An Atheist Explores the Dhammapada Part Nine: I Do Love A Good Chiasma (8 The Thousands/Sahassavagga)

Dhammapada Part Eight: The Thousands

I Do Love A Good Chiasma

“Better than a thousand useless words is one useful word, hearing which one attains peace.”

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 Eight: The Thousands

There’s a wonderful chiasmic structure to these verses, where the opening verses (100-103) are along the lines of “better than a thousand [x] is one [y]”, and then the closing verses (110-115) are of the form “better it is to live one day [x] than a hundred years [y]”. Further, in both cases the focus gets larger, starting with a single word and leading to the Dhamma in the opening verses, starting with meditative thought in the closing verses and finishing with The Supreme Truth. Very nicely done.

In the middle is the core of the message, how one can get to hear the single words of peace or to live the one day seeing The Supreme Truth. “Self-conquest is far better than the conquest of others. Not even a god, an angel, Mara or Brahma can turn into defeat the victory of a person who is self-subdued and ever restrained in conduct.” And “To one ever eager to revere and serve the elders, these four blessing accrue: long life and beauty, happiness and power.”

So, self-control, and learning from the wise. There’s an interlude in the middle where the verses compare offering sacrifice for a hundred years versus spending one day worshipping “those of perfected mind”., and there are also contrasts leading in and out of these verses. Self-conquest is better than conquering others, says the Dhammapada, and to lead us to this thought it tells us first that “Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, yet he indeed is the noblest victor who conquers himself.” And before taking us to the “four blessings”, we are told that “Whatever gifts and oblations one seeking merit might offer in this world for a whole year, all that is not worth one fourth of the merit gained by revering the Upright Ones, which is truly excellent.” (See the one-fourth aspect there setting up the notion of four-fold effects?)

I really liked the poetic structure to this, and it works even better if you read it as a whole rather than broken down like this. I’m not certain about the idea of “worshipping” the wise; that seems a little bit too much like, well, attachment, to me, and contrary to other teachings so far in the Dhammapada. Listen and learn from the wise, yes, we’ve been told that, and it’s almost like a tautology it’s so self-evident. But “worship”? That doesn’t seem to sit quite right. I’d consider that it might be some dubious translation from the Pali, and is meant more like “revere”, but so far this translation has not only been very effective, it also footnotes any difficult-to-translate concepts.

Well. I shall see going forwards how this is really meant.