DHAMMAPADA
(Dhp I). Balavagga: Fools
translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu © 1997–2009
60
Long for the weary, a league.
For fools
unaware of True Dhamma,
samsara
is long.
your equal, your better,
then continue your course,
firmly,
alone.
There’s no fellowship with fools.
the fool torments himself.
When even he himself
doesn’t belong to himself,
how then sons?
How wealth?
is — at least to that extent — wise.
But a fool who thinks himself wise
really deserves to be called
a fool.
the fool stays with the wise,
he knows nothing of the Dhamma —
as the ladle,
the taste of the soup.
Even if for a moment,
the perceptive person stays with the wise,
he immediately knows the Dhamma —
as the tongue,
the taste of the soup.
66
are their own enemies
as they go through life,
doing evil
that bears
bitter fruit.
the doing of the deed
that, once it’s done,
you regret,
whose result you reap crying,
your face in tears.
It’s good,
the doing of the deed
that, once it’s done,
you don’t regret,
whose result you reap gratified,
happy at heart.
69
the fool mistakes it for honey.
But when that evil ripens,
the fool falls into pain.
the fool might eat
only a tip-of-grass measure of food,
but he wouldn’t be worth
one sixteenth
of those who’ve fathomed
the Dhamma.
doesn’t — like ready milk —
come out right away.
It follows the fool,
smoldering
like a fire
hidden in ashes.
does renown come to the fool.
It ravages his bright fortune
& rips his head apart.
He would want unwarranted status,
preeminence among monks,
authority among monasteries,
homage from lay families.
‘Let householders & those gone forth
both think that this
was done by me alone.
May I alone determine
what’s a duty, what’s not’:
the resolve of a fool
as they grow —
his desire & pride.
75
goes one way,
the way to Unbinding,
another.
Realizing this, the monk,
a disciple to the Awakened One,
should not relish offerings,
should cultivate seclusion
instead.
Source : www.accesstoinsight.org
Provenance: ©1997 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.
This Access to Insight edition is ©1997–2009 John T. Bullitt.
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