Dhammapada Chapter 7: The Worthy (Arahant)

This chapter describes the arahant — the person in whom the path has finished its work. The opening verse sets the tone of completion: the journey ended, sorrow fallen away, every knot cut, no fever remains (7.1). Such people hold nothing: mindful, they take no delight in settling down, and abandon home after home like swans leaving a lake (7.2). Their freedom leaves no trace — with no accumulations, their range emptiness and the signless, their path is as hard to trace as the path of birds in the sky (7.3).

The portrait is one of deep quietness rather than spiritual display: senses calmed like horses well-tamed by a charioteer, conceit abandoned — a person even the gods hold dear (7.5); unprovokable as the earth, steady as a threshold pillar, clear as a pool with no mud left in it (7.6); tranquil in mind, speech, and action, released by right knowledge (7.7). The chapter ends outdoors: wherever such people dwell — village or forest, valley or hill — that place becomes delightful, and the forests where worldly people find nothing are where the passion-free rejoice (7.9–7.10).