1 00:00:01,853 --> 00:00:04,696 Okay, hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:05,897 --> 00:00:11,583 Today we continue on with verse number 72, which reads as follows. 3 00:00:13,746 --> 00:00:29,262 yāva-deva-anatāya-nyatam-bhālasa-cāyati hanti-bhālasa-sukhaṁsaṁ mudham-masa-vipātayam Which means, 4 00:00:31,148 --> 00:00:32,870 Yavadeva anathaya. 5 00:00:37,576 --> 00:00:46,767 Yavadeva, to the extent, to which extent, anathaya nyatam balasa jayati. 6 00:00:49,070 --> 00:00:55,178 Knowledge arises, to the extent that knowledge arises in a fool. 7 00:00:57,981 --> 00:00:58,422 Bala. 8 00:01:00,798 --> 00:01:07,987 To that extent, it arises to that person's disadvantage. 9 00:01:09,770 --> 00:01:16,578 So knowledge arises to the disadvantage of a fool. 10 00:01:19,723 --> 00:01:30,096 For it destroys, kills, or puts an end to their good luck . 11 00:01:32,287 --> 00:01:38,478 It crushes his or her head. 12 00:01:40,241 --> 00:01:41,143 Crushes her head. 13 00:01:41,203 --> 00:01:42,686 His head. 14 00:01:43,527 --> 00:01:43,908 Their head. 15 00:01:48,917 --> 00:01:50,059 Very important verse. 16 00:01:52,047 --> 00:01:53,511 for all of us to keep in mind. 17 00:01:54,876 --> 00:02:05,247 This is the sort of verse that you can think of as exemplary of the Buddhist teaching. 18 00:02:09,344 --> 00:02:14,792 it is indicative of the nature of the Buddha's teaching. 19 00:02:16,174 --> 00:02:34,963 And it shows how the place he gave to knowledge was not being a bad thing, but clearly not being enough, having its limitations and potential disadvantages. 20 00:02:36,783 --> 00:02:39,638 What was this verse told in regards to? 21 00:02:40,543 --> 00:02:44,987 It seems that there's a theme here. 22 00:02:46,621 --> 00:02:57,141 As with the last verse, verse 71, this is told about Moggallana and the things he saw on Vulture's Peak. 23 00:02:57,161 --> 00:03:08,764 So it seems that Moggallana was coming down from Vulture's Peak again, again with the same monk, Lakkhana, who was, I guess, a good friend of Moggallana's. 24 00:03:11,005 --> 00:03:14,030 And again he smiled. 25 00:03:15,072 --> 00:03:17,475 And again Lakhana asked him, what are you smiling about? 26 00:03:17,556 --> 00:03:26,049 And again, just as before, Moggallana refuses to answer and says, ask me again when we get in front of the Buddha. 27 00:03:28,353 --> 00:03:30,356 And indeed Lakhana does exactly that. 28 00:03:31,778 --> 00:03:32,760 And again the Buddha smiles. 29 00:03:34,748 --> 00:04:04,266 admits that he saw and again Moggallana tells him what he saw and in this case he saw a ghost huge invisible ethereal being and this time having his head crushed by hammers so again and again hammers would crash upon his skull 30 00:04:06,187 --> 00:04:06,768 would burst. 31 00:04:07,649 --> 00:04:14,241 And again and again, his head would be rebuilt and rebuild itself. 32 00:04:15,022 --> 00:04:18,989 And again, the hammers would crash down and repeat endlessly. 33 00:04:22,715 --> 00:04:25,820 And he said, I smiled because I've never seen such a being before. 34 00:04:26,561 --> 00:04:27,924 This is what the text says. 35 00:04:27,944 --> 00:04:29,967 So it's an interesting thing. 36 00:04:31,499 --> 00:04:42,151 And then the Buddha says that he saw such a being but didn't want to say anything because people would, if he didn't have a witness, people wouldn't believe him. 37 00:04:42,591 --> 00:04:45,514 And I think such is the case nowadays when I tell these stories. 38 00:04:46,355 --> 00:04:54,504 I risk, we risk people disbelieving it, feeling that such a being could not exist. 39 00:04:55,385 --> 00:04:58,148 So we have a bit of a problem here. 40 00:04:58,128 --> 00:05:03,853 I'd like people to focus not on details. 41 00:05:04,556 --> 00:05:06,062 You shouldn't focus on 42 00:05:07,426 --> 00:05:11,694 historical facts. 43 00:05:12,115 --> 00:05:12,716 Did this happen? 44 00:05:12,756 --> 00:05:13,377 Did that not happen? 45 00:05:13,397 --> 00:05:14,379 It's not really important. 46 00:05:15,301 --> 00:05:16,443 Does such a being exist? 47 00:05:16,483 --> 00:05:17,805 Does such a being not exist? 