The Living Message of the Dhammapada
Bhikkhu
Bodhi
Buddhist Publication Society
Bodhi Leaves BL 129
The Dhammapada is a work familiar to every devout Buddhist and to
every serious student of Buddhism. This small collection of 423
verses on the Buddha's doctrine is so rich in insights that it
might be considered the perfect compendium of the Dhamma in its
practical dimensions. In the countries of Theravada Buddhism the
Dhammapada is regarded as an inexhaustible source of guidance and
spiritual inspiration, as the wise counselor to which to turn for
help in resolving the difficult moral and personal problems
inescapable in daily life. Just as the Buddha is looked upon as
the human kalyanamitta or spiritual friend par excellence, so the
Dhammapada is looked upon as the scriptural kalyanamitta par
excellence, a small embodiment in verse of the boundless wisdom
and great compassion of the Master.
To draw out the living message of any great spiritual classic, it
is not enough for us merely to investigate it in terms of
questions that might be posed by scientific scholarship. We have
to take a step beyond scholarly examination and seek to make an
application of those teachings to ourselves in our present
condition. To do this requires that we use our intelligence,
imagination and intuition to see through the limiting cultural
contexts out of which the work was born, and to see into those
universal features of the human condition to which the spiritual
classic being studied is specifically addressed. With these
stipulations in mind we will examine the Dhammapada in order to
discover what this ancient book of wisdom regards as the
fundamental and perennial spiritual problems of human life and to
learn what solutions it can propose for them that may be relevant
to us today. In this way we will uncover the living message of the
Dhammapada: the message that rings down through the centuries and
speaks to us in our present condition in the fullness of our
humanity.
When we set out to make such an investigation, one difficulty that
we meet at the outset is the great diversity of teachings
contained in the Dhammapada. It is well known that during his
teaching career the Buddha always adjusted his discourses to fit
the needs and capacities of his disciples. Thus the prose
discourses found in the four main Nikayas display richly
variegated presentations of the doctrine, and this diversity
becomes even more pronounced in the Dhammapada, a collection of
utterances spoken in the intuitive and highly charged medium of
verse. We even find in the work apparent inconsistencies, which
may perplex the superficial reader and lead to the supposition
that the Buddha's teaching is rife with self-contradiction. Thus
in many verses the Buddha commends certain practices to his
disciples on the ground that they lead to heaven, while in others
he discourages disciples from aspiring for heaven and praises the
one who takes no delight in celestial joys. Often the Buddha
enjoins works of merit, yet elsewhere in the work he enjoins his
disciples to go beyond both merit and demerit.
To make sense out of such contrary statements, to find a
consistent message running through the Dhammapada's diversified
pronouncements, let us begin with a statement the Buddha makes in
another small but beautiful book of the Pali Canon, the Udana:
"Just as the great ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, so
this doctrine-and-discipline has but one taste, the taste of
freedom." Despite their variety in meaning and formulation, the
Buddha's teachings all fit together into a perfectly coherent
system which gains its unity from its final goal. That goal is
freedom (vimutti), which here means spiritual freedom: the
liberation of the mind from all bonds and fetters, the liberation
of our being from the suffering inseparable from wandering in
samsara, the cycle of rebirths. But while the Buddha's teachings
fit together harmoniously through the unity of their final goal,
they are addressed to people standing at different levels of
spiritual development and thus must be expressed in different ways
determined by the needs of the people to be taught. Here again
water provides a fitting analogy. Water has one essence --
chemically, it is a union of two hydrogen atoms with one oxygen
atom -- but it takes on the different shapes of the vessels into
which it is poured; similarly, the Dhamma has a single essence --
deliverance from suffering -- but it assumes varying expressions
in accordance with the dispositions of those who are to be
instructed and trained. It is because the different expressions
lead to a single end, and because the same end can be reached via
teachings that are differently expressed, that the Dhamma is said
to be sattha sabyañjana, "good in meaning and good in
formulation."
To make sense out of the various teachings found in the
Dhammapada, to grasp the vision of human spirituality expressed by
the work as a whole, I would like to suggest a schematism of four
levels of instruction set forth in the Dhammapada. This fourfold
schematism develops out of three primary and perennial spiritual
needs of man: first, the need to achieve welfare and happiness in
the present life, in the immediately visible sphere of human
relations; second, the need to attain a favorable future life in
accordance with a principle that confirms our highest moral
intuitions; and third, the need for transcendence, to overcome all
the limits imposed upon us by our finitude and temporality and to
attain a freedom that is boundless, timeless, and irreversible.
