The Dhamma & Gregg Page...
Loosely based on the popular televison series of the same name
Dhammapada
Dhammapada I
Pairs
Phenomena are preceded by the heart,
ruled by the heart,
made of the heart.
If you speak or act
with a corrupted heart,
then suffering follows you --
as the wheel of the cart,
the track of the ox
that pulls it.
Phenomena are preceded by the heart,
ruled by the heart,
made of the heart.
If you speak or act
with a calm, bright heart,
then happiness follows you,
like a shadow
that never leaves.
'He insulted me,
hit me,
beat me,
robbed me'
-- for those who brood on this,
hostility isn't stilled.
'He insulted me,
hit me,
beat me,
robbed me' --
for those who don't brood on this,
hostility is stilled.
Hostilities aren't stilled
through hostility,
regardless.
Hostilities are stilled
through non-hostility:
this, an unending truth.
Unlike those who don't realize
that we're here on the verge
of perishing,
those who do:
their quarrels are stilled.
One who stays focused on the beautiful,
is unrestrained with the senses,
knowing no moderation in food,
apathetic, unenergetic:
Mara overcomes him
as the wind, a weak tree.
One who stays focused on the foul,
is restrained with regard to the senses,
knowing moderation in food,
full of conviction & energy:
Mara does not overcome him
as the wind, a mountain of rock.
He who, depraved,
devoid
of truthfulness
& self-control,
puts on the ochre robe,
doesn't deserve the ochre robe.
But he who is free
of depravity
endowed
with truthfulness
& self-control,
well-established
in the precepts,
truly deserves the ochre robe.
Those who regard
non-essence as essence
and see essence as non-,
don't get to the essence,
ranging about in wrong resolves.
But those who know
essence as essence,
and non-essence as non-,
get to the essence,
ranging about in right resolves.
As rain seeps into
an ill-thatched hut,
so passion,
the undeveloped mind.
As rain doesn't seep into
a well-thatched hut,
so passion does not,
the well-developed mind.
Here he grieves
he grieves hereafter.
In both worlds
the wrong-doer grieves.
He grieves, he's afflicted,
seeing the corruption
of his deeds.
Here he rejoices
he rejoices hereafter.
In both worlds
the merit-maker rejoices.
He rejoices, is jubilant,
seeing the purity
of his deeds.
Here he's tormented
he's tormented hereafter.
In both worlds
the wrong-doer's tormented.
He's tormented at the thought,
'I've done wrong.'
Having gone to a bad destination,
he's tormented
all the more.
Here he delights
he delights hereafter.
In both worlds
the merit-maker delights.
He delights at the thought,
'I've made merit.'
Having gone to a good destination,
he delights
all the more.
If he recites many teachings, but
-- heedless man --
doesn't do what they say,
like a cowherd counting the cattle of
others,
he has no share in the contemplative life.
If he recites next to nothing
but follows the Dhamma
in line with the Dhamma;
abandoning passion,
aversion, delusion;
alert,
his mind well-released,
not clinging
either here or hereafter:
he has his share in the contemplative life.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/khuddaka/dhp/01.html
Dhammapada II
Heedfulness
Heedfulness: the path to the Deathless.
Heedlessness: the path to death.
The heedful do not die.
The heedless are as if
already dead.
Knowing this as a true distinction,
those wise in heedfulness
rejoice in heedfulness,
enjoying the range of the noble ones.
The enlightened, constantly
absorbed in jhana,
persevering,
firm in their effort:
they touch Unbinding,
the unexcelled rest
from the yoke.
Those with initiative,
mindful,
clean in action,
acting with due consideration,
heedful, restrained,
living the Dhamma:
their glory
grows.
Through initiative, heedfulness,
restraint, & self-control,
the wise would make
an island
no flood
can submerge.
They're addicted to heedlessness
-- dullards, fools --
while one who is wise
cherishes heedfulness
as his highest wealth.
Don't give way to heedlessness
or to intimacy
with sensual delight --
for a heedful person,
absorbed in jhana,
attains an abundance of ease.
When the wise person drives out
heedlessness
with heedfulness,
having climbed the high tower
of discernment,
sorrow-free,
he observes the sorrowing crowd --
as the enlightened man,
having scaled
a summit,
the fools on the ground below.
