Valerie Roebuck’s Bibliography of the Dharmapada literature, including Dhammapada, Dharmapada and Udānavarga, has just been published online by the Oxford University Press. You can navigate to it via ‘What’s New’ or ‘Buddhism’. www.oxfordbibliographies.com
The verse in the image comes from a version of the Dharmapada that belonged to the Dharmaguptaka school of early Buddhism. An equivalent verse is also found in the Pāli Canon, though not in the Dhammapada. (It’s at Theragāthā 398). Translation from Richard Salomon, 2018. ‘The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhāra: an Introduction with Selected Translations.’ Somerville, MA: Wisdom Books, p. 193. The image of the musician comes from www.riaa.com.
]]>Dhammapada 35
We live in an age where, more and more, we expect instant results. We lead busy lives and want faster broadband, quick service and next day delivery. It is hard to believe that ‘self-control’ or ‘control of the mind’ can really bring happiness. Spontaneity is all, regardless of whether the thing we want to do is objectively good for us or not. But if we look around us, it is not hard to see the suffering that can be caused when people surrender to all their impulses.
There is a tendency now to see ourselves as passive creatures, helpless in the face of urges such as desire or anger. How often do we hear (or find ourselves saying) things like: ‘He made me so angry, I said something I regretted’? But the anger is not ‘out there’, it has arisen in ourselves. Perhaps the other person did do something wrong, but we chose to act upon our anger. Reacting in a different way – from calmness and strength – might have resolved the situation in a better way, leaving less regret behind. The problem is that impulses like anger, greed, fear, hatred etc arise so quickly that they can take control of our minds before we even see them coming.
Meditation is a useful tool here because it brings insight into what is happening, almost seeming to slow the process down, so we can catch the impulses as (or even before) they arise. The insight allows us to take a degree of control over the impulses, rather than be swept away by them.
Meditation also helps us to develop more wholesome mental states, such as calmness, kindness, and wisdom. These states are natural to us, but they become overridden by habit and conditioning. Once we are able to turn away from distractions, we will find a peace and strength that we may have lost sight of over the years. Then when, as is bound to happen in this world, we are faced with difficult situations or people, we will begin to respond with wisdom and compassion rather than anger, envy, or fear.
As the verse tells us, finding this kind of control is not always easy, and it may go against decades of habit, and the values of society around us. But if we can find it, it will bring genuine happiness, regardless of our circumstances, deeper and more lasting than can be afforded by any technology or fashion.
(An article originally written for the Newsletter of the Manchester Centre for Buddhist Meditation)
]]>It will be seen that the love described in this sutta is not something soft or woolly, but a state of great strength and clarity that forms an intrinsic part of practice on the Buddha’s path.
May all beings be well. May all beings be happy.
]]>The Buddha’s Teaching on Loving Kindness
This is what to do if you know what is best for you
And seek to attain the place of peace:
Be able, upright—truly upright,
Easy to speak to, gentle, not arrogant,
Content, with needs easily met,
With few responsibilities, of simple livelihood,
With senses calmed, skilful,
Not proud, not possessive about families.
You should not do the slightest thing
For which other wise folk might reproach you.
Think: ‘Happy and at peace,
May all beings be happy-minded.
‘Whatever living things there are,
Without exception, weak or strong,
Tall, large, or medium-sized,
Small, atom-sized or huge,
‘Seen or unseen,
Living far or near,
Born or about to be born,
May all beings be happy-minded.
‘Let not one deceive another
Or despise another, anywhere;
Let not one wish evil on another,
Through anger or ill-will.’
Just as a mother would protect her own child,
Her only child, even with her life,
You should develop a limitless mind
Towards all beings.
You should develop a limitless mind,
Spread loving kindness to the whole world,
Above, below and across,
Without obstruction, enmity or hatred.
Standing, walking, sitting,
Or lying down, so long as you are awake,
You should maintain this awareness:
They call this Divine Abiding here.
