1 00:00:01,128 --> 00:00:05,694 Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:05,714 --> 00:00:11,902 Today we continue with verse 225, which reads as follows. 3 00:00:15,446 --> 00:00:29,464 ahinsakā ye munayo nityāṅkā ye na saṅguta te yanti accutaṁ thānaṁ yathagantvā na saucare 4 00:00:31,418 --> 00:01:00,210 which means non-violent, those sages, ever restrained in body, they go to a place they never fall away from, where having gone, one suffers not, one sorrows not. 5 00:01:07,345 --> 00:01:23,100 This verse was apparently taught in response to a question that relates to a story about the Buddha when he was living near Saketa. 6 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:32,489 The story goes that there was a Brahmin living in the area. 7 00:01:34,671 --> 00:01:37,133 And when the Buddha went on alms round this Brahmin, 8 00:01:38,767 --> 00:01:48,340 saw the Buddha walking and rushed up to him and said, my son, my son, what are you doing? 9 00:01:50,022 --> 00:01:50,663 Where have you been? 10 00:01:50,703 --> 00:01:54,308 Where have you been? 11 00:01:54,348 --> 00:01:55,550 Why have you not come home? 12 00:01:57,312 --> 00:01:58,834 Why have you not come to see us? 13 00:02:03,269 --> 00:02:07,413 And he invited the Buddha to his house and to his wife. 14 00:02:07,513 --> 00:02:15,521 And his wife said, the Brahmin woman said, my son, where have you been? 15 00:02:16,702 --> 00:02:18,424 Why have you not come to visit? 16 00:02:19,325 --> 00:02:23,289 And they called out all of their children and said, come, come, pay respect. 17 00:02:23,349 --> 00:02:29,075 Your brother is a rishi, is an ascetic. 18 00:02:29,095 --> 00:02:30,576 Come and pay respect to your brother. 19 00:02:34,623 --> 00:02:48,603 And the Buddha was silent and he waded through it patiently and they asked the Buddha, they said, our son, please, you must come to eat at our house every day. 20 00:02:49,484 --> 00:02:55,853 Why would you go anywhere else when you're in our, in your home, when you're near us, your parents? 21 00:02:58,797 --> 00:03:01,761 And the Buddha said, oh, it's not the way, it's not our way to 22 00:03:03,732 --> 00:03:06,175 to go to the same place regularly. 23 00:03:07,036 --> 00:03:19,111 Buddha's way is to support and commune with all sorts of different people by moving, by traveling. 24 00:03:21,074 --> 00:03:22,916 And they said, well, then please send us monks. 25 00:03:23,256 --> 00:03:24,298 Send us your followers. 26 00:03:24,498 --> 00:03:28,823 Send us other followers of your teaching, other monks. 27 00:03:28,844 --> 00:03:31,647 We'll care for them. 28 00:03:33,635 --> 00:03:59,760 And they did this and whenever the Buddha was free he would go to their house and again and again they listened to his teachings and they came to the monastery always calling him our son And they became anagamis throughout this time They practiced the Buddha's teaching and listened to his teaching and became devout followers 29 00:04:01,850 --> 00:04:09,719 and were successful in becoming anagami, the non-returner, meaning when they passed away they would never be reborn again. 30 00:04:10,540 --> 00:04:17,388 They had given up all greed, all anger, all sensual greed anyway, and all anger. 31 00:04:20,432 --> 00:04:21,253 They were very pure. 32 00:04:23,035 --> 00:04:29,022 And so the monks took this up as a topic of conversation one day, asking, what's going on here? 33 00:04:30,385 --> 00:04:44,159 Not only do these Brahmin people erroneously label the Buddha as their son, the Buddha doesn't correct them. 34 00:04:44,980 --> 00:04:53,249 They know that the Buddha has a father and a mother, Suddhodana and Mahapajapati. 35 00:04:55,251 --> 00:04:56,292 They were his parents. 36 00:04:58,499 --> 00:05:01,524 And the Buddha doesn't bother to correct them. 37 00:05:01,604 --> 00:05:04,228 It's quite exceptional. 