“As rain penetrates

An ill-roofed house,

Passion penetrates

An undeveloped mind.

As rain does not penetrate

A well-roofed house,

Passion does not penetrate

A well-developed mind.”

Parallelism between verses is one of the most frequently-used literary devices in the Dhammapada. Often, verses are nearly identical to each other, with only a few words changed to their opposite. Here, “ill-roofed” is changed to “well-roofed,” and “ill-developed” is changed to “well-developed.” By utilizing antithesis in this way, the text presents readers with a clear contrast between a path towards enlightenment and a path of suffering, introducing The Nature of Opposing Universal Forces.

“The mind is hard to restrain, light,

Flying where it will.

Control of it is good.

Mind controlled brings happiness.”

By anthropomorphizing the mind (as either an insect or a bird), the text indicates that, according to Buddhist thought, it is an entity that functions separately from the body. The relationship between mind control and happiness is expressed in the Eightfold Path, which promises release from the inherent suffering of the universe.

“Knowing that this body is like foam,

Understanding it has the nature of a mirage,

You should cut off the flower-spikes of Māra,

And go where the King of Death can’t see you.”

In Pāli, the compound word that Roebuck translates as “flower-spikes,” is translated in other editions as “flower-tipped arrows.” This word alludes to a story of the Buddha’s enlightenment under the peepal tree, in which Māra unleashed a slew of arrows at the Buddha as he meditated, but through self-control, the Buddha turned the arrows into a shower of flowers. The arrows are a metaphor for the dual nature of temptation, since they appear enticing like a flower, but can in fact cause harm.

“If, as you travel, you meet

None better than yourself, or equal,

You should steadfastly travel alone.

There’s no companionship with fools.”

Arrogance is one of the many characteristics deemed a “fetter” to attaining nibbana in Buddhism. The pithy tone of this verse is suggestive of the humorous tone that is central to the original Pāli text, but which is difficult to preserve when translating it into different languages. In urging readers to seek good spiritual influences instead of associating with foolish or problematic company, the Buddha stresses the Spiritual Consequences for Daily Actions.

“Irrigators lead the water;

Fletchers shape the arrow;

Carpenters shape the wood;

The wise control themselves.”

The Buddha compares The Importance of Exercising Self-Restraint with finely-skilled trades, suggesting that it is a skill that takes time and effort to develop. By invoking professions that would have been familiar to early readers (or listeners) of the Dhammapada, or might even have been practiced by them, this simile aims to demystify the goals of Buddhism for its audience.

“Though you might conquer in battle

A thousand times a thousand men,

You’re the greatest battle-winner 

If you conquer just one—yourself.”

The use of war as a metaphor to describe the process of achieving enlightenment carries heavy irony in the Buddhist tradition, which teaches radical nonviolence. This contrast between good internal wars and bad external wars is central to Buddhist mythology. Before his birth, it was prophesied that the Buddha would become either a great conqueror or a holy man. Since he came from a noble warrior caste, his father tried to ensure that the former would be true, not the latter. Ironically, the Buddha fights the most difficult war of all by rejecting his father’s desire for him to be a warrior and seeking enlightenment instead.

“If a person does evil,

He should not do it repeatedly;

He should not set his will upon it:

It’s painful to accumulate evil.

If a person does good,

He should do it repeatedly;

He should set his will upon it:

It’s pleasant to accumulate good.”

Here, “painful” and “pleasant” are directly juxtaposed with one another within the parallel structure of the two stanzas. In the original Pāli, these words are “dukkha” and “sukha,” respectively. Parallelism thus emphasizes the linguistic opposition of the two words, and by extension, the balance between The Nature of Opposing Universal Forces.

“Laying aside the rod in

dealing with all beings,

You are a Brahmin, a wan-

derer, a monk.”

Although enjambment is used throughout the Dhammapada, this verse has a rare example of a line-break occurring between the syllables of one word (“wanderer”). This translation choice helps to give readers a sense of the original meter of the poem in Pāli, highlighting the text’s sonic qualities in a way that a prose translation might not have.

“Self is protector of self:

What other protector could there be?

With your self well tamed

You find a protector who’s hard to find.”