These three needs give rise to four levels of instruction by
distinguishing two levels pertaining to the third need: the level
of path, when we are on the way to transcendence, and the level of
fruit, when we have won through to transcendence.
Now let us examine each of these levels in turn, illustrating them
with citations of relevant verses from the Dhammapada.
1. The Human Good Here And Now
The first level of instruction in the Dhammapada is addressed to
the need to establish human welfare and happiness in the
immediately visible domain of personal relation. The aim at this
level is to show us the way to live at peace with ourselves and
our fellow human beings, to fulfill our family and social
responsibilities, and to remove the conflicts which infect human
relationships and bring such immense suffering to the individual,
society and the world as a whole.
The guidelines appropriate to this level of instruction are
largely identical with the basic ethical injunctions proposed by
most of the great world religions. However, in the Buddha's
teaching these ethical injunctions are not regarded as fiats
imposed by an all- powerful God. Rather, they are presented as
precepts or training rules grounded upon two directly verifiable
foundations: concern for one's own personal integrity and
considerations for the welfare of those whom one's actions may
affect.
The most general advice the Dhammapada gives is to avoid all evil,
to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's own mind; this is said to
be the counsel of all the Enlightened Ones (v. 183). More specific
directives, however, are also given. To abstain from evil we are
advised to avoid irritation in deed, word and thought and to
exercise self-control over body, speech and mind (vv. 231-234).
One should adhere scrupulously to the five moral precepts:
abstinence from destroying life, from stealing, from sexual
misconduct, from lying and from intoxicants (vv. 246-247). The
disciple should treat all beings with kindness and compassion,
live honestly, control his desires, speak the truth, and live a
sober upright life. He should fulfill all his duties to parents, to
immediate family, to friends, and to recluses and brahmins (vv.
331-333).
A large number of verses pertaining to this first level are
concerned with the resolution of conflict and hostility. From
other parts of the Sutta Pitaka we learn that the Buddha was a
keen and sensitive observer of the social and political
developments that were rapidly transforming the Indian states he
visited on his preaching rounds. The violence, hatred, cruelty and
sustained enmity that he witnessed have persisted right down to
the present, and the Buddha's answer to this problem is still the
only answer that can work. The Buddha tells us that the key to
solving the problem of violence and cruelty is the ancient maxim
of using oneself as the standard for deciding how to treat others.
I myself tremble at violence, wish to live in peace and do not
want to die. Thus, putting myself in the place of others, I should
recognize that all other beings tremble at violence, that all wish
to live and do not want to die. Recognizing this, I should not
intimidate others, harm them, or cause them to be harmed in any
way (vv. 129-130).
The Buddha saw that hatred and enmity continue and spread in a
self-expanding cycle: responding to hatred by hatred only breeds
more hatred, more enmity, more violence, and feed the whole
vicious whirlpool of vengeance and retaliation. The Dhammapada
teaches us that the true conquest of hatred is achieved by
non-hatred, by forbearance, by love (v. 5). When wronged by others
we must be patient and forgiving. We must control our anger as a
driver controls a chariot; we must bear angry words as the
elephant in battle bears the arrows shot into its hide; when
spoken to harshly we must remain silent like a broken bell (vv.
222, 320, 134).
According to the Dhammapada, the qualities distinguishing the
superior human being (sapurisa) are generosity, truthfulness,
patience and compassion. By following these ideals we can live at
peace with our own conscience and in harmony with our fellows. The
scent of virtue, the Buddha declares, is sweeter than the scent of
flowers and perfume; the good man or woman shines from afar like
the Himalayan mountains; just as the lotus flower rises up in all
its beauty above the muck and mire of the roadside refuse heap, so
does the disciple of the Buddha rise up in splendor of wisdom
above the masses of ignorant worldlings (vv. 54, 304, 59).
