Football: A History of Cartoon Violence

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Savage Brick Sports; The Simpsons (The Itchy & Scratchy Show); Coyote & Road Runner; Rocky & Bullwinkle; Acharya Buddharakkhita (Dhammapada); Andrew Olendzki (sutra)
National Football League (NFL) Dirty plays and big knockouts (brutal violence as American sport)

Violence is funny (in cartoons)

Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.) via accesstoinsight.org edited by Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly (Dhammapada X, 129-145, Dandavagga: Section on Violence)

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129. All tremble at violence; all fear [being killed]. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

130. All tremble at violence; life is dear to all. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

131. One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter.

132. One who, while himself seeking happiness, does not oppress with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will find happiness hereafter.

133. Speak not harshly to anyone, for those thus spoken to might retort. Indeed, angry speech hurts, and retaliation may overtake you.

134. If, like a broken gong, you silence yourself, you have approached nirvana, for vindictiveness is no longer in you.

135. Just as a cowherd drives the cattle to pasture with a staff, so do old age and death drive the life force of beings (from rebirth to rebirth).

136. When the fool commits harmful deeds, the fool does not realize (their harmful nature). The witless person is tormented by one's own deeds, like one burned by fire.

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137. One who inflicts violence on those who are unarmed, and offends those who are inoffensive, will soon come upon one of these ten states:

138-140 Sharp pain, or disaster, bodily injury, serious illness, or derangement of mind, trouble from the government, or grave charges, loss of relatives, or loss of wealth, or houses destroyed by ravaging fire; upon dissolution of the body that ignorant person is reborn in hell.

141. Neither going about naked, nor matted locks, nor filth, nor fasting, nor lying on the ground, nor smearing oneself with ashes and dust, nor sitting on the heels (as penance) can purify a mortal who has not overcome doubt.

142. Even though one is well-attired, yet if one is poised, calm, controlled, and established in the pure life, having set aside violence towards all beings — that person, truly, is a holy person, a renunciate, a monastic (wandering ascetic).

143. Only rarely is there a person in this world who, restrained by modesty, avoids reproach, as a thoroughbred horse avoids the whip.

144. Like a thoroughbred horse touched by the whip, be strenuous, be filled with spiritual yearning. By confidence and virtuous purity, by effort and meditation, by keen investigation of the truth, by being rich in knowledge and virtue, and by being mindful, destroy this unlimited suffering.

145. Irrigators regulate the waters, fletchers straighten arrow shafts, carpenters shape wood, and the good control themselves. More

SUTRA: "Arming Oneself"

Andrew Olendzki, Attadanda Sutra (Sn 4.15, excerpt) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

...Fear is born from arming oneself.

Just see how many people fight!

I will tell about a dreadful fear

that caused me to shake all over:

Seeing creatures flopping around,

Like fish in water too shallow,

So hostile to one another!

— Seeing this, I became afraid.

This world completely lacks essence;

It trembles in all directions.

I longed to find myself a place

Unscathed — but I could not see it.

Seeing people locked in conflict,

I became completely distraught.

But then I discerned here a thorn —

Hard to see — lodged deep in the heart.

It's only when pierced by this thorn

That one runs in all directions.

So if that thorn is taken out —

one does not run but settles down....

Who here has crossed over desires,

the world's bond, so hard to get past,

one does not grieve, one does not mourn.

One's stream is cut, one will be nirvanered.

What went before — let go of that!

All that's to come — have none of it!

Don't hold on to what's in between,

And you'll wander fully at peace.

For whom there is no "I-making"

All throughout the body and mind,

And who grieves not for what is not

Is undefeated in all the world.

For whom there is no "this is mine"

Nor anything like "that is theirs"

Not even finding "self-ness," one

Does not grieve at "I have nothing."...

Buddhist translator Andrew Olendzki: Back to the Beginning (Sarah Schorr/tricycle.org)

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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: There is something particularly moving about this poem, perhaps because it is composed by the Buddha in the first person and appears to reveal the process through he himself came to understanding. Perhaps it is because of the vulnerability expressed in the opening stanzas, where he admits his fear and sense of dread over the nature of the human condition. Or maybe it is just the utter simplicity of the:

• problem (people hurting each other)
• cause (basic human selfishness, driven by craving)
• solution (letting go of egotistical attachments).

