Quotation
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“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.”
The Buddha · Buddhism · Ancient · verse collection of the early tradition
Part of:Ancient questions, modern life →
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that hatred is not ended by further hatred, and the claim is offered as a law, not as a mood of niceness. A competing reading warns that the verse does not by itself design courts, sanctions, or protection from harm; it is about the cycle of hatred, not a full theory of justice. The lines are Dhammapada 5, canonical verse of the early tradition, compiled in the community rather than published as his book. The opening of the collection has just said that mind precedes states.
Did The Buddha really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A familiar English of Dhammapada 5. The Dhammapada is canonical verse, traditionally the Buddha's teaching, compiled in the early community rather than published by him as a book.
Where it comes from
Dhammapada, verse 5
Approximate date: verse collection of the early tradition.
How to use it
Before you answer an insult in kind, in a queue or under a news story, pause and ask what you want ended. If it is the hostility, he says the same weapon will not end it. Refusing the return of hatred is not the same as pretending the harm did not happen, and it is not a reason to leave someone unsafe.
A mindset reading
Non-hatred is a claim about what stops the cycle, not a performance of forgetting. The habit is to separate the wish that the hostility end from the wish that the other person feel a matching pain. Those wishes come apart more often than the reply admits.
Understand the philosophy
The verse answers the belief that retaliation settles the account. Avera, non-hatred or the absence of enmity, is the key term, and 'eternal law' renders a claim about how things work, not a statute. Set beside the opening of the Dhammapada, the verse ties that pattern to a point about mind. It was made to be remembered, and it is not a sketch of courts or punishments.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that hatred is not ended by further hatred, and the claim is offered as a law, not as a mood of niceness. A competing reading warns that the verse does not by itself design courts, sanctions, or protection from harm; it is about the cycle of hatred, not a full theory of justice. The lines are Dhammapada 5, canonical verse of the early tradition, compiled in the community rather than published as his book. The opening of the collection has just said that mind precedes states.
Did The Buddha really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A familiar English of Dhammapada 5. The Dhammapada is canonical verse, traditionally the Buddha's teaching, compiled in the early community rather than published by him as a book.
Which work is it in?
Dhammapada, verse 5 Approximate date: verse collection of the early tradition.