Jump to content

The Dhammapada


tariki

Recommended Posts

Just gathering together a few thoughts on "striving". Like most words and thoughts, each has it sphere of meaning, outside of which they can cause confusion and appear to create contradiction.

 

For me it mostly relates to the distinction between enlightenment understood as "sudden", as opposed to being seen as a gradual advancement. When the latter, it seems inevitable that we relate to ourselves as a "self" in need of "polishing" (or, in Christian terms, as a self in need of being made presentable to God, a way of "works") Yet there is nothing to polish, just as in Christianity the way of works is blind to the pure gift of grace, the gift of the Divines very own freedom and spontaneity to us, a given - to be realised, not earned or attained.

 

When we strive to "earn" or seek to attain gradually to a state of enlightenment, then "truth", "goodness", "wisdom" - or whatever - all become objects outside of ourselves that we think we must come to be, or to "have". And this in effect makes them unattainable. As I understand it, all such words point rather to realities - A reality - that is more a fount of wisdom that is a flowing stream that can never be "ours", but is the ineffable Tao itself.

 

How do we "strive" to realise such? For me, by a negative way of seeing the fultility of any form of striving! Of seeking to be open at all times, mindful, and catching the self when it plays its games of self justification, of comparisons with others who do not measure up to our own esteemed "spirituality"!

 

 

Maybe an excuse for more of Merton.....The spiritual life is something that people worry about when they are so busy with something else they think they ought to be spiritual. Spiritual life is guilt. Up here in the woods is seen the New Testament: that is to say, the wind comes through the trees and you breathe it.

 

from "Day of a Stranger"

 

And while I indulge, another.............

 

Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.

 

from "The Road to Joy", sub-titled "Letters to New and Old Friends"

 

To finish, I am becoming reaquainted with a old friend myself, the Bodhicaryavatara of Shantideva, an 8th century Mahayana text, the title translated into English as "A Guide to the Bodhisttva's Way of Life", where the Spirit of Awakening is seen to be that which seeks to awaken for the sake of All, and not for oneself. Just a reminder, which I need from time to time.

Edited by tariki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Righteous

 

One is not righteous if one decides a case without due consideration, but the wise man who takes into account both for and against, and comes to his decision about others with due consideration -- such a man of discrimination who keeps to the truth, he is to be called righteous.

 

One is not a learned man by virtue of much speaking. He who is patient, without anger and fearless, he is to be called learned.

 

One is not a bearer of the teaching by virtue of much speaking, but he who, even if he has only studied a little, has experienced the truth in person, he is indeed a bearer of the teaching, who has not forgotten the teaching.

 

One is not an elder by virtue of having white hair. One is just advanced in years, and called "grown old in vain". He in whom there is truthfulness, non violence, restraint and self control, however -- that wise and faultless sage is to be called an elder.

 

It is not just by fine speech or by flower-like beauty that one is admirable, if one is envious, mean and deceitful, but when that sort of behaviour has been eliminated, rooted out and destroyed, that faultless sage is said to be admirable.

 

A shaven head does not make one a man of religion, if one is irreligious and untruthful. How could a man full of desires and greed be a man of religion? But when a man has put aside all evil deeds, both great and small, by that putting away of evil deeds he is indeed called a man of religion.

 

One is not a bhikkhu by virtue of taking alms from others. By taking up any old teaching, one is not a bhikkhu on that account. But he who has here and now ejected both good and evil, and in leading the holy life lives in accordance with reason -- he is indeed called a bhikkhu.

 

Silence does not make a sage if he is stupid and ignorant, but when a man avoids evil as if he were choosing something of value on the scales -- he is a sage. That indeed makes him a sage. He who discriminates in both worlds is for that reason called a sage.

 

One is not noble if one harms other living creatures. It is by non violence to all forms of life that one is called noble.

 

It is not just by means of morality and religious observances, not by great learning nor by attainments in meditation, nor by living alone, nor by thinking,"I am enjoying a spiritual happiness which ordinary people do not know" that a bhikkhu achieves peace if he has not achieved the elimination of inflowing thoughts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding the final words of the last Chapter quoted, that peace is not achieved unless "inflowing thoughts" are eliminated............... The Pali word used for "inflowing thoughts" and their elimination is asavakkhayam. "Asava" is - according to the Buddhist Dictionary of Nyantiloka, "Taints, corruptions, intoxicants, biases" as well as "cankers".....which themselves are of four kinds - sense-desire, wrong views, ignorance and the desire for "eternal existence" .

