Hier werden die Unterschiede zwischen zwei Versionen angezeigt.
Beide Seiten der vorigen RevisionVorhergehende ÜberarbeitungNächste Überarbeitung | Vorhergehende ÜberarbeitungNächste ÜberarbeitungBeide Seiten der Revision | ||
de:lib:authors:bodhi:bl129 [2019/08/14 08:59] – content div into span Johann | de:lib:authors:bodhi:bl129 [2019/10/30 13:23] – Title Changed Johann | ||
---|---|---|---|
Zeile 1: | Zeile 1: | ||
+ | <WRAP box fill >< | ||
+ | <div center round todo 60%> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====== Die lebendige Botschaft des Dhammapada ====== | ||
+ | <span hide>Die lebendige Botschaft des Dhammapada</ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Summary: | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | <div #h_meta> | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div navigation></ | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Der Dhammapada is a work familiar to every devout Buddhist and to every serious student of Buddhism. This small collection of 423 verses on the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | To draw out the living message of any great spiritual classic, it is not enough for us merely to investigate it in terms of questions that might be posed by scientific scholarship. We have to take a step beyond scholarly examination and seek to make an application of those teachings to ourselves in our present condition. To do this requires that we use our intelligence, | ||
+ | |||
+ | When we set out to make such an investigation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | To make sense out of such contrary statements, to find a consistent message running through the Dhammapada' | ||
+ | |||
+ | To make sense out of the various teachings found in the Dhammapada, to grasp the vision of human spirituality expressed by the work as a whole, I would like to suggest a schematism of four levels of instruction set forth in the Dhammapada. This fourfold schematism develops out of three primary and perennial spiritual needs of man: first, the need to achieve welfare and happiness in the present life, in the immediately visible sphere of human relations; second, the need to attain a favorable future life in accordance with a principle that confirms our highest moral intuitions; and third, the need for transcendence, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now let us examine each of these levels in turn, illustrating them with citations of relevant verses from the Dhammapada. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 1.The Human Good Here And Now ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The first level of instruction in the Dhammapada is addressed to the need to establish human welfare and happiness in the immediately visible domain of personal relation. The aim at this level is to show us the way to live at peace with ourselves and our fellow human beings, to fulfill our family and social responsibilities, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The guidelines appropriate to this level of instruction are largely identical with the basic ethical injunctions proposed by most of the great world religions. However, in the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The most general advice the Dhammapada gives is to avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's own mind; this is said to be the counsel of all the Enlightened Ones (v. 183). More specific directives, however, are also given. To abstain from evil we are advised to avoid irritation in deed, word and thought and to exercise self-control over body, speech and mind (vv. 231-234). One should adhere scrupulously to the five moral precepts: abstinence from destroying life, from stealing, from sexual misconduct, from lying and from intoxicants (vv. 246-247). The disciple should treat all beings with kindness and compassion, live honestly, control his desires, speak the truth, and live a sober upright life. He should fulfill all his duties to parents, to immediate family, to friends, and to recluses and brahmans (vv. 331-333). | ||
+ | |||
+ | A large number of verses pertaining to this first level are concerned with the resolution of conflict and hostility. From other parts of the Sutta Pitaka we learn that the Buddha was a keen and sensitive observer of the social and political developments that were rapidly transforming the Indian states he visited on his preaching rounds. The violence, hatred, cruelty and sustained enmity that he witnessed have persisted right down to the present, and the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Buddha saw that hatred and enmity continue and spread in a self-expanding cycle: responding to hatred by hatred only breeds more hatred, more enmity, more violence, and feed the whole vicious whirlpool of vengeance and retaliation. Der Dhammapada teaches us that the true conquest of hatred is achieved by non-hatred, by forbearance, | ||
+ | |||
+ | According to the Dhammapada, the qualities distinguishing the superior human being // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 2. The Good in Future Lives ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The basic emphasis in the first level of teaching in the Dhammapada is ethical, a concern which arises from a desire to promote human well-being here and now. However, the teachings pertaining to this level give rise to a profound religious problem, a dilemma that challenges the mature thinker. The problem is as follows: Our moral intuition, our innate sense of moral justice, tells us that there must be some principle of compensation at work in the world whereby goodness meets with happiness and evil meets with suffering. But everyday experience shows us exactly the opposite. We all know of highly virtuous people beset with every kind of hardship and thoroughly bad people who succeed in everything they do. We feel that there must be some correction to this imbalance, some force that will tilt the scales of justice into the balance that seems right, but our daily experience seems to contradict this intuition totally. | ||
+ | |||
