Below, in support of the episode is the text of the Now, Dhammapada manuscript: Preface What follows are not the words of the Buddha. This book contains concentrated wisdom for individuals’ lives. This Dhammapada is not a belief system. In fact, who can truly attest to what the historical Buddha said with the exception of Sidharta Gotama? And Sid died about 2500 odd years ago, so the truth is this nor that is what was actually said. That said, I just got to say something…. so Now, Dhammapada. One can take a cue from these words and text and test them out, follow the recipe as if the textual indications are instructions to put into action, to see for yourself if they are accurately applicable you your life. This is what I have done and continue to do and you can do it too! You can learn, develop and know a sublimely peaceful way of life still full of brightness and at times excitement. The Dhammapada has proven to me, by way of practice based upon the various translations I have read over the years, to be a fascinating and informative reminder of what to remember, what to do and what to remember again. It is not a dogmatic work, it is concise set of practices, contemplations and actions to live. A happier, healthier and continuingly brighter way of life comes along with this practice. But it is a practice: something you do over and over again, with others. This book is a work created from experience based in part on various scholarly sources and various contemporary takes on scholarly sources all called Dhammapada. Numerous translations from various Pali versions are at the root of the source. Now, Dhammapada is therefor an interpretation of many English translations of various Pali sources of what is the most popular “title” of the vast Pali canon, tested and thus interpreted for today’s world. The Pali canon is made up of tens of thousands of onion-skin-thin English language pages. Forty-odd volumes of words recorded as being the teachings of the historical Buddha, Sid Gotama, a rebel of his time who taught for over forty-five years around the Ganga in the North of India. A human who died, soon after a disagreeable meal, at the age of approximately eighty years of age Gotama was and is a phenomenon. Some people take Gotama to be divine and a creator of a religion. I however take the person variously called Gotama, Sid, or Buddha in this Dhammapada to have been someone who lived a life of early suffering. The Tathagata, a term the historical Buddha, reportedly used to describe self and which has been translated to mean one who has come and one who has gone, taught to different audiences skillfully. Which means that Gotama tailored the teachings to the audience of the moment. If the Tathagata was speaking to monastics he would explain things in a certain way that may not come down again when he was speaking to lay people or to his biological son. Basically, in the parlance of today the Buddha would say I’ve done that and now I am doing better, I’m sort of a big deal. You are too. Do better for yourself and for others— even those you don’t like or fear. You are the biggest deal at this moment in your actual life— get over it! Sid ultimately refined the teachings he received in his time and practiced a way that he in turn taught to many individuals from various social classes. This way was not totally foreign to many of the existing teachings of the time however the Buddha’s path of how to be happy, free and connected to the greater reality of existence was far more egalitarian than the hierarchical Brahman ways —the norms at that time. Sid not only taught this way of recognizing the suffering brought on by unskillful living and how to move beyond suffering and even pain, but he also established a way of living in parallel with the world that is not living in this way yet is still connected and mutually beneficial to all living beings. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit awakewax.substack.com
