
STORY: The Elder Sappadāsa (‘Having a Snake as his Slave’) becomes discontented as a monk, but does not wish to return to the lay life, so decides to commit suicide. He puts a snake into a jar, and tries to make it bite him, but it refuses. Then he decides to cut his throat with a razor, but just as the razor is resting against his throat he recollects his conduct since he joined the Order and realizes that it has been without fault. Filled with joy, he goes on to develop insight and attains Arahatship.
When he tells his fellow monks what has happened, they refuse to believe that anyone could have attained Arahatship in such a short time; they also wonder why the snake refused to bite him. The Buddha explains that the snake was Sappadāsa’s slave in a previous life. Speaking the verse, he confirms that it is possible to achieve Arahatship in such a short time.
113. For the syntax, see the notes on v. 110.
arising and passing away: i.e. of beings.
STORY: Paṭācārā, born into a wealthy family of Sāvatthi, is kept in seclusion (cf. the story of Kuṇḍalakesī for vv. 102–3), but she falls in love with a servant boy and runs away with him. They live hard-working lives together in a village. When Paṭācārā becomes pregnant, she wishes to see her parents, according to custom, despite her husband’s fear that they will ill-treat him; however, she gives birth to a son on the way, and returns to the village without seeing them.
A second time she becomes pregnant, and tries to see her parents, taking her husband and child with her. On the way, during a terrible storm, she goes into labour. Her husband goes to find brushwood to make a shelter for her, but is bitten by a snake and dies. Paṭācārā has the baby in the open. Thinking her husband has abandoned her, she continues towards her parents’ house, carrying the baby on her hip and holding the other child by the hand. Finding her husband’s body by the roadside, she blames herself for what has happened to him.
Eventually she reaches a river. She is too weak to carry both children, so she first takes the baby across, then goes back for the older child. But, while she is crossing, a bird of prey sees the baby and carries it off, thinking that it is a piece of meat. As she tries to shout at the bird to scare it away, the other child thinks she is calling him, runs into the river, and is swept away.
Paṭācārā carries on to Sāvatthi, hoping to find her parents, but there learns that the very same storm in which she suffered has blown down the family house, killing her mother, father and brother: they have only just been cremated. On hearing this final piece of news, Paṭācārā goes mad, and runs around the city naked, lamenting for her family. Some people call her a crazy woman, and throw things at her.
She comes to the Jetavana monastery, where the Buddha is staying. His followers try to keep her away from him, but he tells them to admit her. When she comes near to him, he tells her, ‘Sister, regain mindfulness,’ and she comes back to her senses. A man gives her his cloak, and she puts it on and prostrates herself before the Buddha. She begs him to be her refuge, and tells him her terrible story. He agrees to be her refuge, and tells her not to be troubled. Just as today, he explains, throughout her wanderings in saṃsāra she has shed tears over sons and other loved ones:
More than the water in the four oceans
Is the vast expanse of tears,
The grief of a man, touched by suffering.
Why then, lady, are you unaware?
As he speaks, her grief becomes less, and he reminds her (with Dhammapada vv. 288–9) that family cannot be a refuge at the time of death. She attains Stream-Entry, and asks to be ordained as a nun.
One day, as she pours out water to wash her feet, she sees that some streams run a little way, and disappear; some run a little further, and some further yet. It reminds her that some beings die in childhood, some in the prime of life, and some in old age. The Buddha sends a likeness of himself to stand before her and teach her, uttering the present verse. She attains Arahatship.
114. For the syntax, see the notes on v. 110.
the deathless state: nibbāna.
STORY: That of Kisā Gotamī and the mustard seed – perhaps the best-known of all Buddhist stories. Kisā Gotamī (‘Gotamī the Lean’), from a poor background, marries a wealthy merchant’s son. When she bears him a boy child, her happiness seems complete; but the boy dies as soon as he is able to walk. Unable to accept that he is dead, Kisā Gotamī wanders from house to house, carrying the child and asking for medicine to cure him, until a wise man sends her to the Buddha.
The Buddha tells her that he can cure the child if she brings him a pinch of mustard seed, but it has to be from a house where no one has died. As she searches from house to house, she realizes that there is no house where no one has died: the living are few, and the dead are many. She leaves the child’s body in the forest, and returns to the Buddha. He teaches her with Dhammapada v. 287 – on which Kisā Gotamī attains Stream-Entry, and is ordained as a nun.
One night, seeing the flames of a lamp flaring up and flickering out, she contemplates impermanence. The Buddha sends a likeness of himself before her, to teach her and speak this verse, and she attains Arahatship.
115. For the syntax, see the notes on v. 110.
STORY: A wealthy laywoman, Bahuputtikā (‘She Who has Many Children’), has seven sons and seven daughters, all of them married and doing well. When her husband dies, her sons keep trying to persuade her to give up her property to them, promising that they will look after her. But when she finally does so, her daughters-in-law treat her with contempt. Tiring of this, she leaves them and becomes a nun. As she has entered the Order in old age, she feels that she has to make an extra effort, and sits all night in meditation. The Buddha sends his likeness to her, and speaks the verse, and Bahuputtikā becomes an Arahat.
CHAPTER 9
EVIL
116. what is right: kalyāṇa, ‘the pure’, ‘the meritorious’, ‘the good’.
good: puñña.
STORY: Ekasāṭaka (‘He Who has One Robe’), a poor Brahmin, and his wife have only one outer garment between them. They take it in turns to wear it, and go to hear the Buddha. One night, however, the Brahmin feels a strong urge to offer the garment to the Buddha, and, after struggling all night with selfish thoughts, he lays it at the Buddha’s feet, crying out three times, ‘I have won!’ King Pasenadi is present, and on learning what the Brahmin has done he is so impressed that he gives him more clothes, which again Ekasāṭaka offers to the Buddha. In the end, Pasenadi rewards the Brahmin with four of everything (elephants, horses, thousands of coins, wives, female slaves, and villages). The Buddha tells the monks that if Ekasāṭaka had made the donation in the first watch, he would have received sixteen of everything; if in the middle watch, eight of everything; but as he did not give until the last watch he received only four of everything.
117. painful: dukkha.
STORY: A monk, discontented with the rule of celibacy, gets into the habit of masturbating – an offence requiring confession to the Order. The Buddha rebukes him with the verse.
118. pleasant: sukha.
STORY: A young woman who is parching corn (similar to making popcorn) in a field sees the Elder Kassapa the Great. Delighted, she offers him some of the corn and asks to share in the Dhamma that he has seen. Shortly afterwards she is bitten by a snake and dies; but, as she is still full of the joy of giving, she is reborn in the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods as the goddess Lājā (‘Parched Corn’). In her divine form, she comes back to clean Kassapa’s cell and put out everything he needs, just as a novice monk would do.
When Kassapa finds her there, he fiercely rebukes her, and she is very upset. The Buddha explains to her that the Elder was right to maintain the rules regarding the contact between monks and women, but it is also understandable that she should wish to repeat the works of merit that have brought her such happiness.
119–20. evil action … good action: ‘action’ added for clarity.
STORY: The wealthy banker Anāthapiṇḍika falls on hard times, and loses his wealth. He continues to donate to the Buddha and the monks out of what he has. A deity* of his household tries to persuade him to give up making offerings in order to save what he has left. Because of this wrong advice, Anāthapiṇḍika evicts the deity from his household, and he/she can find nowhere else to stay. The deity approaches a succession of higher-ranking deities for help, without success, until Sakka advises him/her to perform an act to make amends to Anāthapiṇḍika, and then to ask his pardon.