38 00:05:06,693 --> 00:05:12,001 And the Buddha heard them and he said, oh, you want to know the reason why they call me their son? 39 00:05:12,121 --> 00:05:14,465 And he told a story of the past, the Jataka. 40 00:05:14,485 --> 00:05:20,355 And he said, in 500 lifetimes, in 500 births, 41 00:05:21,787 --> 00:05:26,132 Both of these two lovely people were my parents. 42 00:05:27,113 --> 00:05:30,417 In 500 births they were my aunt and uncle. 43 00:05:31,879 --> 00:05:34,381 And in 500 births they were my grandparents. 44 00:05:37,445 --> 00:05:40,949 So again and again and again we were related. 45 00:05:40,989 --> 00:05:46,275 And as a result this perception, this recognition has stuck with them. 46 00:05:52,263 --> 00:05:59,751 From that time on, the story goes on to say that they spent the rains with the Buddha, that the Buddha relied upon them. 47 00:05:59,791 --> 00:06:04,637 And during the three months of the rainy season, he went ever and again to their house. 48 00:06:04,737 --> 00:06:10,824 And through his guidance, they became Arahant and passed away. 49 00:06:10,864 --> 00:06:17,511 And when they passed away, the monks asked the Buddha, where did they go, Venerable Sir? 50 00:06:18,807 --> 00:06:22,553 Not realizing that they had become arahants, never to be born again. 51 00:06:22,573 --> 00:06:33,951 Buddha said, oh people, sages like them, special individuals, quite exceptional, are never born again. 52 00:06:33,991 --> 00:06:35,854 They go to a place, where do they go? 53 00:06:35,874 --> 00:06:38,337 They go to a place that you'll never fall away from. 54 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:41,322 And then he taught this verse. 55 00:06:46,195 --> 00:07:04,856 So the lesson of the story, if there is one, I think especially relating to meditation is in regards to perception and in regards to concepts, specifically concepts of relationship. 56 00:07:04,876 --> 00:07:12,945 The story reminds us that our relationships are conceptual based on our perceptions. 57 00:07:15,912 --> 00:07:29,753 Many of us, I think, can relate not necessarily to the specific perception of this Brahman couple but to the general type of perception where you recognize someone who you've never met before. 58 00:07:31,133 --> 00:07:59,166 They're in sharper focus than everyone else And your connection to them is quick And strong and lasting We see this with people we just met for the first time And it might be good, it might be bad It might be negative in the sense that we become enemies, rivals It can be just as sharp as with friends But we generally don't 59 00:08:00,293 --> 00:08:01,856 look at family the same way. 60 00:08:01,896 --> 00:08:15,237 And this story gives us a reminder that even our family members are no less conceptual than our friends or the relationships with our friends and so on. 61 00:08:16,299 --> 00:08:20,766 Our loved ones, our lovers, our romantic involving partners. 62 00:08:23,817 --> 00:08:33,412 Who's to say that this couple is any less the Buddha's parents than Suddhodana or Mahapajapati or Mahamaya? 63 00:08:40,823 --> 00:08:46,973 Just because their relationship with the Buddha is older, has passed away, has changed? 64 00:08:48,893 --> 00:08:50,978 In the end, it all comes down to our perceptions. 65 00:08:51,619 --> 00:08:59,798 So if there's any lesson to be had for a meditator, it's to remind us that our reification of things 66 00:09:01,668 --> 00:09:22,579 is just conceptual and helping us to see that our perception of everything, of people and places and things and our attachment to things is based on this cultivation of a perception that builds up over time and with attention. 67 00:09:22,899 --> 00:09:29,008 The more attention and the more focus we put on something, if it's a person, then on our relationships, 68 00:09:30,288 --> 00:09:33,152 the stronger that perception becomes. 