The Atma Jyoti Blog

A Commentary on the Dhammapada

“He has no need for faith who knows the uncreated, who has cut off rebirth, who has destroyed any opportunity for good or evil, and cast away all desire. He is indeed the ultimate man” (Dhammapada 97).

• He has no need for faith who knows the uncreated.

Obviously faith, however positive a force it may be, is not the desired end. Rather, knowing supersedes believing–“when faith is lost in sight.” But it is not just any kind of knowing that Buddha is speaking about. He means knowledge of “the Uncreated”–knowledge of Brahman which is attained only by the merging of consciousness in Consciousness, the union of the finite with the Infinite. Buddha also referred to this principle of enlightenment as “the Birthless” and “the Deathless.” In other words, he is quite unequivocally proclaiming the existence of the jivatman (individual Self) and the Paramatman (Supreme Self). Further, he is making it clear that they can be known by those that reach the end of the evolutionary process in which we are all presently engaged–some consciously, but most unconsciously. Yet all sentient beings are involved in this process and shall eventually realize its ultimate aim: Nirvana.

• Who has cut off rebirth.

Until the Absolute is known: “Death is certain for the born. Rebirth is certain for the dead” (Bhagavad Gita 2:27). But once Knowing arises, rebirth is permanently ended.

• Who has destroyed any opportunity for good or evil.

The enlightened act is perfect accordance with their divine nature; they do nothing because it is “good” and avoid nothing because it is “evil.” They have no compulsion to either, nor are they in any way influenced by those concepts. Instead, they see things in terms of Real and Unreal. They look upon themselves as neither good nor evil. They simply ARE. When the first person who met Buddha after his enlightenment asked him who he was, he replied: “I am awake.” So it is.

• And cast away all desire.

Nirvana being total fulfillment, desire is completely impossible to the Knower.

• He is indeed the ultimate man.

He is the end, the pinnacle, the zenith of Being Itself.

More on the teaching of Buddha:

• The Mind As Source of Our Experiences

• The Importance of Moving Forward, Ever Forward

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The Dhammapada’s Wisdom

“Journey over, sorrowless, freed in every way, and with all bonds broken–for such a man there is no more distress” (Dhammapada 90). (Other translators have either “fever” or “the fever of passion” rather than “distress.”)

Here Buddha gives us four fundamental traits of the one who has realized the third and fourth Aryan Truths: that suffering can be ended and there is a way to bring about that end. They merit a good, careful look.

• Journey over.

There is an evolutionary path to be traversed which no amount of philosophizing and denial will abrogate. In his discourses Buddha tells about the great deal of time in his previous lives, as well as his “present” one, which was spent in spiritual practice–in meditation. Although our goal is transcendence, presently we–and all other aspirants–must move from the beginning point to the ending point. The universe is not haphazard, but a precision instrument of evolution which will enable us to reclaim our lost awareness and be so established therein that we can never again lose it. This is Nirvana.

Although each one’s journey is quite individual, at the same time there are points that will be common to each person. It is rather like the multitude of people that every day drive the same route from one city to another. Their vehicles will be different, and so will be their style of driving, as well as the number of stops they make–and where and why. So each trip is markedly personal and at the same absolutely the same. It is the same with the “journey” Buddha is speaking about. That is why in various texts he says that upon attaining enlightenment he said: “Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world”–and that others would say the same when they attained to Nirvana.

“The holy life fulfilled, the task done” is the journey that must be completed for all delusion and bondage to be ended forever.

• Sorrowless.

All inner pain is ended permanently for those that have attained perfect freedom in Spirit.

• Freed in every way.

No kind of limitation, inhibition, or binding remains for them. If in someone we see even the shadow of bondage or limitation, we should recognize the the goal has not yet been reached by them.

• With all bonds broken.

Nirvana literally means “no bonds.” Again, ALL bonds are broken for the truly enlightened.

All these are the symptoms of a consciousness freed forever from all compulsion, stress, and pain.

Further Reading:

• Escaping the Forest of Delusion
• What Is the Mind?: A Meditator’s Guide

When a person is lost in a vast open expanse of land he may wander aimlessly, but usually he manages to go in one direction. Those lost in a forest, however, suffer a much different fate. For a reason that has never been discovered, those lose in the woods keep going around in a circle, coming back over and over to the same place. Interestingly enough, maps showing the forty-year wandering of the Hebrews in the desert after escaping from Egypt show that they, too, went around in a circle.