 

So quite a lot to extinguish before peace is achieved! As I understand it, even in Theravada - which often speaks to those of the monastic tradition - any "extinguishing" is more a by-product of wisdom/insight than a deliberate attempt to reject thought etc etc. (Such wisdom gained by the various methods of meditation detailed in the Pali Texts.) For those wishing to "extinguish" such cankers while living in the world, then one needs to explore the world of Mahayana/zen/Ch'an and the advice of their various "masters". And for those living in the world who find them impossible to extinguish, then I would advise looking at the Pure Land path...... :D

Edited by tariki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Path

  • Of all the paths
    the Eightfold Path is the best;
    of all the truths
    the Four Noble Truths are the best;
    of all things
    passionlessness is the best:
    of men the Seeing One
    (the Buddha) is the best.
  • This is the only path;
    there is none other
    for the purification of insight.
    Tread this path,
    and you will bewilder Mara.
  • Walking upon this path
    you will make an end of suffering.
    Having discovered
    how to pull out the thorn of lust,
    I make known the path.
  • You yourselves must strive;
    the Buddhas only point the way.
    Those meditative ones who tread the path
    are released from the bonds of Mara.
  • "All conditioned things are impermanent" —
    when one sees this with wisdom,
    one turns away from suffering.
    This is the path to purification.
  • "All conditioned things are unsatisfactory" —
    when one sees this with wisdom,
    one turns away from suffering.
    This is the path to purification.
  • "All things are not-self" —
    when one sees this with wisdom,
    one turns away from suffering.
    This is the path to purification.
  • The idler who does not exert himself when he should,
    who though young and strong is full of sloth,
    with a mind full of vain thoughts —
    such an indolent man
    does not find the path to wisdom.
  • Let a man be watchful of speech,
    well controlled in mind,
    and not commit evil in bodily action.
    Let him purify these three courses of action,
    and win the path made known by the Great Sage.
  • Wisdom springs from meditation;
    without meditation wisdom wanes.
    Having known these two paths of progress and decline,
    let a man so conduct himself
    that his wisdom may increase.
  • Cut down the forest (lust), but not the tree;
    from the forest springs fear.
    Having cut down the forest
    and the underbrush (desire),
    be passionless, O monks!
  • For so long as the underbrush of desire,
    even the most subtle,
    of a man towards a woman is not cut down,
    his mind is in bondage,
    like the sucking calf to its mother.
  • Cut off your affection in the manner of a man
    plucks with his hand an autumn lotus.
    Cultivate only the path to peace, Nibbana,
    as made known by the Exalted One.
  • "Here shall I live during the rains,
    here in winter and summer" —
    thus thinks the fool.
    He does not realize the danger
    (that death might intervene).
  • As a great flood
    carries away a sleeping village,
    so death seizes and carries away
    the man with a clinging mind,
    doting on his children and cattle.
  • For him who is assailed by death
    there is no protection by kinsmen.
    None there are to save him —
    no sons, nor father, nor relatives.
  • Realizing this fact, let the wise man,
    restrained by morality,
    hasten to clear the path leading to Nibbana.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding the words that "you yourself must strive", Cleary makes the point that the relationship between anyone who teaches and the one who learns is "not one of emotional, intellectual, or institutional dependency" and that no amount of help can do for us what we need to do for ourselves.

 

Cleary also makes the point that the Dhammapada speaks here not of the "selflessness" (not-self, Pali anatta) of persons but of the selflessness of "things". This is in accord with the Mahayana view that the selflessness of persons is realized as a positive fact of unlimited potential based on the selflessness of phenomena/things.

 

Another insight offered in Cleary's commentary is - regarding the Dhammapada words that we should conduct ourselves so that wisdom increases............."the problems we often experience in the process of self-renewal is to imagine that we need to remove or replace what we only need to rearrange, and that we only need to rearrange what we must remove or replace!"

 

As a new Grandad, the words of the final three verses can appear to be set against family relationships and the love/attachment they involve. But Cleary says.....

 

Such aphorisms do not mean that we should abandon our children and dessert our families and homes, but that we should abandon our own subjective obsessions about them and deal with people and things objectively, above all not expecting their love and affection to absolve us of our own responsibilities, and realizing our own love and affection for them does not remove the responsibility of their own consciousness and their own journey from the shoulders of their own experience.