69 00:09:34,333 --> 00:09:37,077 Lifetime after lifetime after lifetime, it builds up. 70 00:09:37,958 --> 00:09:43,865 And that's the only reason why we are the way we are, and why we have the personality we have. 71 00:09:44,767 --> 00:09:46,208 Not because we were born with it. 72 00:09:46,549 --> 00:09:47,770 No, it's much deeper than that. 73 00:09:48,351 --> 00:09:52,937 It's because we cultivate it, and we've cultivated it and continue cultivating it. 74 00:09:54,841 --> 00:10:03,930 And so meditation is very much a practice of refining and adjusting those habits, straightening out our personalities. 75 00:10:03,970 --> 00:10:08,135 We don't have to lose our personalities, just straighten them out. 76 00:10:09,096 --> 00:10:17,364 And what we lose, what we remove are the ones that we see clearly for ourselves without any reliance on others at all. 77 00:10:19,566 --> 00:10:21,068 And that as being 78 00:10:22,145 --> 00:10:25,449 harmful and stressful and a cause for suffering. 79 00:10:27,852 --> 00:10:30,696 But the deeper lesson, of course, comes from the verse, as usual. 80 00:10:30,756 --> 00:10:48,118 And the lesson, I think, the main lesson from the verse relates again to this difference between worldly pursuits and spiritual or holy religious pursuits. 81 00:10:51,001 --> 00:10:54,426 Because it relates to violence. 82 00:10:54,446 --> 00:11:01,515 It relates to activity, unrestrained activity with the body. 83 00:11:02,997 --> 00:11:06,923 You know, acting on impulse, acting on ambition, acting on desire. 84 00:11:10,267 --> 00:11:11,229 It's the way of the world. 85 00:11:12,350 --> 00:11:15,034 It's a way that gets you what you want, very often. 86 00:11:15,975 --> 00:11:19,540 Anger, violence, 87 00:11:21,089 --> 00:11:28,638 And by violence, not just physical violence, verbal violence, verbal conflict, very often gets you what you want. 88 00:11:28,678 --> 00:11:41,994 Verbal manipulation, physical acts of manipulation, of coercion, of threat, of intimidation, very often gets people what they want. 89 00:11:42,014 --> 00:11:43,876 And so the way of the world is one way. 90 00:11:45,198 --> 00:11:46,740 The way of the Dhamma is very different. 91 00:11:49,603 --> 00:11:51,045 And it's in stark contrast 92 00:11:52,797 --> 00:12:12,021 Because the way of the world always, whether it relates to anger and violence or whether it relates to greed, which also has to do with violence, is ultimately about the reliance on certain situations to make you happy. 93 00:12:13,469 --> 00:12:22,079 We get what we want, we accomplish what we desire, we become proud and attached and identify with things. 94 00:12:23,401 --> 00:12:26,204 More and more we become dependent and reliant on them. 95 00:12:27,866 --> 00:12:36,777 We suffer from the anger of the violence, we suffer from the greed, the desire which stresses our, taxes our system. 96 00:12:38,950 --> 00:12:51,413 We suffer from the worry and the fear of other people's violence and their greed, the concern for losing what we have, from having it threatened. 97 00:12:52,234 --> 00:13:00,469 The more violent you are, whether it be through greed or anger, the more concerned you become, the more susceptible you become. 98 00:13:01,833 --> 00:13:05,179 Because you become familiar with loss, the concept of loss. 99 00:13:06,140 --> 00:13:11,650 Only someone who has something to lose suffers from loss. 100 00:13:14,515 --> 00:13:25,393 Only someone who is attached to the things that they have or the things they might get can suffer from losing or not getting what they want, what they like, what they want, what they need. 101 00:13:28,377 --> 00:13:31,881 And we suffer when it is taken away, when we are conquered. 102 00:13:32,702 --> 00:13:38,288 The conqueror who is conquered suffers more than the one who conquers not. 103 00:13:41,812 --> 00:13:52,765 We suffer when we are taken advantage of, when we lose the things we want to others. 104 00:13:54,010 --> 00:13:56,495 We the manipulator are manipulated. 105 00:13:56,515 --> 00:14:00,322 The greedy one has things taken from them. 106 00:14:01,784 --> 00:14:02,766 This is how we suffer. 