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Dhp X
PTS: Dhp 129-145
Dandavagga: The Rod
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1997
Alternate translation: Buddharakkhita
Alternate format:

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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

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.

##### 134

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.

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