Summaries & Analyses
Reading Tools
Themes
The Importance of Exercising Self-Restraint
Exercising control over the self is one of the key goals of Buddhism; achieving self-restraint and self-control allows a person to reach a state of aharathood or nibbana. This idea is best summarized by Verse 35, in which the Buddha asserts, “The mind is hard to restrain, light / Flying where it will / Control of it is good / Mind controlled brings happiness.” The Dhammapada, therefore, contains many verses that are concerned with how to best develop this self-restraint. For audiences encountering Buddhist teachings for the first time, the importance of exercising self-restraint is one of the most essential lessons for them to learn.
One of the recurring motifs used to illustrate the idea of self-restraint is livestock and other animals controlled by humans. Cows and horses make especially frequent appearances. In Chapter 23, the Buddha declares, “Once this mind roamed about / As it wished, as it wanted, as it liked / Today I will control it properly / As a mahout controls an elephant” (64). In this metaphor, the mind and the self are separated from each other in the bodies of the elephant and the mahout, respectively. As such, the livestock metaphor helps to make more understandable the division between these two things, which might at first appear to be the same. Additionally, the elephant is presumed to have originally been wild, making it a more useful animal for illustrating the wild nature of an uncontrolled mind than, say, a horse.
Religious figures like monks and Arahats are held up as role models for what good self-restraint looks like. Of monks, the Buddha says, “The monk who is restrained of mouth / A gentle speaker, not puffed up / Who illuminates the meaning and the / Dhamma— / His speech is sweet” (v. 363) Here, self-restraint is paired with humility, since arrogance is one of the fetters that prevents people from reaching enlightenment. Similarly, a good Arahat is described as follows: “True to his vows, he’s like a royal pillar, A mudless pool” (v. 95). This verse lauds the unwavering commitment to the Dhamma required to reach aharathood, and the imperviousness to outside temptations (much like a pillar of stone at a temple is unaffected by the goings on around it). These ideals of Buddhist self-control apply to any follower, whether they are laity or members of the sangha. In learning to exercise self-restraint, the disciplined Buddhist can let go of worldly attachments and free themselves from passions and emotions that lead away from enlightenment.
The Nature of Opposing Universal Forces
Parallelism is one of the central poetic frameworks of the Dhammapada, and it is frequently used to juxtapose opposites (dichotomies), to reveal the existence and nature of opposing universal forces. These opposite pairs include good and evil, happiness and misery, wisdom and ignorance.
Parallel poetic structure between verses is frequently used to emphasize the contrast between the two opposite forces. This use of parallelism is most prominent in the Dhammapada’s opening chapter, “Twins.” The first two verses explore the opposite relationship between happiness and suffering (i.e., dukkha and sukha):
Fore-run by mind are mental states,
Ruled by mind, made of mind.
If you speak or act
With corrupt mind,
Suffering follows you,
As the wheel the foot of the ox.
Fore-run by mind are mental states,
Ruled by mind, made of mind.
If you speak or act
With clear mind,
Happiness follows you,
Like a shadow that does not depart (v.1, emphasis added).
All Buddhists are caught between the two forces of happiness and suffering; both of them are key components of reality. When one attains nibbana, however, they reach a complete liberation from suffering because they realize that dukkha was merely an illusion, and that everything is, in fact, part of sukha. The philosophical relationship between paired phenomena is thus central to Buddhist understandings of reality. This issue is explored more fully in another piece of the Pāli Canon, the Yamaka.
In addition to raising philosophical questions about the nature of reality, the use of juxtaposition in the Dhammapada offers a clear teaching method for readers who were previously unfamiliar with the teachings of Buddhism. Clear dichotomy between good and evil, for example, is a simple framework for understanding the universe that corresponds to good action and evil action. For example,
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 (v. 117-18).
The reasoning behind right action and wrong action, therefore, is laid out very simply on the basis of uncomplicated distinctions between good and evil. By viewing reality through this simplistic framework, the book makes itself accessible to audiences from a wide variety of backgrounds. In this way, the Dhammapada balances complex philosophical content with plain language, such that individual readers can choose to engage with the text at the level they prefer.
Spiritual Consequences for Daily Actions
The Dhammapada teaches that enlightenment can be achieved gradually through the spiritual consequences of one’s daily actions, with good and bad behavior having long-term spiritual effects. In Chapter 9, the Buddha states, “By the falling of drops of water/ A water-pot is filled; / The wise one is filled with good / Though he practise it little by little” (v. 122). Evil actions are portrayed as having a gradual corrosive effect, while right action is a component of the Eightfold Path. The Dhammapada makes it clear that every single action, and even thought, is part of that path.
In the chapter on the Eightfold Path, the Buddha advises that, “Guarding your speech / restrained in mind / And body too, you should do no unskilful act. Purifying these three ways of action / You’ll reach the path taught by the sages” (v. 281). If one engages in right action, it will lead to great rewards to enjoy. In Chapter 15, enlightened beings rejoice in their liberation from suffering: “Ah, how happily we live / We who own nothing! / We shall feast upon joy / Like the Radiant Gods” (40). The gleeful tone of this chapter emphasizes just how good the rewards of following the Dhamma are.
In contrast, there are dire consequences for those who behave with wrong action. In “The Rod,” the Buddha describes at length the spiritual consequences for those who treat others violently:
He’ll experience sharp pain, loss,
Bodily injury,
Serious disease,
Or disturbance of mind,
Trouble from the king,
Grave slander,
Loss of relatives,
Or destruction of goods;
Or else blazing fire
Will burn down his house.
On the breaking-up of the body,
That unwise one goes to hell (v. 138-40).
Earthly suffering is thus accompanied by spiritual suffering in the hell realms. Since Buddhism treats the hell realms as another transient form of existence, they are merely another step in the cycle of death and rebirth. This cycle is the ultimate spiritual consequence of wrongful action. As summarized in Verse 153, “Painful is birth again and again.” In this way, the Dhammapada ties one’s daily actions, however small they may seem, to the eternal suffering of existence. Unlike other religious traditions that represent suffering in the afterlife as a proportionate punishment for one’s actions in life, Buddhism presents this spiritual suffering as the default state of existence that one must free themselves from through focused practice of the Dhamma.
Unlock every key theme and why it matters
Get in-depth breakdowns of the book’s main ideas and how they connect and evolve.
- Explore how themes develop throughout the text
- Connect themes to characters, events, and symbols
- Support essays and discussions with thematic evidence