Edited by tariki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Shakers remain as witnesses to the fact that only humility keeps man in communion with truth, and first of all with his own inner truth. This one must know without knowing it, as they did. For as soon as a man becomes aware of "his truth" he lets go of it and embraces an illusion.

 

The above quote is from a letter of Thomas Merton and for me opens the way to some degree of understanding of exactly what is being pointed to by such words/doctrines as "not-self" and "anatta". Selflessness.

 

"Anatta" as I see it (or not........ :D ) is not a "Buddhist" teaching/doctrine, but seeks to speak of that which is the heart of any faith. A Ch'an master spoke of the self same thing when he said that each of us carries a light within themselves, "but when it is looked at it is turned into darkness." This seems to be so because it speaks of our true reality, "which cannot be carved and needs no polishing."

 

Recently there was a thread on another forum where someone seemed eager to speak of their "good works" and another reminded them of Christ's words about hiding such "works"....

 

 

6:1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

 

6:2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

 

6:3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 6:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

 

(King James Bible, Matthew)

 

It would seem, at least to me, that "our" works should be hidden even from ourselves!

 

I have been reading a short book on the early Ch'an masters and much of what they say (leaving aside such things as cutting cats in half and speaking of cypress trees in the garden..... :D ) relates to all this.......the world of not-self, no striving and letting God be God, allowing God to play in us rather than us seeking to play God.

 

"Wherever goodness flows unexpectedly from us, uncontaminated by the ideas of duty or sanction, there is Zen".....or, Christ.

 

"There is nothing that you can claim, nothing that you can demand, nothing that you can take. And as soon as you try to take something as if it were your own - you lose your Eden."

 

"What is inexpressible is inexhaustible in its use."

 

"It is because they were selfless that their selves were realized."

 

Anyway, perhaps enough for now.

Edited by tariki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I was pondering the whole idea of what is "ours" and of "uncarved blocks" and hit upon a few words somewhere that spoke of carving/sculpting/chipping, that would have seemed at first to be an opposite. Yet the idea was (it was speaking of a sculptor of elephants) that the sculptor themselves would sit for hours - even days - with the uncarved block before them, then eventually they would precede to begin chipping away - yet not so much to create the elephant, but more to reveal/unveil the elephant that was actually already there. Really, this is the "path" of Pure Land, yet instead of a chisel there is the light of Infinite Compassion that allows the seeing of that which must needs be taken away - and the seeing is the taking away. So my own part of the bargain is to see the tricks of the self, its petty spites - and much else - yet not with revolted condemnation, nor anger, nor shame..........but to just to acknowledge the seeing in the light of a non-judgemental compassion that seeks to unveil that which is "true". A truth that can never be "mine" and therefore can never be a source of division between myself and others.

 

Which brings to mind the words of Thomas Merton, spoken not long before his untimely death....

 

True communication on the deepest level is more than a simple sharing of ideas, conceptual knowledge, or formulated truth...............And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless, it is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear brothers and sisters, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Miscellaneous

  • If by renouncing a lesser happiness
    one may realize a greater happiness,
    let the wise man renounce the lesser,
    having regard for the greater.
  • Entangled by the bonds of hate,
    he who seeks his own happiness
    by inflicting pain on others,
    is never delivered from hatred.
  • The cankers only increase
    for those who are arrogant and heedless,
    who leave undone what should be done
    and do what should not be done.
  • The cankers cease for those mindful
    and clearly comprehending ones
    who always earnestly practice
    mindfulness of the body,
    who do not resort
    to what should not be done,
    and steadfastly pursue what should be done.
  • Having slain mother (craving),
    father (self-conceit),
    two warrior-kings (eternalism and nihilism),
    and destroyed a country
    (sense organs and sense objects)
    together with its treasurer
    (attachment and lust),
    ungrieving goes the holy man.
  • Having slain mother, father,
    two brahman kings (two extreme views),
    and a tiger as the fifth
    (the five mental hindrances),
    ungrieving goes the holy man.
  • Those disciples of Gotama ever awaken happily
    who day and night constantly practice
    the Recollection of the Qualities of the Buddha.
  • Those disciples of Gotama ever awaken happily
    who day and night constantly practice
    the Recollection of the Qualities of the Dhamma.
  • Those disciples of Gotama ever awaken happily
    who day and night constantly practice
    the Recollection of the Qualities of the Sangha.
  • Those disciples of Gotama ever awaken happily
    who day and night constantly practice
    Mindfulness of the Body.
  • Those disciples of Gotama ever awaken happily
    whose minds by day and night
    delight in the practice of non-violence.
  • Those disciples of Gotama ever awaken happily
    whose minds by day and night
    delight in the practice of meditation.
  • Difficult is life as a monk;
    difficult is it to delight therein.
    Also difficult and sorrowful
    is the household life.
    Suffering comes from association with unequals;
    suffering comes from wandering in samsara.
    Therefore, be not an aimless wanderer,
    be not a pursuer of suffering.
  • He who is full of faith and virtue,
    and possesses good repute and wealth —
    he is respected everywhere,
    in whatever land he travels.
  • The good shine from afar,
    like the Himalaya mountains.
    But the wicked are unseen,
    like arrows shot in the night.
  • He who sits alone,
    sleeps alone,
    and walks alone,
    who is strenuous
    and subdues himself alone,
    will find delight
    in the solitude of the forest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

