Okay, hello.
Back to studying the Dhammapada.
Today we continue on with verse number 182, right?
Yes, 182.
which goes as follows which is another I don't know I guess they're all famous but this is another one that's particularly well known
Especially it's one that my teacher, our teacher Ajahn Tong would repeat to us often.
Something he would always teach at an ordination ceremony, probably still to this day teaches to new monks.
It's hard, hard is it to be born a human being.
Hard is the life of humans.
Hard it is to hear the Dhamma.
How hard is it to find difficult?
Is it for a Buddha to arise, for the Buddhas to arise?
Difficult is the arising of the Buddhas.
So this verse was taught in
Well, again, as with all the stories, you have to either have an appreciation or belief in some supernatural things.
And by supernatural, it doesn't really mean supernatural.
There's no such thing as something supernatural, I suppose, unless you want to count nibbana or things that are only conceptual.
Like if you conceive of something in your mind, like a rabbit with horns, well that's supernatural because you're not going to find that in nature, I don't think.
So by supernatural it just means something that is outside of anything we've experienced, anything that we're familiar with as being a part of reality.
Nagas in particular.
This is a story about Nagas, which are apparently dragons.
I guess what would modern times be known as dragons?
Serpent creatures that had or have higher intelligence than ordinary animals.
But in Buddhism are still considered animals and thus unable to become enlightened.
So the story goes that there was a monk in the time of Kasapa Buddha, that's the last Buddha, before Gautama, still a very long time ago.
By very long, we don't mean two or three years or even thousands of years.
I don't know how long ago it was.
A long, long time.
It's very rare.
Remember this is Kichobudhanamupadho.
It's very rare, the arising of a Buddha.
So there was a monk in the time of Kasapabuddha and he was on a boat once.
And as they were traveling close, they were on a river, I guess, traveling close to the bank, he grabbed onto some grass just idly and the boat was going quickly and he didn't let go and he uprooted the grass or broke the grass.
And you may not know, but that's an offense against the Vinaya.
It's actually probably one of the least of the offenses.
Well, it's considered to be a pachitya offense.
But at least it just means it's not really a bad, it's not an evil thing to cut grass.
Certainly not immoral or unethical.
But it's not right for monks.
We're not supposed to get involved with farming or harvesting or destruction of, destruction really of nature.
We have to be quite careful.
And he didn't think about it at first, kind of forgot about it, didn't ever confess his offense.
And then right before he passed away, he'd practiced meditation, they say, for thousands of years.
And this was a time when beings lived much longer than they do now.
He practiced meditation for a long time.
And when he was on his deathbed, he remembered it.
And he realized he hadn't confessed this offense.
And it hit him really hard.
He was quite concerned about it, lost all his concentration, all of his meditative attainments.
and passed away with a fearful heart, worried.
And he was born a Naga.
He was born a Naga king.
His name was Arakapatta.
Arakapatta is the grass that he pulled.
And patta, I think, means cut.
Patta, broke, maybe.
I can't remember, fallen maybe, I'm not sure.
He fell because of the grass, I'm not sure.
That's the name of this king, Dragon King.
And he was so, he had such great splendor.
He was born with great riches, but he was an animal.
And he looked around and he said to himself, all the years of meditation couldn't save me.
I've been born in this abode of frogs, he called it, I think.
The swamp.
Yeah, Naga kings, I think, live underwater.
There's another Naga king.
They live a long time.
And there's another Naga king who apparently still lives under the river where the Bodhisatta floated his bowl.
He took his alms bowl after he had eaten and he said to himself,
I shouldn't reenact it.
I'm not pretending to be Bodhisattva.
But he took his bowl and he said, if I am to become a Buddha, may this bowl float up river.
It was a bowl that was given to him for the meal that he ate just before he became enlightened.
And he placed it on the river.
And it floated up river, floated up river, I don't know how, I can't remember how long, a long ways, and then sunk to the bottom.
Now apparently this is something that every Bodhisatta does in that exact same spot.
And so there were three bowls already at the, four bowls already at the bottom.
