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Dhammapada

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Why the Buddha's Words Are Like Knives

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We spent two episodes breaking down Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā,

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The Eightfold Negation,

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The Tetralemma—

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Logic so tight it leaves you breathless.

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If you've followed along and haven't dropped out,

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Congratulations.

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Your brain just finished a high-intensity philosophical marathon.

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Today,

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take a breather.

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I want to take you back to an earlier, quieter place.

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No Nagarjuna,

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no sectarian debates,

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no layers of logical deduction.

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Just the Buddha alone,

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facing a specific person,

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addressing a specific confusion,

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and speaking a single sentence.

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Just one.

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But that one sentence,

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even after twenty-five hundred years,

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still cuts to the quick.

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Hello,

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everyone.

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I am Wang Lijie.

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Today, let's talk about the Dhammapada.

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In Pali, it's called Dhammapada.

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‘Dhamma’ means truth or law;

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‘pada’ means foot,

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which can also be translated as verse or path.

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So Dhammapada means

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“the footprint of the Dhamma.”

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The footprints left behind

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on the path the awakened one has walked.

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It's the shortest and most direct scripture in the Pali Canon.

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A total of 423 verses,

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divided into 26 chapters.

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Each verse is what the Buddha said

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to a specific person in a specific situation.

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It's not a lecture,

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it's not a sermon;

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it's just a conversation.

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If you've read the Analects of Confucius,

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you'll immediately get the feel of it.

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The Analects record the master's daily deeds and words.

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The Dhammapada also records the Buddha's daily teachings.

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These two books share one thing in common:

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take any single entry out,

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place it in any era,

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and it still holds true.

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But their frames of reference differ.

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The Analects mostly answer

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how people should treat one another—

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benevolence, ritual, and trust;

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the five relationships

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and social order.

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The Dhammapada answers a different question.

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It has only one theme:

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What is your mind doing?

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The coordinate system isn't between people;

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it's between you and your own consciousness.

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Let me read a few lines

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so you can feel it.

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The very first verse,

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Chapter 1, Verse 1.

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The Buddha starts right off by saying:

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Mind is the forerunner of all experiences.

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Mind is primary;

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all things are mind-made.

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If one speaks or acts with an impure mind,

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suffering follows as a consequence,

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just as the wheel follows the hoof of the ox.

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Then comes the second verse.

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The same structure,

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but flipped:

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Mind is the forerunner of all experiences.

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Mind is primary;

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all things are mind-made.

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If one speaks or acts with a pure mind,

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happiness follows close behind,

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like a shadow that never leaves.

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These two verses

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reveal the core premise of the entire Dhammapada.

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The Buddha didn't start by talking about reincarnation,

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or Nirvana,

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or the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination.

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He spoke only of one thing:

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The state of your mind

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determines the state of your entire world.

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Translating this into the Yogacara terms we've been using:

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it means that

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the seeds stored in your Alaya-vijnana determine the image rendered by your consciousness.

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If the seeds are pure,

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the image is pure.

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If the seeds are defiled,

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the image is defiled.

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And that critical turning point

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happens in the instant of every single thought.

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The Buddha used the analogy of an ox pulling a cart

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to explain this more clearly than any philosophical treatise.

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This is the power of the Dhammapada.

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It doesn't argue;

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it doesn't build systems;

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it lets you see directly.

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Let me read a few more verses.

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Chapter 3, Verse 33:

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The mind is flickering and unsteady,

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difficult to guard,

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difficult to control.

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The wise person straightens their mind,

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as a fletcher straightens an arrow.

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Chapter 6, Verse 76:

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If you meet someone who points out your faults,

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you should follow them,

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as if following a guide to hidden treasure.

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Following such a person

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will only lead to good,

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never to harm.

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Chapter 10, Verse 129:

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All beings fear punishment;

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all beings treasure life.

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Putting yourself in another's place,

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one should not kill

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nor cause another to kill.

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Chapter 17, Verse 223:

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Overcome anger with non-anger;

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overcome evil with good;

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overcome stinginess with giving;

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overcome falsehood with truth.

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And one verse I particularly love,

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Chapter 12, Verse 166:

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Let no one neglect their own task for the sake of another's.

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Clearly understand your own duty,

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then focus on doing it.

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What's your first reaction to this?

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Don't you feel

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like it's talking exactly about you?