What more perfect symbol could there be for those of us who are bound to the cycle of birth and death–no matter how far we roam in one life we invariably find ourselves right back on the earth plane in the next birth. This is also the experience of those in false religion (or in misapplication of true religion): however much they experience and think they are developing and progressing, eventually they find themselves right back in the same spot they started from. Meditators and esotericists find the same things happens to them, though in many instances they find themselves worse off than before they began.

Because of this Jesus and the Masters of all religions have stated that liberation from the snares of illusion is incredibly hard to attain–not so much because it takes great effort, but because human beings do not know the ways of the right effort that is needed. Consider Buddha. For years he perfected himself in the practice of strenuous yogas that produced astonishing psychic and physical experiences. Each teacher declared him to be a perfect yogi, a liberated soul. Yet, not being deluded (as they and their other disciples were), he knew that he had attained nothing.

The example of Buddha is extremely important for us, as he had no external teaching or teacher to guide him. Only his intuition led him onward to the goal. Moreover, he had no special initiation or empowerment. That which was innate in him–and in every human being–was seen to be sufficient for the ultimate attainment.

This is so important for us because the hawkers in the religious medicine-show have badgered us into believing that we need them and their “product”–that without them we are hopelessly lost and doomed to wander in confusion; when in reality it is our following of them and their system that confuses us and dooms us to wander.

This was the message that Jesus brought back from India after living for several years in Buddhist monasteries. (See The Christ of India) That is why He told us: “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Within us! And He does not say it shall be within us once we are processed by religious rites, but that it is within us even now.

This is not to say that certain procedures cannot make the search easier and shorten the time needed for attainment–that is the purpose of the Christian Sacraments and many of the rites of other religions–but not a one of them is absolutely necessary for gaining liberation from the bonds of birth and death and the bonds of ignorance that enchain our minds.

It is our nature to become enlightened; that is why enlightenment is inevitable for every single human being without exception. No matter how long it takes, “one day all His sons shall reach the feet of the Father, however far they stray.” This is a portion of an esoteric Christian creed.

Understand the fundamentals of effective spiritual practice. Read Foundations of Yoga.

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“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him” (Matthew 2:1,2).

The wise men came, not from Persia as is mistakenly thought, but from India, and they represent the wisdom of India, the place where the sun of divine illumination first shone out from within the liberated sons of God, and it is from there that all spiritual knowledge arose and spread throughout the world.

Wherever the light of spiritual consciousness–and even civilization–is found, its roots are in India. Pythagoras, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus were all messengers of the Light of India to what was then the Western world. Apollonius and Jesus became martyrs of that Light, and Pythagoras was greatly persecuted, as well, having to live on a island to escape being killed. Mahendranath Gupta, the author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, said that undoubtedly there are good people in all countries of the world, but they have their faces turned toward India–for India draws the awakening soul.

When the Christ is born, wisdom arises from the depths of the spirit to reveal and manifest that Christ, “the dayspring from on high [which] hath visited us” (Luke 1:78). In other versions the word used is Orient rather than dayspring. “The east” symbolizes the “east” of the spirit as opposed to the “west” of the outer layers in which our spirit is covered, and also the intuitional right brain as opposed to the “thinking” left brain. The inner light shines upon us from the core of our being and is interpreted to us through our intuition. It is those that dwell in the “east” of spirit-consciousness that seek and find the Christ.

This being so, we must consciously cultivate the “eastern” awareness through meditation. Actually, being right-brained and spiritually oriented is what being “oriental” means. It is not geographic. After all, to the Japanese and Chinese the United States is the East. For them Paris would be the Far East. So to be Eastern is to be intuitional and spiritual. To be Western is to be just the opposite. It is a matter of the polarization of consciousness. We must all become “oriental” in the spiritual sense, for the sun only rises from the east, never from the west.

It is true that all human beings have the Christ (or Buddha) Nature, but only the “eastern” wisdom of the spirit can perceive it. Even though it is equally present to the “western” part of us, it still remains in darkness, turned away from the inner “sun-rising.” Herod and his cohorts never found Jesus. They could not: it was antithetical to their nature which was to kill the Christ, not to worship Him. In the same way, our Herod ego and his henchmen, our mind, emotions, body, and all that is “outer,” have only one capability: the destruction of Christ Consciousness. They are all the enemies of Christ, “many antichrists” of whom Saint John the Apostle wrote (I John 2:18). As wise men of the east we must outwit them as did those first wise men from the east.