2. The Good in Future Lives
The basic emphasis in the first level of teaching in the
Dhammapada is ethical, a concern which arises from a desire to
promote human well-being here and now. However, the teachings
pertaining to this level give rise to a profound religious
problem, a dilemma that challenges the mature thinker. The problem
is as follows: Our moral intuition, our innate sense of moral
justice, tells us that there must be some principle of
compensation at work in the world whereby goodness meets with
happiness and evil meets with suffering. But everyday experience
shows us exactly the opposite. We all know of highly virtuous
people beset with every kind of hardship and thoroughly bad people
who succeed in everything they do. We feel that there must be some
correction to this imbalance, some force that will tilt the scales
of justice into the balance that seems right, but our daily
experience seems to contradict this intuition totally.
However, in his teachings the Buddha reveals that there is a force
at work which can satisfy our demand for moral justice. This force
cannot be seen with the eye of the flesh nor can it be registered
by any instruments of measurement, but its working becomes visible
to the supernormal vision of sages and saints, while all its
principles in their full complexity are fathomed by a Perfectly
Enlightened Buddha. This force is called kamma. The law of kamma
ensures that our morally determinate actions do not disappear into
nothingness, but rather continue on as traces in the deep hidden
layers of the mind, where they function in such a way that our
good deeds eventually issue in happiness and success, our evil
deeds in suffering and misery.
The word kamma, in the Buddha's teaching, means volitional action.
Such action may be bodily or verbal, when volition is expressed in
deed or speech, or it may be purely mental, when volition remains
unexpressed as thoughts, emotions, wishes and desires. The actions
may be either wholesome or unwholesome: wholesome when they are
rooted in generosity, amity and understanding; unwholesome when
they spring from greed, hatred and delusion. According to the
principle of kamma, the willed actions we perform in the course of
a life have long-term consequences that correspond to the moral
quality of the original action. The deeds may utterly fade from
our memory, but once performed they leave subtle impressions upon
the mind, potencies capable of ripening in the future to our weal
or our woe.
According to Buddhism, conscious life is not a chance by-product
of molecular configurations or a gift from a divine Creator, but a
beginningless process which repeatedly springs up at birth and
passes away at death, to be followed by a new birth. There are
many spheres besides the human into which rebirth can occur:
heavenly realms of great bliss, beauty and power, infernal realms
where suffering and misery prevail. The Dhammapada does not give
us any systematic teaching on kamma and rebirth. As a book of
spiritual counsel it presupposes the theoretical principles
explained elsewhere in the Buddhist scriptures and concerns itself
with their practical bearings on the conduct of life. The
essentials of the law of kamma, however, are made perfectly clear:
our willed actions determine the sphere of existence into which we
will be reborn after death, the circumstances and endowments of
our lives within any given form of rebirth, and our potentials for
spiritual progress or decline.
At the second level of instruction found in the Dhammapada the
content of the message is basically the same as that of the first
level: it is the same set of moral injunctions for abstaining from
evil and doing good. The difference lies in the viewpoint from
which these precepts are issued and the purpose for which they are
taken up. At this level the precepts are prescribed to show us the
way to achieve long-range happiness and freedom from sorrow, not
only in the visible sphere of the present life, but far beyond
into the distant future in our subsequent transmigration in
samsara. Despite the apparent discrepancy between action and
result, an all-embracing law ensures that ultimately moral justice
triumphs. In the short run the good may suffer and the evil may
prosper. But all willed actions bring their appropriate results:
if one acts or speaks with an evil mind, suffering follows just as
the wheel follows the foot of the draught-ox; if one acts or
speaks with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow that
never departs (vv.1-2). The evil-doer grieves here and hereafter;
he is tormented by his conscience and destined to planes of
misery. The doer of good rejoices here and hereafter, he enjoys a
good conscience and is destined to realms of bliss (vv. 15- 18).
To follow the law of virtue leads upwards, to happiness and joy
and to higher rebirths; to violate the lead leads downwards, to
suffering and to lower rebirths. The law is inflexible. Nowhere in
the world can the evil-doer escape the result of his evil kamma,
"neither in the sky nor in mid-ocean nor by entering into mountain
clefts" (v. 127). The good person will reap the rewards of his or
her good kamma in future lives with the same certainty with which
a traveler, returning home after a long journey, can expect to be
greeted by his family and friends (v. 220).
