1 00:00:01,077 --> 00:00:06,644 Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:06,664 --> 00:00:13,712 Tonight we're looking at verse 176, which reads as follows. 3 00:00:16,936 --> 00:00:29,110 ekam dhammang atitas musavadisa chantuno vitina paralokas natipapang akaryam 4 00:00:31,418 --> 00:00:59,316 which means for one who transgresses one Dhamma, one thing the person who speaks falsely this one thing one who has discarded 5 00:01:00,629 --> 00:01:07,002 the afterlife, thrown away their afterlife. 6 00:01:07,583 --> 00:01:09,166 There is no evil they won't do. 7 00:01:11,651 --> 00:01:16,120 There is no evil that will not be done by such a person. 8 00:01:21,251 --> 00:01:22,333 Some weighty words. 9 00:01:27,106 --> 00:01:44,967 So the Buddha told this verse in response to, and I keep saying this, but this is one of the more famous stories in Buddhist, I guess they're all pretty well known, but this one especially I think is one of the more well known in Asian culture, in Asian Buddhist culture. 10 00:01:47,550 --> 00:01:48,971 Probably not so much in the West. 11 00:01:49,852 --> 00:01:52,015 We don't know a lot of the stories, which is a shame. 12 00:01:52,716 --> 00:01:56,320 Well, we're trying to remedy that partly in this series. 13 00:01:59,371 --> 00:02:17,683 The story goes, as it's been passed down, that the Buddha was spreading his teachings throughout the area in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, that area of the world. 14 00:02:20,279 --> 00:02:28,028 And his virtues were being spread and he was becoming quite famous. 15 00:02:28,849 --> 00:02:35,878 And he was honored by kings and rich people alike. 16 00:02:36,078 --> 00:02:41,865 And so his teaching was flourishing because of just how great it was. 17 00:02:41,845 --> 00:02:47,474 I don't think there should be any doubt that that was the case considering how great his teaching is. 18 00:02:48,015 --> 00:03:00,535 I mean, for most of the people who have been watching these videos since the beginning, it's quite clear that there's some greatness to the Buddha's teaching. 19 00:03:00,555 --> 00:03:07,667 For people who have practiced the meditation in this tradition, they can easily agree that 20 00:03:09,335 --> 00:03:18,754 It's no wonder that Buddhism is such a powerful force in the world, even in the midst of a lot of other powerful forces. 21 00:03:28,100 --> 00:03:33,527 And speaking of powerful forces, even in India, they weren't all Buddhists. 22 00:03:33,627 --> 00:03:42,778 In fact, of course, when the Buddha arose, there were already religious traditions and religious teachers present. 23 00:03:45,201 --> 00:03:48,325 And they weren't very happy about the Buddha's fame. 24 00:03:49,507 --> 00:03:52,370 They became quite disturbed by it. 25 00:03:52,891 --> 00:03:56,976 So the text says they would gather in the street 26 00:03:58,407 --> 00:04:08,379 chastise people for being so taken by the Buddha, saying, is the monk Gautama the only Buddha? 27 00:04:08,499 --> 00:04:12,183 We also are Buddhas. 28 00:04:12,203 --> 00:04:14,887 Does that alone which is given to him yield abundant fruit? 29 00:04:14,907 --> 00:04:17,349 That which is given to us returns abundant fruit. 30 00:04:17,370 --> 00:04:20,213 So this was important for people. 31 00:04:20,253 --> 00:04:26,220 They supported religious people, and there was a tradition of supporting the religion that 32 00:04:27,837 --> 00:04:29,106 you believed would 33 00:04:30,470 --> 00:04:32,272 bear fruit. 34 00:04:32,953 --> 00:04:36,258 You know, for a lot of people, they're not thinking about becoming enlightened. 35 00:04:37,299 --> 00:04:38,561 They just want a better life. 36 00:04:39,382 --> 00:04:45,030 And there was a belief, and still is a belief, that I think is, in some ways, well-founded. 37 00:04:45,070 --> 00:04:55,484 In some ways, it's embellished, I think, by religious people, that if you give to a religious person, there's some good karma that comes from it, right? 38 00:04:56,505 --> 00:04:57,767 You get benefits back. 39 00:04:58,408 --> 00:04:59,970 And we certainly... 40 00:04:59,950 --> 00:05:02,934 And the Buddha certainly affirmed that sort of a thing. 41 00:05:02,954 --> 00:05:03,996 And I'll talk a little bit more. 42 00:05:04,056 --> 00:05:06,960 I think it's actually an interesting lesson. 43 00:05:07,822 --> 00:05:11,407 But I think we have to be careful not to embellish this idea. 44 00:05:12,288 --> 00:05:14,772 Anyway, this was people's thinking. 