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## Dhammapada X

# The Rod

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

Read an alternate translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

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129-130:

> All
> tremble at the rod,
> all
> are fearful of death.
> Drawing the parallel to
> yourself,
> neither kill nor get others to kill.

> All
> tremble at the rod,
> all
> hold their life dear.
> Drawing the parallel to
> yourself,
> neither kill nor get others to kill.

131-132:

> Whoever takes a rod
> to harm living beings desiring ease,
> when he himself is looking for ease,
> will meet with no ease after death.

> Whoever doesn't take a rod
> to harm living beings desiring ease,
> when he himself is looking for ease,
> will meet with ease after death.

133-134:

> Speak harshly to no one,
> or the words will be thrown
> right back at you.
> Contentious talk is painful,
> for you get struck by rods in return.
> If, like a flattened metal pot
> you don't resound,
> you've attained an Unbinding;
> in you there's found
> no contention.

135:

> As a cowherd with a rod
> drives cows to the field,
> so aging & death
> drive the life
> of living beings.

136:

> When doing evil deeds,
> the fool is oblivious.
> The dullard
> is tormented
> by his own deeds,
> as if burned by a fire.

137-140:

> Whoever, with a rod,
> harasses an innocent man, unarmed,
> quickly falls into any of ten things:
> harsh pains, devastation, a broken body, grave illness,
> mental derangement, trouble with the government,
> violent slander, relatives lost, property dissolved,
> houses burned down.
> At the break-up of the body
> this one with no discernment,
> reappears in
> hell.

141-142:

> Neither nakedness nor matted hair
> nor mud nor the refusal of food
> nor sleeping on the bare ground
> nor dust & dirt nor squatting austerities
> cleanses the mortal
> who's not gone beyond doubt.
> If, though adorned, one lives in tune
> with the chaste life
> -- calmed, tamed, & assured --
> having put down the rod toward all beings,
> he's a contemplative
> a brahman
> a monk.

143*:

> Who in the world
> is a man constrained by conscience,
> who awakens to censure
> like a fine stallion to the whip?

144:

> Like a fine stallion
> struck with a whip,
> be ardent & chastened.
> Through conviction
> virtue, persistence,
> concentration, judgment,
> consummate in knowledge & conduct,
> mindful,
> you'll abandon this not-insignificant pain.

145:

> Irrigators guide the water.
> Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.
> Carpenters shape the wood.
> Those of good practices control
> themselves.

Revised: Wed 16 May 2001