Dhammapada - Chapter 14 - Awakened

Chapter 14 of Dhammapada elaborates the qualities of the Awakened, THE BUDDHA. The Buddha is one whose victory cannot be undone. There is nothing called craving in him and so he cannot be swayed away.

It is very difficult to take birth as a human. Even difficult is to get the teachings of the enlightened and it is very rare for the birth of a Buddha to occur. Abandoning all evil and purifying one's own mind by oneself - this is the teaching of Buddha.

Endurance of patience is the foremost austerity. One cannot attain renunciation if one hurts another. Only who does not harm others is a true saint.

The verses give guidelines on how one can progress in the path of spirituality:

• Refrain from finding faults in others
• Refrain from hurting others
• Train yourself in the highest forms of discipline and conduct
• Be moderate in eating food
• Take delight in solitude
• Engage in higher thoughts (meditation)
• Stay away from sensual pleasure

The four noble truths are:

• Life means suffering
• The origin of suffering is attachment
• The cessation of suffering is attainable
• The path of the cessation of suffering (Eight fold Path)

There are 18 verses in this chapter and each of them is a gem:

Verse 179:

Whose conquest can't be undone,

whose conquest no one in the world can reach;

awakened, his pasture endless, pathless:

by what path will you lead him astray?

Verse 180:

In whom there is no craving

-the sticky ensnarer-

to lead him anywhere at all;

awakened, his pasture endless, pathless:

by what path will you lead him astray?

Verse 181:

They, the enlightened, intent on jhana,

delighting in stilling and renunciation,

self awakened and mindful:

even the devas view them with envy.

Verse 182:

Hard the winning of a human birth.

Hard the life of mortals.

Hard the chance to hear the true Dhamma.

Hard the arising of Awakened Ones.

Verse 183:

The non-doing of any evil,

the performance of what's skillful,

the cleansing of one's own mind:

this is the teaching of the Awakened.

Verse 184:

Patience endurance : the foremost austerity.

Unbinding: the foremost, so say the Awakened.

He who injures another is no contemplative.

He who mistreats another, no monk.

Verse 185:

Not disparaging, not injuring,

restraint in line with the Patimokkha,

moderation in food,

dwelling in seclusion,

commitment to the heightened mind :

this is the teaching of the Awakened.

Verse 186 - 187:

Not even if it rained gold coins

would we have our fill

of sensual pleasures.

'Stressful, they give little enjoyment' -

knowing this, the wise one

finds no delight

even in heavenly sensual pleasures.

He is one who delights

in the end of craving,

a disciple of the Righty

Self Awakened One.

Verse 188 - 192:

They go to many a refuge,

to mountains, to forests,

parks, trees and shrines :

people threatened with danger.

That's not the secure refuge,

not the supreme refuge,

that's not the refuge,

having gone to which,

you gain release

from all sufferings and stress.

But when, having gone

to the Buddha, Dhamma

and Sangha for refuge,

you see with right discernment

the four noble truths -

stress,

the cause of stress,

the transcending of stress,

and the noble eight fold path,

the way to the stilling of stress :

that's the secure refuge,

that's the supreme refuge,

that's the refuge,

having gone to which,

you gain release

from all suffering and stress.

Verse 193:

It's hard to come by

a thoroughbred of a man.

It's simply not true

that he's born everywhere.

Wherever he's born, an enlightened one,

the family prospers, is happy.

Verse 194:

A blessing : the arising of Awakened Ones.

A blessing : the teaching of true Dhamma.

A blessing : the concord of the Sangha.

The austerity of those in concord is a blessing.

Verse 195 - 196:

If you worship those worthy of worship,

- Awakened Ones or their disciples -

who've transcended complications,

lamentations and grief,

who are unendangered,

fearless and bound :

there is no measure for reckoning

that your merit is 'this much'.

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