3. The Path to the Final Good
The teaching on kamma and rebirth, with its practical corollary
that we should perform deeds of merit with the aim of obtaining a
higher mode of rebirth, is not by any means the final message of
the Buddha or the decisive counsel of the Dhammapada. In its own
sphere of application this teaching is perfectly valid as a
preparatory measure for those who still require further maturation
in their journey through samsara. However, a more searching
examination reveals that all states of existence in samsara, even
the highest heavens, are lacking in genuine worth; for they are
all impermanent, without any lasting substance, incapable of
giving complete and final satisfaction. Thus the disciple of
mature faculties, who has been prepared sufficiently by previous
experience by previous experience in the world, does not long even
for rebirth among the gods (vv. 186- 187).
Having understood that all conditioned things are intrinsically
unsatisfactory and fraught with danger, the mature disciple
aspires instead for deliverance from the ever-repeating round of
rebirths. This is the ultimate goal to which the Buddha points, as
the immediate aim for those of developed spiritual faculties and
also as the long-term ideal for those who still need further
maturation: Nibbana, the Deathless, the unconditioned state where
there is no more birth, aging and death, and thus no more
suffering.
The third level of instruction found in the Dhammapada sketches
the theoretical framework for the aspiration for final liberation
and lays down guidelines pertaining to the practical discipline
that can bring this aspiration to fulfillment. The theoretical
framework is supplied by the teaching of the Four Noble Truths,
which the Dhammapada calls the best of all truths (v. 273):
suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering,
and the Noble Eightfold Path leading to the cessation of
suffering. The four truths all center around the problem of dukkha
or suffering, and the Dhammapada teaches us that dukkha is not to
be understood only as experienced pain and sorrow but more widely
as the pervasive inadequacy and wretchedness of everything
conditioned: "There is no ill like the aggregates of existence;
all conditioned things are suffering; conditioned things are the
worst suffering (vv. 202, 278, 203). The second truth points out
that the cause of suffering is craving, the yearning for pleasure,
possessions and being which drives us through the round of
rebirths, bringing along sorrow, anxiety and despair. The
Dhammapada devotes an entire chapter (ch. 24) to the theme of
craving, and the message of this chapter is clear: so long as even
the subtlest thread of craving remains in the mind, we are not
beyond danger of being swept away by the terrible flood of
existence. The third noble truth spells out the goal of the
Buddha's teaching: to gain release from suffering, to escape the
flood of existence, craving must be destroyed down to its subtlest
depths. And the fourth noble truth prescribes the means to gain
release, the Noble Eightfold Path, which again is the focus of an
entire chapter (ch. 20).
At the third level of instruction a shift in the practical
teaching of the Dhammapada takes place, corresponding to the shift
in doctrine from the principles of kamma and rebirth to the Four
Noble Truths. The stress now no longer falls on basic morality and
purified states of mind as a highway to more favorable planes of
rebirth. Instead it falls on the cultivation of the Noble
Eightfold Path as the means to destroy craving and thus break free
from the entire process of rebirth itself. The Dhammapada declares
that the eightfold path is the only way to deliverance from
suffering (v. 274). Its says this, not as a fixed dogma, but
because full release from suffering comes from the purification of
wisdom, and this path alone, with its stress on right view and the
cultivation of insight, leads to fully purified wisdom, to
complete understanding of liberating truth. The Dhammapada states
that those who tread the path will come to know the Four Noble
Truths, and having gained this wisdom, they will end all
suffering. The Buddha assures us that by walking the path we will
bewilder Mara, pull out the thorn of lust, and escape from
suffering. But he also cautions us about our own responsibility:
we ourselves must make the effort, for the Buddhas only point out
the way (vv. 275, 276).
In principle the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is open to
people in any walk of life, householders as well as monks and
nuns. However, application to the development of the path is most
feasible for those who have relinquished all worldly concerns in
order to devote themselves fully to living the holy life. For
conduct to be completely purified, for the mind to be trained in
concentration and insight, the adoption of a different lifestyle
becomes advisable, one which minimizes distractions and stimulants
to craving and orders all activities around the aim of liberation.
Thus the Buddha established the Sangha, the Order of bhikkhus and
bhikkhunis, as the field of training for those ready to devote
themselves fully to the practice of the path.
