1: -2: The fact that the word mano is paired here with dhamma would seem to suggest that it is meant[...]
7: -8: Focused on the foul: A meditative exercise in focusing on the foul aspects of the body so as [...]
11: -12: Wrong resolves = mental resolves for sensuality, ill will, or harmfulness. Right resolves = [...]
17: -18: "Destination" in these two verses and throughout the text means one's destination after deat[...]
21: : The Deathless = Unbinding (nibbana/nirvana), which gives release from the cycle of death and reb[...]
22: : "The range of the noble ones": Any of the four stages of Awakening, as well as the total Unbindi[...]
23: : AN IV.10 lists four yokes: the yoke of sensuality, the yoke of becoming, the yoke of views, and [...]
37: : "Lying in a cave": According to the Dhp Commentary (hereafter referred to as DhpA), "cave" here [...]
39: : According to DhpA, "unsoddened mind" means one into which the rain of passion doesn't penetrate [...]
40: : "Without settling there, without laying claim": two meanings of the word anivesano.
42: : A.VII.60 illustrates this point with seven ways that a person harms him/herself when angry, brin[...]
44: -45: "Dhamma-saying": This is a translation for the term dhammapada. To ferret out the well-taugh[...]
48: : According to DhpA, the End-maker is death. According to another ancient commentary, the End-make[...]
53: : The last line of the Pali here can be read in two ways, either "even so, many a skillful thing s[...]
54: -56: Tagara = a shrub that, in powdered form, is used as a perfume. A.III.79 explains the how the[...]
57: : "Right knowing": the knowledge of full Awakening.
71: : "Doesn't -- like ready milk -- come out right away": All Pali recensions of this verse give the [...]
79: : "Drinking the Dhamma, refreshed by the Dhamma": two meanings of the word, dhammapiti. "Clear... [...]
83: : "Stand apart": reading cajanti with DhpA and many Asian editions.
86: : The syntax of this verse yields the best sense if we take param as meaning "across," and not as [...]
89: : Factors of self-awakening = mindfulness, analysis of qualities, persistence, rapture, serenity, [...]
92: -93: "Having understood food... independent of nutriment": The first question in the Novice's Que[...]
94: : "Such (tadin)": an adjective used to describe one who has attained the goal of Buddhist practice[...]
95: : Indra's pillar = a post set up at the gate of a city. According to DhpA, there was an ancient cu[...]
97: : This verse is a series of puns. The negative meanings of the puns are on the left side of the sl[...]
100: : According to DhpA, the word sahassam in this and the following verses means "by the thousands" r[...]
108: : "Doesn't come to a fourth": DhpA: The merit produced by all sacrificial offerings given in the w[...]
121: -122: "('It won't come to me')": The Thai edition reads this line as na mattam agamissati = "[Thi[...]
126: : Heaven and hell, in the Buddhist view of the cosmos, are not eternal states. One may be reborn o[...]
143: : Some translators have proposed that the verb apabodheti, here translated as "awakens" should be [...]
152: : Muscles: This is a translation of the Pali mansani, which is usually rendered in this verse as "[...]
153: -154: DhpA: These verses were the Buddha's first utterance after his full Awakening. For some rea[...]
157: : "The three watches of the night": this is the literal meaning of the verse, but DhpA shows that [...]
162: : DhpA completes the image of the poem by saying that one's vice bring about one's own downfall, j[...]
164: : A bamboo plant bears fruit only once, and then dies soon after.
165: : "No one purifies another. No other purifies one." These are the two meanings of the one phrase, [...]
166: : A.IV.95 lists four types of people in descending order: those devoted to their own true welfare [...]
170: : The Sutta Nipata (V.15) reports a conversation between the Buddha and the brahman Mogharaja with[...]
176: : This verse is also found at Iti.25, where the context makes clear the meaning of ekam dhammam, o[...]
178: : The fruit of Stream Entry is the first of the four stages of Awakening (see note 22). A person w[...]
183: -185: These verses are a summary of a talk called the Ovada Patimokkha, which the Buddha is said [...]
191: : The noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihoo[...]
195: -196: Complications = papañca. Alternative translations of this term would be proliferation, elab[...]
209: : This verse plays with the various meanings of yoga (task, striving, application, meditation) and[...]
218: : "The up-flowing stream": DhpA: the attainment of non-returning, the third of the four stages of [...]
231: -233: Bodily misconduct = killing, stealing, engaging in illicit sex. Verbal misconduct = lies, d[...]
235: : Yama = the god of the underworld. Yama's minions or underlings were believed to appear to a pers[...]
236: : Impurities, blemishes = passion, aversion, delusion, and their various permutations, including e[...]
240: : "One who lives slovenly": As DhpA makes clear, this refers to one who uses the requisites of foo[...]
254: -255: "No outside contemplative": No true contemplative, defined as a person who has attained any[...]