The deity disguises him/herself as Anāthapiṇḍika’s steward, approaches the banker’s debtors, and recovers the money they owe him. He/she also finds him some hidden treasure without an owner, and so restores the banker to his former wealth. Finally the deity approaches Anāthapiṇḍika and begs his pardon.
121. STORY: A monk is in the habit of leaving his requisites lying about. He leaves his bed and chair outside, where they are liable to be destroyed by sun, rain and insects. When rebuked about it, he maintains that this is merely a trivial fault, and that very little damage has been done. The Buddha points out that this is not a useful way to think: a vessel left outside may not be filled by the first drop of rain, but if it stands out in rainfall after rainfall it will eventually be filled.
122. good: puñña.
STORY: A layman hears from the Buddha that it is good both to give and to urge others to give, so he invites the Buddha and his monks for a meal the next day, and asks all his fellow villagers to join him in giving. A wealthy but somewhat stingy banker is angry that the layman has involved others in this way. The banker takes tiny amounts of food, such as he can hold between three fingers, and puts them in the offering-dish. (Because of this, he receives the nickname Biḷālapādaka – ‘Cat’s Foot’.) The layman puts together all the offerings from other people, but places the banker’s offerings apart. He then puts grains from the banker’s offerings into the other, more sumptuous, dishes. The banker thinks that the layman is planning to expose his meanness in front of everyone, so he hides a knife in his clothes, meaning to kill the layman before he can say anything about it. But the layman simply requests blessings on all those who have given, including the banker. Stricken by remorse, the banker confesses the whole story to the Buddha. The Buddha says that no good deed is a trifling matter, and speaks the verse. Biḷālapādaka attains Stream-Entry.
123. evil actions: ‘actions’ added for clarity.
STORY: A merchant called Mahādhana (‘Great Wealth’) abandons a planned journey because he has heard that 500 bandits are planning to plunder his caravan. A group of monks report this to the Buddha, and he speaks the verse. The monks attain Stream-Entry.
124. for one who does not do evil: ‘evil’ added for clarity.
STORY: A rich man’s daughter falls in love with a hunter called Kukkuṭamitta (‘Friend of Dogs’ or ‘Having Dogs as Friends’) and follows him back into the forest. They marry, and she bears him seven sons. One day, when all the sons are grown up and married, the Buddha comes to the forest where Kukkuṭamitta and his sons hunt, and leaves his footprint near one of Kukkuṭamitta’s nets. Kukkuṭamitta catches nothing that day, and when he sees the Buddha he blames him for it and wants to kill him. He aims his bow, but can neither shoot nor let it go. When his sons come looking for him, they too become fixed there like statues. When they do not return home, Kukkuṭamitta’s wife goes looking for them, accompanied by her daughters-in-law.
Seeing the Buddha there, with the men pointing their arrows at him, Kukkuṭamitta’s wife cries out, ‘Don’t kill my father! Don’t kill my father!’ The men take her words literally, thinking the Buddha is their father-in-law and grandfather, and at once have a change of heart towards him. The Buddha allows them to lower their bows, and they ask his pardon. He teaches the Dhamma to them, and Kukkuṭamitta with his seven sons and seven daughters-in-law attains Stream-Entry and gives up the taking of life.
Afterwards, discussing the event with Ānanda, the Buddha reveals that, while the rest of the family had attained Stream-Entry that day, Kukkuṭamitta’s wife was a Stream-Enterer already, having reached that state while still a girl (not Arahatship, as Burlingame mistakenly has it (1921: II, 279)).
The monks are surprised that a girl who was a Stream-Enterer had married a hunter. Stream-Enterers do not take life; yet, every day, Kukkuṭamitta’s wife had brought him his bow, arrows and nets, which he had used for precisely this purpose. The Buddha explains that she had acted not with the intention of taking life, but simply with the intention of doing her husband’s bidding.
125. STORY: A hunter called Koka meets a monk in the forest and blames him for his lack of success in hunting. Koka sets his dogs on the monk, who climbs a tree. Koka shoots the monk in the feet, and in his agony the monk lets his outer robe fall off. It lands on the hunter, whose dogs mistake him for the monk and devour him. The monk is greatly troubled, fearing that he himself has caused the hunter’s death. The Buddha reassures him, and tells the story of a previous birth in which Koka had tried to kill someone else and suffered death himself in the same way.
126. Some find a womb: i.e. are reborn as human beings or animals.
Those who go well: sugatino, perhaps a pun, suggesting as it does both those who behave well and those who have a good rebirth (gati).
STORY: A jeweller and his wife regularly offer alms-food to an Elder called Tissa. One day, while the Elder is there, the jeweller receives a messenger from King Pasenadi, bringing a ruby to be cut and polished. When the jeweller is not looking, the family’s pet crane swallows the ruby, thinking it is a piece of meat. The jeweller accuses the Elder of stealing the jewel, and, despite the remonstrances of his wife, he tortures and beats the monk. While so doing, he also strikes and kills the crane, which is nearby.
Once the crane is dead, the monk can reveal that it has eaten the jewel, which is then found in its crop. (He would not say anything before, to protect the bird from the jeweller.) The jeweller repents, and begs the monk for forgiveness, which he grants.
Soon after, the monk dies as the result of the ill treatment he has received. Being an Arahat, he attains nibbāna. The crane is reborn in the womb of the jeweller’s wife. When the jeweller’s wife dies, she is reborn in a heavenly world, because of her kind thoughts towards the monk. The jeweller is reborn in a hell world.
127. STORY: Three groups of monks, on their way to visit the Buddha, witness or experience disturbing events. They ask the Buddha for explanations. (1) A thatched roof catches fire, and some of the burning thatch flies up into the air. A crow, flying past, is caught by it and burned to death. (2) A woman, thought to be a bringer of bad luck at sea, is thrown overboard and drowns. (3) Seven monks are trapped in a cavern when a rock falls in front of it. No one can remove it, but on the seventh day it rolls away by itself.
In each case, the Buddha offers an explanation. (1) The crow was formerly a farmer, who burned to death an ox that would not do what he wanted it to. As a result, he had suffered this fate in his last seven existences. (2) The woman had formerly drowned a dog, which had annoyed her by persistently following her. (It had been her husband in a yet earlier life, and had not lost its affection for her.) She had therefore suffered death by drowning in her last hundred existences. (3) The monks had been cowherd boys who had kept a lizard trapped without food. However, in the end they had let it go. They had suffered a similar fate in their last fourteen existences.
128. STORY: Suppabuddha, the Buddha’s uncle and former father-in-law, resents him for abandoning his daughter – and perhaps also on behalf of his son, Devadatta. He repeatedly insults the Buddha by standing drinking in the street, and blocking his path to the houses where he has been invited for alms: a serious offence. The Buddha turns back without saying anything, but he smiles. When Ānanda asks him why, the Buddha tells him that, as a result of his offence, in seven days’ time, while standing on the ground floor of his palace, Suppabuddha will be swallowed by the earth (cf. the story for v. 17). When a spy reports this back to Suppabuddha, he makes up his mind to prove the Buddha wrong. He goes to live on the top floor of his palace, and has the stairs removed. He has two strong men stationed at each door, with orders to prevent him from going down, whatever might happen. Hearing of these precautions, the Buddha comments that there is nowhere that Suppabuddha can go to avoid his fate, and he speaks the verse.
