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Kushinara NIBBΔNA Bhumi Pagoda White Home, Puniya Bhumi Bengaluru, Prabuddha Bharat International.
12/11/20
Book Eight, Part IIIβHis Likes and Dislikes
1. *His Dislike of Poverty* — 2. *His Dislike of the Acquisitive Instinct* — 3. *His Joy at the Beautiful* — 4. *His Love for the Lovely*
Β§ 1. His Dislike of Poverty
1. Once the Exalted One was dwelling near Shravasti in Jeta’s grove, at Anathapindika’s park; and there Anathapindika, the householder, came and visited him and after saluting, sat down at one side. So seated, he asked the Exalted One to explain why one should acquire riches.
2. “Since you ask me, I will explain.
3. “Take the case of [an] Ariyan disciple with riches gotten by work and zeal, gathered by the strength of the arm, earned by the sweat of the brow; justly obtained in a lawful way; he makes himself happy [and] glad, and keeps that great happiness; he makes his parents happy [and] glad, and keeps them so; so likewise his wife and children, his slaves, workfolk and men. This is the first reason for getting riches.
4. “When riches are thus gotten, he makes his friends and companions happy [and] glad, and keeps them so. This is the second reason.
5. “Again, when riches are thus gotten, ill-luck from fire and water, rajas and robbers, enemies and heirs, is warded off, and he keeps his goods in safety. This is the third reason.
6. “Then, when riches are thus gotten, he makes the five oblations–that is to say, oblations to kin, guests, pitaras, rajas, and devas. This is the fourth reason.
7. “Moreover, when riches are thus gotten, the householder institutes offerings, of lofty aim, celestial ripening to happiness, leading heavenward, for all those recluses and godly men who abstain from pride and indolence, who bear all things in patience and humility, each mastering self, each calming self, each perfecting self. This is the fifth reason for getting rich.”
8. Anathapindika well understood that the Blessed Lord did not comfort the poor by praising their poverty, nor did he sublimate poverty as a happy state for man to live in.
Β§ 2. His Dislike of the Acquisitive Instinct
1. The Exalted One was once staying in the town of Kammassadamma, in the country of [the] Kurus.
2. The venerable Ananda came to where the Exalted One was, bowed in salutation before him, and took a seat on one side.
3. And so seated he said, “Marvellous is this law of causation which has been taught by the Blessed One! It is so deep. To me it seems as clear as clear can be.”
4. “Say not so, Ananda, say not so! Deep is this doctrine of events arising from causes. It is through not understanding this doctrine, through not penetrating it, that this generation has become a tangled skein, a matted ball of thread, unable to overpass the way of woe.
5. “I have said that craving is the cause of grasping. Where there is no craving of any sort or kind whatever by anyone for anything, would there be any arising of grasping?”
6. “There would not, Lord.”
7. “Craving gives rise to pursuit of gain.
8. “Pursuit of gain gives rise to desire and passion.
9. “Desire and passion give rise to tenacity.
10. Tenacity gives rise to possession.
11. “Possession gives rise to avarice and more possession.
12. “Possessions lead to keeping watch and ward over possessions.
13. “Many a bad and wicked state of things arise[s] from keeping watch and ward over possession; such as blows and wounds, strife, quarrelling, slander, and lies.
14. “This is the chain of causation, Ananda. If there was no craving, would there arise pursuit of gain? If there was no pursuit of gain, would there arise passion? If there was no passion, would there arise tenacity? If there would be no tenacity, would there arise the love for private possessions? If there would be no possession, would there arise avarice for more possession?”
15. “There would not, Lord.”
16. “If there would not be the love of private possession, would there not be peace?”
17. “There would be, Lord.”
18. “I recognise the earth as earth. But I have no craving for it,” said the Lord.
19. Therefore it is, say I, that by extirpating all cravings, by not lusting after them, but by destroying and abandoning and renouncing them all, that I acquired enlightenment.
20. “Seek to be partakers, brethren, not of the world’s goods but of my doctrines. For craving brings about attachment, and attachment enslaves the mind.”
21. In these words did the Blessed Lord explain to Ananda and the brethren the evils of the acquisitive instinct.
Β§ 3. His Joy at the Beautiful
1. The Buddha was so fond of the beautiful that he might well bear an alias and be called Buddha, the Lover of the Beautiful.
2. So he preached to his followers: “Be in the company of the lovely.”
3. Addressing the bhikkhus, he said:
4. “Monks, I know not of any other single thing of such power to cause the arising of good states if not yet arisen, or the waning of evil states already arisen, as friendship with the lovely.
5. “In one who is a friend of what is lovely, good states not arisen do arise and evil states already arisen wane. Evil states and devotion to evil states wanes, lack of devotion to good states disappears, good states and devotion thereto arise; lack of devotion to evil states increases.
