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Okay, welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.

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Today we continue on with verse number 50, which reads as follows, na pare saṁvilomāni na pare saṁkatākatam attanuva avikeya katāni akatāni ca, which means

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Na paresang vilomani.

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Vilomani, one shouldn't concern oneself with the faults of others.

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Na paresang vilomani.

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Viloma is the faults.

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Na paresang vilomani.

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Na paresang katagatang.

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Not the faults of others, not the deeds that they have done or the things they have left undone.

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one should concern oneself or concern oneself with oneself indeed one should concern oneself with oneself in terms of what one has done what one has not done so a kind of a it's a

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In English it means you shouldn't concern yourself with the deeds and the omissions and the faults of others.

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You should concern yourself with the things that you have done and the things that you have left undone.

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So it's actually a rather general teaching that can be applied in different ways.

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Ways In different senses But the sense here is actually a little bit specific In terms of the story Which goes as follows There was once a A woman living in Sawati In the time of the Buddha Who looked after a certain naked ascetic

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one of these recluses who decided, religious practitioners who followed this idea that through torturing oneself or through abstaining from any form of comfort,

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any form of physical comfort.

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One could whittle away the defilements, burn away the defilements.

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So they had this practice called tapas where they would torture themselves or by burning themselves they would burn the defilements, this pain and torture and the difficulty of

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the hardship is a sort of tappa which means heat and so one of the practices was to go naked and this was a common thing in India even today you'll see ascetics wandering around naked from time to time in different different parts of India it fits into a broader philosophy that

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The true problem or the true cause of suffering is passion, is lust, is sensual desire.

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And so the torturing, the undertaking of things that are unpleasant,

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is a means of abstaining from this sort of attachment Of course the Buddha pointed out that there's another kind of attachment and that is the aversion that comes from torturing yourself or this repression that comes from abstaining from things cultivating this forceful will of denying yourself pleasure instead of coming to understand it is another extreme

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And the Buddha taught a middle way, which is the understanding of sensuality and the understanding of addiction, which can't really be accomplished by extreme practices when you never have the opportunity for the arising.

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of sensuality, then you can't understand it.

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So if you go to the extreme of wasting away, which they would often do, not only would they go naked, but they'd often starve themselves.

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And when you starve yourself,

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very little of the defilements arise, very little addiction or attachment arise, and so it seems like you're actually burning it up, but of course this has nothing to do with the underlying causes of the attachment, the addiction, which is ignorance and delusion, just a misunderstanding or belief that you're going to find satisfaction, these wrong beliefs.

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Which can only be eradicated through wisdom.

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So of course it's not the right framework within to free oneself.

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But this is sort of the common thing that you'll find.

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I mean without having the understanding of a Buddha it wouldn't be.

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You find a huge, a wide range of religious practices like this in the world, all because people are not, simply because people are, these beings are not enlightened, so they come up with an idea based on their whim, based on what suits them, and based on

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Often just based on a whim, something that strikes them as right at a given time or something that strikes their fancy.

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And you can start whole religions this way.

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where people think that they really believe something, but actually it just comes about by chance in the mind.

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The Buddha was very good at seeing through, and he would ask tough questions like, is that really an objective practice that you follow?

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What good really does it do to go naked?

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Is there really an intrinsic benefit to it?

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It's not just I believe going naked is going to make me enlightened or I believe starving myself.

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It has to be based on cause and effect.

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It has to really do what you say it's going to do.

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So they would have all these crazy beliefs like if you do this practice you go to heaven.

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It was similar to religious traditions today.

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They had these beliefs.

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if you for your whole life you go naked as a naked ascetic do it as a practice then you'll be born in heaven or you could even become enlightened or so on if you starve yourself to death this is a common practice in certain religions in India religious traditions if you starve yourself to death you you're assured of a place in heaven and of course there's there's no logical reason to believe such a thing does it purify your mind to starve yourself

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I think it's highly debatable and in fact I would say certainly doesn't purify your mind, not in and of itself.

