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## Dhammapada XXV

# Monks

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

Read an alternate translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

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360-361*:

> Restraint with the eye is good,
> good is restraint with the ear.
> Restraint with the nose is good,
> good is restraint with the tongue.
> Restraint with the body is good,
> good is restraint with speech.
> Restraint with the heart is good,
> good is restraint everywhere.
> A monk everywhere restrained
> is released from all suffering & stress.

362:

> Hands restrained,
> feet restrained
> speech restrained,
> supremely restrained --
> delighting in what is inward,
> content, centered, alone:
> he's what they call
> a monk.

363*:

> A monk restrained in his speaking,
> giving counsel unruffled,
> declaring the message & meaning:
> sweet is his speech.

364:

> Dhamma his dwelling,
> Dhamma his delight,
> a monk pondering Dhamma,
> calling Dhamma to mind,
> does not fall away
> from true Dhamma.

365-366:

> Gains:
> don't treat your own with scorn,
> don't go coveting those of others.
> A monk who covets those of others
> attains
> no concentration.

> Even if he gets next to nothing,
> he doesn't treat his gains with scorn.
> Living purely, untiring:
> he's the one
> that the devas praise.

367:

> For whom, in name & form
> in every way,
> there's no sense of mine,
> & who doesn't grieve
> for what's not:
> he's deservedly called
> a monk.

368*:

> Dwelling in kindness, a monk
> with faith in the Awakened One's teaching,
> would attain the good state,
> the peaceful state:
> stilling-of-fabrications ease.

369*:

> Monk, bail out this boat.
> It will take you lightly when bailed.
> Having cut through passion, aversion,
> you go from there to Unbinding.

370*:

> Cut through five,
> let go of five,
> & develop five above all.
> A monk gone past five attachments
> is said to have crossed the flood.

371:

> Practice jhana, monk,
> and don't be heedless.
> Don't take your mind roaming
> in sensual strands.
> Don't swallow -- heedless --
> the ball of iron aflame.
> Don't burn & complain: 'This is pain.'

372:

> There's no jhana
> for one with no discernment,
> no discernment
> for one with no jhana.
> But one with both jhana
> & discernment:
> he's on the verge
> of Unbinding.

373-374:

> A monk with his mind at peace,
> going into an empty dwelling,
> clearly seeing the Dhamma aright:
> his delight is more
> than human.

> However it is,
> however it is he touches
> the arising-&-passing of aggregates:
> he gains rapture & joy:
> that, for those who know it,
> is deathless,
> the Deathless.

375-376:

> Here the first things
> for a discerning monk
> are guarding the senses,
> contentment,
> restraint in line with the Patimokkha.
> He should associate with admirable friends.

> Living purely, untiring,
> hospitable by habit,
> skilled in his conduct,
> gaining a manifold joy,
> he will put an end
> to suffering & stress.

377:

> Shed passion
> & aversion, monks --
> as a jasmine would,
> its withered flowers.

378:

> Calmed in body,
> calmed in speech,
> well-centered & calm,
> having disgorged the baits of the world,
> a monk is called
> thoroughly
> calmed.

379:

> You yourself should reprove yourself,
> should examine yourself.
> As a self-guarded monk
> with guarded self,
> mindful, you dwell at ease.

380:

> Your own self is
> your own mainstay.
> Your own self is
> your own guide.
> Therefore you should
> watch over yourself --
> as a trader, a fine steed.

381*:

> A monk with a manifold joy,
> with faith in the Awakened One's teaching,
> would attain the good state,
> the peaceful state:
> stilling-of-fabrications ease.

382:

> A young monk who strives
> in the Awakened One's teaching,
> brightens the world
> like the moon set free from a cloud.

Revised: Sun 14 October 2001