1 00:00:02,343 --> 00:00:04,526 Hi, and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:05,347 --> 00:00:10,473 Today we continue on with verse number 62, which reads as follows. 3 00:00:21,647 --> 00:00:29,076 Which means, 4 00:00:33,781 --> 00:00:36,144 Putamati, I have sons. 5 00:00:37,846 --> 00:00:44,035 Dhanamati, I have wealth. 6 00:00:44,315 --> 00:00:59,215 Thus the fool worries himself or is vexed or is caught up, is concerned, is distraught by these thoughts. 7 00:01:01,135 --> 00:01:05,362 Atahi atano nathih, oneself indeed is not oneself. 8 00:01:09,530 --> 00:01:20,629 Kuto puta kuto danang, how therefore could either sons or wealth belong to oneself? 9 00:01:24,305 --> 00:01:31,834 The story behind the verse, the story goes that there was this rich man called Ananda. 10 00:01:34,637 --> 00:01:40,063 Ananda Sethi, a rich man named Ananda. 11 00:01:41,305 --> 00:01:52,438 And he taught his children, he lived his life and taught his children to not spend anything, to never give, he said, don't ever give away anything. 12 00:01:53,768 --> 00:02:11,289 because wealth is difficult to gain, it's hard to hold on to, and it can vanish at any time, so you have to work very, very hard to keep it, and keep every coin accounted for. 13 00:02:12,871 --> 00:02:23,404 And so, over his years of cultivating wealth and obsessing over wealth, he came to view it as 14 00:02:25,865 --> 00:02:27,607 something that needed protecting. 15 00:02:29,069 --> 00:02:35,598 He got so wound up that he thought every coin should be accounted for and should never give anything to anyone. 16 00:02:36,279 --> 00:02:42,087 So never give away or foolishly spend your wealth. 17 00:02:43,349 --> 00:02:49,017 Reminds us of the rich man with the pancakes, but no, this is a different man. 18 00:02:49,097 --> 00:02:53,323 It seems to be that wealth, there's a 19 00:02:55,598 --> 00:03:08,103 There's a common theme in the Pali Canon of richness often leading to miserliness, which of course you see in modern day as well. 20 00:03:10,989 --> 00:03:15,598 There are some examples of rich people who are very generous and kind. 21 00:03:17,013 --> 00:03:20,338 There are many rich people who can only think about how they can amass more wealth. 22 00:03:20,859 --> 00:03:21,980 You can get more and more. 23 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:33,958 So the Buddha said, for this reason, even if it were to rain gold, you would never get enough for even one person. 24 00:03:36,773 --> 00:03:43,504 So this is the story of Ananda and not much of a story because he passed away and left his fortune to his son. 25 00:03:43,544 --> 00:03:47,150 And the story is actually about his reincarnation. 26 00:03:47,210 --> 00:03:58,107 When he was reborn, he was reborn as an outcast in a village of, it says, around a thousand outcast beggars or 27 00:03:59,369 --> 00:04:15,659 poor unemployed outcasts who were unable of course to get any but the worst of jobs and had to live either off begging or off slavery and slave labor etc. 28 00:04:17,442 --> 00:04:23,233 Now from the moment that he was conceived in his mother's womb the entire village was unable to 29 00:04:25,137 --> 00:04:32,446 to get anything, to make even the slightest bit of money or food. 30 00:04:33,408 --> 00:04:34,669 They weren't able to beg. 31 00:04:35,210 --> 00:04:36,151 They weren't able to work. 32 00:04:37,473 --> 00:04:40,036 And the moment that he was conceived, he cursed the whole village. 33 00:04:41,718 --> 00:04:43,340 And so the story goes. 34 00:04:44,342 --> 00:04:49,709 Some kind of group karma at work, I guess. 35 00:04:49,729 --> 00:04:50,790 And so... 36 00:04:53,217 --> 00:04:54,619 They split the village. 37 00:04:54,879 --> 00:04:58,144 They got together and they said, something must be wrong here. 38 00:04:58,245 --> 00:04:59,326 Someone must be causing this. 39 00:04:59,366 --> 00:05:08,740 And so they split the village in half and had them go in separate locations and go begging or go working or whatever. 40 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:15,951 And they found that one half was able to get by fine as per normal. 41 00:05:17,230 --> 00:05:19,453 the other group still was, as it were, cursed. 42 00:05:20,574 --> 00:05:35,371 And so they cut that group in half and then cut the other group in half and in half again until they got down to two families and they split them up and they found that this pregnant woman was the cause of all the problems. 