6. “Monks, I know not of any other single thing of such power to prevent the arising of the limbs of wisdom, if not yet arisen, or, if they have already arisen, to prevent their reaching fulfilment by cultivation thereof, as unsystematic attention.
7. “In him who practices unsystematic attention, monks, the limbs of wisdom if not yet arisen, arise not, and if arisen they reach not fulfilment by cultivation thereof.
8. “Of slight account, monks, is the loss of such things as relatives. Miserable indeed among losses is the loss of wisdom.
9. “Of slight account, monks, is the increase of such things as relatives. Chief of all the increases is that of wisdom.
10. “Wherefore I say, monks, ye should train yourselves thus: ‘We will increase in wisdom.’ You must train yourselves to win that.
11. “Of slight account, monks, is the increase of such things as wealth. Chief of all the increases is that of wisdom. Wherefore I say, monks, thus, must ye train yourselves. ‘We will increase in wisdom.’ You must train yourselves to win that.
12. “Of slight account, monks, is the loss of such things as reputation. Miserable indeed is the loss of wisdom.”
Β§ 4. His Love for the Lovely
1. Once the Exalted One was staying among the Sakyans at Sakkara, a Sakyan township.
2. Then the venerable Ananda came to the Exalted One, saluted him and sat down at one side. So seated, the venerable Ananda said this:
3. “The half of the holy life, Lord, is friendship with what is lovely, association with what is lovely, intimacy with what is lovely!”
4. “Say not so, Ananda! Say not so, Ananda! It is the whole, not the half, of the holy life–this friendship, this association, this intimacy with what is lovely.
5. “Of a monk who is a friend, an associate, an intimate of what is lovely we may expect this: that he will develop the Ariyan eightfold way, that he will make much of the Ariyan eightfold way.
6. “And how, Ananda, does such a monk develop and make much of the Ariyan eightfold way?
7. “Herein, Ananda, he cultivates the right view, which is based on detachment, on dispassion, on cessation, which ends in self-surrender. He cultivates the right aim, which is so based and concerned; likewise right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration, which ends in self-surrender.
8. “That, Ananda, is how a monk who is a friend, an associate, anintimate of what is lovely, cultivates and makes much of the Ariyan eightfold way.
9. “This is the method, Ananda, by which you are to understand how the whole of this holy life consists in friendship, in association, in intimacy, with what is lovely.
10. “Indeed, Ananda, beings liable to decay, liable to death, liable to grief, woe, lamentation, and despair, are liberated therefrom because of their friendship with what is lovely.
11. “It is by this method, Ananda, that you are to understand how the whole of this holy life consists in friendship, in association, in intimacy with what is lovely.”
EPILOGUE
1. *Tributes to the Buddha’s Greatness* — 2. *A Vow to Spread His Dhamma* — 3. *A Prayer for His Return to His Native Land*
Β§ 1 Tributes to the Buddha’s Greatness
1. The Buddha was born 2500 years ago.
2. What do modern thinkers and scientists say of him and his Dhamma? An anthology of their thoughts on the subject will be useful.
3. Prof. S. S. Raghavachar says:
4. “The period immediately antecedent to the life of the Buddha was one of the darkest ages in the history of India.
5. It was intellectually a backward age. The thought of the time was characterised by an implicit veneration for the authority of the scriptures.
6. “Morally it was a dark age.
7. “Morality meant for the believing Hindus the correct performance of rites and ceremonies enjoined in the holy texts.
8. “The really ethical ideas like self-sacrifice or purity of will did not find appropriate positions in the moral consciousness of the time.”
9. Mr. R. J. Jackson says:
10. “The unique character of the Buddha’s teaching is shown forth in the study of Indian Religious thought.
11. “In the hymns of the Rig-Veda we see man’s thoughts turned outwards, away from himself, to the world of the gods.
12 “Buddhism directed man’s search inwards to the potentiality hidden within himself.
13. “In the Vedas we find prayer, praise, and worship.
14. “In Buddhism for the first time we find training of the mind to make it act righteously.”
15. Winwood Reade says:
16. “It is when we open the book of nature, it is when we read the story of evolution through millions of years, written in blood and tears, it is when we study the laws regulating life, the laws productive of development, that we see plainly how illusive is the theory that God is love.
17. “In everything there is wicked, profligate, and abandoned waste. Of all animals that are born, only a very small percentage survives.
18. “Eat and be eaten is the rule in the ocean, the air, the forest. Murder is the law of growth.”
19. This is what Reade says in his “Martyrdom of Man.” How different is the Dhamma of the Buddha.
20. This is what Dr. Ranjan Roy says:
21. “Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century the three laws of conservation held sway. Nobody challenged them.
22. “They were the laws of matter, mass and energy.
23. “They were the trump cards of those idealists who cherished the thought of their being indestructible.
24. “Nineteenth century scientists professed them as the governing factors of creation.