No, three bowls already at the bottom.
And the Bodhisatta's bowl went
and sunk to the bottom and clinked against the other bowls.
And there was a naga living there, sleeping between the times when the Buddha rose and woke up when he heard the clink.
And he said, wow, these Bodhisattvas, these Buddhas, they just come every day.
Almost like every day there's a new Bodhisattva, a new Buddha coming.
Apparently Ajahn Thong tells that story as well.
He says, Oh, Buddha Jiao Ge Khun Teng Wan Teng Wan.
Teng Wan means every day, kind of.
But this is another Naga also waiting.
He said to himself, I'm lost.
I don't know.
I have to find another Buddha who can teach me, who can pull me out of this.
He's not able to become enlightened, but he needed to be reborn as a human being.
So he said, I'll dedicate myself to Buddhism.
And so for the period of time between the Buddhas, between Kasaba Buddha and Gautama Buddha, he, every Uposatha day, the full moon day, he would rise up to the surface of the Ganga River and
I don't know, I think the English text is not so clear, but I didn't read the Pali closely.
So he was a snake king, and I guess he had a hood, like a cobra, right?
And he would put his daughter, have his daughter stand on his hood and dance and sing a question.
And he said, whoever can answer her question, I'll give my daughter in marriage.
and all sorts of riches and power.
He spread this proclamation throughout the world of men.
I guess Naga princesses were also quite beautiful.
They can turn into human beings.
It's a story.
These are not the important parts.
But it's quite a powerful sort of imagery.
The lengths that this monk fell to and then the lengths he went to try to climb back up, spending every fortnight waiting for a Buddha to arise.
So this question was,
so that he could hear answers and find out if a Buddha had aroused.
If there was no wisdom in the world that could answer the question properly, he knew that a Buddha hadn't arisen.
So he kept listening.
Whoever could answer it correctly, he was waiting.
The question was, I guess I'll give the question now.
Let's go over this.
Because in this story, I brought the text because
We're not just going to go over the verse here.
There's some interesting teachings in the actual story, and I don't normally go into the teachings that are in the story, but I think this one, in this instance, we're going to.
So his question was, And the reason I'm going to go over the Pali is because the English doesn't do it justice.
There's a play on words.
There's more than one play on words in all this.
Raja is a king of course.
Adipati means domination.
Adipati is actually a word we use for the idipata, the roads of success.
It means something that is chief, is in domination.
So in what way does a Raja become truly a ruler or in dominion, become in charge or chief or the highest?
King Suraja Rajisaro
How does, by what, or in regards to what, in what way, does a Raja, a king, Rajisara, Rajam here means either kingdom, but it's a play on words.
Isara means dominated again, or lord.
Raja here would mean kingdom, so Rajisara would mean the lord of a kingdom.
But the Buddha's going to answer it a different way.
And I think that's the idea is that this is meant to fool anyone who's not a Buddha.
By what things is one free from raja?
Raja here means stain.
There's no play on words really, but you see it's like raja, raja and raja.
Raja here means stain.
How does one become free from stains?
How is one called a fool?
That's the song she sang.
Everybody tried to answer these questions.
Four questions, right?
How does a king become a ruler?
How does one become the lord of a kingdom?
How does a king become the lord of a kingdom?
How does one become free from stains?
And by what is one called a fool?
For what is one called a fool?
And then there arose a Buddha.
Siddhartha Gautama went forth, became a Buddha.
We heard last time about the turning of the wheel of Dhamma.
And then there came
a Rakapata or Rakapata was there the Buddha came to came to I guess it would have been it says where he was look at the English
Yeah, Varanasi.
Varanasi is right next to the Ganga River.
So he would have been just outside of Varanasi.
He was sitting under a tree.
And he thought to himself, well, I'll just wait here.
Because he sort of knew what was going to happen.
He had this ability to see the future.
And this Brahmin youth, Uttara,
came walking along and saw the Buddha.
The Buddha looked at him and said, where are you going?
And he said, oh, this Naga king has offered his daughter to anyone who can answer his questions, her questions.
