Dhammapada Chapter 15: Happiness

The Happiness chapter opens with one of the most defiant refrains in scripture: happily indeed we live — free from hatred among those who hate, healthy among the afflicted, unanxious among the anxious (15.1–15.3), owning nothing, feeding on joy like the radiant gods (15.4). Happiness here is not circumstance but a way of standing inside circumstance.

The chapter then names what poisons it: victory breeds hostility, for the defeated sleep in pain — the tranquil sleep happily, having abandoned both victory and defeat (15.5). There is no fire like lust, no crime like hatred, no suffering like the aggregates of existence, no happiness higher than peace (15.6). Its most quoted verse is a complete inventory of real wealth: health is the highest gain, contentment the greatest wealth, trust the best kinsman, Nibbana the supreme bliss (15.8). The closing verses turn to company, the daily determinant of joy: walking with fools is suffering, like living with an enemy; company with the wise is happiness, like meeting kinsfolk (15.11) — so follow the steady and wise as the moon follows its path among the stars (15.12).