45 00:05:14,792 --> 00:05:17,095 And these monks were like, well, give to us. 46 00:05:18,137 --> 00:05:18,778 Support us. 47 00:05:19,859 --> 00:05:25,708 Give us all these monasteries and food and robes. 48 00:05:26,810 --> 00:05:28,472 We're Buddhas as well. 49 00:05:30,950 --> 00:05:43,084 But it didn't work, of course, because their teachings, I mean this is the thing, not all teachings, it should go without saying, and it shouldn't need to be said, that not all teachings are alike. 50 00:05:44,366 --> 00:06:00,585 Anyone who says that all religions are alike or teach the same thing, it's, I've said this before, it's a nice thought, and it certainly is useful, practical, when you're living amongst, when you're living in a multicultural, multi-religious society. 51 00:06:01,949 --> 00:06:02,991 Otherwise you just fight. 52 00:06:03,912 --> 00:06:04,873 But it's not really true. 53 00:06:06,876 --> 00:06:20,035 It's true that there are teachings out there that are kind of bizarre, and there are meditation teachings that certainly don't lead to great things. 54 00:06:21,297 --> 00:06:26,725 There are others that lead to great things, but not to the greatest thing. 55 00:06:26,705 --> 00:06:34,012 So it's not even fair to say that all meditation teachings are the same, all spiritual paths lead to the same goal. 56 00:06:34,072 --> 00:06:34,933 It's not really true. 57 00:06:36,254 --> 00:06:40,358 There are many goals and there are practices that don't even lead to the goals that they say. 58 00:06:42,601 --> 00:06:47,686 So we will claim that the Buddha's teaching is that which leads to the highest goal. 59 00:06:47,766 --> 00:06:54,332 All these other teachings, they might do good, they might be good, but they don't lead to the ultimate goal. 60 00:06:55,713 --> 00:07:05,909 Anyway, at the time, there was a woman who was ordained in one of these traditions, which is neat. 61 00:07:05,949 --> 00:07:14,262 I mean, even outside of Buddhism at the time, it wasn't that women weren't allowed or weren't found practicing spiritual life. 62 00:07:15,364 --> 00:07:20,472 Even outside of the Buddhist teaching, it seems there were women, rare, I guess, 63 00:07:20,452 --> 00:07:24,777 but there were women who undertook to practice spirituality. 64 00:07:24,797 --> 00:07:26,058 I mean, that shouldn't be a surprise. 65 00:07:26,138 --> 00:07:42,075 It's kind of, we make Indian society out to be, ancient Indian society out to be very anti-woman or, you know, what's the patriarchal or whatever, sexist. 66 00:07:43,596 --> 00:07:45,839 And I think there's definitely something to that. 67 00:07:45,919 --> 00:07:50,003 I don't think even the Buddha was free from that sort of 68 00:07:52,430 --> 00:07:57,802 thinking simply because of the nature of the culture. 69 00:07:59,145 --> 00:08:02,893 But anyway, it's not to say. 70 00:08:04,556 --> 00:08:09,908 Women certainly were not in any way less interested in enlightenment. 71 00:08:10,048 --> 00:08:11,772 We can say that for sure. 72 00:08:11,752 --> 00:08:17,981 So this woman, unfortunately, found her way into the wrong group. 73 00:08:18,963 --> 00:08:25,592 We can say with some certainty it was the wrong group, even if you think some of these other groups had their heads on straight. 74 00:08:25,612 --> 00:08:26,614 This group certainly didn't. 75 00:08:27,435 --> 00:08:28,356 They were very jealous. 76 00:08:29,979 --> 00:08:34,525 And so one day they thought, ah, well, she'll help us. 77 00:08:35,487 --> 00:08:36,949 Well, we'll get her to 78 00:08:38,718 --> 00:08:44,629 find a way to cast reproach upon the monk Gautama. 79 00:08:44,649 --> 00:08:45,691 Yes, that is the way. 80 00:08:45,791 --> 00:08:50,600 And so when she came to the monastery, they made this whole ordeal out of it. 81 00:08:50,620 --> 00:08:52,264 They just sat there and wouldn't talk to her. 82 00:08:53,306 --> 00:08:58,676 She paid respect to them, and they kind of just turned away and wouldn't talk to her. 83 00:09:00,058 --> 00:09:00,960 And she said, what have I done? 84 00:09:00,980 --> 00:09:02,042 Have I done anything wrong? 85 00:09:03,659 --> 00:09:05,261 They wouldn't talk to her. 86 00:09:05,902 --> 00:09:08,645 They said, what, don't you know? 87 00:09:08,665 --> 00:09:10,868 That was an act, really. 88 00:09:10,908 --> 00:09:14,733 Don't you know this Gautama, he's ruining us. 89 00:09:15,474 --> 00:09:22,242 Everyone's falling for his honeyed words, his sweet tongue. 