Chapter XVIII, Section 1b

On the five principal commandments which are recapitulated in verses 246 and 247, see Buddhaghosha's Parables, p. 153. 248. Cf. Mahâbhârata XII, 4055, yeshâ m v ri ttis k a sa m yatâ. See also verse 307 .] p. 62 249. The world gives according to their faith or according to their pleasure: if a man frets about the food and the drink given to others, he will find no rest either by day or by night. 250. He in whom that feeling is destroyed, and taken out with the very root, finds rest by day and by night. 251. There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed. 252. The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself is difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides, as a cheat hides the bad die from the gambler. 253. If a man looks after the faults of others, and is always inclined to be offended, his own passions will grow, and he is far from the destruction of passions. 254. There is no path through the air, a man is not a Sama n a by outward acts. The world [249. This verse has evidently regard to the feelings of the Bhikshus or mendicants who receive either much or little, and who are exhorted not to be envious if others receive more than they themselves. Several of the Parables illustrate this feeling. 251. Dr. Fausböll translates gaho by 'captivitas,' Dr. Weber by 'fetter.' I take it in the same sense as grâha in Manu VI, 78; and Buddhaghosa does the same, though he assigns to grâha a more general meaning, viz. anything that seizes, whether an evil spirit (yakkha), a serpent (a g agara), or a crocodile (kumbhîla). Greed or thirst is represented as a river in Lalita-vistara, ed. Calc. p. 482, trish n â-nadî tivegâ pra s oshitâ me gñ ânasûrye n a, 'the wild river of thirst is dried up by the sun of my knowledge.' 252. See Childers, Notes, p. 7; St. Matthew vii. 3 . 253. As to âsava, 'appetite, passion,' see note to verse 39 . 254. I have translated this verse very freely, and not in accordance with Buddhaghosa's commentary. Dr. Fausböll proposed to translate, 'No one who is outside the Buddhist community can walk through the air, but only a Sama n a;' and the same view is taken by Professor Weber, though he arrives at it by a different construction. Now it is perfectly true that the idea of magical powers ( ri ddhi) which enable saints to walk through the air, &c., occurs in the Dhammapada, see v. 175 , note. But the Dhammapada may contain earlier and later verses, and in that case our verse might be an early protest on the part of Buddha against the belief in such miraculous powers. We know how Buddha himself protested against his disciples being called upon to perform vulgar miracles. 'I command my disciples not to work miracles,' he said, 'but to hide their good deeds, and to show their sins' (Burnouf, Introd. p. 170). It would be in harmony with this sentiment if we translated our verse as I have done.