Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) — "Irrigators channel waters, fletchers straighten arrows, carpenters bend wood, th…"
Irrigators channel waters, fletchers straighten arrows, carpenters bend wood, the wise master themselves.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
"If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another."
"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."
"You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."
"All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?"
"All conditioned things are impermanent — when one sees this with wisdom, then one turns away from suffering."
Details
From the Dhammapada (Verse 145), a teaching on self-mastery
Date: c. 5th-6th Century BCE
PhilosophicalVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: gemini
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
Just as skilled workers shape their materials through disciplined effort, wise people shape themselves. Farmers direct water where they need it, arrow-makers force crooked shafts into straight lines, and carpenters force rigid wood into curved forms. All three involve deliberate work against a material's natural tendency. The wise apply that same patient craftsmanship inward, training their own impulses, thoughts, and reactions rather than being passively carried by them.
Relevance to Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
Buddha taught that suffering stems from untrained minds chasing craving and aversion. His Eightfold Path prescribed mental discipline—right effort, mindfulness, and concentration—as craft-like practices. Having abandoned princely luxury at Kapilavastu to pursue awakening through meditation, he knew self-mastery firsthand. His framing of liberation as skill rather than divine grace matches this verse from the Dhammapada, where spiritual progress is a trade learned through repetition, not a gift received.
The era
In 5th-century BCE northern India, the Ganges plain was urbanizing, and Vedic Brahminism dominated religious life through priestly ritual and caste-bound sacrifice. Shramana movements—wandering ascetics including Jains, Ajivikas, and Buddhists—rejected hereditary authority and argued that anyone, regardless of birth, could achieve liberation through personal effort. Comparing wisdom to the trades of irrigators, fletchers, and carpenters was radical: it placed spiritual mastery alongside the skilled labor of common workers rather than reserving it for Brahmin elites.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].