Dhammatthavagga: The Judge

We’ve all grown up with the concept that authority comes with a uniform. And while this uniform can appear in a very direct manner, such as a police officer’s uniform, or a military uniform, there are other more subtle uniforms that we recognize as well.

There is the doctor’s coat, the three-piece suit, and the Major League Baseball cap that is tilted in a certain way.

But there are other cultural uniforms that signify authority, or so we are taught. The somber gray-haired sage, the well-learned scholar. And it is primarily with these “authorities” that the Dhammatthavagga is concerned with.

The bottom line in this chapter of the Dhammapada is don’t demure to someone because they carry the trappings of authority; one has authority only if their words match their deeds or teachings.

In the Lakkhana Sutta (AN 3.2) the Buddha instructs how to discern between a fool and a wise man.

“A person endowed with three things is to be recognized as a wise person. Which three? Good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct, good mental conduct. A person endowed with these three things is to be recognized as a wise person.”

In the Dhammatthavagga, we have a series of verses that primarily focus on how one shouldn’t rely on appearances to determine whether someone is wise, because a fool can be disguised in such a manner.

“A head of gray hairs
doesn't mean one’s an elder.
Advanced in years,
one's called an old fool.

But one in whom there is
truth, restraint,
rectitude, gentleness,
self-control —
he’s called an elder,
his impurities disgorged,
enlightened.”

Similarly, just because someone wears the ochre robes doesn’t mean that he ought to be followed. The world is filled with charlatans. And many of these tricksters write books, very important books, and they need to promote these books, so they talk a good talk to promote what they say so you will buy their book.

“A shaven head
doesn't mean a contemplative.
The liar observing no duties,
filled with greed & desire:
what kind of contemplative’s he?

But whoever tunes out
the dissonance
of his evil qualities
— large or small —
in every way
by bringing evil to consonance:
he’s called a contemplative.”

I’ve been searching for a sutta and I can’t find it, but it’s one where the Buddha outlines clearly how to determine whether someone is a suitable teacher. It’s really frustrating that I can’t find it. But the gist of the sutta is first determine whether the teacher knows the Dhamma and second determine whether the teacher follows the Dhamma, regardless of whether he or she knows it. So if you find someone who knows the Dhamma, but does not follow it, then that person is not a suitable teacher. Likewise, someone who does not know the Dhamma and does not follow the Dhamma is also unsuitable. But if someone doesn’t know the Dhamma, but follows the Dhamma, that person may be worthy of following. So there are good people out there that are worthy of following, even if they don’t know squat about the Dhamma. Living the Dhamma matters more than knowing it.

Panditavagga: The Wise

After covering fools in the Balavagga, it makes sense that the Buddha would next bring up the wise, which he does with the Panditavagga, a word that is almost as fun to say as Balavagga. What I find nice in this chapter of the Dhammapada is how I am able to recognize within these verses facets of the Buddha’s teaching in other suttas, particularly the verses pertaining to friends and friendship.

The first pair of verses, while talking about a sage or teacher, can easily be applied to how one ought to select his or her friends.

“Regard him as one who
points out
treasure,
the wise one who
seeing your faults
rebukes you.
Stay with this sort of sage.
For the one who stays
with a sage of this sort,
things get better,
not worse.

Let him admonish, instruct,
deflect you
away from poor manners.
To the good, he’s endearing;
to the bad, he’s not.”

And the next verse is more explicit.

“Don’t associate with bad friends.
Don’t associate with the low.
Associate with admirable friends.
Associate with the best.”

What these verses call to mind for me is the Sigalovada Sutta (DN 31), also known as the Layperson’s Code of Discipline. In this sutta, the Buddha guides a young householder on how to identify the four types of harmful friends – “foes in the guise of friends” – and the four types of good friends – “warm-hearted friends.” The company we keep is critical to the level of skillfulness we are able to attain, and if you feel that something is holding back your progress, take a look first at the people you associate with; your hindrance just might be another person.

A sense of stoic resolve is also described in the Panditavagga as being a characteristic of the wise: the wise are like a deep and calm lake; like a rock that won’t budge in the wind. But this steadfastness is not apathy, or even descriptive of someone who doesn’t know how to have fun. Rather, it is a quality of consistency, of having a lack of caprice.

“Everywhere, truly,
those of integrity
stand apart.
They, the good,
don’t chatter in hopes
of favor or gains.
When touched
now by pleasure,
now pain,
the wise give no sign
of high
or low.”

So what this tells me is that it’s not that the wise don’t experience pain or pleasure – they do. It’s just when these experiences occur, the wise aren’t like a chatty Cathy, running around telling everyone about it and drumming up the intensity like a drama queen. It’s not always an easy thing to do, retaining that sense of equanimity in the face of any extreme. We are, after all, human beings filled with the capacity of experiencing emotion. And things happen that can overwhelm us. Of course, at the root of this are all our attachments.

“There he should wish for delight,
discarding sensuality —
he who has nothing.
He should cleanse himself — wise —
of what defiles the mind.