two warrior-kings (eternalism and nihilism)

 

 

The text speaks of "slaying" the two views of eternalism and nihilism ( or annihilationism ). Eternalism is the belief in a permanent substance or entity, either as substance or individual souls, created or not..............while annihilationism asserts the temporary existence of separate selves which are entirely destroyed/dissolved at death.

 

 

As I understand it, all such dualities are rejected by Buddhism. This, not in favour of "the one" or a simple "non-duality", but for a lived experience that in a certain sense embraces the dualities. The Dharma would see the holding to "views" as being antithetical to any true "progress" towards the "deliverance of mind" that the path seeks. Any such grasping leaves one more with "philosophy" and divisive "viewpoints", rather than the opening to reality as it is.

 

 

Anyway, I will seek out a few relevant quotes and post them another time.

Edited by tariki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Picking up where I left off...........I've been reading "Crime and Punishment" by Doestoevsky (for the second time) and it was near the end when my rambling brains and memory were jogged by the episode where the convicted murderer Raskolikov (may have spelt that wrong, even after two readings - I tend to "blip" over these long Russian names as I read) finally falls and embraces his "saviour", the ex-prostitute Sonia, and all his theories are replaced by life itself, and love, and he begins the long path to redemption.

 

This - at least for me - is the meaning and significance of seeking to by-pass "viewpoints", and deeper, of the reality of Buddhist "non-duality" which seeks to replace living in a world of distinctions, with a lived reality that does not so much eradicate them as transcend them, or as Merton once said, speaking of the Middle Way, that such a "way" is not so much a "third position lying between two extremes, but a no-position that supersedes them both."

 

Maybe this all seems mumbo jumbo, of no particular relevance, yet as I see it, it is the distinctions we make, and the ardent viewpoints we hold, that divide us from others.......this when they are taken and grasped as definitive, and used to justify ourselves, rather than living in grace, "justified" only by the mercy/freedom/grace/love/spontaneity of the Divine/Reality-as-is.

 

So, though reality is beyond words and ineffable, and "the Non-dual is that before which words recoil", nevertheless.....

 

..to leave the senses is to be attached to the senses, and to leave names and letters is to be attached to names and letters.

 

And.......Speech is blasphemy, silence a lie. Above speech and silence there is a way out.

 

And.......Tao is beyond names and namelessness.

 

 

All because "what is inexpressible is inexhaustible in its use."

