Dhammapada verse 28
Chapter 2, Diligence (Appamādavagga) · verses 21–32
“When the astute dispel negligence by means of diligence, ascending the palace of wisdom, sorrowless, they behold this generation of sorrow, as an attentive one on a mountain top beholds the fools below.”
Pamādaṁ appamādena, yadā nudati paṇḍito; Paññāpāsādamāruyha, asoko sokiniṁ pajaṁ; Pabbataṭṭhova bhūmaṭṭhe, dhīro bāle avekkhati.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 28 mean?
Verse 28 belongs to chapter 2, Diligence (Appamādavagga), which gathers verses 21–32 on heedfulness and negligence. It is filed under wisdom & folly, suffering & grief. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 27 and verse 29 are part of the same passage.
This chapter is built on one opposition: heedfulness and negligence. Its twelve verses return again and again to the claim that the heedful person does not fall where the negligent one does, and it closes with a portrait of the diligent practitioner advancing like fire. Verses 21–23 are the ones usually quoted on death and the deathless.
More verses on this