Dhammapada (translated from the Pali)
by F. Max M眉ller | 1881 | 38,599 words
The English translation of the Dhammapada鈥攁 central text in the Pali Buddhist canon, specifically part of the Sutta-pitaka. The Dhammapada comprises a collection of "law verses" that encapsulate the teachings of the Buddha, focusing on ethical conduct and mental cultivation. The text emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility, m...
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Chapter XI - Old Age
146. How is there laughter, how is there joy, as this world is always burning? Why do you not seek a light, ye who are surrounded by darkness?
147. Look at this dressed-up lump, covered with wounds, joined together, sickly, full of many thoughts, which has no strength, no hold!
148.[1] This body is wasted, full of sickness, and frail; this heap of corruption breaks to pieces, life indeed ends in death.
149.[2] Those white bones, like gourds thrown away in the autumn, what pleasure is there in looking at them?
150.[3] After a stronghold has been made of the bones, it is covered with flesh and blood, and there dwell in it old age and death, pride and deceit.
151. The brilliant chariots of kings are destroyed, the body also approaches destruction, but the virtue of good people never approaches destruction,鈥攖hus do the good say to the good.
152. A man who has learnt little, grows old like an ox; his flesh grows, but his knowledge does not grow.
153-154.[4] Looking for the maker of this tabernacle, I shall have to run through a course of many births, so long as I do not find (him); and painful is birth again and again. But now, maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the Eternal (惫颈蝉补峁卥丑腻谤补, 苍颈谤惫腻峁嘺), has attained to the extinction of all desires.
155.[5] Men who have not observed proper discipline, and have not gained treasure in their youth, perish like old herons in a lake without fish.
156. Men who have not observed proper discipline, and have not gained treasure in their youth, lie, like broken bows, sighing after the past.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Dr. Fausb枚ll informs me that Childers proposed the emendation 尘补谤补峁嘺苍迟补峁� hi 箩墨惫颈迟补峁�. The following extract from a letter, addressed by Childers to Dr. Fausb枚ll, will be read with interest:鈥�'As regards Dhp. v. 148, I have no doubt whatever. I quite agree with you that the idea (mors est vita ejus) is a profound and noble one, but the question is, Is the idea there? I think not. 惭补谤补峁嘺峁� tamhi 箩墨惫颈迟补峁� is not 笔腻濒颈, I mean not a 笔腻濒颈 construction, and years ago even it grated on my ear as a harsh phrase. The reading of your MSS. of the texts is nothing; your MSS. of Dhammapada are very bad ones, and it is merely the vicious Sinhalese spelling of bad MSS. , like 办补尘尘补峁僼补峁� for 办补尘尘补苍迟补峁�. But the comment sets the question at rest at once, for it explains 尘补谤补峁嘺苍迟补峁� by 尘补谤补峁嘺辫补谤颈测辞蝉腻苍补峁�, which is exactly the same. I see there is one serious difficulty left, that all your MSS. seem to have tamhi, and not ta峁� hi; but are you sure it is so? There was a Dhammapada in the India Office Library, and I had a great hunt for it a few days ago, but to my deep disappointment it is missing. I do not agree with you that the sentence "All Life is bounded by Death," is trivial: it is a truism, but half the noblest passages in poetry are truisms, and unless I greatly mistake, this very passage will be found in many other literatures. '
Dr. Fausb枚ll adds:鈥�
'I have still the same doubt as before, because of all my MSS. reading mara峁嘺峁� tamhi. I do not know the readings of the London MSS. The explanation of the commentary does not settle the question, as it may as well be considered an explanation of my reading as of the reading which Childers proposed. 鈥擵. FAUSB脰LL. '
[2]:
[3]:
The expression ma峁僺alohitalepanam is curiously like the expression used in Manu VI, 76, m膩峁僺a艣o峁噄talepanam, and in several passages of the 惭补丑腻产丑腻谤补迟补, XII, 12462, 12053, as pointed out by Dr. Fausb枚ll.
[4]:
These two verses are famous among Buddhists, for they are the words which the founder of Buddhism is supposed to have uttered at the moment he attained to Buddhahood. (See Spence Hardy, Manual; p. 180. ) According to the Lalita-vistara, however, the words uttered on that solemn occasion were those quoted in the note to verse 39. In the commentary on the 叠谤补丑尘补箩腻濒补 this verse is called the first speech of Buddha, his last speech being the words in the Mab膩parinibb膩na-sutta, 'Life is subject to age; strive in earnest. ' The words used in the 惭补丑腻辫补谤颈苍颈产产腻苍补-蝉耻迟迟补, Chap. IV, 2, Catunna峁� dhamm膩nam ananubodh膩 appa峁璱vedh膩 evam 颈诲补峁� 诲墨驳丑补尘 补诲诲丑腻苍补峁� 蝉补苍诲丑腻惫颈迟补峁� 蝉补峁僺腻谤颈迟补峁� mama帽c' eva tumh膩ka帽ca, answer to the anticipation expressed in our verse.
The exact rendering of this verse has been much discussed, chiefly by Mr. D'Alwis in the Attanugaluvansa, p. cxxviii, and again in his Buddhist Nirv膩峁嘺, p. 78; also by Childers, Notes on Dhammapada, p. 4, and in his Dictionary. Gogerly translated: 'Through various transmigrations I must travel, if I do not discover the builder whom I seek. ' Spence Hardy: 'Through many different births I have run (to me not having found), seeking the architect of the desire-resembling house. ' Fausb枚ll: 'Multiplices generationis revolutiones percurreram, non inveniens, domus (corporis) fabricatorem quaerens. ' And again (p. 322): 'Multarum generationum revolutio mihi subeunda esset, nisi invenissem domus fabricatorem. ' Childers: 'I have run through the revolution of countless births, seeking the architect of this dwelling and finding him not. ' D'Alwis: 'Through transmigrations of numerous births have I run, not discovering, (though) seeking the house-builder. ' All depends on how we take sandhavissam, which Fausb枚ll takes as a conditional, Childers, following Trenckner, as an aorist, because the sense imperatively requires an aorist. In either case, the dropping of the augment and the doubling of the s are, however, irregular. Sandhavissam is the regular form of the future, and as such I translate it, qualifying, however, the future, by the participle present anibbisan, i. e. not finding, and taking it in the sense of, if or so long as I do not find the true cause of existence. I had formerly translated anibbisan, as not resting (anirvi艣an), but the commentator seems to authorise the meaning of not finding (avindanto, alabhanto), and in that case all the material difficulties of the verse seem to me to disappear.
'The maker of the tabernacle' is explained as a poetical expression for the cause of new births, at least according to the views of Buddha鈥檚 followers, whatever his own views may have been. Buddha had conquered 惭腻谤补, the representative of worldly temptations, the father of worldly desires, and as desires (ta峁僪膩) are, by means of 耻辫腻诲腻苍补 and bhava, the cause of 箩腻迟颈, or 'birth,' the destruction of desires and the conquest of 惭腻谤补 are nearly the same thing, though expressed differently in the philosophical and legendary language of the Buddhists. Ta峁僪膩, 'thirst' or 'desire,' is mentioned as serving in the army of 惭腻谤补. (Lotus, p. 443. )
[5]:
On jh膩yanti, i. e. ksh膩yanti, see Dr. Bollensen鈥檚 learned remarks, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellschaft, XVIII, 834, and Boehtlingk-Roth, s. v. ksh膩.