How easy the Buddha can so often make it all sound! More

Summer Solstice: Summer begins! (The Path)

Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.), Dhammapada XX, Maggavagga, "The Path"; Pink Floyd, "Time"; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


The worst thing is looking back with regret, having left undone what should be done, having done what should not be done, having wasted one's time, having learned nothing, having gained zip, youth spent, none the wiser, and no closer to enlightenment (bodhi) or freedom (nirvana).

It's like Pink Floyd sings in that famous song on constant repeat in Asia. All shoestring travelers hear it at hippie hangouts and hostels. Y'know the one: "Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, you fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way. Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town waiting for..."
 
If that's the worst thing, then a very good thing is to stand here, project to that time in the future, look back, feel how much it sucks, and avoid it! You're young, life is long, and there is time enough today. But then there's that other line, the problem:

"Waiting for someone or something to show you the way," The Path, the thing no one lets us know unless we seek it out.

I suppose we always thought we'd find it ourselves. Teacher? We don't need no stinking teacher! Hey, teacher, leave us all alone, ah, but that's another song.

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Verses on "The Path"

Should we worship Time or do surya namaskar, yoga's "sun salutation"? (Stonehenge)

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Dhammapada (Dharma Path)

273. Of all the paths, the Noble Eightfold Path is best; of all truths the Four Noble Truths are best; of all things, dispassion is best: of humans, the One Who Sees is best.

274. This is the direct [possibly the only] path; there is none other for the purification of insight; tread this path, and you will bewilder Mara [Death, the Deceiver, who ruins the possibility of enlightenment and liberation].

275. Walking on this path, one will make an end of all suffering. Having discovered how to pull out the thorn of craving [lust, clinging, desperate hankering, passion], I make known the path.
 

276. You yourselves must strive; the Buddhas only point the way. Those meditative ones who tread the path are released from the bonds of Mara.
 

277. "All conditioned things are impermanent" -- when one sees this [reality] with direct insight, one [automatically] pulls away from suffering. This is the path of purification.
 

278. "All conditioned things are unsatisfactory" -- when one sees this with direct insight, one pulls away from suffering. This is the path of purification.

279. "All things are impersonal" -- when one sees this with direct insight, one pulls away from suffering. This is the path of purification.
 

280. The idler who does not exert oneself when one should who, although young and strong, is full of sloth, with a mind/heart full of vain thoughts -- such an indolent person does not find the path to liberating wisdom.
 

281. Let a person be watchful of speech, well controlled in mind [thought], and not commit harm in bodily action. Let one purify these three courses of karma (action) and win the path made known by the Great Sage.
 

282. Wisdom springs from meditation [cultivation, development, bringing into being]; without meditation, wisdom wanes. Having known both of these paths -- of progress and decline -- let a person conduct oneself that one's wisdom may increase.

283. Cut down the forest (lust), but not the tree; from the forest springs fear. Having cut down the forest and the underbrush (desire), be passionless, O meditators!

• [20: (Verse 283) The meaning of this injunction is: "Cut down the forest of lust, but do not mortify the body."]

284. For so long as the underbrush of desire, even the most subtle, of a person towards another person is not cut down, one's mind is in bondage, like the sucking calf to its mother.
 

285. Cut off your clinging in the manner of a person who plucks with hand an autumn lotus. Cultivate only the path to peace, nirvana, as made known by the Exalted One.
 

286. "Here shall I live during the rains, here in winter, here in the summer" -- thus thinks the fool. One does not realize the danger (e.g., Death might intervene).
 

287. As a great flood sweeps away a sleeping village, so death seizes and carries away the person with a clinging mind/heart, doting on one's children and cattle [family and wealth].
 

288. For one who is assailed by death, there is no protection by kinsfolk. None there are to save one -- no sons, nor father, nor relatives.
 

289. Realizing this fact, let the wise person, restrained by virtue, hasten to clear the path leading to nirvana.

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Free Summer Buddhist Meditation Retreat, June 30, 2018, Los Angeles (DMI)

What is the Buddha's "Path"? (Dhammapada)

Acharya Buddharakkhita, Dhp XX, Maggavagga: The Path, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Noble Eightfold Path

273. Of all the paths the Noble Eightfold Path is the best; of all the truths the Four Noble Truths are the best; of all things passionlessness is the best: of humans the Seeing One (the Buddha) is the best.

 

274. This is the only path; no other results in the purification of insight. Tread this path, and you will bewilder Mara [Death].

