DhammapadaDhammapada chapter 10: Punishment
Verses 129 to 145, in Max Muller's translation.
About this chapter
Punishment here means fear of violence: all beings tremble at it and all love life, so a person who understands should not kill or cause to kill.
It has 17 verses (129 to 145). « Chapter 9 · Chapter 11 »
All men tremble at punishment, all men fear death; remember that you are like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter.
All men tremble at punishment, all men love life; remember that thou art like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter.
He who seeking his own happiness punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after death.
He who seeking his own happiness does not punish or kill beings who also long for happiness, will find happiness after death.
Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful, blows for blows will touch thee.
If, like a shattered metal plate (gong), thou utter not, then thou hast reached Nirvana; contention is not known to thee.
As a cowherd with his staff drives his cows into the stable, so do Age and Death drive the life of men.
A fool does not know when he commits his evil deeds: but the wicked man burns by his own deeds, as if burnt by fire.
He who inflicts pain on innocent and harmless persons, will soon come to one of these ten states:
He will have cruel suffering, loss, injury of the body, heavy affliction, or loss of mind,
Or a misfortune coming from the king, or a fearful accusation, or loss of relations, or destruction of treasures,
Or lightning-fire will burn his houses; and when his body is destroyed, the fool will go to hell.
Not nakedness, not platted hair, not dirt, not fasting, or lying on the earth, not rubbing with dust, not sitting motionless, can purify a mortal who has not overcome desires.
He who, though dressed in fine apparel, exercises tranquillity, is quiet, subdued, restrained, chaste, and has ceased to find fault with all other beings, he indeed is a Brahmana, an ascetic (sramana), a friar (bhikshu).
Is there in this world any man so restrained by humility that he does not mind reproof, as a well-trained horse the whip?
Like a well-trained horse when touched by the whip, be ye active and lively, and by faith, by virtue, by energy, by meditation, by discernment of the law you will overcome this great pain (of reproof), perfect in knowledge and in behaviour, and never forgetful.
Well-makers lead the water (wherever they like); fletchers bend the arrow; carpenters bend a log of wood; good people fashion themselves.
The verses are F. Max Muller's English translation of 1881, in the public domain; its wording is of its time. The notes are our own. This site is an introduction and not a substitute for a teacher, and it is independent of any Buddhist organisation.