According to the Dhammapada
and the New Testament
The Theosophical Movement
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First published in the February 1967
edition of “The Theosophical Movement”,
a monthly magazine published in
Mumbai, India, by U.L.T. Associates.
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In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is made to say:
“Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
People in the world are
usually so glamoured by material possessions and objective things that money
can buy, that they have no concept of the inner riches of the moral nature
which are permanent and everlasting, and which have spiritual value. They can
be acquired by persistent effort in the right direction, cannot be bought or
sold with money, and in daily life they become the outer expressions of the
inner grace. They need to be cultivated, but one must first have the perception
that the moral nature of man belongs to the Immortal Self, and that the heart
must yearn for it. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
The will must be active to sustain those noble aspirations through the daily
struggles of life. People want happiness but they seek it in the wrong
direction, and so they are always unsatisfied. The fleeting pleasures are
totally different from the happiness of the inner being.
In the “Dhammapada”, in the
chapter on “Happiness”, verse 8 states:
“Health is the greatest of
gifts; contentment is the greatest wealth; trust is the best of relationships;
Nirvana is the highest happiness.”
How greatly this differs from
the ordinary ideas of health and wealth, friendship and happiness! People are
so accustomed to living superficially, without any understanding of the importance
of the practice of ethics, that the cultivation of virtues and the disciplining
and training of the lower self are entirely neglected. On one hand, poverty,
starvation and misery, and, on the other, sense life and sensuous pleasures
have played havoc to such an extent that chaos and confusion prevail throughout
the world.
Health is the greatest of gifts
A sound mind in a sound body
is an ancient adage, and together they are the most useful instruments for the
work of the soul. In order to contact the objective universe, the physical body
with its organs of sense and of action is necessary. It would be difficult for
the self-conscious human soul to achieve its task in an ailing body, which is
like a musical instrument that is broken and out of tune, and therefore useless
for a musician. So, naturally, to be born healthy and to preserve that health
throughout the soul's sojourn on earth is, indeed, the greatest of gifts.
Health is not something conferred by someone, but is rather earned through careful
efforts in previous incarnations. Good health, from the spiritual point of
view, is not an athlete's strength; it is the activity and alertness of the
physical instrument which is well-controlled to follow the behests of the soul
within, and is sensitive to inner guidance. “Perfect physical health” is the
first of the seven qualifications for chelaship, which, in some cases, may be
modified for us of the present generation. Once the importance of the great
work that lies ahead of each aspirant is understood, it will not be difficult
to realize that a healthy body is, indeed, a great asset.
Man is a complex being of
different constituents, each having its own part to play, and all must combine
harmoniously to act through a living organism - the physical body. The body
itself is made up of different parts which need to co-operate with each other,
for then only will good health result. When one obeys the great laws of Nature
and follows the path of moderation in his life, he is on the road to good
health. The mind plays an important part in the life of an individual, for many
ailments are but the result of wrong habits of thinking. Madame Blavatsky
writes:
“Half, if not two-thirds of
our ailings and diseases are the fruit of our imagination and fears. Destroy
the latter and give another bent to the former, and nature will do the rest.”
The physician merely diagnoses
the outward symptoms and prescribes treatment. Paracelsus states:
“Man is himself a cosmos. A
physician who knows nothing about Cosmology will know little about
diseases....If man were in possession of a perfect knowledge of self he would
not need to be sick at all.”
Health is the natural
condition of the body, and if body and mind are maintained in right relation,
no man need fear disease. When the tendency of the lifetime is toward the ideal
of usefulness to one's fellows, and the powers of mind are engaged in thoughts
which develop the nobler, the truly human, side of man’s nature, the health of
the body will very largely take care of itself. (“The Laws of Healing - Physical
and Metaphysical”, p. 52)
Patanjali mentions sickness as
the first of the obstacles in the way of the attainment of concentration.
Instead of following wrong methods of cure, it is much better to form good
habits of purity and cleanliness, so that one day the physical body becomes a
living temple of a living god, a vehicle through which that god can help Nature
and work on with her and serve his fellow beings from the true spiritual point
of view.