256: -257: The sense of the verse, confirmed by DhpA, suggests that the Pali word dhammattho means "ju[...]
259: : "Sees Dhamma through his body": The more common expression in the Pali Canon is to touch Dhamma [...]
265: : This verse plays with a number of nouns and verbs related to the adjective sama, which means "ev[...]
268: -269: This verse contains the Buddhist refutation of the idea that "those who know don't speak, t[...]
271: -272: This verse has what seems to be a rare construction, in which na + instrumental nouns + a v[...]
273: : The four truths: stress, its cause, its cessation, and the path to its cessation (which is ident[...]
275: : "I have taught you this path": reading akkhato vo maya maggo with the Thai edition, a reading su[...]
277: : For a discussion of this verse, see the articles, "The Not-self Strategy" and "No-self or Not-se[...]
285: : Although the first word in this verse, ucchinda, literally means "crush," "destroy," "annihilate[...]
288: : Ender = death.
293: : Mindfulness immersed in the body = the practice of focusing on the body at all times simply as a[...]
294: : This verse and the one following it use terms with ambiguous meanings to shock the listener. Acc[...]
295: : DhpA: two learned kings = views of eternalism and annihilationism; a tiger = the path where the [...]
299: : See note 293.
301: : "Developing the mind" in terms of the 37 Wings to Awakening: the four frames of reference (arden[...]
303: : DhpA: Wealth = both material wealth and the seven forms of noble wealth (ariya-dhana): convictio[...]
324: : DhpA: Dhanapalaka was a noble elephant captured for the king of Kasi. Although given palatial qu[...]
329: -330: DhpA: The bull elephant named Matanga, reflecting on the inconveniences of living in a herd[...]
337: : This verse provides a Buddhist twist to the typical benedictions found in works of kavya. Instea[...]
339: : 36 streams = three forms of desire for each of the internal and external sense spheres (see note[...]
340: : "Every which way": Reading sabbadhi with the Thai and Burmese editions. The creeper, according t[...]
341: : This verse contains an implied simile: the terms "loosened & oiled," here applied to joys, were [...]
343: : For the various meanings that attano -- "for himself" -- can have in this verse, see note 402. [...]
346: : "Elastic": The usual translation of the word sithilam -- "slack" -- does not fit in this verse, [...]
348: : DhpA: In front = the aggregates of the past; behind = the aggregates of the future; in between =[...]
350: : "A focus on the foul": A meditative exercise in focusing on the foul parts of the body so as to [...]
352: : "Astute in expression, knowing the combination of sounds -- which comes first & which after": So[...]
353: : According to M.26 and Mv.I.6.7, one of the first people the Buddha met after his Awakening was a[...]
354: : This verse contains several terms related to aesthetics. Both dhamma (justice) and dana (gift/ge[...]
360: -361: See note 7-8.
363: : "Counsel": In the context of Indian literary theory, this is the meaning of the word manta, whic[...]
368: : "Stilling-of-fabrications ease": the true ease and freedom experienced when all five aggregates [...]
369: : DhpA: The boat = one's own personhood (the body-mind complex); the water that needs to be bailed[...]
370: : DhpA: Cut through five = the five lower fetters that tie the mind to the round of rebirth (self-[...]
381: : See note 368.
383: : This verse, addressed to a member of the brahman caste, is one of the few in Dhp where the word [...]
384: : DhpA: two things = tranquillity meditation and insight meditation.
385: : DhpA: This verse refers to a person who has no sense of "I" or "mine," either for the senses ("n[...]
388: : Stains = the impurities listed in note 236. On "consonance," see note 265.
389: : The word "anger" here is added from DhpA, which interprets the "letting loose" as the act of ret[...]
390: : "What's endearing & not": In the phrase manaso piyehi, piyehi can be read straight as it is, as [...]
392: : "Brahman" here is used in its ordinary sense, as indicating caste membership, and not in its spe[...]
393: : "He is a pure one": reading so suci with the Thai edition, a reading supported by the Chinese tr[...]
394: : In India of the Buddha's day, matted hair, etc., were regarded as visible signs of spiritual sta[...]
396: : "Bho-sayer" -- Brahmans addressed others as "bho" as a way of indicating their (the brahmans') s[...]
398: : DhpA: strap = hatred; thong = craving; cord = 62 forms of wrong view (listed in the Brahmajala S[...]
400: : "With no overbearing pride": reading anussadam with the Thai and Burmese editions. "Last-body": [...]
402: : "For himself, on his own, his own ending of stress": Three different ways that the one word atta[...]
411: : According to DhpA, "attachments/homes (alaya)" = cravings. "Knowing": the knowledge of full Awak[...]
412: : See note 39.
421: : See note 348.
423: : The forms of mastery listed in this verse correspond to the three knowledges that comprised the [...]
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