Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.
Tonight we continue on with first number 109, which reads, abhivadana-sirisa-niccham-vaddha-pacaino jataro dhammavadanti ayukvanno sukhaṁ palaṁ Which means,
for one who is of a manner or who has as their behavior their character respect or the attitude of paying reverence who is by nature reverential
bowing down to those who are wudha, which could mean people who are old or people who are senior, bowing down to their seniors or to people who are worthy of their respect in some way or another.
Chattaro dhamma vadanti, four dhammas increase for that person.
Ayu, long life, vana, health, sukhang, happiness, balang, strength.
So this is probably the most famous, the most well-known of the Dhammapada verses among Buddhists, among Theravada Buddhists.
Why?
Because it's used in I think every one of the Theravada countries as a blessing.
as kind of a reminder of the blessing when people do pay respect.
So when there are ceremonies and people come and pay respect to the monks and offer food to the monks, the monks give us a blessing, this verse.
So you might hear it.
If you go to a Buddhist monastery, at the very end of their blessings, whether it be Sri Lankan or Thai, or I'm not sure about Burmese, but I imagine certainly Laos, Cambodia, all these countries, it's used as a blessing.
So it's not a blessing.
It's not saying, may you have these things.
It's just reminding you or pointing out the fact that the Buddha taught that these things increase when people are reverential, respectful.
So respect is considered a good thing.
Respect is considered to be.
As we've seen in the past few verses,
This is actually the only reason this verse belongs in this chapter, which is actually the chapter on thousands.
So everything in this verse should be about a thousand this, a thousand that, or a many number of things.
It's that it goes with the verses before, which we're talking about Abi-Wadana.
When someone pays reverence to those, is respectful to those who are worthy of respect, it's a great thing, is what they were saying.
So this one is saying that four things increase.
This was told in regards to a boy when the Buddha was dwelling in an aranyakutti, a place, a kutti in the forest, a hut in the forest near a town called Digalangika.
I don't know where that is.
In reference to a young boy who was named Digayu.
Diga means long and ayu means life.
Digayu.
That was his name.
I don't think it was his name when he was born.
In fact, the story goes there were two Brahmins and they left the home life and I think before they were married, so these were young men who decided to live their lives as ascetics, not Buddhist ascetics, but they lived off in the forest doing
austerities, torturing themselves, that kind of thing, doing the various religious practices outside of the Buddha's teaching for 48 years.
And then one day, one of the Brahmins, one of the friends, these two friends, decided
or realized, or somehow found it somehow important in his meditation living in the forest, he somehow decided that it was important that he continue his line, his lineage.
It somehow became an important thing for him, although you got to cynically wonder whether it was just an excuse, because it's easy to come up with excuses to leave the religious life.
And you'll always hear these when people want to disrobe.
They'll have lots of reasons, this or that.
One of the funniest reasons is when people say, I haven't experienced many things in the world, so I've never gotten drunk, I've never had a girlfriend, and I don't feel like I can fully appreciate the religious life until I go and do those things.
A very slippery sort of argument, but it's an excuse.
It's certainly not the real reason.
So I wonder whether this was actually the real reason or if
if whatever, you know, it was maybe the activities involved surrounding the furthering of one's line that he was maybe more interested in.
Anyway, he got married and he had a boy.
And when the boy was born, he immediately brought him to the other Brahmin who was still an ascetic because he wanted to get his blessing.
and the brahmin they came forward to the brahmin and he saluted the father saluted his old friend at which point he said the ascetic said may you live long may you live long may you live a long life
And then the mother paid respect and he said to her the same thing.
May you live long.
And then they brought the boy and they introduced him to the ascetic.
And the ascetic was silent.
He didn't say anything.
And so the friend was
a little bit disgruntled at this.
And so he asks him, you know, why is it that you bless us, but you won't bless our boy?
And he said, well,
No.
Thing is, something's going to happen to your boy.
So this guy, I guess he had some kind of magical spiritual insight powers that allowed him to see some danger.
And so this was a common thing that people claimed to be able to do.
In India, even today, astrologers claim to be able to read people's futures, that kind of thing.
Not just in the stars, but they'll do it in other ways, be able to see people's auras or see their futures, that kind of thing.
So he claimed this and his Brahmin friend got quite scared and knowing this was his friend, there was no reason for him to trick him or try and deceive him.
So he said, is there anything you can do?
Do you know what I can do to stop this?
He says, I'm in danger.
And the man says, what sort of danger?
He says, he's only going to live a short time.
And the man says, how long?
He says, seven days.
Your boy is only going to live seven days.
That's his future.
And the Brahmin gets scared.
