Dhammapada - Chapter 13 - World

This chapter emphasizes that one should not focus on the worldly things. One should not associate with people with false views. One should live only according to the reality and follow the path of Dhamma. Further, the verses explain the impermanence of life. It is compared to a mirage or a bubble. If one comes out of this illusion even the king of death cannot see him. If one comes out of his evil habits and cultivates good habits, he will illuminate the world. Wise people think beyond the worldly.




There are twelve verses in this chapter :

Verse 167:

Don't associate with lowly qualities.

Don't consort with heedlessness.

Don't associate with wrong views.

Don't busy yourself with the world.

Verse 168:

Get up! Don't be heedless.

Live the Dhamma well.

One who lives the Dhamma

sleeps with ease

in this world and the next.

Verse 169:

Live the Dhamma well.

Don't live it badly.

One who lives the Dhamma

sleeps with ease

in this world and the next.

Verse 170:

See it as a bubble,

see it as a mirage:

one who regards the world this way

the King of Death doesn't see.

Verse 171:

Come look at this world

all decked out

like a royal chariot,

where fools plunge in,

while those who know don't cling.

Verse 172:

Who once was heedless,

but later is not,

brightens the world

like the moon set free from a cloud.

Verse 173:

His evil-done deed

is replaced with skillfulness:

he brightens the world

like the moon set free from a cloud.

Verse 174:

Blinded this world -

how few here see clearly!

Just as birds who've escaped

from a net are few,

few are the people who make it to heaven.

Verse 175:

Swans fly the path of the sun;

those with the power fly through space;

the enlightened flee from the world,

having defeated the armies of Mara.

Verse 176:

The person who tells a lie,

who transgresses in this one thing,

transcending concern for the world beyond:

there is no evil he might not do.

Verse 177:

No misers go to the world of devas.

Those who don't praise giving are fools.

The enlightened express their approval for giving

and so find ease in the world beyond.

Verse 178:

Sole dominion over the earth,

going to heaven,

lordship over all the worlds:

the fruit of Stream-entry excels them.

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