On the seventh day, the royal charger breaks loose on the ground floor of the palace. Suppabuddha, hearing the commotion, makes a move to go down to it, since he alone knows how to quiet the horse. At that moment the doors swing open, the stairs reappear, and the strong men posted at the door seize Suppabuddha by the neck and throw him down. This happens again on every floor. When he reaches the ground floor, the earth opens and swallows him up, and he is reborn in the Avīci hell.
CHAPTER 10
THE ROD
Daṇḍa – literally, ‘rod’, ‘stick’ – is also widely used figuratively in senses such as ‘punishment’, ‘violence’. Some previous translators of the Dhammapada have translated it in this chapter as ‘violence’. I have kept to the more literal translation, since the word is used in the chapter in the literal (v. 135) as well as the figurative senses. I did not think that readers would have any difficulty in understanding this usage, since figurative expressions such as ‘the big stick’ are also common in English.
129–30. All beings: ‘beings’ inserted for clarity.
Seeing their likeness to yourself, / You should neither kill nor cause to kill: Literally, ‘Making [one]self the simile [i.e. comparing them with oneself], one should neither kill nor cause to kill.’
STORY: The commentary clearly takes the latter clause in the sense of ‘neither strike nor cause to strike’, which is also possible. The stories concern groups of monks who (v. 129) fall out over lodgings and come to blows or (v. 130) fall out over lodgings and make threatening gestures to one another.
131–2. Verse 131 is closely paralleled in Hindu literature in the Laws of Manu (Mānavadharmaśāstra V.45 – cf. v. 109 above)
and the Mahābhārata (XIII.5568) – see Müller 1881: 37.
hereafter: pecca – literally, ‘having passed on’, ‘having died’.
STORY: The Buddha finds some boys tormenting a snake with a stick, and gives them this teaching.
133–4. Verse 133 is paralleled by Mahābhārata XII.4056 – see Müller 1881: 37.
painful: dukkha.
You don’t let yourself make a noise: Literally, ‘You don’t cause yourself to utter [a sound].’ In vv. 133–4 the ‘you’ is a genuine second-person singular, not
the indefinite ‘one’.
STORY: This concerns a dispute between monks. One of them is followed around by the figure of a woman, and so is accused of breaking his vows. In fact the apparition is rooted in his behaviour in a previous life, when he was a goddess who jealously tried to come between two monks who were close to one another. Through the verses, the Buddha advises him not to quarrel with the other monks any more.
135. Drives … end: There seems to be a pun here on pāj-, ‘drive [cattle]’, and pāj-, ‘end’ (< pāc) – see K. R. Norman 1997: 95.
STORY: A group of 500 women are observing a fast-day. When Visākhā asks them why they are doing it, the older ones say that they desire to be reborn in a heavenly world; the middle-aged ones seek to be freed from the power of their co-wives;* the young ones want children; while the single girls want husbands. None of them is actually seeking freedom from rebirth. When Visākhā reports this to the Buddha, he speaks the verse.
136. He does not understand: i.e. that his life will soon be ended by Death.
STORY: Moggallāna and Lakkhaṇa see a ghost (peta) in the form of a large snake, its body surrounded by flames (cf. the stories for vv. 71, 72). The Buddha reveals that the being was reborn in that state because in the time of the Buddha Kassapa he was a thief who bore a grudge against a banker who had spotted him attempting a robbery. He persecuted the banker, attacking his cattle, and eventually burning down a dwelling-place that the banker was planning to offer to the Buddha Kassapa, so adding to the seriousness of the crime.
137–40. who do no harm: Literally, ‘who do little harm’.
STORY: The Commentary retells the story of the death of Moggallāna. Paid by rival ascetics, bandits attack Moggallāna and leave him for dead. Though all his bones are broken, by the power of meditation the great Arahat manages to hold himself firm, and soars through the air to pay his respects to the Buddha before he dies. At the Buddha’s invitation, he teaches and performs various miracles, following which he dies, attaining parinibbāna. His murderers – both the rival ascetics and the bandits – are caught by King Ajātasattu and burned to death.
The monks are troubled that Moggallāna the Great has met an undeserved end. The Buddha explains that, though this is true as regards the present life, in a previous existence Moggallāna was a son who beat his old blind parents to death, pretending to be an attacking band of robbers. (The Jātaka version differs: in this, hearing his parents pleading with the supposed bandits for their son’s life, he eventually relented – Jātaka 522, 125–6.) As a result, he suffered in a hell realm for a very long time, and afterwards met with a similar death in a hundred existences. So both he and the rival ascetics had in fact suffered the consequences of previous actions.
The idea that the great Arahat Moggallāna had had a dark past in previous existences goes back to the Canon. In Majjhima Nikāya 1.332–8 (Sutta 50: the Māratajjanīya, or ‘Warning to Māra’, Sutta), Māra attempts to possess Moggallāna, but the great Arahat recognizes and expels him. Moggallāna tells him how he himself had been the Māra of a previous age of the world, named Dūsi, ‘Corrupter’. He had tempted laypeople to attack the followers of the Buddha Kakusandha, as a result of which he had suffered in hell realms (graphically described) for a long time. The Māra of the present age was the son of Māra Dūsi’s sister Kāḷī, so Moggallāna can speak to him as his uncle. He uses his own experience to warn him in vivid terms of the danger of attacking someone like him.
141. Can purify: ‘can’ inserted for clarity.
STORY: A monk, formerly a rich man, who has hung on to too many possessions is rebuked by the Buddha. Angrily, he removes all his garments but one and stands like that in the middle of the assembly. The Buddha rebukes him for his immodesty, telling a story of the monk’s past life when, despite being a yakkha with a taste for human flesh, he had kept his modesty.
The Commentary seems to have interpreted the verse as being primarily about immodesty. In the verse itself, however, the practice of going naked is viewed as an extreme form of asceticism, not as immodesty. Ascetic practices performed without meaning are contrasted in the following verse with household practices carried out by one with true understanding. Perhaps naked ascetics were not such a common sight in fifth-century-CE Sri Lanka as they must have been in India in the late centuries BCE.
142. Even though you wear fine clothes: Literally, ‘if [one is] adorned’ – i.e. wearing the jewellery and adornments of a layperson.
living the holy life: brahmacārin, often technically meaning ‘celibate’, but sometimes, as here, referring more generally to one who practises the spiritual
life.
wanderer: samaṇa.
STORY: A royal minister called Santati returns to Kosala after putting down a rebellion on the borders. The people of Kosala are extremely grateful to him, and King Pasenadi provides him with every luxury, including a beautiful court dancer to dance and sing for him. Santati spends seven days indulging in pleasures and getting very drunk. He then mounts the royal elephant and heads towards the bathing place on the river. On the way he meets the Buddha, who is walking to the city on his alms-round. Santati, seated on the elephant and dressed with royal ornaments, retains enough awareness to bow his head to the Buddha. The Buddha smiles. When Ānanda asks him the reason, he explains that, that very day, and adorned as he is, Santati will attain Arahatship and afterwards pass into nibbāna. Naturally, seeing the state the young man is in, many of those present are incredulous.
