Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.
Today we begin the Balavagga, the chapter on fools.
So all the verses in here, in this chapter will be, have something to do with fools or foolishness.
Verse 61, today which reads as follows,
Which means,
If one doesn't find, if when wandering or faring through samsara one doesn't find someone who is one's equal or better, better or at least equal to oneself.
One should then fare on alone with steadfast resolution for there is no association with fools.
So the story behind this verse goes that when the Buddha was dwelling in Savatthi, Maha Kasapa was staying in his cave above Rajgaha, which you can still see today if you go there.
Apparently they have a place that they pinpointed as his cave.
Anyway, you can still go into Rajgaha.
up on the mountain above Rajgaha and he would go every day down the mountain into the city for alms and at the time he had two students, two novices staying with him and they would attend upon him and one of them was a good student and one of them was a rather recalcitrant student
lazy in performing his duties and in practicing the Dhamma.
And so how it would go is the one student who was quite diligent and faithful and obedient and so on,
He would prepare the elder's water in the morning and his tooth brushing sticks and he would wait upon his elder and perform all these duties and he would heat up water for the elder's bath and leave the water out in the morning.
And the other disciple would watch or would sleep in and then would come out when everything was done and look and see that everything was done and go to tell the elder, Venerable Sir, the toothpicks have been put out and water has been put out for washing and for bathing.
Please come and it's time to do your morning routine.
And so the elder, as a result, got to thinking that this student who kept coming to tell him and to invite him to use the things that had been set out for him, had performed duties himself.
And the other student, who had actually done all the work, sat back and watched, and after some time realized what this other student was doing, that he was taking credit for the work that he hadn't done, he said, well, I know what to do then.
And so he, in the morning, when it was time for the elder's bath, he went to the room where they boil the water,
And he put just a little bit of water in the bottom of the big pot, the big cauldron for boiling bath water.
And he did that.
And so just you could see the steam coming up, but there was very little water in it.
And then the other novice, when he came over and saw the steam coming out, he said, Oh, I must have put out the water.
And he went to the elder, Venerable sir, your bath water is ready.
Come and take your bath.
And the elder went into the bathroom and said, OK, bring out the water.
And the novice went into the boiling room and looked in the cauldron and realized that there was just a very little bit of water and got very angry and shouted and he said, that scoundrel, he only put a very little bit of water in and then so he rushed off to the river to get more water.
Wherever the river was, rushed off to get water from wherever they kept the water.
Maybe he must have had to gone down into Rajgah to get the water.
And the elder watched him go and when he came back, the elder said, what did you mean by that?
Are you saying that you didn't do any of this and you've been taking credit for this all the time?
And the elder scolded him and said, that's not how a monk should behave.
One should not take credit for something that one hasn't done.
And the novice got very angry and went off in a huff.
and began to develop a grudge against the elder.
The next day or on subsequent days, when they went off for alms, I guess the next day when they went for alms, as a result he decided not to go on alms with the elder.
And so when the elder and the other novice went off for alms, they went alone and the disobedient novice, he stayed back and was just sulked at the kuti, at the cave.
And the elder went with his other novice.
And then when they were gone, he went off to one of the elder's supporters' houses, went down into Raja Gahan on his own and went to one of the elder's supporters and said to them that the elder was sick.
They said, oh, where's the elder?
Why are you coming alone?
He said, oh, he's sick, but he needs some special food.
Please give him very delicate and...
good tasting food and so on so he can he can recover from his sickness and so they gave him all this special food prepared all this special food for him and he took it back and ate it himself and
the elder went on alms round with the other novice and happened to get a full set of robes, new nice robes from one family, and so he gave them to the novice that went with him, and the novice changed out of his old set and put on this new set of robes, and they went back to the monastery.
On yet another day,
the elder went to see, happened to go to see this supporter who had been tricked, and they said to the elder, oh, venerable sir, how are you doing?
We heard that you were sick, but we gave food to the novice when he came, hope the food helped you to get better.
And the elder just stood there, didn't say anything, and received food from him and went off.
And he went back to the monastery and he confronted this novice.
And he said to him, is it true that you've been going around?
Is it true that you went to these people and told them that I was sick and convinced them to give you all this special food?
And he said, what do you mean?