Inner to outer

The journeying of the wise men from the east to the west has a profound significance: There must be a transfer of the inner spiritual consciousness into the outer part of our being and life. The west must become the east in a unification of consciousness. Until then we are spiritual schizophrenics, “a house divided against itself [that] shall not stand” (Matthew 12:25).

Meditation is the only way this transformation can take place. And when it does take place there will be a great change in us. Meditation that only produces pleasant or egoically-satisfying experiences but has no effect on our outer, ordinary life is false and should be discarded. When sugar is dissolved in water all the water tastes sweet; likewise, Right Meditation causes the perception and manifestation of spirit to be present in every atom of our life.

Even the Bible says that we are judged by our works, not by our intentions–not by what we think about it, but by what we do about it. Why? Because what is done is the real manifestation of what is going on inside. The thirty-fourth Ode of Solomon express it this way: “The likeness of that which is below is that which is above. For everything is above, and below there is nothing, but it is believed to be by those in whom there is no knowledge.” That which is going on outside is first going on inside, for the inner is the exclusive source of the outer.

This is indicated by Jesus when He says: “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19). That is, only what “takes place” in the transcendent Godhead can take place in the immanent Godhead and be manifested through the creation. The Ode goes even further and says that things only occur “above,” and that “below” is only a reflection. So in certain instances we can judge a book by its cover. Since this is the truth, we can see that meditation is only viable when it has an external effect. Furthermore, the character and duration of that effect will reveal whether the meditation is worthwhile or not.

No delays

“We have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”

As soon as the star rose, they started on the journey. It is popularly thought that spiritual consciousness can arise in us and we can muddle around for years before acting on it. But that is very chancey; in fact it is almost a guarantee of failure.

The people who are going to attain in spiritual life are those who, the moment they learn about the path to God say: “That is for me,” and start moving. Whatever form it may take, they make a beginning and keep it up. They do not make excuses, telling themselves that later on they will start. Of course, all will start one day–that is their destiny–but it may be in another lifetime, for the cycles of spiritual growth do not last forever in the life of the individual. It is like the tides of the ocean. Jesus gave this parable about excuse-makers:

“A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things.…And the lord said unto the servant,…none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper” (Luke 14:16-21,23,24).

No, they were not eternally damned, but they had wasted an entire incarnation and set up the habit of putting off spiritual life–a habit that can persist for many lifetimes, making it very hard to break out of the pattern of neglect. For make no mistake: spiritual life and spiritual practice are the same thing.

Three areas of excuse are shown in this parable:

1. The addiction and distraction of material possession (“I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it…”).
2. The addiction and distraction of the body and the five senses (“I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them…”).
3. The addiction and distraction of “personal relationships” (“I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come…”).

Which ones do we use? They are the seal of death upon us, the stone of the tomb, that must be broken and taken away if Christ is to be revealed in us resurrected. Until then we do not merit being taken seriously in regard to spiritual life.

The wise ones, the moment the inner star rises, start the journey; and persevere.

Intuitional guidance

There is something more about the wise men coming the east. This shows that when we begin to dwell within in as a result of much turning within through meditation, the wisdom of the spirit will arise in us in the form of intuitional insights. We will begin to be guided from within rather than from without. Now this scares all phony religionists, whatever their label, and they begin doing a song-and-dance routine about how important it is to “follow authority” or “have a teacher” lest the seeker be “led astray” or “fall into delusion.”

First of all, we are already led astray and fallen into delusion–mostly as a result of following such religious authorities and teachers in previous lives. If meditation does not enable us to know the way for ourselves, what is it’s value? “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” ( John 8:36). “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

A great spiritual renaissance took place in Thailand during the twentieth century, stemming from the Thai Buddhist Master, Acharya Mun, who restored the “forest monk” tradition which was centered on the practice of meditation. The following conversation, taken from The Venerable Phra Acharn Mun Buridatta Thera, Meditation Master by The Venerable Prha Acharn Maha Boowa Nyanasampanno, took place between Acharya Mun and a Buddhist monk-scholar.

“The Elder: You have always preferred the solitude of the wilds. What do you do when questions or doubts arise? I am here in Bangkok surrounded by the Scripture and scholars and yet there are times when I am at my wit’s end. You are known to be alone most of the time, with no access to Scripture or to scholars. What do you do for help when doubts, questions or obstacles arise?

