1 00:00:00,976 --> 00:00:03,258 Hi and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:04,399 --> 00:00:11,746 Today we continue on with verse number 60 that reads as follows. 3 00:00:11,766 --> 00:00:30,342 Which means 4 00:00:32,752 --> 00:00:46,652 The night is long for one who is alert or awake, one who is full of energy. 5 00:00:49,717 --> 00:00:58,810 A league is long for one who is tired, who is weary. 6 00:01:01,405 --> 00:01:03,930 Dīgho bālāna saṅsāro. 7 00:01:05,112 --> 00:01:06,856 Saṅsāra is long. 8 00:01:07,517 --> 00:01:08,980 Wandering on is long. 9 00:01:10,382 --> 00:01:20,462 For fools, saṅdhammaṁ avijñānataṁ, who don't, not knowing the saṅdhamma, the good dhamma. 10 00:01:20,482 --> 00:01:23,548 So we have three types of things that are long. 11 00:01:27,376 --> 00:01:41,049 The story behind this verse is regarding a certain man, but actually more regarding King Pasenadi. 12 00:01:42,331 --> 00:01:49,478 But I think the name of it is Anjatarapurisa, a story about some man or other. 13 00:01:51,740 --> 00:01:57,045 The story goes there was this man who had a very, very beautiful wife that he kept up on the top floor of his house. 14 00:01:58,797 --> 00:02:03,464 or whatever, she was in the house, and there was a festival. 15 00:02:03,504 --> 00:02:11,355 And King Pasenadi went riding on his white elephant through the city. 16 00:02:13,158 --> 00:02:14,800 Sunwise, it says, whatever that means. 17 00:02:14,820 --> 00:02:16,643 Maybe that would be clockwise, no? 18 00:02:21,871 --> 00:02:22,712 Probably clockwise. 19 00:02:24,768 --> 00:02:36,837 And as he was completing his journey around the city, he looked up on his elephant and saw this woman standing in the window. 20 00:02:38,960 --> 00:03:04,377 the top floor of her house and she stood there for a second and he looked at her and then she went back into her house and he was totally enchanted by this, completely enchanted and taken away by this woman's beauty and vowed that she should be his wife, his queen. 21 00:03:05,167 --> 00:03:20,085 And so he completed his trip around the city, went back to the palace, and he called his minister up to see him, one of his attendants, and said, did you see that woman there near the end of the trip? 22 00:03:20,105 --> 00:03:22,028 He said, yes, I saw the woman. 23 00:03:22,048 --> 00:03:23,349 Go and find out if she has a husband. 24 00:03:25,352 --> 00:03:29,777 And so they sent a man to the house to go and find out what was up with this woman. 25 00:03:30,418 --> 00:03:33,942 Come back and says, yes, she's got a husband. 26 00:03:35,491 --> 00:03:38,656 And so he says to him, okay, bring her husband here. 27 00:03:40,719 --> 00:03:44,725 And they have the husband brought before the king. 28 00:03:44,745 --> 00:03:57,164 And the husband somehow knows, I think, I can't remember exactly how it goes, but he knows, he gets an idea because he knows how beautiful his wife is and so he knows there's something going on. 29 00:03:57,244 --> 00:04:04,114 And he goes before the king and the king says, from now on I want you to be my servant. 30 00:04:05,714 --> 00:04:10,861 And he says, oh, but I'm quite happy doing the work that I do, Your Majesty. 31 00:04:11,863 --> 00:04:16,029 Well, regardless, from now on, from this day forward, you are to be my servant. 32 00:04:16,069 --> 00:04:19,173 Of course, if you don't listen to the king, he can cut off your head. 33 00:04:20,675 --> 00:04:31,030 And so the king thinks to himself that he'll find some way to find fault in this man and cut off his head and take this guy's wife. 34 00:04:33,018 --> 00:04:34,660 And he spends a lot of time trying to do that. 35 00:04:34,861 --> 00:04:38,566 He has them go on dangerous errands and fight in battles. 36 00:04:38,967 --> 00:04:51,685 But he's so meticulous and so concerned and he's so aware that the king is out to get him that he performs his job flawlessly and the king is unable to find any fault in him. 37 00:04:53,167 --> 00:04:57,833 So the king finally finds this scheme. 38 00:04:58,494 --> 00:05:00,917 He sends him on an errand to get. 39 00:05:01,057 --> 00:05:17,318 He says, look, I'm going to bathe, and I want this special red clay and I think lotus flowers as well, white lotus flowers that can only be got in a location that is one yojana away. 40 00:05:18,599 --> 00:05:20,642 One yojana is about 12 kilometers. 41 00:05:22,445 --> 00:05:23,293 So, 42 00:05:24,807 --> 00:05:29,091 He says, and I want it there before my bath, which is in like an hour or two hours or something. 