Heedful among the heedless,
wakeful among those asleep,
just as a fast horse advances,
leaving the weak behind:
so the wise.
Through heedfulness, Indra won
to lordship over the gods.
Heedfulness is praised,
heedlessness censured --
always.
The monk delighting in heedfulness,
seeing danger in heedlessness,
advances like a fire,
burning fetters
great & small.
The monk delighting in heedfulness,
seeing danger in heedlessness
-- incapable of falling back --
stands right on the verge
of Unbinding.
Dhammapada III
The Mind
Quivering, wavering,
hard to guard,
to hold in check:
the mind.
The sage makes it straight --
like a fletcher,
the shaft of an arrow.
Like a fish
pulled from its home in the water
& thrown on land:
this mind flips & flaps about
to escape Mara's sway.
Hard to hold down,
nimble,
alighting wherever it likes:
the mind.
Its taming is good.
The mind well-tamed
brings ease.
So hard to see,
so very, very subtle,
alighting wherever it likes:
the mind.
The wise should guard it.
The mind protected
brings ease.
Wandering far,
going alone,
bodiless,
lying in a cave:
the mind.
Those who restrain it:
from Mara's bonds
they'll be freed.
For a person of unsteady mind,
not knowing true Dhamma,
serenity
set adrift:
discernment doesn't grow full.
For a person of unsoddened mind,
unassaulted awareness,
abandoning merit & evil,
wakeful,
there is no danger
no fear.
Knowing this body
is like a clay jar,
securing this mind
like a fort,
attack Mara
with the spear of discernment,
then guard what's won
without settling there,
without laying claim.
All too soon, this body
will lie on the ground
cast off,
bereft of consciousness,
like a useless scrap
of wood.
Whatever an enemy might do
to an enemy,
or a foe to a foe,
the ill-directed mind
can do to you
even worse.
Whatever a mother, father
or other kinsman
might do for you,
the well-directed mind
can do for you
even better.
Dhammapada IV
Blossoms
Who will penetrate this earth
& this realm of death
with all its gods?
Who will ferret out
the well-taught Dhamma-saying,
as the skillful flower-arranger
the flower?
The learner-on-the-path
will penetrate this earth
& this realm of death
with all its gods.
The learner-on-the-path
will ferret out
the well-taught Dhamma-saying,
as the skillful flower-arranger
the flower.
Knowing this body
is like foam,
realizing its nature
-- a mirage --
cutting out
the blossoms of Mara,
you go where the King of Death
can't see.
The man immersed in
gathering blossoms,
his heart distracted:
death sweeps him away --
as a great flood,
a village asleep.
The man immersed in
gathering blossoms,
his heart distracted,
insatiable in sensual pleasures:
the End-Maker holds him
under his sway.
As a bee -- without harming
the blossom,
its color,
its fragrance --
takes its nectar & flies away:
so should the sage
go through a village.
Focus,
not on the rudenesses of others,
not on what they've done
or left undone,
but on what you
have & haven't done
yourself.
Just like a blossom,
bright colored
but scentless:
a well-spoken word
is fruitless
when not carried out.
Just like a blossom,
bright colored
& full of scent:
a well-spoken word
is fruitful
when well carried out.
Just as from a heap of flowers
many garland strands can be made,
even so
one born & mortal
should do
-- with what's born & is mortal --
many a skillful thing.
No flower's scent
goes against the wind --
not sandalwood,
jasmine,
tagara.
But the scent of the good
does go against the wind.
The person of integrity
wafts a scent
in every direction.
Sandalwood, tagara,
lotus, & jasmine:
Among these scents,
the scent of virtue
is unsurpassed.
Next to nothing, this fragrance
-- sandalwood, tagara --
while the scent of the virtuous
wafts to the gods,
supreme.
Those consummate in virtue,
dwelling in heedfulness,
released through right knowing:
Mara can't follow their tracks.
As in a pile of rubbish
cast by the side of a highway
a lotus might grow
clean-smelling
pleasing the heart,
so in the midst of the rubbish-like,
people run-of-the-mill & blind,
there dazzles with discernment
the disciple of the Rightly
Self-Awakened One.
