An Atheist Explores the Dhammapada Part Fifteen: How To Become A Buddha (Sort Of) (14 The Buddha/Buddhavagga)

Dhammapada Part Fourteen: The Buddha (Buddhavagga)

How To Become A Buddha (Sort Of).

“By what track can you trace that trackless Buddha of limitless range, whose victory nothing can undo, whom none of the vanquished defilements can ever pursue?”

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 Fourteen: The Buddha (Buddhavagga)

This chapter is not so much about the Buddha Gotama, but Buddhas, Enlightened Ones, in general. It’s mainly a paeon of praise towards those who have become Buddhas, how they “are devoted to meditation and who delight in the calm of renunciation” and consequently “in whom exists no longer, the entangling and embroiling craving that perpetuates becoming”.

There are some broad descriptions of how one can follow the teachings and the paths of the Buddha to become like them, although the Dhammapada warns that “Hard is it to be born a man; hard is the life of mortals. Hard is it to gain the opportunity of hearing the Sublime Truth, and hard to encounter is the arising of the Buddhas”. The advice seems mainly pitched towards those who would follow a monastic way of life, suggesting perhaps that this is necessary to fully achieve Nibbana – “Not despising, not harming, restraint according to the code of monastic discipline, moderation in food, dwelling in solitude, devotion to meditation — this is the teaching of the Buddhas”. Also the text teaches that “He is not a true monk who harms another, nor a true renunciate who oppresses others”.

So, perhaps, one needs to become a monk to get the full benefit, but there are some basic rules as well – “To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind” and also “sensual pleasures give little satisfaction and much pain”.

Refuge from suffering, explains the Dhammapada, is not to be found “hills, woods, groves, trees and shrines”, but only in the teachings of the Buddha. And here we get the first mention of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path (which is the fourth of the Noble Truths) – “suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path leading to the cessation of suffering”. In otherwords, the Four Noble Truths are basically that (1) there is suffering, (2) suffering has a cause (attachment), (3) suffering can be ended, and (4) the Eightfold Path is the way to do it. It’s a very grand title for a simple set of statements.

What we don’t get here is an expansion of the Eightfold Path, so I’m wondering if there’ll be more of that in later chapters now that the idea is introduced. I would hope so, since the Dhammapada is meant to be the distillation of Buddhist thinking, even if it’s presented in more detail elsewhere.

The chapter ends with a list of beatitudes – “Blessed is the birth of the Buddhas; blessed is the enunciation of the sacred Teaching; blessed is the harmony in the Order, and blessed is the spiritual pursuit of the united truth-seeker”, returning once again to the theme of praising those who have become Buddhas, just to reinforce the message, in case you hadn’t gathered, that it’s a good thing to become.