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# Dhp 19 · The Judge
- URL: https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/dhp-19/
- Published: 2026-06-01T00:19:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-13T16:52:09.000Z
- Description: True wisdom, eldership, and righteous judgment as matters of inner virtue and restraint, not age, eloquence, or haste.
- Author: Ninth Heaven Literature & Arts Association (NHLAA)
- Tags: Buddhism, Sutta Piṭaka, Text, Indian, The Buddha, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Dhammapada, Verse, Pali, Early Buddhist, Library

To pass judgment hurriedly

doesn’t mean you’re a judge.

The wise one, weighing both

the right judgment & wrong,

judges others impartially–

unhurriedly, in line with the Dhamma,

guarding the Dhamma,

guarded by Dhamma,

intelligent:

he’s called a judge.

[256-257\*](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Dhp/endnotes.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co)

Simply talking a lot

doesn’t mean one is wise.

Whoever’s secure–

no

hostility,

fear–

is said to be wise.

Simply talking a lot

doesn’t maintain the Dhamma.

Whoever

–although he’s heard next to nothing–

sees Dhamma through his body,

is not heedless of Dhamma:

*he’s* one who maintains the Dhamma.

[258-259\*](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Dhp/endnotes.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co)

A head of gray hairs

doesn’t mean one’s an elder.

Advanced in years,

one’s called an old fool.

But one in whom there is

truth, restraint,

rectitude, gentleness,

self-control–

*he’s* called an elder,

his impurities disgorged,

enlightened.

260-261

Not by suave conversation

or lotus-like coloring

does an envious, miserly cheat

become an exemplary man.

But one in whom this is

cut through

up-rooted

wiped out–

he’s called exemplary,

his aversion disgorged,

intelligent.

262-263

A shaven head

doesn’t mean a contemplative.

The liar observing no duties,

filled with greed & desire:

what kind of contemplative’s he?

But whoever tunes out

the dissonance

of his evil qualities

–large or small–

in every way

by bringing evil to consonance:

he’s called a contemplative.

[264-265\*](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Dhp/endnotes.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co)

Begging from others

doesn’t mean one’s a monk.

As long as one follows

householders’ ways,

one is no monk at all.

But whoever puts aside

both merit & evil and,

living the chaste life,

judiciously

goes through the world:

*he’s* called a monk.

266-267

Not by silence

does someone confused

& unknowing

turn into a sage.

But whoever–wise,

as if holding the scales,

taking the excellent–

rejects evil deeds:

he is a sage,

that’s how he’s a sage.

Whoever can weigh

both sides of the world:

that’s how he’s called

a sage.

[268-269\*](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Dhp/endnotes.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co)

Not by harming life

does one become noble.

One is termed

noble

for being

gentle

to all living things.

270

Monk,

don’t

on account of

your habits & practices,

great erudition,

concentration attainments,

secluded dwelling,

or the thought, ‘I touch

the renunciate ease

that run-of-the-mill people

don’t know’:

ever let yourself get complacent

when the ending of effluents

is still unattained.

[271-272\*](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Dhp/endnotes.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co)

---

*Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) licence, for free distribution only. Source: [dhammatalks.org](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Dhp/Ch19.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) (Metta Forest Monastery).*