An Atheist Explores the Dhammapada Part 25: Sticky Stuff and Tasty Fruit (Craving/Tanhavagga)

Dhammapada Part Twenty Four: Craving (Tanhavagga)

Sticky Stuff and Tasty Fruit.

“The craving of one given to heedless living grows like a creeper. Like the monkey seeking fruits in the forest, he leaps from life to life (tasting the fruit of his kamma).”

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 Twenty Four: Craving (Tanhavagga)

This section discusses the effects of “wicked and sticky craving”, the desire for earthly things like “jewels and ornaments, children and wives” which keep a person bound on the samsara stronger than fetters of “iron, wood or hemp”.

Craving, the Dhammapada tells us, should be cut off at the root with wisdom, as it’s pernicious and recurring – “Just as a tree, though cut down, sprouts up again if its roots remain uncut and firm, even so, until the craving that lies dormant is rooted out, suffering springs up again and again”. This theme is expanded and repeated under a variety of metaphors, but is pretty much the same message. Craving for earthly things is ultimately a bad thing.

Mention is made of the “thirty six currents of craving” which are, as I learn from the footnotes, three cravings (for sensual pleasure, for continued existence and for annihilation – which you’d think were mutually exclusive) expressed via the twelve “bases”, which are the five senses and the mind, and the things that they perceive. Thus sight, and the thing seen, touch and the thing felt etc.

Cutting off craving leads to freedom from suffering – “Let go of the past, let go of the future, let go of the present, and cross over to the farther shore of existence. With mind wholly liberated, you shall come no more to birth and death.”

And it wouldn’t be the Dhammapada without a section of verses with a repeated refrain. In this case “Weeds are the bane of fields, [X] is the bane of mankind. Therefore, what is offered to those free of [X] yields abundant fruit” where [X] is, sequentially, lust, hatred, delusion and desire.

Now, I’ve expressed before my doubts about how selfish this philosophy seems. If each person can only escape the samsara by, essentially, withdrawing from all interaction with the world, what’s the point of that? Is there some aspect to Buddhism that I’ve missed where it’s believed that the material existence is some kind of trap for souls that ought to otherwise by in Nibbana? (Kind of like Scientology…). Because to me, it would seem to be much more important and useful to “end suffering” by actually working to do something about it in the real world, and not just running away and hoping that it all goes away.

It’s tricky, because some of this seems to be aimed at monks, but there’s also something to be said to do this at a lower level – it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game, kind of thing. Giving up attachment to negative feelings and thoughts, that can only be a good thing for self and others, right? But conversely giving up on the good thoughts and feelings – less so, I would say. Let go of envy, keep hold of love.  I wonder if it’s an attempt t recognise that no thought or feeling can be entirely classified as “good” or “bad”, and so the best option is to get rid of all of them, just in case?