Buddhism
Dhp197-208
Text
Minor Collection
Sayings of the Dhamma 197–208
15. Happiness
Let us live so very happily,
loving among the hostile.
Among hostile humans,
let us live with love.
Let us live so very happily,
healthy among the ailing.
Among ailing humans
let us live healthily.
Let us live so very happily,
content among the greedy.
Among greedy humans,
let us live content.
Let us live so very happily,
we who have nothing.
We shall feed on rapture,
like the gods of sublime luminosity.
Victory breeds enmity;
the defeated sleep badly.
The peaceful sleep at ease,
having left victory and defeat behind.
There is no fire like greed,
no crime like hate,
no suffering like the aggregates,
no bliss beyond peace.
Hunger is the worst illness,
conditions are the worst suffering.
When one has known this as it is,
extinguishment is the ultimate happiness.
Health is the ultimate blessing;
contentment, the ultimate wealth;
trust is the ultimate family;
extinguishment, the ultimate happiness.
Having drunk the nectar of seclusion
and the nectar of peace—
free of stress, free of evil,
drink the joyous nectar of truth.
It’s good to see the noble ones,
staying with them is always good.
Were you not to see fools,
you’d always be happy.
For one who consorts with fools
grieves long.
Painful is living with fools,
like being stuck with your enemy.
Happy is living with an attentive one,
like meeting with your kin.
Therefore:
An attentive one, wise and learned,
a behemoth of virtue, true to their vows, noble:
follow a true and intelligent person such as this,
as the moon tracks the path of the stars.
Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato, dedicated to the public domain (CC0), via SuttaCentral.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Leviticus 19:18
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
The Path to Wisdom
Proverbs 4:7
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”
Analects 2:11 (trans. James Legge)
“If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others.”
Tao Te Ching 33 (trans. James Legge)
“He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent.”
Quran 39:9
“Are those who know equal with those who know not?”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Genesis 1:3
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 16 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“The Doors of Hell Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass, The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!”