An Atheist Explores the Dhammapada Part Fourteen: Mystery Psychic Superheroes (13. The World/Lokavagga)

 Dhammapada Part Thirteen: The World (Lokavagga)

Mystery Psychic Superheroes

“Blind is the world; here only a few possess insight. Only a few, like birds escaping from the net, go to realms of bliss.”

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 Thirteen: The World (Lokavagga)

In this section we mainly get more discussion on the nature of detachment, and how the wise should not become attached to the general illusion of the world, for example “Come! Behold this world, which is like a decorated royal chariot. Here fools flounder, but the wise have no attachment to it.”

The Dhammapada sees the world as nothing of very great importance, at least in the sense of not getting too bogged down with earthly things – “One who looks upon the world as a bubble and a mirage, him the King of Death sees not”. We have here, as with the New Testament, a way of overcoming death; for Christians it seems to be a matter of faith (and as I mused back in my Bible readthrough, there’s a sense of a mystical event occurring at the Crucifixion and Resurrection whereby Jesus opens some kind of door for His followers to access, spiritually). Here, however, it’s more a case of coming to a certain state of mind, of realisation. The transition comes from the individual, by following instructions. The Buddha may have found the route, but each person must then learn to follow it themselves, there’s no quick and easy shortcut.

There are, however, some (vague) rules given in this section about how to behave in this life, so it seems evident that complete and utter disregard for the world is also not really the correct path. “Follow not the vulgar way; live not in heedlessness; hold not false views; linger not long in worldly existence”, this chapter says in the opening verse. Which is about as helpful as those Bible and Qur’an verses that say pretty much the same thing. It’s all well and good saying that, but what exactly is the “vulgar way”? Later on, we get a verse that specifically singles out dishonesty as a bad thing – “For a liar who has violated the one law (of truthfulness) who holds in scorn the hereafter, there is no evil that he cannot do”, but that’s about it for this section in terms of specifics. Which, considering it’s only eleven verses and only part of a greater whole, is not really a complaint.

Verse 175 contains an interesting concept – “Swans fly on the path of the sun; men pass through the air by psychic powers; the wise are led away from the world after vanquishing Mara and his host”. Men flying through psychic power? That was thrown out there almost like an afterthought wasn’t it? Who are these men, and what kind of “flight”? Are we talking bodily flight, or some kind of astral projection. Either way, I think we need more on these claims.

And the last verse gives us a sudden new concept as well – “Better than sole sovereignty over the earth, better than going to heaven, better even than lordship over all the worlds is the supramundane Fruition of Stream Entrance”.

“Stream Entrance” is, according to the footnotes, sotapatti, the first stage of “Supramundane Attainment”. Which, I think, are the stages towards achieving Nibbana. So even the first step on the journey is better than anything in the mortal and immortal realms, it would seem.

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