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Spending an hour scrolling through celebrity gossip

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while leaving your own work untouched.

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Worrying all day about a friend's marriage,

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while your own emotions are a mess.

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The Buddha saw through this 2,500 years ago.

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The thing humans are best at

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is using other people's scripts to avoid their own performance.

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Listen to an even more powerful one.

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Chapter 21, Verse 290:

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If by giving up a lesser happiness,

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one could obtain a greater happiness,

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the wise should let go of the lesser

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and look toward the greater.

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You can hear this on two levels.

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The first level

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is very practical:

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don't sacrifice long-term well-being for instant gratification.

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Spend thirty minutes less on your phone,

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spend thirty minutes more reading.

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That's self-discipline 'chicken soup.'

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But that's not the level the Buddha was talking about.

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He was talking about the second level.

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That "greater happiness"

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is not about greater sensory indulgence,

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but rather that absolute freedom

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realized when you are no longer enslaved by any pleasure.

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Lesser happiness is about gaining something;

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greater happiness is about no longer needing to gain.

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You see,

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regarding the same sentence,

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a beginner hears time management,

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but the enlightened hear liberation.

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This is the ingenious design of the Dhammapada.

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It functions like a multi-layered code;

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everyone receives the answer corresponding to their own level.

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Have you noticed?

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These words don't require you to learn any theories beforehand.

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You don't need to understand the Eight Consciousnesses,

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nor the Three Natures,

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nor Dependent Origination and Emptiness.

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The Buddha is like an elder who is exceptionally good with words;

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he pulls you close

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and uses the simplest analogies

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to make you see exactly what you are doing.

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A flickering mind is like a crooked arrow—

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can you straighten it?

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A critic is like a guide to hidden treasure—

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can you keep up?

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You fear pain;

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others do too.

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You worry about others' business

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while your own homework remains undone.

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It is that simple.

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But it is precisely this simplicity

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that is the most difficult.

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Because complex theories can stay in your head.

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You learn the Middle Way of the Eight Negations,

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feel you understand it,

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and then life goes on as usual.

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But the Dhammapada doesn't play that game.

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Every word is like a finger

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pointing at your face, saying:

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"Look at yourself.

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When you argued with someone last week,

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were you overcome by anger?

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When you took advantage of someone today,

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were you truly honest with yourself?"

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Theory makes you feel you are progressing;

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the Dhammapada reveals you are standing still.

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This is why in Theravada Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka,

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Myanmar, and Thailand,

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the Dhammapada is the most frequently recited sutra in daily life.

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Not because it is the most profound,

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but because it stings the most.

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Alright.

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Now I want to discuss something very interesting.

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The Chinese version of the Dhammapada

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and the original Pali version

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are not actually the exact same book.

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The Pali Dhammapada

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consists of 423 verses

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in 26 chapters.

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This version preserved by Theravada Buddhism

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is generally considered by scholars to be closest to the original form.

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The Chinese Dhammapada was brought to China in 224 AD

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by Vighna during the Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period.

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Later, Zhu Jiangyan added content for 13 more chapters,

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and it was finally compiled by Zhi Qian,

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becoming the version with 39 chapters and 758 verses we see today.

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The quantity almost doubled.

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Why is there so much more?

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Because the Chinese Dhammapada is not based on the Pali version;

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it comes from Sanskrit and Prakrit versions from the Gandhara region.

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As Buddhism spread out of India,

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different sects collected verses they believed were spoken by the Buddha

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and compiled their own collections.

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The Pali version was preserved in Sri Lanka along the Southern route,

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while what entered China via the Silk Road

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was a version from a different lineage.

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It contains more content

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from more diverse sources.

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By the Northern Song Dynasty,

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During the Northern Song Dynasty, Tian Xizai translated a longer version called the Dharmapada-sūtra.

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It contains over nine hundred verses.

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What does this mean?

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It means that the Dhammapada

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was never a sacred text fixed by one person on a single day.

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It's more like a living collection of quotes.

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When the Buddha was alive,

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his disciples memorized his words.

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After the Buddha entered Parinirvana,

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different monastic communities took their memories in different directions.

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Hundreds of years later,

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people collected these scattered verses from different regions

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and compiled their own versions of the Dhammapada.

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Its fate is almost exactly like that of the Analects of Confucius.

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Confucius didn't write the Analects.