And he says, is there anything I can do?
I don't know.
Was there someone who does know?
And of course, this looks like a job for he says, Well, you know, there's that I said it go to mind.
He does know a lot.
Everyone's always praising him for his knowledge and his ability to teach people the right way to practice.
So maybe you could go ask him.
So indeed he takes his son to go and see the Buddha and pays respect.
The Buddha says the same thing.
You live a long life.
And same to the mother.
They bring the baby forward.
Same thing.
He doesn't say anything.
And so again he asks him the question, what can I do?
Is there something I can do?
Yeah, there's something you can do.
Ah, what should I do?
And here's the Buddha's cure for short life.
He says, what you can do is you can set up a pavilion at your house with eight chairs or 16 seats, eight or 16, he gives them an option.
And he says, invite my disciples to come and chant for seven days.
They're going to do protective chanting, means they'll chant the teachings of the Buddha
and do that for seven days.
And that will resolve your problem.
That will save your son.
And he said, well, okay, I can set up a pavilion, but how do I get your monks to come?
Buddha said, if you set it up, we will come.
If you build it, we will come.
And so he does that.
He sets up this pavilion, sets up these seats and invites people to come and listen.
And for seven days, indeed, nonstop, so the monks would take shifts.
They did chanting for this Brahmin and the Brahmin fed them and gave gifts to each of the monks, I guess, you know, to kind of thank them for their service.
Now I mean it becomes a bit of a, I don't know if that's fair to say because I don't think it even says that he gave them gifts, but it's an interesting sort of setup because you wonder why did the monks go through all that trouble?
But I suppose one thing you could say is that perhaps it was an opportunity to teach the Dhamma, because many people would come and listen, because he set up a pavilion in a public place.
And another thing is that they set the baby up in a crib or in a seat in the middle of the monks, so with the monks surrounding them.
And yeah, so at first glance, you might think, well, why?
Why were the monks spending seven days doing this?
But the fact is that not only did humans come and listen, angels came and listened as well.
It became a huge event.
It's kind of like the show of the
the show of the century or something all the humans and angels and everybody who was anybody came to listen to this event so that was what the Buddha prescribed he said you have to do something big you have to do some big good deed and this is the good deed have the recitation of the Dhamma allow for this teaching of the Dhamma to go on for seven days and set it up, facilitate this
And so the Buddha got the monks to go and teach the Dhamma for seven days, chanting it, reciting it for seven days.
And of course they would understand it and it was all a teaching, right?
Now, here's the thing you see.
It sounds kind of superstitious, of course.
It sounds strange that they should be able to predict the future, first of all.
And then it sounds kind of... I'm thinking from a secular point of view.
Then it sounds kind of...
kind of suspicious that there's somehow a relationship.
Why is it that this is going to avert his death?
Maybe it's good to listen to good things and it makes you feel better, but here we've got this seven-year-old or this day-old child or this newborn child
What good is it going to do to him?
You know, do these things really provide protection?
Is there some magic involved that they protect you from death, so death can't come near?
And the funny thing is, which makes this a very Buddhist story, is that there is a reason behind it.
The only really superstitious or non-secular kind of thing that most skeptics would have a serious problem with is the problem of angels.
Because it's actually a story about angels, this story.
The story goes,
that there was a yaka which is like a demon or kind of like some kind of demigod or something some kind of weird angel who actually is not very nice
And he did something for one of the angels, you know, there's all this politics and favoring and gifting and that kind of thing.
So he was owed a favor by one of the God, the angels, one of these angels who, I don't know, some angel, what's the, I don't know, let me see.
Vaisavana, yeah.
Vaisavana was, I think he was the architect for Saka or something.
I don't know.
It was some part of the angel hierarchy.
And the Yaka was named Avarudaka for people who were interested in such things.
but the deal went that he owed this guy a favor and so he said well then I'll look the other way and we'll pick a baby for you to eat that's how the story goes and so they picked this baby
And this baby was supposed to be the sacrifice.
I don't know the details of it.
It sounds horrific and just befuddling as to what was really going on there, what was going on behind the scenes.
But somehow this was an agreement that was made.
You get this child.
How this angel had authority over the child, I don't know.
It was kind of like a look-the-other-way thing because he owed this yaka a favor.
That's the story.
And so he said, you got seven days.
This is the deal.
I'll turn my back for seven days.
Look the other way and you can eat the child.
So they really didn't protect him, you see, because when they brought the monks in, all the angels crowded in.
Sakka and and and all the other all the angels who were anybody anybody who was anybody came to listen and So there was absolutely no chance that this Yaka could get anywhere near them He apparently had there was so there was such a hierarchy that he had to go he had to back up and the closest he could get to the boy was something like 16 leagues and
12 leagues.