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The purification of the mind has to come about through qualities of mind.

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It can't come about through bodily states.

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If a person starves themselves and still clings to wrong views and wrong beliefs, there's nothing about starving yourself that eradicates these.

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So anyway, this was the sort of a standard practice in India.

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And so there was this ascetic who was looked after, let's say, like a son.

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She looked after this ascetic like he was her son.

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And so he would always come to her house and receive the finest of offerings.

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And he got kind of, I guess he wasn't starving himself, certainly wasn't according to this story.

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But he was certainly going naked and so that was seen as something very difficult to do because most people have difficulty

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wandering around naked especially in India full of horse flies and deer flies and all sorts of nasty creatures that could go after you if you're naked so it is actually quite painful and of course under the hot sun naked and so on and having to deal with the cold and having to deal with the wind and having to deal with the heat and the sun all without wearing a single piece of clothing

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And on top of that, the shame that comes and the embarrassment that comes from being naked is not an easy thing.

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So it is a pretty impressive practice and this is what impressed this woman.

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But, of course, the fly in the ointment was that everybody else in Savatthi or more and more people in Savatthi were going to Jetavana to listen to the Buddha's teaching.

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And so there was less of an inclination to practice or to follow these naked ascetics.

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and to to entertain them and to feed them and so on so they their their wealth and their luxury started to diminish their fame started to diminish because everyone was going to see the buddha and this woman of course she heard about all her neighbors going to see the buddha and so she thought well maybe i should go and hear what he has to say this is you know in india it wasn't

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They didn't have religions in that time.

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It wasn't, I belong to this religion, I belong to that religion.

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So people would go to different teachers and ask them the same questions and try to get teachings from different teachers.

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There was no sense of this religion, that religion.

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There was only, what does this teacher teach?

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What does that teacher teach?

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And so there would be like the following of this teacher, the following of that teacher.

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But people wouldn't identify with this religion or that religion, not so much.

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And so she didn't think it a big deal.

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You know, everyone would go and hear this sadhu, this religious holy man.

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But she thought, well, I should ask my revered teacher.

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And this is the naked ascetic.

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And so she went to him and she said to him, you know, look, I hear this Samanagottama is quite a teacher.

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And I wonder what you think.

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Would it be okay if I went to hear him teach?

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And the naked ascetic of course hasn't eradicated his defilements and starts to get

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a little bit concerned because he's heard what happened to his buddies, all the other naked ascetics, how when their students went to listen to what the Samana Gautama had to say, well, somehow he had this magic that converted them.

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They talked about the Buddha's converting magic.

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They wouldn't entertain the thought that his teaching could be any good,

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They thought he must have had some kind of magic that allowed him to convert their students, kind of this hypnosis or kind of like a love potion or something.

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And so he became quite distressed.

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Of course, he didn't let it show and he said, no, no, no, don't.

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He tried to be calm and said, no, no, don't go see him.

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He teaches the wrong thing.

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He teaches bad things and he's just misleading people, those kind of things.

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Of course, he didn't really understand the Buddha's teaching, probably had never heard the Buddha's teaching, probably had just heard rumors of what the Buddha taught and so on.

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So he had no reason to say it besides the fact that he was afraid of his own well-being, his own livelihood.

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but he managed to dissuade this woman from going and yet she kept hearing about how great this Samana Gautama's teaching was and probably she heard some snippets of what he taught and so she again and again would pester this naked ascetic

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you know look what do you think of this teaching and of course she couldn't answer and so she would ask you know look I really want to go see this because I'm going to go to him and listen to what he has to say no no no don't go it's wrong it's bad it's evil until finally she

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she kind of got frustrated and said, well, you know, this guy, there's no reason why I shouldn't hear this teaching.

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So if he's not going to let me go to see the Buddha, then I'll just invite the Buddha to come to see me.

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And so she told her son to go to invite the Buddha for a meal the next day.

