Probably because publishers wouldn’t be able to make much of a profit out of an Udāna translation. In the case of the Dhammapada, about three quarters of its verses are not peculiarly Buddhist but rather would appeal to anyone with an interest in matters of the spirit. I doubt the same could be said for more than about ten of the eighty suttas in the Udāna.
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Thank you. I will need to look into these suggestions, especially the ethics-related suttas. The Sigalovada Sutta is a favorite of mine.
Is there merit to the following words of 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 the countries following Theravada Buddhism, such as Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, the influence of the Dhammapada is ubiquitous. It is an ever-fecund 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 the 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 Even the experienced contemplative, withdrawn to forest hermitage or mountainside cave for a life of meditation, can be expected to count a copy of the book among his few material possessions.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 Dhammapada: The Buddha's Path of Wisdom
Since the Pali suttas are equivalent to the agamas of the Mahayana canon, I honestly believe that Mahayana Buddhists have a great deal to learn from them, especially since the agamas aren’t as widely translated.
I have never read something in the Pali scriptures that jumped out at me as contrary to Mahayana teachings.
These scriptures are the common ground between Mahayana and Theravada, much like how the Hebrew scriptures are common ground between Judaism and Christianity.
If the Nikayas/Agamas were only provisional, and therefore irrelevant for today, it doesn’t make much sense that they’d be preserved in the Mahayana canon. If they contain the Buddha’s teachings, I believe Mahayanists should read them.
Here’s a different question: Which one scripture best and most succinctly presents the overall teaching of the Pali canon? I am only guessing that it’s the Dhammapda.
To fulfil that description a text would need to be a distillation of all three Piṭakas and no such thing exists in the Pali Canon.
But if we replace “Pali Canon” with “Suttanta Piṭaka”, then I would propose the Suttanipāta as the “best succinct presentation” of its teachings. I don’t think the Dhammapada qualifies because it doesn’t so much as mention paṭiccasamuppāda.
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You are correct that I was referring to the Sutta Pitaka. The Vinaya and the Abhidhamma don’t seem to apply as well to the average person.
Is dependent origination really not mentioned in the Dhammapada? Is impermanence at least mentioned in the Dhammpada?
Isn’t the Suttanipata too lengthy to be a succinct presentation of the Buddha’s teachings? I look forward to reading the Udana and the Itivuttaka.
Certainly, though I would add a few qualifiers…
As there’s no evidence of it being translated into any vernacular in pre-modern times, the words “has been regarded…” are unlikely to be referring to the outlook of the manyfolk. They really mean “has been regarded by those who can read and who know Pali.”
In modern Southeast Asia it is principally the background stories from the Dhammapada Commentary, rather than the Dhammapada verses, that are an “ever-fecund source” in popular preaching. Sometimes such sermons will be based upon a Dhammapada verse (especially in city monasteries) but as often as not the story will be narrated for some entirely different purpose. For example, if you look at the use made of the Dhp-a stories in the desanās of Ajahn Chah and other Thai forest monks, it’s almost never for the purpose of illustrating the Dhammapada verse to which the story is supposed to be the background.
I agree that this would be a very sensible choice and in Sri Lanka (where Bhikkhu Bodhi trained) perhaps it is the actual choice of many monks. In Thailand, on the other hand, I’ve never met any thudong monk who carried a copy of the Dhammapada. Their usual reading material seems to be the Pātimokkha and a notebook containing various Vinaya formulas and parittas.
Indeed.
When you read the Dhammapada, doesn’t the opening line of verse 166 jump out at you in such a way?
Attadatthaṃ paratthena, bahunāpi na hāpaye.
“One should never abandon one’s own welfare for the welfare of another, however great [the latter].”
It’s a common misconception that Mahayana Buddhists postpone enlightenment until all other beings are enlightened. More commonly, the goal is to attain enlightenment as quickly as possible, in order to then be more capable of enlightening all beings.
Celestial bodhisattvas like Avalokitesvara represent an ideal of self-sacrifice, rather than a mandate for all Mahayanists to postpone their enlightenment.
There’s also the concept of non-abiding Nirvana, which is unique to Mahayana Buddhism. A Buddha can have one foot in this world and one foot in the Nirvana realm, rather than simply passively staying in Nirvana.
I don’t think so, but if you come across a verse that refers to it I should welcome your correction.
Of course. The impermanence of things is a commonplace in all religious literature. But if it is true that…
“Because of not understanding and not penetrating this [teaching of dependent arising] this generation … does not pass beyond saṃsāra with its plane of misery, unfortunate destinations, and lower realms.”
