Buddha's Path of Virtue (Dhammapada)

SIR PONNAMBALAM ARUNACHALAM, M.A. (Cantab.)

I. The Pairs II. Heedfulness III. The Mind IV. Flowers V. Fools VI. The Wise VII. The Arahat--The Worthy VIII. The Thousands IX. Evil X. Punishment XI. Old Age XII. The Self XIII. The World XIV. The Awakened One XV. Happiness XVI. Affections XVII. Anger XVIII. Impurity XIX. The Just XX. The Path XXI. Divers Verses XXII. The Evil Way XXIII. The Elephant XXIV. Craving XXV. The Mendicant XXVI. The Brahmana

The Dhammapada, of which a metrical translation by Mr. Woodward is here presented, is a precious Buddhist Scripture which deserves to be widely known. The Theosophical Society is to be congratulated on securing so competent and sympathetic a translator and on publishing it in a popular form.

The _Dhammapada_ is a part of the _Khuddaka Nikāya_ of the Buddhistic Canon and consists of about 420 stanzas in the _sloka_ metre. Every fully ordained _bhikkhu_[1] is expected to know the book by heart, and its verses are often on the lips of pious laymen. The beginner of Buddhist studies can have no better introduction to Buddhism and must go back to it again and again to enter into the spirit of Buddha and his apostles.

The Scriptures of the Buddhist Canon are known collectively as the _Ti-piṭaka_ (Sansk. _Tri-piṭaka_), "the Three Baskets or Treasuries". These divisions correspond to the two Testaments of the Christian Bible and contain (excluding repetitions) more than twice as much matter. They are known separately as the _Vinaya piṭaka_, _Sutta piṭaka_ and _Abhidhamma piṭaka_, the Basket of Discipline, the Basket of Discourses and the Basket of Metaphysics. These scriptures are regarded with the utmost veneration by Buddhists as containing the word of Buddha (_Buddha-vacanam_), and are reputed to have been recited at the first Council held, according to tradition, at Rājagaha immediately after Buddha's death _circa_ 540 B.C.

It seems more probable that they grew up gradually and did not receive their final shape till about three centuries later, at the Council held under the auspices of the Emperor Asoka at Pāṭaliputra _circa_ 247 B.C. The account given of the First Council in the closing chapter of the _Culla vagga_ seems to indicate that the Basket of Metaphysics was then unknown or unrecognised, and that the scriptures were then a _Dvi-piṭaka_ (Two Baskets) rather than a _Ti-piṭaka_ (Three Baskets).

If the _Culla vagga_ account is accepted, it would appear that at this Council, expressly held by the Emperor for the consecrative settlement of the holy texts, the five Nikāyas or divisions which constitute the second Basket formed the subject of discussion between the President Kassappa and Buddha's favourite pupil Ānanda. The _Dhammapada_ is a book of the fifth Nikāya. The _Mahāvansa_ (Ch. v, 68) carries it back a few years earlier than the Council, to the time of the Emperor's conversion to the Buddhist faith, for on that occasion his teacher, Nigrodha, is said to have explained to him the _Appamāda-vagga_, which is the second chapter of the work. It was therefore known in the middle or early part of the third century B.C.

It seems to be an Anthology, prepared for the use of the faithful, of verses believed to be the real words of Buddha, short improvisations in which he expressed striking thoughts and embellished his preaching. They were current among the early Buddhists, and have been culled from the other scriptures as of high ethical and spiritual value. The importance of the _Dhammapada_ for a critical study of Buddhism is thus considerable.

For a thorough understanding of the work and of the orthodox Buddhist view of it, it should be studied with the valuable commentary of Buddhaghosa. Buddhism owes a profound debt to this great man, and has recognised it in the name by which he is known in the Buddhist world. Says the _Mahāvansa_ (Ch. xxxvii, 174): "Because he was as profound in his eloquence (_ghosa_) as Buddha himself, they conferred on him the appellation of _Buddha-ghosa_ (the Voice of Buddha), and throughout the world he became as renowned as Buddha." He was an Indian Brahmana and a great Vedic scholar and apostle. On his conversion to Buddhism he became a not less ardent champion of the new Faith. He came to Ceylon from the cradle of Buddhism, "the terrace of the great Bo-tree" in Buddha Gāya, in the beginning of the fifth century, _i.e._, nearly a thousand years after Buddha's death. He came in search of the old commentaries on the Tripiṭakas. The commentaries had been brought to Ceylon by the Emperor Asoka's son, the apostle Mahinda, and by him translated into Sinhalese. They continued to be orally transmitted until reduced to writing, in the reign of the Ceylon king, Vaṭṭāgamini (88-76 B.C.), at a convocation of learned _bhikkhus_ at the cave-temple of Alu Vihāre in the Matale district.

The original Pali version having perished in India, Buddhaghosa, during his residence in the Mahā-vihāre at Anuradhapura, re-translated it from Sinhalese to Pali. His version supplanted the Sinhalese (since lost) and is now the only record remaining of the ancient tradition. He also wrote elaborate commentaries (_Aṭṭha kathā_)[2] on almost every part of the Tri-piṭaka and composed the _Visuddhi magga_, an extensive and systematic treatise on Buddhist doctrine, a veritable cyclopædia of Buddhist theology. His writings are regarded as absolute authorities in the interpretation of the Buddhist scriptures, and he is regarded as the second founder of Buddhism in Ceylon. He is held in high reverence also in Burma as the founder of Buddhism in that country (450 of the Christian era), having taken the Buddhist scriptures there from Ceylon.

Buddhaghosa's commentary on the _Dhammapada_ mentions the occasions on which, and the audiences to whom, most of the verses were addressed by Buddha when, as an itinerant preacher, he went with his followers through the land--mid-Ganges valley and sub-Himalayan tract in the modern provinces of Agra, Oude and Behar; his watchwords--not wealth, fame or dominion, but peace, happiness, deliverance from the burden of sorrow and death, and his message: "Open ye your ears, the deliverance from death is found."[3]

When he first attained enlightenment under the Bodhi-tree (at Buddha Gāya), a descendant of which still flourishes in Anuradhapura, the oldest historical tree in the world, Buddha is said to have broken out into a song of triumph which is included in the anthology of the _Dhammapada_ (153-4) and has been spiritedly rendered by Mr. Woodward: