He has completed his voyage; he has gone beyond sorrow. The fetters of life have fallen from him, and he lives in full freedom.

The thoughtful strive always. They have no fixed abode, but leave home like swans from their lake.

Like the flight of birds in the sky, it is hard to follow the path of the selfless. They have no possessions, but live on alms in a world of freedom. Like the flight of birds in the sky, it is hard to follow their path. With their sense under control, temperate in eating, they know the meaning of freedom.

Even the gods envy the saints, whose senses obey them like well-trained horses and who are free from pride. Patient like the earth, they stand like a threshold. They are pure like a lake without mud, and free from the cycle if birth and death.

Wisdom has stilled their minds, and their thoughts, words, and deeds are filled with peace. Freed from illusion and from personal ties, they have renounced the world of appearance to find reality. Thus have they reached the highest.

They make holy wherever they dwell, in village or forest, on land or at sea. With their senses at peace and minds full of joy, they make the forests holy.

Translated by Eknath Easwaran

 

The Dhammapada is an ancient collection of Buddha’s teachings. Like the “Bhagavad Gita” and “The Imitation of Christ”, it is a guidebook for living in accordance with the highest teachings of the spiritual life. 

When I first read this I was struck by the number of times the words free or freedom were used. For some reason I had not made that strong of an association between sainthood and freedom; I think of saints are holy or blessed or chosen. But the more I thought about it, it appeared obvious that being free was a mark of the saint.

In Christian terms it may be considered as free from the “original sin” – that state of consciousness which separates us from God. In Eastern terms, freedom from the wheel of birth and death is a common motif. Free, unfettered, unattached, independent, limitless, infinite, vast, unbounded – all words that soar.

Perhaps the freedom we seek in our daily lives, in our political agendas, in our personal relationships, has its roots and pure expression in this spiritual freedom from the “I”. When there is no I/ego, all suffering disappears. There is no self that can be attached – whether to ideas or beliefs or people.

This state of freedom does not induce a state of indifference or coldness; on the contrary, freedom banishes all fear and invites and allows a full participation in life.

I particular like the description – “Patient like the earth, they stand like a threshold.” What a wonderful image! So full of strength, immovable. A place to shelter and a point of entry.

“With their senses at peace and minds full of joy, they make the forests holy.” How many of our saints have been portrayed in the company of wild animals and in wild places, like rugged mountains or forests. Peace and joy follow them all the days of their lives.

Namaste.