An Atheist Explores the Dhammapada Part Six: The Fool, Or The Fool That Follows Him? (5 The Fool/Balavagga)

Dhammapada Five: The Fool

The Fool, Or The Fool That Follows Him?

“A fool who knows his foolishness is wise at least to that extent, but a fool who thinks himself wise is a fool indeed.”

Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Dhammapada).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Dhammapada, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post https://bit.ly/3IbwtwE

For the online Dhammapade that I use, see here https://bit.ly/3IgCiJr

And now:

Dhammapada Five: The Fool

Shades there of the old saying that runs “He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not… etc.” I looked that up, and attributions stem from Arabic to Chinese, and Persian. Which would put it along the Silk Roads, and I wouldn’t be surprised, given that it seems to be pretty old, that the Buddha may well have encountered it in some form.

These verses are, as you might expect, all about the foolish person and the kind of life that they lead, as contrasted to the wise person. In a few places it uses the mirroring structure seen in The Pairs, for example “Ill done is that action of doing which one repents later, and the fruit of which one, weeping, reaps with tears. Well done is that action of doing which one repents not later, and the fruit of which one reaps with delight and happiness.”

There’s some great imagery again. A fool who hangs around wise people but doesn’t learn anything from them is as likely to pick up wisdom as a spoon is to taste the soup. Attachment and worry are foolish, even to the extent of concerning your children – “The fool worries, thinking, "I have sons, I have wealth." Indeed, when he himself is not his own, whence are sons, whence is wealth?” This seems harsh, but I’m guessing its more about giving in to the worry and attachment without giving time to know oneself?

Other foolish actions are less controversial, and I’m afraid I can’t help but think of Trump – “The fool seeks undeserved reputation, precedence among monks, authority over monasteries, and honor among householders. "Let both laymen and monks think that it was done by me. In every work, great and small, let them follow me" — such is the ambition of the fool; thus his desire and pride increase.”

The other aspect of the fool that these verses discuss (other than warning people not to associate with them) is that the fool doesn’t realise that his bad actions now will build up and come back to affect him. One doesn’t always immediately suffer the consequences of bad decisions, but, like smouldering ash igniting fire again, the foolish actions will follow the fool and come back to burn him.

That’s about all I have to say on that section. It’s a better description, I think, of what makes a fool, a fool compared to the dichotomies given in Proverbs and other Wisdom books of the Bible. I notice that the next section has been titled “The Wise Man”, so I’m guessing we’ll get the flip-side to these verses.