Edited by tariki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hell

  • The liar goes to the state of woe;
    also he who, having done (wrong), says,
    "I did not do it."
    Men of base actions both,
    on departing they share the same destiny
    in the other world.
  • There are many evil characters
    and uncontrolled men
    wearing the saffron robe.
    These wicked men
    will be born in states of woe
    because of their evil deeds.
  • It would be better
    to swallow a red-hot iron ball,
    blazing like fire,
    than as an immoral and uncontrolled monk
    to eat the alms of the people.
  • Four misfortunes befall the reckless man
    who consorts with another's wife:
    acquisition of demerit,
    disturbed sleep,
    ill-repute,
    and (rebirth in) states of woe.
  • Such a man acquires demerit
    and an unhappy birth in the future.
    Brief is the pleasure
    of the frightened man and woman,
    and the king imposes heavy punishment.
    Hence, let no man consort with another's wife.
  • Just as kusa grass wrongly handled cuts the hand,
    even so, a recluse's life wrongly lived
    drags one to states of woe.
  • Any loose act,
    any corrupt observance,
    any life of questionable celibacy —
    none of these bear much fruit.
  • If anything is to be done,
    let one do it with sustained vigor.
    A lax monastic life
    stirs up the dust of passions all the more.
  • An evil deed is better left undone,
    for such a deed torments one afterwards.
    But a good deed is better done,
    doing which one repents not later.
  • Just as a border city is closely guarded
    both within and without, even so, guard yourself.
    Do not let slip this opportunity (for spiritual growth).
    For those who let slip this opportunity
    grieve indeed when consigned to hell.
  • Those who are ashamed
    of what they should not be ashamed of,
    and are not ashamed
    of what they should be ashamed of —
    upholding false views,
    they go to states of woe.
  • Those who see something to fear
    where there is nothing to fear,
    and see nothing to fear
    where there is something to fear —
    upholding false views,
    they go to states of woe.
  • Those who imagine evil
    where there is none,
    and do not see evil where it is —
    upholding false views,
    they go to states of woe.
  • Those who discern
    the wrong as wrong
    and the right as right —
    upholding right views,
    they go to realms of bliss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Given the current chapter title, "Hell", perhaps a few words are in order.

 

The main difference between the various Buddhist hells and the hell of certain Christian teachings, is that for Buddhism hell is never eternal. Like all things, it falls under the teaching that all things are impermanent. For Buddhism, the suffering of hell is educative/redemptive, and never vengeful, nor the supposed imposition of "justice" by a wrathful deity.

 

For Buddhism, it is inevitable that certain ways of living and thinking will bring suffering in their wake....

 

...for someone who understands that a life prompted by selfish conditioning has to involve duhkha (suffering), such is inherent in any experience conditioned by karma......(Easwaran, "Dhammapada")

 

Easwaran also mentions an ancient Indian story, of a kind ruler who upon death reaches his destination. After a while he remarks to one of his companions, "heaven is a far happier place than ever I anticipated", whereupon he was informed that he was actually in hell! He was told "people here are miserable, but in your presence their suffering turns to joy." Our mental state is paramount.

 

Milton, from "Paradise Lost"...

 

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heaven hell or hell of heaven.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Derek,

 

While hell in Christianity is often taken as eternal, perhaps the word eternal is only applied to the state that exists eternally which indeed has no bearing on how long one in time remains in that state. For if the word heaven as it does in Greek denotes an 'elevated state' then it seems to me hell would be its de-elevated state. If these were "physical places" then obviously both would be impermanant, but if not than perhaps they are merely states of mind. And being so they may be eternal in a sense only and as with Buddhism i think one could say experience of both is educative and redemptive in nature.

 

Joseph

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes Joseph, we see eye to eye! There seems much confusion between "eternal" understood as an endless duration of time, and what could be called the mystical understanding, where "eternal" is the deeper dimension of reality. "The present has no extension but intensity"....(Lama Anagarika Govinda)

 

As I see it, there cannot help be confusion when the Word is taken to be "text" and not Person. When that Person, within time, spoke in Aramaic, words then recorded in Greek, than translated into Latin, then into English.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I see it - or not - the visible world, complete with time, is how the eternal reality is made known to us as "selves". To be honest, to dip into any Philosophical work concerning the "nature of time" is to find myself well out of my depth. I know from personal experience just how elastic time is, how the duration of time during sex (for instance... :D ) seems far different than the duration of time when sitting in the dentists chair. And of how time itself seems to be so often non-existent when we are "lost" to ourselves in the love of others, or the love of things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Elephant