43 00:05:35,391 --> 00:05:39,576 So they kicked them out and sent them on their way. 44 00:05:41,958 --> 00:05:44,301 And then when he was born, 45 00:05:45,732 --> 00:06:13,208 his parents found the same thing that if they went on alms alone or if they went out working or whatever alone then they could get money just fine and they could get by as well as could be expected but if he was with them they would all get nothing so they kicked him out as well and gave him a little piece of maybe a piece of pot or something and said go you must 46 00:06:15,331 --> 00:06:16,593 You must bear for yourself. 47 00:06:17,134 --> 00:06:19,598 They kept him around until he was like seven years old and they sent him off. 48 00:06:20,660 --> 00:06:21,402 You must go by yourself. 49 00:06:22,203 --> 00:06:23,485 The other thing is he was very, very ugly. 50 00:06:24,086 --> 00:06:25,228 So he kind of looked like an ogre. 51 00:06:26,150 --> 00:06:31,860 And this is the horrible repercussions of being such a miser. 52 00:06:35,025 --> 00:06:35,466 And 53 00:06:36,863 --> 00:06:41,771 One day he was wandering around trying to get whatever alms he could which of course wasn't much. 54 00:06:41,871 --> 00:06:48,702 He wandered back to his old home and he saw this house and he recognized it and so he just walked right in. 55 00:06:48,742 --> 00:06:55,834 And he started looking around the house, not quite sure why he was there but seeing that it looked very familiar and kind of like home. 56 00:06:56,202 --> 00:07:03,274 So he was walking around and he went into one room and there were his grandchildren, his sons' sons, and they freaked out. 57 00:07:04,456 --> 00:07:06,961 And they called out and they said, monster, there's a monster in here. 58 00:07:07,902 --> 00:07:11,308 And the servants came over and beat him and threw him out. 59 00:07:13,027 --> 00:07:14,590 just as the Buddha was walking by. 60 00:07:15,130 --> 00:07:29,474 So the Buddha is walking by going on alms round and he sees this young beggar beaten to a pulp, beaten quite severely, lying on the side of the road, not to a pulp, he's still alive. 61 00:07:29,514 --> 00:07:39,490 He's beaten up and the Buddha looks at him and then he looks at Ananda, who is our Ananda, not the rich Ananda, walking beside and he turns to look at Ananda. 62 00:07:39,470 --> 00:07:52,456 And Ananda knows to take this as an instigation to ask a question. 63 00:07:52,476 --> 00:07:56,905 So he asked the Buddha, what's the story of this guy, Reverend Sir? 64 00:07:59,669 --> 00:08:02,975 And the Buddha said he used to be the great rich man Ananda. 65 00:08:02,995 --> 00:08:03,797 And this was his house. 66 00:08:03,877 --> 00:08:06,301 And this is where he lived. 67 00:08:06,321 --> 00:08:09,747 So Ananda called the rich man's son. 68 00:08:09,807 --> 00:08:16,159 And the Buddha explained to him, this was your father. 69 00:08:16,139 --> 00:08:20,026 And he said, I don't believe it, looks at him and he's this ugly outcast. 70 00:08:20,106 --> 00:08:24,013 And he said, how can he go from a rich man to a beggar? 71 00:08:24,053 --> 00:08:27,700 And the Buddha had him go in the house and find all his treasures. 72 00:08:28,642 --> 00:08:31,988 And the kid was able to actually remember where everything was and so he proved it. 73 00:08:33,453 --> 00:08:36,156 And then the Buddha taught this verse. 74 00:08:36,176 --> 00:08:36,797 Simple story. 75 00:08:37,978 --> 00:08:42,884 And the point here is to remind us not to be negligent. 76 00:08:43,404 --> 00:08:44,406 It's a simple lesson. 77 00:08:45,887 --> 00:08:54,237 We think of material possessions, all of those things, not just Buddha and Danna, our sons and our wealth, but everything. 78 00:08:55,418 --> 00:09:02,987 Look at all of our belongings, all of our enjoyments in the material realm. 79 00:09:04,604 --> 00:09:08,191 thinking of them as me, as mine, as somehow controllable. 80 00:09:09,333 --> 00:09:17,449 So we either hold on to them as ours to enjoy, or we hold on to them as ours to control, or ours to own. 81 00:09:18,762 --> 00:09:21,045 or ours to dwell in. 82 00:09:21,646 --> 00:09:23,429 Our body, we think of it as ourselves. 83 00:09:23,509 --> 00:09:24,991 Our house, we think of it as ourselves. 84 00:09:25,071 --> 00:09:26,893 Our car, our bedroom, everything. 85 00:09:27,735 --> 00:09:29,938 All of our family, we think of them as our family. 86 00:09:30,118 --> 00:09:32,862 All of our friends, we think of them as our friends. 87 00:09:33,763 --> 00:09:48,043 And so we get caught up in this habit of, or expectation of being able to control, of being able to rely upon, of being able to enjoy all of these things. 88 00:09:49,643 --> 00:09:52,487 And the Buddha said, even yourself is not yourself. 89 00:09:52,567 --> 00:10:05,746 It's funny, the more common one that people know is, which is, you wonder whether one of them is actually a, or the other one is actually a, anyway, the Buddha taught both ways. 90 00:10:06,747 --> 00:10:10,673 Self is a refuge of self, which means one is one's own refuge. 