Dhammapada V
Fools
Long for the wakeful is the night.
Long for the weary, a league.
For fools
unaware of True Dhamma,
samsara
is long.
If, in your course, you don't meet
your equal, your better,
then continue your course,
firmly,
alone.
There's no fellowship with fools.
'I have sons, I have wealth' --
the fool torments himself.
When even he himself
doesn't belong to himself,
how then sons?
How wealth?
A fool with a sense of his foolishness
is -- at least to that extent -- wise.
But a fool who thinks himself wise
really deserves to be called
a fool.
Even if for a lifetime
the fool stays with the wise,
he knows nothing of the Dhamma --
as the ladle,
the taste of the soup.
Even if for a moment,
the perceptive person stays with the wise,
he immediately knows the Dhamma --
as the tongue,
the taste of the soup.
Fools, their wisdom weak,
are their own enemies
as they go through life,
doing evil
that bears
bitter fruit.
It's not good,
the doing of the deed
that, once it's done,
you regret,
whose result you reap crying,
your face in tears.
It's good,
the doing of the deed
that, once it's done,
you don't regret,
whose result you reap gratified,
happy at heart.
As long as evil has yet to ripen,
the fool mistakes it for honey.
But when that evil ripens,
the fool falls into
pain.
Month after month
the fool might eat
only a tip-of-grass measure of food,
but he wouldn't be worth
one sixteenth
of those who've fathomed
the Dhamma.
An evil deed, when done,
doesn't -- like ready milk --
come out right away.
It follows the fool,
smoldering
like a fire
hidden in ashes.
Only for his ruin
does renown come to the fool.
It ravages his bright fortune
& rips his head apart.
He would want unwarranted status,
preeminence among monks,
authority among monasteries,
homage from lay families.
'Let householders & those gone forth
both think that this
was done by me alone.
May I alone determine
what's a duty, what's not':
the resolve of a fool
as they grow --
his desire & pride.
The path to material gain
goes one way,
the way to Unbinding,
another.
Realizing this, the monk,
a disciple to the Awakened One,
should not relish offerings,
should cultivate seclusion
instead.
Dhammapada VI
The Wise
Regard him as one who
points out
treasure,
the wise one who
seeing your faults
rebukes you.
Stay with this sort of sage.
For the one who stays
with a sage of this sort,
things get better,
not worse.
Let him admonish, instruct,
deflect you
away from poor manners.
To the good, he's endearing;
to the bad, he's not.
Don't associate with bad friends.
Don't associate with the low.
Associate with admirable friends.
Associate with the best.
Drinking the Dhamma,
refreshed by the Dhamma,
one sleeps at ease
with clear awareness & calm.
In the Dhamma revealed
by the noble ones,
the wise person
always delights.
Irrigators guide the water.
Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.
Carpenters shape the wood.
The wise control
themselves.
As a single slab of rock
won't budge in the wind,
so the wise are not moved
by praise,
by blame.
Like a deep lake,
clear, unruffled, & calm:
so the wise become clear,
calm,
on hearing words of the Dhamma.
Everywhere, truly,
those of integrity
stand apart.
They, the good,
don't chatter in hopes
of favor or gains.
When touched
now by pleasure,
now pain,
the wise give no sign
of high
or low.
One who wouldn't --
not for his own sake
nor that of another --
hanker for
wealth,
a son,
a kingdom,
his own fulfillment,
by unrighteous means:
he is righteous, rich
in virtue,
discernment.
Few are the people
who reach the Far Shore.
These others
simply scurry along
this shore.
But those who practice Dhamma
in line with the well-taught Dhamma,
will cross over the realm of Death
so hard to transcend.
Forsaking dark practices,
the wise person
should develop the bright,
having gone from home
to no-home
in seclusion, so hard to enjoy.
There he should wish for delight,
discarding sensuality --
he who has nothing.
He should cleanse himself -- wise --
of what defiles the mind.
Whose minds are well-developed
in the factors of self-awakening,
who delight in non-clinging,
relinquishing grasping --
resplendent,
their effluents ended:
they, in the world,
are Unbound.
