Crossing Over

Commentary on the Dhammapada–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Running along the bank

“Few are those among men who have crossed over to the other shore, while the rest of mankind runs along the bank” (Dhammapada 85). Narada Thera: “Few are there among men who go Beyond; the rest of mankind only run about on the bank.”

It is a fact: people live their lives like ants whose hill has been disturbed–rushing about aimlessly and uselessly.

“Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23,24). Jesus was surely familiar with the Dhammapada, considering the amount of time he spent in Buddhist monasteries and centers in India, and no doubt had these very verses in mind when he gave his answer. At any time in history it is indeed few that Cross Over.

Few cross over

Edward Lear wrote a poem called “The Jumblies” which tells it very well–as he often did under the guise of “nonsense verse.” I am going to include the whole thing here for you to see what I mean. Even though much of it may not seem to apply to or be relevant to the search for liberation, it does, because those who seek Reality are even more strange and absurd to the ants that run along the shore and never get anywhere, but like to say that “one day” they, too, will cross over–but somehow it does not happen. For “far and few, far and few” are the Jumblies who alone can do it.

The Jumblies
(Edward Lear)

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter’s morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, “You’ll all be drowned!”
They called aloud, “Our Sieve ain’t big,
But we don’t care a button! we don’t care a fig!
In a Sieve we’ll go to sea!”
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go,
“Oh won’t they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
And happen what may, it’s extremely wrong
In a Sieve to sail so fast!”
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

The water it soon came in, it did,
The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat,
And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
And each of them said, “How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our Sieve we spin!”
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.
“O Timballoo! How happy we are,
When we live in a sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail,
In the shade of the mountains brown!”
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jackdaws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese.
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And in twenty years they all came back,
In twenty years or more,
And every one said, “How tall they’ve grown!
For they’ve been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore;”
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And everyone said, “If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!”
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

But some do

Buddha said that few cross over, but some do, and he tell us how they manage it.

“However those who follow the principles of the well-taught Truth will cross over to the other shore, out of the dominion of Death, hard though it is to escape” (Dhammapada 86). Thanissaro Bhikkhu: “But those who practice Dharma in line with the well-taught Dharma, will cross over the realm of Death so hard to transcend.”

We must know dharma, but it must be well-taught–that is, it must be complete without nothing lacking, and with nothing added that is not really a part of dharma. And certainly dharma is of little use unless it is well-learned as much as well-taught. There simply is no room here for cutting corners or slouching around. It will indeed be hard, and not an overnight matter, but if we follow all the principles of dharma we shall indeed transcend this realm of birth and death in which we are presently imprisoned. That is why study of scriptures such as the upanishads and the Gita are so important. Buddha was very conscious of his Aryan heritage, which is why he used the term so often, as well as others found in classical Indian scriptures. The idea that Buddha started a new religion is incorrect: he recovered Sanatana Dharma and restored it to humanity.

How to cross over

Buddha does not leave us unsure as to what the well-taught dharma will entail in our search for moksha (liberation). However, many (most) will like the hearers of Jesus say in response: “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” (John 6:60). Nevertheless, here it is:

“A wise man, abandoning the principle of darkness, should cultivate what is pure. Leaving home for the homeless life, let him seek his joy in the solitude which people find so hard to enjoy, and, abandoning sensual pleasures, let him cleanse himself of inner defilements, looking on nothing as his own”(Dhammapada 87, 88). Thanissaro Bhikkhu: “Forsaking dark practices, the wise person should develop the bright, having gone from home to no-home in seclusion, so hard to enjoy. There he should wish for delight, discarding sensuality–he who has nothing. He should cleanse himself–wise–of what defiles the mind.”