48 00:05:17,865 --> 00:05:29,046 It's more important to understand the theory and obviously more important to understand this verse which doesn't require the story to be true. 49 00:05:29,026 --> 00:05:50,250 On the other hand, it would be of course much to our advantage if we could understand the mechanics behind such a being, how such a being can arise and be clear in our minds that there's also the potential for us to be born as a huge hulking being, having our head crushed by hammers. 50 00:05:51,611 --> 00:05:53,413 Apparently there is such a potential. 51 00:05:55,655 --> 00:06:20,025 Even if we can't do that, if we can't bring our minds around the fact that beings of a different nature than ourselves exist and the potential for the mind to create existence that is undetectable or seemingly undetectable by physical means, ordinary physical means, 52 00:06:24,207 --> 00:06:38,706 if we can't we shouldn't let it get in the way of our our practice and our appreciation of the knowledge in this verse if you can well there's always a benefit there 53 00:06:42,550 --> 00:06:53,318 The benefit would be that you can then have faith and confidence in your practice. 54 00:06:53,418 --> 00:06:55,243 It gives you encouragement in your practice. 55 00:06:56,523 --> 00:06:57,684 to avoid such states. 56 00:06:58,265 --> 00:06:59,727 Nobody wants to be born such a being. 57 00:06:59,747 --> 00:07:08,318 Anyway, then the monks were all like asking the Buddha how such a thing could occur, how such a being could exist. 58 00:07:09,299 --> 00:07:13,103 What did such a being do to obtain such an existence? 59 00:07:14,545 --> 00:07:16,187 And the Buddha told the story of the past. 60 00:07:18,270 --> 00:07:20,893 So it seems there was once a cripple 61 00:07:22,730 --> 00:07:39,034 and this cripple was very good in one thing and that was using a sling so he had this sling and he would shoot stones at 62 00:07:39,014 --> 00:07:43,939 at these big leaves, whatever big leaves there were. 63 00:07:43,979 --> 00:07:48,704 And he could cut the leaves just by slinging stones. 64 00:07:48,764 --> 00:07:52,388 He was such a sharpshooter that he could cut the leaves in a certain pattern. 65 00:07:53,529 --> 00:07:57,453 And so he would, just for fun, he would cut them into shapes. 66 00:07:59,836 --> 00:08:01,658 And he did this to amuse the children. 67 00:08:02,379 --> 00:08:07,784 And the children would follow him around and ask him to make an elephant or ask him to make a bird or so on. 68 00:08:07,804 --> 00:08:08,565 And he would oblige. 69 00:08:11,819 --> 00:08:15,790 And one day, they were in the king's garden. 70 00:08:15,810 --> 00:08:25,558 And they were telling him that he was making all these shapes and cutting the leaves out in various patterns, when all of a sudden, the king 71 00:08:26,956 --> 00:08:31,302 came to the garden and the children ran away and left the cripple behind. 72 00:08:31,342 --> 00:08:42,257 And the king found out and the king went, of course, to rest in the shade and found that the shade was patched. 73 00:08:43,499 --> 00:08:48,225 The shade wasn't complete and he looked up and he saw these shapes and he said, what is this? 74 00:08:48,325 --> 00:08:49,126 Where is this happening? 75 00:08:49,847 --> 00:08:50,608 How is this happening? 76 00:08:51,630 --> 00:08:53,993 And he inquired and found out that there was this cripple 77 00:08:55,458 --> 00:08:56,099 I thought, wow. 78 00:08:57,160 --> 00:08:58,902 Hey, you know, I could use such a person. 79 00:08:58,942 --> 00:09:04,029 And he asked him, would you be able to shoot these pebbles? 80 00:09:04,229 --> 00:09:09,555 Speaking of the sharp shooting, do you think you'd be able to shoot these pebbles into someone's mouth? 81 00:09:13,140 --> 00:09:14,542 And the cripple said, yeah, I could do that. 82 00:09:15,142 --> 00:09:19,328 And he said, I'd like you to shoot a pint pot of horse dung. 83 00:09:20,269 --> 00:09:20,769 Cow dung? 84 00:09:20,789 --> 00:09:21,330 I can't remember. 85 00:09:22,762 --> 00:09:48,887 into someone's mouth for me turns out the king had a advisor who couldn't keep his mouth shut and would just lather on about anything and everything and the king was annoyed by this and so thought they would teach this guy a lesson and the cripple said yes I could I could do that so the king took him to the court and hid him behind a curtain 86 00:09:50,622 --> 00:09:53,227 And the cripple poked a little hole in it. 87 00:09:53,307 --> 00:10:01,761 And every time this advisor opened his mouth, he would shoot a little pellet of dung into the guy's mouth and shut him up. 88 00:10:05,208 --> 00:10:12,360 Apparently, he got away with this until he completely got a whole pint pot full of dung into the guy's mouth. 