+ | However, in his teachings the Buddha reveals that there is a force at work which can satisfy our demand for moral justice. This force cannot be seen with the eye of the flesh nor can it be registered by any instruments of measurement, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The word kamma, in the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | According to Buddhism, conscious life is not a chance by-product of molecular configurations or a gift from a divine Creator, but a beginningless process which repeatedly springs up at birth and passes away at death, to be followed by a new birth. There are many spheres besides the human into which rebirth can occur: heavenly realms of great bliss, beauty and power, infernal realms where suffering and misery prevail. Der Dhammapada does not give us any systematic teaching on kamma and rebirth. As a book of spiritual counsel it presupposes the theoretical principles explained elsewhere in the Buddhist scriptures and concerns itself with their practical bearings on the conduct of life. The essentials of the law of kamma, however, are made perfectly clear: our willed actions determine the sphere of existence into which we will be reborn after death, the circumstances and endowments of our lives within any given form of rebirth, and our potentials for spiritual progress or decline. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the second level of instruction found in the Dhammapada the //content// of the message is basically the same as that of the first level: it is the same set of moral injunctions for abstaining from evil and doing good. The difference lies in the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 3. The Path to the Final Good ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The teaching on kamma and rebirth, with its practical corollary that we should perform deeds of merit with the aim of obtaining a higher mode of rebirth, is not by any means the final message of the Buddha or the decisive counsel of the Dhammapada. In its own sphere of application this teaching is perfectly valid as a preparatory measure for those who still require further maturation in their journey through samsara. However, a more searching examination reveals that all states of existence in samsara, even the highest heavens, are lacking in genuine worth; for they are all impermanent, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Having understood that all conditioned things are intrinsically unsatisfactory and fraught with danger, the mature disciple aspires instead for deliverance from the ever-repeating round of rebirths. This is the ultimate goal to which the Buddha points, as the immediate aim for those of developed spiritual faculties and also as the long-term ideal for those who still need further maturation: Nibbana, the Deathless, the unconditioned state where there is no more birth, aging and death, and thus no more suffering. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The third level of instruction found in the Dhammapada sketches the theoretical framework for the aspiration for final liberation and lays down guidelines pertaining to the practical discipline that can bring this aspiration to fulfillment. The theoretical framework is supplied by the teaching of the Four Noble Truths, which the Dhammapada calls the best of all truths (v. 273): suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path leading to the cessation of suffering. The four truths all center around the problem of //dukkha// or suffering, and the Dhammapada teaches us that //dukkha// is not to be understood only as experienced pain and sorrow but more widely as the pervasive inadequacy and wretchedness of everything conditioned: | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the third level of instruction a shift in the practical teaching of the Dhammapada takes place, corresponding to the shift in doctrine from the principles of kamma and rebirth to the Four Noble Truths. The stress now no longer falls on basic morality and purified states of mind as a highway to more favorable planes of rebirth. Instead it falls on the cultivation of the Noble Eightfold Path as the means to destroy craving and thus break free from the entire process of rebirth itself. Der Dhammapada declares that the eightfold path is the only way to deliverance from suffering (v. 274). Its says this, not as a fixed dogma, but because full release from suffering comes from the purification of wisdom, and this path alone, with its stress on right view and the cultivation of insight, leads to fully purified wisdom, to complete understanding of liberating truth. Der Dhammapada states that those who tread the path will come to know the Four Noble Truths, and having gained this wisdom, they will end all suffering. The Buddha assures us that by walking the path we will bewilder Mara, pull out the thorn of lust, and escape from suffering. But he also cautions us about our own responsibility: | ||
+ | |||
+ | In principle the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is open to people in any walk of life, householders as well as monks and nuns. However, application to the development of the path is most feasible for those who have relinquished all worldly concerns in order to devote themselves fully to living the holy life. For conduct to be completely purified, for the mind to be trained in concentration and insight, the adoption of a different lifestyle becomes advisable, one which minimizes distractions and stimulants to craving and orders all activities around the aim of liberation. Thus the Buddha established the Sangha, the Order of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, as the field of training for those ready to devote themselves fully to the practice of the path. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the Dhammapada we find the call to the monastic life resounding throughout. The entry way to the monastic life is an act of radical renunciation spurred on by our confrontation with suffering, particularly by our recognition of our inevitable mortality. Der Dhammapada teaches that just as a cowherd drives the cattle to pasture, so old age and death drive living beings from life to life (v. 135). There is no place in the world where one can escape death, for death is stamped into the very substance of our being (v. 128). The body is a painted mirage in which there is nothing lasting or stable; it is a mass of sores, a nest of disease, which breaks up and ends in death; it is a city built of bones containing within itself decay and death; the foolish are attached to it, but the wise, having seen that the body ends as a corpse, lose all delight in mundane joys (vv. 146-150). | ||