“The Venerable Acharya: May it please your eminence. I have been studying and listening to the dharma throughout my waking hours, day and night. Never during my waking hours has the mind been disassociated from dharma, by which all doubts have been cleared up and all problems dealt with, one after another. In such a way are the defilements counteracted, fought against and eradicated. It is in the mind that all problems, obstacles and defilements occur, be they external or internal, crude or subtle, far or near, great or small. It is also in the mind that all these things are conquered. There is no need to worry about turning to anyone for help when such difficulties occur. From my experience, there is no better weapon with which to fight against defilements and to solve problems, and this is also in complete accordance with the Buddha’s saying: Atta hi attano natho–one is the master of oneself–the truth of which has been all this time evident to me. It is the dharma or well-developed mindfulness-and-wisdom which always comes to my rescue, always functioning promptly and effectively.

‘In some cases it took an unusually long time before some hurdles could be crossed, but in the end it was never beyond the power of mindfulness-and-wisdom which had to be developed specially for such particular occasions. This is why I always prefer the seclusion of the wilds, where I can come to grips with all problems through self-help.…Often an aspirant feels he is groping in the dark and is always wasting time due to trial and error. It is through steadfastness of aim and dedicated effort that I have achieved what I have, crossing one hurdle after another.”

Commenting on this conversation, at which he was present, the Venerable Maha Boowa says:

“The Elder appeared to be greatly interested and impressed in the Venerable Acharya’s explanation, giving his whole-hearted appreciation that the Venerable Acharya was indeed a competent bhikkhu [monk] able to help himself in the seclusion of the wilds. He agreed with the Venerable Acharya that the dharma recorded in the Scripture and the dharma taking place in the mind were on far different levels. Even the dharma as recorded in the Scripture cannot be as absolutely reliable now as it had been in the early centuries after the Buddha’s complete passing away. With the passage of time there were bound to be deficiencies due to the defilements of the later compilers of the texts. Such being the case, the dharma in the Scriptures and the dharma in the mind are sure to be on different levels.”

Saint Paul expressed the same inner confidence, saying: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” ( II Corinthians 3:5,6).

This does not mean that we should ignore scriptures, spiritual writings, and spiritual teachers. It is only wise to learn from them and keep their precepts in mind. But none of these are legitimate if they try to bind us into dependence on them–particularly through fear.

Related articles:

• The Path of Return to God
• What God Has Prepared for Those Who Love Him

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Just because something is the truth does not mean that we can easily grasp or accept it, however sincere we may be in our truth-seeking. How many years can go by without our fully grasping that someone we dearly love has left their body–they are so living to us. Sometimes we experience intense grief at their departure and absence, and at the same time really cannot feel that they are no longer with us. After all, we are in this earth plane because we are completely irrational–especially on the subconscious and emotional levels.

When my miracle-working grandmother died, I grieved and shed tears over the loss every single day for one year, and yet only on the anniversary day of her departure did I fully come to realize that she was gone! In my heart I could not believe that I would not find her in her house if I would just go there.

So an intellectual understanding about birth and death does not help a great deal. If the facts will not take root in our minds, then we at least need a better perspective on things. So Krishna is now explaining to Arjuna how he should consider these matters even if he cannot take in the truth that birth and death are mere appearances only. He continues:

“And moreover even if you think this to be eternally born or eternally dead, even then you should not mourn for this.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:26)

Even if we consider birth and death to be real (which they are, as impressions in the mind), even then we should have no sorrow because:

“For the born, death is certain; for the dead there is certainly birth. Therefore, for this, inevitable in consequence, you should not mourn.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:27)

The wisdom of Buddha

When we hurt, we want it to stop. That is the way with human beings, and when we lose something we want it back–no matter how obviously impossible that often is. So we demand miraculous intervention by God or His saints. When that happens we are happy, and the miracle gets written up in praise of God or the miracle-worker and everybody seems satisfied. But can they be, when the truth has simply been postponed or avoided? Truth is our very nature. How long will we violate it with more illusions?

How rare are those who never conceded to human demands for more fantasies to make them “happy”! Buddha was one such, and even after these thousands of years there are still many (including some who call themselves Buddhists) who consider that his utter realism was pessimism or indifference to people’s feelings. One incident that is not popular is his dealing with this subject of death and grief.