He scolded him, Maha Kasaba scolded him and said, that's not something that a monk should do.
And the novice was totally fed up at this point.
He said, over a little bit of water the elder gets upset and then he gets upset about a little bit of food.
And on top of that, he gives a full set of robes to the other novice.
So this novice got very, very angry.
And then he said, I know what I'm going to do.
And the next morning when the elder went off on alms round, he went around the cave and broke up all the pots and everything, just tore up everything and ripped up everything, all the bedding and everything, and then set the whole place on fire.
And then he ran off.
And I think ended up in hell as a result.
The elder came back and saw all this and fixed it all up as best he could and of course went on with his life.
So this is a story of these two novices, one who was a good companion and the other was a bad companion.
And eventually the story got back to the Buddha.
One of the monks from Rajagaha wandered all the way to Savatthi and Buddha asked him, how is Maha Kasaba doing?
And he said, oh, he's doing fine, but he happened to have these two students.
And one of them was very, very good and followed the elder's instruction and advice and practiced the elder's teachings.
But the other one was an evil scoundrel.
And not only did he not practice, but he also ended up destroying the elder's residence.
And the Buddha said, oh, yes, yes, the elder is better off without this novice.
And he told a story of the past.
This is the introduction to one of the Jataka stories where he was a monkey and he tore up this bird's nest.
I'm not going to tell the story.
It's not much to it.
But he said, basically, this novice, this is the way he was.
And he said, better off without him.
He said, there's no association with fools.
If the only people you can hang out with and rely upon are fools, well, you're better off without them.
And then he told this verse.
So a simple story, a story that I'm sure we can all relate to, us all living in caves, having novices attend upon us.
No, all of us having good friends and bad friends, people who we can rely upon and people who we shouldn't rely upon.
people who help us up and people who drag us down.
And so as meditators, one of the most important aspects of our practice is the association with good people.
The Buddha said it's all of the holy life, all of the spiritual life.
The spiritual life is all about associating with the right people, having a good friend, having someone to guide you and teach you and raise you up.
In many places he said that friends are, good friends are most valuable and to not associate with fools.
Of course, there's the famous, the Mangala Sutta, the first thing that the Buddha says is, not associating with fools, this is the greatest blessing.
So how does this go?
The verse is broken down quite well by the commentary, so I'll go through that first and then talk a little bit about how it relates to meditation particularly.
First of all, the word charang, which means to fare or to wander or to travel, to move about, to live your life basically.
The commentary says it doesn't refer to moving about with your body.
It refers to the movements of the mind or the way of the mind.
So it has nothing to do with being close to someone.
It's not like you shouldn't sit on the subway next to someone unless you're sure they're a wise person.
It also doesn't necessarily mean that you can't work or live or cohabitate with such people.
So it says, which means the faring of the mind.
Don't let them into your heart, basically.
Don't take their counsel or take them up as your intimate associates.
and then what is meant by saiyam sadhisamatanos and what is meant by one who is greater than you or one who is equal to you the commentary says it's specifically in regards to sila samadhi panya morality, concentration and wisdom so if someone has greater morality than you if there's someone who is practicing higher morality for instance monks who are practicing celibacy and poverty and who are taking themselves um
taking themselves out of all of the distracting activities that lay people will engage in, then it's something that can help us to cultivate concentration ourselves if we associate with such people.
If we are around people who are equal to us, then
our morality will not fade away.
If we're around people with greater concentration, then their concentration will be a support for us.
It will be an example for us.
It will be something that we can rely upon or we can emulate to cultivate concentration ourselves.
If we hang around people who have wisdom, greater wisdom than us, then it will be something that inspires us and teaches us, of course.
So the best thing is to hang out with someone, to associate with people who are greater than you, because you will develop the good qualities of morality, concentration, wisdom, will increase if we're around people who are of greater morality, concentration and wisdom than us.
And if we are around people who are of equal
at an equal level to us, then we can be assured that we at least won't fall away from our morality, concentration, wisdom, and as a result through our own practice we'll be able to develop.
The point is that the people around us won't drag us down.
If you're around people who are inferior
to you and if you rely upon them and if you emulate them and cultivate their qualities then you will fall away from your own morality and concentration.