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The text we see today

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took shape only after generations of disciples added and filtered content.

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But this fact doesn't weaken the value of the Dhammapada;

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it makes me respect it even more.

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Because sentences that survive centuries of oral tradition,

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must have been used by every generation.

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Every generation felt they couldn't live without them.

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That is why they survived to this day.

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This is natural selection at a cultural level.

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The sentences that survive

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are the most powerful ones.

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If you compare the Pali and Chinese versions, you'll find something interesting.

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The verses included in both versions

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are highly consistent.

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00:08:58,904 --> 00:09:01,714
This shows that across two lineages,

271
00:09:01,825 --> 00:09:03,833
having spread independently for hundreds of years,

272
00:09:03,904 --> 00:09:06,153
they maintained almost the same appearance.

273
00:09:06,264 --> 00:09:10,094
If a sentence is remembered simultaneously in Sri Lanka, South India,

274
00:09:10,184 --> 00:09:11,594
and Gandhara in Central Asia,

275
00:09:11,625 --> 00:09:13,673
with almost identical content,

276
00:09:13,745 --> 00:09:15,413
how powerful must its resonance be?

277
00:09:16,065 --> 00:09:18,833
These verses weren't preserved by authority;

278
00:09:18,904 --> 00:09:20,874
they were preserved by utility.

279
00:09:21,065 --> 00:09:23,634
Each generation verified them with their own lives,

280
00:09:23,865 --> 00:09:26,114
making them impossible to forget.

281
00:09:26,424 --> 00:09:27,303
Speaking of translation,

282
00:09:27,304 --> 00:09:29,354
I want to address a very important misunderstanding.

283
00:09:29,664 --> 00:09:31,874
A viewer once asked in the comments

284
00:09:32,065 --> 00:09:34,053
what "suffering" in Buddhism actually means.

285
00:09:34,784 --> 00:09:36,953
Why does Buddhism sound so negative,

286
00:09:37,225 --> 00:09:39,254
telling you from the start that life is suffering?

287
00:09:39,825 --> 00:09:41,024
The answer to this question

288
00:09:41,024 --> 00:09:42,754
is hidden in a translation error.

289
00:09:43,024 --> 00:09:45,874
The Buddha repeatedly used a word in the Dhammapada,

290
00:09:46,304 --> 00:09:48,153
called "dukkha" in Pali.

291
00:09:48,384 --> 00:09:49,793
The Chinese translated it as "ku" (suffering).

292
00:09:50,105 --> 00:09:52,793
But the original meaning of dukkha isn't suffering at all.

293
00:09:53,065 --> 00:09:54,543
Regarding the origin of this word,

294
00:09:54,544 --> 00:09:56,553
there is a widely spread explanation.

295
00:09:56,825 --> 00:09:58,653
"Du" means bad or difficult.

296
00:09:59,144 --> 00:10:00,714
"Kha" means an axle hole.

297
00:10:01,024 --> 00:10:02,594
The original image of Dukkha

298
00:10:02,664 --> 00:10:04,594
is a wheel with a misaligned axle hole.

299
00:10:04,985 --> 00:10:05,813
Imagine it:

300
00:10:06,144 --> 00:10:07,913
the axle hole isn't centered.

301
00:10:08,024 --> 00:10:08,734
When put on a cart,

302
00:10:09,024 --> 00:10:10,994
it goes "clunk, clunk" as it turns.

303
00:10:11,264 --> 00:10:11,894
It's not smooth;

304
00:10:12,225 --> 00:10:12,813
it doesn't flow.

305
00:10:13,345 --> 00:10:15,193
The whole cart is jolting.

306
00:10:15,424 --> 00:10:18,433
Though scholars have other theories on its etymology,

307
00:10:18,664 --> 00:10:21,594
such as some believing it means "unsteady standing,"

308
00:10:21,865 --> 00:10:23,134
regardless of the explanation,

309
00:10:23,424 --> 00:10:25,033
they all point in the same direction.

310
00:10:25,345 --> 00:10:26,653
The true meaning of Dukkha

311
00:10:26,865 --> 00:10:27,864
isn't suffering,

312
00:10:27,865 --> 00:10:28,874
but "out of joint" or "maladjustment."

313
00:10:29,225 --> 00:10:30,714
It's when a system isn't aligned.

