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## Dhammapada XIV

# Awakened

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

Read an alternate translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

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179-180:

> Whose conquest can't be undone,
> whose conquest no one in the world
> can reach;
> awakened, his pasture endless,
> pathless:
> by what path will you lead him astray?

> In whom there's no craving
> -- the sticky ensnarer --
> to lead him anywherever at all;
> awakened, his pasture endless,
> pathless:
> by what path will you lead him astray?

181:

> They, the enlightened, intent on jhana,
> delighting in stilling
> & renunciation,
> self-awakened & mindful:
> even the devas
> view them with envy.

182:

> Hard the winning of a human birth.
> Hard the life of mortals.
> Hard the chance to hear the true Dhamma.
> Hard the arising of Awakened Ones.

183-185*:

> The non-doing of any evil,
> the performance of what's skillful,
> the cleansing of one's own mind:
> this is the teaching
> of the Awakened.

> Patient endurance:
> the foremost austerity.
> Unbinding:
> the foremost,
> so say the Awakened.
> He who injures another
> is no contemplative.
> He who mistreats another,
> no monk.

> Not disparaging, not injuring,
> restraint in line with the Patimokkha,
> moderation in food,
> dwelling in seclusion,
> commitment to the heightened mind:
> this is the teaching
> of the Awakened.

186-187:

> Not even if it rained gold coins
> would we have our fill
> of sensual pleasures.
> 'Stressful,
> they give little enjoyment' --
> knowing this, the wise one
> finds no delight
> even in heavenly sensual pleasures.
> He is one who delights
> in the ending of craving,
> a disciple of the Rightly
> Self-Awakened One.

188-192*:

> They go to many a refuge,
> to mountains and forests,
> to park and tree shrines:
> people threatened with danger.
> That's not the secure refuge,
> not the supreme refuge,
> that's not the refuge,
> having gone to which,
> you gain release
> from all suffering & stress.

> But when, having gone
> to the Buddha, Dhamma,
> & Sangha for refuge,
> you see with right discernment
> the four noble truths --
> stress,
> the cause of stress,
> the transcending of stress,
> & the noble eightfold path,
> the way to the stilling of stress:
> that's the secure refuge,
> that, the supreme refuge,
> that is the refuge,
> having gone to which,
> you gain release
> from all suffering & stress.

193:

> It's hard to come by
> a thoroughbred of a man.
> It's simply not true
> that he's born everywhere.
> Wherever he's born, an enlightened one,
> the family prospers,
> is happy.

194:

> A blessing: the arising of Awakened Ones.
> A blessing: the teaching of true Dhamma.
> A blessing: the concord of the Sangha.
> The austerity of those in concord
> is a blessing.

195-196*:

> If you worship those worthy of worship,
> -- Awakened Ones or their disciples --
> who've transcended
> complications,
> lamentation,
> & grief,
> who are unendangered,
> fearless,
> unbound:
> there's no measure for reckoning
> that your merit's 'this much.'

Revised: Wed 16 May 2001