In the Dhammapada we find the call to the monastic life resounding
throughout. The entry way to the monastic life is an act of
radical renunciation spurred on by our confrontation with
suffering, particularly by our recognition of our inevitable
mortality. The Dhammapada teaches that just as a cowherd drives
the cattle to pasture, so old age and death drive living beings
from life to life (v. 135). There is no place in the world where
one can escape death, for death is stamped into the very substance
of our being (v. 128). The body is a painted mirage in which there
is nothing lasting or stable; it is a mass of sores, a nest of
disease, which breaks up and ends in death; it is a city built of
bones containing within itself decay and death; the foolish are
attached to it, but the wise, having seen that the body ends as a
corpse, lose all delight in mundane joys (vv. 146-150).
Having recognized the transience and hidden misery of mundane
life, the thoughtful break the ties of family and social
relationships, abandon their homes and sensual pleasures, and
enter upon the state of homelessness: "Like swans that abandon the
lake, they leave home after home behind... Having gone from home
to homelessness, they delight in detachment so difficult to enjoy"
(vv. 91, 87). Withdrawn to silent and secluded places, the
renunciants seek out the company of wise instructors, who point
out their faults, who admonish and instruct them and shield them
from wrong, who show them the right path (vv. 76-78, 208). Under
their guidance, they live by the rules of the monastic order,
content with the simplest material requisites, moderate in eating,
practicing patience and forbearance, devoted to meditation (vv.
184-185). Having learned to still the restless waves of thought
and to gain one-pointed concentration, they go on to contemplate
the arising and falling away of all formations: "The monk who has
retired to a solitary abode and calmed the mind, comprehends the
Dhamma with insight, and there arises in him a delight that
transcends all human delights. Whenever he sees with insight the
rise and fall of the aggregates, he is full of joy and happiness
(vv. 373, 374).
The life of meditation reaches its peak in the development of
insight, and the Dhammapada succinctly enunciates the principles
to be seen with the wisdom of insight: "All conditioned things are
impermanent ... All conditioned things are suffering ... All
things are not self. When one sees this with wisdom, then one
turns away from suffering. This is the path of purification" (vv.
277-279). When these truths are penetrated by direct vision, the
fetters of attachment break asunder, and the disciple rises
through successive stages of realization to the attainment of full
liberation.
4. The Highest Goal
The fourth level of teaching in the Dhammapada does not reveal any
new principles of doctrine or approach to practice. This level
shows us, rather, the fruit of the third level. The third level
exposes the path to the highest goal, the way to break free from
all bondage and suffering and to win the supreme peace of Nibbana.
The fourth level is a celebration and acclamation of those who
have gained the fruits of the path and won the final goal.
The stages of definite attainment along the way to Nibbana are
enumerated in the Pali Canon as four: stream-entry, when one
enters irreversibly upon the path to liberation; once-returning,
when one is assured that one will return to the sense sphere of
existence only one more time; non-returning, when one will never
return to the sense sphere at all but will take a spontaneous
birth in a celestial plane and there reach the end of suffering;
and Arahantship, the stage of full liberation here and now.
Although the Dhammapada contains several verses referring to those
on the lower stages of attainment, its primary emphasis is on the
individual who has reached the fourth and final fruit of
liberation, the Arahant, and the picture it gives us of the
Arahant is stirring and inspiring.
The Arahant is depicted in two full chapters: in chapter 7 under
his own name and in chapter 26, the last chapter, under the name
"Brahmana," the holy man. We are told that the Arahant is no
longer troubled by the fever of the passions; he is sorrowless and
wholly set free; he has broken all ties. His taints are destroyed:
he is not attached to food; his field is the void and
unconditioned freedom. For ordinary worldlings the Arahant is
incomprehensible: his path cannot be traced, like that of birds in
the sky. He has transcended all obstacles, passed beyond sorrow
and lamentation, become peaceful and fearless. He is free from
anger, devout, virtuous, without craving, self-subdued. He has
profound knowledge and wisdom; he is skilled in discriminating the
right path and the wrong path; he has reached the highest goal. He
is friendly amidst the hostile, peaceful amidst the violent, and
unattached amidst the attached.
In this very life the Arahant has realized the end of suffering,
laying down the burden of the five aggregates. He has transcended
the ties of both merit and demerit; he is sorrowless, stainless
and pure; he is free from attachment and has plunged into the
Deathless. Like the moon he is spotless and pure, serene and
clear. He has cast off all human bonds and transcended all
celestial bonds; he has gotten rid of the substrata of existence
and conquered all worlds. He knows the death and rebirth of
beings; he is totally detached, blessed and enlightened. No gods,
angels or human beings can find his tracks, for he clings to
nothing, has no attachment, holds to nothing. He has reached the
end of births, attained the perfection of insight, and reached the
summit of spiritual excellence. Bearing his last body, perfectly
at peace, the Arahant is the living demonstration of the truth of
the Dhamma. By his own example he shows that it is possible to
free oneself from the stains of greed, hatred and delusion, to
rise above suffering, and to win Nibbana in this very life.