Whose minds are well-developed
in the factors of self-awakening,
who delight in non-clinging,
relinquishing grasping —
resplendent,
their effluents ended:
they, in the world,
are Unbound.”

In our mundane lives, this “relinquishing grasping” is no small feat. I am by no means a fool, but I am far from wise. It wasn’t easy for me to say goodbye to Benny at O’Hare, knowing he was leaving and not coming back. Attachments can be a positive in our life, provided that what we hook ourselves up to enhances our skillfulness, supports our happiness and leaves us a better person. But we must remember that even this will pass because all phenomena – people, places, things, events – are impermanent.

It does help a little bit when I recite each time after I meditate: “All that is mine, beloved and pleasing will change and vanish.” It helps prepare me for the eventual, but this thing called samsara can be a real bitch at times.

Balavagga: Fools

So this makes five blog posts in five days on the first five chapters in the Dhammapada, so not a bad start. But I can tell you, I am already feeling the pressure. Like right now, I’ve been at work all day, I would much rather laze on the sofa and watch TV than sit here and write about the Balavagga.

I like saying that name – Balavagga. Kind of a pirate-like scowl, a scurvy knave kind of thing – Balavagga!

Yet, persist I shall, because setting the goal to blog about the entire Dhammapada isn’t about being academic, pedantic or an exercise in self-absorption. It’s really about perseverance. It’s so easy to find an excuse to not do something, to put it off to later, or to suggest that following through on something really doesn’t matter. I mean, what is it that the apathetic Buddhist will say? “It’s all an illusion. It’s all relative.”

Illusion? Say something nasty to your significant other and after he or she slaps you, tell yourself that was all illusion. Try walking out of a grocery store with a cart full of food without paying for it, and tell me if that law that landed you in jail was an illusion. Life is real, and the consequences of our actions are real. Even a fool can see that.

Uh, um, wait, that’s what the Balavagga is all about – Fools!

This is very straight-forward stuff; so straight-forward that out of the 16 sets of verses in the Balavagga, there are explanatory notes for only one set.

Right off the bat, the Buddha aims a shot across your bow.

“Long for the wakeful is the night.
Long for the weary, a league.
For fools
unaware of True Dhamma,
samsara
is long.”

Yes, samsara, this shit that life can be at times can be very long when one behaves foolishly. It’s basic: Everything I think, say or do, I own. The same goes for you buddy.

With the next verse, there seems to be an implication that the reader, or listener, already has a modicum of sense.

“If, in your course, you don’t meet
your equal, your better,
then continue your course,
firmly,
alone.
There’s no fellowship with fools.”

This is pretty common advice among spiritual leaders. Jesus, after all, in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke instructed his followers that should they ever encounter a village or house where they wouldn’t be received or listened to, they were to shake the dust of that place off their feet and leave! Of course, the Buddha said as such 500 years before Christ. But I digress.

“‘I have sons, I have wealth’ —
the fool torments himself.
When even he himself
Doesn’t belong to himself,
how then sons?
How wealth?”

Basic stuff. I am not my body, my body is not me. So if I am not my body, I do not possess it, how is it possible to think that I can “have” other people or things? Now that is illusion! Or more accurately – delusion.

Skipping ahead (I’m not covering every verse), I find this, which kind of hits home with recent events in Chicago.

“Fools, their wisdom weak,
are their own enemies
as they go through life,
doing evil
that bears
bitter fruit.”

And this verse as well is relevant.

“As long as evil has yet to ripen,
the fool mistakes it for honey.
But when that evil ripens,
the fool falls into
pain.”

While youth violence is a major issue everywhere, it has garnered particular scrutiny here in Chicago. And as I read about or hear about another incident – and there have been many others with young men left in comas – my heart aches and I weep wondering how did this happen? How did we get to this? Yet, these children are blinded by a notion that what they are doing gives them status, power, whatever, a feeling of superiority. But it’s temporary. Because the fruit of kamma will ripen.

“An evil deed, when done,
Doesn’t — like ready milk —
come out right away.
It follows the fool,
smoldering
like a fire
hidden in ashes.”

Our use of the term “fool” is often so frequent and careless that it is more commonly used in the sense of a buffoon, a clown. But how the Buddha is using this term is different. The fool in this case can be evil or stupid, intelligent or clumsy. But in each of these cases, the fool is ignorant, unknowledgeable of how his or her actions bring about the bad results he or she is always commiserating over. I frequently behave as a fool, either unaware of what consequences I am preparing for myself, or reacting viscerally to some event or situation as out of anger or fear. The fool is careless and often thinks he or she is not.

“Only for his ruin
does renown come to the fool.
It ravages his bright fortune
& rips his head apart.

He would want unwarranted status,
preeminence among monks,
authority among monasteries,
homage from lay families.

‘Let householders & those gone forth
both think that this
was done by me alone.
May I alone determine
What’s a duty, what's not’:
the resolve of a fool
as they grow —
his desire & pride.”

Ah yes, I would be a rich man if I had a dollar for every foolish act I committed and which I thought was wise. Or at least out of debt.

Balavagga! I love saying that word!