Santati goes back to the palace and gets ready for yet more indulgence. The beautiful dancer appears and begins to perform. She has fasted for seven days, to try to make her performance even more graceful, and as she dances she suddenly dies, struck down perhaps by a heart attack: ‘knife-like pains arose in her belly and as it were cut the flesh of her heart asunder’ (Burlingame 1921: II, 313). Santati, instantly sober, is overcome by terrible grief. He realizes that only the Buddha can help him now, and goes to see him. The Buddha explains that this is not the first time that Santati has wept over this woman: more than the water in the four oceans is the volume of tears that he has shed for her in countless lives. Santati attains Arahatship and dies, entering parinibbāna.
143–4. Some editions place the first two pādas of v. 144 (the first two lines in the translation) at the end of v. 143, so that v. 144 begins with ‘By faith, morality and
effort’.
honour: hiri – see Glossary.
avoids blame: K. R. Norman (1997: 20, 96) has ‘thinks little of blame’, reading appabodhati for apabodhati. However, I think the mention of hiri gives support to the traditional interpretation.
swift: saṃvegin, ‘possessed of urgency’.
Endowed with knowledge and conduct: Words often used in praise of the Buddha.
this suffering, great though it is: Literally, ‘this not-small (anappakaṃ) suffering (dukkha)’, but the position of anappakaṃ, at the end of the verse and after the verb, seems to emphasize it.
STORY: A man who owns only one ragged cloth becomes a monk, and receives offerings of robes and food from the laypeople. Whenever he becomes discontented with the monastic life, he goes and contemplates his old ragged cloth. He calls it ‘visiting his teacher’. In time he attains Arahatship, and no longer needs to do this.
145. As v. 80, but with subbatā (‘those who are true to their vows’) for paṇḍitā.
STORY: That of a boy novice called Sukha, very similar to that of Paṇḍita Dāraka accompanying v. 80.
CHAPTER 11
OLD AGE
146. the world: Added for clarity.
STORY: Some women companions of Visākhā get drunk, and laugh and dance in the presence of the Buddha when they should be listening to his teaching. A deity from Māra’s host tries to take the opportunity to possess them, but is driven away by the Buddha, who sends out a dark-blue ray and plunges the place into darkness. He then sends forth a bright ray of light, as though a thousand moons had risen at once. Terrified, the women come to their senses, and are established in the Buddha’s teaching.
147. with many imaginings: bahusaṅkappaṃ. It is not clear whether the imaginings are those of the person whose body it is or of others. If the latter, Carter and Palihawadana’s translation, ‘highly fancied’, is very much to the point (1987: 215).
STORY: A monk falls desperately in love with Sirimā, a beautiful courtesan who has become a devoted follower of the Buddha and a generous supporter of the monks. (For her earlier life, see the story for v. 223.) Sirimā is suddenly taken ill and dies. The Buddha requests the king that her body should be left unburned for four days, with a guard to make sure that it is not eaten by birds and animals. At the end of that time the Buddha calls everyone together, including the enamoured monk. He arranges for a drummer to announce that the body is for sale, first for large sums of money, then for increasingly smaller sums, until it is offered for nothing. When Sirimā was alive, men would pay enormous sums of money just to spend a night with her; but no one wants her body now that she is dead. The monk, understanding the impermanence of the body, attains Stream-Entry.
148. STORY: A 120-year-old nun donates all her food to a monk, for three days in succession. On the third day she trips and falls over, and the Buddha speaks this verse.
149. STORY: Some monks, who have a high opinion of their own attainments, are sent off to meditate in the cremation ground. But when they see some corpses that have started to decay they feel revulsion, while when they see others that are still undecayed they feel desire. They then realize that they are not yet rid of the defilements. The Buddha sends a likeness of himself to appear before them and utter this verse.
150. A city made of bones: i.e. the body.
old age and death, / Pride and hypocrisy: The equivalent verses in GDhp (284) and Uv (16.23) have ‘passion and ill will’ in place of ‘old age and death’ – Brough
1962: 263. ‘PDhp. has no equivalent verse’ – Carter and Palihawadana 1987: 460.
STORY: The Buddha’s half-sister, Nandā, who is renowned for her beauty, is ordained as a nun. Hearing that her brother disparages beauty, she avoids hearing him teach. When she is eventually prevailed upon to hear him, he causes to appear before her the figure of a beautiful girl, about sixteen years old, who, even as Nandā watches, grows to old age, becomes ill, and eventually dies. Seeing this, Nandā begins to understand impermanence and suffering. The Buddha speaks verses on the nature of the body, and she attains Stream-Entry. He then encourages her to meditate on emptiness, speaking the Dhammapada verse, and she attains Arahatship.
151. STORY: While Mallikā, the wife of King Pasenadi, is bathing, her pet dog comes in and tries to have sex with her. Apparently she is amused, and does not try to stop him. When the king happens to see this and questions her about it, she does not acknowledge what has happened, but concocts an elaborate lie so that her husband does not believe the evidence of his own eyes.
At the time of her death, instead of remembering all the good actions she has done in her life, Mallikā remembers this one wrong act (primarily the deceit against her husband, rather than the possible sexual misdemeanour), and is reborn in the Avīci hell, where she has to stay for seven days. The king, who adored her, goes to visit the Buddha every day, meaning to ask him where his late wife has been reborn. Each day, the Buddha engages him in such fascinating conversation that he forgets to ask.
On the eighth day, when Mallikā has once more been reborn, the Buddha allows Pasenadi to remember his question, and reveals that she is now in the Tusita heaven. Pasenadi speaks of his grief at his loss, and the Buddha comforts him with the verse.
152. STORY: The Elder Lāḷudāyi always says the wrong thing: when invited to chant at a funeral, he chants cheerful verses; while at festive occasions, he chants funeral verses. The Buddha tells the story of a previous birth in which Lāḷudāyi had also said the wrong thing. (Lāḷudāyi (probably meaning ‘Udāyi the Chatterer’) may or may not be the same as the Udāyi in the stories for vv. 64 and 241, since there was also a learned Arahat called Lāḷudāyi.)
153–4. I wandered … A journey of many births: Literally, ‘I ran through a saṃsāra of many births’ (aneka-jāti-saṃsāraṃ sandhāvissaṃ).
without respite: Following K. R. Norman 1997: 22, 153. The commentarial reading takes anibbisaṃ as ‘not finding’, i.e. in vain. The Udānavarga (31.6) has punaḥ punaḥ, ‘again and again’, as at the end of the last line of the same verse.
The house-builder: Māra.
house: Body.
The mind, freed from conditioned things: visaṅkhāra-gataṃ cittaṃ – ‘the mind (citta), which has gone beyond the saṅkhāras [see Glossary]’. Citta, generally translated as ‘mind’, covers all aspects of consciousness, including much of what would be called ‘heart’ in English.
STORY: Some of the central verses of Buddhism, these are the words of triumph spoken by the Buddha when he has achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.
155–6. holy life: brahmacariya, perhaps in the sense of ‘celibacy’.
wealth: Presumably spiritual wealth, merit. In the story it refers to both spiritual and worldly goods.
like wasted arrows: cāpātikhīṇā va, literally, according to the Commentary, ‘as though shot from a bow’; but ati-khī- seems to have connotations of waste (khī-) and of over-shooting (ati). Rhys Davids and Stede (1972, 18 – under atikhīṇa) suggest ‘[shot] from a broken bow’. In any case, the comparison is with the arrows, lying wasted on the ground, not with
the person or animal who has been shot.