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So her son

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agrees and is on his way to the monastery to see the Buddha, but he thinks, I wonder what our teacher, Naked Ascetic, will think of us.

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Sounds like he wants to stir up trouble.

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Anyway, he goes to see the Naked Ascetic and says, hey, so where are you going?

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Oh, my mother wants me to go and invite the Samana Gautama to

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for the meal tomorrow morning and he said oh don't no don't invite him he's wrong that's wrong that's bad he'll uh he's going to take away all of our he's going to take away my livelihood he said look don't don't go to here's what you do don't don't go tell someone don't go tell this gotama don't go and invite him and just go home and you know tell your mother that you that you

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invited him and then when he doesn't show up tomorrow morning the two of us will split the food together all of the good food that she's given if you don't go i'll give you an equal share of whatever food she's made for for the buddha and he said oh i can't do that the kid's got a little bit of scruples he says my mother will yell at me if i do that this uh

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I can't do that.

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He begs and pleads.

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He says, no, no, don't go, don't go.

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It's wrong.

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It's going to destroy me, please.

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And he's really gotten upset at this point.

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And the son keeps refusing and says, no, no, I have to go.

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If I don't go, my mother will yell at me.

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And he says, okay, well, do this.

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Look.

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Go and invite the Samana Gautama, but don't tell him where you live.

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Don't tell him the street, don't tell him your address, don't tell him even what part of the city you live in.

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Just go and invite him for tomorrow's meal, and then run off in a different direction, as though you lived in that direction.

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Run off in a totally different direction.

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So he goes to Jetavana and he says to him, he says to the Buddha, please, we want to invite you for tomorrow morning, for the meal tomorrow morning.

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And then indeed he runs off in the wrong direction, goes to see the ascetic, tells him what he did.

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He says, great, so tomorrow morning we will share the meal.

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There's no way that the Samana Gautama will find your house.

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Which of course is not true.

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The commentary points out quite clearly that the Buddha, this is the one thing that the Buddha knows is the paths that lead everywhere.

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And it says the Buddha when he became enlightened under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya.

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all paths became clear to him.

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He knows the path to hell, the path to the animal realm, the path to the hungry ghosts, the path to the human realm, the path to the angels, the path to become a god, and the path to Nibbana.

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How could he not know the path to this woman's house?

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Of course, it's a little bit of a different kind of path, and most of us, even though we practice meditation, we don't ever get this kind of knowledge of the Buddha that is able to

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find people's houses, for example.

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But the Buddha had such powers and was able, there was, you know, the point being that his knowledge was able to encompass the whole of the universe and he could understand such deep things as the arising and passing of human beings.

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So on the night of his enlightenment,

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one of the knowledges was he was able to see beings, like actually in his mind watch beings dying, watch them being born, watch them coming and watching them going and watching them go according to their deserts, go according to their karma.

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He was able to visualize or to look, to oversee the process of birth and death.

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So he was able to see

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the paths that lead to this realm and that realm.

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But just that power of mind was such that he could then apply it in any direction he chose.

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Kind of like psychics.

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And in fact,

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This is a common phenomenon that is claimed by psychics as this ability of remote viewing and in fact there's online courses you can take or tutorials on how to practice remote viewing so that someone, you have a friend and you send them somewhere and then you think about

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where are they?

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You start to question, where are they?

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And for some people, visions start to emerge.

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They're able to see things that they're seeing and so on.

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The sort of remote viewing.

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Now, of course, this is like a firefly.

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The Buddha was like the blazing sun.

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His wisdom, his knowledge was so clear and precise, he didn't have to use a friend.

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He just knew where this woman's house was without any difficulty.

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So there was no problem in that.

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And

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These two miscreants are sitting there waiting for their just desserts and then the Buddha shows up, sits down and is served by the woman and eats his breakfast.

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and the ascetic's hiding in behind.

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He sees the Buddha coming and he doesn't want to meet the Buddha and so he's hiding in an inner chamber.

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The woman comes out and she serves the Buddha with all this great food.

