Back to The Dhammapada
Chapter Eight -- The Thousands
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Better than a thousand useless words is one
useful word, hearing which one attains peace.
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Better than a thousand useless verses is one
useful verse, hearing which one attains peace.
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Better than reciting a hundred meaningless
verses is the reciting of one verse of Dhamma,
hearing which one attains peace.
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Though one may conquer a thousand times
a thousand people in battle, yet one indeed is
the noblest victor who conquers oneself.
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Self-conquest is far better than the
conquest of others. Not even a god, an angel,
Mara or Brahma can turn into defeat the victory
of such a person who is self-subdued and ever
restrained in conduct.
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Though month after month for a hundred
years one should offer sacrifices by the thousands,
yet if only for a moment one should worship those
of developed mind, that honour is indeed better
than a century of sacrifice.
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Though for a hundred years one should
tend the sacrificial fire in the forest, yet if only
for a moment one should worship those of
developed mind, that worship is indeed better
than a century of sacrifice.
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Whatever gifts and oblations one seeking
merit might offer in this world for a whole year,
all that is not worth one fourth of the merit gained
by revering the Upright Ones, which is truly excellent.
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To one ever eager to revere and serve
the elders, these four blessings accrue: long life
and beauty, happiness and power.
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Better it is to live one day virtuous and
meditative than to live a hundred years immoral
and uncontrolled.
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Better it is to live one day wise and meditative
than to live a hundred years foolish and uncontrolled.
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Better it is to live one day strenuous and
resolute than to live a hundred years sluggish
and dissipated.
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Better it is to live one day seeing the rise
and fall of things than to live a hundred years
without ever seeing the rise and fall of things.
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Better it is to live one day seeing the
Deathless than to live a hundred years without
ever seeing the Deathless.
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Better it is to live one day seeing the
Supreme Truth than to live a hundred years without
ever seeing the Supreme Truth.