Indian stream·Pāli Tipiṭaka·Dhammapada·Chapter XX. The Way.

Source context

Theme

the Eightfold Path as practical discipline for liberation from suffering and conditioned existence

Soul-faculty

Consciousness Soul

Steiner

• GA 104, 1908-06-30Steiner notes that souls who immerse themselves in the Dhammapada will find sufficient opportunities in subsequent incarnations to arrive at the Christ-principle, indicating that the Buddhist path represented therein is a valid preparatory stream within the broader spiritual development of humanity.

Cross-tradition

• Vedanta / Yoga philosophyCross-tradition congruence appears in the Yoga Sutras' ashtanga (eightfold) discipline, which likewise prescribes a graded practical path of ethical restraint, mental training, and meditative absorption as preconditions for liberation.
• Stoic philosophyCross-tradition congruence appears in Stoic ethics, where the hegemonikon (ruling faculty) must be trained through sustained practice and right judgment to align action with logos, structurally paralleling the Buddhist emphasis on right view and right effort as foundations of the Way.

Chapter XX. The Way.

CHAPTER XX.

THE WAY.

273The best of ways is the eightfold; the best of truths the four words; the best of virtues passionlessness; the best of men he who has eyes to see.

274This is the way, there is no other that leads to the purifying of intelligence. Go on this way! Everything else is the deceit of Mâra (the tempter).

275If you go on this way, you will make an end of pain! The way was preached by me, when I had understood the removal of the thorns (in the flesh).

276You yourself must make an effort. The Tathâgatas (Buddhas) are only preachers. The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of Mâra.

277'All created things perish,' he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.
[273. The eightfold or eight-membered way is the technical term for the way by which Nirvâ*n*a is attained. (See Burnouf, Lotus, p. 519.) This very way constitutes the fourth of the Four Truths, or the four words of truth, viz. Du*h*kha, 'pain ;' Samudaya, 'origin;' Nirodha, 'destruction;' Mârga, 'road.' (Lotus, p. 517.) See note to verse 178. For another explanation of the Mârga, or 'way,' see Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p. 280.

274The last line may mean, 'this way is the confusion of Mâra,' i.e. the discomfiture of Mâra.

275The *s*alyas, 'arrows or thorns,' are the *s*oka*s*alya, 'the arrows of grief.' Buddha himself is called mahâ*s*alya-hartâ, 'the great remover of thorns.' (Lalita-vistara, p. 550; Mahâbh. XII, 5616.)

277See v. 255.]

278'All created things are grief and pain,' he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way that leads to purity.

279'All forms are unreal,' he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way that leads to purity.

280He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise, who, though young and strong, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle man will never find the way to knowledge.

281Watching his speech, well restrained in mind, let a man never commit any wrong with his body! Let a man but keep these three roads of action clear, and he will achieve the way which is taught by the wise.

282Through zeal knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal knowledge is lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.

283Cut down the whole forest (of lust), not a tree only! Danger comes out of the forest (of lust). When you have cut down both the forest (of lust) and its undergrowth, then, Bhikshus, you will be rid of the forest and free!
[278. See v. 203.

279Dhamma is here explained, like sa n khâra, as the five khandha, i.e. as what constitutes a living body.

281Cf. Beal, Catena, p. 159.

282Bhûri was rightly translated 'intelligentia' by Dr. Fausböll. Dr. Weber renders it by 'Gedeihen,' but the commentator distinctly explains it as 'vast knowledge,' and in the technical sense the word occurs after vidyâ and before medhâ, in the Lalita-vistara, p. 541.

283A pun, vana meaning both 'lust' and 'forest.' See some mistaken remarks on this verse in D'Alwis, Nirvâ*n*a, p. 86, and some good remarks in Childers, Notes, p. 7.]

284So long as the love of man towards women, even the smallest, is not destroyed, so long is his mind in bondage, as the calf that drinks milk is to its mother.

285Cut out the love of self, like an autumn lotus, with thy hand! Cherish the road of peace. Nirvâ*n*a has been shown by Sugata (Buddha).

286'Here I shall dwell in the rain, here in winter and summer,' thus the fool meditates, and does not think of his death.

287Death comes and carries off that man, praised for his children and flocks, his mind distracted, as a flood carries off a sleeping village.

288Sons are no help, nor a father, nor relations; there is no help from kinsfolk for one whom death has seized.

289A wise and good man who knows the meaning of this, should quickly clear the way that leads to Nirvâ*n*a.
[285. Cf. *G*âtaka, vol. i. p. 183.

286Antarâya, according to the commentator, *g*ivitântarâya, i.e. interitus, death. In Sanskrit, antarita is used in the sense of 'vanished' or 'perished.'

287See notes to verse 47, Thiessen, Kisâgotamî, p. 11, and Mahâbh. XII, 9944, 6540.]

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