A young woman whose infant had died came to Buddha and begged him to bring her child back to life. Buddha told her to go into a nearby town and bring him some rice from a family in which no one had ever died. She hastened into the town and spent the day going from house to house with her request. Everywhere she was told the same thing: death continually came to members of the family. In the evening she returned to Buddha and, bowing, thanked him for showing her the folly of her request. Having understood the universality of physical death, she saw that her grief and her request were based on ignorance–ignorance which was now dispelled.

In the West, the brilliant Stoic philosopher Epictetus counseled his students to study their lives and environment and determine what lay within the scope of their power to influence, produce, or eliminate. Having done this, they should put everything else out of their minds as things they should not even worry about. Birth and death are certainly major elements to cultivate indifference to.

Swami Kaivalyananda, a disciple of Yogiraj Shyama Charan Lahiri, once told Mukunda Lal Ghosh, later to be Paramhansa Yogananda, about miraculous healings done by his guru. But in conclusion he stated: “The numerous bodies which were spectacularly healed through Lahiri Mahasaya eventually had to feed the flames of cremation.” So in the end it was all the same: death had its way.

We only torment ourselves with the desire and attempt to postpone or cancel the inevitable. Years ago I heard about a hillbilly who spent the entire day in a theatre, watching the same film over and over. When asked why he did this, he answered that he did not like the way it came out and so was waiting for it to end differently. It was his incomprehension of the nature of motion pictures that gave him such a foolish hope. And so it is with us.

Earthly life

“Beings are such that their beginnings are unmanifest, their middles are manifest, and their ends are unmanifest again. What complaint [lamentation] can there be over this?” (2:28)

Like the hillbilly we either do not know the truth about this evanescent life of earthly incarnation or we refuse to face it. Our appearances on this earth are but a part of our life history. For aeons beyond number we never came into material manifestation at all. Then we began doing so, like actors entering a theater and moving over the stage in a brief play and then leaving to return home until the next performance. Not only are our “appearances” but a fraction of our relative existence, they are fundamentally unreal.

As Krishna implies, life on this earth is completely unnatural for us. It is natural to be out of the body, not in it. Yet we irrationally cling to it and to our memories of it, even trying to make each life duplicate the one before it, not even wanting the drama to develop, to evolve. And we insanely identify with the ever-changing temporary states, totally forgetting the unchanging eternal state that is the only thing real about us.

Many metaphysically-mind people begin heaping up even more folly through striving to remember their past lives and attributing full reality to them. Rare are those who utilize the memory of past lives to illuminate the problems of the present life so that they all can be let go of in order to pass on to higher life beyond any births.

All our “lives” are really deaths–descent into the worlds of change and decay, dreams caused by the fever of samsara, a disease whose cure we must vigorously seek and even more vigorously apply. Only when we come to know that we have never been born and have never died will we have peace and the cessation of sorrow.

Related articles:

• Birth and Death–The Great Illusions
• The Great Benefit of Looking Toward Life’s End
• The Real Pursuit of Happiness

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A Continuation of “What Is the Mind?: A Meditator’s Guide“

“Mind precedes its objects. They are mind-governed and mind-made.”

First there is the mind. Let us go deeper than we have so far. It is possible to view “mind” as both the perception machinery we have been talking about and the consciousness which perceives the perception, the consciousness that is unconditioned and permanent-in other words, the spirit, the eternal self. (“The Self is ear of the ear, mind of the mind, speech of speech. He is also breath of the breath, and eye of the eye” –Kena Upanishad 2) From this higher aspect of Mind all things proceed-in both the macrocosmic and the microcosmic sense. From the Mind of God all things are projected that are found in the cosmos; and from the mind of the individual are projected all that are distinctive to his life.

We are all co-creators with God, even though we have long ago forgotten that and attributed everything that goes on in our life as acts of God. From this delusion erroneous religion has arisen-religion that thinks it necessary to pray to and propitiate God in order for the “good” to come to us and the “bad” to be eliminated from our life. It is this religion and its false God that Buddha adamantly rejected and from which we must be freed if we are to gain any true understanding of what is really happening to us from life to life. On the other hand, we need true religion-the conviction and aspiration for the uniting of the finite consciousness with the Infinite Consciousness in eternal Being. The call of the self to the Self is the essence of true religion, and in that sense those who would turn from death to life must be thoroughly religious. Any god that is separate from us is a false god; the true God is the very Self of our self. Though distinct from us, He is not separate. We are eternally one with Him. But we have to realize that-not intellectually only, but through direct experience. And that experience is only possible in meditation.