So, not falling into wrong view,
Of good character, endowed with insight,
Giving up grasping for sense-pleasures,
You will not return to a womb again.
Awareness is the place of the deathless;
Unawareness is the place of death.
The aware do not die;
The unaware are as though dead already.
Knowing this especially
About awareness, the wise
Delight in awareness,
Taking pleasure in the realm of the Noble Ones.
Those who constantly practise meditation,
Ever firm in their endeavour,
Those wise ones touch nibbāna,
The unsurpassed peace of yoga.
(Dhammapada 21-23)
In loving memory of my friend, colleague and teacher, L. S. Cousins (1942-2015), who will live so long as people benefit by his scholarship and wisdom, or practise meditation through his teaching.
For more information and tributes, click here.
]]>Colourful but scentless,
The well-taught word is fruitless
For one who does not practise.
Like a beautiful flower,
Colourful and fragrant,
The well-taught word is fruitful
For one who practises.
(vv. 51-2)
]]>Like a beautiful flower,
Colourful but scentless,
The well-taught word is fruitless
For one who does not practise.
Like a beautiful flower,
Colourful and fragrant,
The well-taught word is fruitful
For one who practises.
Dhammapada 51-52
Today, walking to the shops on a hot sunny morning, I saw a beautiful rose-bush in a garden. The owner of the garden saw me enjoying the scent, and we both agreed that we liked the old, sweet-scented varieties of roses the best. And those verses from the ‘Flowers’ chapter of the Dhammapada came to mind.
I discovered afterwards that I had my camera with me, so on the way home I took some photographs. Here is one of those wonderful flowers, to remind us what the ‘well-taught word’ of the Buddha’s teaching will be like if we don’t just study it, but put it into practice. – Valerie
Valerie recently learned of a review of her Dhammapada translation by Elizabeth Harris, an eminent scholar of Theravāda Buddhism, which was published in Religions of South Asia 6.1 (2012) 133-134:
Valerie’s article, Dhammapada, Dharmapada and Udānavarga: The Many Lives of a Buddhist Text, was published in the following edition of the same journal, which is now available and can be ordered here.
]]>Just so the body grows old.
The Dhamma of the good does not grow old.
Indeed, the good make it known to the good.
(v. 151)
]]>Even finely painted royal chariots wear out:
Just so the body grows old.
The Dhamma of the good does not grow old.
Indeed, the good make it known to the good.
Dhammapada 151
What can we depend on in this life? ‘Even finely painted royal chariots wear out,’ says the Dhammapada, referring to the most spectacular technology of its time. Recently I have been suffering from problems with my much-loved iMac computer, which so far have defeated the expertise of a number of very knowledgeable and helpful people.
It’s only when you encounter a problem with something like this that you discover quite how much you normally rely on it. I have grown to depend on my computer for work, play and social life, and had more or less ceased to notice it until I had to be without it for a week or more and manage with a borrowed one – only a few years old but already out of date. Now I’m faced with the prospect of having to be without it again, while the engineers have another try. But at least it’s not a life-threatening problem, as it might have been if that royal chariot had broken down on the battlefield!
The body is a more complex thing than even the most splendid chariot or the best-designed computer, and one that we take even more for granted, until it goes wrong. This is something that has been brought home to me lately, as my husband has been suffering from a long period of serious illness. In the last resort, the body’s no more under our control than the chariot or the computer, and we can’t depend on it either.
So what can we depend on? The Dhammapada gives the Buddhist answer, the Dhamma (‘Dharma’ in Sanskrit), an untranslatable word that refers to the truth realised by the Buddha and embodied in his teaching. But even though it is timeless and unchangeable, if it is to be visible in the world it needs ‘the good’ to practise it and pass it on to others, whether by teaching or by example.
So who are ‘the good’ that the verse refers to? We can’t depend on others to do it: I think that it’s going to have to be us!
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