He who inflicts violence on those who are unarmed,
and offends those who are inoffensive,
will soon come upon one of these ten states:
Sharp pain, or disaster,
bodily injury, serious illness, or derangement of mind,
trouble from the government, or grave charges,
loss of relatives, or loss of wealth,
or houses destroyed by ravaging fire;
upon dissolution of the body that ignorant man is born in hell.
—The Dhammapada - Chapter 10, Verses 137-140
Have you ever ripped someone’s ear off?
Yeah, me neither. But Joe has (my ex-military friend mentioned in the prior post). Then he smashed the guy’s leg with a cinder block to finish off the fight.
Was this in war, you ask? Was this a means of survival?
Well, more like a dispute over a wave while surfing at the beach.
To be fair, the other guy started it; Joe just finished it. (At least that’s how Joe tells the story.)
This whole event came to the surface when Joe asked what I did last weekend. When I told him I’d recently bought a surfboard, he said, “Oh, Jesus. You’re done for.” When I expressed my conviction that sharks don’t like the way I taste, he said, “It’s not the sharks you have to look out for. It’s the surfers. They can be real assholes.”
Only having met nice surfers so far, I asked him to expand upon what he meant. And so trickled into my own ear the tale of how he accidentally bumped into another wave rider who had a bit of a temper when it came to surfing etiquette.
Joe was confronted by this long-haired troublemaker back on the beach and tackled him into the sand. On break from his military duties and trained in martial arts, Joe had the good wits to grab hold of this fellow’s auditory appendage and bring him to the ground with him.
“He left the beach without an ear that day,” said Joe, not expanding much more on the fight, other than the grand finale of cinder block smashing. Then he said, “I’ll give you a piece of advice when it comes to fighting. Always take body parts with you.”
Then, like it was nothing, he transitioned into what a good workout surfing can be. Imagine being so numb to violence that a story about ripping another guy’s ear off just sort of fades into the background as you discuss the cardiovascular benefits of paddling through tides.
I think what Buddha’s trying to say here is, don’t pick a fight with someone unless you know who you’re fighting, lest some bodily injury soon come upon thee. Or, perhaps, don’t pick a fight at all.