STORY: Mahādhana (‘Great Wealth’), a banker’s son, is born with every material advantage: ‘eighty crores’ (800 million) of treasure. His parents, thinking that he will never have to earn a living, do not trouble to have him taught anything but the arts of playing an instrument and singing. He is married to the daughter of another banker: she too has access to ‘eighty crores’ of treasure, and has learned nothing but how to sing and dance. When their parents are dead, they live at first in great luxury, but Mahādhana falls in with bad company and becomes addicted to alcohol. He spends all his money, and then his wife’s money, until the couple are reduced to begging. One day the Buddha sees them in this state and smiles.
When Ānanda asks the reason, the Buddha explains what he was thinking: that this was a wealthy banker’s son, who had squandered two fortunes. If, in his prime, he had devoted himself to business, he could have become the principal banker in the city; or, if he had become a monk, he would have attained Arahatship, and his wife would have attained the state of Non-Return. If he had similarly applied himself in middle life, he could have become the second banker of the city; or, if he had become a monk, he would have attained Non-Return and his wife Once-Return. If he had made such a commitment in old age, he could have become the third banker of the city; or, if he had become a monk, he would have attained Once-Return and his wife Stream-Entry. As it is, he has squandered his chances in both the material and the spiritual realms, and is left like a heron in a dried-up pond.
CHAPTER 12
SELF
157. the three watches: Divisions of the night; but in the story it is taken as referring to the three periods of life.
STORY: A group of stories about a prince called Bodhi:
(i) A story reminiscent of that of Daedalus in Greek myth. Prince Bodhi has engaged a builder (name not given) to create a wonderful palace for him. Anxious that no other ruler should have one like it, he determines to kill or mutilate the builder on completion. The builder hears of this, and, pretending that there is still work to do on the palace, insists he has to work in seclusion, with only his wife bringing him food. He then builds a flying garuḍa bird. When it is ready, he tells his wife to sell all their possessions for gold, and to bring their children to him. Together, they make their escape in the garuḍa bird.
(ii) When the palace is complete, Prince Bodhi invites the Buddha to receive alms in a sumptuous room. He has the floor spread with costly carpets, thinking, ‘If I am destined to have a son or daughter, the Teacher will step on these carpets.’ But the Buddha will not enter the room until the carpets have been rolled up and taken away, for Prince Bodhi is destined not to father any children.
(iii) The explanation of Prince Bodhi’s childlessness. In a previous birth, he and his wife were shipwrecked on an island with a colony of birds. They survived by living on first the eggs, then the young of the birds, without a moment’s remorse.
When the Buddha explains all this, and speaks the verse, Prince Bodhi attains Stream-Entry.
158. defiled: The Commentary takes this as ‘wearied’, another possible meaning.
STORY: A greedy monk offers to help in the proper apportioning of donations between two younger monks. He chooses the best items for himself. The Buddha tells the story of a previous life, in which the two young monks were otters, who were arguing over a fish they had caught. They appealed to a jackal (the greedy monk) to act as judge between them. He allotted the head to one otter and the tail to another, and kept the body for himself.
159. tame others: ‘others’ added for clarity.
STORY: The Elder Padhānika Tissa and 500 monks whom he is supposed to be supervising receive a meditation object from the Buddha, and go off to practise. Padhānika Tissa expects the monks to stay awake throughout the three watches of the night. They become too tired to achieve anything, while he himself sleeps.
When they report their experience to the Buddha, he recounts a Jātaka story in which Padhānika Tissa had been a cock who crowed at the wrong times, and ended up having his neck wrung.
160. protector: nātha, often translated as ‘lord’. However, it has a strong connotation of a person to whom one goes for refuge.
STORY: A woman becomes a nun without knowing that she is pregnant. When it starts to show, Devadatta and his followers accuse her of having broken her vow of celibacy, and wish to expel her from the Order. The Buddha instructs the Elder Upāli, expert in the Vinaya, to find out the truth of the matter. Upāli asks Visākhā, with her vast experience as a mother and grandmother, to take the nun to a private place and examine her. She realizes that the nun’s pregnancy is so advanced that she must have conceived before she was ordained. She has done nothing wrong, and can remain as a nun.
In due time she gives birth to a splendid boy, who is at first brought up by the nuns. When King Pasenadi finds out about this arrangement, he thinks it unsuitable, and takes the boy home for his daughters to bring up, giving him the name Kumāra Kassapa (‘Kassapa the Prince’). But, when he is old enough to find out the story of his birth, Kumāra Kassapa himself wishes to be ordained as a monk. He is, and in time attains Arahatship.
However, the nun, his mother, has never got over her separation from him, and continues to weep for her loss. When at last she meets Kumāra Kassapa, she is overcome with maternal feeling, runs up to him, flings herself at his feet, and then tries to embrace him: all behaviour unsuitable to those who are trying to live the monastic life. Kumāra Kassapa reproaches her with words that are apparently harsh, but in reality intended to help her to overcome this excessive attachment. Shocked, she herself then attains Arahatship.
Some monks, discussing the matter, remark that, if Devadatta had had his way, neither Kumāra Kassapa nor his mother would have attained Arahatship; but the Buddha had proved a true refuge to them. The Buddha, however, tells them that one must be one’s own refuge.
161. thunderbolt: vajira, believed to be made of diamond, and so harder than all other stones.
gemstone: Literally, ‘a gem made of stone’.
STORY: Mahākāla, a layman Stream-Enterer who has spent all night listening to the Buddha’s teaching, is wrongly accused of robbery and beaten to death. The monks are shocked at this injustice. However, the Buddha explains that, though it is unjust as regards the present life, in a previous existence Mahākāla was a soldier who framed a man for theft in order to get hold of his beautiful wife.
162. māluvā creeper: ‘creeper’ added for clarity. The identity of the māluvā is uncertain, but clearly it is a creeper which begins as a small plant, but eventually strangles and kills the tree that supports it – possibly Bauhinia vahlii (Singh 1978).
STORY: The Commentary recounts in brief the canonical story of Devadatta’s attempt to assassinate the Buddha. The Buddha then tells of a previous life in which Devadatta had tried to kill him. When he speaks the verse, many of those listening attain Stream-Entry.
163. Things that are wrong and bad for you: Literally, ‘Wrong [things] and [things that are] disadvantageous [for one]’, but I assume that the same actions are referred to in each case.
STORY: The commentary recounts in brief the canonical story of Devadatta’s attempt to cause schism in the Order. Devadatta tries to impose a more ascetic regime on the monks, and some recently ordained monks are impressed and follow him. When Ānanda tells the Buddha what is happening, he speaks the verse to warn of the seriousness of what Devadatta is doing. He sends Sāriputta and Moggallāna to the monks who had followed Devadatta, and most of them return to the Buddha.
164. bamboo: kaṭṭhaka (< sanskrit kaṇṭaka), the spiny bamboo, which flowers only once in about thirty years, and then dies (K. R. Norman 1997: 104; Rau 1959: 169).
STORY: The Elder Kāla so enjoys having the support of an elderly laywoman that he tries to prevent her from hearing teaching from the Buddha himself. When this fails, Kāla tries to persuade the Buddha that she is not intelligent enough to understand the higher aspects of the Dhamma, and should be taught only basic matters such as generosity and morality. Understanding Kāla’s motives, the Buddha speaks the verse, and the laywoman attains Stream-Entry.