107 00:14:03,087 --> 00:14:10,200 So it's constantly in a state of uncertainty. 108 00:14:11,082 --> 00:14:15,630 And this is the essence of the Buddha's teaching on uncertainty, on anicca, on impermanence. 109 00:14:18,175 --> 00:14:30,059 Or someone who relies upon this king of the hill, king of the castle mentality where you can rise to the top. 110 00:14:30,079 --> 00:14:34,107 Someone who rises to the top has that much further to fall. 111 00:14:34,147 --> 00:14:39,458 It's that much more susceptible to loss. 112 00:14:43,893 --> 00:14:53,707 And so it seems that the person who wins, who is victorious, that they've got it made. 113 00:14:55,249 --> 00:15:13,275 There is no way, there is no instance, there's no possibility for that to be lasting, permanent, stable, to be any sort of everlasting goal. 114 00:15:14,740 --> 00:15:42,773 Even putting aside death, the ultimate end to any accomplishment, any worldly accomplishment, the simple reliance on victory, the simple frame of mind is one that is unbalanced, requires this, is constantly 115 00:15:43,867 --> 00:15:47,157 stressed, constantly in a state of suffering. 116 00:15:48,100 --> 00:15:53,978 A person who gets what they want feels so happy, and thinks they are so happy. 117 00:15:55,983 --> 00:16:05,279 They're so full of greed and anger and delusion that they can't see while they're suffering. 118 00:16:06,341 --> 00:16:11,790 They can't see how tense and stressed and perverted their mind is, how perverse the mind is. 119 00:16:11,810 --> 00:16:18,582 A person who is perverse misses the fact that that perversion is a cause for suffering. 120 00:16:20,384 --> 00:16:49,007 So we have this example of, worldly example of police brutality and we have on the other side the example of protesters being angry and violent and not to really get involved and not to create an equivalence 121 00:16:49,814 --> 00:16:56,324 Because clearly there is something to stand up and say something about. 122 00:16:56,404 --> 00:16:58,467 Clearly there is something wrong with the system. 123 00:16:58,867 --> 00:17:04,556 The system, the society that we have built for ourselves is based on greed. 124 00:17:06,779 --> 00:17:11,546 There is a problem with what might be called police brutality. 125 00:17:11,586 --> 00:17:12,367 There's no question. 126 00:17:13,729 --> 00:17:17,695 And that's an issue that is worth standing up for and speaking out about. 127 00:17:20,493 --> 00:17:31,074 That being said, stepping back and looking from the point of view of all who might wish for good things. 128 00:17:33,780 --> 00:17:36,325 No good things come from anger, from 129 00:17:37,621 --> 00:18:06,717 From violence Whether it be on the side of the police Who think they're so good Getting their way They have the power Not realizing how torturous it must be To be such a violent And cruel individual Fearful Even How much There's apparently a great amount of trauma Because they're under pressure Peer pressure from other police officers From their superiors and so on 130 00:18:08,772 --> 00:18:28,857 And on the other side of the protesters who have such a noble aspiration to end racism, to end discrimination, to end cruelty, brutality, to end evil states of mind, ultimately, they may not phrase it, they may not realize it, ultimately it comes down to 131 00:18:30,338 --> 00:18:31,462 evil states of mind. 132 00:18:31,622 --> 00:18:43,740 Without the evil states of mind, the unwholesome, the states of mind that cause stress and suffering, without those mind states, there would be no tension or there would be no conflict. 133 00:18:45,982 --> 00:18:52,189 And so as a result, it's self-defeating to increase and to cultivate anger. 134 00:18:54,232 --> 00:18:55,313 It may get us what we want. 135 00:18:55,393 --> 00:19:05,044 It may even be the solution in the sense that on a worldly level it does change things for the better. 