Buddhism, Dhammapada, & Taoism

Buddhism & the Dhammapada (6^th century B.C.E.)

            The story relating to Buddhism is about a prince who has lived his life in a luxurious manner from eating better than the people to having three palaces. One day he decides that being cooped up in his house isn’t the way to live his life. He decides to shave his hair and beard and become homeless. He practices the way of the monks by eating very little and trying to reach inner peace inside of himself. Along the way, he teaches five other monks the way of the dhamma. Through this story the monk goes through all of the steps of the Hero’s Journey; from the call to the threshold to the end. (I can’t remember the exact names of the steps and I know there are a lot more than that, but you get the idea.) You can connect this story to pretty much any story out there. The character isn’t satisfied with their current situation so they go off on an adventure and then become spiritually happy in the end. From the Dhammapada I have chosen two sayings to connect to. The first is, “One who makes merit rejoices in this life, Rejoices in the next, Rejoices in both worlds. Seeing one’s own pure acts brings joy and delight.” I connect to this because when I volunteer I feel happier and better knowing I was doing something good for someone else. The second is, “Longing gives rise to grief; Longing gives rise to fear. For someone released from longing there is neither grief nor fear.” I can connect to this because I long for something greatly at this moment and it really does cause me grief and sometimes, because I long for this, I can be scared at times.

Taoism (6^th century B.C.E.)

            Taoism is pretty much like the Buddha story and the Dhammapada. It just has a lot of lines regarding how to live your life to the fullest and what to give up and take more of and how to behave around others and how to treat them and everything. I can connect to two sections of this as well. The first one says, “Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.” I connect this to being overly cocky I guess. Cocky isn’t quite the right word but I associate it with doing something to such excess that it just ends up hurting you in the end. The second connection says, “Wise people trust those who trust. But they also trust those who do not trust.” I connect this to myself because I feel like I always put trust in people until they give me a reason to believe otherwise.