And he said, oh, you have an answer?
And he said, what's the answer?
Uttara gives his answer and the Buddha says, that's not an answer.
It doesn't say what Uttara's answer is.
It's probably not very memorable.
He was just a youth, probably quite intent upon the beauty of the Naga princess.
And the Buddha says to him, I'll give you an answer.
If I give you an answer, will you go and give it to the
the king?
He said, yes, I will.
So the Buddha says, okay, what's the question?
And he says the question.
The Buddha gives an answer.
And here's the Buddha's answer.
Buddha says, if he tells you, if he asks you that question, here's the answer you give him.
When a king, one is truly a king if one has a
dominion over the six sense doors?
Only a Buddha would answer something like that.
What should a king have dominion over?
The six senses.
The six doors of the senses.
One is a Rajisara.
Rajisara, he takes it to not mean ruler of a kingdom, but one who is ruled by lust, by passion.
Raja can either mean a kingdom or passion because it's just derived differently.
One is ruled by passion through being passionate.
One is called Rajisara because one is ruled by passion.
One is free from stain when one gives up passion, when one has no passion.
One is called stainless.
One is called a fool because one is rajya, one is lustful.
This is the answer.
And he says, when you answer that, he's going to ask you another question.
There's more.
This is why I brought this up.
There's some interesting teachings here.
Food for thought, anyway.
Something for us to learn about.
At least to go over some of the things that define how a Buddha would answer such these questions.
So the next question he's going to ask you By what things are that fool led by?
What pull him along?
What string him along or her along?
How does a wise man cut them off or destroy them?
How does a wise person nudity cut them off?
How does one become a yoga kema?
Yoga kema means freedom from yoga.
We talked about yoga.
Yoga has two meanings.
And here it's a, there's going to be another play on words here.
But here in this, in that yoga kema, it means bondage.
Remember I talked about the yoke?
Yoke can be thought of as a good thing because it means you're devoted to a task.
But it also means bondage.
Obviously the ox didn't decide to put the yoke on.
But a harness is bondage because we have to work in order to appease our addictions.
In order to be pleased in samsara we have to get caught up in suffering.
We get bound to the wheel of birth and death.
So this time only three questions.
This I ask.
And so when he asks these questions, see the Buddha is prophetic.
He knows what he's going to ask.
When he asks you that, you have to answer.
By the flood, the fool is carried away.
The wise person cuts off or destroys, does away with bonds.
Yoga.
No, no, that's not right.
By yoga.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm not quite convinced, but the commentary says that the second part is not free from the binds, but a wise person frees themselves with yoga, with the good kind of yoga, with work, with endeavor.
And the third part, saba-yoga-visanyuto, untying all binds, yogaki-miti-muchati, one is called one who is free from yoga, free from bondage.
That's the teachings.
We'll get back to that when we talk about what this all means.
He does that.
He gives those to Uttara and Uttara does what he said.
He goes to Rakapatta and his daughter and he says, I have an answer.
And the daughter sings the question and he answers it as the Buddha said.
She sings the second question and he answers that one as well.
And Irakabhata hears this and he surfaces up and they say he makes a big splash and sends everyone, everyone was standing around watching the spectacle and gets them all wet.
And he goes and he stands, Irakabhata goes and stands by this Brahmin youth and says, where is the Buddha?
The Buddha has arisen.
Bring me to him.
And they go to see the Buddha.
And he bows down to the Buddha, pays respect to the Buddha, and he says, he tells his, he says, who are you?
I was a monk in the time of Kasaba Buddha, and he tells the story.
And he says, in all this time, I've been lost.
I fell to this low state of being a naga.
And then the Buddha tells this verse.
He says, yes, it's very hard to be born a human.
It's very hard to live the human life.
It's hard to hear the Dhamma.
Very hard thing to find an opportunity.
Hard to find the arising of a Buddha.
So that's the verse.
That's 182 in the Dhammapada.
So what this means for our practice, the Dhammapada verse, the verse that sparks the story, 182, is really a good verse to focus our attention on the need to practice and provide encouragement.