91 00:10:13,420 --> 00:10:15,243 But that's referring to the four satipatthana. 92 00:10:15,263 --> 00:10:20,752 One makes a refuge by practicing on one's own, not relying on anyone else. 93 00:10:22,876 --> 00:10:24,298 But even that one can't control. 94 00:10:24,338 --> 00:10:29,747 One can't rely upon one's expectations. 95 00:10:29,907 --> 00:10:37,740 One can't be fulfilled in one's desires and in one's demands. 96 00:10:40,690 --> 00:10:48,400 So as a result, a fool is vexed by these thoughts. 97 00:10:49,501 --> 00:11:00,555 They think of their children and their loved ones and all of the people in their life as being controllable and when they're not able to control these things, control these people. 98 00:11:01,177 --> 00:11:17,660 then they suffer, they're vexed, they're worried all the time, worried about how they might be and trying to figure out ways to control people, ways to control their family, ways to control their friends, ways to control their employers, their employees, their co-workers and so on and so on. 99 00:11:18,822 --> 00:11:21,947 How can I control people to be the way I want them to be? 100 00:11:22,668 --> 00:11:29,277 And the same goes with our dana, our possessions, our wealth, all of our belongings, guarding our houses, guarding our 101 00:11:29,257 --> 00:11:45,255 valuables, guarding our possessions, guarding our enjoyments, even guarding our own bodies, being careful to make sure that we can always enjoy the pleasure that we enjoy now. 102 00:11:47,057 --> 00:11:52,783 But none of this can be controlled, and when it is out of our control, we're vexed by it. 103 00:11:53,472 --> 00:11:58,138 especially foolish people who really believe that these things are going to make them happy. 104 00:11:58,198 --> 00:12:02,784 People who believe in the world bringing happiness end up being vexed quite often. 105 00:12:04,046 --> 00:12:08,111 And because of their lack of wisdom, they're not able to see this. 106 00:12:08,251 --> 00:12:11,055 And so as a result, they are constantly vexed. 107 00:12:11,635 --> 00:12:20,627 They do it again and again and again, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, forgetting that they are constantly upset. 108 00:12:23,105 --> 00:12:26,150 The Buddha reminds us, even ourselves is not ourselves. 109 00:12:27,072 --> 00:12:29,175 What this means is, we can't even control ourselves. 110 00:12:30,497 --> 00:12:34,344 We can make choices, we can have intentions, but we can't really control it. 111 00:12:35,686 --> 00:12:41,315 We can't say, I'm going to be happy all the time, or I'm going to be calm all the time. 112 00:12:42,137 --> 00:12:47,325 We can't say that we're never going to feel pain, or we're not going to get angry, or we're not going to get upset. 113 00:12:48,167 --> 00:12:49,028 We can't say this. 114 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:55,304 even about our own minds, even about our own being. 115 00:12:56,305 --> 00:12:58,387 So how then could we possibly do this? 116 00:12:58,727 --> 00:13:00,910 How then could we possibly hold on to these things? 117 00:13:01,771 --> 00:13:13,042 How then could we expect that we're going to enjoy the possession of these things forever? 118 00:13:13,383 --> 00:13:17,227 How could we possibly forget that we're going to lose them all when we die? 119 00:13:17,667 --> 00:13:21,411 And this is what Ananda Sethi, this guy, didn't realize. 120 00:13:23,213 --> 00:13:29,860 And really the most impressive part of this story is how quickly he was gone. 121 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:30,941 This is what shocked his son. 122 00:13:30,961 --> 00:13:48,259 He was unable to believe that just like that, in one moment, the moment of death turned him from a rich, powerful, influential person to a nobody, to the lowest of the low, an outcast of the outcasts. 123 00:13:50,332 --> 00:13:52,717 But that's the truth. 124 00:13:52,737 --> 00:13:54,260 That's what the Buddha means by it's not self. 125 00:13:55,022 --> 00:13:59,331 You can't even hold on to your own being, your own status. 126 00:13:59,351 --> 00:14:00,053 I think I'm a monk. 127 00:14:00,273 --> 00:14:02,518 The moment I die, that's gone. 128 00:14:03,420 --> 00:14:04,863 You think you're a human being. 129 00:14:04,903 --> 00:14:06,006 The moment you die, that's gone. 130 00:14:06,346 --> 00:14:09,994 The next moment you could be an earthworm or a dung beetle. 131 00:14:09,974 --> 00:14:16,570 Everything that we collect, everything that we hold on to, no security for us. 132 00:14:16,650 --> 00:14:25,671 All these people in some cultures, they will bury their belongings with them, thinking that they can bring it into their next life or they'll burn certain objects. 