136 00:19:06,526 --> 00:19:15,516 But as a rule, and for our own spiritual health, for our own mental health and well-being, which ultimately is what it's all about, 137 00:19:17,302 --> 00:19:24,254 for our own spiritual mental well-being, we can't succumb to anger and violence. 138 00:19:26,498 --> 00:19:37,416 Ultimately, it's self-defeating because if the goal is to be achieved with anger and violence, then what kind of a goal is it? 139 00:19:37,857 --> 00:19:39,199 What is the result? 140 00:19:39,219 --> 00:19:42,465 If that's the outcome, then we haven't really fixed anything. 141 00:19:45,432 --> 00:19:50,878 It's not a world worth living in, even if it does change. 142 00:19:54,743 --> 00:20:01,150 So that's on the side of, that's the disadvantages to that. 143 00:20:01,291 --> 00:20:09,280 And in opposition, we have the way of the Dhamma, one who is non-violent. 144 00:20:10,812 --> 00:20:12,034 One who is controlled. 145 00:20:12,875 --> 00:20:21,087 Kayena sambhuta, which means controlled in body, but the commentary says it doesn't just relate to body. 146 00:20:21,107 --> 00:20:23,571 It's actually body, speech, and mind, of course. 147 00:20:24,272 --> 00:20:29,720 The Buddha wasn't just praising physical restraint. 148 00:20:32,143 --> 00:20:36,229 Kaya often just means in the being, so it refers to all three. 149 00:20:40,546 --> 00:20:42,588 This way is very different. 150 00:20:43,570 --> 00:20:46,633 We might put up an equivalence and say, well, what about you? 151 00:20:46,734 --> 00:20:49,557 Aren't you attached to your way as well? 152 00:20:53,542 --> 00:20:58,628 We don't want to think that there might be one thing better than another, one way of life better than another. 153 00:20:58,668 --> 00:21:06,898 Meaning, we quite often put up these false equivalences between different things. 154 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,182 So we have to point out the stark 155 00:21:12,338 --> 00:21:41,299 Contrast between these two ways One is always inclining Always reaching And the other is never inclining And never reaching Never pushing and pulling The Buddha said Never coming or going Where there is no coming and no going And so the issue of impermanence Of instability is solved 156 00:21:43,490 --> 00:22:11,893 why the second part of the verse talks about a permanent achyutta achyutta means falling away achyutta never fallen away you can never fall away from it because it's at the bottom already it's at the base already if something desirable comes no matter how desirable something desirable goes 157 00:22:14,422 --> 00:22:17,806 Something undesirable comes undesirable. 158 00:22:17,826 --> 00:22:18,767 It makes no difference. 159 00:22:19,147 --> 00:22:42,813 It is a way of being, a way of relating to reality that is inherently, by its very nature, without any cause for doubt or uncertainty, stable, consistent, unshakable, invincible. 160 00:22:42,833 --> 00:22:42,893 No. 161 00:22:44,442 --> 00:22:55,988 The question as to whether or not such a state is possible or really exists, that's the question that Buddhism seeks to answer and to demonstrate. 162 00:22:57,689 --> 00:22:59,151 And that's where meditation comes in. 163 00:22:59,451 --> 00:23:12,489 Our practice of mindfulness, the question that often arises in people, why are we repeating to ourselves something like pain, pain, or if we're angry, say angry, angry. 164 00:23:13,130 --> 00:23:14,552 If we want something, wanting. 165 00:23:14,893 --> 00:23:17,256 Why do we say to ourselves seeing, seeing? 166 00:23:17,276 --> 00:23:18,197 Why are we doing this? 167 00:23:18,297 --> 00:23:23,865 Why are we reminding ourselves about these mundane realities? 168 00:23:26,410 --> 00:23:27,371 And this is the answer. 169 00:23:27,452 --> 00:23:34,762 We're trying to cultivate a state of objectivity where we relate to things just as they are. 170 00:23:35,764 --> 00:23:52,949 Because our actions, just like the actions of anyone who gets angry and violent or greedy and covetous and ambitious and so on, our habits have power and influence. 