165. individual matters: ‘matters’ added for clarity.
STORY: Cūḷakāla – like Mahākāla in the story for v. 161 – is wrongly accused of robbery. However, he is saved by some maids on their way to fetch water, who have seen what really happened. (Burlingame (1921: II, 365) has ‘courtezans, on their way to the bathing-place on the river’, but the Pali just has kumbhadāsiyo udakatitthaṃ gacchamānā – literally, ‘water-pot-slaves [fem.] going to the water-crossing-place’ – which suggests that they are simply collecting the day’s water for their households.)
166. STORY: The Buddha announces that in four months he will pass away in parinibbāna. Many monks who have not yet attained Stream-Entry are grieved, and will not leave the Buddha’s side. However, the Elder Attadattha (‘Self-Benefit’) determines to attain Arahatship while the Buddha is still alive. He goes away by himself to meditate, for which he is criticized by the other monks, who think he cannot love the Buddha as much as they do. However, the Buddha praises Attadattha, saying that others should follow his example. He speaks the verse, and Attadattha attains Arahatship.
CHAPTER 13
THE WORLD
167. attached to the world: Literally, ‘one who increases/fosters the world(s)’.
STORY: A granddaughter of Visākhā teases a young monk by calling him chinnasīsa, ‘cut-head’. He is offended, though his Elder says that it is no offence to a monk to say that he has cut off his hair. However, as the Buddha points out to Visākhā, on this occasion it was clearly meant in a disparaging way.
The young monk is pleased that the Buddha has understood him, as neither his Elder nor Visākhā apparently had. The Buddha, pointing out that it is never right to be unaware, speaks the verse, and the young monk attains Stream-Entry.
168–9. You should stand up, be aware: Literally, ‘One should stand up, not be unaware’ – see the introduction to the notes on Chapter 2.
In this world and the next: Literally, ‘in this world and the other’.
STORY: After his enlightenment, the Buddha returns to his own city, Kapilavatthu. His father, King Suddhodana, is very offended when, instead of going straight to the family home, his son goes from house to house for alms. The king says that this is not the way of their lineage. The Buddha replies that it is the way of his lineage, the countless thousands of Buddhas of the past. He speaks the verses, on the importance of keeping the proper practice, and Suddhodana attains Stream-Entry.
170. For the imagery of the verse, cf. v. 46, which could almost be an expansion of this one in a different (and longer) metre.
STORY: A story similar to that for v. 46, but told of a group of 500 monks.
171. STORY: That of Prince Abhaya, which resembles that of Santati (see the story for v. 142).
172. afterwards becomes aware: Literally, ‘afterwards is not unaware’.
STORY: The monk Sammuñjani (‘Broom’) spends his whole time sweeping the monastery. He disapproves of the Elder Revata, who spends a great deal of time in meditation. Revata tells Sammuñjani how to spend his time more profitably, with times set aside for meditation and study, as well as a certain amount of sweeping. Sammuñjani does as instructed, and soon attains Arahatship. When the monks complain about the (relatively) unswept state of the monastery, the Buddha speaks the verse in praise of Sammuñjani.
173. Whoever has done an evil deed / But covers it with a virtuous one / Illuminates: The Pali structure does not seem to allow direct translation into English: literally, ‘Of whom the evil deed done [before]
is covered by a virtuous [deed], that one illuminates … ’
virtuous: kusala, ‘skilful’, ‘wholesome’.
STORY: The famous tale (somewhat expanded from the version known from the Canon) of Aṅgulimāla (‘Finger Garland’), a murderous bandit who became a monk and an Arahat.
Aṅgulimāla is born a Brahmin, the son of King Pasenadi’s chaplain. When he is a student, the other students are jealous of him and persuade their teacher that he is having an affair with the teacher’s wife – a very serious crime. Instead of killing him directly, the teacher asks him to kill a thousand people and bring him a finger from each. Aṅgulimāla becomes a much-feared bandit, wearing a garland of fingers. When he needs only one more finger to make up the thousand, the Buddha realizes that, if he does not intervene, Aṅgulimāla will kill his own mother, an act with enormous kammic consequences, so he decides to meet him himself instead.
When Aṅgulimāla sees the figure of a monk ahead of him, he determines to kill him, and begins to chase him; but, though he seems to be running fast and the monk is not moving, he cannot catch him. Aṅgulimāla shouts, ‘Stop!’ The Buddha replies, ‘I have stopped: you are the one who has not stopped.’ Aṅgulimāla understands, throws away his weapon, and asks to be admitted to the Order. When the king and his troops come looking for the dangerous bandit, instead they find a monk, living peacefully at the Buddha’s monastery. Aṅgulimāla works hard at his practice, and soon attains Arahatship.
One day, when on his alms-round, Aṅgulimāla is hit with stones and mortally wounded. Encouraged by the Buddha, he bears his suffering with patience, understanding that he is experiencing the consequences of past evil actions that would otherwise have led to prolonged suffering in hell realms, and he dies peacefully. Other monks ask the Buddha where he has been reborn, since he has killed so many people. The Buddha speaks the verse, pointing out that the wrong that Aṅgulimāla did in the past has been overwhelmed by the good that he has done since he became a monk.
174. the rare one: Literally, ‘few’, but in the singular. The idea is that such persons are as rare as birds which get free from a bird-catcher’s net.
STORY: When the Buddha visits Āḷavi, he speaks of the importance of meditating on death, so that when our end comes we will not be overcome by fear. Only one of his hearers takes any notice of this – the sixteen-year-old daughter (name not given) of a weaver, who practises this meditation day and night for three years. At the end of that time, the Buddha returns to Āḷavi. The girl longs to see him again; but, before she can go to the meeting, she has to refill a shuttle with thread to take to her father’s workshop, so she turns up late. The Buddha, who has come this way specifically to see her, sits silent until she appears, on her way to the workshop. When she arrives, he asks her four questions. He asks, ‘Girl, where have you come from?’ She replies, ‘I don’t know, bhante.’ He asks, ‘Where are you going?’ She replies, ‘I don’t know, bhante.’ He asks, ‘Do you not know?’ She replies, ‘I know, bhante.’ He asks, ‘Do you know?’ She replies, ‘I don’t know, bhante.’ The other citizens are offended by her words, and accuse her of talking nonsense: when he asked her where she came from, she should have said, ‘From the weaver’s house,’ and when he asked where she was going, she should have said, ‘To the weaver’s workshop.’
The Buddha silences the crowd, and asks her why she answered as she did. She explains that when he asked her where she was coming from, of course he knew that she came from the weaver’s house, so he must have meant something else. She took it to mean, ‘Where did you come from when you were born here?’, so replied, ‘I don’t know.’ When he asked her where she was going, he knew that she was going to the weaver’s workshop, so he must have meant something else. She took it to mean, ‘Where are you going when you leave the present existence?’, so replied, ‘I don’t know.’ When he asked, ‘Do you not know?’, she knew that he meant, ‘Do you not know that you must die?’, so replied, ‘I know.’ When he asked, ‘Do you know?’, she knew that he meant, ‘Do you know when you will die?’, so replied, ‘I don’t know.’ The Buddha acclaims her answers and speaks the verse. She attains Stream-Entry.