 

275. Walking upon this path one will make an end of all suffering. Having discovered how to pull out the thorn of lust/craving, I make known the path.

 

Buddhas point the way to freedom.

276. You yourselves must strive; the buddhas [supremely enlightened teachers] only point the way. Those meditative ones who tread the path are released from the bonds of Mara.

 

277. "All conditioned things are impermanent" -- when one sees this with wisdom (insight), one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

 

278. "All conditioned things are unsatisfactory" -- when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

 

279. "All things are impersonal (not-self)" -- when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

• These are the Three Marks, which are also called the Three Characteristics of All Conditioned Existence. They are true of all phenomena, which arise, turn, and fall away and so are radically impermanent at every moment. They are utterly incapable for providing lasting satisfaction. And, most difficult to comprehend, they are utterly impersonal, without self, neither the parts or property or constituents of a self.

The Path of Purification (Buddhaghosa)

280. Idlers who do not exert themselves when they should, who though young and strong are full of sloth, with a mind full of vain thoughts -- such indolent one do not find the path to wisdom.

 

281. Let one be watchful of speech, well controlled in mind, and not commit unskillful deeds in bodily actions. Let one purify these three courses of action [body, speech, mind] and win the path made known by the Great Sage.

 

282. Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes. Having known these two paths of progress and decline, let one so conduct oneself that one's wisdom may increase.

 

283. Cut down the forest (lust), but not the tree; from the forest springs fear. Having cut down the forest and the underbrush (desire), be passionless, O meditators!

• (V. 283) Meaning: "Cut down the forest of lust, but do not mortify the body."

284. For so long as the underbrush of desire, even the most subtle, of one partner towards another is not cut down, one's mind is in bondage, like the sucking calf to its mother.

 

285. Cut off your attachment in the manner of one who plucks with hand an autumn lotus. Cultivate only the path to peace, nirvana, as made known by the Exalted One.

 

286. "Here shall I live during the rains, there in winter and summer" -- thus thinks the fool. One does not realize the danger (that death will eventually intervene).

 

287. As a great flood carries away a sleeping village, so death seizes and carries away the person with mind/heart clinging, doting on children and wealth.

 

288. For one who is assailed by death there is no protection by kin. No one there are to save such a person -- neither children, nor parent, nor relatives.

 

289. Realizing this fact, let the wise person, restrained by virtue, hasten to clear the path leading to nirvana.

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Top 10 Best Inspirational Quotes

SourcesofInsight.com; Acharya Buddharakkhita (Dhp); Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha said it best in the Kalama Sutra inviting us to freely inquire and investigate.

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality." - artist, icon Frida Kahlo

  

"Mind is the forerunner" - the Buddha

1. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are mind-made. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, unhappiness follows like the wheel that follows the foot of the draft ox
 

2. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are mind-made. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows like one's never-departing shadow. - The Dhammapada

Getting Results the Agile Way (JD)

Inspiration means "to breathe life into." Inspirational words breathe life into things we do. JD has created a collection of some of the most inspirational quotes of all time. Everyone’s here, the Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Emerson, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Twain, Franklin, Churchill, and more. That’s a powerful bunch to have in our corner.  Use their words of wisdom for a lift as we “stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Be Inspired

1. 

   You'll look back and see change. Eat Pray Love

   “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” — Mary Anne Radmacher
2. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. “I want to be all used up when I die.” — George Bernard Shaw
4. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” — Napoleon Hill
5. “It is never too late to be who you might have been.” — George Eliot
6. “Let him who would move the world, first move himself.” — Socrates
7. “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” — Maya Angelou
8. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw
9. “Smile, breathe and go slowly.” — Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh
10. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson More

Happiness (Dhammapada verses)

Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.), Sukhavagga (Dhammapada XV, Verses 197-208, accesstoinsight.org); Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

We seek peak experiences and neglect our long-term happiness and bliss (Urban Mystix).

The amazing thing is that I can choose to be happy. Don't need a reason. It's a choice.

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Wearing a sari, Taj Mahal, India (JaumesCar)

The following are verses from the Dhammapada, the Path or Imprint of the Dharma, a book of Buddhist aphorisms accompanied by their origin stories.

197. Happy indeed we [the ennobled Buddhist community] live, friendly amid the hostile. Amid hostile persons we dwell free from hatred.
 

