Buddhism, part II
The following is an excerpt from The Dhammapada, from Penguin Classics, 1973 with Juan Mascaro as translator and editor. This is from section 13 (pages 60-61). Read the following selection answer the post question below it. Do not forget to respond to two of your classmates’ posts.
Arise! Watch
167 Live not a low life; remember and forget not; follow not wrong ideas; sink not into the
World
168 Arise! Watch. Walk on the right path. He who follows the right path has joy in this world
and in the world beyond.
169 Follow the right path: follow not the wrong path. He who follows the right path has joy in t
this world and in the world beyond.
170 When a man considers this world as a bubble of froth, and the allusion of appearance, then
the kind of death has no power over him.
171 Come and look at this world. It is like royal painted chariot wherein fools sink. The wise are
not imprisoned in the chariot.
172 He who in early days was unwise but later found wisdom, he sheds a light over the world
like that of the moon when free from clouds.
173 He who overcomes the evil he has done with the good he afterwards does, he sheds a light
over the world like that of the moon when free from clouds.
174 This world is indeed in darkness, and how few can see the light! Just a few birds can escape
from a net, few souls can fly into the freedom of heaven.
175 Swans follow the path of the sun by the miracle of flying through the air. Men who are
strong conquer evil and its armies; and then they arise far above the world.
176 A man whose words are lies, who transgresses the Great Law, and who scorns the higher
world—there is no evil this man may not do.
177 Misers certainly do not go to the heaven of the gods, and fools do not praise liberality; but
noble men find joy in generosity, and this gives them joy in higher worlds.
178 Better than power over all the earth, better than going to heaven and better than
dominion over the worlds is the joy of the man who enters the river of life that leads to
Nirvana.
Post question:
What message is the speaker trying to convey and how is the message relevant to the belief systems found in Buddhism? Review the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path as you apply what you have learned to the above Buddhist text.