Seven profound implications

All right: mind precedes its objects, which are themselves governed and made by the mind. This has profound implications.

1. Karma is the creation of the mind-is simply the mind in extension. Karma need not be worked out or fulfilled; the mind need only be changed, or better yet brought into complete abeyance. Then karma is no more and its attendant compulsions-including birth and death-no longer exist.
2. Our entire life experience is but a mirroring of the mind. If something is not already within our mind it cannot be projected outward as a (seemingly) external factor or experience of our life. So our life is our mind in motion! By observing it we can come to know what is in our mind. If we do not like what is happening in our life, the solution is to alter our mind. People who like to tell of how cruel, selfish, dishonest, and disloyal others habitually are to them are merely telling us how cruel, selfish, dishonest, and disloyal they are. “Victims” are only victimizers in a down cycle. The moment the upswing comes in their life rhythms they will go back to victimizing others. Action and reaction are purely psychological matters, the film in the projector-the light and sound on the screen being only its projection. Change the film and you change the experience. Since objects come from the mind they can only be compatible with the mind and therefore express and reveal its character.
3. All the factors of “life” are really only thought, attitude, and outlook in manifestation.
4. Study your life and thereby know your mind.
5. You are always in control, even though that control may be on an unconscious level.
6. Change your mind and you change your life. (Do not forget that “mind” includes consciousness.)
7. Mary Baker Eddy was right: All is Mind and Mind is All.

Action and reaction

“To speak or act with a defiled mind is to draw pain after oneself, like a wheel behind the feet of the animal drawing it.” –Dhammapada 1

Suffering is inevitable for the person with a defiled mind, for it is impossible not to act or think (speak inwardly, even if not outwardly). “Good” or meritorious acts done by a person with a defiled mind will bring suffering-perhaps not as much as evil acts, but still the suffering will not be avoided. This is imperative for us to comprehend: Action is not the determining factor in our life-Mind is! And mind alone. This why in the Bhagavad Gita (See Chapter Seventeen: The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith) Krishna describes how bad people do good in a bad way and thus accrue more misery to themselves.

It is so important to understand this fact, since we tend to mistakenly assume that “good” acts produce “good” karma, etc., when in reality the actions mean nothing-it is the condition of the mind that determines their character and therefore their consequences. (Buddha was very insistent on this.) Selfish people do “unselfish” deeds to either cover up their selfishness or to get merit for themselves so they can enjoy this or a future life. Their intentions defile the actions and no good accrues to them whatsoever. Instead their selfishness and pettiness is compounded! This is the plain truth. False religion gets rich on such persons with false promises of merit and remission of sins. And even after death the deception goes on as their relatives and friends offer prayers and almsdeeds that supposedly will mitigate their negative karmas and alleviate-or even eliminate-the after-death consequences of their defiled thoughts and deeds. It is common to hear patently evil people excused on the grounds of “all the good” they do along with their evil actions. The truth is plain: evil minds can only produce evil actions that produce evil results.

How then can a negative person break the pattern of negativity and escape it? By thinking and acting with the intention to change from negative to positive. The admission of negativity and the resolution to turn from it can produce positive thoughts and deeds when the intention is to change the consciousness, not just the consequences. Without the desire for real change nothing worthwhile can take place in the life.

Unavoidable good

Buddha then repeats his statement about the nature of objects and then continues:

“To speak or act with a pure mind, is to draw happiness after oneself, like an inseparable shadow.” –Dhammapada 2

What is defiled and what is pure? Buddha is speaking of something much more than good and bad thoughts and deeds in the ordinary sense. Instead, he is speaking of defiled and pure minds. What is a defiled mind? One that is smudged and clogged with egotism and its demon attendants: selfishness, greed, jealousy, spite, hatred, and materiality. A pure mind is free from all these things, including the root of egotism. Further, a defiled mind is outward-turned and a pure mind is inward-turned. One roves through the jungle of illusion and delusion that is the world of man’s making, and the other rests in the truth and perfection of its immortal self. A person who is spirit-oriented cannot but produce peace and happiness for himself. It is as inevitable as the suffering of the matter-oriented person. It is a matter of polarity of consciousness.

Again we see that suffering and happiness are matters of the mind alone.

Further Reading:

• The text of the Dhammapada, translated by John Richards.
• More commentary on the Dhammapada.

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