- The craving of a person who lives negligently spreads like a creeping vine. Like a monkey who leaps from tree to tree in the forest seeking fruits, that person leaps from life to life, in this journey of misery.
- Whoever is overcome by this miserable, wretched, and sticky craving, his sorrow grows like rapidly growing grass after rain.
- Whoever overcomes this miserable, wretched craving that is difficult to overcome, from him sorrow falls away like water drips from a lotus leaf.
- This I say to you: Good luck to all assembled here! Dig up the root of craving like someone in search of the fragrant root of the bīrana grass. Do not let Māra crush you over and over again, as the flood crushes a bunch of bamboo trees on a bank of the river.
- Just as a tree, though cut down, grows again if its roots are strong and remain uncut, so does suffering sprout again and again until the tendency of craving in the mind is rooted out.
- Thirty-six streams of craving flow through pleasurable objects. The misguided person who is entangled by this craving is carried away to hell by the flood of lustful thoughts.
- The stream of craving flows through every sense base and the creeper of craving sprouts and grows throughout your life. In seeing that the creeper has sprouted in you, cut off its roots with the sword of wisdom.
- When craving flows through objects, feelings of pleasure arise in beings. They get attached to that pleasure and seek more enjoyment. Undoubtedly, these people are bound to the journey of birth and old age.
- Surrounded by craving, these people run around frightened like a trapped rabbit. Held by fetters and bonds of defilements, they suffer repeatedly over a long time.
- Surrounded by craving, these people run around frightened like a trapped rabbit. Therefore, the monk who wishes for passion-free Nibbāna should destroy his own craving.
- There is a person who, turning away from the forest of defilements called household life, delights in the monk life. But after being freed from the forest of defilements called the household life, he runs back to it. Look at that person! Though freed, he runs back to that very bondage!
- If a person was bound with chains made of iron, shackles made of wood, and ropes made of hemp grass, those bonds are not called strong bonds by the wise. Instead, the infatuation and longing for jewels, ornaments, children, and wives—
- that, they say, is a far stronger bond, which pulls one downwards all the way to hell, and, though seemingly loose, is hard to remove. This, too, the wise cut off. By abandoning sense pleasures, and without any longing, they become monks and nuns.
Read the entire translation of Dhammapada 24 Taṇhā Vagga: Craving (334-359) by Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnananda Thero on SuttaFriends.org. Or read a different translation on SuttaCentral.net, DhammaTalks.org, Ancient-Buddhist-Texts.net or AccessToInsight.org. Or explore the Pali on DigitalPaliReader.online.
Or read a translation in Deutsch, Tiếng Việt, Català, Čeština, Español, Français, עִבְֿרִיתּ, Magyar, Italiano, 日本語, Latine, मराठी, မြန်မာဘာသာ, Nederlands, Norsk, Polski, Português, සිංහල, Slovenščina, தமிழ், or 汉语. Learn how to find your language.