133 00:14:26,832 --> 00:14:35,086 In Thailand and China, they burn these really crappy houses and fake stuff and everything. 134 00:14:35,106 --> 00:14:37,750 And you think, well, then they're going to get a lot of fake stuff when they go to heaven. 135 00:14:37,770 --> 00:14:39,754 The idea is that they can take that stuff with them if they burn it. 136 00:14:40,755 --> 00:14:44,822 And since it's all garbage, you think, well, it's not really, even if it did work. 137 00:14:45,583 --> 00:14:46,545 Of course, it doesn't work. 138 00:14:46,525 --> 00:14:49,309 We don't possess anything. 139 00:14:50,090 --> 00:14:52,794 We just happen to be going in the same direction as all this stuff. 140 00:14:52,954 --> 00:14:56,198 We happen to be in the same physical locale. 141 00:14:57,660 --> 00:15:01,686 We manage to make choices that bring all this stuff near us and that's it. 142 00:15:02,327 --> 00:15:03,468 We can't do any better than that. 143 00:15:03,709 --> 00:15:04,490 We can't control. 144 00:15:04,550 --> 00:15:08,415 Even our enjoyment is fleeting and 145 00:15:08,395 --> 00:15:13,181 ephemeral, something that cannot be relied upon. 146 00:15:14,022 --> 00:15:21,532 It's very much out of our control based on causes and conditions that are far more powerful than any one of us. 147 00:15:22,112 --> 00:15:24,375 So, a reminder for us. 148 00:15:25,497 --> 00:15:31,985 And in regards to meditation, a reminder for us to keep our minds clear and to be clear about all the things that we use. 149 00:15:32,005 --> 00:15:35,029 It doesn't mean that we shouldn't be using our possessions. 150 00:15:35,109 --> 00:15:37,592 It doesn't mean we shouldn't 151 00:15:41,690 --> 00:15:42,451 We shouldn't live. 152 00:15:43,193 --> 00:15:54,535 But it means that when we do experience even pleasure or when you're eating food, the pleasure of the food, when you're seeing beautiful things, the pleasure that comes from that, 153 00:15:57,367 --> 00:15:59,289 But we should see it simply as a feeling. 154 00:16:00,331 --> 00:16:02,373 We should see the experience simply as an experience. 155 00:16:02,393 --> 00:16:08,200 The experience is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking. 156 00:16:08,220 --> 00:16:12,405 And see liking as liking, see disliking as disliking. 157 00:16:12,986 --> 00:16:15,990 And come to see that these things are not self, are not under our control. 158 00:16:16,030 --> 00:16:17,171 Try to keep our minds clear. 159 00:16:17,972 --> 00:16:20,455 Because all of this will catch you when you die. 160 00:16:20,435 --> 00:16:30,527 And if you have great wanting, so someone who is very, very rich because they're clinging so much, what goes with them is the clinging. 161 00:16:30,587 --> 00:16:32,228 And that's why you're born very, very poor. 162 00:16:32,329 --> 00:16:38,135 That's why rich people are very quick to be born very poor because they have so much greed and attachment. 163 00:16:38,716 --> 00:16:40,798 And it's that want that goes with you. 164 00:16:41,579 --> 00:16:42,460 So you're born wanting. 165 00:16:42,961 --> 00:16:44,583 You're born in a constant state of want. 166 00:16:46,044 --> 00:16:47,726 Amassing wealth doesn't make you wealthy. 167 00:16:47,926 --> 00:16:49,328 Being generous and kind 168 00:16:50,675 --> 00:16:53,559 And having a mind of surplus. 169 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:59,726 When you think you have surplus, when you're content with what you have, then you'll always be content. 170 00:17:00,067 --> 00:17:01,969 You'll never know the words nutty. 171 00:17:03,050 --> 00:17:04,933 When you want something, you'll never be discontent. 172 00:17:04,953 --> 00:17:07,416 You'll never know discontent because your mind is content. 173 00:17:08,697 --> 00:17:09,899 It's funny how it works that way. 174 00:17:13,743 --> 00:17:15,906 The mind that is clinging is the mind that is corrupt. 175 00:17:17,084 --> 00:17:22,639 Clinging to self is the worst type of corruption because it leads to all other likes and dislikes. 176 00:17:23,682 --> 00:17:52,204 so we have to keep our minds clear this is why meditation is important when we live our lives however you live your lives to keep your minds clear and to not cling to self either in regards to your own self or in regards to the things that you enjoy so a nice lesson from the Dhammapada and from our friend the former Ananda Sethi hope he managed to find his way out of that mess so thank you all for tuning in and 177 00:17:52,184 --> 00:17:57,216 I wish you all peace, happiness and freedom from suffering and see you next time.