MEDITATIONS: THE DHAMMAPADA, CHAPTER EIGHT

Thousands

Better than a thousand meaningless statements
Is one meaningful word,
Which, having been heard,
Brings Peace (Buddha 26)

Perhaps it seems obvious that no number of meaningless slogans, buzzwords, nor catchphrases can ever amount to anything genuine and therefore can never stand to even a single sincere word of wisdom. Perhaps it really is obvious. Yet, if one were to count the instances of vacuous drivel uttered each day, the number would surely exceed the thousands—and just as likely, not a single meaningful word will have been said.

Why is this? What alures mankind to a thousand lies for every true word he is willing to hear or say?

The contention comes in bringing peace. For to make meaning is to make suffering meaningful, which is, in a sense, the mechanism by which peace is achieved through sincere speech—the logos. To speak sincerely is to bring one’s words as close to in accordance with the Truth as one can manage. To do so voluntarily is to affirm that which is True as opposed to denying it. In affirmation of what is True, one accepts Truth, accepts reality, accepts that-is-which-is—thereby, conflict dissolves because one’s consciousness does not contend with reality. Thus, through this confluence of Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought is peace brought about by the meaningful word.

But the question remains: if this is true, why does man forever persist in warfare?

The answer is shameful—because conquering others is easier than conquering oneself:

Greater in combat
Than a person who conquers
A Thousand times a thousand people
Is the person who conquers herself.

Certainly it is better to conquer
Oneself than others.
For someone who is self-restrained
And always lives with mastery,
Neither a god, a gandhabba,
Nor Mara and Brahma together
Could turn conquest into defeat. (26-7)

Though it does not necessarily follow that what is “greater” or “better” is more difficult to attain, it stands to reason that the hyper-abundance of what is “lesser” or “worse” signifies a greater willingness to cultivate those degenerative and destructive characteristics. What makes man more willing to sow seeds of his own misfortune? Perhaps it is short-term gain, like cultivating flowers that have yet to bear poison fruits. Perhaps is it withdrawal from immediate pain, like sliding down the slope of least resistance into the poison bog below. Perhaps it is both.

Whichever the case may be, meaning is avoided insofar as it requires self-mastery. That is to say, the Truth is willfully obscured by the individual to the degree he cannot bear to experience it. He who fails to discipline himself, no matter how outwardly powerful, is salve to his passions, to his circumstances, and to other people. He who succeeds in disciplining himself gains the freedom to assent and dissent in accord with the ever-changing world.

Better than a thousand ritual sacrifices
Offered ever month for a hundred Years
Is one moment’s homage offered
To one who has cultivated herself.

Better than a hundred years
In the forest tending a ritual fire
Is one moment’s homage offered
To one who has cultivated himself. . . .

For the person who shows respect
And always reveres worthy people,
Four things increase:
Life span, beauty, happiness, and strength. (27)

“Life span, beauty, happiness, and strength.” These are not merely promises nor proposed consequences—although they are those—but they are also measurements. They are collectively the telos, the purpose of the cultivation of character which justifies the prescription of admiration for such cultivators. The man who speaks sincerely and thereby affirms and accords with life is necessarily he who lives his healthiest potential life span, who manifests his best potential beauty, strength, and success. He is as happy as it is in his nature to be, for there will be much he wills which he can bring into being under his own power, and that which he cannot, he accepts as the suffering requisite to make the rest meaningful.

To admire someone is to look upon him as a being worthy of mirroring in some way. To honor someone is to venerate some aspect of his person or behavior—to identify a value embodied in him and to adopt that value for oneself. So, though it may have seemed obvious that great quantities of vapid speech are not as worthy as a single wise word, what may not have been as clear is the danger of immersing oneself in such meaningless statements. Those who speak vacuously naturally contend with the objective world. They war with peace, for their habit is war outside as to ignore the war inside themselves. Do not make honors and offerings of time and effort to such people. They are not whom one should admire is he wishes to master himself enough to speak just one meaningful word.

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. The Dhammapada; Teachings of the Buddha, translated by Gil Fronsdal, Shambala Publications Inc, 2008.