Audio log: Dhammapada

This audio log is coded dhamma\_153 and it contains a fragment of the Dhammapada.

## Location

The doorway that introduces to you The Witness has a secret right above it! You won't be able to get here until you get past the main gate. After you get outside of the Entry Area you will be able to hug the left wall as you go up a hill until you find a gap to walk onto the top of the walls. Walk around until you're on the roof of the main entrance of the game. Here you will see a drink and some pillows. Under the yellow pillow is another tape!

## Transcript

Through many births
I have wandered on and on,
Searching for, but never finding,
The builder of this house.

## Literal interpretation

This audio log is a reference to the way that the game is always resetting and we are wondering who actually made it this way.

## Literary context

This piece is from the Dhammapada, a holy work for Buddhism. It is said to contain a collection of sayings from the Buddha, in verse form. This exerpt is specifically from chapter 11: 'Old Age'.

The full piece reads as follows:

Why the laughter, why the joy,
When flames are ever burning?
Surrounded by darkness,
Shouldn't you search for light?

Look at this beautified body:
A mass of sores propped up,
Full of illness, the object of many plans,
With nothing stable or lasting.

This body is worn out -
So fragile, a nesting ground for disease.
When life ends in death,
This putrid body dissolves.

What is the delight
In seeing these dull-white bones
Tossed away
Like white gourds in autumn?

This city is built of bones,
Plastered with blood and flesh,
And filled with
Aging, death, conceit, and hypocrisy.

Even the splendid chariots of the royalty wear out.
So too does the body decay.
But the Dharma of the virtuous doesn't decay
For it is upheld when the virtuous teach it to good people.

The person of little learning
Grows old like an ox:
The flesh increases,
But insight does not.

Through many births
I have wandered on and on,
Searching for, but never finding,
The builder of this house.
To be born again and again is suffering.

House-builder, you are seen!
You will not build a house again!
All the rafters are broken,
The ridgepole destroyed;
The mind, gone to the Unconstructed,
Has reached the end of craving!

Those who have neither lived the chaste life
Nor gained wealth in their youth
Waste away like frail herons
In a lake devoid of fish.

Those who have neither lived the chaste life
Nor gained wealth in their youth
Lie around like arrows misfired from a bow,
Lamenting the past.

This text deals with how as we get older, our bodies start decaying and functions start to slowly end. The piece we're interested in specifically deals with how Buddhism believes in a constant cycle of rebirths and this verse deals with the desire to escape this cycle. As we get older, we start to long to break free from it and to just find a way out.

## Relation to the six themes of the Witness

This is one of two pieces that doesn't have an attribution. This is by design, as these two actually don't directly relate to the six themes. This one symbolizes the beginning of our journey, but already hints that it's not a true beginning. We have been going in circles for a while in the game and we're longing to end this cycle.