An Atheist Explores the Dhammapada Part Seven: I Can’t Do The Dishes, I’m Busy Being Wise (6 The Wise/Panditavagga)

Dhammapada Six: The Wise

I Can’t Do The Dishes, I’m Busy Being Wise.

“Should one find a man who points out faults and who reproves, let him follow such a wise and sagacious person as one would a guide to hidden treasure. It is always better, and never worse, to cultivate such an association.”

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

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Dhammapda, 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 Six: The Wise

This chapter is less about what makes a person accounted “wise” in Buddhism (although it does touch on that), but is more about how those with wisdom interact with the world, and how the world should interact with them.

Much like the Biblical Wisdom books, the Dhammapada urges the reader to seek out the company of the wise and to learn from them – “Let him admonish, instruct and shield one from wrong; he, indeed, is dear to the good and detestable to the evil”.

The Wise exercise control over themselves in the same way that “Irrigators regulate the rivers; fletchers straighten the arrow shaft; carpenters shape the wood”. They are like rocks unmoved by storms, they take no pleasure or pain in praise or admonishment, they are removed from the desires of life, following the “bright path”. The verses liken gaining wisdom to crossing over a river, and the river represents Death. Most people run up and down on the near shore, only a very few are able to cross it. But the Dhammapada also acknowledges that detachment is hard – “let him yearn for that delight in detachment, so difficult to enjoy”. Giving up “the cankers” of the “four basic defilements” of sensual desire, desire for continued existence, false views and ignorance, the Wise are serene, “glowing with wisdom”, and have achieved Nirvana in their earthly life.

Well, that all sounds both positive but also, I feel, that the notion of complete detachment from both good and bad outcomes or attitudes may make one at peace, perhaps, but also doesn’t seem very fair on those around the wise person. It seems to me that they’re the ones having to sort things out while he serenely drifts through life without a care. But, perhaps, that’s the superficial view of it and there’ll be more explanation later.