Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

The first verse and the second form a pair, which is why this chapter is called the chapter of pairs. The ox-cart wheel is replaced by the shadow. The shadow is the inverse of the rut — weightless, present, never departing. Note the precision of the simile: a shadow does not lead and does not push. It accompanies. The Buddha is not promising reward; he is describing geometry. Where the body of action goes, a corresponding consequence goes with it. The teaching is that this is true in either direction. The wheel and the shadow are the same law.