198. Happy indeed we live, friendly amid those afflicted (by craving). Amid afflicted people we dwell free from such affliction.
 

199. Happy indeed we live, free from avarice amid the avaricious. Amid avaricious people we dwell free from avarice.
 

200. Happy indeed we live, we who possess nothing. Feeders on joy we shall be, like the radiant devas.
 

201. Victory begets enmity; the defeated dwell in pain. Happily the peaceful live, discarding both victory and defeat.
 

202. There is no fire like lust and no crime like hatred. There is no ill like the aggregates (of clinging)* and no bliss higher than the peace (of nirvana).

• *[Note 17: (Verse 202) Aggregates (khandha), the five groups the "living being" can be analyzed or broken down into, which the Buddha saw directly: material form (this body), feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousnesses.]

Chandrashila summit, India (Jaume Escofet)

203. Hunger is the worst disease, conditioned-things the worst suffering (disappointment). Knowing this as it truly is, the wise realize nirvana, the highest bliss.
 

204. Health is the most precious gain and contentment the greatest wealth. A trustworthy person is the best kin, nirvana the highest bliss.

 
205. Having savored the taste of solitude and peace (of nirvana), pain-free and stainless one becomes, drinking deep the taste of the bliss of the [ultimate] Truth.
 

206. Good it is to see the noble ones; to live with them is ever-blissful. One will always be happy by not encountering fools.
 

Topics in The Dhammapada

207. Indeed, one who keeps the company of fools grieves for longing. Association with fools is ever-painful, like partnership with an enemy. But association with the wise is happy, like meeting one's own kin.
 

208. Therefore, follow the noble one, who is steadfast, wise, learned, dutiful, and devout. One should follow only such a person, who is truly good and wise (discerning), even as the moon follows the path of the stars.

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What is the famous "Dhammapada"?

Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Buddharakkhita; Bhikkhu Bodhi

Towering in the Himalayas, the Buddha at Thimphu, Bhutan (Srijan Roy Choudhury).

 

Thimphu, Kuenselphodrang, Bhutan (ST3)

The Dhammapada is the best known and most widely esteemed text in the Pali Tipitaka (the "Three Collections" in the exclusively-Buddhist language called Pali), the sacred scriptures of Theravada Buddhism.

The work is included in the "Minor Collection" (Khuddaka Nikaya) of the Sutra Collection, but its popularity has raised it far above the single niche it occupies in the scriptures to the ranks of a world religious classic.

Composed in the ancient Pali language, this slim anthology of verses constitutes a perfect compendium of the Buddha's teaching, containing between its covers all of the essential principles elaborated at length in the 40+ volumes of the Pali canon.

 

According to the Theravada Buddhist tradition, each verse in the Dhammapada was originally spoken by the Buddha in response to a particular episode.

The Vissudhimagga (Ven. Buddhaghosa)

Accounts of these, along with exegesis of the verses, are preserved in the classic commentary to the work, compiled by the great Indian scholar-monk Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa in the fifth century C.E. on the basis or material going back to very ancient times (much of it preserved in Sri Lanka).

• Ven. Buddhaghosa, the great commentator, also compiled The Path of Purification.

The contents of the verses, however, transcend the limited and particular circumstances of their origin, reaching out through the ages to various types of people in all the diverse situations of life. For the simple and unsophisticated the Dhammapada is a sympathetic counselor.

For the intellectually overburdened its clear and direct teachings inspire humility and reflection; for the earnest seeker it is a perennial source of inspiration and practical instruction.

Insights that flashed into the heart of the Buddha have crystallized into these luminous verses of pure wisdom. As profound expressions of practical spirituality, each verse is a guideline to right living. The Buddha unambiguously pointed out that whoever earnestly practices the teachings found in the Dhammapada will taste the bliss of liberation, freedom, emancipation (nirvana).... 

— Acharya Buddharakkhita

What is the Dhammapada?

Bhikkhu Bodhi

From ancient times to the present, the Dhammapada has been regarded as the most succinct expression of the Buddha's teaching found in the Pali canon and the chief spiritual testament of early Buddhism.

In countries following Theravada Buddhism, such as Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand, the influence of the Dhammapada is ubiquitous. It is a rich source of themes for sermons and discussions, a guidebook for resolving the countless problems of everyday life, a primer for the instruction of novices in monasteries.

