The Dhammapada and the study of classical texts

[Part -1]

One of the beneficial outcomes of the rise and spread of modern cultural theory during the past three decades or so has been the desire to instigate movements to re-visit and re-assess classical texts. It is in that spirit that I wish to explore today the well-known Buddhist text the Dhammapada.

The Dhammpada is one of the most well-known and highly esteemed Buddhist texts, especially in Theravada countries. It continues to exert a profound influence on the thought, imagination, and patterns of living of people in Buddhist countries. The text has been widely commented upon by scholars from different cultures and backgrounds.

Oldernberg said that the Dhammapada best reflects the innermost soul of Buddhism. Edwin A Burtt saw it as a valuable manual capable of providing inspiration, support and practical guidance in the daily lives of the Buddhists. Radhakrishnan remarked that although it may not contain the exact words of the Buddha, it does embody the spirit of his teachings.

Prof. Kotahene Pannakitti thera commented that the Dhammapada can be usefully regarded as an excellent handbook that summarises the essence of the teachings of the Buddha. The Thai writer Phira Khantipalo likens the Dhammapada to a set of jewels loosely strung together. Juan Mascaro in his penguin translation says that in the Dhammapada we can hear the voice of the Buddha, and that it is one of the greatest spiritual works of human beings. These different opinions, then, representing a plurality of societies and cultures testify to the continuing power and resonance of the poem.

Contents

The Dhammapada constitutes a part of the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka. It consists of 26 chapters and 423 stanzas. There are a number of versions of the work to be found in a variety of languages such as Pali, Gandhari, Chinese and Tibetan. However, it is generally believed, though by no means unanimously, that the Pali version antedates all others.

The term Dhammapada cannot be translated very precisely and accurately into English on account of the its culturally grounded richness of semantics. As Rhys Davids said, nothing in the Dhammapada is so hard to translate adequately as its title. These two words dhamma and pada carry a multiplicity of meanings; the word dhamma conveys meanings of virtue, righteousness, good discipline, law, norm, doctrine, teaching, character and so on, while the word pada carries within it meanings of path, means, way, and a part of verse.

I prefer to translate the term Dhammapada as path of virtue, and this English phrase comes closest, in my judgement to capturing the thematic essence and the perspectival posture of the poem.

As a summary of the Buddha’s teachings the Dhammapada presents us with a constellation of intersecting virtues that should guide one’s conduct, and enables one to lead a productive and meaningful life.

Among these virtues can be listed; mental purity, goodwill, self-restraint, self-knowledge, vigilance, thoughtful speech, and action, serenity of mind, avoidance of lust, hatred and delusion, abstaining from excessive sensual pleasure, non-attachment, humility, steadfastness, reflexivity, forbearance, dutifulness, non-violence faith in the Buddha, his teachings and the order of monks.

Essence

And all these virtues are directed towards the declared goal of attaining release from the inexorable suffering that characterizes worldly existence.

The Dhammapada contains the essence of the teachings of the Buddha as articulated in the Thearvada tradition. Reflecting on his teachings that leads to emancipation from self-enslavement, the Buddha remarked, ‘The vision realised by me is deep, hard to perceive, hard to comprehend, calm beyond reasoning, profound, intelligible to the wise. However, the beings delight in attachments, celebrate attachments. Hence, for those who delight in attachments, are delighted by attachments, celebrate attachments, this is hard to perceive, namely dependent co-origination.

This is also hard to perceive, namely, the cessation of all dispositions, the relinquishment of attachments, the elimination of cravings, the ending of desire, and attainment of ultimate emancipation.’ What we find in the Dhammapada, through the valorizing of a cluster of interlocking virtues, is the articulation of this complex teaching in a concise, encapsulated and accessible form.

Paradigm

It is evident that the Dhammapada embodies a paradigm of human excellence. In order to understand this paradigm, and the cultural discourse surrounding it, we need to examine briefly the contours of Buddhist thought in relation to the overlapping questions of self and society. Implicit in all great religions of the world is an image of an ideal social order. The clusters of virtues and the path of salvation textualized in a work like the Dhammapada can be usefully understood only in relation to such a privileged social order. It seems to me that in discussing the ideal social order posited by Buddhism we need to bear in mind six important presuppositions.