43 00:05:29,111 --> 00:05:34,395 Not two hours, but it's in a short time, so short that he knows it would be very difficult to make it. 44 00:05:34,416 --> 00:05:43,864 So he goes back to his home, and he gets his wife to make him some, or his wife is making the food. 45 00:05:43,884 --> 00:05:44,785 He said, is the rice ready? 46 00:05:44,805 --> 00:05:46,046 And she said, no, it's not cooked yet. 47 00:05:46,366 --> 00:05:51,471 So he takes some half-cooked rice and puts it in a pot and carries it with him, and it cooks while he's on the journey. 48 00:05:51,731 --> 00:05:54,173 He was running 12 miles. 49 00:05:54,153 --> 00:05:56,456 12 kilometers. 50 00:05:57,618 --> 00:06:08,634 And he gets to this place and, you know, I'd like to just say he finds the clay and the lotus flowers, but it's not that easy. 51 00:06:08,654 --> 00:06:20,532 The story goes, and so let's say the unelaborated or unextrapolated... 52 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:21,121 No. 53 00:06:22,322 --> 00:06:30,532 What do you call when something you, not elaborate, but you make it more fancy? 54 00:06:30,552 --> 00:06:30,793 Exaggerated. 55 00:06:31,894 --> 00:06:32,595 Exaggerated. 56 00:06:32,735 --> 00:06:33,896 The unexaggerated story. 57 00:06:33,916 --> 00:06:35,939 I think that's sort of what it is. 58 00:06:36,139 --> 00:06:37,221 I think it's not, but anyway. 59 00:06:37,801 --> 00:06:39,203 The unexaggerated story is there. 60 00:06:39,243 --> 00:06:42,287 He got the clay and the lotus flowers and came back. 61 00:06:42,387 --> 00:06:48,915 But the story in the Dhammapada goes that the clay and the lotus flowers were guarded by dragons. 62 00:06:50,768 --> 00:07:00,748 And so he knows this and he knows it's an important, it's a neat story, even though I'm not asking you to believe necessarily that this is what happened. 63 00:07:03,734 --> 00:07:04,255 Because 64 00:07:06,192 --> 00:07:08,676 he knew that this was going to be something very, very difficult to get. 65 00:07:08,716 --> 00:07:16,247 And so he sat down to eat his rice, and he took the best part of his meal and put it aside. 66 00:07:17,189 --> 00:07:19,052 And he ate the rest, or most of the rest. 67 00:07:19,492 --> 00:07:24,600 And then a traveler was sitting by the side of the road. 68 00:07:24,620 --> 00:07:28,186 He saw a traveler going by, and he said, friend, come here. 69 00:07:28,226 --> 00:07:31,110 I have set aside the best portion of my meal. 70 00:07:31,591 --> 00:07:32,993 Please partake of this. 71 00:07:32,973 --> 00:07:35,496 And the man's like, oh wow, that's very nice of you. 72 00:07:35,516 --> 00:07:38,119 And he takes the food, eats the food, and goes on his way. 73 00:07:38,799 --> 00:07:44,686 And our hero takes the rest of the rice, a little bit that's left, and he throws it into the water. 74 00:07:46,447 --> 00:07:47,689 And then he makes a determination. 75 00:07:47,749 --> 00:07:55,517 He said, now I have done great merit, a thousand times merit, by giving my food to someone. 76 00:07:55,717 --> 00:08:02,845 And I've gotten a hundred times merit for giving food to the fishes in the water. 77 00:08:02,825 --> 00:08:09,413 By the power of this merit, may I be worthy to receive this special red clay and these white lotus flowers. 78 00:08:10,034 --> 00:08:14,840 King and the dragon comes along, and I can't remember, they talk about something, I forgot what it is. 79 00:08:15,641 --> 00:08:17,243 And somehow he gets these lotuses. 80 00:08:17,283 --> 00:08:31,802 The thing is, he gets the clay and the lotuses, comes back to the king, and the king, thinking that he might be able to somehow actually get the clay and the lotuses from these dragons, against all odds, has them close the gates to the city early that day. 81 00:08:31,782 --> 00:08:34,646 So he's got no hope and he stands outside the gates of the city. 82 00:08:36,508 --> 00:08:42,977 And he throws the clay down and he throws the lotuses down and he says, I have brought these as I was required. 83 00:08:42,997 --> 00:08:50,967 And he shouts out that the king has framed me, set me up to be killed. 84 00:08:52,229 --> 00:08:52,889 And no one heard him. 85 00:08:53,931 --> 00:08:58,657 So he leaves them there and in fear of his life, he goes to the monastery. 86 00:08:58,737 --> 00:08:59,718 He says, where will I go? 87 00:08:59,979 --> 00:09:01,080 Oh, I'll go hang out with the monks. 