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## Dhammapada XXII

# Hell

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

Read an alternate translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

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306:

> He goes to hell,
> the one who asserts
> what didn't take place,
> as does the one
> who, having done,
> says, 'I didn't.'
> Both -- low-acting people --
> there become equal:
> after death, in the world beyond.

307-308:

> An ochre robe tied 'round their necks,
> many with evil qualities
> -- unrestrained, evil --
> rearise, because of their evil acts,
> in hell.

> Better to eat an iron ball
> -- glowing, aflame --
> than that, unprincipled &
> unrestrained,
> you should eat the alms of the country.

309-310:

> Four things befall the heedless man
> who lies down with the wife of another:
> a wealth of demerit;
> a lack of good sleep;
> third, censure;
> fourth, hell.

> A wealth of demerit, an evil destination,
> & the brief delight of a
> fearful man with a
> fearful woman,
> & the king inflicts a harsh punishment.
> So
> no man should lie down
> with the wife of another.

311-314:

> Just as sharp-bladed grass,
> if wrongly held,
> wounds the very hand that holds it --
> the contemplative life, if wrongly grasped,
> drags you down to hell.

> Any slack act,
> or defiled observance,
> or fraudulent life of chastity
> bears no great fruit.

> If something's to be done,
> then work at it firmly,
> for a slack going-forth
> kicks up all the more dust.

> It's better to leave a misdeed
> undone.
> A misdeed burns you afterward.
> Better that a good deed be done
> that, after you've done it,
> won't make you burn.

315:

> Like a frontier fortress,
> guarded inside & out,
> guard yourself.
> Don't let the moment pass by.
> Those for whom the moment is past
> grieve, consigned to hell.

316-319:

> Ashamed of what's not shameful,
> not ashamed of what is,
> beings adopting wrong views
> go to a bad destination.

> Seeing danger where there is none,
> & no danger where there is,
> beings adopting wrong views
> go to a bad destination.

> Imagining error where there is none,
> & no error where there is,
> beings adopting wrong views
> go to a bad destination.

> But knowing error as error,
> and non-error as non-,
> beings adopting right views
> go to a good
> destination.

Revised: Sun 14 October 2001