Dandavagga: The Rod

I’m falling into a bit of a routine. I know that when I get out of work and return home there is a task for me to complete. And now that this is the tenth chapter in the Dhammapada, I am beginning to realize something, and that is the unifying theme within each of the chapters.

So in looking at the Dandavagga, I am struck (no pun intended) by the image of a rod. Regardless of what the individual verses state, as long as I bear in mind the concept of the rod, the message become clearer.

The rod can be literally a weapon used to punish and to strike fear in a person. The person who wields the rod is menacing.

“All
tremble at the rod,
all
are fearful of death.
Drawing the parallel to
yourself,
neither kill nor get others to kill.

“All
tremble at the rod,
all
hold their life dear.
Drawing the parallel to
yourself,
neither kill nor get others to kill.

“Whoever takes a rod
to harm living beings desiring ease,
when he himself is looking for ease,
will meet with no ease after death.

“Whoever doesn't take a rod
to harm living beings desiring ease,
when he himself is looking for ease,
will meet with ease after death.”

Here the rod is a weapon used to kill, cause pain or oppress. But the rod is also a tool.

“As a cowherd with a rod
drives cows to the field,
so aging & death
drive the life
of living beings.”

The cowherd uses the rod to drive his cows; in the same way our lives are governed and guided by aging and eventual death. In this way, the rod is portrayed as a tool of subjugation: we are like cattle being herded.

But we need not carry the rod, we have the option to let go of it.

“Neither nakedness nor matted hair
nor mud nor the refusal of food
nor sleeping on the bare ground
nor dust & dirt nor squatting austerities
cleanses the mortal
who’s not gone beyond doubt.

“If, though adorned, one lives in tune
with the chaste life
— calmed, tamed, & assured —
having put down the rod toward all beings,
he’s a contemplative
a brahman
a monk.”

I used to do a lot of hiking and backpacking, particularly when I lived out West. When I moved to the northern Rockies, I believed that the likelihood of a bear encounter would increase; not only that, there would be grizzly bears. So I went to a gun shop to inquire about a pistol I could carry with me when I backpacked – just incase more peaceful options didn’t look like they would dissuade a bear from attacking me.

Oh, but a pistol would be pointless, I was told. I would need at least a .45-caliber magnum, and not only that, I would have to wait until the bear was about six feet from me and my shots would have to be spot on and kill the animal right there. What I needed, the salesman suggested, was a 12-guage sawed-off shot gun that was probably of legal length, fitted with a pistol grip and a sling so I could carry it hanging from my neck and have it right there when I needed it. And the loads would be these steel darts, not shot or slugs, but martial arts looking darts like you’d seen in a James Bond movie.

Of course, it was illegal to kill a bear unless it was attacking you, and in a national park, I would have to be discreet because weapons (at the time) were illegal in the national parks.

I looked at the seller’s wares, asked a few questions, then put everything back down on the counter and “said, no thanks. I think I will take my chances.”

In all my days of backpacking, I never encountered a bear. Snakes and scorpions? Oh yeah, plenty of those. And once a millipede that was about 11 inches long and about 2 inches wide. It had the nastiest pinchers I ever seen!