The girl then goes to the weaver’s workshop, where, not realizing that her father is asleep, she makes to hand him the shuttle of thread. He is startled awake, and accidentally knocks the beam of the loom into his daughter’s chest. She dies, and is reborn in the Tusita heaven. The father, distraught, goes to the Buddha for consolation. He ordains as a monk, and soon attains Arahatship.
175. Geese go by the sun’s path; / Mages go through the sky: haṃsādiccapathe yanti ākāse yanti iddhiyā. There has been considerable argument about how this verse is to be understood. Most translators have taken iddhiyā in pāda b as the instrumental of iddhi: ‘by psychic power’. The question then is whether the subject is still the geese (‘Geese go by the sun’s path; / By psychic
power they go through the sky’) or whether it refers to an indefinite ‘they’: ‘by psychic power [folk] go through the sky’,
which seems to be how the commentary takes it. (It might even refer back, in sense if not in grammar, to the rare individual
who escapes the net of saṃsāra in v. 174.) However, I have preferred to take iddhiyā as a nominative plural of *iddhiya: ‘[person] of psychic power’, equivalent to iddhika (which is known to Rhys Davids and Stede (1972: 121), though apparently only on the end of compounds, e.g. mahiddhika, ‘of great psychic power’). This then makes pāda b balance a in the manner characteristic of Dhammapada verse. Versions of the verse in other Dharmapadas show a degree of
variation that suggests that it was early seen as problematic; however, this can be explained if *iddhiya was otherwise unknown, since iddhiyā as the instrumental of iddhi would have been in common use.
Geese: See v. 91 and note.
Mages: See my comments above. Psychic powers, including such abilities as walking on water and flying through the air (see Glossary
under iddhi), were thought to be the province not just of those who cultivated them as an end in themselves, but also of Arahats and
indeed of the Buddha himself, who acquired them as a side effect of their meditational attainments. The commentarial story
seems to take pāda b as referring to the psychic abilities of Arahats; however, it is possible that the poet was thinking primarily of those
with less exalted aims, so that in pāda a we have ‘geese’ and in pāda b ‘sorcerers’ or ‘shamans’ both contrasted with the higher attainments of ‘the wise’ (or ‘the steadfast’ – dhīrā) in pādas c and d – a typical Dhammapada sequence.
STORY: Thirty monks visit the Buddha to hear his teaching, as a result of which they all attain Arahatship. Ānanda, waiting outside the Buddha’s room, sees them go in but not go out again. When he asks the reason, the Buddha explains that, now that they have attained Arahatship, they have attained psychic powers, and have gone out flying through space. The Buddha then utters the verse.
176. Another slightly problematic verse. The question is, what is the force of ekaṃ dhammaṃ atītassa? K. R. Norman (1997: 26) takes it as referring to the (upper-case) Dhamma: ‘There is no evil which cannot be done by a creature
who has transgressed the unique law, speaks falsely, has abandoned the other world.’ I think it means one (lower-case) dhamma, the precept against wrong speech (whose terminology the verse quotes). The Commentary, which glosses ekaṃ dhammaṃ as saccaṃ, ‘truth’, seems to back this interpretation. The same verse is also found in another Khuddaka Nikāya text, the Itivuttaka
(1.25), where again the point is made that, of all the precepts, if a person breaks the one against wrong speech, there is
no wrong that he won’t do.
just one dhamma: ‘just’ added for clarity.
STORY: Ciñcā Māṇavikā is engaged by rival ascetics to discredit the Buddha. She goes through an elaborate performance, first pretending to visit his dwelling at unseemly hours, then wrapping a lump of wood under her clothes to make her look pregnant, and even beating her hands and feet to make them appear swollen. Finally, she appears before the Buddha in an assembly and reproaches him for not making any provision for the birth of the child she is carrying. The Buddha says, ‘Sister, only you and I know which of us is telling the truth.’ Becoming aware of the situation, Sakka and other gods take the form of mice and nibble the cords holding Ciñcā’s ‘bump’ in place. It falls off, revealing the truth and cutting off her toes. Once she leaves the Buddha’s presence, the earth swallows her and she is reborn in the Avīci hell (cf. the story for v. 17).
177. sharing the joy: anumodamāno, ‘rejoicing at another’s good action’, the state of mind known as anumodanā, which is thought to be particularly wholesome, inspiring people to undertake good actions themselves.
STORY: King Pasenadi and Queen Mallikā, at the suggestion of the queen, organize a stupendous gift-giving ceremony in honour of the Buddha and 500 monks. Among other details, each of the monks is to be attended by an elephant, bearing a parasol in its trunk. Unfortunately, there are only 499 trained elephants; the only others available are rogue elephants, which might be dangerous to the monks. However, the queen points out that a rogue elephant can safely be employed to attend on Aṅgulimāla (see the story for v. 173): one is put in place for this purpose, and in his presence it becomes completely peaceful.
The king and queen bestow Incomparable Gifts, in an occasion that is said to happen just once in the lifetime of every Fully Awakened Buddha. Two of the king’s ministers are present: Juṇha, who feels joy at the king’s overwhelming generosity, and Kāla, who disapproves, taking it for extravagance. Understanding their thoughts, the Buddha realizes that he if gives a teaching equal to the gifts, Juṇha will attain Stream-Entry, but Kāla’s head will split into seven pieces (see the notes on v. 72); so, out of compassion for Kāla, he gives a talk only four verses long, and returns to the monastery. Fearing that the Buddha is angry with him, the king goes to the monastery with a retinue that includes the two ministers. The Buddha explains his actions. The king points out to Kāla that he gave only what was his own to give, and banishes him from the kingdom. He rewards Juṇha by giving the kingdom to him for seven days, so that he too can bestow alms on the Buddha. The Buddha speaks the verse, and Juṇha attains Stream-Entry.
178. all the worlds: Or ‘the whole world’ (sabbaloka).
STORY: Anāthapiṇḍika has a son, Kāla, who is something of a disappointment to him, since he shows no sign of wanting to visit the Buddha or hear his teaching. So Anāthapiṇḍika offers to pay him a hundred pieces of money if he goes to the monastery for the uposatha day. He goes, but spends most of his time there asleep. Next day, Anāthapiṇḍika offers him another thousand if he learns a single verse of the teaching. The Buddha arranges that Kāla will keep misunderstanding the verse, so that the young man will stay on and listen to more and more verses. Kāla stays and listens, and attains Stream-Entry. When his father comes, Kāla is now embarrassed and tries to refuse the money. The Buddha says that Kāla has attained something that is worth more than the rank of a Universal Monarch, or rebirth in the world of the gods or the world of Brahmā – in token of which he speaks the verse.
CHAPTER 14
THE BUDDHA
In this chapter, the word ‘Buddha’ (literally, ‘Awakened’) seems sometimes to be used specifically of Fully Awakened Ones, and sometimes of awakened beings, such as Arahats, in general.
179–80. STORY: A Brahmin couple have a daughter called Māgandiyā, so beautiful that they cannot find a man they consider good enough for her. Seeing the fine form of the Buddha, the man wishes to bestow his daughter on him, despite the objection of his wife, who has seen the Buddha’s footprint and realizes that it bears the marks of one who has gone beyond desire.
