Potiphar's Wife and Other Poems/Chapter 1 of the Dhammapada
CHAPTER I. OF THE DHAMMAPADA
Thought in the mind hath made us. What thou art
By thought was wrought and builded. If a soul
Hath evil thoughts, pain comes as wheels of cart
Behind its oxen roll.
All that we are is what we think and will:
Our thoughts shape us and frame. If one endure
In purity of thought, joy follows still
As his own shadow—sure!
"He hath defamed me, wronged me, broken trust,
Abased me, beaten me! "If one shall keep
Thoughts like these angry words within his breast
Hatreds will never sleep!
"He hath defamed me, wronged me, vilely wrought,
Abased me, beaten me!" If one shall send
Such angry words away for pardoning thought
Hatreds will have an end.
For, never anywhere at any time
Did hatred cease by hatred. Always 'tis
By Love that hatred ceaseth. From the prime
The ancient Rule is this.
The many, that live foolish, do forget
Or never knew, how mortal wrongs pass by:
But they who know, and who remember, let
Transient quarrels die.
Whoso abides, looking for pleasures, vain,
Gluttonous, proud, in idle luxuries,
Mara will him o'erthrow, as wind and rain
Level short-rooted trees.
Whoso abides, disowning joys, controlled,
Temperate, faithful, firm, shunning all ill,
Mara shall no more shake that man strong-souled
Than the wind shakes a hill.
Whoso Kâshŷa bears—the yellow dress—
Being anishkashŷa,[1] not sin-free
Nor heeding Truth and Law—in wrongfulness
That holy robe wears he.
But whoso, living nishkashŷa aright,
Clean from offence, doth still in virtue dwell
Observing temperance and truth—that wight
Weareth Kâshŷa well.
Whoso imagines truth in the untrue
And in the true finds untruth—he expires
Never attaining Knowledge—all's to rue!
He follows vain desires.
Whoso discerns in truth the true, and sees
The false in falseness with unblinded eye,
He doth attain to knowledge. Life with these
Aims well before they die.
As rain breaks through an ill-thatched roof, so break
Passions through minds which holy thoughts despise:
As rain runs from a well-laid roof—so shake
Their passions off, the wise.
The Evil-doer mourneth this life long
And mourneth in the life to come. In both
He grieveth. When he seeth fruit of wrong
To see he will be loath.
The righteous man in this world hath his boot,
And in the world to come. From both he takes
Pleasaunce. When he doth see his works bear fruit
The good sight gladness makes.
Glad is he living, glad in dying, glad
Having once died: glad alway, glad to know
What good deeds he had done, glad that he had
More good where he did go.
The lawless man, who Law not following,
Leaf after leaf recites, and line by line;
No Buddhist is he, but a hireling
Who counts another's kine.
The law-obeying, loving one, who learns
Only one verse of Dharma, but hath ceased
From envy, hatred, malice, ill concerns,
He is the Buddhist Priest!
- ↑ There is a play here on the words Kashŷa, the yellow robe of the Buddhists, and Kashŷa, "impurity."