I mean, remind us of fairly important truths
I think being born a human is probably the one we overlook the most.
We take it for granted.
And this is due to the nature of the corporeal world.
We're born into a womb.
We forget anything that came before.
Nine months of creating new experiences.
no connection with the old experiences.
And we become intoxicated.
We get caught up in the new life, the new experience.
If you read the second noble truth which we talked about last time, it says, The craving which leads us to suffer.
finds happiness wherever it goes.
It delights in whatever rebirth it acquires.
So if you're born a dung beetle, you're very excited about being a dung beetle.
If you're born a human, you just get caught up in humanity.
everyone who doesn't think if you haven't had some kind of religious belief or idea who doesn't think that humanity is reality you know being a human is how it is having 10 toes and 10 fingers that's that's what you have right
It can never be something else.
10 is what we have.
We identify with this body, with you.
This is it.
This is everything.
And in fact, it's such a small part of everything.
It's so contrived and artificial.
We weren't made in God's image.
God doesn't look like this.
There is no God to speak of.
Certainly there are other types of being out there.
Snake kings, I don't know how many toes and fingers they have.
I guess none when they're in snake form.
I don't know if they have claws or not.
There's nothing exceptional about humanity.
It's not the only way of life.
But there is something special about it.
It does happen to be a state where you can become free from suffering.
Of course, angels and devas can also become free from suffering, but animals can't.
And so the challenge of being born a human being
It's like we've won the lottery, a very special sort of lottery, but not exactly because it means we've refined our minds and
all of the conditions came together at the right time to allow us the opportunity.
You know, you read the story about this monk who broke a piece of grass and that was all it took for him to get worried when he died.
And just that worry, his inability to stay mindful.
I mean, maybe the meditation he was doing was just tranquility meditation, which doesn't really help you deal with death, for example.
Well, it can, but it also may not.
It doesn't involve mindfulness.
It doesn't involve dealing with your problems.
And so it's...
still always very possible that you might give rise to the worry and then that's not something you know how to deal with because your meditation is focused on tranquility.
That may have been the case with this monk.
It could have been just bad luck.
But
You know, the idea, what we're doing here, there's a strong tradition.
Believe what you believe.
You don't have to believe.
But there's a strong tradition, and it comes from the Visuddhimagga, that just attaining the second of the 16 stages of insight knowledge is enough to stop this.
And so it's quite unlikely from an orthodox perspective that this guy had done any insight meditation, any real mindfulness.
It must have been some kind of tranquility meditation.
Because when you enter into mindfulness practice, even just for a few days, you come here, you do intensive practice, even just after a few days you realize karma, you understand cause and effect.
You're incapable any longer, at least in this life, of getting caught up in bad states that might lead you to be reborn as in the animal realm.
You're too clear on the workings of the mind.
It's called .
But just thinking about this and hearing this story gives us some kind of fear, I think.
What might happen to me when I die?
Will I be ready when I die?
I think a meditator who practices mindfulness will be much more reassured
That they're not likely to fall into great states of evil.
Why?
Because they know how to deal with worry.
If they're afraid or feel guilty about something, yeah, it doesn't mean they can make it go away.
But they don't cling to it or obsess over it.
They don't build it up and build it up because they know how to be mindful.
They've got a natural capacity to be mindful and also a wisdom and understanding.
This is not me.
This is not mine.
This is
It is what it is.
But so hard is it to attain even that?
Well, it seems fairly simple if you come here to practice.
I mean, you know how difficult this is, how much of a challenge it is just to be mindful.
And how many
millions and billions of people will never, have never, in the history of humanity, come close to that kind of understanding.
And so when they die from a human realm, they mostly are reborn in the lower realms.
Mostly animals, I suppose.
With the advent of the Buddha,
We have many more animals, not just Nagas, but also animals that are put in touch with wholesome things, put in touch with beings, humans who are enlightened or on the path to enlightenment or speaking about enlightened things.
And so they're able to resonate with that and it becomes much more likely for them to be born as humans.