88 00:09:03,338 --> 00:09:07,907 I mean, duh, where do you go when you got nowhere else to go? 89 00:09:09,471 --> 00:09:17,507 He goes to the monastery and he falls asleep at the monastery in some corner of, would be Jetavana, I guess. 90 00:09:20,734 --> 00:09:24,722 The king, having bathed and having gone back into his room, 91 00:09:26,187 --> 00:09:53,275 lay down and tried to sleep but found that he couldn't sleep so he was up all night tossing and turning thinking about this woman and how how in the morning he was going to kill this man and take his wife and he was so full of this passion and just just rip raring to go and that he couldn't sleep and so he was up all night and then in this in the morning the sun came up he had gotten no sleep he 92 00:09:53,255 --> 00:10:02,146 Near the end of the night Just before the sun was going to come up Suddenly he heard a noise Anyone heard this story? 93 00:10:02,186 --> 00:10:02,846 What noise he heard? 94 00:10:06,010 --> 00:10:22,570 Do Sa Na So Four voices Four different voices he heard Do Sa 95 00:10:25,064 --> 00:10:30,031 Na, so, like that. 96 00:10:32,535 --> 00:10:33,777 It gave him the heebie-jeebies. 97 00:10:36,020 --> 00:10:49,520 As you imagine, you're a king, protected by all your guards and fortifications, and suddenly in the dark of the night, you hear these four words. 98 00:10:49,981 --> 00:10:50,582 He freaked out. 99 00:10:52,182 --> 00:10:54,087 So in the morning he totally forgot about this man. 100 00:10:55,370 --> 00:11:00,001 And he calls his ministers and he says, look, something really strange happened last night. 101 00:11:00,061 --> 00:11:01,124 I heard these three sounds. 102 00:11:01,806 --> 00:11:02,688 What were these four sounds? 103 00:11:02,708 --> 00:11:03,450 What were the four sounds? 104 00:11:08,703 --> 00:11:09,685 And the Brahmins are like, 105 00:11:11,622 --> 00:11:13,685 Oh yeah, we know what that means. 106 00:11:14,025 --> 00:11:15,827 That means you have to kill lots of animals. 107 00:11:16,628 --> 00:11:17,709 They hadn't a clue what it meant. 108 00:11:18,270 --> 00:11:22,816 But to hide their confusion, they said, of course, of course, yes, this is terrible. 109 00:11:24,117 --> 00:11:25,399 Your Majesty, you're going to die. 110 00:11:25,439 --> 00:11:29,244 Is there any way of avoiding it? 111 00:11:29,444 --> 00:11:30,826 Oh yes, yes, of course there is. 112 00:11:31,226 --> 00:11:33,809 You can count on us to know the cure. 113 00:11:34,770 --> 00:11:41,038 You must get 500 bulls and 500 horses and 500 sheep and 500 goats and kill them all. 114 00:11:41,018 --> 00:11:45,605 And that, of course, will save your life. 115 00:11:46,306 --> 00:11:47,748 It's just how physics works. 116 00:11:50,753 --> 00:11:51,574 There's lots of physics. 117 00:11:51,794 --> 00:11:52,816 There's an equation for it. 118 00:11:54,859 --> 00:11:56,501 500x plus 500y. 119 00:11:59,966 --> 00:12:03,672 And the king, Pisanity, is not known for his erudition. 120 00:12:05,555 --> 00:12:06,176 Is that a word? 121 00:12:06,957 --> 00:12:07,678 His smarts. 122 00:12:08,439 --> 00:12:09,000 Neither am I. 123 00:12:10,634 --> 00:12:17,665 And so he believes them and he gathers them all up and everyone's going crazy trying to, he's just stealing people. 124 00:12:17,705 --> 00:12:23,775 I think he just confiscates people's livestock and everyone's so upset and getting in a big kerfuffle. 125 00:12:24,496 --> 00:12:26,800 And Malika, she sees all this craziness going on. 126 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:27,681 Malika's his queen. 127 00:12:28,463 --> 00:12:32,389 And she goes to King Basenadi and she says, Your Majesty, what's going on? 128 00:12:32,369 --> 00:12:35,293 Oh, my dear, it was the most horrible thing. 129 00:12:35,333 --> 00:12:37,916 I heard these four noises in the night. 130 00:12:38,677 --> 00:12:47,768 And in order to save my life, these four deadly noises that are just going to somehow kill me. 131 00:12:47,788 --> 00:12:55,558 And in order to save my life, I've had to arrange a sacrifice, a great sacrifice of a thousand, two thousand animals. 132 00:12:58,019 --> 00:13:00,245 And Mallika looks at him and says, you're an idiot. 133 00:13:01,790 --> 00:13:05,220 He says, you're a simpleton. 134 00:13:05,260 --> 00:13:11,438 And he's taken aback and he says, okay, what do you mean by that? 135 00:13:12,667 --> 00:13:23,386 And she says, you heard four sounds and these Brahmins tell you that you're going to die and that you have to sacrifice. 136 00:13:23,566 --> 00:13:27,573 What is the relationship between these four sounds and killing 2,000 animals? 