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## Dhammapada XXIV

# Craving

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

Read an alternate translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

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334:

> When a person lives heedlessly,
> his craving grows like a creeping vine.
> He runs now here
> & now there,
> as if looking for fruit:
> a monkey in the forest.

335-336:

> If this sticky, uncouth craving
> overcomes you in the world,
> your sorrows grow like wild grass
> after rain.

> If, in the world, you overcome
> this uncouth craving, hard to escape,
> sorrows roll off you,
> like water beads off
> a lotus.

337*:

> To all of you gathered here
> I say: Good fortune.
> Dig up craving
> -- as when seeking medicinal roots, wild grass --
> by the root.
> Don't let Mara cut you down
> -- as a raging river, a reed --
> over & over again.

338:

> If its root remains
> undamaged & strong,
> a tree, even if cut,
> will grow back.
> So too if latent craving
> is not rooted out,
> this suffering returns
> again
> &
> again.

339-340*:

> He whose 36 streams,
> flowing to what is appealing, are strong:
> the currents -- resolves based on passion --
> carry him, of base views, away.

> They flow every which way, the streams,
> but the sprouted creeper stays
> in place.
> Now, seeing that the creeper's arisen,
> cut through its root
> with discernment.

341*:

> Loosened & oiled
> are the joys of a person.
> People, bound by enticement,
> looking for ease:
> to birth & aging they go.

342-343*:

> Encircled with craving,
> people hop round & around
> like a rabbit caught in a snare.
> Tied with fetters & bonds
> they go on to suffering,
> again & again, for long.

> Encircled with craving,
> people hop round & around
> like a rabbit caught in a snare.
> So a monk
> should dispel craving,
> should aspire to dispassion
> for himself.

344:

> Cleared of the underbrush
> but obsessed with the forest,
> set free from the forest,
> right back to the forest he runs.
> Come, see the person set free
> who runs right back to the same old chains!

345-347*:

> That's not a strong bond
> -- so say the enlightened --
> the one made of iron, of wood, or of grass.
> To be smitten, enthralled,
> with jewels & ornaments,
> longing for children & wives:
> that's the strong bond,
> -- so say the enlightened --
> one that's constraining,
> elastic,
> hard to untie.
> But having cut it, they
> -- the enlightened -- go forth,
> free of longing, abandoning
> sensual ease.

> Those smitten with passion
> fall back
> into a self-made stream,
> like a spider snared in its web.
> But, having cut it, the enlightened set forth,
> free of longing, abandoning
> all suffering & stress.

348*:

> Gone to the beyond of becoming,
> you let go of in front,
> let go of behind,
> let go of between.
> With a heart everywhere let-go,
> you don't come again to birth
> & aging.

349-350*:

> For a person
> forced on by his thinking,
> fierce in his passion,
> focused on beauty,
> craving grows all the more.
> He's the one
> who tightens the bond.
> But one who delights
> in the stilling of thinking,
> always mindful
> cultivating
> a focus on the foul:
> He's the one
> who will make an end,
> the one who will cut Mara's bond.

351-352*:

> Arrived at the finish,
> unfrightened, unblemished, free
> of craving, he has cut away
> the arrows of becoming.
> This physical heap is his last.
> Free from craving,
> ungrasping,
> astute in expression,
> knowing the combination of sounds --
> which comes first & which after.
> He's called a
> last-body
> greatly discerning
> great man.

353*:

> All-conquering,
> all-knowing am I,
> with regard to all things,
> unadhering.
> All-abandoning,
> released in the ending of craving:
> having fully known on my own,
> to whom should I point as my teacher?

354*:

> A gift of Dhamma conquers all gifts;
> the taste of Dhamma, all tastes;
> a delight in Dhamma, all delights;
> the ending of craving, all suffering
> & stress.

355:

> Riches ruin the man
> weak in discernment,
> but not those who seek
> the beyond.
> Through craving for riches
> the man weak in discernment
> ruins himself
> as he would others.

356-359:

> Fields are spoiled by weeds;
> people, by passion.
> So what's given to those
> free of passion
> bears great fruit.

> Fields are spoiled by weeds;
> people, by aversion.
> So what's given to those
> free of aversion
> bears great fruit.

> Fields are spoiled by weeds;
> people, by delusion.
> So what's given to those
> free of delusion
> bears great fruit.

> Fields are spoiled by weeds;
> people, by longing.
> So what's given to those
> free of longing
> bears great fruit.

Revised: Wed 16 May 2001