89 00:10:14,433 --> 00:10:16,195 And right. 90 00:10:17,237 --> 00:10:26,550 And the king then turned to the advisor and said, you know, you're such a blather mouth, I can't take it anymore. 91 00:10:26,610 --> 00:10:39,748 And he said, all this time you've been sitting there and even when I, you couldn't even keep your mouth shut, even when we were shooting pellets of dung into your mouth or something like that. 92 00:10:40,437 --> 00:10:42,500 It's bizarre, really, this story. 93 00:10:44,403 --> 00:10:47,108 It's quite interesting. 94 00:10:47,448 --> 00:10:49,071 This is the story that's been passed down. 95 00:10:50,453 --> 00:10:51,995 It's a bizarre sort of story, I think. 96 00:10:53,277 --> 00:10:56,603 An interesting way to... But it's a harmless way, I suppose. 97 00:10:56,663 --> 00:10:58,245 I mean, they're not hurting the guy. 98 00:10:58,967 --> 00:11:02,412 So it is kind of an ingenious way to... 99 00:11:03,927 --> 00:11:05,009 get your point across. 100 00:11:06,031 --> 00:11:14,525 It is said that the advisor never was very careful to open his mouth in the future. 101 00:11:18,932 --> 00:11:24,862 But the point is, then this cripple became quite wealthy. 102 00:11:24,882 --> 00:11:28,348 The king showered honor and gain upon him. 103 00:11:29,780 --> 00:11:51,062 And our story comes in, our verse comes in when, the story of our verse comes in when another man saw this and was quite impressed and thought, wow, you know, if I could learn that skill, I could probably gain favor and gain and fame as well. 104 00:11:52,072 --> 00:12:21,589 and so here's the problem when someone does something for the purpose of fame and gain and all this and so his desire was already unwholesome his desire to learn so he approaches this cripple and the cripple doesn't want to teach him and he persuades him to teach him and finally he says fine I'll teach you what I know 105 00:12:23,712 --> 00:12:38,963 And the cripple, he does this, he butters up the cripple and takes care of him and acts as his servant for a while until finally the cripple says, fine, I'll teach you what I know. 106 00:12:39,003 --> 00:12:43,412 And so he teaches him how to use this sling until the man gets quite good at it. 107 00:12:44,895 --> 00:12:45,636 And so 108 00:12:46,882 --> 00:12:55,455 The short of it is that we have this man who's learned how to use a sling and is keen to show off. 109 00:12:57,338 --> 00:13:00,302 And so the cripple says, so how are you going to test? 110 00:13:00,522 --> 00:13:02,686 What are you going to do with this skill? 111 00:13:02,706 --> 00:13:09,576 And he says, well, I figure I'll find something to shoot at so that people can know what a sharpshooter I am. 112 00:13:09,636 --> 00:13:13,682 I'll figure I'll shoot at a cow or maybe I'll shoot at a man somewhere. 113 00:13:15,029 --> 00:13:20,615 And the cripple says, you can't just go around shooting things and living beings. 114 00:13:21,375 --> 00:13:24,018 If you shoot a cow, you get fined 500 gold pieces. 115 00:13:24,098 --> 00:13:29,944 If you shoot a human, you get fined 1,000 gold pieces, something like that. 116 00:13:29,964 --> 00:13:45,019 He says, what you have to do is you have to find something to shoot at that nobody's going to miss, that has no father, no mother, nobody to complain about. 117 00:13:46,872 --> 00:13:48,997 So maybe some of you can tell where this is going. 118 00:13:50,821 --> 00:13:52,926 He says, good idea, I'll find something like that. 119 00:13:54,129 --> 00:13:58,219 So he looks around and he sees a cow and he says, no, that has an owner. 120 00:13:59,041 --> 00:14:01,928 And the owner is going to be concerned about it. 121 00:14:02,752 --> 00:14:11,188 And he looks and he sees a man and he thinks, yeah, right, that's true, this man has a mother and a father and a wife and children and not a good idea. 122 00:14:12,230 --> 00:14:19,765 And he looks around, finally he sees a child, he sees all these, until finally he sees a Pateka Buddha. 123 00:14:21,702 --> 00:14:23,505 And he says, this man. 124 00:14:24,627 --> 00:14:26,129 He sees him going on alms round. 