He had to step back 12 leagues.
That was as close as he could get to the pavilion.
And so for seven days, the monks did this chanting.
And on the seventh day, the Buddha came, walked in, sat down in a seat prepared for him, and spent all night teaching the Dhamma, taking his turn.
And when the sun rose on the eighth day,
He turned to the child and he said, may you live long.
And they asked him how long he's going to live and the Buddha said he's going to live 120 years.
So they gave him the name Digayuka or Digayu.
I don't know, they gave him, it says here they gave him the name Ayuvadana.
They gave him the name Ayuvadana, which means one whose life increases.
Vandana increasing so that's the story
And then, as it is said, the monks were hanging out in the Dhamma Sala one day, talking, discussing, and they said, it's amazing, you know, that this kid who was going to live seven days, and that was somehow his karma.
There was something going on there.
That was as a result of, sorry, I shouldn't say that was his karma, that was his, that was some result of some deeds that had been done in the past, so it's strange that suddenly that changed.
And Buddha walked, and they thought to themselves, they said, you know, wonder what the thing is.
What is it that changes this, that allows people, what is it that increases people's life?
What is it that truly, what Dhamma is it?
Or what sort of dhammas allow for one's lifespan to increase in this way?
What's the mechanism?
And the Buddha walked in and asked them what they were talking about and they told him.
And the Buddha said, monks, for one who is respectful constantly, who is of a nature to constantly
ever to ever be respectful and bow down no to to to bend down this this idea of bending down in the sense of not
being lording over or saying, I'm your equal and I don't have to pay respect to anyone and so on.
A person who is able to respect others, is able to look up to others and accept that other people might be able to help them or might be worthy of their respect, I think.
Such a person, the Buddha said four things increase, not just life, but four things increase.
And then he taught this verse.
So that's the verse.
Again, not directly related to our practice, more related to mind states, but a lot of these are.
And as a result, very much a part of our practice because respect, humility, these things are all a part of our practice.
had an interesting experience today that kind of relates to this, potentially.
It made me wonder, you know?
I was teaching meditation today to a new group of people, and one of the meditators, normally you have people say the words out loud,
because I want them to want to see that they're doing it correctly.
So I said, Okay, say it loudly with me.
Step being right, step being left.
And I watched them, I went to one by one by one to see if they're doing it correctly.
And I came up to this one.
And I said, and she wasn't saying it out loud.
And I said, Can you say it out loud for me?
She said, No.
I said, Oh, why not?
And she said, I don't want to.
And it made me think, you know, I mean, should you say something?
Should there be... Well, it made me think that in certain cases that could be really a problem for the person.
If they're really not...
If they really don't have that faculty that is respectful, when your teacher tells you to do something, it's to just say no to them.
Why?
Because it's oblivious.
If you say, I'm sorry, or if you're respectful, because this person has come to teach you and I wasn't getting paid or anything, wasn't a client.
So it made me think, but I don't think that's what it was about.
I'm really not sure what it was about, but you know, people are,
have their issues, and sometimes those issues are, you know, it's not disrespect all the time.
I don't think it was sincerely disrespect, but in most cases there is a sense there, and I've seen this before, where there's just this switch that hasn't turned on, like, oh yes, right, I should respect this person because they are teaching me something new.
Something that I don't know.
They have something over me.
You see, I mean, it's not like lording over, but it's someone you should look up to, is someone who has knowledge that you don't have.
That's something that you should be respectful for, because they don't have to give it to you.
They're giving it to you out of kindness and so on.
Anyway, this is a tradition, and I think in the West there's real attitude about this.
I'm not saying on this case it was, but in certain cases where people have this attitude.
Not that you have to bow down or something like that, but just don't get this.
If a teacher tells you to do something, you don't have to do it.
You can say, I'm sorry, I don't feel comfortable with that.
But there should be some sense of respect and saying an apology, you know.
I think in the West we less have that.
But I don't know, having lived in Asia for so long maybe or being a meditator, I can't help but even my teachers at school, as I said before, one of my professors, the guy before him leaves chalk dust all over his desk and he comes in and he puts his MacBook down on the table and it gets all the chalk dust in it and it ruined his computer at one point.
So since then, I've gone and I've wiped down the table before class.
And it just seems like, of course I would do that.
I mean, that's something that we do because this person is teaching us.
This is something, you know.
We do it for our parents because, you know, our respect for them.
For most of us, our parents are worthy of respect.
And sometimes we don't give them the respect they're worthy of, you know.
Some maybe aren't.