314
00:10:31,664 --> 00:10:34,903
It's a structural bias in how you function,

315
00:10:34,904 --> 00:10:36,913
making things go wrong no matter how hard you try.

316
00:10:37,105 --> 00:10:39,994
This is a completely different feeling from "suffering" in Chinese.

317
00:10:40,384 --> 00:10:42,354
Suffering is an emotional experience,

318
00:10:42,585 --> 00:10:45,474
but dukkha is a description of a systemic state.

319
00:10:45,865 --> 00:10:47,864
It's like your computer isn't broken,

320
00:10:47,865 --> 00:10:49,594
but the underlying configuration is wrong.

321
00:10:49,705 --> 00:10:52,313
Every program runs with a slight lag.

322
00:10:52,664 --> 00:10:55,394
The original translators translated 'dukkha' as 'bitterness' (suffer).

323
00:10:55,825 --> 00:10:58,994
In Chinese, this word 'ku' carries too much emotional weight.

324
00:10:59,144 --> 00:11:00,494
For nearly 1,800 years,

325
00:11:00,784 --> 00:11:01,984
when Chinese people read Buddhist scriptures,

326
00:11:01,985 --> 00:11:03,234
their first reaction has been:

327
00:11:03,345 --> 00:11:05,254
'Buddhism says life is suffering.'

328
00:11:05,625 --> 00:11:07,114
'That is so pessimistic!'

329
00:11:07,424 --> 00:11:10,433
But the Buddha wasn't saying life is suffering.

330
00:11:10,625 --> 00:11:11,543
He was saying,

331
00:11:11,544 --> 00:11:13,913
'Your system has a structural misalignment.'

332
00:11:14,105 --> 00:11:16,354
And this misalignment can be fixed.

333
00:11:16,625 --> 00:11:18,673
These two statements have completely different meanings.

334
00:11:19,065 --> 00:11:20,874
One is a sentence of despair,

335
00:11:20,985 --> 00:11:23,754
while the other is an actionable diagnosis.

336
00:11:24,544 --> 00:11:28,313
Go back and read every instance of 'dukkha' in the Dhammapada,

337
00:11:28,384 --> 00:11:30,274
replace 'suffering' with 'misalignment,'

338
00:11:30,384 --> 00:11:32,634
and the entire tone of the scripture changes instantly.

339
00:11:32,664 --> 00:11:35,583
It's no longer a pessimistic manual for resignation;

340
00:11:35,585 --> 00:11:37,754
it's a system debugging guide.

341
00:11:38,144 --> 00:11:38,333
Now,

342
00:11:38,745 --> 00:11:40,634
speaking of the moment of the Buddha's enlightenment,

343
00:11:40,705 --> 00:11:43,114
there are two particularly famous verses in the Dhammapada.

344
00:11:43,424 --> 00:11:46,833
Legend says these were the first words the Buddha spoke

345
00:11:46,865 --> 00:11:48,313
the moment he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.

346
00:11:48,745 --> 00:11:52,234
Verses 153 and 154 of the eleventh chapter.

347
00:11:52,625 --> 00:11:53,913
The essence is this:

348
00:11:54,225 --> 00:11:56,114
Through many births I wandered in samsara,

349
00:11:56,264 --> 00:11:58,394
seeking but not finding the builder of this house.

350
00:11:58,664 --> 00:11:59,533
Birth after birth,

351
00:11:59,945 --> 00:12:00,913
there was unbearable misalignment.

352
00:12:01,345 --> 00:12:02,094
O house-builder,

353
00:12:02,544 --> 00:12:04,274
you are seen now.

354
00:12:04,384 --> 00:12:06,033
You shall build no house again.

355
00:12:06,304 --> 00:12:07,333
Your rafters are broken,

356
00:12:07,745 --> 00:12:09,153
your ridgepole is shattered.

357
00:12:09,424 --> 00:12:11,274
The mind has attained the unconditioned,

358
00:12:11,345 --> 00:12:13,274
achieving the end of all craving.

359
00:12:13,585 --> 00:12:15,514
This passage is truly incredible.

360
00:12:15,904 --> 00:12:16,693
The Buddha didn't say,

361
00:12:17,024 --> 00:12:18,553
'I have realized the universal truth.'

362
00:12:18,825 --> 00:12:19,754
He said,

363
00:12:19,784 --> 00:12:22,274
'Something has been building houses for you,'

364
00:12:22,544 --> 00:12:24,394
'and you have been trapped inside them.'