Dhammapada VII
Arahants
In one who
has gone the full distance,
is free from sorrow,
is fully released
in all respects,
has abandoned all bonds:
no fever is found.
The mindful keep active,
don't delight in settling back.
They renounce every home,
every home,
like swans taking off from a lake.
Not hoarding,
having understood food,
their pasture -- emptiness
& freedom without sign:
their trail,
like that of birds through space,
can't be traced.
Effluents ended,
independent of nutriment,
their pasture -- emptiness
& freedom without sign:
their trail,
like that of birds through space,
can't be traced.
He whose senses are steadied
like stallions
well-trained by the charioteer,
his conceit abandoned,
free of effluent,
Such:
even devas adore him.
Like the earth, he doesn't react --
cultured,
Such,
like Indra's pillar,
like a lake free of mud.
For him
-- Such --
there's no traveling on.
Calm is his mind,
calm his speech
& his deed:
one who's released through right knowing,
pacified,
Such.
97*:
The man
faithless / beyond conviction
ungrateful / knowing the Unmade
a burglar / who has severed connections
who's destroyed
his chances / conditions
who eats vomit: / has disgorged expectations:
the ultimate person.
98:
In village or wilds,
valley, plateau:
that place is delightful
where arahants dwell.
Delightful wilds
where the crowds don't delight,
those free from passion
delight,
for they're not searching
for sensual pleasures.
Dhammapada VIII
Thousands
Better
than if there were thousands
of meaningless words is
one
meaningful
word
that on hearing
brings peace.
Better
than if there were thousands
of meaningless verses is
one
meaningful
verse
that on hearing
brings peace.
And better than chanting hundreds
of meaningless verses is
one
Dhamma-saying
that on hearing
brings peace.
Greater in battle
than the man who would conquer
a thousand-thousand men,
is he who would conquer
just one --
himself.
Better to conquer yourself
than others.
When you've trained yourself,
living in constant self-control,
neither a deva nor gandhabba,
nor a Mara banded with Brahmas,
could turn that triumph
back into defeat.
You could, month by month,
at a cost of thousands,
conduct sacrifices
a hundred times,
or
pay a single moment's homage
to one person,
self-cultivated.
Better than a hundred years of sacrifices
would that act of homage be.
You could, for a hundred years,
live in a forest
tending a fire,
or
pay a single moment's homage
to one person,
self-cultivated.
Better than a hundred years of sacrifices
would that act of homage be.
Everything offered
or sacrificed in the world
for an entire year by one seeking merit
doesn't come to a fourth.
Better to pay respect
to those who've gone
the straight way.
If you're respectful by habit,
constantly honoring the worthy,
four things increase:
long life, beauty,
happiness, strength.
Better than a hundred years
lived without virtue, uncentered, is
one day
lived by a virtuous person
absorbed in jhana.
And better than a hundred years
lived undiscerning, uncentered, is
one day
lived by a discerning person
absorbed in jhana.
And better than a hundred years
lived apathetic & unenergetic, is
one day
lived energetic & firm.
And better than a hundred years
lived without seeing
arising & passing away, is
one day
lived seeing
arising & passing away.
And better than a hundred years
lived without seeing
the Deathless state, is
one day
lived seeing
the Deathless state.
And better than a hundred years
lived without seeing
the ultimate Dhamma, is
one day
lived seeing
the ultimate Dhamma.
Evil
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.
Be quick in doing
what's admirable.
Restrain your mind
from what's evil.
When you're slow
in making merit,
evil delights the mind.
If a person does evil,
he shouldn't do it again & again,
shouldn't develop a penchant for it.
To accumulate evil
brings pain.
If a person makes merit,
he should do it again & again,
should develop a penchant for it.
To accumulate merit
brings ease.
Even the evil
meet with good fortune
as long as their evil
has yet to mature.
But when it's matured
that's when they meet
with evil.
Even the good
meet with bad fortune
as long as their good
has yet to mature.
But when it's matured
that's when they meet
with good fortune.
Don't be heedless of evil
('It won't come to me').
A water jar fills,
even with water
falling in drops.
With evil -- even if
bit
by
bit,
habitually --
the fool fills himself full.