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When the Buddha's finished, the Buddha starts to give a talk and he

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He starts to describe the benefits of this woman's deeds and all the good that she has gained through offering food to a holy person and so on.

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And she's excited and she's pleased by this.

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And so she says, Saad, she holds up her hands and she says, very good, thank you.

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I'm glad to hear that kind of thing.

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and the ascetic's sitting in the back and he hears this woman just falling for the Buddha's tricks he thinks, falling for the Buddha's magic

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he comes out, he storms out, gets very, very angry, and he comes out and he starts abusing this woman and he calls her a hag and a witch and all these horrible names and starts abusing her and starts abusing the Buddha and calls them both such terrible names and so on.

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The commentary doesn't go into detail as to all the bad names, but roundly abusing them and then runs off.

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runs out of the house and probably the earth opens up underneath his feet or something and he goes to hell.

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No, it doesn't say that.

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But this upsets the woman quite violently.

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because this was her teacher who she thought was a holy man and here to see him put on such a display and to abuse her and really part of it's not just out of shame for what he did but it's out of a feeling that she had done something wrong of course because

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when you trust someone, when you put your faith so much in someone, to have them so violently or aggressively attack you, it can often make you doubt even the truth and doubt what's right and make you wonder what you did wrong and feel guilty and so on.

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And so she was quite moved and distressed by this and trying to think how could, you know, what to do.

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I mean, she just lost her soul support, her teacher.

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Or she'd come into his bad graces at this point.

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And so she wasn't able to listen to the rest of the Buddhist sermon and the discourse.

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And the Buddha realized this and asked her, he said, are you not able to listen to my talk?

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Are you not able to focus and pay attention?

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And she said, oh, I'm just so disturbed by that, by my teacher's words, by his actions, by his behavior.

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I can't concentrate at all.

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And this is where the Buddha said, oh, you don't worry about his behavior.

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One shouldn't pay attention to the deeds and the things that other people do and the things that other people say.

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One should look at one's own deeds and the things that one has done and one has left undone.

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And this is where he gave this verse, and so on.

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So it actually is for a fairly specific situation or circumstance, the idea of not letting people get to you when they attack you, when other people do and say things that harm you, that upset you.

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Do not let other people's deeds upset you.

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But this verse, I think, as with many of the verses, it goes far beyond the actual circumstances of the story.

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The most obvious one that comes to mind is when we compare ourselves with others.

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where we look at the faults of others where we criticize others and you can see that in this story as well because the Buddha is somehow indirectly criticizing this ascetic he's saying don't be like him you don't like the way he acted well don't be like him and worry about how and criticize him you don't like him criticizing you don't go back and criticize him

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Meaning that his behavior was far worse.

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Don't descend into that terrible behavior of his.

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And this is, of course, the most important aspect of this verse is the criticizing of others, finding fault in others.

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And the funny thing about finding fault in others is it's often because we see fault in ourselves, often because we're unsure of ourselves, or you could say always because we're unsure of ourselves.

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a person who is sure of themselves has no need to seek out the faults of others.

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They might point out for information's sake or even criticize as far as

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offering information or insight into a person's behavior, whether it's good or bad.

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But they have no intention or desire to seek out the faults of others.

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They have no fear or no concern of a person being better than them.

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And they have no fear of themselves being worse than others.

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They have no sense of this because they're confident in their purity, in their behavior, in their goodness, in their righteousness.

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So you see this in weak people.

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People who are weak will often attack others, even though they put on this air of being righteous and self-righteous and being right.

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It's because of their own instability of mind that they have to attack others.

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When your mind is stable, when your mind is clear, you have no reason to worry about the actions of others.

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But it is an interesting twist that is put on in this story is that even more than that,

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We shouldn't rely upon the opinions of others.

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We shouldn't be so worried about when other people insult us, when other people say bad things to us.

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That shouldn't be the defining factor in how we see ourselves.

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So if someone insults you, or as this ascetic did,

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There's no reason for this to be the defining factor in how you view yourselves.