This population explosion,
I don't know, we might think that some of the goodness of the Buddha had played a part in that, or is playing a part in that.
Regardless, it seems like it is a sign that perhaps we are getting better, even with all the stories of doom that we hear.
And this time, at least, more humans is a good sign.
Because if you look at billions, you think billions of humans is a lot.
And you don't know how many animals there are, how many insects there are.
Just looking at the animal realm.
It's very difficult to be born human.
You have to keep the five precepts.
Being reborn as a human means basic morality and ethics.
If you don't have that, your mind will be too fraught with
unwholesome thoughts.
And animals have of course a very hard time refraining from things like killing and stealing.
Even just giving rise to some wholesome state that is above that kind of activity.
Very easy for an animal to be reborn an animal.
Very easy for a human to be reborn as an animal.
It's like we've surfaced
and we may drown again.
Humans are not the default.
You can't coast to being a human.
But all of you are safe.
The orthodox doctrine is that you're all safe, at least for this life.
Even if you haven't attained Sotapanna, if you haven't gone to see the experience of cessation, you're still a Chula Sotapanna.
So in this life you're safe.
There's too much goodness and clarity in your minds to be reborn as an animal in this next life.
So rare is it to be born human.
It's a very good teaching for reminding us not to take it for granted, not to let it slip us by.
So my teacher always says, that's how he starts this talk.
He says, don't let the moment pass you by.
Gano wo ma upachaga.
Don't let the moment pass you by.
It's sort of become a cliche saying, but it's actually probably the Buddha said it first, or maybe it's just such an obvious thing to say, but the meaning in Buddhism is deeper, or has its own depth.
Don't let this moment in mindfulness pass us by, but don't let the moment, the opportunity that we've been born a human being.
Hityang machana jiwitang.
Another reason not to take for granted being a human is because you don't know how long you're going to live.
Life as a human being is difficult.
Some human beings die in the womb, some die after a few years or even just a few days.
We can all
suffer sickness and death quite quickly.
Cancer can even get you very quickly, but you can get in an accident.
You can be murdered.
That always might happen.
Even if you do live, it's difficult.
The life of a human being is a challenge.
So another good quality of this teaching is
in in appreciation appreciation for you guys that you've that you've lived till today bravo you haven't been killed or died or fell ill to sickness good luck for you congratulations but also that you've
taken the bull by the horns, you have grabbed life and found a way in this challenge, this incredibly difficult thing of being a human being, of being alive.
And you have made it work so that you were able to put the brakes on and steer yourself in a way that brought you here, that now you are dedicating your life to the Buddha's teachings, dedicating your whole day, day and night,
to the practice of the Dhamma, to mindfulness, to clarity, to something that anyone can see as pure.
Well, not anyone.
Anyone who seriously and honestly looks at it can see that there's nothing.
This isn't about nagas or angels or mythical creatures, any kind of thing that's hard to believe.
It's about mindfulness.
You've done that.
And that's the third one.
You've heard the Dhamma.
You've come to listen and not listen in a way that, I guess that's the difference.
Hearing is one thing.
You've listened.
Many people hear the Dhamma.
It's not quite as difficult to hear the Dhamma.
In Sri Lanka they play it on the radio.
Day, every day, every day.
It's very hard to listen to the Dhamma.
Listen in the English sense that we use the word.
Are you listening to me?
You're hearing me, but are you really listening?
We might say in order to listen you really have to hear.
Do you really hear me?
Do you hear what I'm saying?
Do you hear the meaning is what we mean by that.
Sawana.
So we have to explain it in this way, because to truly sawana, to truly hear the Dhamma, sutta is sawana.
It's the same word, really.
Sutta is something that you've heard, eva mei suttang.
Well, maybe not.
Sutta actually means something else, but it could mean this.
Eva mei suttang.
Suttang there means heard.
Thus I have heard, but I really heard it and I listened.
That's what it means.
Ananda didn't just hear it, let it go in one ear and out the other.
He memorized it and eventually he practiced and became enlightened himself.
It's very difficult.
