The Dhammapada

13. The World

Don't practice an ignoble way of life, don't indulge in a careless attitude. Don't follow a wrong view, and don't be attached to the world. 167

Wake up and don't be careless, but lead a life of well-doing. He who follows righteousness lives happily in this world and the next. 168

Lead a life of righteousness, and not a life of wrong-doing. He who follows righteousness lives happily in this world and the next. 169

Look on the world as a bubble, look on it as a mirage. The King of Death never finds him who views the world like that. 170

Come, look at the world as a gilded royal carriage, in which fools get bogged down, while men of understanding have no attachment to it. 171

Even if previously careless, when a man later stops being careless, he illuminates the world, like the moon breaking away from a cloud. 172

When a man's bad deeds are covered over by good ones, he illuminates the world, like the moon breaking away from a cloud. 173

Blinded indeed is this world. Few are those who see the truth. Like a bird breaking out of the net, few are those who go to heaven. 174

Wild swans take the path of the sun. Men with powers travel through space, but the wise step right out of the world, by conquering Mara and his host. 175

When a man has already violated one rule, when he is a liar and rejects the idea of a future world, there is no evil he is not capable of. 176

Miserly people certainly do not go to heaven. Fools for sure do not praise generosity, but the wise man who takes pleasure in giving is thereby happy hereafter. 177

Better than being sole king of the whole earth, better than going to heaven or sovereignty over the whole universe is the fruit of becoming a stream-winner. 178