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And this is often a real problem.

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It's a problem directly here when we do receive insults and people attack us and how much this hurts us, how much we let this affect us.

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But it's also this ever-present sort of societal influence where we have this self-image that we have to portray.

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We have to be someone more worried about how other people think.

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As a teacher, I'm worried about how I'm viewed by my students and how people on YouTube are going to view this video and are they going to like it or dislike it.

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There's this concern that we have for other people's judgment of us.

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appraisal of us is crippling and it's to be discouraged it makes us lose focus it stops us from achieving our goals it stops us from being happy it stops us from finding peace and so much stress comes just from this

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We call this conceit, this comparing ourselves to others, comparing ourselves in terms of seeing ourselves as less than others, seeing ourselves as greater than others, better than others, trying to be equal to others and comparing ourselves as to, am I equal to them or am I good enough for them?

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Are they better than me?

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And so on.

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these kind of concerns that we have.

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This is on the level of what the Buddha was saying, which is actually sort of a deeper level.

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And there's yet another level that isn't really mentioned here, and that's in terms of, although you might point out that it's seen in this teacher's behavior, how concerned he was for his student.

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And this is in terms of worrying about other people's

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other people's deeds worrying about so he was worried about this woman I mean you might actually cynically say that this guy was just worried about his own livelihood and I think to some extent that's probably true but it still points to the fact that he was worried about her behavior concerned about her behavior and this is another

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important application of this verse where we worry about the well-being of others and we spend all our time obsessing about the happiness of others, trying to make other people happy, trying to please them.

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or trying to instruct them even, trying to keep them on what we think is the right path for them, offering them advice and teachings and pushing our opinions on them, worrying about other people.

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In some sense it's much easier to do than to worry about yourself.

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There's two teachings that parallel this verse and one of them is the teaching the Buddha gave on these two acrobats.

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There was a father and a son, two acrobats.

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And the father said to the son, look, you get up on my shoulders and you watch my feet and I'll take care of your feet.

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And you watch where I'm going and I'll watch where you're going and we'll perform our tricks that way.

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The son said, are you crazy?

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That's not how acrobats perform.

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When you walk, you watch your feet.

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I'll get up on your shoulders and I'll look after my feet.

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You just watch where your feet are.

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And the Buddha said, this is how we should see our relationship with others.

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We should...

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pay attention to our own step, pay attention to our own deeds, and not concern ourselves.

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And of course, the point being that if everyone worried about their own deeds and misdeeds, then we wouldn't have to worry.

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There would be no reason to worry about others, because everyone would be doing their own job, would be performing properly.

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The problem is that we don't concern ourselves with ourselves.

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We concern ourselves with others.

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And so the other teaching is the one in the Mahavagga that describes the time just after the Buddha's enlightenment where he meets this group of young men who had hired

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a prostitute or some sort of escort.

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It was something like they had 29 of them had girlfriends or wives, but one of them didn't.

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And so they got her they got him a sort of escort, some kind of courtesan.

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And so they went off into the forest and they were playing and then they all kind of took a rest or a siesta in the forest and this courtesan, while they were asleep, she stole all their jewels or else they were swimming or something and she grabbed all their jewels and ran off with them.

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So they came back, or they woke up, I can't remember what it was, and found that their jewels, all their possessions were gone.

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And they realized that this courtesan had stolen them, and so they started chasing after her, looking for her, trying to find her.

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And then they met the Buddha at first.

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The Buddha happened to be in the forest.

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He was heading back to Rajgaha, or Uruwela first.

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And so he stopped by because he knew he'd meet these guys.

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So he wanted to meet them first.

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They came up to the Buddha and they said, hey, have you seen this woman?

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Have you seen a woman in the forest?

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And the Buddha said, what's the woman to you?

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What's this woman to you?

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And they said, she stole all of our jewels and all of our possessions and so on.

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So we're looking for her.

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And he said, well, then tell me, young man.

