The Dhammapada is a collection of 423 verses in 26 chapters, found in the Khuddaka Nikāya of the Sutta Piṭaka. It is probably the most translated Buddhist text in the world. Its first chapter, the Yamakavagga or Chapter of Pairs, is made up of “twin verses”: pairs that set an unwholesome path beside a wholesome one so that the contrast teaches the lesson. Behind each verse the commentary, the Dhammapada Aṭṭhakathā, preserves a story telling when and why the Buddha spoke it.
Verse 1: the mind leads
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā;
Mind goes before all things; mind is their chief, they are made by mind. If one speaks or acts with a corrupted mind, suffering follows, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the cart. — Dhammapada 1
manasā ce paduṭṭhena, bhāsati vā karoti vā;
tato naṃ dukkhamanveti, cakkaṃva vahato padaṃ.
The opening line places the mind at the centre of the whole spiritual life. Our words and deeds do not come from nowhere; they are shaped by the intention behind them. This is the heart of the Buddha’s teaching on kamma: it is the quality of intention that shapes the results we experience. The image is vivid — just as a cart’s wheel follows the ox step by step, suffering follows an action done with a mind of greed, hatred or delusion.
The story behind this verse concerns Cakkhupāla Thera, a monk so dedicated to meditation that during one rains retreat he resolved not to lie down. His eyes became diseased, and he would not interrupt his practice to follow the physician’s treatment. He lost his sight, but in the same moment he attained arahantship. Later, walking up and down in meditation at night, he unknowingly trod on many insects. When some monks complained, the Buddha explained that Cakkhupāla had not seen them and had no intention to kill; therefore he had done no wrong. The monks then asked why such a pure monk had become blind, and the Buddha told of a past life in which Cakkhupāla, as a physician, had deliberately blinded a woman who had deceived him. Both halves of the story point to the same truth: intention is what matters.
Verse 2: happiness follows like a shadow
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā;
Mind goes before all things; mind is their chief, they are made by mind. If one speaks or acts with a clear and serene mind, happiness follows, like a shadow that never departs. — Dhammapada 2
manasā ce pasannena, bhāsati vā karoti vā;
tato naṃ sukhamanveti, chāyāva anapāyinī.
The second verse is the twin of the first. Where the first ends with a heavy wheel, the second ends with a shadow — light, silent and always present. The story tells of Maṭṭhakuṇḍalī, the only son of a miserly brahmin. The father was so unwilling to spend money that he hammered out his son’s earrings himself, which is how the boy got his name, “Polished Earrings”. When the boy fell gravely ill, the father avoided paying a physician and, as death approached, laid him outside on the veranda so that visitors would not see the wealth inside the house. The Buddha passed by. Seeing him, the dying young man felt deep faith and joy, and with that bright mind he passed away and was reborn in a heavenly realm. A single moment of a clear, faithful mind, the story suggests, can bear great fruit.
Verse 5: hatred is never ended by hatred
Na hi verena verāni, sammantīdha kudācanaṃ;
Hatreds are never calmed by hatred in this world; by non-hatred they are calmed. This is an eternal law. — Dhammapada 5
averena ca sammanti, esa dhammo sanantano.
This may be the most famous verse in the Dhammapada. A man’s wife could not bear children, so she arranged for him to take a second wife. Fearing that the new wife would become mistress of the household, the first wife caused her to miscarry again and again, until the second wife died vowing revenge. In life after life the two women were reborn as enemies — as a cat and a hen, then as a leopardess and a deer — each destroying the other’s young.
At last one was born as a young woman of Sāvatthī and the other as an ogress named Kāḷī. When the ogress pursued the mother and her baby, the woman fled to Jetavana and laid her child at the Buddha’s feet. The Buddha had the ogress brought in and spoke to them both, reminding them that their hatred had lasted through many lives and would never end as long as they answered hatred with hatred. Then he spoke this verse. The ogress became a stream-enterer, the young woman offered her friendship and support, and the long cycle of revenge finally came to an end.
Living the twin verses
Together these verses give a complete practice. Watch the mind, because it shapes everything. Act with a clear and kind heart, and happiness will follow. And when harmed, remember that retaliation only feeds the fire. The verses that come between them (Dhammapada 3 and 4) make the same point: as long as we keep thinking “he abused me, he struck me, he defeated me, he robbed me”, hatred does not cease; when we let go of such thoughts, it does. Mettā meditation is the traditional training for this non-hatred.
Practical takeaway: the next time you replay a grievance in your mind, notice it and gently say to yourself, “Hatred is not ended by hatred.” Then wish the other person well, even if only for a moment.
