Saturday, September 29, 2012

Peace: Better than a 1,000 words

H. Kopp Delaney (photo); Wisdom Quarterly
 
"Better than a thousand empty words is a single word that bring peace," the Buddha states in the Dhammapada ("Imprint of the Dharma"), a collection of aphorisms and their origin stories.

When the goal is peace, what might be said? We might say many thousands of words enumerating the pros of peace or arguing about the cons of violence.

But as for inner peace, Would we have any? Would our listeners? It might be enough to say, "Stop" as the Buddha did to Angulimala. Or then there was that time when the monks of Kosambi would not stop arguing and less than a single word was enough to restore peace.

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