125 00:14:26,189 --> 00:14:29,855 And it's amazing how he could just miss the fact that this is an enlightened being. 126 00:14:29,915 --> 00:14:40,311 But that's the case with people who are so blinded by their own desires and their attachments. 127 00:14:40,331 --> 00:14:43,035 And he says, this man. 128 00:14:44,483 --> 00:14:48,508 No father, no mother, no wife, no children. 129 00:14:49,229 --> 00:14:53,373 This man is the perfect target and no one will miss him. 130 00:14:58,059 --> 00:15:05,968 And so he takes this thing and he shoots the Pachayka Buddha right in the head and the Pachayka Buddha dies. 131 00:15:09,762 --> 00:15:11,504 He thinks, oh, I'm a good shot with that. 132 00:15:13,127 --> 00:15:22,600 And the people of the village, of course, are very much attached to the Pacheco Buddha. 133 00:15:22,620 --> 00:15:24,343 And they find out he hasn't come for alms. 134 00:15:24,463 --> 00:15:25,825 And so they go and look for him. 135 00:15:25,885 --> 00:15:27,367 And they find that he's passed away. 136 00:15:27,607 --> 00:15:29,129 He's been killed, been murdered. 137 00:15:31,192 --> 00:15:36,400 And this silly person comes up and says, yeah, that was me. 138 00:15:37,461 --> 00:15:39,364 Look what a sharpshooter I am. 139 00:15:42,854 --> 00:15:43,756 Killing this guy. 140 00:15:44,958 --> 00:15:52,392 The story is that the text says that he was able to shoot a stone in one ear and out the other ear. 141 00:15:52,813 --> 00:15:58,483 So according to the text, yes, we can agree that's quite a feat. 142 00:16:03,070 --> 00:16:10,662 And yeah, his bragging doesn't quite have the expected result. 143 00:16:11,643 --> 00:16:17,733 They lynch him and I think they beat him and kill him and he ends up going to hell as a result. 144 00:16:18,694 --> 00:16:20,657 And once he's finished his 145 00:16:21,785 --> 00:16:25,011 He is stint in hell. 146 00:16:26,313 --> 00:16:33,226 He is reborn as a ghost on Vulture's Peak and has hammers crashing down upon his skull. 147 00:16:36,272 --> 00:16:44,046 And the Buddha says, so you see, . 148 00:16:45,055 --> 00:16:49,461 Knowledge arises in a fool to his or her disadvantage. 149 00:16:50,662 --> 00:16:52,124 It destroys their good luck. 150 00:16:53,466 --> 00:16:54,588 It crushes their head. 151 00:16:59,154 --> 00:17:06,623 The verse is obviously metaphorical, and so you don't need the story of a ghost having its head crushed, but that's the reference there. 152 00:17:07,805 --> 00:17:14,674 It actually can physically crush your head if you're not careful and be born with hammers crushing your head. 153 00:17:16,342 --> 00:17:17,986 But this isn't the point of the verse. 154 00:17:18,046 --> 00:17:25,261 The point of the verse is that knowledge in the wrong hands isn't useful at all. 155 00:17:27,486 --> 00:17:29,170 We use it to our detriment. 156 00:17:29,190 --> 00:17:31,074 It's important in a worldly sense. 157 00:17:31,114 --> 00:17:35,143 This is an important philosophy, an important 158 00:17:38,431 --> 00:17:43,038 ethical point that knowledge is ethically variable. 159 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:47,145 It's not always a good thing to have knowledge. 160 00:17:47,606 --> 00:17:49,809 More knowledge isn't always a good thing. 161 00:17:52,493 --> 00:17:55,999 And the variable is whether someone is wise or not. 162 00:17:56,560 --> 00:17:59,164 Wisdom and intelligence are obviously two very different things. 163 00:18:00,005 --> 00:18:04,152 You can have wise people with very little knowledge or intelligence. 164 00:18:06,511 --> 00:18:12,162 In fact, you could argue that to some extent they're inversely related. 165 00:18:12,182 --> 00:18:18,974 The more intelligence a person has, the harder it is for them to be wise. 166 00:18:20,778 --> 00:18:23,523 It's easier to become conceited about your knowledge. 167 00:18:24,505 --> 00:18:28,873 It's easier to become attached to the gain that comes from your knowledge. 168 00:18:28,853 --> 00:18:48,820 And so even you find that professors of religion and even professors who study Buddhism and go all the way to get their PhD and even become teachers in their own right can be very silly at times and have strange and bizarre views and beliefs. 169 00:18:52,040 --> 00:19:00,129 Obviously, in a worldly sense, it's even more clear how knowledge in the wrong hands can lead to suffering. 