25. “Nineteenth century scientists professed them as constituting the fundamental nature of the Universe.
26. “They conceived that the Universe was filled with indestructible atoms.
27. “Just as the nineteenth century was drawing to a close, Sir J. J. Thompson and his followers began to hammer the atoms.
28. “Surprisingly enough the atoms began to break up into fragments.
29. “These fragments came to be called electrons, all similar and charged with negative electricity.
30. “Atoms hailed by Maxwell as imperishable foundation-stones of the Universe or Reality broke down.
31. “They got broken into tiny particles, protons and electrons, charged with positive and negative electricity respectively.
32. “The concept of a fixed unalterable mass abandoned Science for good. In this century the universal belief is that matter is being annihilated at every instant.
33. “The Buddha’s doctrine of Anicca (transitoriness) is confirmed.
34. “Science has proved that the course of the Universe is a grouping and dissolution and regrouping.
35. “The trend of Modern Science is the trend of an ultimate reality, unity, and diversity of ego.
36. “Modern Science is the echoing of the Buddhists doctrines of transitoriness (annica) and of egolessness (anatta).”
37. Mr. E. G. Taylor, in his “Buddhism and Modern Thought,” says:
38. “Man has been ruled by external authority long enough. If he is to be truly civilised, he must learn to be ruled by his own principles. Buddhism is the earliest ethical system where man is called upon to have himself governed by himself.
39. “Therefore a progressive world needs Buddhism to teach it this supreme lesson.”
40. The Reverend Leslie Bolton, unitarian minister, says:
41. “I see in the spiritual psychology of Buddhism its most powerful contribution.
42. “Unitarian Christians, like Buddhists, reject the external authority of church, books, or creeds, and find in man himself the guiding lamp.
43. “Unitarians see in Jesus and Gautama noble exponents of the way of life.”
44. Prof. Dwight Goddard says:
45. “Among the world’s religious teachers, Buddha alone has the glory of having rightly judged the intrinsic greatness of man’s capacity to work out his salvation without extraneous aid.”
46. “If the worth of a truly great man consists in his raising the worth of all mankind, who is better entitled to be called truly great than the Blessed One?
47. “Who, instead of degrading him by placing another being over him, has exalted him to the highest pinnacle of wisdom and love.”
48. Mr. E. J. Mills, author of “Buddhism,” says: “In no other religion are the values of knowledge and evil of ignorance so much insisted upon as they are in Buddhism.”
50. “No other religion lays so much stress upon keeping one’s eyes open.
51. “No other religion has formulated such deep laid plans for mental culture.”
52. Prof. W. T. Stace says in his “Buddhist Ethics”:
53. “The Buddhist moral ideal, the Arhat, had to be both morally and intellectually great.
54. “He had to be a philosopher, as well as a man of good conduct.
55. “Knowledge was always stressed by Buddhism as essential to Salvation, and ignorance as one of the two main causes of failure, to attain it (craving or attachment being the other).
56. “On the contrary, knowledge has never been any part of the Christian ideal man.”
57. “Owing to the unphilosophical character of its founder, in the Christian Scheme of thought the moral side of man has been divorced from the intellectual side.
58. “Far more of the world’s misery is caused by stupidity and blind faith than by wickedness.
59. “The Buddha did not allow this.”
60. Enough unto this, to show how great and how unique is the Buddha and his Dhamma.
61. Who would not say, “Let such a one be our Master”?
Β§ 2. A Vow to Spread His Dhamma
1.” There are beings without limit,
Let us take the vow to convey them all across.
2. There are depravities in us without number,
Let us take the vow to extinguish them all.
3. There are truths without end,
Let us take the vow to comprehend them all.
4. There is the Way of Buddha without comparison,
Let us take the vow to accomplish it perfectly.”
–Encyclopadia of Religion & Ethics, Vol. X, p. 168.
Β§ 3. A Prayer for His Return to His Native Land
1. “O Exalted One! I trust myself whole-heartedly
To the Tathagata whose light pervades,
Without any impediment, the regions in the ten quarters,
And express my earnest desire to be born in Thy Land.
2. In realising in vision the appearance of Thy Land,
I know that it surpasses all realms in the threefold existence.
3. That it is like sky, embracing all,
Vast and spacious without boundaries.
4. Thy mercy and compassion in accordance with the righteous way,
Is an outgrowth of the stock of merits (accumulated by Thee), which are beyond all worldly good;
5. And Thy light permeates everywhere,
Like the mirrors of the Sun and the Moon.
6. Let me pray that all beings, having been born there,
Shall proclaim the Truth, like Buddha Thyself.
7. Herewith I write down this essay and utter these verses,
And pray that I could see Thee, O Buddha, face to face,
8. And that I could, together with all my fellow-beings,
Attain the birth in the Land of Bliss.”
–Encyclopedia of Religion & Ethics, Vol. X, p. 169.
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