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Tangking manyata kumara.

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Tangking manyata kumara.

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What is of greater benefit to you?

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What is better for you?

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That you should find this woman or that you should seek out this woman or that you should seek out yourselves?

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very poetic sort of teaching, but it's one that we always refer back to.

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Seek out yourself, seek yourself.

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Goesati.

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Goesati is this verb that's used many times in many places by the Buddha to describe the search, where we search for things that are subject to old age, sickness, death, defilement, and so on.

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So this is kind of like you have in the Bible where Jesus said, let the dead bury their dead or you have to leave behind your family and so on.

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The Buddha is here giving them this sort of spiritual push to help them to see what's really important.

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And he said, well, why are you so concerned about worldly things?

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Why is it that worldly things bother you so much?

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The deeds of other people, the things that you can't take with you anyway.

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Why don't you look for yourselves?

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And so this is another sense in terms of worrying about the deeds of others, worrying about what they've done wrong and trying to correct, trying to amend other people's deeds or fix other people's problems.

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And all of these of course have very much to do with our meditation.

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It has to do with the difference between concepts and reality.

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Reality is in some sense solipsistic.

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We exist in our own universes.

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We never really experience other people's universes.

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We only come into contact with other people's universes and experience them indirectly.

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And so all that's real is our own experience, all that we can understand as being real and existing is this right here and now, our seeing, our hearing and smelling and tasting and feeling and thinking.

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And so part of that which takes us out of this reality

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is our engagement with other people, our engagement with the goings-on of other people.

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This is why it doesn't work to watch someone else's foot.

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You can't watch where I'm going and I watch where you're going and everything will work out.

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This is a layer of abstraction that destroys any ability to function.

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And so that seems like a silly example but it actually is directly

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or it's on the same level as trying to fix other people's problems.

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I think it's so easy to fix other people's problems.

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The point is that it may indirectly help them, but it's taking you out of reality.

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It doesn't lead to happiness.

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It doesn't lead you to peace.

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You just more and more and more try to fix other people's problems.

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And because that's dealing on the level of concepts, it's something that never ends.

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It has no satisfaction.

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It doesn't lead you to find true peace and happiness.

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It just goes on forever and ever.

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Your mind becomes more and more distracted with the workings of other people.

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And as I said, because it's easier, it's much easier to deal in concepts.

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It's much easier to give other people advice because giving advice is the easy part.

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The difficult part is following the advice and practicing according to the advice.

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So meditation helps us.

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It helps us on the level of not taking the needs of other people seriously in terms of getting upset by them.

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Even to the extent of the well-being of others.

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So we work always for well-being and never work for the suffering of others.

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But we don't have this sense of stress and suffering when other people fall into suffering.

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When the people who we love die or pass away or

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or act in a way that is unpleasant for us, which of course is the big deal with our relations with other people.

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The reason why we suffer from others is because we expect them to act in a certain way, like this woman expected her teacher to act.

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Obviously expected him to be kind and caring and flattering as he would be as long as he was the one getting the praise from praise as a teacher.

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But then as soon as he felt threatened, he attacked her, which of course is...

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it's upsetting after being so accustomed to such flattering pleasing honey-coated words honey-coated speech from this ascetic so the

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The attachment, it's just another example of the attachment to pleasure, the attachment to the positive side of life that leads to an inability to accept the more displeasing aspects of experience.

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which is of course directly what we're confronting in meditation, helping us to see through this and to experience things just as they are and find happiness inside ourselves so that when other people abuse us or scold us or insult us or manipulate us, we don't get upset as a result of the things they do and say.

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We're not worried about what other people think.

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This is another level.

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We realize that it really has... We realize generally that the most important thing is our happiness.

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And we get a clearer sense of this.

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And a sense of what it is that's causing us suffering.

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It's our need to...

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well, our need to experience certain states and not experience certain other states.

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For example, our need to receive praise.

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So we try to live up to other people's expectations.

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This woman felt like she had not lived up to her teacher's expectations.