365
00:12:24,465 --> 00:12:25,754
You searched for countless lifetimes

366
00:12:25,865 --> 00:12:28,354
and never found who that builder was.

367
00:12:28,784 --> 00:12:29,453
Until one day,

368
00:12:29,705 --> 00:12:30,833
you saw it.

369
00:12:31,065 --> 00:12:32,913
You saw who was doing the building.

370
00:12:33,264 --> 00:12:33,774
In that moment,

371
00:12:34,024 --> 00:12:35,714
the whole structure collapsed.

372
00:12:35,985 --> 00:12:36,653
Because seeing

373
00:12:36,865 --> 00:12:38,274
is itself the act of dismantling.

374
00:12:38,705 --> 00:12:40,714
In the language of Yogacara,

375
00:12:40,745 --> 00:12:41,823
that house-builder

376
00:12:41,825 --> 00:12:43,433
is the seventh consciousness, the Manas.

377
00:12:43,825 --> 00:12:48,073
The deep-seated grasping that constantly glues 'me' to every experience.

378
00:12:48,465 --> 00:12:49,214
To see it

379
00:12:49,664 --> 00:12:51,953
is the moment of transforming consciousness into wisdom.

380
00:12:52,465 --> 00:12:53,614
You didn't defeat it;

381
00:12:54,105 --> 00:12:55,553
you simply saw it.

382
00:12:55,865 --> 00:12:56,453
Once seen,

383
00:12:56,625 --> 00:12:58,514
it loses its power to build.

384
00:12:58,825 --> 00:13:00,193
Twenty-five hundred years ago,

385
00:13:00,345 --> 00:13:02,423
the Buddha used the metaphor of house building

386
00:13:02,424 --> 00:13:05,953
to spoil the core mechanism of Yogacara.

387
00:13:06,184 --> 00:13:07,913
And notice his phrasing.

388
00:13:08,264 --> 00:13:10,433
He didn't say, 'I destroyed the builder.'

389
00:13:10,664 --> 00:13:11,254
He said,

390
00:13:11,585 --> 00:13:12,134
'House-builder,'

391
00:13:12,504 --> 00:13:13,673
'you are seen.'

392
00:13:13,985 --> 00:13:14,653
Not defeated,

393
00:13:14,985 --> 00:13:15,693
not annihilated,

394
00:13:16,024 --> 00:13:16,953
but seen.

395
00:13:17,184 --> 00:13:19,193
This distinction is vital.

396
00:13:19,424 --> 00:13:20,774
The more you try to eliminate attachment,

397
00:13:21,184 --> 00:13:22,433
the more attached you become.

398
00:13:22,705 --> 00:13:25,594
Because the act of elimination is itself a form of attachment.

399
00:13:25,865 --> 00:13:27,413
But if you just see it,

400
00:13:27,865 --> 00:13:28,754
without judgment...

401
00:13:28,784 --> 00:13:29,634
Not resisting.

402
00:13:29,945 --> 00:13:33,994
By seeing the hidden mechanism clearly,

403
00:13:34,184 --> 00:13:35,594
it naturally stops.

404
00:13:35,904 --> 00:13:39,354
It's like tripping over a rope in the dark a thousand times.

405
00:13:39,664 --> 00:13:41,553
You don't need to cut the rope;

406
00:13:41,705 --> 00:13:43,114
you only need to turn on the light.

407
00:13:43,544 --> 00:13:44,053
Once the light is on,

408
00:13:44,424 --> 00:13:46,474
you naturally won't trip anymore.

409
00:13:46,705 --> 00:13:49,514
This is the deepest secret of practice within the Dhammapada.

410
00:13:50,024 --> 00:13:50,813
All change

411
00:13:51,105 --> 00:13:52,714
starts not with resistance,

412
00:13:52,945 --> 00:13:54,474
but with seeing.

413
00:13:54,745 --> 00:13:56,394
This is the energy of the Dhammapada.

414
00:13:56,865 --> 00:13:58,394
It doesn't require complex theory.

415
00:13:58,745 --> 00:13:59,673
Just one sentence,

416
00:14:00,184 --> 00:14:03,514
but that sentence plants a seed inside you.

