Dhammapada

I'm currently on a vacation trip to Japan. This is the second year in a row that I've come here after several years (mostly due to COVID but also some personal health issues) away. This week I travelled up to Sapporo in Hokkaido to escape the repressive heat and humidity on Honshu. So far, the weather here has been very bearable at around 26C. Just wonderful!

I'm staying at a much nicer hotel this time around called the Sapporo Grand Hotel. In a drawer I found a book called "The Teaching of Buddha" written in both Japanese and English. I thought that I would take a flip through some of the pages and I came across some sayings called the Dhammapada in the first few pages. I think that many of these are incredibly wise. So... here they are:

• Hatreds never cease by hatreds in this world. By love alone they cease. This is an ancient law. (5)

• A fool who thinks that he is a fool is for that very reason a wise man. The fool who thinks that he is wise is called a fool indeed. (63)

• Though he should conquer a thousand men in the battlefield a thousand times, yet he, indeed, who would conquer himself is the noblest victor. (103)

• Though he should live a hundred years, not seeing the Truth Sublime; yet better, indeed, is the single day's life of one who sees the truth Sublime. (115)

• Hard is birth as man, Hard is the life of mortals, Hard is the hearing of the Sublime Truth, Hard is the appearance of a Buddha. (182)

• Not to do any evil, To cultivate good, To purify one's mind, - This is the advice of the Buddhas. (183)

• There are no sons for protection, neither father nor even kinsmen; for him who is overcome by death no protection is there for kinsmen. (288)

I want to spend some more time digesting these. All seem like words to live by.