The Dhammapada on how small acts fill a life. From The Dhammapada by the Buddha, gathered 3rd century BC.
A later commentary, written around the 5th century AD, some 900 years after the Buddha, tells a small story. At Jetavana, a monastery park outside Shravasti in north India, one monk kept leaving the beds and chairs outside.
Rain, sun and white ants went to work on them. When the other monks complained, he shrugged. It was only a slight fault, he said.
A later commentary on the Dhammapada tells of a monk who left the monastery’s beds and chairs out in the rain, calling it a slight fault. Verses 121 and 122 answer that a water pot fills drop by drop, and so does a life. Anthony Trollope lived both sides: a £12 bill that grew past £200, and 250 words a quarter hour that became 47 novels.
Nobody sees one drop, but everyone sees the full pot. Practical advice: pick one small good thing to do every day, and one small harm to stop excusing.
Well established · checked against 10 sourcesPick one small good thing and do it every day this week.
“What small habit of mine seems harmless but is quietly filling my life with the wrong things?”
Drop by Drop and the other 11 ideas of The Dhammapada, a minute at a time.
Download on theApp StoreEvery idea is drawn from the public-domain text, and its names, dates and quotes are checked against the sources listed with it. The paintings are made for Counsel; they show the scene, not a historical record.