90 00:09:24,004 --> 00:09:26,207 Something about him, he's charming them, and so on. 91 00:09:29,900 --> 00:09:38,240 And she said, I don't know who that is, but can I help you in some way? 92 00:09:39,944 --> 00:09:42,390 And he said, well, if you wish us well, 93 00:09:43,670 --> 00:09:52,491 Find a way to cast reproach upon the monk Gautama and put an end to the gain and honor bestowed upon him. 94 00:09:52,531 --> 00:09:55,619 Find some way to besmirch his good name. 95 00:09:57,463 --> 00:09:59,488 OK, I will do that. 96 00:09:59,508 --> 00:10:01,172 I will take the responsibility. 97 00:10:02,300 --> 00:10:07,166 She seems to have not been a very good person either, so it's reasonable to understand. 98 00:10:07,407 --> 00:10:12,113 It's easy to understand how she got caught up with these losers. 99 00:10:13,394 --> 00:10:18,281 She appears to have been a bit of one herself. 100 00:10:18,301 --> 00:10:23,768 And so she undertook to 101 00:10:27,967 --> 00:10:29,850 some kind of subterfuge. 102 00:10:29,950 --> 00:10:39,324 What she did was, in the beginning she would just go and spend the night near the monastery, or she would walk to the monastery when everyone was coming back. 103 00:10:39,364 --> 00:10:48,017 So every evening the Buddha would give a talk, and in the evening when they were all coming back, kind of late night perhaps, she would walk towards the monastery. 104 00:10:49,027 --> 00:10:50,329 And people would ask, where are you going? 105 00:10:50,369 --> 00:10:57,458 And in the beginning she said, I don't, I'm not, it's private, something like that. 106 00:10:57,558 --> 00:11:01,663 And just something actually to make them suspicious. 107 00:11:01,743 --> 00:11:04,266 Don't tell them where you're going, and they get even more suspicious. 108 00:11:05,308 --> 00:11:09,533 And then she would go and sleep somewhere near the monastery where the Buddha was staying. 109 00:11:09,513 --> 00:11:19,382 And in the morning, when the people would come to give food and listen to the Buddha's teaching in the morning, she would walk away from the monastery and say, where are you coming from? 110 00:11:19,422 --> 00:11:21,624 And again, she would say, it's my own business. 111 00:11:23,285 --> 00:11:24,687 And she did this for like a month. 112 00:11:26,729 --> 00:11:28,890 And after a month, she started telling people. 113 00:11:28,910 --> 00:11:39,520 When they asked her, she would say, I'm staying with Gautama, staying with him in his kutti. 114 00:11:42,554 --> 00:11:52,789 And unfortunately, as we all know, not everyone is discerning enough to see the truth of such statements. 115 00:11:53,911 --> 00:11:55,514 It's not impossible. 116 00:11:56,235 --> 00:12:01,262 It's not even probably all that hard to fool the majority or a good majority of people. 117 00:12:02,063 --> 00:12:03,566 You can see this in politics. 118 00:12:04,307 --> 00:12:09,034 It's not really to cast aspersions on such people, but 119 00:12:09,014 --> 00:12:18,186 Sometimes you're trying to live your life, you don't have the time to investigate, and you find yourself listening. 120 00:12:18,506 --> 00:12:33,046 And especially for people who didn't have a strong knowledge of the Buddhist teaching, or a strong sense of the goodness and the rightness of it, for them it was quite easy to convince them, or at least make them suspicious. 121 00:12:33,266 --> 00:12:36,490 Didn't convince them, but they became very suspicious. 122 00:12:37,735 --> 00:12:40,183 And they said to themselves, is it true or is it false? 123 00:12:40,243 --> 00:12:41,286 They had doubt. 124 00:12:41,466 --> 00:12:44,917 And doubt is of course a problematic mind state. 125 00:12:47,545 --> 00:12:48,167 And then, 126 00:12:49,767 --> 00:13:02,538 After three or four months of that, so it was a real long con, she wrapped her belly up with bandages and went about, you know, so to make her stomach a little bit larger. 127 00:13:02,598 --> 00:13:05,520 And she went around saying, oh, I'm pregnant. 128 00:13:06,341 --> 00:13:07,963 I'm carrying Gautama's child. 129 00:13:09,464 --> 00:13:14,328 And again, people became more suspicious and some people lost interest in the Buddha. 130 00:13:15,589 --> 00:13:16,710 You know how that goes, right? 131 00:13:17,190 --> 00:13:19,032 Reputation is so easy to lose. 132 00:13:20,851 --> 00:13:24,938 It's not entirely true, but it's easy to hurt someone's reputation. 133 00:13:24,978 --> 00:13:26,085 It's such a fickle thing. 