Don't be heedless of merit
('It won't come to me').
A water jar fills,
even with water
falling in drops.
With merit -- even if
bit
by
bit,
habitually --
the enlightened one fills himself full.
Like a merchant with a small
but well-laden caravan
-- a dangerous road,
like a person who loves life
-- a poison,
one should avoid
-- evil deeds.
If there's no wound on the hand,
that hand can hold poison.
Poison won't penetrate
where there's no wound.
There's no evil
for those who don't do it.
Whoever harasses
an innocent man,
a man pure, without blemish:
the evil comes right back to the fool
like fine dust
thrown against the wind.
Some are born in the human womb,
evildoers in hell,
those on the good course go
to heaven,
while those without effluent:
totally unbound.
Not up in the air,
nor in the middle of the sea,
nor going into a cleft in the mountains
-- nowhere on earth --
is a spot to be found
where you could stay & escape
your evil deed.
Not up in the air,
nor in the middle of the sea,
nor going into a cleft in the mountains
-- nowhere on earth --
is a spot to be found
where you could stay & not succumb
to death.
Dhammapada IX
Evil
Be quick in doing
what's admirable.
Restrain your mind
from what's evil.
When you're slow
in making merit,
evil delights the mind.
If a person does evil,
he shouldn't do it again & again,
shouldn't develop a penchant for it.
To accumulate evil
brings pain.
If a person makes merit,
he should do it again & again,
should develop a penchant for it.
To accumulate merit
brings ease.
Even the evil
meet with good fortune
as long as their evil
has yet to mature.
But when it's matured
that's when they meet
with evil.
Even the good
meet with bad fortune
as long as their good
has yet to mature.
But when it's matured
that's when they meet
with good fortune.
Don't be heedless of evil
('It won't come to me').
A water jar fills,
even with water
falling in drops.
With evil -- even if
bit
by
bit,
habitually --
the fool fills himself full.
Don't be heedless of merit
('It won't come to me').
A water jar fills,
even with water
falling in drops.
With merit -- even if
bit
by
bit,
habitually --
the enlightened one fills himself full.
Like a merchant with a small
but well-laden caravan
-- a dangerous road,
like a person who loves life
-- a poison,
one should avoid
-- evil deeds.
If there's no wound on the hand,
that hand can hold poison.
Poison won't penetrate
where there's no wound.
There's no evil
for those who don't do it.
Whoever harasses
an innocent man,
a man pure, without blemish:
the evil comes right back to the fool
like fine dust
thrown against the wind.
Some are born in the human womb,
evildoers in hell,
those on the good course go
to heaven,
while those without effluent:
totally unbound.
Not up in the air,
nor in the middle of the sea,
nor going into a cleft in the mountains
-- nowhere on earth --
is a spot to be found
where you could stay & escape
your evil deed.
Not up in the air,
nor in the middle of the sea,
nor going into a cleft in the mountains
-- nowhere on earth --
is a spot to be found
where you could stay & not succumb
to death.
Dhammapada XI
Aging
What laughter, why joy,
when constantly aflame?
Enveloped in darkness,
don't you look for a lamp?
Look at the beautified image,
a heap of festering wounds, shored up:
ill, but the object
of many resolves,
where there is nothing
lasting or sure.
Worn out is this body,
a nest of diseases, dissolving.
This putrid conglomeration
is bound to break up,
for life is hemmed in with death.
On seeing these bones
discarded
like gourds in the fall,
pigeon-gray:
what delight?
A city made of bones,
plastered over with flesh & blood,
whose hidden treasures are:
pride & contempt,
aging & death.
Even royal chariots
well-embellished
get run down,
and so does the body
succumb to old age.
But the Dhamma of the good
doesn't succumb to old age:
the good let the civilized know.
152*:
This unlistening man
matures like an ox.
His muscles develop,
his discernment not.
153-154*:
Through the round of many births I roamed
without reward,
without rest,
seeking the house-builder.
Painful is birth
again & again.
House-builder, you're seen!
You will not build a house again.
All your rafters broken,
the ridge pole destroyed,
gone to the Unformed, the mind
has come to the end of craving.
