The teaching on kamma and rebirth, with its practical corollary that we should perform deeds of merit with the aim of obtaining a higher mode of rebirth, is not by any means the final message of the Buddha or the decisive counsel of the Dhammapada. In its own sphere of application this teaching is perfectly valid as a preparatory measure for those who still require further maturation in their journey through samsara. However, a more searching examination reveals that all states of existence in samsara, even the highest heavens, are lacking in genuine worth; for they are all impermanent, without any lasting substance, incapable of giving complete and final satisfaction. Thus the disciple of mature faculties, who has been prepared sufficiently by previous experience in the world, does not long even for rebirth among the gods (vv. 186- 187).

Having understood that all conditioned things are intrinsically unsatisfactory and fraught with danger, the mature disciple aspires instead for deliverance from the ever-repeating round of rebirths. This is the ultimate goal to which the Buddha points, as the immediate aim for those of developed spiritual faculties and also as the long-term ideal for those who still need further maturation: Nibbana, the Deathless, the unconditioned state where there is no more birth, aging and death, and thus no more suffering.

The third level of instruction found in the Dhammapada sketches the theoretical framework for the aspiration for final liberation and lays down guidelines pertaining to the practical discipline that can bring this aspiration to fulfillment. The theoretical framework is supplied by the teaching of the Four Noble Truths, which the Dhammapada calls the best of all truths (v. 273): suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path leading to the cessation of suffering. The four truths all center around the problem of dukkha or suffering, and the Dhammapada teaches us that dukkha is not to be understood only as experienced pain and sorrow but more widely as the pervasive inadequacy and wretchedness of everything conditioned: “There is no ill like the aggregates of existence; all conditioned things are suffering; conditioned things are the worst suffering (vv. 202, 278, 203). The second truth points out that the cause of suffering is craving, the yearning for pleasure, possessions and being which drives us through the round of rebirths, bringing along sorrow, anxiety and despair. The Dhammapada devotes an entire chapter (ch. 24) to the theme of craving, and the message of this chapter is clear: so long as even the subtlest thread of craving remains in the mind, we are not beyond danger of being swept away by the terrible flood of existence. The third noble truth spells out the goal of the Buddha’s teaching: to gain release from suffering, to escape the flood of existence, craving must be destroyed down to its subtlest depths. And the fourth noble truth prescribes the means to gain release, the Noble Eightfold Path, which again is the focus of an entire chapter (ch. 20).

At the third level of instruction a shift in the practical teaching of the Dhammapada takes place, corresponding to the shift in doctrine from the principles of kamma and rebirth to the Four Noble Truths. The stress now no longer falls on basic morality and purified states of mind as a highway to more favorable planes of rebirth. Instead it falls on the cultivation of the Noble Eightfold Path as the means to destroy craving and thus break free from the entire process of rebirth itself. The Dhammapada declares that the eightfold path is the only way to deliverance from suffering (v. 274). Its says this, not as a fixed dogma, but because full release from suffering comes from the purification of wisdom, and this path alone, with its stress on right view and the cultivation of insight, leads to fully purified wisdom, to complete understanding of liberating truth. The Dhammapada states that those who tread the path will come to know the Four Noble Truths, and having gained this wisdom, they will end all suffering. The Buddha assures us that by walking the path we will bewilder Mara, pull out the thorn of lust, and escape from suffering. But he also cautions us about our own responsibility: we ourselves must make the effort, for the Buddhas only point out the way (vv. 275, 276).

In principle the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is open to people in any walk of life, householders as well as monks and nuns. However, application to the development of the path is most feasible for those who have relinquished all worldly concerns in order to devote themselves fully to living the holy life. For conduct to be completely purified, for the mind to be trained in concentration and insight, the adoption of a different lifestyle becomes advisable, one which minimizes distractions and stimulants to craving and orders all activities around the aim of liberation. Thus the Buddha established the Sangha, the Order of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, as the field of training for those ready to devote themselves fully to the practice of the path.

In the Dhammapada we find the call to the monastic life resounding throughout. The entry way to the monastic life is an act of radical renunciation spurred on by our confrontation with suffering, particularly by our recognition of our inevitable mortality. The Dhammapada teaches that just as a cowherd drives the cattle to pasture, so old age and death drive living beings from life to life (v. 135). There is no place in the world where one can escape death, for death is stamped into the very substance of our being (v. 128). The body is a painted mirage in which there is nothing lasting or stable; it is a mass of sores, a nest of disease, which breaks up and ends in death; it is a city built of bones containing within itself decay and death; the foolish are attached to it, but the wise, having seen that the body ends as a corpse, lose all delight in mundane joys (vv. 146-150).

Having recognized the transience and hidden misery of mundane life, the thoughtful break the ties of family and social relationships, abandon their homes and sensual pleasures, and enter upon the state of homelessness: “Like swans that abandon the lake, they leave home after home behind… Having gone from home to homelessness, they delight in detachment so difficult to enjoy” (vv. 91, 87). Withdrawn to silent and secluded places, the renunciants seek out the company of wise instructors, who point out their faults, who admonish and instruct them and shield them from wrong, who show them the right path (vv. 76-78, 208). Under their guidance, they live by the rules of the monastic order, content with the simplest material requisites, moderate in eating, practicing patience and forbearance, devoted to meditation (vv. 184-185). Having learned to still the restless waves of thought and to gain one-pointed concentration, they go on to contemplate the arising and falling away of all formations: “The monk who has retired to a solitary abode and calmed the mind, comprehends the Dhamma with insight, and there arises in him a delight that transcends all human delights. Whenever he sees with insight the rise and fall of the aggregates, he is full of joy and happiness (vv. 373, 374).

The life of meditation reaches its peak in the development of insight, and the Dhammapada succinctly enunciates the principles to be seen with the wisdom of insight: “All conditioned things are impermanent… All conditioned things are suffering… All things are not self. When one sees this with wisdom, then one turns away from suffering. This is the path of purification” (vv. 277-279). When these truths are penetrated by direct vision, the fetters of attachment break asunder, and the disciple rises through successive stages of realization to the attainment of full liberation.