The Atma Jyoti Blog

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

“Foolish, ignorant people indulge in careless lives, whereas a clever man guards his attention as his most precious possession.”
–Dhammapada 26

George Washington spoke more truly than he knew when he stated that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. For those who seek the ultimate liberation, constant awareness is a prime necessity. On the other hand, “Foolish, ignorant people indulge in careless [heedless] lives.” Interestingly, the Venerable Thanissaro Bhikkhu renders it: “They’re addicted to heedlessness.” This is certainly so. There is a persistent urge toward self-destruction that habitually grips most people, impelling then to negligence, carelessness, and outright blindness to what little reality we are able to perceive if we will to do so.

It is astounding to see how feckless most “spiritual” people really are in relation to their inner development. Over and over they endanger themselves and incur great risk, particularly psychically (mentally), either doing things that can only rebound to their detriment or failing to do that which will protect and strengthen them. They simply do not take seriously the fact that this entire world is a maelstrom calculated to whirl them around and around by continual birth and death, drowning their consciousness from life to life. They take no account of their daily lifestyle or their environment, physical or metaphysical. And the field of their personal relationships is the most chaotic and destructive of all.

There is such a thing as healthy fear–the force that sends us indoors in a hailstorm and up a tree when a dangerous animal is around. This is completely lacking in the foolish.

I heard of a school board that interviewed prospective drivers of their single bus. To each one they asked a single question: If you were driving a bus full of children and came to an ice-covered bridge without any railings on the side, how close could you drive to the edge without being afraid of mishap? The estimates were various, but one man replied: “I would drive straight down the middle as far from the edges as I could get, and even then I would be terrified every second until I got across.” He was the one they hired, for they did not want any driver who could feel confident in endangering their children. We need the same grave caution regarding our own lives and aspirations to higher awareness.

It is, however, pointless to warn the foolish against disaster, because that is what they are hoping for. Then they can stay in the pig wallow and grunt to their hearts’ content, telling their fellow porkers about how they used to be “into” Hinduism/Buddhism, meditation, “and all that” (maybe even a monk or nun), but not anymore. They just live and let live. Got a joint? How about coming home with me?

The wise prize clearsightedness–and clear thought and action–above all treasures of earth and heaven, aware that not for a moment do they dare to fold their hands and sleep the sleep of inner death. [“Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come” (Proverbs 6:10,11). “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death” (Psalms 13:3).] Their vigilance will be their liberty. For them is the admonition of Buddha: “Do not indulge in careless behavior. Do not be the friend of sensual pleasures. He who meditates attentively attains abundant joy.” (Dhammapada 27)

Read more commentaries on the Dhammapada.