So and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.
Today we continue with verse number 29, which reads as follows.
Which means,
one who is heedful when others are heedless, who, when others sleep, is full of effort, full of energy.
Just like a horse with swift, a swift-footed horse leaves behind a weak horse or a horse without strength, ambalasam,
So the wise leave behind all others, leave behind those who are weak in the same way.
So this was in regards to a fairly short story, but quite an interesting one.
It has interesting implications on our practice in general and our practice in a general sense of why we're doing what we're doing and the importance of what we're doing.
So the story goes that there were two
two friends who came and heard the Buddha's teaching and became monks as a result of hearing the Buddha's teaching.
They listened to it and they realized that it was difficult to practice the Buddha's teaching as a layperson.
So they decided that they would undertake the formal training to dedicate themselves to this, because they realized that it was something of use and a benefit.
And it happened that one of them, having taken the meditation teachings of the Buddha, took it quite seriously and realized that this meditation was something that was a benefit and was for the purposes of actually putting it into practice and that it had some result that was a benefit.
And so he undertook quite strenuous practice during the whole day
he would practice walking and sitting.
And then at night he would do walking and sitting for the first watch, the first four hours until 10 pm or so.
And then he would lie down and sleep for four hours.
And then at 2 a.m.
he would get up, and the third part of the night, from 2 a.m.
to 6 a.m., he would do walking and sitting again.
After he went for food and did his other affairs, then he would come back and spend the day.
Day to day he would spend it in this way.
So it was quite intensive practice.
The other monk was quite...
industrious as well, but in a different way.
So he would collect firewood and sweep the monastery and organize this and organize that.
And then in the evening he would sit by the fire and talk with the lay people in the monastery and the novices and all of the people who had come to listen to the teachings.
He would sit around and joke with them and talk with them and chat with them.
And
he didn't get what his friend was doing, so he went to check on his friend later on, and he saw his friend at around 10 p.m.
going into his room, or in his room, lying down to sleep, and he went and said to him, what, is this all you do all the time, sleeping?
Because it's all he saw, he never saw his friend doing anything but lying down to sleep.
So at 10 p.m.
he went in and he scolded him, and he said, you say that you're going to practice
strenuously and here you are lying down to sleep and his friend didn't listen to him so he was saying all you do is sit around and do nothing because here he's thinking of himself like I collect firewood I do all this work in the monastery and on top of that I entertain the lay people or whatever he was thinking he thought he was industrious and his friend wasn't doing anything except walking and sitting and he didn't even really know what his friend was doing obviously because he thought he just lay around and slept all the time
So they stayed together like this for some time, and eventually, the story goes that the friend who was an industrious or who was dedicated to the meditation practice,
He became Narayan.
He became enlightened.
He practiced to the point where he was able to free his mind from greed, from anger and from delusion.
And it's no wonder, considering the intensity of his practice.
Just as someone who studies science or studies for a master's or a PhD, if they work hard and they study in it, then in no long time they'll be able to pass the exams.
In the same way, he put the effort in, he put the work in, and so as a result, he was able to become enlightened.
His friend, on the other hand, gained nothing.
But he was very, very industrious.
And so at the end of the period, this rains period, I suppose, they went back to see the Buddha.
And the Buddha asked them, so how did you spend your rains?
How did it go?
And did you gain any attainment or something like that?
And the monk who spent all his time sitting around...
sitting around doing nothing, he said, how could this one have gained anything?
He was, you know, Buddha said, have you been heedful?
And he said, how could he be from, in what way could he be considered heedful?
He just sat around, lay around sleeping all the time.
This he's talking about the one who is enlightened.
And then the Buddha looked at him and said, well, what about you?
And he said, me?
I spent all my time sweeping and gathering firewood and so on and so on.
And then he kind of realized, and he said, and then he just sat around and talked with the other lay people.
He said, but I didn't sleep.
I didn't spend all my time sleeping.
And the Buddha looked at him and gave him a very stern glance and said,
tuvam mamaputasa, santike, and so on and so on.
He said, you, compared with my son, and he's talking about the arahant, the enlightened one, he said, compared with my son, you're like a weak horse of little strength who gains nothing, who never gets to the goal.
He has left you far behind.
And then he gave this verse.
He said, A person who is heedful, who is actually practicing the meditation, who is mindful among the people who are mindless, who when other people sleep is full of energy, and such a person leaves behind such people just as a
just as a swift horse leaves behind a weak horse.
Such a person is called Sumedha, which is one who is wise.
So basically this story of these two people who had quite different ideas of the proper way to live one's life.
And I was thinking about this, and at first it seems like quite a simple story, like, oh yeah, yeah, be the one who practices meditation, but there's really quite a bit more to this.