137 00:13:27,794 --> 00:13:30,118 Do you really see some sort of connection there? 138 00:13:30,258 --> 00:13:31,941 Are you really that gullible? 139 00:13:33,946 --> 00:13:38,112 And he says, well, what do you think it means? 140 00:13:38,413 --> 00:13:41,377 She says, I haven't a clue what it means, but at least I'm ready to admit it. 141 00:13:41,397 --> 00:13:42,979 Those Brahmins haven't got a clue either. 142 00:13:42,999 --> 00:13:47,346 They're just making stuff up because it makes them money to perform these sacrifices. 143 00:13:48,708 --> 00:13:50,050 And I said, well, then what would you have me do? 144 00:13:51,091 --> 00:13:53,014 He says, well, find someone who knows the answer. 145 00:13:53,034 --> 00:13:53,755 Well, who knows the answer? 146 00:13:53,775 --> 00:13:58,162 Well, duh, Jetavana, Buddha. 147 00:13:58,182 --> 00:13:59,143 Ever hear of this guy? 148 00:14:01,081 --> 00:14:02,803 And he's like, you're right. 149 00:14:03,043 --> 00:14:05,085 I should go to see the fully enlightened Buddha. 150 00:14:06,327 --> 00:14:07,849 And then so he says, but you must come with me. 151 00:14:07,889 --> 00:14:08,750 And so they go together. 152 00:14:09,250 --> 00:14:13,535 The king gets on his white elephant and she gets on her pink elephant or whatever. 153 00:14:14,396 --> 00:14:27,190 And they go together to Jetavana and step down from their elephants and go into the monastery and go before the Buddha and sit down and pay respect to him. 154 00:14:27,170 --> 00:14:31,881 And the Buddha says, so for what reason have you come, your majesty? 155 00:14:32,021 --> 00:14:36,271 And the king is so frightened, he doesn't talk, he doesn't say anything. 156 00:14:36,311 --> 00:14:41,382 So Mallika says, Mallika speaks up and says, 157 00:14:44,332 --> 00:14:55,143 this guy over here, he heard these four sounds, and then the Brahmins told him, da-da-da-da-da-da, and he decided to follow along after them. 158 00:14:56,304 --> 00:14:59,027 Please tell us, Venerable Sir, what is the meaning of the noises? 159 00:14:59,087 --> 00:15:02,191 And so he says to King Pasenadi, what were the four noises? 160 00:15:03,112 --> 00:15:08,177 And Pasenadi says, do-sa-na-so. 161 00:15:08,677 --> 00:15:09,839 That's what I heard, I think. 162 00:15:10,499 --> 00:15:11,200 Something like that. 163 00:15:12,547 --> 00:15:15,831 And the Buddha says, ah, relax. 164 00:15:16,932 --> 00:15:18,594 There's no danger to you, your majesty. 165 00:15:20,837 --> 00:15:21,497 What you heard? 166 00:15:21,557 --> 00:15:25,522 Well, let me tell you a story, he says. 167 00:15:28,986 --> 00:15:36,635 Sometime in the long, in the past, in the time of the Buddha Kasapa, there were these four men. 168 00:15:38,056 --> 00:15:38,537 And 169 00:15:40,255 --> 00:16:04,542 While everyone else was doing great good deeds and performing wholesome acts, giving gifts and keeping morality and practicing meditation and doing good things in the Buddhist dispensation, these four guys looked at them and said, man, that's really tiresome to be engaged in wholesome acts like that, helping other people. 170 00:16:04,522 --> 00:16:08,788 These guys were also very rich, and so they had lots and lots of money. 171 00:16:09,248 --> 00:16:13,414 I think they had 100 gotis of gold or something like that. 172 00:16:13,434 --> 00:16:14,075 They had a lot of money. 173 00:16:15,537 --> 00:16:17,940 And so they sat down and they said, well, what should we do with our money? 174 00:16:20,704 --> 00:16:23,968 And one of them said, well, let's get lots of the choicest rice. 175 00:16:25,430 --> 00:16:32,520 Let's eat only three-year-old rice and curry, special fermented rice or aged rice somehow. 176 00:16:34,053 --> 00:16:53,631 and the other one said let's just have the nicest curries and let's do this and that and the fourth guy says you guys all have no imagination here's what we're going to do he says there is no woman out there I think this is what he says this is not Buddhism this is the bad stuff there's no woman out there who won't cheat on her husband for money 177 00:16:55,585 --> 00:16:56,446 So here's what we'll do. 178 00:16:57,107 --> 00:17:04,658 We'll go and we'll offer money to all the beautiful women, all the beautiful wives in the city, and we'll commit adultery with them. 179 00:17:04,678 --> 00:17:09,966 We'll bribe them to come and run away with us. 180 00:17:13,171 --> 00:17:14,713 And they're like, oh, that sounds like a good idea. 181 00:17:17,597 --> 00:17:19,600 And so they decide that's what they're going to do with their money. 