I know there are parents who aren't really worthy of much respect, but for the most part they are.
So it is in some sense a part of our meditation in terms of being a mind state.
That is important.
It provides worldly benefits, but it also provides a great, it's a necessary sort of a bar if you're not respectful.
then you can't get very far.
So another aspect of this story that's quite interesting, and I already talked about it, the somewhat secular nature of the protection verses.
Most Buddhists and non-Buddhists who see this think that protection and chanting protections, because Buddhists around the world do these protective chantings,
they think it's something magical, like there's some magic involved.
And this is kind of very Buddhist thing to sort of explain it in a way that is totally secular.
Now, you might argue this isn't totally secular.
We've got talk of angels in here, and that's totally faith-based because none of us have ever seen angels.
But we could argue that that's our fault, that we just aren't in tune enough to see the angels like other people are.
But we could also just appropriate this story and say it in another way.
Suppose...
I mean, the concept stays the same, and it's this concept of the power of goodness.
You think, well, goodness has power, so what does that mean?
If you do good deeds magically, good things happen to you?
No.
Things like this happen to you.
You know, like people take care of you.
If you're surrounded by good people, suppose a kid is...
in school and he makes friends with some more some stronger kids you know and then the bullies come around well he's got all these friends who he was nice to and kind to and friends with and other people who respected him you know suppose there's a kid who helps some older kids with his home with their homework just as they ask him for help or not older kids so the kid the geeky kid helps the
The jock kid, you know, things like that.
I mean, it's a simple idea that good deeds make friends.
Good deeds bring lots and lots of good results, both worldly and spiritual.
They affect your mind and make you more calm and peaceful.
And I think that is an important, it is related to our meditation practice.
Because humility, true humility, not this fake sort of, oh I'm so humble, oh I'm such a, you know.
We can get very humble, we can fake humility.
Religious people are very good at faking humility.
Buddhists tend to, it's potential, there's a potential to fall into a fake humility.
Just by affecting it, you see.
We're not affecting, we're not talking about affecting.
only through meditation practice.
And that's the relationship here to our practices.
It is meditation practice that leads to true humility.
Why?
Because you start to see that you're actually worthless.
You see that what I thought was worthless,
body of mind, beautiful, strong, powerful, this brain, this mind.
You see, it's all rubbish.
It's all garbage.
It doesn't really work.
It's broken.
It doesn't listen to you.
It breaks down.
In the end, it's just all a bunch of garbage.
And you lose.
This is like what Sariputta said recently.
We had one of his stories where he said, he was accused of hitting this other guy.
He said, well, for someone who has a big ego, that's certainly possible.
For someone who still has attachment to self, then yeah, certainly possible.
Me, I regard this self like a young man or woman
Who who is bathed and well-closed just like they would regard a dog carcass hanging around their neck That's how I regard this body and so I regard this being And that's where true humility comes from you start to see that I
Reality is not worth clinging to.
All dhammas are not worth clinging to.
Indeed, not worth clinging to.
And so the practice of meditation, seeing things arise and cease, seeing the chaos, seeing the unmanageability, unwieldiness of the body and mind, you let go.
You don't suffer from the changes, from the chaos, from the uncertainty.
It's not that you change it and make it certain and make it controllable and so on.
It's just you stop suffering from it.
You stop suffering, you stop attaching.
Because you stop attaching, you become more respectful, more kind, more compassionate, more caring, less angry and vicious and mean and cruel.
And as a result, people respect you and good things happen to you.
There's no magic behind it.
Although it sometimes seems magical because so many little things, you see.
You do some good deed for someone and it impacts in so many other ways.
Other people see you, your own mind changes, the world becomes a nicer place and so on.
So many small things and then suddenly it comes back to you and it seems like magic.
Wow, suddenly this kid is living 120 years behind the scenes.
Who knows what's going on?
Who knows what beings there are?
Or even not talking about beings like angels.
Just in terms of humans, so many different things.
In terms of your own mind and the choices you make.
People who are mean and nasty tend to make rash choices.
And their life changes as a result.
So, respect, reverence, humility, these are all qualities that we can all learn to emulate.
So this is an important Dhamma.
something for us to consider.
Respect is important, the Buddha said.
It's so important that it can change your life.
It can give you long life, give you health, give you happiness, give you strength.
These are the four blessings of the Triple Gem.
So by listening respectfully on this occasion, if you were listening respectfully, if you were sitting joking and laughing and making fun of me this whole time, well then,
You don't get this, but those of you who are sitting listening respectfully to the Dhamma on this occasion, I say, Thank you for tuning in.
Keep practicing.
Have a good night.