Dhammapada, Chapter 16 summary
Chapter 16 of 26 · 2 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 16, the verses warn that pursuing pleasure instead of meditation leads to envy, and that attachment produces grief and fear. They praise virtue, truthfulness, and longing for Nirvana, then compare good deeds greeting a person after death to relatives welcoming someone home.
What happens
- A person who pursues vanity and pleasure rather than meditation comes to envy someone devoted to meditation.
- The verses warn against attachment because separation from pleasant things and contact with unpleasant things cause pain.
- Pleasure, affection, lust, love, and greed each produce grief and fear, while freedom from them removes both.
- Virtue, intelligence, justice, truthfulness, and attention to one's own affairs make a person dear to others.
- A content person who longs for Nirvana and remains unconfused by love receives the name urdhvamsrotas.
- Good deeds greet a person passing into the next world as loved ones greet someone returning safely home.
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What welcomes a person who has done good into the next world?
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