And it points to the question of the benefit and the significance of what we're doing here.
Because many people will ask, why are you here?
What are you doing here?
What do you hope to gain from this?
What benefit do you see in walking and sitting?
And people will often be quite critical of what we do, in fact, and say, you know, you're sitting around doing nothing, wasting your life, and on top of that, living off of the charity of others.
So people will often criticize this fact that, why don't we get a real job?
Why don't you go out and try to work in the world and see what it's like and make something of your life, for example.
My father telling me to go get an education and
people telling me to get a job.
So we have this question of why don't we work like other people?
Why don't we do something that is considered to be working and considered to be work in a worldly sense?
I once had a man stop me and say, so you don't work, do you?
And I said, yes, I work.
And he said, what do you do?
I said, well, I teach.
He wasn't all that impressed.
But there's even more to it than that.
Even if a person doesn't teach, the question is, could a life as a meditator, if a person just simply spends their time meditating, could this be considered a valid means of living one's life?
And from our point of view, as someone who has undertaken this, it seems like quite a simple question to answer, but it's one that has the world kind of suspicious of this sort of lifestyle.
And so I think the question that we have to ask is, what does it lead to?
The things that you do in your life, what do you get out of them?
What does the world get out of them?
What fruit do they bring?
The theory behind much of the Buddha's teaching is in regards to the fruit of one's acts.
If one acts in a certain way, the theory is that it will bring a certain fruit.
Or the important point is that it will bring a certain fruit, not the quality or not the type of action that one does, but the fruit that it brings.
So if a person does something and it brings suffering, it brings pain, it brings discomfort, it brings stress, it brings conflict,
then no matter how industrious it is, we consider it to be a bad thing.
And I think the logic there is hard to argue with.
This argument that has become quite pernicious amongst ordinary people is that a person is living a good life based on their industry.
And so the Greeks, this was even something that the Greeks had to grapple with.
And so they had this story of this man who pushes a boulder up the mountain.
This is his hell, really.
He has to push this boulder up the mountain.
And when it gets to the top,
it falls back down.
And this is an allegory or a metaphor for ordinary life, for people who work in such a way that
They're getting nothing from it but age.
All that's happening is they're getting older and they're living a stressful life and not really bringing any benefit whatsoever.
So you ask, what benefit is that sort of life?
What benefit is a life of industry if all a person does is push a rock up the hill for it to fall back down?
So the argument that industry makes validity or makes one's life beneficial is obviously a false one.
The question we have to ask is what good does your life do?
So many people think that their life, they say that their life brings benefit to society.
They say you have to do your part in society.
This is what people always say.
Monks, they leave the world.
People who go off and do meditation courses, they're just wasting their time.
When they could be out there helping society.
So,
the question we have to ask is what is really a benefit to society and what is really a benefit to the world and even we have to ask what is really a benefit to oneself because there are people who spend a lot of their time trying to help others bringing physical comfort to others people who are doctors or who build hospitals or who take care of when there's epidemics or when there's catastrophes they go in and do
this kind of relief efforts and so on and spend all of their time and become stressed and become agitated and as a result they burn out people who do for example social work some social sometimes social workers can become quite burnt out because of their work because they're they're neglecting their own benefit so it is important for us to include our own benefit in this but
When we really look at what is a benefit both to ourselves and others, we have to ask whether one's physical benefit or one's mental benefit is a real benefit.
And what are the things that lead to true happiness and true peace for a person?
What are the things that lead a person to truly find benefit or to truly gain benefit?
So if we look at things like building up society and doing our part in terms of fighting wars and so on, and keeping some kind of physical stability or physical peace, then we can see that there's benefit there.
But when you compare it to a person's mental health, to a person's mental well-being, it's quite limited.
So this is what we mean when we say that meditation has some benefit, the life of a meditator and the life of a person who undertakes to do nothing but developing their mind, and developing insight, developing wisdom, and developing understanding about themselves and the world around them.
why it's a valid sort of lifestyle.
So when people talk about us living off of charity or wasting our lives and not doing anything for the world, you have to really ask, what is it that brings benefit to the world or brings benefit in general?
They're the people who give us charity.
When they give us charity, what does it do for them?
Does it bring them suffering?
Does it bring them sadness?
Does it bring them
pain and conflict, and does it upset their minds to do this?
And I think on that hand you'd have to say certainly it doesn't.
On the other hand, if they found out that all we were doing was sitting around collecting firewood and sweeping and doing meaningless things,
then in fact it might upset them, it might make them think twice about supporting us.
But the reason that people give us this very little bit of support to give us enough food to live for one day is because they do see benefit in what we do.