  • As an elephant in the battlefield
    withstands arrows shot from bows all around,
    even so shall I endure abuse.
    There are many, indeed, who lack virtue.
  • A tamed elephant is led into a crowd,
    and the king mounts a tamed elephant.
    Best among men
    is the subdued one who endures abuse.
  • Excellent are well-trained mules,
    thoroughbred Sindhu horses
    and noble tusker elephants.
    But better still is the man
    who has subdued himself.
  • Not by these mounts, however,
    would one go to the Untrodden Land (Nibbana),
    as one who is self-tamed
    goes by his own tamed and well-controlled mind.
  • Musty during rut,
    the tusker named Dhanapalaka is uncontrollable.
    Held in captivity,
    the tusker does not touch a morsel,
    but only longingly
    calls to mind the elephant forest.
  • When a man is sluggish and gluttonous,
    sleeping and rolling around in bed
    like a fat domestic pig,
    that sluggard undergoes rebirth again and again.
  • Formerly this mind wandered about as it liked,
    where it wished and according to its pleasure,
    but now I shall thoroughly master it
    with wisdom as a mahout controls with his ankus
    an elephant in rut.
  • Delight in heedfulness!
    Guard well your thoughts!
    Draw yourself out of this bog of evil,
    even as an elephant draws himself out of the mud.
  • If for company you find
    a wise and prudent friend
    who leads a good life,
    you should, overcoming all impediments,
    keep his company joyously and mindfully.
  • If for company you cannot find
    a wise and prudent friend
    who leads a good life, then,
    like a king who leaves behind a conquered kingdom,
    or like a lone elephant in the elephant forest,
    you should go your way alone.
  • Better it is to live alone;
    there is no fellowship with a fool.
    Live alone and do no evil;
    be carefree like an elephant
    in the elephant forest.
  • Good are friends when need arises;
    good is contentment with just what one has;
    good is merit when life is at an end,
    and good is the abandoning of all suffering
    (through Arahantship).
  • In this world,
    good it is to serve one's mother,
    good it is to serve one's father,
    good it is to serve the monks,
    and good it is to serve the holy men.
  • Good is virtue until life's end,
    good is faith that is steadfast,
    good is the acquisition of wisdom,
    and good is the avoidance of evil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thomas Cleary explains that the elephant is here being used as a symbol for the self.....which explains a lot.... :D

 

Re........that sluggard undergoes rebirth again and again.....Cleary, avoiding any dogmatic assertion of the truth - or not - of rebirth/reincarnation, comments that this line means "to enter into a matrix of dependency again and again by the inertia of subconscious habits."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Craving

  • The craving of one
    given to heedless living
    grows like a creeper.
    Like the monkey
    seeking fruits in the forest,
    he leaps from life to life
    (tasting the fruit of his kamma).
  • Whoever is overcome
    by this wretched and sticky craving,
    his sorrows grow
    like grass after the rains.
  • But whoever overcomes
    this wretched craving,
    so difficult to overcome,
    from him sorrows fall away
    like water from a lotus leaf.
  • This I say to you:
    Good luck to all assembled here!
    Dig up the root of craving,
    like one in search
    of the fragrant root of the birana grass.
    Let not Mara crush you again and again,
    as a flood crushes a reed.
  • Just as a tree,
    though cut down, sprouts up again
    if its roots remain uncut and firm,
    even so, until the craving
    that lies dormant is rooted out,
    suffering springs up again and again.
  • The misguided man in whom
    the thirty-six currents of craving
    strongly rush toward pleasurable objects,
    is swept away by the flood
    of his passionate thoughts.
  • Everywhere these currents flow,
    and the creeper (of craving) sprouts and grows.
    Seeing that the creeper has sprung up,
    cut off its root with wisdom.
  • Flowing in (from all objects)
    and watered by craving,
    feelings of pleasure arise in beings.
    Bent on pleasures and seeking enjoyment,
    these men fall prey to birth and decay.
  • Beset by craving, people run about
    like an entrapped hare.
    Held fast by mental fetters,
    they come to suffering
    again and again for a long time.
  • Beset by craving, people run about
    like an entrapped hare.
    Therefore, one who yearns to be passion-free
    should destroy his own craving.
  • There is one who, turning away from desire
    (for household life)
    takes to the life of the forest (of a monk).
    But after being freed from the household,
    he runs back to it.
    Behold that man! Though freed,
    he runs back to that very bondage!
  • That is not a strong fetter, the wise say,
    which is made of iron, wood or hemp.
    But the infatuation and longing
    for jewels and ornaments,
    children and wives —
    that, they say, is a far stronger fetter,
    which pulls one downward and,
    though seemingly loose, is hard to remove.
    This, too, the wise cut off.
    Giving up sensual pleasure,
    and without any longing,
    they renounce the world.
  • Those who are lust-infatuated fall back
    into the swirling current (of samsara)
    like a spider on its self-spun web.
    This, too, the wise cut off.
    Without any longing,
    they abandon all suffering
    and renounce the world.
  • Let go of the past,
    let go of the future,
    let go of the present,
    and cross over
    to the farther shore of existence.
    With mind wholly liberated,
    you shall come no more to birth and death.
  • For a person tormented by evil thoughts,
    who is passion-dominated
    and given to the pursuit of pleasure,
    his craving steadily grows.
    He makes the fetter strong, indeed.
  • He who delights in subduing evil thoughts,
    who meditates on the impurities
    and is ever mindful —
    it is he who will make an end of craving
    and rend asunder Mara's fetter.
  • He who has reached the goal, is fearless,
    free from craving, passionless,
    and has plucked out the thorns of existence —
    for him this is the last body.
  • He who is free from craving and attachment,
    is perfect in uncovering
    the true meaning of the Teaching,
    and knows the arrangement of the sacred texts
    in correct sequence —
    he, indeed, is the bearer of his final body.
    He is truly called the profoundly wise one,
    the great man.
  • A victor am I over all, all have I known.
    Yet unattached am I to all
    that is conquered and known.
    Abandoning all, I am freed
    through the destruction of craving.
    Having thus directly comprehended all by myself,
    whom shall I call my teacher?
  • The gift of Dhamma excels all gifts;
    the taste of the Dhamma excels all tastes;
    the delight in Dhamma excels all delights.
    The Craving-Freed vanquishes all suffering.
  • Riches ruin only the foolish,
    not those in quest of the Beyond.
    By craving for riches
    the witless man ruins himself
    as well as others.
  • Weeds are the bane of fields,
    lust is the bane of mankind.
    Therefore, what is offered
    to those free of lust
    yields abundant fruit.
  • Weeds are the bane of fields,
    hatred is the bane of mankind.
    Therefore, what is offered
    to those free of hatred
    yields abundant fruit.
  • Weeds are the bane of fields,
    delusion is the bane of mankind.
    Therefore, what is offered
    to those free of delusion
    yields abundant fruit.
  • Weeds are the bane of fields,
    desire is the bane of mankind.
    Therefore, what is offered
    to those free of desire
    yields abundant fruit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cleary:- This current chapter contrasts the destructive effects of craving, infatuation, and rumination over things, contrasting their undesirable effects with the freedom that comes from insight, dispassion, and inner completeness.