134 00:13:30,419 --> 00:13:44,577 And then after eight or nine months, she put some wood, a big, actually a big half sphere, I guess, or something in her belly to, you know, I guess to put some weight and drew a cloak over it. 135 00:13:44,717 --> 00:13:53,368 And then she beat herself, like pounded her arms and legs to make her, make them swell. 136 00:13:53,488 --> 00:13:56,612 So she appeared swollen. 137 00:13:59,410 --> 00:14:07,742 and then pretending to be tired, she went, went one evening, and this is the climax of the story, went to where the Buddha was teaching. 138 00:14:07,782 --> 00:14:17,055 So in front of all the people, the Buddha was there with a hall full of people teaching and stood before him. 139 00:14:17,075 --> 00:14:19,118 And she gave quite a speech. 140 00:14:19,239 --> 00:14:20,220 She said, Oh, 141 00:14:22,158 --> 00:14:25,743 Look at this great group of people you've come to teach. 142 00:14:27,004 --> 00:14:29,528 You have a sweet voice, soft lips. 143 00:14:31,611 --> 00:14:33,834 She actually says that, I guess, you have soft lips. 144 00:14:35,576 --> 00:14:41,424 But you're the father of my child and I'm getting ready to deliver. 145 00:14:42,085 --> 00:14:43,947 My time of delivery is soon. 146 00:14:45,260 --> 00:14:48,165 In spite of this, you haven't supported me. 147 00:14:48,205 --> 00:14:53,253 You make no effort to give me the requirements for yada, yada, yada, so on. 148 00:14:58,021 --> 00:15:05,433 And she says, you know well enough how to take your pleasure, but you know not how to look after the child you have begotten. 149 00:15:06,635 --> 00:15:08,398 Thus did she revile the Buddha. 150 00:15:08,418 --> 00:15:09,259 Can you imagine, no? 151 00:15:11,838 --> 00:15:13,661 Remember, the theme here is lies. 152 00:15:13,841 --> 00:15:21,113 Well, as lies go, this is a pretty, I mean, yeah, it's a pretty severe one. 153 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:28,744 I mean, towards the Buddha, for such a great and powerful being. 154 00:15:29,365 --> 00:15:31,669 From Buddha's point of view, there's not much worse you can do. 155 00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:35,561 And the Buddha stopped teaching. 156 00:15:36,082 --> 00:15:36,843 And he looked at her. 157 00:15:37,504 --> 00:15:38,405 And what do you think he did? 158 00:15:38,786 --> 00:15:39,847 Do you think he denied it? 159 00:15:40,247 --> 00:15:40,868 It's interesting. 160 00:15:40,928 --> 00:15:44,132 Sometimes when you deny it, it makes it worse. 161 00:15:44,212 --> 00:15:47,496 But what he said to her, and they say it's like a lion's roar. 162 00:15:48,678 --> 00:15:52,663 A lion's roar is just like a speech that is very powerful. 163 00:15:53,224 --> 00:15:56,728 And the most powerful speech here, I mean, I think it is quite powerful. 164 00:16:00,050 --> 00:16:01,312 is to call upon the truth. 165 00:16:01,592 --> 00:16:07,861 And he said to her, he says to her, in regards to this matter, you know the truth, and I know the truth. 166 00:16:08,862 --> 00:16:09,803 That was his response. 167 00:16:20,598 --> 00:16:21,359 And she didn't let up. 168 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:28,369 She says, so who is to decide between what is true and what is false, when only you and I know? 169 00:16:30,914 --> 00:16:47,720 And then suddenly, I'm skipping a bit here, but we'll say suddenly, through some means or other, fortuitous circumstance, the piece of wood slipped and fell on her feet. 170 00:16:48,041 --> 00:16:53,970 And the text says it cut her feet, her toes off, but I'm going to leave that part out as well. 171 00:16:54,010 --> 00:16:55,712 It fell on her feet, and we'll say she got hurt. 172 00:16:56,554 --> 00:16:58,056 Suddenly just slipped out. 173 00:16:58,817 --> 00:16:59,318 Whoops. 174 00:17:02,487 --> 00:17:13,223 Suffice to say, the people listening to the Buddha, again, were talking about ordinary people, not only people who were meditation practitioners, enlightened beings, and so on. 175 00:17:13,243 --> 00:17:16,307 Some of them were not enlightened by any means. 176 00:17:17,409 --> 00:17:22,697 And some of them had perhaps been harboring suspicions, and now they were very angry at being fooled. 177 00:17:24,299 --> 00:17:29,727 And so these people got up and chased her out of the monastery, beating her, hitting her, and so on. 178 00:17:32,491 --> 00:17:34,713 And the story goes that she went to hell. 179 00:17:35,594 --> 00:17:45,985 The story goes the earth opened up underneath her feet and swallowed her whole, but either way I think it's fair to assume that she did in fact go to hell as a result. 