Dhammapada 376

Keep company with good friends, whose livelihood is pure and who are tireless

Keep company with good friends, whose livelihood is pure and who are tireless. Be welcoming and skilled in conduct. Then, full of gladness, you will bring suffering to an end.

Translated from the Pāli by Banya

In plain words

The monk is told to associate with good, diligent friends whose livelihood is pure, and to be welcoming and skilled in conduct. The verse says that then, full of gladness, he will bring suffering to an end.

Key words

suddhājīva

whose livelihood is pure — Specifically qualifies the friends' means of living.

The story behind the verse

The conversion of a pack of thieves

In the commentary, Soṇa became a monk, and his mother arranged to hear him teach, and While she attended the teaching, thieves entered her house. Their leader stood near her with orders to kill her if she returned home, and a servant came to warn her about the theft. The mother chose to remain with the teaching and said the thieves could take the property, and the leader was moved by her response and told his companions to restore what they had taken. The thieves sought her forgiveness and became monks, and the Buddha gave them the group of verses on monastic practice, and the commentary says they attained liberation.

Retold by Banya from the traditional commentary, after E. W. Burlingame, Buddhist Legends (1921).

Explanation by Banya. Traditional readings vary.