Neither living the chaste life
nor gaining wealth in their youth,
they waste away like old herons
in a dried-up lake
depleted of fish.
Neither living the chaste life
nor gaining wealth in their youth,
they lie around,
misfired from the bow,
sighing over old times.
Dhammapada XII
Self
If you hold yourself dear
then guard, guard yourself well.
The wise person would stay awake
nursing himself
in any of the three watches of the night,
the three stages of life.
First
he'd settle himself
in what is correct,
only then
teach others.
He wouldn't stain his name
: he is wise.
If you'd mold yourself
the way you teach others,
then, well-trained,
go ahead & tame --
for, as they say,
what's hard to tame is you
yourself.
Your own self is
your own mainstay,
for who else could your mainstay be?
With you yourself well-trained
you obtain the mainstay
hard to obtain.
The evil he himself has done
-- self-born, self-created --
grinds down the dullard,
as a diamond, a precious stone.
When overspread by extreme vice --
like a sal tree by a vine --
you do to yourself
what an enemy would wish.
They're easy to do --
things of no good
& no use to yourself.
What's truly useful & good
is truly harder than hard to do.
The teaching of those who live the Dhamma,
worthy ones, noble:
whoever maligns it
-- a dullard,
inspired by evil view --
bears fruit for his own destruction,
like the fruiting of the bamboo.
Evil is done by oneself
by oneself is one defiled.
Evil is left undone by oneself
by oneself is one cleansed.
Purity & impurity are one's own doing.
No one purifies another.
No other purifies one.
Don't sacrifice your own welfare
for that of another,
no matter how great.
Realizing your own true welfare,
be intent on just that.
Dhammapada XIII
Worlds
Don't associate with lowly qualities.
Don't consort with heedlessness.
Don't associate with wrong views.
Don't busy yourself with the world.
Get up! Don't be heedless.
Live the Dhamma well.
One who lives the Dhamma
sleeps with ease
in this world & the next.
Live the Dhamma well.
Don't live it badly.
One who lives the Dhamma
sleeps with ease
in this world & the next.
See it as a bubble,
see it as a mirage:
one who regards the world this way
the King of Death doesn't see.
Come look at this world
all decked out
like a royal chariot,
where fools plunge in,
while those who know
don't cling.
Who once was heedless,
but later is not,
brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.
His evil-done deed
is replaced with skillfulness:
he brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.
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.
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.
The person who tells a lie,
who transgresses in this one thing,
transcending concern for the world beyond:
there's no evil
he might not do.
No misers go
to the world of the devas.
Those who don't praise giving
are fools.
The enlightened
express their approval for giving
and so find ease
in the world beyond.
178*:
Sole dominion over the earth,
going to heaven,
lordship over all worlds:
the fruit of Stream-entry
excels them.
Dhammapada XIV
Awakened
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?
In whom there's no craving
-- the sticky ensnarer --
to lead him anywherever at all;
awakened, his pasture endless,
pathless:
by what path will you lead him astray?
They, the enlightened, intent on jhana,
delighting in stilling
& renunciation,
self-awakened & mindful:
even the devas
view them with envy.
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.
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.
Patient endurance:
the foremost austerity.
Unbinding:
the foremost,
so say the Awakened.
He who injures another
is no contemplative.
He who mistreats another,
no monk.
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.
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 ending of craving,
a disciple of the Rightly
Self-Awakened One.
They go to many a refuge,
to mountains and forests,
to park and tree 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 suffering & stress.
But when, having gone
to the Buddha, Dhamma,
& Sangha for refuge,
you see with right discernment
the four noble truths --
stress,
the cause of stress,
the transcending of stress,
& the noble eightfold path,
the way to the stilling of stress:
that's the secure refuge,
that, the supreme refuge,
that is the refuge,
having gone to which,
you gain release
from all suffering & stress.
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.
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.
If you worship those worthy of worship,
-- Awakened Ones or their disciples --
who've transcended
complications,
lamentation,
& grief,
who are unendangered,
fearless,
unbound:
there's no measure for reckoning
that your merit's 'this much.'
There is a lot more to this, A lot more
if you read all of the above and you want to read more
Contact me
I'll send you the link and maybe move into your house