182 00:17:20,642 --> 00:17:23,466 And they spend all their money on women. 183 00:17:27,901 --> 00:17:30,115 The Buddha said, and when they passed away, 184 00:17:31,917 --> 00:17:49,996 They fell into, they appeared into, the body, the coarse body disappears and they're reborn with a fine body in a boiling cauldron called the Great Cauldron, I think, or something like that. 185 00:17:50,016 --> 00:17:52,439 The Iron Cauldron, right? 186 00:17:52,459 --> 00:17:59,687 It's the hell called the Iron Cauldron where it's full of molten lava, maybe, or just maybe it's water, boiling oil, maybe. 187 00:18:00,307 --> 00:18:00,868 I can't remember. 188 00:18:00,968 --> 00:18:01,789 Boiling oil, maybe. 189 00:18:03,980 --> 00:18:15,736 And it takes 30,000, I'm making this up, I'm not quite sure, 30,000 years for them to sink to the bottom of the cauldron. 190 00:18:17,959 --> 00:18:23,226 And then 30,000 years to float back up. 191 00:18:23,246 --> 00:18:26,190 And then they take one breath and then they go back down. 192 00:18:28,094 --> 00:18:29,357 And back up. 193 00:18:29,377 --> 00:18:37,114 And they've been there for, they've been there since the time of the Buddha Kasapa, which I don't know how long ago that was. 194 00:18:37,134 --> 00:18:39,359 So there's a time frame, a long, long time. 195 00:18:40,621 --> 00:18:46,795 And they're going to be there until the karma, the results of their bad karma is expiated. 196 00:18:52,597 --> 00:18:58,605 And he said, so what you heard is you just caught them at the moment when they were all at the top of the cauldron. 197 00:18:59,446 --> 00:19:01,048 And they wanted to say something to you. 198 00:19:03,030 --> 00:19:03,591 But they couldn't. 199 00:19:04,192 --> 00:19:05,654 They wanted to each say a verse. 200 00:19:07,797 --> 00:19:10,039 But all they could get out was the first syllable. 201 00:19:11,501 --> 00:19:15,887 So he said, the man who said du, that was dujivita. 202 00:19:17,234 --> 00:19:18,457 We have lived a bad life. 203 00:19:19,078 --> 00:19:21,604 We had lots of wealth, and we never gave it away to anyone. 204 00:19:21,624 --> 00:19:24,371 We never did good deeds with all of our money. 205 00:19:24,872 --> 00:19:26,396 We wasted our time and our lives. 206 00:19:26,716 --> 00:19:31,648 In a wrong life, an evil life, a life of evil. 207 00:19:33,923 --> 00:19:41,130 For 60,000 years, right? 208 00:19:41,150 --> 00:19:42,271 30 down and 30 up. 209 00:19:43,412 --> 00:19:44,773 We've been boiling. 210 00:19:44,813 --> 00:19:45,574 I guess that's what it was. 211 00:19:45,634 --> 00:19:48,236 The Buddha Kassava would have been 60,000 years ago then, I guess. 212 00:19:49,057 --> 00:19:51,419 60,000 years and now finally they're at the top. 213 00:19:51,439 --> 00:19:52,680 But then they have to go back down again. 214 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:53,441 It's not over yet. 215 00:19:54,982 --> 00:20:00,227 For 60,000 years we've been boiling in this cauldron for the evil that we've done. 216 00:20:00,747 --> 00:20:01,348 Something like that. 217 00:20:03,252 --> 00:20:05,375 The third guy, na, means na-ti. 218 00:20:06,176 --> 00:20:06,557 Na-ti. 219 00:20:08,139 --> 00:20:09,401 Na-ti an-to, I think. 220 00:20:09,441 --> 00:20:10,203 There is no end. 221 00:20:10,703 --> 00:20:12,286 Na-ti an-to, ku-to na-to. 222 00:20:12,306 --> 00:20:13,027 Where is the end? 223 00:20:15,010 --> 00:20:15,390 Ku-to? 224 00:20:15,751 --> 00:20:16,632 Where can there be an end? 225 00:20:16,993 --> 00:20:17,914 I don't see any end. 226 00:20:19,497 --> 00:20:23,042 Because we have done these evil deeds, there is no way out. 227 00:20:25,526 --> 00:20:26,788 And the fourth one, so. 228 00:20:27,429 --> 00:20:28,591 This comes from so-a-hang. 229 00:20:29,472 --> 00:20:29,973 So-hang. 230 00:20:31,034 --> 00:20:32,196 So-hang means I. 231 00:20:34,859 --> 00:20:50,067 When I get out of here and I'm born as a human being again, you can be darn sure that I'm going to spend all my time doing good deeds, giving charity, keeping morality and practicing meditation. 232 00:20:51,633 --> 00:20:54,997 So he said, there's no harm to you, your majesty. 233 00:20:55,538 --> 00:20:57,341 Wink, wink. 234 00:20:58,021 --> 00:21:06,613 The between the lines is unless you do exactly what they did by committing adultery. 235 00:21:09,777 --> 00:21:16,746 And it was just these four poor souls who had fallen into hell. 236 00:21:20,168 --> 00:21:33,417 And then they hear a voice off to the side saying, Venerable Sir, I now know the true length of a league. 