180 00:17:48,888 --> 00:17:49,549 That's the story. 181 00:17:49,569 --> 00:17:52,432 The Buddha tells a past life story where a similar thing happened. 182 00:17:55,275 --> 00:17:57,537 It's an interesting story, but that's for another day. 183 00:17:59,002 --> 00:18:03,287 I encourage you if you're interested to read the Jataka stories associated with these. 184 00:18:06,591 --> 00:18:07,813 But we're going to get into the lesson. 185 00:18:08,474 --> 00:18:12,499 I'm much more interested in what this means to us as meditators and Buddhists. 186 00:18:16,444 --> 00:18:20,809 So again, I think there are two different lessons. 187 00:18:21,790 --> 00:18:26,376 The first one relates, I think that's interesting to us, relates to 188 00:18:28,381 --> 00:18:29,242 prosperity. 189 00:18:35,291 --> 00:18:54,237 And how remarkable it is that people think, as these wandering recluses thought, that you can become prosperous through evil, that somehow evil deeds, lies in this case, 190 00:18:55,432 --> 00:19:06,365 and worse than lies, malicious lies, designed to harm someone, to greatly harm someone. 191 00:19:06,385 --> 00:19:09,529 The idea that that could lead to prosperity is quite remarkable. 192 00:19:10,810 --> 00:19:20,362 And so it brings a broader question to the fore about prosperity through evil in general. 193 00:19:22,985 --> 00:19:24,747 I mean, isn't it true that a person 194 00:19:26,161 --> 00:19:27,984 who does an evil deed, prospers? 195 00:19:30,469 --> 00:19:31,731 It's a trick question, I suppose. 196 00:19:33,134 --> 00:19:35,138 But it's an argument that's put forward. 197 00:19:35,198 --> 00:19:41,410 I mean, well, certainly true that a person who steals gains, right? 198 00:19:43,453 --> 00:19:48,102 In the short term, of course, the arguments are, there are other arguments involved, but 199 00:19:55,118 --> 00:20:01,586 There's a question of karma, because if a person steals from you, well, I didn't. 200 00:20:01,606 --> 00:20:07,593 Why did they, the person who did the bad deed, gain, and why do I, the person who never did any bad deed, lose? 201 00:20:08,994 --> 00:20:24,332 So the broader picture, of course, would tell us more, but more to the point, I think we have to understand that we have to ask the question of whether the theft 202 00:20:25,780 --> 00:20:28,884 is that which allowed for the profit. 203 00:20:30,847 --> 00:20:33,770 And so I think, I want to explain this because I think it's more than that. 204 00:20:34,792 --> 00:20:39,638 And this helps us understand karma and it helps us understand things like meditation even. 205 00:20:42,762 --> 00:20:50,512 Because to say that the theft is what allowed the person, the thief to prosper, is actually missing a lot of the story. 206 00:20:51,773 --> 00:20:53,796 Because if you talk about what it takes to steal, 207 00:20:55,767 --> 00:20:56,769 Take two people. 208 00:20:57,149 --> 00:21:01,697 One person is incompetent and the other person is competent. 209 00:21:01,717 --> 00:21:07,447 One person is clever, the other person is not clever. 210 00:21:09,210 --> 00:21:13,337 So take these two people and ask yourself, which one is going to succeed in stealing? 211 00:21:13,598 --> 00:21:19,648 Which one is more likely to succeed more often in stealing, in doing any bad deed, right? 212 00:21:21,333 --> 00:21:23,555 Take a weak person and a strong person. 213 00:21:23,976 --> 00:21:29,481 Which one is going to succeed in things like torture or rape or that sort of thing? 214 00:21:32,604 --> 00:21:39,631 So what I'm getting at here is these are actually all positive qualities, physical and mental qualities that differentiate beings. 215 00:21:40,432 --> 00:21:44,756 And putting aside physical qualities, we just focus on mental qualities. 216 00:21:45,076 --> 00:21:46,918 A thief needs things like confidence. 217 00:21:49,143 --> 00:21:52,268 So what we're actually talking about is capabilities. 218 00:21:53,590 --> 00:22:00,059 And if you want to think of it, karma is kind of, we talk about the karma bank and people wonder whether karma is like a bank that you put money in. 219 00:22:01,361 --> 00:22:08,412 In a way it kind of is, as long as we understand what we mean by karma and by the bank. 220 00:22:09,734 --> 00:22:14,020 But if you think of it as like a system of points, merit and demerit points, 221 00:22:16,733 --> 00:22:19,337 What they really are is abilities or capabilities. 