417
00:14:03,745 --> 00:14:04,854
Perhaps many years later,

418
00:14:05,184 --> 00:14:06,553
during a sleepless morning,

419
00:14:06,745 --> 00:14:09,073
or a moment when life has pushed you into a corner,

420
00:14:09,184 --> 00:14:11,594
this sentence suddenly resurfaces from your memory,

421
00:14:11,705 --> 00:14:13,394
and it pierces right through you.

422
00:14:14,024 --> 00:14:15,793
Theory is for the mind;

423
00:14:15,904 --> 00:14:17,833
the Dhammapada is for your life.

424
00:14:18,105 --> 00:14:20,274
Do you know how the Dhammapada is used

425
00:14:20,345 --> 00:14:21,894
in Theravada Buddhist monasteries?

426
00:14:22,585 --> 00:14:24,433
It's not just for academic research.

427
00:14:24,784 --> 00:14:26,714
Monks chant it every morning;

428
00:14:27,024 --> 00:14:30,354
laypeople carry verses on slips of paper.

429
00:14:30,705 --> 00:14:33,114
They look at them whenever they face difficulties.

430
00:14:33,384 --> 00:14:35,793
It's like a motto you'd save on your phone,

431
00:14:36,024 --> 00:14:38,114
but far more powerful.

432
00:14:38,345 --> 00:14:41,279
Every word in the Dhammapada has been tested

433
00:14:41,279 --> 00:14:42,833
by 2,500 years of human fate.

434
00:14:43,225 --> 00:14:44,903
A motto that survives to this day

435
00:14:44,904 --> 00:14:46,313
is never just empty platitudes.

436
00:14:46,625 --> 00:14:49,994
The Dhammapada is also perfect for modern people

437
00:14:50,048 --> 00:14:50,849
because it is short.

438
00:14:51,304 --> 00:14:52,994
Each verse is just two or three sentences.

439
00:14:53,384 --> 00:14:55,714
You don't need an hour to read scripture.

440
00:14:56,384 --> 00:14:57,214
On the subway,

441
00:14:57,424 --> 00:14:58,543
during lunch,

442
00:14:58,544 --> 00:14:59,173
or before bed,

443
00:14:59,585 --> 00:15:00,783
just open to any page,

444
00:15:00,784 --> 00:15:01,254
read a verse,

445
00:15:01,544 --> 00:15:02,053
reflect on it,

446
00:15:02,264 --> 00:15:03,114
and that's enough.

447
00:15:03,504 --> 00:15:06,433
It's an awakening manual for busy people.

448
00:15:06,664 --> 00:15:09,673
Not because the Buddha knew we'd be busy 2,500 years later,

449
00:15:09,904 --> 00:15:11,714
but because things that truly matter

450
00:15:11,865 --> 00:15:13,474
never require many words.

451
00:15:13,865 --> 00:15:15,474
Finally, let's talk about attitude.

452
00:15:16,144 --> 00:15:20,134
Many think Buddhist classics must be difficult and deep.

453
00:15:20,144 --> 00:15:23,774
Madhyamaka, Vijnaptimatrata, the Shurangama Sutra—

454
00:15:24,105 --> 00:15:25,354
the more brain-burning, the better.

455
00:15:25,705 --> 00:15:27,053
They think the Dhammapada is too simple,

456
00:15:27,264 --> 00:15:28,714
something even a child can understand,

457
00:15:28,745 --> 00:15:29,953
so they think it lacks value.

458
00:15:30,345 --> 00:15:32,114
I used to have this bias too.

459
00:15:32,465 --> 00:15:34,033
Then I realized something:

460
00:15:34,345 --> 00:15:36,594
the simplest things are the hardest to do.

461
00:15:36,904 --> 00:15:38,693
The most famous verse in the Dhammapada says:

462
00:15:39,184 --> 00:15:40,274
"Avoid all evil,

463
00:15:40,345 --> 00:15:41,514
cultivate all good,

464
00:15:41,544 --> 00:15:42,333
purify your own mind;

465
00:15:42,705 --> 00:15:43,874
this is the teaching of the Buddhas."

466
00:15:44,384 --> 00:15:46,134
Do you think you don't know this?

467
00:15:46,945 --> 00:15:47,994
Of course you do.

468
00:15:48,345 --> 00:15:49,933
The question is, can you do it?

469
00:15:50,424 --> 00:15:51,754
There is a story from the Tang Dynasty.