Well, I mean, the point here, I think, on a basic level is that it's just very difficult to find the opportunity to even learn about how to practice mindfulness, which is something we all take, something I take to heart, publishing our booklet, you know.
I'm not about putting my teachings or my ideas out there.
The booklet is just
what I was taught, the technique.
Here's the teaching.
Get it out there.
I have good news that apparently Inward Path, this Malaysian publishing company, a very big and wonderful company that's published a lot of Mahasi Sayadaw's books and other teachers, apparently they want to publish the other book we put together.
So that's great news.
Publishers like that do great work.
And there's one in Taiwan that does great work.
many Buddhist publishers and the publishers publishing our booklet is doing it, I think at cost, doing us a very good deal.
There's a Sri Lankan man who's also helping to make sure that people can hear the Dhamma, a very difficult thing and something that we don't take for granted.
All of you can go back once you've practiced and speak it to others so they can hear.
Kicho buddhanam upadho.
Difficult is it for the arising of Buddhas.
Now, you could take this as not just meaning the Buddha, because the Buddha put it at the end here.
So Buddha means one who knows or one who is awake.
And so if you have Sama Sambuddha, well none of us are going to be that, I don't think.
I think we're not here aiming for that.
If you are, you're probably in the wrong place, but not necessarily.
But Buddha could apply to all of us.
We call Anubuddha, I think is the word, one who is a follower.
So the arising of a Buddha can refer to all of us, that knowledge and awakening, of course, it arises in everyone.
The Buddha said he was no different.
He just found it first.
He had other special qualities, they say, but in the essentials and what's most important, exactly the same.
So difficult is it to hear the Dhamma, but what you are doing and what is great about what practitioners gain is they do what is most difficult of all, to practice, to attain the goal that is laid out in the teaching.
to come to realize the teachings for themselves, to not have to just hear it, or even just listen to it.
But having heard and listened, they put it into practice.
Buddha said what to do, and they listened.
And you all have listened.
You inquired once about Buddhism, or you heard of it from somewhere.
And when you heard that advice, you listened to that advice, and you took that advice, and you've come to practice that advice.
So encouragement, appreciation for the work that you guys are doing, and a realization that it's not something simple and we shouldn't take it for granted.
When Buddhism dies out, and it will die out, there will be no opportunity.
Just think, the chance, opportunity, we think, ah, Buddhism, it's a part of life, right?
The world has Buddhism in it.
Well, it's only been here for two and a half thousand years, and
It's not 100% healthy these days, so it's going to die out eventually.
And then there will be no opportunity.
Where will you get this teaching?
You won't get this teaching.
We'll be lost like this Naga king.
That's the teaching of the verse.
In and of itself, I could stop there, but I want to go through these two other verses.
They're sort of lost verses.
I don't know if the Buddha actually taught them.
The commentary mentions them and says this is what the Buddha taught.
But they're very orthodox.
It's all part of what the Buddha taught.
So I'll go through them quickly.
I mean, it really just reaffirms a lot of the teachings.
To be a real ruler, you have to guard the six senses.
So if we're talking about kings, it applies, but it applies to us.
Let's just take it as a reminder of the six senses.
They're really the essence of reality from our perspective.
What is the perspective on reality we should have?
The six senses.
They're the basis.
Not people and places and things, but seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking.
If you want to really be in control, if you want to really be a ruler in dominion, you have to conquer the six senses.
Mindfulness is said to guard the six sense doors.
And if you guard the six senses, you become the ruler of the kingdom.
You're not ruled by defilements.
Rajisaro is just a funny play on words, I think, but one who is a raja lord, a lord of rajas.
So what is a kingdom?
The Buddha refers to a kingdom as being a raja.
The other kind of raja is being passion, lust.
Which, you know, it's not just, I mean, of course it's not, it doesn't actually mean kingdom, but kind of is what a kingdom is, right?
What is a king?
Someone who has great wealth and luxury.
They can do great things with it.
The last king of Thailand did great things with his wealth, I think.
But he was very wealthy and I assume lived a very luxurious life.
But other kings do not and have not.
