The Dhammapada by Jack Kornfield

Author:Jack Kornfield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala Publications

TWENTY-TWO

Hell

Those who assert what is not true go to hell,

As do those who deny what they’ve done.

Both these people of base deeds become equal

After death, in the world beyond.

(306)

Many who wear the saffron robe

Have evil traits and lack restraint.

By their evil deeds are these wicked people

Reborn in hell.

(307)*

Better to eat a flaming red-hot iron ball

Than to be an immoral and unrestrained person

Feeding on the alms-food of the people.

(308)*

Four results come to the careless person

Who consorts with the spouse of another:

Demerit,

Disturbed sleep,

Disgrace,

And hell.

For the frightened pair

Delight is brief

[And then comes]

Demerit,

Rebirth in an evil state,

And harsh punishment from the king.

Therefore a person should not consort with another’s spouse.

(309–310)*

Just as kusa grass cuts the hand

That wrongly grasps it,

So the renunciant life, if wrongly grasped,

Drags one down to hell.

(311)

A lax act, corrupt practice,

Or chaste life lived dubiously

Doesn’t bear much fruit.

(312)*

With steady effort

One should do what is to be done

Because the lax renunciant stirs up

Even more dust.

(313)*

A foul deed is best not done—

The foul deed torments one later.

A good deed is best done—

For, having done it, one has no regret.

(314)

Just as a fortified city

Is guarded inside and out,

So guard yourself—

Don’t let a moment pass you by.

Those who let the moment pass

Grieve when they’re consigned to hell.

(315)

Ashamed of what’s not shameful

And not ashamed of what is,

Those who take up wrong views

Go to a bad rebirth.

(316)*

Seeing danger in what’s not dangerous

And not seeing danger in what is,

Those who take up wrong views

Go to a bad rebirth.

(317)

Finding fault in what’s not at fault

And seeing no fault in what is,

Those who take up wrong views

Go to a bad rebirth.

(318)

But knowing fault as fault,

And the faultless as the faultless,

Those who take up right views

Go to a good rebirth.

(319)

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