(Mahānidānasutta)
… then the mere mention of impermanence is not going to suffice as a substitute for an exposition of dependent arising.
I don’t think so. A few weeks ago on Dhamma Wheel forum I posted a guide to memorising the Pali text of the Dhammapada in 31 days. Using the same method the Suttanipāta should take about three and a half months, or even less if one is just memorising an English translation. If this is too much, however, then one might compile an anthology comprising about a third, or possibly just a quarter, of the Sn’s suttas.
As I understand it, all things are impermanent because they are dependently originated. One implies the other.
“Why are saṅkhata dhammas impermanent?” was a much debated subject among the Indian Buddhists. There was no uncontested view on the matter. Personally I hold with Moggalliputtatissa that their impermanence is a brute fact that needs no explanation as far as the practical purpose of the Dhamma is concerned.
But for discussion’s sake, let’s suppose that I’m mistaken and that you and the Andhakas (the Buddhist school of Andhra Pradesh) are correct in attributing their impermanence to their dependently originatedness. What then? Does it follow that the Dhammapada will have given an exposition of dependent arising merely by mentioning one of its consequences?
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Ven, which chapter of Kv are you referring to here?
The Aniccatākathā.
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It says throughout the Dhammapada that all conditioned things are impermanent. How is this not dependent origination?
And throughout Ecclesiastes too.
Was Kohelet a teacher of dependent arising?
Since dependent arising isn’t the only conceivable reason why things might be impermanent, to merely state that all conditioned things are impermanent (as the Dhammapada does) is not tantamount to setting forth a teaching on dependent arising.
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It’s quite a fine point, as the two teachings are so closely connected in Buddhism. But we forget that ours is just one way, and an unusual one at that, to see these matters.
In a theistic system, for example, you could say that all things are impermanent: they were created by the will of God and will be destroyed by him, too.
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Thank you for the clarification.
Something I notice in reading a text like the Dhammapada is that it’s addressed to monks, rather than laypeople.
It might be unrealistic for most laypeople to attain enlightenment in this lifetime by following the Dhammapada’s teachings by one’s self-effort alone.
This is why the Pure Land path is so popular, because it presents a practical path for laypeople to attain enlightenment in one lifetime, rather than simply hoping for a fortunate worldly rebirth.
The path of self-power and the path of other-power need not contradict each other.
A layperson can seek to live the Eightfold Path, in sincere gratitude for the boundless compassion of Amida Buddha.
I want my thoughts and actions to reflect sincere gratitude to Amida Buddha, rather than passively reciting Amida’s name with no change in my own life.
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If you will forgive me, though, the above is only true if Pure Land Buddhism “works”.
If Sukhāvatī exists, so to speak.
Otherwise it lays out potentially a path of distraction for lay people. One has to consider all sides.
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This concern is addressed in the Tannisho:
I really do not know whether the nembutsu may be the cause for my birth in the Pure Land, or the act that shall condemn me to hell. But I have nothing to regret, even if I should have been deceived by my teacher, and, saying the nembutsu, fall into hell. The reason is that if I were capable of realizing Buddhahood by other religious practices and yet fell into hell for saying the nembutsu, I might have dire regrets for having been deceived. But since I am absolutely incapable of any religious practice, hell is my only home.
https://personal.carthage.edu/jlochtefeld/buddhism/materials/tannisho.html
For Shinran, the Nembutsu was a cry for help from a man who had made every effort to attain enlightenment by his own efforts and failed. It’s not because he could “prove” that the Nembutsu was true.
If one does good things in life and abstains from evil, out of gratitude to Amida Buddha, then one will at least have a positive rebirth in this world if the Nembutsu turns out to be untrue.
Shinran never saw the Nembutsu as a license to do evil:
It is deplorable that you have told people to abandon themselves to their hearts’ desires and to do anything they want. One must seek to cast off the evil of this world and to cease doing wretched deeds; this is what it means to reject the world and to live the nembutsu. When people who may have said the nembutsu for many years abuse others in word or deed, there is no indication of rejecting this world… You, who are totally ignorant of the sutras and commentaries and ignorant of the Tathagata’s words, must never instruct others in this way.
16 - The Collected Works of Shinran
Shinran was clear that those who teach others to use the Nembutsu as a license to do evil are deplorable.
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And I suppose that’s what’s alluded to a post above, then?
It is good that people can be inspired by Shinran, but I can also see some people seeing the above description and not thinking that this is someone whose teaching they ought to be following. I suppose people are just different, and different things speak to them, and words will be read differently by different people, them all being different.