Forsaking dark practices, the wise person should develop the bright. Here we have the only intelligent–and viable–basis for morality: we should avoid what darkens–limits and distorts–the consciousness, and engage continually in that which brightens–expands, frees, and clarifies–the consciousness. This is the only sensible way to find our way through the maze of this illusory world. Naturally, honesty, intelligence, and insight are needed to do this. We are all familiar with people who do all kinds of destructive things while insisting that they not only do no harm, they are actually beneficial to them. This is the horrible curse of addiction, and can also be an indication of a person who is so dead and gone that evil actions produce no perceptible change in him. Here is a “real life” example I gave in the commentary on Saint Matthew:

“One semi-renowned ‘yogi’ of twentieth century America used to tell about how when he attained Cosmic Consciousness he wanted to put it to the test–as if a person in that state would need a test! So he went right out to a restaurant and ate a big steak–and found it did not alter his consciousness (?!). Then he got a bottle of whiskey, drank the whole thing, and found his consciousness was unchanged. As a final test he went to a brothel and engaged in immoral conduct…and discovered that it made no difference in his state of awareness. Now, I believe him: he had a state of consciousness too low and inert to be changed by anything–it could not even be made more negative than it already was. Being truly negative, he saw everything backwards, mistaking the lowest state for the highest. People on the path to self-destruction continually make this mistake. They think they are growing and expanding when they are shrinking away. They boast of all the power they gain and wield when they are daily bleeding away their inner energies and becoming dead husks. A former Franciscan monk who had become engaged in ‘magick’ came to see me once and confided: ‘I always feel like I am dying somewhere deep inside.’ And he was. This is the cruel delusion of Maya.”

However it may be for others, the wise person turns from darkening actions and turns toward those that enlighten him.

Leaving home for the homeless life, let him seek his joy in the solitude which people find so hard to enjoy. “Leaving home for the homeless life” means to formally take up monastic life. There is no place here for the absurd ideas of “a monk in the world,” “monastery without walls,” or–worst of all–“ordinary people as monks and mystics.” Buddha says get to out of the house and into the monastery.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s rendering–“having gone from home to no-home in seclusion, so hard to enjoy”–as the second clause, indicates that the wise enter the monastic life first and then forsake the dark and embrace the light–that monastic life is the necessary prerequisite for even beginning the path to Bodhi (Enlightenment).

What more can be said? This is Buddha’s view: monastic life is an absolute sine qua non in seeking true knowledge. That is why the Pali Sutras almost always begin with the single word “Bhikkhus,” indicating that his teaching was for monks. Someone once complained to Buddha about the fact that he only lived and taught in the forest with the monks and never taught in the towns where the “real” people lived. Buddha made no defense, but asked him to go into the nearby city and ask every single person he met what they wanted in life. He did so, and it took a very long time. When he returned, Buddha asked: “How many people wanted enlightenment?” “None!” answered the man in disgust. “They wanted all kinds of things–all material and all selfish. No one wanted real knowledge.” “Why, then, do you blame me for not forcing on them what they do not want?” was Buddha’s response. The man got the idea–and so do the wise that seek joy in that inner solitude which the worldly so dislike. For the bhikkhus were a great multitude externally, but inwardly each one dwelt alone in his consciousness. The word “monk” comes from the Greek monochos, which means “one who lives alone.” It has been applied for thousands of years to those who physically lived with dozens, hundred, and even thousands of other monks, because it is a psychological term. By the practice of meditation we are solitary even in the midst of other seekers. And we find joy in that inward solitude which “people” find so tedious and even maddening.

Abandoning sensual pleasures, let him cleanse himself of inner defilements. This can only be done by renunciation and meditation, for renunciation clears away the external obstacles, and meditation eliminates the inner obstacles.

Looking on nothing as his own, for nothing–no object in this world–really is ours, not even our body. Also, the wise does not say anything is “mine” because that which claims ownership is the illusory ego that ultimately does not even exist, much less have the ability to possess something. It is a ghost, a vapor that means and is nothing. This is why only the monastics have a chance to follow these ideals of Buddha. “The world” cannot exist without ego, and no one can live in it without being centered in ego. The very nature of worldly life not only demands ego-involvement, it produces and fosters the ego. That is why worldly people resent monastics so much and constantly assure themselves that they do not need to be like them. No wonder Buddha was not interested in talking to them. They set themselves to be increasingly entangled in samsara, and only pull in and drown those that reach out a hand to them.

Jesus gives a very clear picture of this situation, saying: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not” (Matthew 25:1-12).