And they live for the lust and the passion.
Taking many wives and being cruel and mean to their subjects all for their own greed and benefits.
So Rajisra is not a good thing.
One who is lord of a kingdom, well, it's another name for one who is lorded by rajah, by lust.
So how does one become stainless?
Stainless is a virajah.
That's a very, the Buddha used this word a lot, virajah, virajol.
Arajang, when one has no lust or passion.
These are the stains.
A stain is
Craving because nothing outside of us is going to satisfy.
You can't find happiness in the objects of the sense.
If your happiness depends upon a thing, well, all things, guess what?
Everything that arises ceases.
And not just when you want it to cease.
They come and they go based on many things that are very much out of our control.
If you get caught up in them, this is foolishness.
Foolishness, it's a fool's errand, they might say.
There's no good that comes from it.
You don't actually become happier.
It's because of lack of knowledge, lack of insight, lack of wisdom.
First verse.
Second verse.
The fool is carried away by the flood.
There are four floods, Oga in Buddhism.
It's carried away by the flood is another fairly common teaching of the Buddha.
He talks about the four floods.
Kama is sensuality as a flood.
Bhava is another flood.
Bhava meaning becoming.
So you can, this could maybe just refer to
It could refer to desire for becoming, wanting to become, but really more generally you could think of it just as all the stuff that happens to us in life.
Our relationships with other people.
Baba here just means stuff, means existence or experience really.
Well, existence, things that come into being.
Our whole life is bhava.
You get a job, that's bhava.
You have debt, that's bhava.
You have a family, bhava.
Relationship, bhava.
You get in an accident, bhava.
Stuff that happens to us.
It's a flood.
You get carried away by it.
A fool gets carried away by it.
You don't have to get carried away if you're wise.
Very important benefit of mindfulness, right?
Doesn't take you away from bhava, just stops you from getting carried away by it.
And then avijja is another one.
Ignorance is a flood because you get carried away by just stupidity.
You don't know the right way to act.
How are you going to act?
Maybe today I'll act like this, tomorrow I'll act like that.
Inconsistent, hypocritical, or just plain ignorant.
And ditti, the fourth flood that carries us away is ditti, which is views.
If you have religious views, like if I believe in God, I'll go to heaven, you'll get carried away with that.
You'll lose sight of what's really important.
You believe there's no result of bad deeds or good deeds.
Good deeds don't make you a better person.
Bad deeds don't make you a worse person.
You'll get carried away.
If you don't believe in things like respecting your parents, your teachers, that sort of thing, you'll become arrogant and cruel to your parents and that sort of thing.
Lots of bad stuff.
Views.
How many views did they talk about?
Those are the kind of views.
Yoga nudati pandito.
So it says with effort a wise man, wise person cuts them off.
I can't remember what nudati is.
Nudati is like nudati.
Nudati.
Which means to push, to drive out, to expel.
One drives away the floods perhaps with effort.
With dedication, devotion.
Again with this, that in our practice we should be devoted.
Ways we are devoted are the continuity of our practice.
It's exceptional when you try to be mindful during your daily life even.
Taking this advice of not putting down the burden.
Anikita duro, that we said.
One is called free from bondage, or safe, sorry.
One who is safe from bondage.
Yoga kema is a very common phrase that the Buddha used.
I used it in different ways.
So one who is, who has this freedom from bondage,
There's one who has untied all the binds.
I think it means something like untied.
Become unconnected, unattached from all the bonds.
And the yoga, I think the yoga are also the floods.
It's the same four, but they're also called yoga.
They're also things that get us bound.
And then there's the Sangyojana, which is the same thing, but there's ten of those.
I won't go into it.
Really the essence there is how different the answer of the Buddha would have to be from, or is from, an ordinary answer.
What makes one king?
What makes one ruler?
How is one a fool?
What is a wise person?
The theme in the Buddha's teaching is freedom from lust and passion and ignorance.
It's dedication and devotion to wisdom and understanding.
So, that's the story, that's the verse, that's Dhammapada 182.
Thank you all for listening.
Have a good night.