Quite a number of sayings of the Buddha could be found in the great Pali work known to the world as Dhammapada. Apart from Dhammapada, the works in the Tripitaka named as Itivuttaka, Udana and a number of suttas has been written in the form of poetic visions from the original works into English. The Pali Text Society (PTS) has done a yeoman service to the world by translations of the three canons or Tripitaka as it is known in the Buddhist literary spiritual missions.
The creative artistes all over the world have gained inspiration and expression via these works. They include creative, reconstruction works such as Jataka stories as retold and Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold. The list of creative works is too long and quite a number of works have appeared in the form of the spiritual and religious treasury. One such work is titled as ‘Buddha’s Little Instruction Book’ as written by the English Buddhist scholar Jack Kornfield. The name Kornfield is remembered as a scholar who had come all the way from England to countries such as Vietnam, China, Thailand, Burma, India and Sri Lanka.
Forest monasteries
Having cultivated the intimacies with Theravada sect of Buddhist monasteries, Kornfield had the chance of studying Buddhism under the tutelage of scholarly monks dwelling in forest monasteries, inclusive of the well-known abode in the UK known as Amaravati. The Little Instruction Book is now translated into Sinhala Nayana Shamali Rajapaksa giving a title that goes as ‘Senasillata Budu Vadanak’ (A word of the Buddha for consolation).
The well-designed book contains 124 sayings of the Buddha culled from various texts by Kornfield. The Sinhala translation looks a bilingual work beneficial for the reader in order to gauge the extent to which the words of the Buddha stand as wisecracks and dictums suited for the world that is changing by way of the advent of new technology and globalization. The original writer, as well as the translator Rajapaksa, utilises a simple diction in their respective poetic expressions.
The work triggers off from a dictum that goes as: ‘Live every act fully as if it were your last.”
From here onwards the reader is taken to various subject areas in the very existence of mankind. They revolve around the aspect of birth, death, marriage, love, work, sharing, caring, kindness, non-violence, peace and coexistence. The second dictum goes as
“Love in the past is only a memory
Love in the future is a fantasy
Only here and now
Can we truly love.”
The expressions in the work are aimed to give more thought to simple experiences and mannerisms. One such expression goes as:
“Most of the sorrows
Of the earth,
Humans cause
For themselves.”
Worst enemy
The Buddha, in many an instance, pointed out that the worst enemy of a human being is oneself. The sense is heightened thus:
“Our worst enemy cannot harm us
As much as our unwise thoughts,
No one can help us our unwise thoughts,
No one can help us as much as our own compassionate thoughts.”
Understanding oneself has been a vision brought down the centuries of philosophies from Greece to the modern day. The Buddha declared the same on this varying form that goes as:
“Do not blindly believe
What others say,
Even the Buddha.
See for yourself
What brings
Clarity and peace
That is the path for you to follow
Clarity of thoughts or clearer thinking had been taught over the centuries by great and noble teachers all over the world. The Buddha, as Kornfield and his translator, Rajapaksa state, lays down the vision in these lines.
“Inner freedom is
Not guided by our efforts
It comes from seeing
What is true.”
And
“When you walk
Just walk
When you eat
Just eat.
In these pages, quite a number of expressions are observable on the subject of meditation and mindfulness.
The subject of meditation and mindfulness are shown as interlinked.
“To meditate is
To listen with a receptive heart.”
“Learn to let go
That is the key to happiness.”
“Do not seek perfection in a changing world.
Instead, perfect your love.”
Some of the visions as laid down in their text could be if someone is interested to go into the making of lofty interpretations or topics for longer discourses.
One step ahead
As a reader, I felt that the lines as read in the body of the work too rest on the aspects of creative communication lessons that could be used to teach social science subject areas both at the school level of teaching and at the university level. The classroom could be designed spell out some of the lines in the text, thus converting it into a dialogue and a group discourse. A commendable effort is made to enrich the spirited content of the work by way of the page illustrations as created in the Sinhala text by the translator. In this direction, the Senasillata Buduvadanak goes one step ahead of the original English work of Kornfield in the book design process. This is an ideal present for children of all ages and the adult on their various social occasions.
As such, the contents, as well as the work as a present, transcend the mere barriers of readership. Teachings of the Buddha presented and expressed in simple poetic form is an achievement in wish fulfilment.
As the lines in segment 59 go in the work, as you travel through life, offer good wishes to each being you meet.
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