222 00:22:19,677 --> 00:22:26,427 If you practice meditation, you become more confident. 223 00:22:27,489 --> 00:22:36,582 There's these books that teach you how to be confident, and they'll tell you to recite mantras like, I can do it, I can do it, that sort of thing. 224 00:22:37,103 --> 00:22:41,249 They'll tell you all sorts of things, but you'll find that most often it's a sort of meditation. 225 00:22:42,171 --> 00:22:43,753 It's a means of mental development. 226 00:22:45,151 --> 00:23:06,636 If you want to be focused, the person who's not focused would make a very bad evildoer because you have to focus on the task at hand and not get distracted and you have to be composed or else you'll tell the wrong person and get found out and that sort of thing. 227 00:23:07,797 --> 00:23:12,227 And all of these things come from not only meditation, but they come actually from good deeds. 228 00:23:12,929 --> 00:23:20,205 A person who does lots of good deeds for others is going to become more confident and stronger of mind. 229 00:23:20,225 --> 00:23:25,317 If you look conversely to what things like theft do for a person, 230 00:23:27,997 --> 00:23:31,728 Does theft make you more confident and more focused? 231 00:23:31,748 --> 00:23:32,891 Does it make you happier? 232 00:23:32,911 --> 00:23:38,327 I think it's a question we have to ask because you say, well, the person got what they wanted. 233 00:23:39,893 --> 00:23:42,276 They got what they wanted because they had the capabilities. 234 00:23:42,917 --> 00:23:44,438 They didn't get it because they stole it. 235 00:23:44,498 --> 00:23:46,000 They got it because they were capable. 236 00:23:46,100 --> 00:23:47,902 They were in a position to steal it. 237 00:23:48,603 --> 00:23:49,304 And they chose. 238 00:23:49,765 --> 00:23:52,328 But the act of stealing, what are the results of that? 239 00:23:53,189 --> 00:23:58,976 Because there's no question here from a Buddhist perspective that the stealing was a bad act. 240 00:23:59,176 --> 00:24:01,058 And it will only have bad consequences. 241 00:24:02,287 --> 00:24:06,612 So the stealing itself, the consequences for the mind are quite profound. 242 00:24:08,415 --> 00:24:20,910 I once tried to teach meditation to a thief, a guy who was guilty of theft, and I don't think he ever got caught for it, but he couldn't sit still. 243 00:24:21,030 --> 00:24:22,552 He was really in a bad state. 244 00:24:24,114 --> 00:24:26,657 His mind was totally unfocused. 245 00:24:28,628 --> 00:24:30,416 I always bring up Crime and Punishment. 246 00:24:30,476 --> 00:24:32,525 This novel, I think, sums it up quite well. 247 00:24:34,453 --> 00:24:38,048 If you do very, very evil deeds, there's no escaping them. 248 00:24:41,892 --> 00:24:48,362 And of course many other things, of course, you can get caught and you'll be tortured and punished and so on. 249 00:24:49,744 --> 00:24:52,969 And another interesting aspect is you make the world a worse place. 250 00:24:54,391 --> 00:24:56,354 A person who, take a thief. 251 00:24:56,675 --> 00:25:00,741 A thief is someone who likes the things of this world, who wants them, who craves them. 252 00:25:01,863 --> 00:25:08,473 Not all thieves, but the average thief is desperate, so desperate for the things of this world. 253 00:25:09,736 --> 00:25:10,761 that they will steal them. 254 00:25:11,102 --> 00:25:15,763 They will take them against the wishes of others. 255 00:25:17,043 --> 00:25:22,450 And so their attachment to this world is certainly going to keep them in this world. 256 00:25:22,731 --> 00:25:25,995 And by being a thief, have they made the world a better place? 257 00:25:26,055 --> 00:25:27,197 No. 258 00:25:27,217 --> 00:25:29,840 A world with thieves, is it better or worse? 259 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:31,502 I think there's no question that it's worse. 260 00:25:32,324 --> 00:25:36,629 Just from the sense of people are less comfortable, they lock their doors. 261 00:25:36,870 --> 00:25:41,636 I grew up in the middle of nowhere, and we never locked our doors. 262 00:25:41,856 --> 00:25:42,978 And we always bragged about it. 263 00:25:43,018 --> 00:25:46,122 But I thought often as a kid about that. 264 00:25:46,102 --> 00:25:52,509 You know, we would visit the city and they would lock their doors and we think, wow, people actually lock their doors in places. 