They see that a person who develops himself in this way
is not only a benefit to themselves, but is a noble example to the world.
And in fact can be a teacher, can be someone who brings this sort of teaching to others.
So as you see, when we set up this meditation center, then people come to practice and to ordain and to continue on the teaching.
And in fact, if you've seen what's happened since the time of the Buddha, there's been quite a profound effect that has come into the world.
through not just ordaining, not just building up monasteries, not just being industrious, but through the actual development of one's mind, the development of insight and wisdom and purity of mind.
The point being that in order to help others, as has been said many times, in order to really bring benefit, you can't just go out and work and say, this what I have inside, I'm going to bring and benefit the world.
So people go out in the world and think I have to do good deeds, I have to benefit the world and so on.
But because of their own confusion inside, because of their own inner delusion and their own anger, their own greed and attachment, their own views, they twist things.
So if someone has a certain religious belief, they will impose it on others.
If they have any sort of belief, they will impose this on others.
If they have attachment, they will twist and instead of helping, they will wind up
working only for their own material benefit and following after their greed and meeting with a great amount of stress and suffering as well.
If a person, on the other hand, refrains from helping others for the time being, develops themselves inside, takes out these attachments, the aversions, the fear and the worry and the stress that we have inside, and purifies one's mind, then just as the source of a river, when it becomes pure, is suitable to be drank by all the animals and all the beings down
to the end of the river.
So too, when one purifies one's mind, everything that one does, all of one's interactions, then when one goes out in the world or interacts with people, people who come to visit the monastery or to visit the meditation center, one will benefit them immensely.
will react to them, will interact with them, will impart upon them the importance of this purity.
People will be able to see that this is a true path to peace.
It's something that brings them peace, happiness, or could bring them peace, happiness and freedom from suffering as well and encourages them to develop in that way.
So the point being, in brief, is that we have to understand what is of real benefit.
And so when people say, oh, you're just sitting around and doing nothing, well, we have to look quite a little bit deeper than that.
And we have to be very careful not to get caught up in this idea that industry somehow in and of itself leads to benefit.
If someone is industrious in killing and in hurting and in harming others, if a person works in these industries, chemical industries, pesticide industries, to kill
living beings by the millions and to harm the environment and so on if people work in in manufacturing weapons or manufacturing military supplies and so on then you have to ask whether these sort of things are actually benefiting the world when people work as politicians and work to to
drive fear into people of foreign powers and so on, and patriotism and so on.
Commercialism, encouraging people to, when people work in the entertainment industry, encouraging people to buy music and to listen and to watch movies and so on, and to spend all of their time in idle pursuits.
that don't truly lead to peace and happiness, then you have to ask whether this sort of industry is actually of benefit to the world.
Where has it brought the world?
And where has all of the industry that we see in society brought the world?
If you compare to when people were perhaps less industrious, when we were like the monkeys, just sitting around, you know, scratching themselves and eating bananas in the forest and, you know, kind of content with what they had or comparatively.
and compared to where we are now with all of our stresses and concerns and wars and so on, are we really any better off?
I wouldn't say we were better off or the monkeys are better off, but I will say that living a peaceful life, living a life that is outside of this sort of busyness, this sort of hectic activity where
Your measure of success is very much how much stress you develop in your life and in the world around you.
The life that leaves this behind in favor of non-interaction, non-participation, where we live in and of ourselves, in the world, as a part of nature, instead of
our happiness and our peace and our lives depending on the environment and the company around us where we sit around and chat like this monk sitting around and chatting by the fireplace thinking that somehow this was living his life in a good way until he realized that oh didn't the Buddha teach that that was the way of wasting your life and in fact it was a waste of his life because you see as a result he changed nothing about himself
In fact, the first thing he did when he went to the Buddha is scolded the Arahant, the one who is enlightened, the one who had no thoughts of greed, no thoughts of anger, no thoughts of delusion, who had no thoughts of hatred or no bad thoughts towards others at all.
He turns, he's just been sleeping all the time, this guy is useless and so on, which is quite a sign that he himself still has far to go.
So this is, I think, something for us to reflect upon.
I mean, it's obviously not going to be of much use when you're just walking back and forth or sitting in meditation.
Then you should be focusing on reality.
But when the thought comes up, what am I doing here?
Or is this something that is of real benefit?
Or you think of, wow, I could be off in the world doing this or doing that.
to ask yourself, what is the result of that?
These things that we've done for so long, the way we've lived our lives, what is the benefit?
What is the meaning?
What has it done for us?
And what has it done for the world around us?
What has it done for other people?
All of the pleasure and all of that happiness that we've been pursuing, all of the goals that we have been pursuing, trying to change the world and so on.