The rarity of an enlightened mind is emphasized in the last line of the stanza, as it is elsewhere throughout the text. The rhetorical question in the second line of the stanza, intended to provoke thought for the audience, is given more weight by it being neatly endstopped. This passage invokes The Importance of Exercising Self-Restraint.

“You should see the world

As a bubble, a mirage.

If you look on it like this

The King of Death can’t see you.”

Buddhist philosophers believe that there are five khandhas (skandhas in Sanskrit)—psychological and material components that motivate earthly cravings, and therefore also suffering. Māra, referred to here as “The King of Death,” is believed to be able to track his victims through their attachment to these khandhas. The simile likening earthly attachments to empty things conveys the idea that if one frees themselves of khandhas, Māra will be unable to perceive their existence. Here “Death can’t see you,” is meant in its most literal sense.

“Even the gods envy

The mindful Fully Awakened Ones,

Who are wise, intent on meditation,

Delighting in the calm of non-attachment.”

Even though the Buddha’s human nature is an important tenet of Theravāda Buddhism, deities still play a large role in the religion. These divine figures were borrowed from the preexisting religions of Buddhist communities across Asia and incorporated into the religion. The idea that deities may not be inherently enlightened beings, as seen in early Buddhist scripture like the Dhammapada, is borrowed from Hinduism, which features lower-tiered deities called devas who are still subject to the karmic cycle of reincarnation.

“Ah, how happily we live,

Without hatred among those who hate!

Without hatred we dwell

Among people who hate.

Ah, how happily we live,

Healthy among the sick!

Healthy we dwell

Among people who are sick.”

This verse is notable for its use of the first person plural; most of the other verses are written in either second person (directly addressing the reader), or first person singular (statements from the perspective of the Buddha as an individual). This change in speaker evokes the perspective of the Buddhist sangha and laity as a whole, helping to articulate a communal Buddhist identity that is distinct from the identity of other religious groups.

“From the dear comes grief;

From the dear comes fear.

If you’re freed from the dear

You’ll have no grief, let alone fear.

From affection comes grief;

From affection comes fear.

If you’re freed from affection

You’ll have no grief,

let alone fear.”

Once again, the Dhammapada relies on parallelism as its central poetic framework. Here, the parallelism is used to demonstrate the causal relationship between earthly attachments and suffering; even though intense affection for people and things may feel good in the moment, there will inevitably be loss of those people and things and grief will ensue. This passage speaks to Spiritual Consequences for Daily Actions.

“The one who controls anger that’s arisen

Like a chariot going off-course

I call a charioteer.

Other folk are merely rein-holders.”

The spoked wheels of a chariot are evocative of the wheel of Dhamma, one of Buddhism’s most prominent symbols, which represents the Buddha’s teachings and the order of the universe. In this verse’s metaphor, if one does not have control of the chariot, it will spill out of control. Similarly, not having control of oneself leads to losing touch with the Dhamma, and therefore remaining trapped in the karmic cycle of death and rebirth. This passage thus reinforces The Importance of Exercising Self-Restraint.

“Folk blame the one who sits silent;

They blame the one who says a lot;

They blame the one who says little, too—

No one in this world is not blamed.

There never was, there never will be,

Nor is there found today

A person who is altogether blamed

Or altogether praised.”

In the beginning of the first stanza, anaphoric repetition of “they blame” occurs. Additionally there is a progression from past to future to present tense in the second stanza, coupled with an anaphoric treatment of the word “never.” All of these devices work in tandem to emulates the incessant nature of blame being described by the Buddha.

“If you contemplate the faults of others,

Always seeking cause for offence,

Your defilements increase:

You’re far from the destruction of the defilements.”

Just as a preoccupation with the self inhibits the path to enlightenment, the Buddha also teaches that a preoccupation with others prevents enlightenment. In other chapters, he speaks of a loving preoccupation (see “The Dear”), but here the preoccupation with others is malicious in nature. In urging his followers to cease focusing on “the faults of others,” the Buddha reiterates the Spiritual Consequences for Daily Actions.