Many are those that visit monasteries and “go on retreat” there and make friends with the monks, and even seek their advice. They want to get the “oil” of spiritual knowledge and experience that they have never bothered to “press out” by living that life themselves. Many (most) monastics are themselves foolish and waste their “oil” and their time with them. Rare are those honest (and courageous) enough to say: “come, join us and produce your own ‘oil,’ even though they know that Jesus said:

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field” (Matthew 13:44). And: “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). And: “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting” (Luke 18:29,30). The implication is that those who do not so renounce shall not so receive. Jesus had spent a great deal of time in Buddhist monasteries in India, and had learned the Buddha Way–to “seek his joy in the solitude which people find so hard to enjoy…looking on nothing as his own.”

The wise

“Those whose minds are thoroughly practiced in the factors of enlightenment, who find delight in freedom from attachment in the renunciation of clinging, free from the inflow of thoughts, they are like shining lights, having reached final liberation in the world” (Dhammapada 89).

A ripe fruit falls off the tree effortlessly after having hung there and equally effortlessly matured. That is the right way for fruit, but not for human beings. Unfortunately, in the West nearly all yogis think that all they need do is allot some time for yoga practice, and they will automatically attain higher consciousness–with little or no rearrangement of life, thought, or deed. This is because they are usually students of teachers or organizations that intensely hype their particular kind of meditation, assuring them that all they need do is add it to their life like salt and pepper to a soup pot. Not so, according to Buddha. Those that attain Nirvana in this very life:

1. Are thoroughly practiced in the factors of enlightenment. First, they know what the factors are, and second, they observe them diligently until they are proficient in them. This is because enlightenment is as precise a science as the physical sciences. Nothing is hit-or-miss or happenstance, nor is it a reward for sincerity or “goodness,” or bestowed by another–even a deity. Rather, enlightenment comes from specific practices, internal and external. And it is attained in exact steps or stages, each of which is characterized by psychological factors that are often outwardly evident. In his discourses found in the Pali sutras, Buddha is very clear about them, as Krishna and Patanjali were earlier in the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras.

2. Find delight in freedom from attachment in the renunciation of clinging. Narada Thera renders this: “Who, without clinging, delight in ‘the giving up of grasping.’” Renunciation is not just the path to freedom, it is the path to peace and joy. As Sri Yukteswar often said: “Finding God will mean the funeral of all sorrows.” We must give up the unreal before we can attain the Real–a great bargain, indeed. When suffering comes to an end, joy (ananda) begins. So renunciation is not some grim exercise in dedication and sacrifice–it is the way of freedom. Those who understand this follow it with great contentment and happiness. They rejoice in the “letting go” that precedes the Great Attainment. Free from the compulsion of clinging or grasping, they know Peace Profound.

3. Are free from the inflow of thoughts. This cannot be faked. Yes, someone can act in an idiotic way and pretend that he is in that state, but he knows the truth of the matter. I know of a man in India whom any sensible person can see is in the final stage of alzheimer’s, but people flock around for darshan of “one who has gone beyond all thought or perception and rests in the Self.” The man was never a yogi–he just went ga-ga. One of the silliest things I ever saw was Alan Watts pretending to be in the “no-mind” state. Considering he was an alcoholic and ultimately a suicide, we can conclude that he never came near that state. It is tragic the number of “mystics” and “enlightened” who end up killing themselves.

But Buddha is telling us about the real thing. No impression can touch the truly enlightened. This does not mean that liberated beings are living in a void without perception of what is going on in the world, it means that nothing changes their interior condition, no more than a reflection in a mirror really touches or affects the mirror. Nothing invades the mind of a perfect yogi, and the yogi’s mind never responds in the slightest to any stimulus. As Krishna says in the Gita: “Water flows continually into the ocean but the ocean is never disturbed” (2:70). This is the real meaning of yogash chitta vritti nirodhah–“yoga is the inhibition of modifications of the mind” (Yoga Sutras 1:2). It is not absence of thought–otherwise there would be a lot of enlightened people in the world! Rather, it is the non-response of the mind (chitta) to external impulses or perceptions. Those in that condition truly are “shining lights, having reached final liberation in the world.”