My Personal Dhammapada--Book 9

Since craving is the nexus of my life and the greatest obstacle to peaceful living that I know, I am studying one of the greatest manuals on the subject ever written, "The Dhammapada," which is to Buddhism what the Upanishads are to Hinduism. Although I have found some good translations of this scriptural classic, none have communicated the essence I am presently taking from this collection of teachings attributed to Buddha himself. So here is a rendering of Chapter 9, whose title I translate as "Harm," that attempts to capture its relevance to someone like me who is contemplating the first of the 12 steps--admission of powerlessness--on the way to recovery from a deified craving for books and music. For those of you on a similar rack, substitute booze, drugs, sex, postage stamps, religion, politics, French cuisine or any of a whole multitude of gratifying addictions to which you might genuflect daily, hourly or with even greater frequency.

HARM
(a 12 Step-inspired rendering of the 9th book of "The Dhammapada")

Never hesitate from good actions.
Always have second thoughts about harmful ones.
For a person who must endlessly dote on or rehearse their behavior,
know that the mind is a magnet for harmful actions.

If a person does something harmful,
he should not repeat it.
He must not cultivate that habit in himself.
That habit leads to a life of pain.

If a person does something beneficial,
he should repeat it.
He must cultivate that trait in himself.
That trait leads to a life of calm.

Yet even a person who engages in harmful behavior
can correct his conduct
if the behavior has not hardened into habit.
When bad behavior becomes a pattern,
there is suffering and misfortune.

Even a good-intentioned person meets misfortune
if his good intention has not matured into a trait.
But when the good intention has matured into a trait
then the good-intentioned person meets with good fortune.

Do not dismiss the thought of consequence,
saying, "It will not befall me."
Tiny drips of water
eventually fill a glass.
The unwise person accumulates
consequences day by day, day after day.

Do not dismiss the thought of virtue,
saying, "It is too hard to achieve."
Tiny drips of water
eventually fill a glass.
The wise person accumulates
virtue day by day, day after day.

Harmful action is to be avoided
just as a sensible man would avoid
dark streets and dire places
or a healthy man would avoid poison.

If there are no cuts or knicks in the hand,
a person can handle dangerous materials.
Poison does not penetrate where there are no wounds.
No harm comes to those for whom poison presents no danger.

Whoever wrongs a person who unknowingly puts himself in harm's way
by mistakenly trusting the wrongdoer, but is otherwise blameless,
will receive the full blow of the injury inflicted
like a stone that ricochets aginst the man who throws it.

Many get no farther than the womb in which they were born,
slaves to the needs they had as infants.
Those who break free of the self defined as need and appetite
transform impulse into virtue, servitude into service, and are unchained.

There is no refuge from harmful actions
in the heights of the sky or depths of the sea.
There is no escape from harmful actions
even in the most hidden mountain cave.
The world gives no respite whatsoever
from the impulse to harmful actions.

There is no refuge from the beckoning of harmful actions
in the heights of the sky or depths of the sea.
There is no escape from the call of habit
even in the most remote mountin cave.
Just as no place in the world is safe from death
no place in the world is safe from harmful action.