They are; human beings are supreme, reason and compassionate understanding rather than blind faith and adherence to rigid dogma should guide human activities; human beings need to be pragmatic in their behavior; violence of all shapes and forms should be eased from society; peace, kindness, equanimity compassion leading to a harmonious way of life should be cultivated; excessive attachment to worldly pleasure should be relinquished as a means of gaining final freedom.

Significance

Let us examine each of these descriptions a little more carefully paying close attention to their relevance and significance in framing the discourse contained in the Dhammapada. Buddhism, in many ways, was a reaction to orthodox ideas that stressed greatly the role of the divine and the supernatural powers in the conduct of human affairs.

Buddhism, on the contrary, frequently emphasised the fact that that human beings are supreme, and in the final analysis, the masters of their own destiny. One of the most memorable statements of the Buddha is that one is ones own refuge and who else could be the refuge? Among the founders of religion, he was one of the few who did not claim that he was anything but a human being.

The Buddha was not only a human being; he did not claim to derive power and inspiration from any divinity or supernatural beings. He attributed all his accomplishments to the power and commitment of human intelligence, thereby underscoring the human-centered approach to emancipation that he mapped out.

That the human being is supreme is clearly and unambiguously stated in the canonical texts of the Theravada school. Some of the Mahayana schools tend to be a little less clear on this point, though the general thrust of the approach remains. These observations are central to understanding the content of the Dhammapada in its true perspective.

Reason and compassionate understanding were accorded a position of unarguable centrality in the Buddhist way of life and social order. However, it needs to be pointed out that this was not an abstract and de-contextualised reason but rather a situated rationality, reason arising from specific lived realities and human contexts.

This move was made at a time when the voice of authority and the cumulative weight of tradition and inherited conventions were esteemed more highly than reason and capacity for critical inquiry.

The importance accorded to reason in the conduct of human affairs by the Buddha is clearly reflected in his famous advice to the Kalamas. Being tormented by doubts and overcome by misgivings, as to who among the teachers and of religion and recluses were expounding the truth, they decided to solicit the advice of the Buddha. He said yes, Kalamas, it is only proper that you entertain doubt, that you have bewilderment, for a doubt has arisen in a way that is doubtful.

Now look you Kalamas, do not be led by reports, or tradition or hearsay. Be not led by authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic of inference, nor by taking into consideration appearances, nor by interest in speculative thought, not by apparent possibilities, nor by the notion, this indeed is our teacher. However, O Kalamas when you realize for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong and evil, then relinquish them…and when you realize for yourself that certain things are wholesome and good, then adhere to them and follow them.’

This sums up very lucidly, I think, the Buddha’s attitude to reason and understanding in the conduct of human affairs. This framework is useful to understand the message of the Dhammapada”.

Pragmatic

That human beings need to be pragmatic in their behaviour and outlook as members of a given society is a message that emanates very clearly from the centre of Buddhist though and it is one that is useful in framing the discourse of the Dhammapada . Here I use the term pragmatic in a slightly different sense from the normal usage in western philosophy as evident in the works of John Dewey or William James or Richard Rorty, that is to say, minus the Western cultural baggage they carry.

When I say that Buddhism is a pragmatic religion, what I am suggesting is that the Buddha was only concerned with those questions and dilemmas that had a direct bearing on the liberation of the individual from self-enslavement and self-blindness and on the dynamics of the welfare of society. Consequently, he displayed little interest in metaphysical discussions related to the possible origins of the world and so on which he thought were not germane to the immediate task at hand. He was deeply convinced that the world was full of suffering and hence resolved to find out for himself its true nature and explain to others how human beings could be delivered from their endemic suffering. In other words, he sought to find a solution to what Irish poet W.B. Yeats once termed, ‘the crime of birth and death.’ His line of thinking sheds valuable light on the interests and agenda of the Dhammapada.

Several parables found in Buddhist literature admirably exemplify this point. The parable of the arrow is one such example. In essence it states that a man stuck with a poisonous arrow should concern himself with removing the arrow and getting well rather than with involving himself in such speculative and theoretical issues as the nature of the arrow, its history, and who was responsible for shooting it. The Buddha then underlined the fact that rather then being dogmatic and doctrinaire, one must adopt a more flexible and pragmatic attitude to social living, having as the goal the attainment of individual liberation and social welfare. This practical outlook marks many of the verses contained in the Dhammapada .

