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The Teaching of the Buddhas

Dhp 179-196, the Buddhavagga — set 2, The Basic Diagnosis and the Path

Reading time: about 3 min · 459 words

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Before you read

This chapter of the Dhammapada is about the Buddha: what it means that he appeared, and what he taught.

It contains the verse many people treat as the whole teaching in four lines: not doing any evil, taking up the wholesome, purifying your own mind: this is the teaching of the Buddhas. The verses around it fill in the daily shape of that: patience, not harming anyone, moderation in eating, a quiet place to sit, and devotion to the higher mind.

Later verses ask what a real refuge is. Frightened people take refuge in mountains, forests, and shrines. The refuge that works is the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha, and the text defines it by what you see: the four noble truths.

The numbers beside the verses are the Dhammapada's own verse numbers.

Translation

Verses

179Whose victory cannot be undone, whose victory no one in the world can follow: that Buddha, whose range has no end, who leaves no track, by what track will you lead him?

180In whom there is no ignorant wanting, that net, that entanglement, to lead him anywhere: that Buddha, whose range has no end, who leaves no track, by what track will you lead him?

181The steadfast, intent on the mental themes, delighting in the calm of renunciation, fully awakened, remembering: even the devas envy them.

182Hard it is to be born human, hard the life of mortals, hard to hear the true Dhamma, hard the arising of Buddhas.

183Not doing any evil, taking up the wholesome, purifying your own mind: this is the teaching of the Buddhas.

184Patience, enduring patience, is the highest austerity; nibbāna is the highest, the Buddhas say. Someone who harms another has not gone forth; someone who troubles another is no samaṇa.

185Not blaming, not harming, restraint in the pāṭimokkha, moderation in eating, a secluded place to sleep and sit, and devotion to the higher mind: this is the teaching of the Buddhas.

186Not with a shower of coins is there contentment in sensuality. Sensuality gives little gratification and much pain: knowing this, the wise

187find no delight even in heavenly sensuality. The disciple of the fully awakened Buddha delights in the ending of ignorant wanting.

188People driven by fear go for refuge to many things: to mountains and forests, to parks, trees, and shrines.

189That is not a secure refuge, that is not the highest refuge. Going to that refuge, no one is released from all dissatisfaction.

190But whoever has gone for refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha sees with right discernment the four noble truths:

191dissatisfaction, the arising of dissatisfaction, the going beyond dissatisfaction, and the noble eightfold path that leads to the calming of dissatisfaction.

192That is the secure refuge, that is the highest refuge. Going to that refuge, you are released from all dissatisfaction.

193A thoroughbred among people is hard to find, and is not born just anywhere. Wherever that steadfast person is born, that family prospers in happiness.

194Happy is the arising of Buddhas, happy the teaching of the true Dhamma, happy the harmony of the Saṅgha, happy the austerity of those in harmony.

195Whoever honors those worthy of honor, whether Buddhas or their disciples, who have gone beyond proliferation and crossed over sorrow and lamentation,

196whoever honors such ones, cooled and fearing nothing from any side: no one can measure their benefit by saying it is this much.

The fourteenth chapter, on the Buddha, is finished.

Words used in this translation (15)
calming
A settling and quieting of the mind on the way toward full release.
crossed over
Having completed the crossing rather than merely moving toward the other side. This preserves the river image used for completion of the path.
Dhamma
The Buddha's teaching taken as a whole -- both what he taught and the way things actually are, which the teaching describes.
dissatisfaction
This translation's rendering of "dukkha," the Buddhist term for the unsatisfying, unstable quality of ordinary experience. Often translated "suffering," but that can sound more dramatic than the everyday sense of things not quite being right.
gratification
This project's rendering of "assāda": the real satisfaction something offers, which is why people hold on to it. The texts pair it with that thing's danger and the escape from it, so you see all three together.
ignorant wanting
Wanting something you can't have right now. This project's rendering of "taṇhā", often translated "craving". We call it ignorant because it comes from not seeing clearly; ordinary, sensible wanting is something else.
knowing
This project's rendering of "viññāṇa" (often translated "consciousness") -- bare awareness of an object through one of the senses or the mind.
nibbāna
The end of greed, hatred, and confusion -- the traditional goal of Buddhist practice. Left untranslated because no single English word covers it; "quenching" is the closest one-word gloss.
noble eightfold path
The eight-part practice these texts teach: right view, right attitude, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right remembering, and right unification of mind.
refuge
Where someone turns for safety and direction. Going for refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha is how a person shows they take this path seriously. It is not a conversion ritual.
remembering
This project's rendering of "sati". It means actively keeping what matters in mind and coming back to it when you lose it. It is not bare attention to whatever happens to be present.
right discernment
Seeing accurately how something actually came about, rather than holding a correct opinion about it.
Saṅgha
The community of the Buddha's disciples. In traditional recollection formulas, as in AN 11.12, it means especially those who have entered and realized the path, not everyone who calls themselves Buddhist.
wholesome
This project's rendering of "kusala". Roughly: mentally and ethically healthy. It is blameless, leads to well-being, and people with good judgment praise it.
world
A word whose scope shifts with the teaching. It can mean the lived world we build through the senses and the mind, or the wider physical cosmos. The surrounding passage shows which sense it has.
Source and corrections