237 00:21:33,918 --> 00:21:37,907 And they look over and there's this man who was sleeping in the monastery. 238 00:21:39,592 --> 00:21:45,321 And King Pasenadi looks at him and he shivers and he said, to think I was going to kill this man for his wife and I could have been in hell. 239 00:21:46,342 --> 00:21:50,949 And he said, Venerable Sir, I now know the length of a night. 240 00:21:54,013 --> 00:21:58,240 And Buddha said, well, the length of the night is long. 241 00:21:58,300 --> 00:22:00,323 The length of a yojana is quite long. 242 00:22:01,565 --> 00:22:05,110 But even longer is the length of samsara for fools. 243 00:22:06,777 --> 00:22:08,559 who don't see the true Dhamma. 244 00:22:08,579 --> 00:22:09,600 So that's the verse he told. 245 00:22:18,291 --> 00:22:30,846 So that's the story. 246 00:22:32,628 --> 00:22:33,669 What's the meaning of the verse? 247 00:22:33,750 --> 00:22:35,772 How does this verse apply to us? 248 00:22:38,030 --> 00:22:39,319 Obviously we're not fools. 249 00:22:39,682 --> 00:22:43,348 Everyone is here interested in the Buddha's teaching. 250 00:22:46,467 --> 00:22:59,741 But the reason we're not here is because we have heard and understand these teachings, because we have these teachings and we have them to remind us of the danger inherent in falling astray. 251 00:22:59,801 --> 00:23:04,827 The mind is powerful and power can be used for good or evil. 252 00:23:05,147 --> 00:23:11,614 It's not a game that you can just turn off the computer or the Xbox or whatever, press reset. 253 00:23:11,594 --> 00:23:14,096 You can't just wipe the slate clean. 254 00:23:15,198 --> 00:23:17,059 Everything has its effects. 255 00:23:18,241 --> 00:23:21,804 If you engage in evil deeds, evil results come to you. 256 00:23:21,824 --> 00:23:25,968 If you're constantly engaging in evil deeds, it becomes a habit. 257 00:23:26,949 --> 00:23:28,311 And that habit lasts with you. 258 00:23:28,371 --> 00:23:31,954 Your mind carries it. 259 00:23:31,974 --> 00:23:34,016 It becomes who you are. 260 00:23:36,058 --> 00:23:37,720 We become the things that we do. 261 00:23:41,885 --> 00:23:50,832 And then when we pass away, we can be born in even hell if we've done lots and lots of evil deeds and our minds are impure and so on. 262 00:23:57,258 --> 00:24:14,335 So the meaning of the whole long as the night, well, long as the night is actually an important Buddhist teaching because the Buddha said Buddha once was sleeping out in the open and on some, with just his robes, was sleeping on some dry leaves. 263 00:24:15,396 --> 00:24:26,708 He was traveling somewhere and he got caught in the night and so he gathered together some leaves and put his robe, one robe down and put one robe on top of him in the middle of winter. 264 00:24:27,447 --> 00:24:39,499 And this man came up, can't remember who it was, Brahmin I think, came up and said to him, Venerable sir, it's cold, those leaves are thin, your robes are thin, and it could snow tonight. 265 00:24:39,539 --> 00:24:41,121 This is the between the eighths. 266 00:24:41,782 --> 00:24:49,990 Between the eighths is the eighth of one month and the eighth of another month, the two coldest months. 267 00:24:50,050 --> 00:24:55,075 It was the coldest period, it's called the between the eighths, the period of the coldest period in India of the year. 268 00:24:56,911 --> 00:24:57,773 He said it could snow. 269 00:24:58,234 --> 00:24:59,616 During this period sometimes it snows. 270 00:24:59,676 --> 00:25:02,402 So it was down near the freezing point. 271 00:25:04,225 --> 00:25:07,352 And the Buddha said to him, well, let me ask you, he says, how are you going to sleep? 272 00:25:07,512 --> 00:25:08,935 How can you possibly sleep like that? 273 00:25:09,536 --> 00:25:12,642 And the Buddha says to him, he says, let me ask you something. 274 00:25:14,123 --> 00:25:15,847 Suppose a person is full of lust. 275 00:25:17,050 --> 00:25:29,500 No, suppose a person, sorry, suppose there's a rich man on a down filled, what would it be like a comfort? 276 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:30,883 No, what do you call these things? 277 00:25:34,424 --> 00:25:35,706 What do you call the things people sleep on? 278 00:25:35,846 --> 00:25:36,027 Mattress. 279 00:25:36,047 --> 00:25:36,367 Mattress. 280 00:25:36,427 --> 00:25:37,289 No, but there's something else. 281 00:25:38,430 --> 00:25:38,891 Futon. 