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And as a result, that was kind of a feeling of suffering for her.

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Because we get such pleasure when people praise us, when they say, oh, what a good person you are, what a smart and kind and what a funny, witty, intelligent person you are, what a beautiful person you are, and so on.

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So we expect all of these things.

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Or we expect this kind of praise.

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And so we work hard for it.

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We think that that's satisfying.

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And as a result of misunderstanding

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misunderstanding the experience and thinking that happiness can be found in external things in these things and thinking that there's somehow some sort of accumulative satisfaction that can be gained from this we chase after it and as a result are upset when we don't get it and and moreover it helps us to let go of the

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the problems of other people, not worrying so much about their well-being or their progress or their problems.

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Meditation helps us to see things from our own perspective and to realize that everyone has to watch their own feet.

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Everyone has to concern themselves with their own well-being and their own good deeds and not worrying so much about how others behave.

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So this is kind of what you see through the meditation practice.

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The more you meditate, the more you realize, the more you focus on ultimate reality, the more you realize that there's no benefit that comes from stress, from worrying, from concern about other people and their deeds.

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It only puts you in dependency.

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And this is kind of the wonderful thing you realize in meditation, that you find a...

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means of becoming invincible.

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You find a means of not being vulnerable to the

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abuse of other people to the whims of others which is a very difficult it's something that we would never even think possible if we had not practiced meditation because we live on this conventional level we think it's impossible to avoid other people saying bad things to you therefore it's impossible to not be affected by them because we think there's something intrinsically bad about bad speech and bad deeds and about dissonance and so on

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Through the meditation we realize this isn't so, that it's only our reactions to things that are the problem and that in fact no one can ever hurt us or cause us suffering unless we are vulnerable, unless we make ourselves vulnerable.

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And so through the meditation, through seeing the difference between reality and concepts and experience and mental formations,

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We live on a level of experience.

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When someone says something to us, we know that someone's saying something to us.

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When we think something, we know we're thinking something.

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So we never fall prey to any of these concepts that, oh, this person did that to me, this person did this to me, and so on.

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we're not subject to it because we're living it's quite a simple concept we just live in reality when you hear something it's just hearing when you dislike something it's just disliking when you like something it's liking so you slowly work yourself out of this and in the end you stop liking things you stop disliking things you find happiness inside you find peace inside and you experience things as they are not how you would like them to be or how you

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how you believe them to be, you really understand them as they are.

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There's no projection, there's no extrapolation.

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There's nothing superfluous or add no chemical additives.

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It's all natural.

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You only experience reality as it is.

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And so nothing can harm you.

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It's like my teacher once said, if someone calls you a buffalo, just look, turn around and see if you have a tail.

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If you don't have a tail, you're not a buffalo.

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Because in Thailand it's a real insult to be called a buffalo.

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It's not really something you should be upset about or concerned about.

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And this epitomizes sort of the concept here that if something's true, you accept it as true.

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If something's false, you accept it as false.

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If something's right, you accept it as right.

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If something's wrong, you accept it as right.

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But there's no reason to get upset about it.

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If someone calls you a buffalo, well, you just know that it's false.

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I mean, why would you get upset?

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What reason do you have?

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What benefit comes from getting upset?

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And this is really the point, is without meditation practice, we do think that there's some benefit to clinging.

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We think there's some benefit to getting upset.

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We think there's some satisfaction that comes from all of this, from comparing ourselves to others, from trying to live up to other people's expectations, from worrying about other people's deeds and misdeeds.

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All of which is false.

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Through the meditation practice we come to see that this is not the truth of reality.

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That none of this is real, none of this is true.

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And there's no satisfaction, no happiness that comes from that.

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so that's the verse for today and that's the story that goes behind it thank you all for tuning in and watching this and continuing to keep up with our slow progress through the Dhammapada please tune in next time I hope that this has been beneficial, useful and helps all of you to progress on the path and find peace, happiness and freedom from suffering thank you for tuning in, have a good day