When the Brahmin makes the offer of his daughter, the Buddha tells how, before attaining enlightenment, he rejected the daughters of Māra, speaking these verses to them. He tells the couple that he felt no desire for the wonderful golden bodies of Māra’s daughters: in comparison, Māgandiyā’s body is just a mass of physical impurities like a corpse, on which he would not even wipe his foot. The Brahmin and his wife attain the state of Non-Return, and afterwards join the Order and attain Arahatship. However, it is clear from the commentary on vv. 21–3 that Māgandiyā is mortally offended, and that this leads to her hatred of the Buddha and his followers.
A verse closely similar to v. 179 is found also in a Mahāyāna text, the Mahāvastu. Here the Buddha speaks it to messengers sent by his father, Śuddhodana (= Suddhodana), with instructions to bring him back to the palace (Mahāvastu 3.91).
181. STORY: The Buddha performs a spectacular miracle by means of his psychic powers, walking in the sky and issuing fire and water from his body. Afterwards he spends the Rains Retreat in the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods, teaching the Abhidhamma to the deities there (including the one who in a previous life had been his mother, Māyādevī). At the end of the three months, he returns to earth attended by a huge following of devas and Brahmās, the latter having come down from even higher realms to hear him.
182. STORY: During the time of the Buddha Kassapa, a young monk, while climbing into a boat, grabs an eraka plant (‘typha grass’) and breaks off a single leaf – a breach of the Vinaya, since monks should not damage vegetation. At the time, he dismisses this as a trivial matter, and never gets round to confessing the fault. But on his deathbed he remembers it and is filled with remorse; so, instead of being reborn as a human being, he becomes a king of the nāgas, Erakapatta (‘Eraka-Leaf’), living in the river Gaṅgā. Knowing that it is going to be a very long time before another Buddha appears, he determines that he will not miss the opportunity again. Eventually Erakapatta has a daughter, a beautiful nāginī. Twice a month, on full-moon and new-moon days, the nāga king lies on the surface of the water, sets his daughter on his great cobra-hood, and gets her to dance and sing. The song is a series of riddles to which only a Buddha will know the answer:
What sort of ruler is a king?
What sort of king is ruled by passion?
How can one be free of passion?
How does one come to be called a fool?
If anyone answers the riddles correctly, he will receive the nāga princess’s hand in marriage – and great wealth besides, for, if someone can answer, it will mean that another Buddha has appeared in the world.
When eventually the present Buddha appears, he becomes aware that a young Brahmin called Uttara is going to Erakapatta to try to answer the riddles. He speaks to Uttara, and tells him what to sing in answer to the nāga princess’s questions:
The ruler of the six doors [of the senses] is a king.
One who indulges is ruled by passion.
By not indulging, one becomes free of passion.
Because of indulging, one is called a fool.
The Buddha then tells Uttara what the nāga princess will sing in reply:
By what is the fool carried off?
How does the wise man dispel it?
How does one find the peace of yoga?*
Riddle me this, as I ask you.
Uttara is then to reply:
The fool is carried off by the flood.
The wise man dispels it through practice (yoga).
When freed from all bonds (yoga)
One finds the peace of yoga.†
Uttara follows the Buddha’s instructions, attains Stream-Entry, and goes on to win the nāga maiden’s hand. Erakapatta now goes to see the Buddha: on meeting him, he weeps, lamenting how easily he fell from the human state, and how long he has been living an animal existence, deprived of the Buddha’s teaching. The Buddha speaks the verse, and 84,000 beings achieve understanding of the Dhamma. We are told that the nāga king would have achieved Stream-Entry that day if it had not been for his animal nature: as it is, he has to wait until his next birth.
183–5. Not to do any evil: Verse 183 is a famous summary of ‘the teaching of the Buddhas’ – i.e. not just of the historical Buddha, but of all his
predecessors and those to come. For possible Jain parallels, see Watanabe 1994.
true wanderer: samaṇa – ‘true’ added for clarity.
These three verses are found also at Dīgha Nikāya 2.49 (Sutta 14, the Mahāpadāna Sutta, 3.26–8), where they occur in a different
order (184, 183, 185), spoken by the previous Buddha, Vipassin – see e.g. Walshe 1987: 219. An equivalent verse to v. 184,
in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, is also found in a Dīrghāgama text of the Sarvāstivāda school recently discovered in northern
Turkestan: see Fukita 2003: 156, ll. 21–4. Here too it is spoken by the Buddha Vipaśyin (= Vipassin).
STORY: Ānanda asks the Buddha what teaching the Buddhas of the past gave on uposatha days. The Buddha says that all spoke the very same verses – the three that are given here.
186–7. STORY: A discontented monk receives a legacy of one hundred pieces of money, and is tempted to return to the household life. The Buddha makes him count it out into piles for the things he will need: food and drink, a plough, bullocks to pull it, and farming tools. In this way the monk discovers that a hundred pieces will not be nearly enough. The Buddha points out that the great world-ruling monarchs of the past, who had the power to cause rains of jewels to fall from the sky, still died with their desires unsatisfied.
188–92. These verses, like vv. 183–5, summarize central teachings of Buddhism.
STORY: A Brahmin teacher called Aggidatta encourages his followers to take refuge in forests, groves and trees. The Buddha determines to teach them what is really meant by a safe refuge, and sends Moggallāna to them. Instead of a normal dwelling, Aggidatta’s followers lodge Moggallāna in a hut that is home to a dangerous fire-breathing nāga. In the morning, when the followers go to see what has happened to him, they find that, through his psychic powers, he has subdued the nāga, who is holding his hood over the Elder’s head as a sign of respect. The Buddha arrives and teaches Aggidatta and his followers that mountains, forests etc. are not true refuges: the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha are the true refuges, through which one can gain release from suffering. He speaks the verses. Aggidatta and his followers attain Arahatship, and are ordained as Buddhist monks.
193. He’s not born just anywhere: Literally, ‘He’s not born everywhere.’
that steadfast one: The commentator here takes dhīra in the sense of its homonym ‘wise’, but, as K. R. Norman points out (1997: 110), PDhp 79, GDhp 173 and Uv 30.27 all have
forms from vīra, ‘hero’.
STORY: The Elder Ānanda, reflecting that the finest elephants, horses and bullocks are born only among the descendants of certain famous beasts, asks the Buddha whether the greatest of men can be born in any family, or only in certain lineages. The Buddha replies that they are born only in Khattiya (Kṣatriya) and Brahmin families. Traditionally, Buddhas are said to be born only in such families, though Arahats can be from any social background.
194. STORY: Five hundred monks dispute what is the pleasantest thing in the world, some naming rulership, some love, and some good food. The Buddha points out that all these in fact belong to the realm of suffering: truly happy are the arising of a Buddha, the hearing of the Dhamma, and harmony among the Saṅgha.
195–6. If you honour: Literally, ‘the one who honours’.
ones like that: tādise – cf. the note on v. 76.
To be measured by anyone – so great it is: Or perhaps ‘to be measured as “so much” by anyone’. Carter and Palihawadana (1987: 251) have ‘Of one worshiping [sic] such as them, / Calmed ones who fear nothing, / The merit cannot be quantified / By anyone saying “It is of this extent.” ’
STORY: The Buddha stays at a shrine. A Brahmin visits, but pays respects only to the shrine, not to the Buddha. The Buddha praises him for doing so, and causes the shrine of the Buddha Kassapa to appear on the spot. He speaks the verses, and the Brahmin attains Stream-Entry.