282 00:25:38,971 --> 00:25:39,853 Futon, I'm thinking. 283 00:25:39,993 --> 00:25:40,333 I don't know. 284 00:25:40,353 --> 00:25:42,356 Anyway, some expensive mattress or something. 285 00:25:43,498 --> 00:25:45,682 Waterbed, maybe, in this day and age. 286 00:25:47,304 --> 00:25:55,437 With silk sheets and pillows, down feather pillows and rich... 287 00:25:56,750 --> 00:26:25,980 whatever bedding and the most softest delicate most comfortable bedding that there is warm quilts and comforters and so on but suppose their mind is full of lust do you think they would sleep well that night and the Brahmin said no probably they'd be up all night tossing and turning what if their mind was full of anger no likewise if their mind was full of anger and hatred they also wouldn't sleep well at night no matter what 288 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:27,303 luxury they were sleeping in. 289 00:26:28,326 --> 00:26:43,024 What if their mind was full of delusion, arrogance or conceit, self-righteousness, or even just ignorance, thinking and ruminating and worrying, for example, doubting all night. 290 00:26:45,080 --> 00:27:10,412 no then they would be up all night as well and we said well none of those three things are present in me and so for me to sleep here for one night isn't a big deal so it's a important teaching is sleep doesn't comfort peace doesn't come from luxury it doesn't come from without it comes from within you can be surrounded by all the luxury you want if your mind is not pure you don't sleep well 291 00:27:12,704 --> 00:27:16,050 How long the league is, well there's not much Dhamma there I don't think. 292 00:27:17,492 --> 00:27:27,810 But the point of the verse is compared to these things, compared to samsara, compared to the wandering on of fools, a league and a night are nothing. 293 00:27:28,512 --> 00:27:31,557 They're not even worth talking about. 294 00:27:34,102 --> 00:27:38,829 Because a fool, a fool is someone who does evil deeds with body, with speech, and with mind. 295 00:27:38,849 --> 00:27:54,473 So they kill, they steal, they cheat, commit adultery, they hurt others, they scam others, they commit evil deeds by speech, meaning they lie, they cheat, they lie, they back, they... 296 00:27:54,453 --> 00:28:06,968 backbite and gossip about others and speak harshly to others and speak useless speech and in the mind they're full of anger, greed and delusion. 297 00:28:07,489 --> 00:28:14,837 Thoughts of lust, thoughts of desire, thoughts of hatred, thoughts of arrogance and conceit and so on. 298 00:28:16,579 --> 00:28:19,583 Because of all that they 299 00:28:20,997 --> 00:28:44,462 They're like a drunk person, like a person who is so tired with the journey, who is wandering through the wilderness looking for shade and they become so tired and burnt out with heat stroke or dizzy with heat stroke that they don't even see a shady tree when they walk by it. 300 00:28:44,542 --> 00:28:46,684 They're not even able to see the shade. 301 00:28:46,664 --> 00:28:48,946 So to a fool is not able to see goodness. 302 00:28:49,086 --> 00:28:50,988 They're not able to see the right path. 303 00:28:51,008 --> 00:28:52,270 They're not able to find the right path. 304 00:28:52,290 --> 00:28:54,512 They're not able to see the danger in what they're doing. 305 00:28:54,592 --> 00:29:06,384 Like a person who is dazed and confused and has heat stroke and is walking down a path and at the end of the path there's a big pit full of burning, blazing embers. 306 00:29:07,084 --> 00:29:11,929 But they don't see it because their mind is too dizzy. 307 00:29:16,685 --> 00:29:28,582 Now the reason why they are so dizzy and why they are so caught up and intoxicated is, as the Buddha said, because they don't see the saddhamma. 308 00:29:29,703 --> 00:29:40,498 So our practice as Buddhists is, the most important practice for us is to see the saddhamma, to see the truth, not just the truth, but the good truth, the important truth. 309 00:29:42,706 --> 00:29:44,112 So we have three aspects to this. 310 00:29:44,292 --> 00:29:49,915 One is pariyatti sadhamma, two is patipatti sadhamma, and three is pativeda sadhamma. 311 00:29:52,021 --> 00:29:53,903 Paryatisadhamma means our study. 312 00:29:55,084 --> 00:30:03,492 So as we study, when we hear these teachings about how these guys were in hell, you might not believe it, and you might think, well, that's ridiculous, and hell doesn't exist, and so on. 313 00:30:05,434 --> 00:30:15,103 You might believe such things, but you might also start to understand in your mind and think, oh, well, it really seems reasonable that there are consequences to our actions. 