The Arahant ideal reaches its optimal exemplification in the first
and highest of the Arahants, the Buddha, and the Dhammapada makes
a number of important pronouncements about the Master. The Buddha
is the supreme teacher who depends on no one else for guidance,
who has reached perfect enlightenment through his own self-evolved
wisdom (v. 353). He is the giver of refuge and is himself the
first of the three refuges; those who take refuge in the Buddha,
his Doctrine, and his Order are released from all suffering, after
seeing with proper wisdom the Four Noble Truths (vv.190-192). The
Buddha's attainment of perfect enlightenment elevates him to a
level far above that of common humanity: the Enlightened One is
trackless, of limitless range, free from worldliness, the
conqueror of all, the knower of all, in all things untainted (vv.
179, 180, 353). The sun shines by day, the moon shines by night,
the warrior shines in his armor, the brahmin shines in meditation,
but the Buddha, we are told, shines resplendent all day and all
night (v. 387).
This will complete our discussion of the four basic levels of
instruction found in the Dhammapada. Interwoven with the verses
pertaining to these four main levels, there runs throughout the
Dhammapada a large number of verses that cannot be tied down
exclusively to any single level but have a wider application.
These verses sketch for us the world view of early Buddhism and
its distinctive insights into human existence. Fundamental to this
world view, as it emerges from the text, is the inescapable
duality of human life. Man walks a delicate balance between good
and evil, purity and defilement, progress and decline; he seeks
happiness, he fears suffering, loss and death. We are free to
choose between good and evil, and must bear full responsibility
for our decisions. Again and again the Dhammapada sounds this
challenge to human freedom: we are the makers and masters of
ourselves, the protectors or destroyers of ourselves, we are our
own saviors and there is no one else who can save us (vv. 160,
165, 380). Even the Buddha can only indicate the path to
deliverance; the work of treading it lies with the disciple (vv.
275- 276). In the end we must choose between the way that leads
back into the world, to the round of becoming, and the way that
leads out of the world, to Nibbana. And though this last course is
extremely difficult, the voice of the Buddha speaks words of
assurance confirming that it can be done, that it lies within our
power to overcome all barriers and to triumph even over death
itself.
The chief role in achieving progress in all spheres, the
Dhammapada states, is played by the mind. The Dhammapada opens
with a clear assertion that the mind is the forerunner of all that
we are, the maker of our character, the creator of our destiny.
The entire Buddhist discipline, from basic morality to the
attainment of Arahantship, hinges upon training the mind. A
wrongly directed mind brings greater harm than any enemy; a
rightly directed mind brings greater good than any relative or
friend (vv. 42-43). The mind is unruly, fickle difficult to
subdue, but by effort, mindfulness and self-discipline, one can
master the mind, escape the flood of passions, and find "an island
which no flood can overwhelm" (v. 25). The person who conquers
himself, the victor over his own mind, achieves a conquest that
can never be undone, a victory greater than that of the mightiest
warriors (vv. 103-105).
What is needed most to train and subdue the mind, according to the
Dhammapada, is a quality called heedfulness (appamada).
Heedfulness combines critical self-awareness and unremitting
energy in a process of constant self-observation in order to
detect and expel the defilements whenever they seek an opportunity
to come to the surface. In a world where we have no savior except
ourselves, and where the means to deliverance lies in mental
purification, heedfulness becomes the crucial factor for ensuring
that we keep straight to the path of training without deviating
due to the seductive lure of sense pleasures or the stagnating
influences of laziness and complacency. The Buddha declares that
heedfulness is the path to the Deathless, and heedlessness the
path to death. The wise who understand this distinction abide in
heedfulness and attain Nibbana, "the incomparable freedom from
bondage" (vv. 21-23).
Bhikkhu Bodhi, 1993
Source: Access-to-Insight,
http://world.std.com/~metta/lib/bps/leaves/bl129.html
Copyright © 1993 Buddhist Publication Society
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