Parables

The idea of non-violence is at the heart of Buddhist thinking, influencing its diverse sub-discourses. Buddhism advocates a way of life that will lead to the elimination of suffering and the promotion of social well-being. These objectives demand a path of non-violence for their full and meaningful realisation. Here I use the word non-violence has being purposefully applicable to four areas of interest; interpersonal interactions, group encounters, intrapersonal thought and encounters with the physical environment.

In all four cases, the adherence of a non-violet mode of behaviour serves to ensure the maximum happiness and benefits. The scriptures clearly manifest this predilection in Buddhist thought, and the advocacy of non-violence is in tune with the other basic tenets and the overall shape of Buddhist thought. Many of the verses in the Dhammapada , through their tropological power, display the salience of non-violence.

Virtues

Similarly, the virtues of peace, kindness, generosity, equanimity, and so on which are deemed vital to the harmonious society need to be examined as a way of gaining entry to the center of Buddhist thought. The Buddha proposed a way of life that was grounded in harmonious and cooperative social existence. This springs directly from the Buddhist calls for compassionate understanding. If one pauses to examine the code of ethics that the Buddha recommended for both the minks and laity, one would realize that it is primarily concerned with the goal of social harmony. The four primary social emotions described by the Buddha namely, metta (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), muditha (sympathetic joy) and upekha (equanimity) relate precisely to the theme of individuality and social harmony. When we examine the verses contained in the Dhammapada we begin to appreciate the ways in which these emotions find poetic expression.

Finally, we need to examine the Buddha’s repeated desideratum of giving up of worldly pleasures, attachments to sensual delights and desires as a way of freeing oneself from self-delusion and self-enslavement.and thereby attaining wisdom and permanent happiness. There is a fairly widespread, although mistaken view, that Buddhism is a religion that addresses other worldly issues and advocates a retreat from life and that it evinces little interest in problems of social living. Such a notion has gained currency not only because of the way in which some of the traditional and indigenous interpreters expounded the essence of Buddhism but also due to the expositions of western scholars like Max Weber who interpreted it within the framework of western thought.

Clearly, the notion that Buddhism is an other worldly religion springs from inadequate understanding of the teaching of the Buddha. This charge is largely levelled against Theravada than Mahayana Buddhism. Contrary to the common wisdom in the west, the Buddha was deeply interested in social issues. It is a great error to think that Buddhism addressed issues of individual salvation to the exclusion of social issues.

Social dimensions

Trevor Ling makes the point that even nowadays it is sometimes said that Buddhism has no interest in social dimensions of life. ‘If this not explicitly stated it is often implied. This denial of a social dimension to their lives on the part of those who claim to be Buddhist is really rather curious, for the notion of an un-social Buddhist is a contradiction in terms.’ He goes on to assert that the Buddhist is one who has accepted the notion that the isolated individual is a fiction. It becomes evident, as we examine the canonical texts very carefully, that the Buddha sought to understand and explicate life in its full complexity, and such a effort naturally entailed a study of social and economic issues.

For example, in the Cakkavatti Sihanada Sutta and the Kutadanta Sutta give vivid examples of how a country can sink into corruption and misery due to incompetent and insensitive handling of social issues. These texts state that it is not only by the enforcement of harsh legal and punitive measures that peace and harmony can be maintained in a country but rather by providing suitable employment opportunities and by making available the basic amenities.

Similarly, one can cite the statements of the Buddha regarding just and fair-mined rulers emanate from a deep social awareness and consciousness. This brief discussion of the central propositions of Buddhist thought is important to understanding the message textualized in the Dhammapada. A discussion of the nature of the background of thought will serve to anchor it in the realities of social life than in the perceived solitude of reclusivity.

Morality

Behind all texts that seek to influence our moral conduct, one can discern an image of an ideal person whether it be a noble man (chun –tzu) in the Analects of Confucius or the great man (megalopuchos) in Aristotle or the overman (ubermensch) in Nietzsche. What image of an ideal person does the Dhammapada project onto our consciousness?

