{"id":119982,"date":"2018-10-15T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T11:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=119982"},"modified":"2018-10-09T13:52:41","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T12:52:41","slug":"buddhist-dhammapada-seeking-happiness-nirvana-enlightenment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/10\/buddhist-dhammapada-seeking-happiness-nirvana-enlightenment\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddhist Dhammapada \u2014 Seeking Happiness, Nirvana, Enlightenment"},"content":{"rendered":"

A collection of verses dealing with various human aspects are contained in a Buddhist collection called Dhammapada. These verses written in Pali language, were compiled about 2,600 years ago, are part of the Buddhist scripture Tipitaka, which literally means three baskets. These verses inspire compassion, humility, joy and with a proper understanding lead to Nirvana or enlightenment about the present and future lives.<\/p>\n

These deal with affection, happiness, anger, sorrow, evil, violence, justice and other aspects that wise persons and seers have grappled with long \u2014 not only by Buddha but by the Old Testament, the Bible, the Koran, Bhagwad Gita, Vedas and Upanishads etc.<\/p>\n

I shall pick up a few of these verses that are profound, yet easy to understand and inspire a person to be good and to do good.<\/p>\n

AFFECTION<\/strong> and ATTACHMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0From affection springs grief, from affection springs fear. <\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For him who is free from affection, there is no grief or fear.<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0From attachment springs grief, from attachment springs fear. <\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For him who is free from attachment there is no grief or fear.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is also the broad lesson of the Hindu epic Bhagwad Gita<\/p>\n

EVIL<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Hasten to do good; restrain your mind from evil<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Should a person commit evil, let him not do it again and again. <\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Let him not find pleasure therein<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Think not lightly of evil, saying \u2018It will not come to me.\u2019<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

VIOLENCE<\/strong> and HAPPINESS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0All tremble at Violence, all fear death. Putting oneself in place of another, one should\u00a0 not kill nor cause another to kill.<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0One who, while seeking happiness oppresses with violence other beings, will not attain happiness\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0One who while seeking happiness, does not oppress with violence other beings, will find happiness thereafter.<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Speak not harshly to anyone, for those thus spoken to, might retort; angry speech hurts<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, Mahatma Gandhi who worked for non- violence all his life believed that violence in any form \u2014 word, action or even thought should be avoided since it not only hurt others, but was\u00a0also degrading for oneself.<\/p>\n

THE SELF<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0One should do what one teaches others to do: if one would train others, one should\u00a0\u00a0 be well controlled oneself.<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0One is truly the protector of oneself; who else could the protector be?<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Good is restrain over the eye, Good is restrain over the ear, Good is restrain over the tongue<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It reminds us of the three monkeys \u2014 one shuts its eyes, the other its ears, the third its mouth.<\/p>\n

THE HOLY MAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

He whose lust and hatred, pride and hypocrisy have fallen off like a mustard seed from the point of a needle \u2014 Him do I call a holy man.<\/em><\/p>\n

He who does no evil in deed, word or thought, Him I call a holy man<\/em><\/p>\n

Not by matted hair, not by birth does a person become a holy man. He in whom truth and righteousness exist \u2014 he is pure, he is a holy man.<\/em><\/p>\n

He who is free from anger, is devout, virtuous, without craving. Him I call a holy man.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The sun shines by day, the moon by night, the warrior shines in armour, the holy man shines in meditation. The Buddha shines resplendent all day, all night.<\/p>\n

In brief, we can now understand and try to attain the path shown by Dhammapada to avoid evil, to detach oneself from rewards, to abstain from violence, to do good to others, to free oneself from lust, anger, hatred, greed, pride and other aspects that demean a person.<\/p>\n

Finally, we should try to act in the ways shown by the resplendent Buddha.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A collection of verses dealing with various human aspects are contained in a Buddhist collection called Dhammapada. These verses written in Pali language, were compiled about 2,600 years ago, are part of the Buddhist scripture Tipitaka, which literally means three baskets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":70777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}