314 00:30:15,163 --> 00:30:19,007 At least in this life, we have pretty major consequences to evil if we do them. 315 00:30:21,215 --> 00:30:36,591 And so by hearing this, it gives you some pause, some pause, cause for reflection, and so as a result you become less inclined to do, say, and think evil deeds, evil of all kinds. 316 00:30:38,697 --> 00:30:43,663 A fool who hasn't had this kind of learning is at a disadvantage. 317 00:30:43,683 --> 00:30:50,291 I mean, just learning the five precepts, if someone had taught them to me when I was younger, explained them to me, I think I would have been a lot better off. 318 00:30:51,533 --> 00:31:07,692 I think a lot of people would be if they had heard about, heard other people speaking badly about killing and stealing and talking about the dangers inherent in these things, how it corrupts the mind and how that therefore leads to suffering. 319 00:31:07,756 --> 00:31:11,119 But it's not enough because you still have no experience. 320 00:31:11,139 --> 00:31:14,340 So you might have doubt, you might decide that, well, 321 00:31:15,907 --> 00:31:23,034 Your desire to do and say and think bad things overwhelms it. 322 00:31:23,755 --> 00:31:42,032 And when you have desire, you aren't able to make yourself believe the things that you've studied because it's not as strong as the desire, the habitual inclination of the mind and all the chemicals that are working in the brain and so on. 323 00:31:44,611 --> 00:31:46,456 So the second part is patipatisadhamma. 324 00:31:46,536 --> 00:31:49,945 Patipatisadhamma helps you to see, helps you to compare good and evil. 325 00:31:50,987 --> 00:31:55,679 And it cultivates habits of good to counteract the evil. 326 00:31:55,940 --> 00:32:00,291 So if you cultivate habits of wholesomeness, including knowledge, 327 00:32:01,587 --> 00:32:07,599 the observation that evil deeds lead to suffering. 328 00:32:07,639 --> 00:32:15,495 So as you sit in meditation and you see how anger inflames the mind, how greed inflames the mind, how delusion boils the mind, 329 00:32:18,479 --> 00:32:23,026 You start to incline away from evil deeds and they have less power over you. 330 00:32:24,469 --> 00:32:29,617 And you have an inclination towards wholesomeness through the practice. 331 00:32:29,637 --> 00:32:32,542 This is all we're getting from walking back and forth and sitting still. 332 00:32:33,183 --> 00:32:34,205 We're gaining these habits. 333 00:32:35,066 --> 00:32:36,148 I'm sorry, it's not all we're getting. 334 00:32:36,168 --> 00:32:42,478 This is the preliminary benefits, the practical benefits. 335 00:32:43,589 --> 00:33:08,668 The third one is Pativedasa Dhamma, is the real, true seeing, proper seeing of the true Dhamma, which is when the mind enters into Nibbana, when there is the realization of the Four Noble Truths and the mind lets go of experience and as a result sees that everything ceases, gains an experiential knowledge 336 00:33:10,420 --> 00:33:27,467 that there's nothing that arises that doesn't cease and so loses the desire to cling and to strive and to crave and to chase after evil or chase after objects of desire, objects of aversion, to chase them away. 337 00:33:31,042 --> 00:33:34,488 Any desire to cling or get involved with anything. 338 00:33:35,350 --> 00:33:48,713 And so as a result, one is naturally uninclined to commit evil deeds, knowing that they just lead to stress and suffering. 339 00:33:50,077 --> 00:33:55,428 wandering on, that they just lead to mindless, meaningless samsara. 340 00:33:56,892 --> 00:33:59,858 This comes through the practice of the Buddhist teaching. 341 00:33:59,878 --> 00:34:10,701 And so this is what we have to be thankful, grateful, and proud of, as far as Buddhists are allowed to be proud. 342 00:34:11,913 --> 00:34:24,551 that we're not fools, that we are engaging and trying and fighting the fight to try to cultivate wisdom and understanding and goodness in our hearts. 343 00:34:25,873 --> 00:34:32,662 So that's verse number 60, and that's the story and the meaning as far as I can tell it. 344 00:34:33,744 --> 00:34:34,965 So thank you all for tuning in. 345 00:34:35,005 --> 00:34:39,512 I hope this has been useful, and I wish you all to find peace, happiness, and freedom from suffering. 346 00:34:39,992 --> 00:34:40,333 Thank you. 347 00:34:40,533 --> 00:34:41,194 Have a good night.