Yuma Watanabe 'The Great Adventure of World Literature, 13th Installment' How Can People Be Liberated from Suffering? — Early Buddhist Scriptures: 'Jataka', 'Sutta Nipata', and 'Dhammapada' — ('Bungakukai', January 2026 Issue)
☆mediopos4051(2025.12.22)
■Yuma Watanabe
'The Great Adventure of World Literature, 13th Installment'
How Can People Be Liberated from Suffering?
— Early Buddhist Scriptures: 'Jataka',
'Sutta Nipata', and 'Dhammapada' —
('Bungakukai', January 2026 Issue)
□Teruyuki Matsumoto, 'Jataka: Stories of Buddha's Previous Lives'
(Kadokawa Sophia Bunko, 2019/3)
□ 'Sutta Nipata: Words of the Buddha'
(Translated by Yoshiro Imaeda, Kobunsha Koten Shin'yaku Bunko, 2022/3)
□ 'Dhammapada: Buddha, Words of Truth'
(Translated by Yoshiro Imaeda, Kobunsha Koten Shin'yaku Bunko, 2023/6)
Yuma Watanabe's series 'The Great Adventure of World Literature'
covered 'the earliest Buddhist scriptures' in the previous 12th installment (mediopos3977/2025.10.9.),
and the 13th installment continues to focus on 'early Buddhism'.
For Japanese people, Mahayana Buddhist sutras and their teachings, such as the 'Heart Sutra' and the 'Lotus Sutra', are generally well-known,
but early Buddhism and its scriptures are often unfamiliar.
Early Buddhism refers to the earliest form of Buddhism
that developed after the death of the Buddha by his disciples and their followers,
and representative scriptures include the 'Sutta Nipata' and
the 'Dhammapada' (Dhammapada Sutra).
In early Buddhism,
the ultimate goal of Buddhism
was to eliminate 'suffering', but in Pali and Sanskrit, the languages of early Buddhism,
'suffering' is 'dukkha', which means
'having difficulties' or 'things not going well'.
In early Buddhism, to eliminate that 'suffering',
because it is oneself who makes suffering into suffering,
one must 'turn one's eyes toward the self that recognizes suffering'.
And for that purpose,
by disciplining one's 'body, speech, and mind' (physical, verbal, and mental),
one attempts to attain Nirvana or enlightenment, but
to do so, one must polish oneself
through 'reincarnation', where one repeats life over and over again.
However, since even the Buddha had to repeat reincarnation many times to attain enlightenment,
episodes of his previous lives were collected
in the 'Jataka'.
Their composition dates vary depending on the story,
but the oldest ones date back to before the 3rd century BC.
The 'Jataka' contains 547 stories,
and each story is composed of three parts:
'the story of the present (introduction)', 'the story of the past (main)',
and 'the story of the present again (conclusion)',
including 'The Crow and the Peacock',
'The Rabbit Who Offered Its Own Body' which is also included in 'Konjaku Monogatarishu',
and 'Sacrificing the Body to Feed a Tiger' known from the paintings on the 'Tamamushi Shrine'.
As for records of the Buddha's own words,
it is believed that the prototypes were established
between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC,
such as the 'Sutta Nipata' and the 'Dhammapada'.
The 'Sutta Nipata' consists of
the Buddha's major words and dialogues that were circulating at the time,
while the 'Dhammapada' is a collection gathered according to themes.
In the 'Sutta Nipata',
the work titled 'Rhinoceros Horn' is famous,
and most of it
ends with the phrase,
'Walk alone like the horn of a rhinoceros'.
This reflects
the characteristics of early Buddhism and the Theravada Buddhism that succeeded it,
which focus on how to polish one's own mind,
well.
While Mahayana Buddhism is a teaching that saves others more than oneself,
early Buddhism holds the sentiment that 'how can a person who cannot even save themselves save others,'
and this is expressed in the phrase 'rhinoceros horn'.
This teaching is stated in the 'Dhammapada'
as follows:
One is one's own master.
How could another be the master?
If one is self-controlled, one obtains a master that is hard to obtain.
Regarding this 'Dhammapada',
'Dhamma' means 'human truth',
and 'pada' means 'words'.
The Chinese translation, 'Fajujing' (Dharmapada Sutra), expresses that meaning.
The work titled 'Pairs' at the beginning is as follows:
Mind precedes all things,
creates all things, and governs all things.
If a person speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows them,
just as the wheel follows the hoofprint of the ox pulling the cart.
Mind precedes all things,
creates all things, and governs all things.
If a person speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows them,
just as a shadow never leaves the body.
Also, words that well represent the characteristics of early Buddhism
include the following:
A person who does not control their sense organs, does not practice moderation in eating,
pursues sensual pleasures,
and drifts into negligence is struck down by Mara (the devil),
just as a tree with rotten roots is toppled by the wind.
A person who well controls their sense organs, practices moderation in eating,
does not pursue sensual pleasures,
and possesses faith and diligent effort is not struck down by Mara,
just as a rocky mountain is not shaken by the wind.
Watanabe states,
'Compared to Mahayana Buddhism, which is familiar to us Japanese people, early Buddhism gives the impression of being more like philosophy than religion,'
but
rather than religious teachings like those in Mahayana sutras
that are based on faith and the desire to be saved by the Buddha,
these easy-to-understand words of early Buddhism
seem to be important guidance
for being liberated from 'suffering'
by 'moderately disciplining one's own mind and body,
and adjusting one's perception of the world and one's own mind,'
thereby 'being liberated from the "suffering" of this world.'
The 'Dhammapada' states that when one is liberated from 'suffering',
one can reach the following state:
Like the earth, he is unperturbed;
like a firmly closed gate, he is discreet;
like a lake without muddy water, he is pure;
he no longer wanders in the world of reincarnation.
Liberated by correct wisdom, he is a peaceful person;
his mind, words, and deeds are calm.
Two thousand five hundred years since the Buddha,
how much wisdom have we been able to gain
using these words as our guide?
Neglecting this world under the guise of seeking Nirvana,
or creating biased teachings under the name of 'enlightenment'—
are there not still many such instances?
Rather than that, the starting point is surely
to 'turn one's eyes toward oneself, who is aware of suffering.'
The scriptures of early Buddhism convey that
in easy-to-understand words.