+ | |||
+ | Having recognized the transience and hidden misery of mundane life, the thoughtful break the ties of family and social relationships, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The life of meditation reaches its peak in the development of insight, and the Dhammapada succinctly enunciates the principles to be seen with the wisdom of insight: "All conditioned things are impermanent... All conditioned things are suffering... All things are not self. When one sees this with wisdom, then one turns away from suffering. This is the path of purification" | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 4. The Highest Goal ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The fourth level of teaching in the Dhammapada does not reveal any new principles of doctrine or approach to practice. This level shows us, rather, the fruit of the third level. The third level exposes the path to the highest goal, the way to break free from all bondage and suffering and to win the supreme peace of Nibbana. The fourth level is a celebration and acclamation of those who have gained the fruits of the path and won the final goal. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The stages of definite attainment along the way to Nibbana are enumerated in the Pali canon as four: stream-entry, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The arahant is depicted in two full chapters: in chapter 7 under his own name and in chapter 26, the last chapter, under the name " | ||
+ | |||
+ | In this very life the arahant has realized the end of suffering, laying down the burden of the five aggregates. He has transcended the ties of both merit and demerit; he is sorrowless, stainless and pure; he is free from attachment and has plunged into the Deathless. Like the moon he is spotless and pure, serene and clear. He has cast off all human bonds and transcended all celestial bonds; he has gotten rid of the substrata of existence and conquered all worlds. He knows the death and rebirth of beings; he is totally detached, blessed and enlightened. No gods, angels or human beings can find his tracks, for he clings to nothing, has no attachment, holds to nothing. He has reached the end of births, attained the perfection of insight, and reached the summit of spiritual excellence. Bearing his last body, perfectly at peace, the arahant is the living demonstration of the truth of the Dhamma. By his own example he shows that it is possible to free oneself from the stains of greed, hatred and delusion, to rise above suffering, and to win Nibbana in this very life. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The arahant ideal reaches its optimal exemplification in the first and highest of the arahants, the Buddha, and the Dhammapada makes a number of important pronouncements about the Master. The Buddha is the supreme teacher who depends on no one else for guidance, who has reached perfect enlightenment through his own self-evolved wisdom (v. 353). He is the giver of refuge and is himself the first of the three refuges; those who take refuge in the Buddha, his Doctrine, and his Order are released from all suffering, after seeing with proper wisdom the Four Noble Truths (vv.190-192). The Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | This will complete our discussion of the four basic levels of instruction found in the Dhammapada. Interwoven with the verses pertaining to these four main levels, there runs throughout the Dhammapada a large number of verses that cannot be tied down exclusively to any single level but have a wider application. These verses sketch for us the world view of early Buddhism and its distinctive insights into human existence. Fundamental to this world view, as it emerges from the text, is the inescapable duality of human life. Man walks a delicate balance between good and evil, purity and defilement, progress and decline; he seeks happiness, he fears suffering, loss and death. We are free to choose between good and evil, and must bear full responsibility for our decisions. Again and again the Dhammapada sounds this challenge to human freedom: we are the makers and masters of ourselves, the protectors or destroyers of ourselves, we are our own saviors and there is no one else who can save us (vv. 160, 165, 380). Even the Buddha can only indicate the path to deliverance; | ||
+ | |||
+ | The chief role in achieving progress in all spheres, the Dhammapada states, is played by the mind. Der Dhammapada opens with a clear assertion that the mind is the forerunner of all that we are, the maker of our character, the creator of our destiny. The entire Buddhist discipline, from basic morality to the attainment of arahantship, | ||
+ | |||
+ | What is needed most to train and subdue the mind, according to the Dhammapada, is a quality called heedfulness // | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div showmore> | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Die [[http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahre 1958 hat die BPS eine große Auswahl an Büchern und Broschüren über eine weite Themenpalette veröffentlicht. Unter den Veröffentlichungen finden sich sowohl sorgfältige, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Buddhist Publication Society\\ | ||
+ | P.O. Box 61\\ | ||
+ | 54, Sangharaja Mawatha\\ | ||
+ | Kandy, Sri Lanka | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div f_zzecopy> | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | < | ||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # |