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What dhamma means, maybe!
The average
Eskimo recognises and can name more than 30 whites (i.e. shades or variants
of white). The European recognises only 1 white. In relation to the Eskimo’s ability
to differentiate and recognise whites, the European is a naïf, i.e. naïve,
i.e. primitive. To the Eskimo, the European word white is a fuzz word, that
is to say, almost meaningless since it does not describe the 30 whites he can
see. The Pali word
dhamma is a fuzz word, that is to say, naïve, (unsophisticated, not
relativised). One word (like the word white used by the European) is used to
describe a plethora of different notions, and fails. Meaning overload renders
the word meaningless. The word dhamma is derived from Sanskrit: Dharma: From dharman: that which is established or firm, steadfast decree,
statute, ordinance, law; usage, practice, customary observance or prescribed
conduct, duty; right, justice; virtue, morality, religion, religious merit,
good works; according to right or rule, rightly, justly, according to the
nature of anything; holding to the law, doing one's duty; the law or
doctrine (?) of Buddhism; also:
nature, character, peculiar condition or essential quality (Pali: atta), property, mark, peculiarity. Dhamma: The Pali word dhamma is taken to mean:
doctrine; nature; truth; the norm, THE NORM; morality; good conduct. Its
negation, adhamma, is taken to mean: misconduct;
false doctrine, untruth, abnormal, immoral and so on. Obviously,
no one knows with any certainty what the term dhamma meant when the Tathagata
used it. The basic idea of the word was clear, sort of; to wit, rule (or
order) become duty (or vice versa) resulting in ordered, i.e. ‘normed’
behaviour. But since the fundamental meaning of dhamma was, and still is
highly uncertain, because its application in varying contexts was
inconsistent, serious confusion (i.e. new activity/life (indeed ignorance,
the alleged start-up trigger of ‘becoming’) displaying as a sankara or
dhamma) resulting in dukkha) resulted when less naïve (because more
relativised and with the capacity to compress and abstract to a logic
outcome) individuals attempted to close down the uncertainty in order to
recover its peculiarity (Pali: atta, to wit, its very own-ness
as permanent support), and attain nirvana (i.e. blown-out,
extinguished, and which happens when
a process (of becoming, falsely experienced, because reified, as a
real (indeed, my) thing) is ended,
stopped. So now you
know what dhamma means. Dhamma means what a person wants it to mean with
reference to ‘order, rule, duty’ and so on. The
upshot is that each and every dhamma, i.e. as order (duty or rule,
i.e. as an instructions string), or as reified order (indeed ordering), i.e.
as a ‘thing’ (i.e. as a locked bite of instructions presenting as an
identifiable bit, hence quantum or unit), functions
as a political act. In short, the
Tathagata’s dhamma (i.e. his rule, later the religion which he founded) was a
political order (serving de-stressing, cooling or calming down, in a word,
rehabilitation, and which is why the Emperor Ashoka chose it as primary
manipulation and control means for his nation when it was in dire need of
rehabilitation). |