170 00:19:00,169 --> 00:19:14,023 It's the knowledge of nuclear reactivity, whatever it is that led them to create the atom bomb. 171 00:19:14,604 --> 00:19:18,368 So nuclear power could be used for benefit 172 00:19:20,052 --> 00:19:21,253 could be used for detriment. 173 00:19:21,333 --> 00:19:28,261 In fact, even nuclear power itself, as we can see, has the potential to cause great suffering. 174 00:19:31,985 --> 00:19:34,427 Knowledge is not always a good thing. 175 00:19:36,450 --> 00:19:47,241 Much of our knowledge even today, as we can see now, is because of our lack of wisdom, we're using it to gain 176 00:19:52,317 --> 00:20:02,994 wealth and prosperity in the present moment at the expense of our future, as it seems with the change of the climate based on human activity and so on. 177 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:09,485 Knowledge in fact seems to be one of those, one thing that's set to kill us. 178 00:20:11,007 --> 00:20:18,780 Before we had engrossed ourselves in this knowledge that has led to our technology, 179 00:20:20,093 --> 00:20:26,881 We were never in danger of destroying our environment and the environment on which we depend. 180 00:20:27,621 --> 00:20:28,823 It's an interesting example. 181 00:20:29,704 --> 00:20:30,985 The same goes with nuclear power. 182 00:20:31,025 --> 00:20:35,711 We were never at risk of destroying our civilizations. 183 00:20:39,315 --> 00:20:40,456 So knowledge is power. 184 00:20:40,576 --> 00:20:46,843 And power, of course, is ethically variable, can be. 185 00:20:47,296 --> 00:20:49,158 It can be beneficial. 186 00:20:49,398 --> 00:20:51,461 It can be used to create great wholesomeness. 187 00:20:52,662 --> 00:20:55,425 It can be used to create great evil as well. 188 00:20:59,430 --> 00:21:07,279 But on the meditation side of things, there's also a point to be made here that knowledge of meditation can sometimes be to our detriment. 189 00:21:07,459 --> 00:21:11,303 If you know too much, it can actually get in the way of your practice. 190 00:21:12,625 --> 00:21:15,328 Certainly it doesn't necessarily help your practice. 191 00:21:16,827 --> 00:21:20,070 Knowledge accompanied by practice, on the other hand. 192 00:21:20,431 --> 00:21:24,475 Again, the power of knowledge can be a great thing if you're actually practicing. 193 00:21:25,696 --> 00:21:42,073 To have knowledge of, of course, the correct way to practice, to have knowledge of background Buddhist theory, like the Abhidhamma, the nature of the mind, of wholesomeness, even knowledge of these stories. 194 00:21:43,575 --> 00:21:46,598 If a person grasps them in the wrong way, 195 00:21:47,776 --> 00:21:52,466 and becomes skeptical, thinking such things could never happen, could never exist. 196 00:21:53,609 --> 00:21:57,016 How is it possible for such a ghost being to be born? 197 00:21:57,798 --> 00:22:00,925 They focus on that aspect of it and become full of doubt. 198 00:22:02,153 --> 00:22:17,454 If they don't have the experience to see how such a thing is possible, how the mind can create such an existence, then it will actually create doubt in the mind and be a detriment to the practice. 199 00:22:17,474 --> 00:22:29,511 If on the other hand one grasps it correctly and sees the message behind it, and moreover is able, even better, is able to understand how such a thing could come about, 200 00:22:30,571 --> 00:22:37,985 able to see how the mind works and experience how it's able to create such an existence. 201 00:22:39,568 --> 00:22:53,473 And it can be to one's advantage, reminding one of the potential for suffering for those who are bent upon the wrong path and on unwholesomeness. 202 00:22:56,390 --> 00:23:02,241 So this is just one more lesson for us to keep in mind, that knowledge and wisdom are two very different things. 203 00:23:02,341 --> 00:23:13,102 And simply studying the Buddha's teaching, even listening to, watching these videos and reading about the Buddha's teaching, this isn't enough. 204 00:23:14,284 --> 00:23:18,853 It isn't a substitute for actually practicing the Buddha's teaching. 205 00:23:20,825 --> 00:23:26,659 So, more food for thought from the Buddha as taught in the Dhammapada. 206 00:23:29,466 --> 00:23:30,308 That's all for today. 207 00:23:30,569 --> 00:23:32,995 Thank you all for tuning in.