“If truth and Dhamma are in someone,

Non-violence, self-restraint and control,

Then, steadfast and free of defilements,

He indeed is called an Elder.”

The deferential designation “elder” is similar to “brahmin” and “arahat,” all of which are high-status titles examined in the Dhammapada as an exploration of the relationship between social, religious, and spiritual hierarchies. Here, as elsewhere, the Buddha rejects physical and material understandings of the titles in favor of a spiritual one.

“As long as any tiny bit of brushwood

Of a man towards women is not cut down,

He has a mind in bondage,

Like a sucking calf towards its mother.

Cut off affection towards yourself

As you’d pluck an autumn lily with your hand.

Develop the path to peace,

The nibbāna taught by the Well-Gone.”

As explained by Roebuck in the footnotes, Verse 284 relies on a Pāli pun in which the root words for “desire” and “wood” sound like one another. Since the original Pāli text relies so heavily on puns that do not translate well into English or other languages, readers of translated Dhammapadas will unavoidably miss some of the intentionally playful, clever tone of the original verses. In the second stanza, the metaphor of a hand plucking a lily recalls the imagery of flower-picking used throughout Chapter 4, “Flowers.”

“It’s hard to go forth, hard to find pleasure;

Houses are hard to live in and painful;

It’s painful to live with people who are different;

The wayfarer is beset with suffering.

So you shouldn’t be a wayfarer,

And you won’t be beset with suffering.”

At first, this verse seems to contradict the teachings of Buddhism by discouraging readers (or listeners) from becoming renouncers; it is the only verse in the Dhammapada that immediately reads as hypocritical to the rest of the text. Given that the first half of the verse relies on a metaphor likening a house to the body (see several others verses, including 13-14 and 153-154), it seems likely that the “wayfarer” here is actually figurative, perhaps embodying an unfocused mind.

“Many with the yellow robe on their backs

Are of evil character and uncontrolled.

Through their evil actions, the evil

Are reborn in a hell world.”

The reference to “yellow robes” is an epithet for Buddhist monks, who traditionally wear robes dyed with saffron, turmeric, or red clay. By highlighting the contrast between the beautiful appearance of monks’ clothing and their distasteful behavior, the Buddha indicates that nobody is automatically granted enlightenment by virtue of their status, even holy men. Critiques of monastic groups throughout the text hint at tensions between Buddhist sects over the conduct of some monks that are thought to have motivated the First Buddhist Schism.

“Fine are tamed mules

And thoroughbreds from Sindh

And great tusker elephants;

But the self-tamed is finer than these.

Not by these mounts

Can you go to the place where none has gone

As you’ll go by a well-tamed self,

Tamed by means of tamed.”

The recurring motif of restrained animals is repeated here to invoke The Importance of Exercising Self-Restraint, this time with the animals standing in for the mind/self, and the human controlling them a devout Buddhist. The highly specific cultural reference to thoroughbred horses from Sindh, which would presumably have been understandable to early audiences of the Dhammapada, are evidence of the text’s goal of making Buddhism accessible to everyday people.

“Those who are subject to craving

Crawl around like a trapped hare.

Bound by fetters and bonds, for a long time

They undergo suffering again and again.”

The metaphor of a “trapped hare” draws upon the motif of restrained animals that appears throughout the Dhammapada. Fetters are an important theological concept in Buddhism: They are anything that chains an individual to the cycle of rebirth, preventing them from attaining nibbana. These elements can include conceit, ignorance, material or immaterial lust, and a number of other earthly attachments. Ridding oneself of fetters is what allows one to achieve nibbana. A key story used to illustrate this concept to Buddhists is that the Buddha named his infant son Rāhula, meaning fetter, knowing that leaving the baby to pursue enlightenment would be difficult.

“Fool, what use are your matted locks, Your antelope-skin garment? There’s a mess inside you: You clean the outside.”

The speaker has a more aggressive tone in this verse than others, directly addressing the reader (or listener) as though they were a foolish Brahmin. The matted hair and antelope hide are signifiers of a holy ascetic. This critique of those who perform enlightenment for others through superficial means like attire but do not do the internal work of self-control is very similar to Verse 307, which focuses on monks in yellow robes.