The Buddha’s Words — The Pairs

A wholly inadequate Medium trip through the Dhammapada

indi.ca
10 min readDec 8, 2020
Buddha statue in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka

These are the words of the Buddha, transmitted over 2,600 years. This is a Dhammapada translated by A.W. Adikaram from the original Pali. I have included my comments which you should feel free to disregard.

I offer these words because they are good, but please understand that they are not sufficient to understand anything. The last verse will tell you why.

The Pairs

The first chapter of the Dhammapada is called The Pairs. These are matching verses, each teaching a lesson, usually from two sides. Each lesson is easy to understand, but would take years of meditation and awareness to put into practice.

Mind


1. All states have mind as their fore-runner; to them mind is supreme and of mind are they made. Therefore, if one, with defiled mind, speaks or acts, on account of that does suffering follow one as the wheel follows the foot of the…

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Indrajit (Indi) Samarajiva is a Sri Lankan writer. Follow me at www.indi.ca, or just email me at indi@indi.ca.