PNTV: The Dhammapada (Buddha) translation by Eknath Easwaran (#63)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we're going to do an episode on the Dhammapada, which is one of the core texts of Buddhism. This translation is by Eknath Eswaran, who I love, who also did the translation of the Bhagavad Gita that we use in the Philosopher's Notes. This is one of the top 10 old school classics we profile in, including the Gita, the Dao de Jing, Confucius, Analects, Emerson, Nietzsche, Aurelius, Seneca, all those great guys. The classics are some of my favorites. It's just awesome to look back and see what people were saying 2,000 years ago. Plus, and this one was written, or the Buddha lived, I should say, in the 6th century BCE so 6th century BC along with around the same era as Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, which is kind of cool to think about. So the Dhammapada, the word literally means something along the lines of the path of Dharma or the path of Truth of righteousness. And this book is essentially really simple verses all about how we can live a life of purpose, a life of dharma, truth, righteousness. Really cool stuff. We're going to look at a few of my favorite big ideas. First, we're going to look at just an overview of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths. So you might have heard these before. The Four Noble Truths. The First Noble Truth is life is full of suffering. The Second Noble Truth is the cause of suffering is selfish desire. The Third Noble Truth is we can get rid of, or we can alleviate ourselves. Alleviate ourselves from. Is that a word? Alleviate ourselves from? Suffering can be relieved. That would be the easier way to describe it. Third Noble Truth, there is suffering. Selfish desire is the cause. The third one is suffering can be relieved. The Fourth Noble Truth is the suffering can be relieved by following the Eightfold Path, which is basically right thought, right words, right work, stuff like that. So really quickly, when I first discovered that, I'm like, what do you mean life is full of suffering? First Noble Truth, I didn't want to have any of that. But the fact is, life is full of suffering. At least we have the potential to suffer when things that we love break or they die or relationships end or things that we don't want to have happen, happen. Now, what's awesome is when we recognize that simple truth, then we can see that the source of the suffering comes when we're attached to things being other than what they are. When we expect relationships to never end or individuals to never die. That's just kind of an insane proposition. So we want to be able to look at that and see it and not be attached to, not cling to our idea of what should happen. Now, those are big things, but it also happens in small things. So if you get stuck in traffic, well, your suffering is only going to come as a result of your attachment to the idea that you shouldn't be in traffic. Byron Katie talks about this a lot. She says suffering occurs when you resist what is and that a pure mind wishes or loves what is. Essentially, it's the name of her book, Loving what Is. Eckhart Tolle says the same thing. He says, whenever something happens in your life, particularly something that you're not that excited about, accept it as if you wanted it to happen, as if you scripted it. Really cool ideas. So that's a really quick look at that and the idea of attachment, which I found really helpful in my life. Let's look at a couple of other big ideas. The first words of the Dhammapada, if we flip that open to the very first words we would read. Our life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think. Our life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think. Those are literally the first words from the Dhammapada. And if you've watched any of these episodes, you know, we talk about this a lot. Why? Because all great teachers, all great traditions talk about the importance of us being able to shape the contents of our consciousness. If we think that something happens and that by itself means we're going to be happy or sad, that's just not how it works. Everything is shaped by our mind. Everything is shaped by how we respond to it. Again, in Buddhism, they talk about this and they say that everything is empty of meaning. Nothing has any inherent meaning. If it did, then everyone everywhere would have the exact same response to that particular thing. That's just not how it works. Even the traffic situation, someone could be excited that they are going to be late for work or they're going to miss an appointment they didn't want to go to anyway. Now, if traffic meant suffering, then everyone who experienced traffic would suffer. But it doesn't mean that it's empty of meaning. Where the meaning comes from is what we give it, the meaning we ascribe to it. Really big idea. I talk about this a lot deliberately. Hopefully you love it and you're digging it and you're applying it. A couple other things we're going to go to the idea of applying. First, Buddha says that more than Those outside of you more than armies attacking you. You, your own mind that's out of control does more damage. So if you don't have control of your mind, that is more damaging than an army attacking you. It's a pretty powerful statement. So if we have little monkeys in our minds, little gremlins in our minds constantly torturing us, we're in trouble. The first thing we've got to do is learn to shape the contents of our consciousness. Learn to be able to guide those thoughts where we want them to go. We, which is essentially what Buddhism, Hinduism, all this stuff is all about. That's the first step anyway. And then we can live a life of more compassion, kindness, joy, et cetera. Very, very cool stuff. The next big idea. I love. The Buddha says, like a flower that's beautiful but has no fragrance, that's what someone's like who talks about these things, reads these things, but doesn't live them. They're just the same as a flower that looks beautiful. You'd think it would be amazing. You come up to it and you smell it, and it has no scent at all. That's what someone is like who listens and talks about this stuff, but never actually lives it. We don't want to be like that. In the theme of smells, we can think of Michael Beckwith, one of my favorite big ideas. He says that talking about these ideas is. And understanding the theories of spirituality and self development, that's rudimentary spirituality. Applying them, living the ideas, that's advanced spirituality. And if you don't actually live the stuff that you know to be true, you're going to get spiritual indigestion. You're going to get spiritual farts, as I call it. So think about those smells, the flower with no smell, and the smell that comes when we don't live our values. Very big idea. So there we go. What else? He talks about how shaping our minds, it's kind of like how irrigators lead water in the direction they want. Carpenters shape wood. Archers make their arrows straight. Well, wise people shape their minds. Really beautiful idea. He says that just as a rock cannot be moved by the wind, a huge rock cannot be moved by the wind. So a wise person cannot be moved by the criticism or the praise of other people. Really cool idea. I talk about this in the note, but Deepak Chopra introduced me to a mantra that I share often in the notes and in these TV episodes. He says I am totally independent of the good or bad opinion of others. He suggests this as a mantra, one that I've said thousands of times, I am totally independent. The good or bad opinion of others. I am totally independent of the good or bad opinion of others. Just like a rock, I'm stable. My life is not going to change. This is the mantra anyway. I'm still working on the practice so I have that beautiful rose scent and not the other one. Being independent of the good or bad opinion of others. Huge practice, right? We want to be so secure in who we are and so present and grounded that whether someone insults us or praises us, we still have a center. We still have love for ourselves and love for the world. Big idea. He talks about how we get there through self mastery. I talk about it in the note and the way we get to self mastery is little by little. Buddha says, little by little a person becomes evil. Just as a water pot is filled with water. And little by little one becomes good. And as a water pot is filled with water, drop by drop by drop. Really cool image. So imagine a drop and a drop and a drop going into a pot. Eventually that pot is going to become full. You can see they're going to become full of the stuff you want it to be full of, or the stuff you don't want it to be full of. The same with us. Little by little, habit by habit, act by act, thought by thought, we're going to become our highest selves or some other version of ourselves. So there you go. Quick look. Super quick look at the Dhammapada. Hope you dug it and looking forward to sharing more with you soon. Have an awesome day. See you.