Even the experienced contemplative, withdrawn to forest hermitage or mountainside cave for a life of meditation, can be expected to count a copy of this book among his or her few material possessions.

Yet, the admiration the Dhammapada has elicited has not been confined to avowed followers of Buddhism. Wherever it has become known its moral earnestness, realistic understanding of human life, aphoristic wisdom, and stirring message of a way to freedom from suffering have won for it the devotion and veneration of those responsive to the good and the true.

 

The expounder of the verses that comprise the Dhammapada is the Shakyan sage called the Buddha, an honorific title meaning "the Enlightened One" or "the Awakened One."

Gandhara texts of the Dhammapada (GD)

The story of this venerable personage has often been overlaid with literary embellishment and the admixture of legend, but the historical essentials of his life are simple and clear. He was born in the sixth century B.C., the son of a king ruling over a small state in the Himalayan foothills [in the northwest of what is now India, the land of the Sakas or Sakyas, presently Afghanistan].

His given name was Siddhattha and his family name Gotama (Siddhartha Gautama in Sanskrit). Raised in luxury, groomed by his father to be the heir to the throne, in his early manhood he went through a deeply disturbing encounter with the sufferings of life, as a result of which he lost all interest in the pleasures and privileges of rulership.

One night, in his 29th year, he abandoned the royal city and [traveling east] entered the forest to live as an ascetic, resolved to find a way to deliverance from suffering. For six years he experimented with different systems of meditation [under two yogis] and subjected himself to severe austerities, but he found that these practices did not bring him any closer to his actual goal.

Finally, in his 35th year, while sitting in deep meditation beneath a tree at Gaya, he attained Supreme Enlightenment and became, in the proper sense of the title, "the Buddha," the Enlightened One. 

 

The Buddha, Penang, Malaysia (Mark Neilson/ Hotel Lust List/flickr.com)

 

Thereafter, for 45 years, he traveled throughout northern India, proclaiming the truths he had discovered and founding an order of monks and nuns to carry on this message around the world and far into the future. At the age of 80, after a long and fruitful life, he passed into final-nirvana peacefully in the small town of Kusinara (Kushinagar, India), surrounded by a large number of disciples.

 

To his followers, the Buddha is neither a god, a divine incarnation, or a prophet bearing a message of divine revelation. He is a human being who by his own striving and intelligence has reached the highest spiritual attainment of which man is capable -- perfect wisdom, full enlightenment, complete purification of mind.

His function in relation to humanity (and the devas on earth and in space) is that of a teacher -- a world teacher who, out of compassion, points out to others the way to nirvana, final release from all suffering.

His teaching, known as the Dharma (Pali Dhamma), offers a body of instructions explaining the true nature of existence and showing the path that leads to liberation.

Free from all dogmas and inscrutable claims to authority, the Dharma is founded solidly upon the bedrock of the Buddha's own clear comprehension of reality, and it leads the one who practices it to that same understanding -- the knowledge which extricates the roots of suffering.

The title

American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi

The title "Dhammapada," which the ancient compilers of the Buddhist scriptures attached to this anthology, means portions, aspects, or sections of Dharma.

The work has been given this title because, in its 26 chapters, it spans the multiple aspects of the Buddha's teaching, offering a variety of standpoints from which to gain a glimpse into its heart. 

Whereas the longer sutras or discourses of the Buddha found in the prose sections of the Canon usually proceed methodically, unfolding according to the sequential structure of the doctrine, the Dhammapada lacks such a systematic arrangement.

The work is simply a collection of inspirational or pedagogical verses on the fundamentals of the Dharma, to be used as a basis for personal edification and instruction. More

Dhammapada: The Buddha's Path of Wisdom

Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans) with an introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi

• Preface by Acharya Buddharakkhita
• Introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi
• The translation:
  • I. The Pairs (vv. 1-20)
  • II. Heedfulness (21-32)
  • III. The Mind (33-43)
  • IV. Flowers (44-59)
  • V. The Fool (60-75)
  • VI. The Wise Man (76-89)
  • VII. The Arahant or Perfected One (90-99)
  • VIII. The Thousands (100-115)
  • IX. Evil (116-128)
  • X. Violence (129-145)
  • XI. Old Age (146-156)
  • XII. The Self (157-166)
  • XIII. The World (167-178)
  • XIV. The Buddha (179-196)
  • XV. Happiness (197-208)
  • XVI. Affection (209-220)
  • XVII. Anger (221-234)
  • XVIII. Impurity (235-255)
  • XIX. The Just (256-272)
  • XX. The Path (273-289)
  • XXI. Miscellaneous (290-305)
  • XXII. The State of Woe (306-319)
  • XXIII. The Elephant (320-333)
  • XXIV. Craving (334-359)
  • XXV. The Monk (360-382)
  • XXVI. The Holy Man (383-423)
• Notes

