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1994-05-29
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BPS Newsletter Cover Essay #18 (Spring 1991)
LAYING DOWN THE ROD
by Bhikkhu Bodhi
The textbooks of history come into our hands bound in decorative
covers and set in crisp clear types. To the discerning reader,
however, their glossy pages are stained with blood and wet with
streams of tears. The story of man's sojourn on this planet has
generally not been a very pretty one. For sure, deeds of virtue and
flashes of the sublime light up the tale like meteorites shooting
across the night time sky. But the pageant of events that the
records spell out for us unfolds according to a repeated pattern in
which the dominant motifs are greed and ambition, deceit and
distrust, aggression, destruction and revenge.
Each age, when the dust of its own battles clears, tends to see
itself as standing at the threshold of a new era in which peace and
harmony will at last prevail. This appears to be particularly true
of our own time, with its high ideals and great expectations aroused
by dramatic shifts in international relations. It would be
ingenuous, however, to think that a package solution to the tensions
inherent in human coexistence can be devised as easily as a solution
to a problem in data management. To cherish the dream that we have
arrived at the brink of a new world order in which all conflict, in
obedience to our good intentions, will be relegated to the past is
to lose sight of the grim obstinacy of those deep dark drives that
stir in the human heart: the defilements of greed, hatred and
delusion. It is these drives that have brought us into this world of
strife and suffering, and it is these same drives that keep the
wheel of history turning, erupting periodically in orgies of
senseless violence.
Like any other stream, the stream of mundane existence inevitably
flows in the direction of least resistance: downwards. The task the
Buddha sets before us is not the impossible one of reversing the
direction of the flow, but the feasible one of crossing the stream,
of arriving safely at the far shore where we will be free from the
dangers that beset us as we are swept along by the stream. To cross
the stream requires a struggle, not against the current itself, but
against the forces that carry us down the current, a struggle
against the defilements lodged in the depths of our own minds.
Though violence, either overt or subtle, may hold sway over the
world in which we are afloat, the Buddha's path to freedom requires
of us that we make a total break with prevailing norms. Thus one of
the essential steps in our endeavor to reach the abode of safety is
to "lay down the rod," to put away violence, aggression and
harmfulness towards all living beings. In the Buddha's teaching the
"laying down of the rod" is not merely an ethical principle, a
prescription for right action. It is a comprehensive strategy of
self-training that spans all stages of the Buddhist path, enabling
us to subdue our inclinations towards ill will, animosity and
cruelty.
The key to developing a mind of harmlessness is found in the ancient
maxim stated in the Dhammapada: "Putting oneself in the place of
another, one should not slay or incite others to slay." The reason
we should avoid harming others is because all living beings, in
their innermost nature, share the same essential concern for their
own well being and happiness When we look into our own minds, we can
immediately see with intuitive certainty that the fundamental desire
at the root of our being is the desire to be well and happy, to be
free from all harm, danger and distress. We see at once that we wish
to live, not to die; that we wish to be happy, not to suffer; that
we wish to pursue our goals freely, without hindrance and
obstruction by others.
When we see that this wish for well being and happiness is the most
basic desire at the root of our own being, by a simple imaginative
projection we can then recognize, again with intuitive certainty,
that the same fundamental desire animates the minds of all other
living beings as well. Just as we wish to be well, so every other
being wishes to be well; just as we wish to be happy, so every other
being wishes to be happy; just as we wish to pursue our goals
freely, so all other beings wish to pursue their goals freely,
without hindrance and obstruction.
This fundamental identity of aim that we share with all other beings
has implications for each stage of the threefold Buddhist training
in morality, mental purification and wisdom. Since all other beings,
like ourselves, are intent on their welfare and happiness, by
putting ourselves in their place we can recognize the need to
regulate our conduct by principles of restraint that hold in check
all harmful bodily and verbal deeds. Because afflictive deeds
originate from the mind, from thoughts of animosity and cruelty, it
becomes necessary for us to purify our minds of these taints through
the practice of concentration, developing as their specific
antidotes the "divine abodes" of lovingkindness and compassion. And
because all defiled thoughts tending towards harm for others arise
from roots lodged deep in the recesses of the mind, we need to
undertake the development of wisdom, which alone can extricate the
hidden roots of evil.
Since the state of the world is a manifestation and reflection of
the minds of its inhabitants, the achievement of a permanent
universal peace would require nothing short of a radical and
widespread transformation in the minds of these inhabitants -- a
beautiful but unrealistic fantasy. What lies within the scope of
real possibility is the attainment of a lasting individual peace
within ourselves, a peace that comes with the fulfillment of the
Buddha's threefold training. This internal peace, however, will not
remain locked up in our hearts. Overflowing its source, it will
radiate outwards, exercising a gentle and uplifting influence upon
the lives of those who come within its range. As the old Indian
adage says, one can never make the earth safe for one's feet by
sweeping away all thorns and gravel, but if one wears a pair of
shoes one's feet will be comfortable everywhere. One can never be
free from enmity by eliminating all one's foes, but if one strikes
down one thing -- the thought of hate -- one will see no enemies
anywhere.
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