The ideal person discursively constructed in the Dhammapada is one who is thoughtful, calm, disciplined, free of excessive sensual delights, seeking to find real freedom through non-attachment, self-controlled, relentlessly pursues wisdom through virtue while at the same time desiring the happiness and well-being of others. It is indeed true that as a text embodying the central teachings of the Buddhism, especially of the Theravada tradition, there is a clear emphasis on the value of renunciation of household life and the venerability of monkhood.

However, as I stated earlier, one should be careful in emphasizing this aspect to the wholesale exclusion of its relevance to the everyday life of a lay person living in the thick of society. Many verses included in the Dhammapada serve to caution us against such a one-sided approach.

It is important to observe that the path of virtue outlined in the Dhammapada is coterminous with the Noble Eightfold Path enunciated in Buddhism. This eightfold path consists of right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Here the word right (samma) has to be understood in its broader sense encompassing such notions as wholesomeness, appropriateness, consensuality. Right understanding in this context refers to the proper comprehension of the nature of impermanence, suffering and the absence of metaphysical self.-the three dominant characteristics of existence central to Buddhism. As well as the nature of the middle path which entails the two extremes if self-indulgence and self-mortification. Right thought points to the gradual elimination of evil thought, and the cultivation of wholesome ones such as kindness, compassion, generosity, non-attachment and the pursuit of wisdom. By right speech is understood the modalities of language use that results in the furtherance of the quest for understanding and social harmony. It underlines the importance of avoiding harsh, harmful, slanderous, and frivolous speech.

Evil

Right action implies both the avoidance of evil action such as killing, stealing, indulgence in sensual pleasure as well as the deep comprehension of the wellsprings of human action. Right livelihood has as its intended referent a life led in accordance with the five precepts that lay persons are enjoined to adhere to. A means of livelihood that is involved with harming others clearly does not fall within this decreed category.

The next category, right effort consists of the endeavor to get rid of the misleading views that are already lodged within oneself, the prevention of the entry of more evil thoughts and viewpoints, and protecting and promoting the positive views consistent with anticipated spiritual liberation, that one already has the potentiality to do. Right effort calls for the development of insight and perseverance in achieving the goals pointing to freedom.

Right mindfulness refers to the mental alertness, vigilance, wakefulness, that are required for the act of determination between god and bad, right and wrong, and to follow resolutely the path of virtue. Right mental concentration thematises the precise focusing of the mind achieved through the cultivation of the previous seven categories. A careful analysis of the content if the Dhammapada will reveal how closely it has been shaped by the wisdom of the Noble Eightfold Path. In other words, the Noble Eightfold Path provides us with a frame of intelligibility that can be profitably deployed in encountering the stanzas in the Dhammapada and interpreting their meanings..

Admonitions

When reading the admonitions laid out in the Dhammapada, two questions are bound to arise in the minds of those not too familiar with Buddhism. The first is this; Buddhism is generally regarded as a religion that repudiates the concept of the self. (anatta). If so, how does the path of virtue enunciated in the Dhammapada, which clearly proposes questions of agency, ethical discrimination and moral ontology relate to the idea of non-self? It is clear that issues of virtue, which involve the moral discrimination, are indissolubly linked to a concept of parenthood. When we reflect on virtue, we reflect on a person, an individual, who makes choices and initiates action in a social context.

Virtue is inseparably linked to human character; indeed in many western schools of moral thought virtue is character. Many knowledgeable commentators have focused on the relationship between virtue, human flourishing and individual excellence.

Some argue that the individual is the autonomous source of moral action and the ultimate site of moral responsibility; that moral and ethical examinations should focus on the personal beliefs, valuations and actions. It is said quite emphatically, the moral and ethical practices and the question of virtue should be instigated in terms of their effect on human happiness and human flourishing.

If so, the close and intimate relationship between self and virtue invites deeper study. How does the Buddhist concept of non-self, then, square with the advocacy of virtue? How does the Dhammapada handle this problem? Indeed, there is one whole canto in the Dhammapada that is title ‘the self’ and addresses important issues related to this question. The following are some representative examples.

Diligence

If a man holds himself dear, he should guard it diligently. Let the wise man watch over himself at least during one of the three watches of life.’

One is one’s own master. Who else can that master be? With the self well restrained one achieves a mastery that is hard to gain.

