An Atheist Explores the Dhammapada Part 11: A Sprinkle of Virtue Ethics. Or the people you hurt will burn your house down (10 Violence/Dandavagga)

Dhammapada Part Ten: Violence (Dandavagga)

A Sprinkle of Virtue Ethics. Or the people you hurt will burn your house down.

“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.”

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 Dhammapada that I use, see here https://bit.ly/3IgCiJr

And now:

Dhammapada Part Ten: Violence (Dandavagga)

This section starts with some pretty sound advice about abstaining from violence, not for any particular metaphysical reason but through empathy. This extends even to violence in words – “Speak not harshly to anyone, for those thus spoken to might retort. Indeed, angry speech hurts, and retaliation may overtake you.” The Dhammapada tells how “One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter”, and we are left with the feeling that by “hereafter” it refers to an afterlife punishment of some kind.

And perhaps it does (or, rather, reincarnation into a crappy form), but the text also mentions how anyone going around harassing the innocent will meet at least one of the “ten states”, which are “Sharp pain, or disaster, bodily injury, serious illness, or derangement of mind, trouble from the government, or grave charges, loss of relatives, or loss of wealth, or houses destroyed by ravaging fire; upon dissolution of the body that ignorant man is born in hell”. So, of those, only one is a supernatural afterlife effect, really. The others are more a result of people getting fed up with your nonsense and taking revenge. Although, having your house burnt down seems mighty specific.

The rest of this section deals more with an exhortation that only through purification of the mind can one find true freedom from suffering. All the ostentatious acts of piety in the world are useless if your mind is not clear – “Neither going about naked, nor matted locks, nor filth, nor fasting, nor lying on the ground, nor smearing oneself with ashes and dust, nor sitting on the heels (in penance) can purify a mortal who has not overcome doubt”. What is truly needed is putting in the real work through “faith and moral purity, by effort and meditation, by investigation of the truth, by being rich in knowledge and virtue, and by being mindful”.

Once again, short and pithy, and once again not a great deal of the supernatural about it. Know yourself, be mindful, keep calm, consider the feelings of others. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

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