Dhammapada, Chapter 20 summary
Chapter 20 of 26 · 2 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 20, the speaker presents the Eightfold Path as the route to purified understanding and an end to suffering, while insisting that each person must make the effort. The teaching moves from diligence and restraint to cutting away desire, then uses death’s certainty to urge swift pursuit of Nirvana.
What happens
- The speaker ranks the Eightfold Path highest and identifies it as the only route to purified understanding.
- Teachers point out the path, but each person must practice and recognize impermanence, suffering, and the unreality of forms.
- Laziness blocks knowledge, while diligence and restraint in speech, thought, and bodily action support it.
- The speaker urges Bhikshus to remove lust completely and tells the listener to cut away self-love.
- Death interrupts careless plans, and relatives cannot protect anyone from it, so the wise should urgently pursue Nirvana.
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What does the teaching say happens through diligence?
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