What has it really done?
And what have we been neglecting?
What is missing from the picture?
And I think one of the very important things that is missing from the picture a lot of the time is this mental development.
And this is what we have here.
This is what we're trying to attain here.
This is what we're trying to gain for ourselves.
Because once one's mind is pure, it doesn't matter what one does, where one goes, how one lives one's life.
One brings benefit to oneself and to others in everything one does.
so we can feel good about what we're doing.
And we can think that this is something that is a real benefit.
And this is important in the practice.
It's important to feel good about what you're doing.
It's important to see that we're not here because someone else said meditation is good or because somehow we have this concept of meditation being a good thing or because we're just running away from the world or so on.
We should be confident and happy that actually what we're doing is an incredible profound thing.
We're developing ourselves.
We're becoming a more pure individual.
We're developing our minds to a higher level so that we're able to see things with more clarity and more wisdom.
So we have this vivid image of first of all these two men who went forth and
live their lives quite differently and so we can ask ourselves and this is a reminder to all of us that even though we have work to do we shouldn't let it get in the way of our meditation because this is not why we came here what we came here to do then we have this other vivid image of two horses one horse that is very fast and one horse that is very weak and it's the weak horse that
we compare to the person who sleeps all the time and sits around and chats all the time spends all their time in idle pursuits even in terms of work that has to be done in the monastery if we spend too much time on that we'll come to a story later of a monk who just swept all the time and everybody thought oh he must maybe he's enlightened because here he is devoting himself so strenuously to sweeping and the Buddha said a person who sweeps I call him a janitor
So then they realize, oh, that's probably not a good sign that he sweeps out.
So we have to put our effort into the meditation practice so that we can... Again, this isn't a teaching to compare ourselves to others and look down upon others.
It's a teaching for all of us to catch up.
to not get left behind.
Because obviously this Arahant, he wasn't the one doing the tattletailing or doing the scolding or the comparing.
It was the monk who was left behind.
We have to work hard to get over that.
And we have to be careful not to compare ourselves to others.
This is important as well.
Sometimes we think that everyone, although he's not meditating, I'll just stop as well.
And then you don't realize that actually he was just meditating and he just finished or something like that.
we have to be careful to do the work that we have to do and not get left behind like the weak horse we should exert ourselves especially in the meditation and it doesn't mean that we have to push push push really hard but it means we have to be persistent and we have to be patient like the
The story of the tortoise and hare is appropriate.
There's two horses, one to win the race.
Well, who really wins the race?
It's the one who is slow and steady, not the one who pushes, pushes, pushes and then breaks and has to take a break.
But the important point that we have to work and we have to work in the meditation practice.
And we should feel good about what we're doing.
We should know that this is what the Buddha would have us do.
And we should know that this is what is really, I think,
objectively of benefit to ourselves and the world around us.
It's something that is a potential cure for the troubles that exist in the world.
All of the stress and all of the suffering, all of the problems in the world, they all come from the human mind or the minds of beings in general.
And the meditation practice is that which has the potential to purify our minds and to bring us out of this.
And by us meaning the whole world,
That simply by doing what we're doing here, we create something that is the way out for the whole world.
And all of the people out there who are wasting away their lives, living their lives in carelessness and uselessness.
They're able to see this and they're able to see that here's something that could actually transform my life into something meaningful, where I'm able to see things clearly, where I don't react to things with greed or anger, where I don't fight and have conflict, where I don't indulge in useless pursuits that bring me back just after pushing it up the hill, bring me back to the bottom again.
And so these people will take this as an example and the whole world will begin to do things that are of benefit.
They will begin to help each other and to develop, help themselves, develop their own minds and develop the world in such a way that brings peace, happiness and freedom from suffering.
whether it will be done or not is another point another question but here we have an answer to the question of why don't we go and get a job why don't we go out and work and work like real people do people do in the real world the point is that those people are living in the fake world they're living in a world of illusion where you think there's some benefit from pushing a rock up a hill and then when it goes back to the bottom you start to push it up again and
but here we're trying to stop that.
We're trying to
we're trying to come back to the real world the world where reality is the object of our attention where we're able to see things exactly truly as they are that pushing a rock up a hill is just pushing a rock up the hill there's no benefit from it and that whatever we do is just whatever we do walking back and forth is just walking back and forth eating is just eating talking is just talking sleeping is just sleeping everything is just what it is when you get to that point then you're
You're able to live without any sort of attachment or clinging anger or depression or frustration or sadness at all.
To live without suffering and to benefit others as well.
So that's the teaching for today.
I think it has a very important significance in this sense.
So thank you all for listening and tune in next time.