The First Day of Summer (inspiring verses)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.), Maggavagga: Verses on the Path (Dhammapada XX)

Sun (Surya, Sol) in hand on the Ganges in India (Immortal Technique, Point of No Return)

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Sol, European gate (Bryan1974/flickr)

273. Of all the paths the Noble Eightfold Path is best; of all the truths the Four Noble Truths are best; of all things passionlessness [freedom from craving] is best: of all humans the One Who Sees (the Buddha) is best.

• What is Eightfold Path to noble attainments (stages of enlightenment)? It is the cultivation of virtue (precepts, restraints), concentration (mental collectedness, absorption), and wisdom (right view, insight).
• What are the  Four Ennobling Truths? Meditative contemplation of the causal links of Dependent Origination for the direct realization of disappointment, its cause, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation, which is the Noble Eightfold Path.

274. This is the straight path without deviation for the purification of liberating-insight. Tread this path and you will bewilder Mara [the Corrupter, Death personified, the Killer, the Obstructer of liberation].

275. Traveling this path you will make an end of all suffering. Having discovered how to pull out the thorn of lust [craving], I make known the path [to deathlessness].

276. You yourselves must strive [to win the stream]; the buddhas only point the way. Those meditative ones who tread the path are released from the bonds of Mara.

Radiant golden Buddha, blue aura (WQ)

277. "All conditioned things are impermanent" -- when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

278. "All conditioned things are disappointing [unsatisfactory]" -- when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

279. "All things are impersonal [not-self]" -- when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

280. The idle person who does not exert when one should, who although young and strong is full of sloth, with a mind full of vain thoughts -- such an indolent person does not find the path to wisdom.

281. Let a person be watchful of speech, well controlled in mind, and not commit harm in bodily action. Let one purify these three courses of action and win the path made known by the Great Sage.

282. Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes. Having known these two paths of progress and decline, let a person so conduct oneself that wisdom may increase.

283. Cut down the forest (lust) but not the tree; from the forest springs fear. Having cut down the forest and the underbrush (desire), be passionless, O meditators! ["Cut down the forest of lust, but do not mortify the body."]

284. For so long as the underbrush of desire, even the most subtle, of a man towards a woman [or a woman towards a man] is not cut down, one's mind is in bondage, like the sucking calf to its mother.

 

Golden Buddha with vast sky behind, track-free birds like arhats (mahabodhisociety.com)

285. Cut off this affection [attachment] in the manner of a person who plucks with hand an autumn lotus. Cultivate only the path to peace, nirvana, as made known by the Exalted One.

286. "Here shall I live during the rains, here in winter and summer" -- thus thinks the fool. One does not realize the danger (that death might intervene).

287. As a great flood sweeps away a sleeping village, so death seizes and carries away the person with a clinging mind/heart, doting on one's children and cattle [property, synonymous with "riches" in agrarian societies].

288. For one who is assailed by death there is no protection by one's kin. None there are to save one -- no sons[, nor daughters, nor mother], nor father, nor relatives.

289. Realizing this fact, let the wise person, restrained by virtue, hasten to clear the path leading to nirvana.

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The First Precept: abstain from killing (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Abbot Thanissaro, Metta Forest Monastery, San Diego, California, "Getting the Message" from Purity of Heart

Man viciously attacked by bull after lightly taunting the animal and gently inserting knives into its back while attempting to slaughter him for the crowd's blood lust and amusement (Gustavo Cuevas/i.cdn.turner.com)

 

You'd kill her, but would you -- y'know -- her?

"What is unskillful (unwholesome, karmically unprofitable)?

1. Taking life (killing) is unskillful,
2. taking what is not given... 
3. sexual misconduct... 
4. perjury...
5. abusive speech...
6. divisiveness... 
7. idle chatter is unskillful. 
8. Greed... 
9. ill will... 
10. wrong view is unskillful.

