The Dhammapada · 2 of 2 · tr. F. Max Müller
Chapter XXI, Section 1b
Beal in his translation of the Dhammapada, Introduction, p.
5.
Here a stanza is quoted as having been recited by Buddha, in explanation of a similar startling utterance which he had made to Mahâmati: 'Lust, or carnal desire, this is the Mother, Ignorance, this is the Father, The highest point of knowledge, this is Buddha, All the kle s as, these are the Rahats, The five skandhas, these are the Priests; To commit the five unpardonable sins Is to destroy these five And yet not suffer the pains of hell.' The La n kâvatâra-sûtra was translated into Chinese by Bodhiru k i (508-511); when it was written is doubtful.
See also G âtaka, vol.
ii.
p.
263.] p.
71 296.
The disciples of Gotama (Buddha) are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on Buddha.
297.
The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on the law.
298.
The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on the church.
299.
The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on their body.
p.
72 300.
The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their mind day and night always delights in compassion.
301.
The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their mind day and night always delights in meditation.
302.
It is hard to leave the world (to become a friar), it is hard to enjoy the world; hard is the monastery, painful are the houses; painful it is to dwell with equals (to share everything in common), and the itinerant mendicant is beset with pain.
Therefore let no man be an itinerant mendicant and he will not be beset with pain.
303.
Whatever place a faithful, virtuous, celebrated, and wealthy man chooses, there he is respected.
304.
Good people shine from afar, like the snowy [302.
This verse is difficult, and I give my translation as tentative only.
Childers (Notes, p.
11) does not remove the difficulties, and I have been chiefly guided by the interpretation put on the verse by the Chinese translator; Beal, Dhammapada, p.
137.] p.
73 mountains; bad people are not seen, like arrows shot by night.
305.
He alone who, without ceasing, practises the duty of sitting alone and sleeping alone, he, subduing himself, will rejoice in the destruction of all desires alone, as if living in a forest.
[305.
I have translated this verse so as to bring it into something like harmony with the preceding verses.
Vanânte, according to a pun pointed out before ( v.
283 ), means both 'in the end of a forest,' and 'in the end of desires.']
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Detachment Gelassenheitpraxis
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
Verse 305 describes the destruction of all desires as a state of liberation achieved through renunciation.
All passages →Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
Verse 295 explicitly identifies 'the highest point of knowledge' as Buddha, prioritizing direct experiential understanding over ritual.
All passages →Good Thought Word Deedethics
The Zoroastrian triad of right thought, right speech, and right action as the foundation of ethical life; truth-in-living.
Verses 296-301 emphasize the triad of thought, speech, and action (law, compassion, meditation) as central to discipleship.
All passages →Love Of Neighbourethics
Active compassionate care for others as a central spiritual obligation or expression of divine love.
Verse 300 explicitly states that the mind delights in compassion, which is an active expression of caring for others.
All passages →Meditationpraxis
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
Verse 301 identifies meditation as a core practice that delights the mind day and night.
All passages →Paradox As Teachingethics
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
Verse 302 presents the difficulty of renunciation ('hard to leave the world') as a teaching point.
All passages →Poverty Of Spiritanthropology
Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty).
Verse 302 describes the itinerant mendicant's state of pain and renunciation of worldly possessions as a path to freedom.
All passages →Renunciation Of Wealthethics
The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle.
Verse 302 explicitly states that it is hard to enjoy the world and painful to dwell with equals, emphasizing detachment from material wealth.
All passages →Self Knowledgesoteriology
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The focus on being well awake and setting thoughts on Buddha implies an inward recognition of one's true nature.
All passages →Sunyata Emptinesssoteriology
The Buddhist doctrine that all phenomena lack independent self-nature; emptiness as the positive recognition that things arise only in dependence on conditions — distinct from kenoma's mere deficiency.
Verse 305 mentions the destruction of all desires alone, aligning with the Buddhist concept of emptiness regarding attachment.
All passages →Related passages · 15 parallels
christian_mysticism|Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation)|IV-b
“No, they are certainly not; for the work of the angels is the will of God, and the will of God is the work of the angels; their service to us does not hinder their joy nor their working.
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Shared concept: Poverty Of Spirit — Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty). (derived)
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Shared concept: Self Knowledge — The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology. (derived)
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“DID that divine knowledge which constituted the supreme possession of the pagan priestcrafts survive the destruction of their temples?
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Shared concept: Gnosis Direct Knowledge — Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone. (derived)
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“"All sacrificing without faith and divine desire is an p.
219 abomination before God, and does not reach the gate of divine glory; but if man enters therein with the power of faith, he surrenders to it his free will, and desires by that me…”
Shared concept: Poverty Of Spirit — Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty). (derived)
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“(See Weber, Max Muller, etc.) We labour under the impression that Colebrooke, "the highest authority" in such matters, had long ago settled the question by showing, that "the Hindus were in this instance the teachers, not the learners." [[V…”
Shared concept: Sunyata Emptiness — The Buddhist doctrine that all phenomena lack independent self-nature; emptiness as the positive recognition that things arise only in dependence on conditions — distinct from kenoma's mere deficiency. (derived)
hinduism|Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III|Sutra 7
“This threefold power, of Attention, Meditation, Contemplation, is more interior than the means of growth previously described. Very naturally so; because the means of growth previously described were concerned with the extrication of the sp…”
Shared concept: Meditation — Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting. (derived)
christian_mysticism|Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation)|PREFACE-a
““ Meister Eckhart ,” who has been called the “Father of German thought,” was a Dominican monk, and one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle Ages.
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Shared concept: Detachment Gelassenheit — Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim. (derived)
hinduism|Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book IV|Sutra 16
“Nor do material objects defend upon a single mind, for how could they remain objective to others, if that mind ceased to think of them? This is but a further development of the thought of the preceding Sutra, carrying on the thought that, w…”
Shared concept: Detachment Gelassenheit — Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim. (derived)
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“Sometimes an old man, standing upon the brink of eternity, might reveal to a chosen few the oracle of his long-past youth.
The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity.
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Shared concept: Renunciation Of Wealth — The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle. (derived)
hinduism|Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III|Sutra 3
“When the perceiving consciousness in this meditative is wholly given to illuminating the essential meaning of the object contemplated, and is freed from the sense of separateness and personality, this is contemplation (samadhi). Let us revi…”
Shared concept: Meditation — Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting. (derived)
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“And the perfect Peace guards each several individuality unalloyed by Its providential gift of peace, keeping all things without internal or mutual discord or confusion, and establishing all things, in the power of unswerving stability, so a…”
Shared concept: Paradox As Teaching — Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight. (derived)
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Shared concept: Paradox As Teaching — Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight. (derived)
zoroastrianism|Avesta (Gathas)|Ahunavaiti Gatha, Yasna XXXI, Section 1c
“49 harm to the tiller's herd, to the pious husbandman's flock, who speaks no word with lying, (who abjures the Lie-demon's faith 1 )?
16.
Yea, I would ask Thee such a thing as this: How such an one as he who, with wise action, has striven…”
Shared concept: Good Thought Word Deed — The Zoroastrian triad of right thought, right speech, and right action as the foundation of ethical life; truth-in-living. (derived)
hinduism|Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I|Sutra 39
“Or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart. Here is a thought which our own day is beginning to grasp: that love is a form of knowledge; that we truly know any thing or any person, by becoming one therewith, in love. Thus love h…”
Shared concept: Love Of Neighbour — Active compassionate care for others as a central spiritual obligation or expression of divine love. (derived)
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Shared concept: Love Of Neighbour — Active compassionate care for others as a central spiritual obligation or expression of divine love. (derived)