470
00:15:52,184 --> 00:15:54,514
Bai Juyi visited Zen Master Niaoke

471
00:15:54,585 --> 00:15:56,514
to ask for the essence of the Dharma.

472
00:15:56,705 --> 00:15:57,573
Master Niaoke said:

473
00:15:58,144 --> 00:15:58,894
"Avoid all evil,

474
00:15:59,345 --> 00:16:00,514
cultivate all good."

475
00:16:01,024 --> 00:16:02,313
Bai Juyi was dissatisfied

476
00:16:02,504 --> 00:16:04,474
and said even a three-year-old child knows that.

477
00:16:05,024 --> 00:16:06,293
Master Niaoke replied:

478
00:16:06,784 --> 00:16:08,313
"A three-year-old can say it,

479
00:16:08,384 --> 00:16:10,193
but an eighty-year-old can't do it."

480
00:16:10,705 --> 00:16:13,193
Every word of the Dhammapada is like that.

481
00:16:13,625 --> 00:16:14,453
You understand them at a glance,

482
00:16:14,825 --> 00:16:15,874
but you cannot practice them.

483
00:16:16,184 --> 00:16:17,624
And the reason you can't

484
00:16:17,625 --> 00:16:22,114
is exactly the deep structure we've explored in the previous seven episodes.

485
00:16:22,825 --> 00:16:24,953
The Four Noble Truths reveal the root of dysfunction;

486
00:16:25,225 --> 00:16:27,754
Dependent Origination shows how all things operate;

487
00:16:28,024 --> 00:16:31,274
Prajna tells you that no phenomenon has a fixed essence;

488
00:16:31,664 --> 00:16:35,094
Madhyamaka teaches that even the phrase "no fixed essence"

489
00:16:35,264 --> 00:16:36,433
cannot be clung to.

490
00:16:36,784 --> 00:16:38,104
You need these theories,

491
00:16:38,105 --> 00:16:39,874
not to understand the Dhammapada.

492
00:16:40,225 --> 00:16:42,254
The Dhammapada itself is clear enough;

493
00:16:42,424 --> 00:16:43,594
it needs no commentary.

494
00:16:43,945 --> 00:16:46,114
These theories exist to let you see

495
00:16:46,144 --> 00:16:47,994
why you cannot live out the Dhammapada.

496
00:16:48,384 --> 00:16:50,624
So, the Dhammapada is not an introductory text;

497
00:16:50,625 --> 00:16:51,634
it is the finish line.

498
00:16:51,865 --> 00:16:53,254
When you finish all the theories,

499
00:16:53,504 --> 00:16:54,553
after going in a full circle,

500
00:16:54,705 --> 00:16:55,813
and finally return to the Dhammapada,

501
00:16:56,105 --> 00:16:57,073
you will realize

502
00:16:57,184 --> 00:17:00,114
the Buddha put the answer here from the very beginning.

503
00:17:00,345 --> 00:17:01,053
It's just that back then,

504
00:17:01,465 --> 00:17:03,514
your eyes hadn't yet grown.

505
00:17:03,705 --> 00:17:04,913
And the pair of eyes

506
00:17:04,944 --> 00:17:08,153
might be hidden in one of these 423 verses,

507
00:17:08,224 --> 00:17:09,074
waiting for you.

508
00:17:09,384 --> 00:17:11,993
Waiting for your life to reach that specific crossroad

509
00:17:12,105 --> 00:17:13,394
before it lights up.

510
00:17:13,625 --> 00:17:15,213
Have you ever had such an experience?

511
00:17:15,865 --> 00:17:17,594
Where a very ordinary sentence,

512
00:17:17,625 --> 00:17:19,273
at a particular moment,

513
00:17:19,305 --> 00:17:20,814
suddenly becomes extraordinary?

514
00:17:21,505 --> 00:17:21,973
If so,

515
00:17:22,305 --> 00:17:23,213
I’d love to know

516
00:17:23,664 --> 00:17:24,794
which verse it was,

517
00:17:24,865 --> 00:17:25,574
and at what moment

518
00:17:26,025 --> 00:17:26,953
it struck you.

519
00:17:27,384 --> 00:17:29,394
You can tell me in the comments section.

520
00:17:29,944 --> 00:17:30,493
I am Wang Lijie.

521
00:17:30,904 --> 00:17:32,233
See you next time.