171 00:23:53,069 --> 00:23:53,970 They change us. 172 00:23:55,655 --> 00:24:10,572 And if we cultivate this state of objectivity, where we remember things, where we remember, oh yeah, I'm not going to forget that that's just pain. 173 00:24:11,793 --> 00:24:14,877 Because if you forget that that's just pain, you will get upset about it. 174 00:24:16,238 --> 00:24:20,683 When you see delicious food, for example, I'm not going to forget that that's seeing. 175 00:24:21,406 --> 00:24:24,210 Because if I forget, I will get caught up in all these concepts. 176 00:24:24,230 --> 00:24:26,994 Oh, I know what that tastes like, and that's something I like. 177 00:24:30,318 --> 00:24:33,502 When you're angry, I'm not going to forget that that's anger. 178 00:24:34,744 --> 00:24:44,938 Because if I forget, if I lose track of the experience, I will get caught up by the anger, by the greed. 179 00:24:45,499 --> 00:24:46,620 I will become violent. 180 00:24:47,950 --> 00:24:49,216 I will become covetous. 181 00:24:49,297 --> 00:24:51,427 I will be manipulative. 182 00:24:51,487 --> 00:24:56,813 I will do all sorts of things to get what I want and to remove what I don't want and so on. 183 00:25:00,269 --> 00:25:02,572 This is what it means to be restrained. 184 00:25:03,874 --> 00:25:04,615 Samuddha. 185 00:25:05,957 --> 00:25:09,341 It doesn't mean you have to force yourself in any way, really. 186 00:25:10,322 --> 00:25:15,209 It means you have to keep the mind with the experience. 187 00:25:15,790 --> 00:25:18,673 Keep the mind in the reality of the experience. 188 00:25:19,875 --> 00:25:27,525 Not getting caught up in our reactions and our perceptions of things. 189 00:25:31,319 --> 00:25:52,990 So when the Buddha talks about this achyutatthana, achyutantanam yatagantvanasocchare, where when sorrow is not, he's talking about at its base, this state, this way of life, way of being. 190 00:25:54,691 --> 00:26:15,662 that one comes to, through training and through practice of non reactivity, of non judgment, of simple, true and pure experience of reality as it is experience of this of what we're all experiencing, but experiencing it purely and truly. 191 00:26:17,004 --> 00:26:18,707 And without judgment or reactivity. 192 00:26:22,957 --> 00:26:27,726 Because that is the way of life, the way of practice. 193 00:26:27,746 --> 00:26:38,747 That is the way that carries on to eternity, that has no falling back. 194 00:26:40,851 --> 00:26:43,817 There is no tension in it. 195 00:26:45,282 --> 00:26:47,685 There is no opposition. 196 00:26:48,927 --> 00:26:55,897 When you strive and strive and strive to get something, you build up and build up this attachment to it. 197 00:26:56,858 --> 00:27:07,653 When you live your life in objectivity, in clear awareness of things as they are, there is no build-up like that. 198 00:27:07,673 --> 00:27:08,775 There is a shedding off. 199 00:27:10,426 --> 00:27:11,247 There's a freeing. 200 00:27:11,267 --> 00:27:26,071 And so the result, rather than a building up and a building up of some formation that is going to topple down, there's the deconstruction and there is a reduction in needs and attachment. 201 00:27:28,796 --> 00:27:36,889 And the ultimate destination, the ultimate result is freedom from suffering. 202 00:27:38,422 --> 00:27:45,752 in a way very different from any conception of freedom from suffering that we might have in a worldly sense. 203 00:27:47,314 --> 00:27:48,957 Because it is independent. 204 00:27:48,977 --> 00:27:53,022 It has nothing to do with samsara or our experiences of this or that. 205 00:27:54,665 --> 00:28:05,560 And so it's free and it's free from any of the uncertainty and the impermanence, the unpredictability of samsara, of the world. 206 00:28:09,337 --> 00:28:21,364 And so there's no fear of sorrow from one who has gone to this place. 207 00:28:21,384 --> 00:28:22,868 That's the Dhammapada for today. 208 00:28:23,329 --> 00:28:24,291 Thank you all for listening.