"These (ten) things are unskillful... What is skillful (wholesome, karmically profitable)? Refraining

1. from taking life...
2. from taking what is not given...
3. from sexual misconduct...
4. from perjury...
5. from abusive speech...
6. from divisiveness...
7. from idle chatter...
8. from covetousness... 
9. from ill will... 
10. from wrong view is skillful. 

"These things are skillful." — MN 9

• AUDIO: "I want to kill!" (This American Life)

The result of our cruelty rarely comes so quickly.

Killing is NEVER skillful. Stealing... holding a wrong view is never skillful. When asked if there were any killing he approved of, the Buddha answered that there was only one: anger.

[That is to say, one should destroy the root motivation, the underlying intention -- which is aversion -- to harm or destroy living beings.]

 

In no recorded instance did the Buddha approve of killing any living being. Once when a Buddhist monk went to an executioner and told the man to kill his victims compassionately -- that is, with one blow, rather than torturing them by multiple strikes -- the Buddha expelled that monk from the Order (Sangha) on the grounds that even the recommendation to kill compassionately is nevertheless a recommendation to kill -- something this Dharma never condones.

• [Similarly, according to the monastic rules (vinaya), if one eats meat from an animal one sees, hears, or so much as suspects was killed for one's benefit, or to make an offering to one, is a violation on the grounds that it is tacit approval of killing. Moreover, if one recommends or speaks in praise of abortion or suicide or euthanasia, and life is taken as a result, one is guilty of killing and expelled from the Order. Why? Killing is weighty karma, very bad karma, and the Buddha went to great lengths to make this known. In ancient India he was known as a karma-vadin, a teacher of the consequences of physical, verbal, and mental action.]

Kill. Kill. Kill. And make us rich (BBC).

If a monastic were ever physically attacked, the Buddha allowed for that person to strike back in self-defense, but never with the intention of killing an assailant. 

 

As the Buddha taught monastics, "Even if highway robbers were to dismember one savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, anyone who would allow one's heart to become hateful and angry on account of it would not be following my Teaching. Even then one should train oneself: 

Even reviled dictator could act kindly (iln).

"'Our minds will not be affected, and we will not give vent to hateful words. Instead, we will remain sympathetic, with a mind/heart full of compassion [perhaps for the results they will one day face for their karma], and free of hate. 

"'We will pervade even these bandits with a consciousness imbued with good will. And beginning with them we will continue to pervade the world in all quarters with a consciousness imbued with good will -- abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, and free from ill will.' That is how one should train oneself." — ("The Parable of the Saw," MN 21)

The Parable of the Saw

Acharya Buddharakkhita (Positive Response) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha, Gandhara/Afghanistan (Boonlieng/flickr)

"Meditators, even if bandits were to savagely sever you, limb by limb, with a double-handled saw, even then, whoever harbors ill will at heart would not be upholding my Teaching. 

"Meditators, even in such a situation, train yourselves: 'Neither shall our minds be affected by this, nor for this matter shall we give vent to hateful words, but we shall remain full of concern and pity (mudita, sympathy, compassion), with a mind of love (mettā, friendliness), and we shall not give in to hatred. On the contrary, we shall live projecting thoughts (feelings) of universal love to those very persons, making them as well as the whole world the objects of our thoughts of universal love -- thoughts that have grown great, exalted, and measureless. 

"We shall dwell radiating these thoughts void of hostility and ill will.' It is in this way, meditators, that one should train oneself.

 

"Meditators, if one should keep this instruction on the Parable of the Saw constantly in mind, do you see any mode of speech, subtle or gross, that you could not endure?"

 

"No, venerable sir."

 

"Therefore, meditators, one should keep this instruction on the Parable of the Saw constantly in mind. That will conduce to the well-being and happiness of all for long indeed."

 

That is what the Blessed One said. Delighted, those meditators acclaimed the Teaching (Dharma) of the Blessed One.

• COMMENTARY: How could the Buddha say such a pie-in-the-sky thing? First, when one realizes that ultimately there is no self, no ego, nothing to cling to, it is possible to behave in a universal way. But more down to earth, this instruction follows the Buddha's advice to his disciples to endure the abusive speech of others. Why should they endure it? The Buddha says one should even endure being painfully tortured and murdered without becoming angry -- which only harms the angry one. This being the case, keeping this instruction in mind, how hard would it be to endure mere words? It would be easy, the audience responds. Therefore, keep this instruction in mind.