It comes under attack if you let them in too close.
Now if you can't find someone who is greater or someone who is equal to you, the Buddha said actually it's preferable to hang out on your own.
Now the
The key word here is dalhang because dalhang means steadfast or resolute and the point is that you actually need resolution if you're on your own.
Many people are contacting us constantly.
We get these emails from people saying that they're all alone and they need some guidance and bemoaning the fact that they're not able to find a Sangha community.
And the Buddhists give reassurance and we should reassure such people that you can practice on your own.
You don't really need
so much guidance, it just takes more resolution.
Because if you're not surrounded by examples or people who are reminding you of what you're doing, reminding you of the cultivation of greater morality, concentration of wisdom, it's easier for yourself to fall away.
a plant or a young tree that requires a cage or some kind of support to keep it from falling over, to keep it from breaking in the wind and so on, that support is helpful unless the tree itself is able to maintain its own strength and grow on its own.
So this, the
The benefit of having a good companion is that they support you through your growth.
Why is it that we should stay on our own if we can't find such a person?
Because there is no association with fools.
The meaning being that none of the good things that come from associating with good people, morality, concentration, wisdom, all of the good kathavatthu, the ten types of profitable speech, all of the dhutanga practices, all of the vipassana insight and even the attainment of nibbana is
difficult, becomes difficult and becomes threatened by fools.
If you're surrounded by people who are distracting you, who are talking about useless things and who are indulging in harmful pursuits, killing and stealing and lying and cheating and so on, all of these things will drag you down, will make it more difficult for you to practice and will even cause you to fall away from the practice.
So this is the, you know, it's quite a simple meaning, but specifically in regards to the meditation practice, it says, the point is that people will distract us and people will sully or will be a cause for us to sully our minds.
the the question that always comes up is whether or not whether or not this means that we should ignore people who are in trouble morally or have poor concentration people who are on the wrong path shouldn't we help such people and of course this is the exception the Buddha said anyatra anudaya anyatra anukampa which means and you shouldn't hang out
ētāṃ puriṣa nasevitabhaṃ Such a person should not be associated with, except in the case of pity or compassion.
So the commentary explains, which is exactly how it should be explained, that if out of compassion for someone,
it's possible or not even you know we should have the compassion so if you think that a person is capable and you think you're able to to help them then you should you should hang out with them and you should try to support their practice and you should help them to cultivate if you're not able to if it if you try and you fail and it seems like this person is not going to
not going to develop themselves, then, of course, then you should stay away from them actually, and you should go your own way, because they will drag you down.
So in meditation this is especially important, and this is why, because meditation is the direct cultivation of wholesome mental states.
So if you're constantly
If you're distracted or led astray by other people, then your mind, it becomes impossible to cultivate wholesome states of mind.
This is why the Buddha often talks about staying alone, even away from good friends, because even wholesome talk, if
if engaged in over much, can lead to distraction as well.
Because meditation is the cultivation of the mind, our environment and our engagement with the environment and with the world around us is a
is of utmost importance.
So we have to be careful how we engage with the world around us.
So for a meditator, even good people we should only engage in in moderation and much less, much more so.
We should be careful when we associate or
relate to or interact with foolish people.
They will distract us.
They take away our focus of mind.
They take away our clarity of mind.
They stop us from seeing things as they are.
We're not able to stay in the present because such people are constantly in the past or in the future.
We're not able to stay in reality because such people are always talking about concepts and
we're not able to stay with what is important because such people are always engaged and concerned with and intend upon what is unimportant, what is unessential.
So, unless we can help such people and unless we can help such people easily without interrupting our own practice, we should be very careful to stay on our own.
So for many people this is, I think, an important reminder
If you can't find someone who can lead you, who can help you, who can support your practice, stay on your own.
You're better off on your own because just having friends isn't, just the fact that you have friends alone isn't necessarily a useful or a good thing, something that leads to your happiness.
You need good friends.
You need friends who lead you to good things, friends who help you, who support you, who encourage you in your own spiritual development.
So simple teaching but one that we should all keep in mind and a very important aspect of our life is who we associate with.
So that's the teaching for tonight.
Thank you all for tuning in and wish you all peace, happiness and freedom from suffering.
Thank you.