Contentment is the greatest wealth
Today, in the prevalent
atmosphere of gloom and despair all over the world, when people have such a
craving for wealth, what a refreshingly different viewpoint the great Master
Buddha presents in naming contentment as the greatest wealth! However rich a
person, and however large his bank balance, he has to leave everything behind
when quitting the mortal body, but true inner contentment is a noble
characteristic which becomes part and parcel of his being. Perfect reliance on
the Law brings one true contentment. “The Voice of the Silence” instructs us to
rest content with fate. This is not passive contentment in the sense of
submission without effort, but is rather the acceptance of whatever comes
without grumbling and murmuring and with a cheerful attitude, so as to turn the
forces of evil into good. The Law brings us what we need, not what we want; it
moves from within each one in terms of his own strength and capacity. True
contentment is the result of being devoted to one's own duties and responsibilities,
and not a craving for rights and privileges. The more one has of worldly
wealth, the more one desires, till one of the gates of hell, greed, is opened,
and dishonest means to amass wealth are resorted to. True inner contentment
comes, not by going into seclusion - there would be no merit in that - but by
living in the world, going through the joys and sorrows of life, yet being not
of the world. This means rising above the ways of the world by having an
attitude to life which brings equanimity of mind and contentment of the heart.
How beautifully Oliver
Goldsmith in his “Deserted Village” depicts the inner contentment of the poor
villager:
A time there was, ere
England's griefs began,
When every rood of ground
maintained its man:
For him light labour spread
her wholesome store,
Just gave what life required,
but gave no more;
His best companions, innocence
and health,
And his best riches, ignorance
of wealth.
Trust is the best relationship
Lord Buddha was a true
psychologist and a spiritual healer, and therefore taught that all the
relationships in the world can be sustained by real trust in one another. How
many hasty divorces could be avoided by understanding the true relationship
that marriage demands! Lack of mutual understanding has caused family feuds and
communal strifes. If members of a family had full trust and confidence in one
another, if different communities loved one another as children of one Divine
Life and Light, if nations were not fearful of one another and races did not
compete with other races, there would be no strifes or wars. Doubt is a
cankerous germ that corrupts and destroys; trust is the seed that fructifies in
unity and harmony and everlasting friendship. Doubt arises in the lower,
personal nature; trust is a divine trait of the higher self. Humanity in its
infancy trusted its divine instructors, as a new-born babe trusts its mother,
because the personal self, or the sense of “I”, “me”, “mine”, had not yet
developed. H.P.B. quotes a Master in “The Secret Doctrine” (I, 643):
“With right knowledge, or at
any rate with a confident conviction that our neighbours will no more work to
hurt us than we would think of harming them, the two-thirds of the World’s evil
would vanish into thin air....This state will last....until we begin acting
from within, instead of ever following impulses from without....Until then the
only palliative to the evils of life is union and harmony - a Brotherhood IN
ACTU, and altruism not simply in name.”
This indicates that so much of
the distrust men feel towards one another is impulsive and imaginary. It is the
result of lack of knowledge of the unity of life, harmony of law, reincarnation
and Karma. With a clear concept of these great principles one would naturally
begin to act from within, and trust would be felt and expressed spontaneously.
So, in both individual and collective problems of home and office, societies
and legislatures, trust is a great asset, a real bond of peace and good-will.
Nirvana is the highest happiness
Nirvana is the highest state
of consciousness, of full enlightenment, of supreme peace and bliss - Ananda.
It is freedom from the bondage of earthly existence, of the rounds of births
and deaths. It is the Word made flesh, man transformed into god, and god
working through a living man. It is the state attained by all the Buddhas and
Christs of the race. The Esoteric Philosophy admits no gifts and privileges
save what man wins for himself through his steadfast and persevering efforts,
through successive lives on earth. Perfection in all departments of life is the
goal of human evolution. From the valley of mire to the summit of glorious
light Nirvanic is a long climb, but it is not an untrodden path, and there is
the assurance of those who have left their footprints behind to help and guide
us. At the very end, the choice has to be made whether one wishes to enjoy
one's well-earned rest, or to come back to earth as a Master of Wisdom and
Compassion to help other pilgrim-souls to reach their goal. The former, the
path of rest and peace and bliss, is known as the path of liberation, the path
of the Buddhas of selfishness, whereas the latter is known as the path of
renunciation - the path of woe, “woe for the living Dead and helpless pity for
the men of karmic sorrow.” This is the goal that a student of Theosophy keeps
before his mind's eye throughout his life, remembering it through all his
choices in daily life so that at the end it may not be difficult to choose it
spontaneously, without any hesitation.
Thus, this Verse 8 in the chapter
on “Happiness” in the “Dhammapada” indicates how health, physical and mental,
is a necessary requisite on the way to Nirvana, how inner contentment is an
invaluable possession, and how complete trust in other human beings leads one
to unity and harmony with all, enabling one to spread heavenly joy in earthly
existence. These are the treasures of life which cannot be destroyed or
corrupted, but they shine through small, plain duties. “Where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also.”
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On the role of the esoteric movement in the
ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire
and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in 2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist, the volume has 255 pages and can be
obtained through Amazon Books.
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