By oneself is evil done; and it is by oneself one becomes pure. Purity and impurity belong to oneself. No one can purify another.

Here one needs to bear in mind an important fact, namely, that the self referred to in the Dhammapada, as well as in Buddhist texts in general, carries with it a specific signified. The self that is denigrated in Buddhism is the essentialist, metaphysical self that was valorized by many Indian religious traditions.

It certainly does not rule out the notion of personhood and the concomitant sense of agency and moral ontology. One can only understand the specific meaning attached to the concept of the self by the Buddha by considering the then existing regimes of religious discourse and modes of cultural description. During the time of the Buddha, there were two dominant schools of thought that sought to address the question of self from their distinctive intellectual vantage points. They were Eternalism (sassatavada) and Annihilationism (uchchedavada).

The first school focused on a metaphysical self that was eternal, immutable, and distinct from the body. It believed that the self, unlike the physical body, survives death. Indeed, in the opinion of the Eternalists, the body in which the self is temporarily housed, presents a hindrance to the attainment of the highest spiritual goals and often calls for draconian measures to minimise the body’s impact on the self.

The Annihilationists, on the other hand, were largely materialistic in outlook, and articulated the view that the self was identical to, and coterminous with, the body. Clearly, this viewpoint was directly opposite to that of Eternalism. Subscribing to the notion that sense perception was the only certifiable means of knowledge, the Annihilationists equated self with the body; they maintained that the self gets annihilated at death, along with the body. This was indeed a materialistic interpretation of the concept of the self.

The Buddha rejected both these views as misreading of reality. He sought to probe into and explain the psychological roots of these metaphysical and materialistic views of self.

The former is imprinted with a desire to perpetuate selfhood in a timeless space by rising above the mundane, while the latter is marked by a desire to fulfill sense gratification to the ultimate extinction of the body. Pursuing his own chosen and distinctive mode of psycho-physical inquiry, the Buddha saw human personhood as being constituted by the flowing elements or the five aggregates: sensation (vedana), perception (sanna), disposition (sankhara), consciousness (vinnana). In addition, to be sure, there is the body (rupa) or physical form.

These elements are not permanent; they are subject to change. In suggesting the centrality of these five aggregates in the constitution of human personhood, the Buddha rejected the notion that there is a foundational entity to which each of the above mentioned elements belong .

Among these constitutive elements of personhood delineated by the Buddha, consciousness is extremely important in terms of the problem we are currently dealing with. It provides a sense of continuity, although it is itself not permanent. It interacts with the other four aggregates to generate the notion of personhood. Through this psycho-physical examination of the nature of human personhood, the Buddha made an attempt to pin point the weaknesses of the positions taken by both Eternalists and Annihilationists. It was his intention focus on the process of incessant change that is vital to the production of personhood. It is indeed in this light that we can most profitably read the concept of self as textualized in the Dhammapada. The idea of non-self contained in Buddhism is extremely complex and multi-faceted, and what I have labored to do is to present a thumbnail sketch of it.

Importance

The second question that is likely to arise in the mind of readers not too familiar with Buddhist thought is: does the Dhammapada advocate a renunciation of life? If so, what is its importance and validity as an action-guiding compendium for lay persons embroiled in the day to day challenges and complexities of social living/ after al, the Dhammapada has been described as a useful manual of conduct for Buddhists. We need to, in this regard, make certain important discriminations.

It is indeed true tat the ultimate goal of human spirituality, as articulated in the Dhammapada, is the total emancipation, the attainment of nirvana. However, this has to be achieved through a gradual process, through different stages of spiritual endeavor.

The virtues held up for our admiration and emulation are of equal relevance to the average householder preoccupied with burdens and necessities of day to day life as well as to the monk or nun who has turned his or her back on domestic life. Although the emphasis in the Dhammapada is clearly on renunciation and monkhood, it needs to be stressed that the path of virtue leading to salvation charted in the Dhammapada and its attendant moral values are deeply germane to the concerns of the laypersons as well. Indeed, it furnishes us with an excellent guide for moral action.

Virtues of mental purity, humility, self-restraint, thoughtful speech, and action and so on that are repeatedly underscored in the text can only serve to promote a more harmonious society even as they contribute to prodding the individual on his or her path to salvation.

(To be continued)