Dhammapada in Buddhism recounts the proper way of living and therefore it offers a guide to how a person should live just as the Buddha saw it conducive. The ‘dhamma’ is a teaching of a proper way of living just as things are. ‘Pada’ means to go or to participate. Therefore, Dhammapada is like asking someone to turn to the teachings. One major theme in Dhammapada is a detriment. This teaching emphasizes detrimental actions have their effect. Misdeeds that might seem insignificant and doted build up a force that is destructive and damaging. The teaching is a combined agreement of consequentialism. What is morally right has been argued to be producing the right kinds of consequences. Doing what is morally right is doing one’s duty or what is expected of them, respecting rights, obeying nature, living according to God’s command, obeying one’s own heart, being respectful, being reasonable, not interfering in other matters and maximizing one’s potential. In Dhammapada’s teaching, this is living like the accomplished person (“Here someone is of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration”) (Wallis, p116). Consequentialism agrees that all that matters is the outcome (Slote, 140). This in accordance with Buddhism is mitigating detriments and encouraging moral to increase the accumulation of value.
From the teaching of detriment, the Buddha makes two notable observations: human beings are prone to the formation of habits and an individual can abandon the bad habits and conform good and beneficial behaviors. Behavior is seen as a developed habit of doing something and developing an impulse towards that habit which ends up being a behavior. The teaching states, “if a person does something detrimental, he should not do it again and again. He must not create that impulse in himself.” Harmful habits develop into a pattern and behavior develops.
Behavior is a developed phenomenon. Understanding behavior involves identifying its origin, structure, and function. Aristotle provided four explanations for the development of behavior. One of them is causes or triggers. Efficient causes (triggers), such as necessity or sufficiency identify the parts of a sequence that are essential for the later parts. Events that bring about an effect are the subtle triggers to behavior in this case. Final causes (functions) calls for functional explanations. Conditioning, in this case, develops from when a stimulus finds a biologically significant event (Killeen Peter). Efficient causes of behavior are the conditions important enough for the survival that many individuals develop sensitive to (Killeen Peter). Efficient causes are the kinds of causes that condition a behavior for the survival that individuals become sensitive to. Material causes of conditional is the fourth cause of behavior identified by Aristotle. This affects the substrate of learning in the nervous system. It is therefore essential to establish that the behavioral development identified in the Dhammapada’s teaching mostly can be caused by an efficient cause. Individuals can become prone to habitual behavior of detrimental things when the actual harm and detriments in plenty within the environment of an individual.
Another essential element identified by the Buddha is that there possibility of a person to deter harmful behaviors that have conditioned to an individual and transform them into beneficial ones to avoid suffering in the end. The Buddha states, “Even a person who acts to his detriment has a good fortune as long as his misdeed has not matured.” There’s a point when bad deeds can be reversible and a person can reverse his bad to good. However, at a mature level of bad deeds, the person will face the negative consequences of his making. “But when the misdeed has matured then the person experiences misfortunes,” it says. This begs the question as to when are bad deeds considered mature that they can now effect bad consequences? And when they mature, is there a reversible path to atone for the bad to end the misfortunes, or is it an endless path of suffering until one dies or even through death?
In Buddhism, ‘detriment’ when translated means wrongdoing, bad or sinful. Additionally, there is a more precise meaning in Buddhism as to what is constituted bad or wrongful. Verses 66 and 67 sites to bad or wrong stems from one’s actions which “bear bitter fruit” (Wallis, p24). Also, one’s actions are also deemed as wrong if they bring a sense of shame or remorse. There are therefore no legal institutions or judgments from above that define what is wrong and bad. Therefore, it is possible that suffering due to detriments is reversible when one decides to cut off the sinful behavior even though misdeeds have matured because the wrongs done are subjective and consequences are where the person is (Wallis, p129). Besides that argument, it is possible that probably after misfortunes of misdeeds have matured, the consequences are a lifelong of suffering. The Buddha makes a statement that, “those who act destructively, in the lower world; those of good conduct go to a higher world.” from the explanation, it is evident that the lower and higher world fit into the Christian theology of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’. However, in both case, there is evidence of consequences for one’s deeds.
The other query is when misfortunes are considered to be mature in this case. Without a clear case, there is no determining when sins reached the brim for them to translate to consequences and misfortunes. There is outright message as to whether sins or wrongful doings are weighed to a maximum but what is evident is that there is boundary to how much one can do evil. The Buddha makes a cautionary message that one should not think that an injury or harm done is slight because, “with drops of falling water even a water pot is filled.” Also the teaching extends to say that, “detrimental action is to be avoided as a lonely merchant with great riches would avoid a dangerous road or as one who desires life avoids poison” (Wallis, 34). There is always an extent to ones misdeeds and evidently accumulating them does more harm than good.
On the merit side, those who detest detriment create value for themselves goodness follows them. Just as the wrongdoing accumulate and fill up to mature to misfortunes, goodness accumulates and creates value with time. Goodness gives goodness. The teaching says, “There’s no detriment for anyone who does not commit it” therefore no harm comes to those who do not commit it but only goodness. It is also evident that goodness ad the value created through it can be spread to other people just like a river nourishes many areas. As the rivers flows downstream, it finally reaches the ocean and they reach the “wise man” who is the giver of all that is good. This is compared to the unfathomable riches that exert from goodness and staying away from detriments.
Additionally, I is also essential to identify that the text recognizes life as suffering a major teaching of Buddhism. The Buddha says, “Even a good person experiences injury”. This essentially points to the human suffering because of our own desires and cravings. Happiness is guaranteed for everyone but life is always a form of suffering because the stream of desires is endless. We are never content with the present moment and constantly people experience dissatisfaction (Fink, 128). This is because all things that we associate with are not permanent and happiness fades away with them. Thus this teaching is meant to ascertain people that even the good people who avoid detriments are not guaranteed complete happiness. This is why Buddhism teaches that the happiest person is the one contented with what he has and who he/she is.
In conclusion, all teachings in dhammapada interrelate and the existence of one affects the other. Developing a skill to become a skilled person means that one has to sieve through a thousand words and pick the ones of value to him/her so that one might be considered an accomplished person. The world we live in is like a flower and we derive significance, meaning and value from the constitutes of one world. Additionally, one should ensure that they attach with the best values to ensure that we do not suffer misfortunes in our detriments.
Work cited
Wallis Glenn. The dhammapada. Verses on the way. The modern library. New York. 2007. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/purple/AppData/Local/Temp/The%20Dhammapada%20Verses%20on%20the%20Way-1.pdf
Slote Michael and Pettit Philip. Satisficing consequentialism. Wiley Blackwell. Vol 58. 2008. Retrieved from http://www.princeton.edu/~ppettit/papers/1984/Satisficing%20Consequentialism.pdf
Killeen R. Peter. The four causes of behavior. Curr dir pyschol sci. 2001. 10(4):136-140. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2600470/
Fink K. Charles. Better to be a renunciant. Buddhism, happiness and the good life. Journal of philosophy of life. Vol 3. (2013)127-144. Retrieved from http://www.philosophyoflife.org/jpl201308.pdf