265 00:25:53,750 --> 00:25:56,974 Never, we didn't have to, you know, the nearest neighbor was a mile away. 266 00:25:57,615 --> 00:25:58,876 They didn't lock their doors either. 267 00:26:03,241 --> 00:26:12,531 When you start locking your doors and worrying about your kids and, you know, you have to worry about young girls for the worst reasons, right? 268 00:26:14,013 --> 00:26:19,020 You have to guard your money, guard your bank accounts, guard your internet, guard everything. 269 00:26:20,302 --> 00:26:21,824 This is what the world does to us. 270 00:26:21,944 --> 00:26:23,326 This is what evil does to the world. 271 00:26:23,866 --> 00:26:25,349 And guess who inherits the world? 272 00:26:25,409 --> 00:26:30,075 Those people who are desperate enough for it that they're willing to go to extremes. 273 00:26:30,816 --> 00:26:34,421 They're the ones who are sure to be here or even in worse places. 274 00:26:36,203 --> 00:26:37,405 That's another topic. 275 00:26:39,967 --> 00:27:01,063 So this idea of prosperity, I think it's an interesting lesson for us to think about and to acknowledge that there are people and that there is this perversion in the world and even in our minds that we can gain from doing things that are not a source of gain. 276 00:27:09,599 --> 00:27:12,905 The second lesson, and so the more to the point one, is about lying. 277 00:27:14,127 --> 00:27:20,359 And the Buddha says that lying is, lying is something, is like a gate. 278 00:27:20,379 --> 00:27:21,742 It's like a line in the sand. 279 00:27:22,844 --> 00:27:29,917 It's a line that, once crossed, leads to all kinds of evil. 280 00:27:30,458 --> 00:27:32,181 The person who is willing to lie, 281 00:27:33,528 --> 00:27:35,711 Two things, I guess, and we have to talk about them both. 282 00:27:35,731 --> 00:27:38,434 The first one is they've thrown away their future. 283 00:27:39,756 --> 00:27:46,444 is someone who has thrown away their afterlife. 284 00:27:47,466 --> 00:27:55,536 What that means is any hope for heaven, any hope for prosperity in their next life, they throw it away. 285 00:27:56,697 --> 00:27:59,160 It's a pretty harsh one, just from lying. 286 00:27:59,961 --> 00:28:06,950 I think one reason for giving this teaching is because it's probably often overlooked. 287 00:28:06,970 --> 00:28:10,034 You know, we talk about killing and stealing, those are really bad, right? 288 00:28:11,155 --> 00:28:11,876 What about lying? 289 00:28:12,477 --> 00:28:15,721 We think, well, it can't be as bad as killing or stealing, right? 290 00:28:17,843 --> 00:28:19,305 But karma is an interesting thing. 291 00:28:20,146 --> 00:28:23,110 I don't think the Buddha is saying that it is the worst evil. 292 00:28:23,832 --> 00:28:26,116 that lying is the worst thing you could possibly do. 293 00:28:26,997 --> 00:28:31,345 But he's saying something interesting, that lying is a line. 294 00:28:32,948 --> 00:28:33,428 And it is. 295 00:28:33,489 --> 00:28:35,572 It's different from other kinds of evil. 296 00:28:35,632 --> 00:28:40,661 If you kill or hurt someone, that's quite a straightforward act. 297 00:28:40,681 --> 00:28:45,469 I mean, it's an act out of anger, and it's in the person's face. 298 00:28:46,563 --> 00:28:57,140 If you steal, it's often, sometimes you can steal, hit someone in the face and take their lunch money, but more often you do it in secret. 299 00:28:58,482 --> 00:29:14,427 So that's an invasion, and that's, I think, in some sense, worse than physical violence, because it's deceitful, or not quite the right word, but it's an unknown, it's something you can't face. 300 00:29:15,706 --> 00:29:19,472 A person who steals from you, it's just suddenly the thing that you owned was gone. 301 00:29:20,353 --> 00:29:21,335 That can be devastating. 302 00:29:21,415 --> 00:29:23,739 It can feel very devastating to people. 303 00:29:25,742 --> 00:29:31,711 But neither of these are like a lie in the sense that a lie goes against the truth. 304 00:29:32,112 --> 00:29:39,604 A lie is a disregard for the value of the truth, maligning the truth. 305 00:29:41,137 --> 00:30:09,760 which from a Buddhist perspective is an important thing in some ways more important than pain or possession you know without the truth and it's not like a person who lies to you can deceive you about the world I mean they can if you're young and impressionable but the idea of a lie and what it represents is very important and so 306 00:30:10,955 --> 00:30:33,769 The idea is that there's this sense that a person who's willing to malign the truth, who is a distorter of truth, and not just a distorter, a denier, a reverser, someone who reverses, who makes a true statement, who changes what is true into what is false. 