 

Regarding.....

 

Everywhere these currents flow,

and the creeper (of craving) sprouts and grows.

Seeing that the creeper has sprung up,

cut off its root with wisdom.

 

The creeper, as Cleary says, is insidious suggestion, rooted in ignorance and craving, developing into bondage, aggression, and folly. "To sever it the moment it sprouts is what the Tao Te Ching refers to as doing what is difficult when it is still easy. This is the purpose of vigilance, so highly recommended by Buddha."

 

There is more from Cleary, but others may have something to say?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This Chapter on craving while it appears as wise advise to me speaks too much of the subject. While craving can certainly lead to a destructive life, i do not see craving as something to be anymore than acknowledged for what it is. In my view, to try to destroy it as suggested and conquer it is to make it stronger. To see it .... is sufficient. I think we overcome not by fighting or seeking to destroy but by awareness of what is and trust that the 'other' or higher power that sustains us is well able to deliver us from "Mara" or any other perceived enemy by trust/acknowledgment of and in that power in all our ways. In doing this, will not even 'craving' fall away?

 

Joseph

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, the Dhammapada was written from the perspective of what Cleary calls the "Lesser Journey", which relates to the purification of the "self", to "strength and sobriety of character". Speaking of the "greater journey" and the final destination, Cleary says that the soundness of the spiritual state of the traveller depend on the insight, serenity and forbearance acquired in the course of the lesser journey.

 

I'm not really one for "stages" myself, or the constant introspection that it would seem to require. For me, it is more a world of trust and faith and mercy, towards reality-as-is and ourselves...............and others. "Lesser" and "greater" can take care of themselves, as well as any "cravings" I may or may not have.

 

Of relevance though - or at least, so it seems to me - are the words the Ch'an master Pai-chang........

 

The words of the teachings all have three successive steps: the elementary, the intermediate, and the final good. At first, it is just necessary to teach people to develop a good mind. In the intermediate stage, they break through the good mind. The last stage is finally called really good.

 

This is what is meant by the sayings, "An enlightening being is not an enlightening being, but is called an enlightening being; the truth is not truth, yet is not other than truth." Everything is like this.

 

If, however, you teach only one stage, you will cause people to go to hell. If all three stages are taught at once, they'll go to hell on their own. This is not the work of a real teacher.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

terms of service