307 00:30:34,830 --> 00:30:36,713 It's like this, they say it's not like this. 308 00:30:37,654 --> 00:30:39,477 This is a negation of the truth. 309 00:30:41,195 --> 00:30:46,612 is some kind of special, some kind of special thing because it relates. 310 00:30:46,713 --> 00:30:48,057 I mean, it's all psychological. 311 00:30:48,077 --> 00:30:53,314 The idea is that there's a psychology behind this, that a person who does this is then 312 00:30:57,142 --> 00:31:10,582 unequipped or is hurting their ability, their psychological, their mental ability, mental capacity to tell the difference between true and false. 313 00:31:11,263 --> 00:31:25,984 The results of lying are to create a nebulous or vague or uncertain state of reality. 314 00:31:27,854 --> 00:31:37,197 And so other deeds like killing, no other truths like killing is wrong, stealing is wrong, become suspect, become vague. 315 00:31:37,257 --> 00:31:39,102 There's not this certainty. 316 00:31:40,264 --> 00:31:41,307 You can tell because 317 00:31:43,058 --> 00:31:46,485 when you undertake to practice never to lie. 318 00:31:47,568 --> 00:31:54,723 And again by lie we don't mean lies of omission, we don't mean even deception where you trick someone into thinking something. 319 00:31:55,064 --> 00:32:02,299 We mean where you actually say X is not X, Y is not Y, not Y is Y, that sort of thing. 320 00:32:16,420 --> 00:32:19,764 And so being able to see right from wrong becomes problematic. 321 00:32:19,824 --> 00:32:21,726 And that's what the Buddha is getting at here. 322 00:32:22,988 --> 00:32:23,949 And it's interesting. 323 00:32:23,989 --> 00:32:28,314 There's no question that there is a line being crossed when you lie. 324 00:32:28,434 --> 00:32:31,217 I mean, it's a very powerful practice to never lie. 325 00:32:32,599 --> 00:32:38,306 And it makes your mind very strong and very devoted to truth, to reality. 326 00:32:39,948 --> 00:32:41,970 It's a very special kind of evil to lie. 327 00:32:43,131 --> 00:32:44,633 Something we shouldn't take for granted. 328 00:32:44,913 --> 00:32:46,275 Certainly the Buddha didn't think so. 329 00:32:49,310 --> 00:32:52,955 Of course, this story has more to it than just a lie, right? 330 00:32:52,995 --> 00:32:54,096 It's a malicious lie. 331 00:32:55,778 --> 00:33:02,046 Some lies are, you could argue, you're not going to be, the earth isn't going to swallow you up whole just for lying. 332 00:33:03,108 --> 00:33:05,310 So there's no question that this was more than just a lie. 333 00:33:05,350 --> 00:33:09,816 It was a devastating, evil, wicked, malicious lie. 334 00:33:11,011 --> 00:33:12,474 And there was a lot more involved. 335 00:33:12,694 --> 00:33:14,218 It was quite a workup. 336 00:33:14,258 --> 00:33:17,565 She spent months planning and plotting. 337 00:33:17,585 --> 00:33:20,731 Could you imagine all the bad karma she was cultivating in her mind? 338 00:33:20,791 --> 00:33:23,076 It's like a nine-month meditation. 339 00:33:24,319 --> 00:33:26,944 She did a nine-month meditation course on evil. 340 00:33:28,915 --> 00:33:40,853 That's what it takes to swallow you up, culminating in the final act of lying in front of the Buddha and accusing the Buddha of something pretty serious. 341 00:33:41,273 --> 00:33:56,796 Not like he raped her or something, but it's pretty serious for a monk and for a religious teacher to be accused of sleeping with a woman and so on. 342 00:34:08,099 --> 00:34:17,209 Understanding karma, understanding that there is something very real about good and bad karma. 343 00:34:19,252 --> 00:34:24,277 And understanding the nature of truth, that truth is important. 344 00:34:24,698 --> 00:34:27,481 And lies are very bad because of how important the truth is. 345 00:34:28,482 --> 00:34:31,906 We're not in Buddhism concerned about belief or even hard work. 346 00:34:33,868 --> 00:34:36,992 The only hard work we should be doing is to understand the truth. 347 00:34:38,643 --> 00:34:41,735 And so lies are very, very bad for that. 348 00:34:42,739 --> 00:34:44,064 Something we should never engage in. 349 00:34:46,312 --> 00:34:47,838 And that's the Dhammapada for tonight. 350 00:34:49,143 --> 00:34:50,227 So thank you all for tuning in. 351 00:34:51,492 --> 00:34:52,737 Wish you all the best.