Welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.
Today we continue on with verse 142, which reads as follows.
Alankato chepi samangchariya santo danto niyato brahmachari sabbe subhutesu nidhaya dandang so brahmano so samano sabhiku
Which means, alankato chepi means even if one is decorated or dressed up in finery, samang chariya, should one practice or fare peacefully.
Santo or samang means quietly or in a good way.
Santo, peaceful.
Danto, well-tamed.
Nyato, means certain.
Brahmachari, one who practices holiness.
Sabe subhutesu nidhaya dandang, having discarded violence towards all beings.
So brahmano, such a one is called a brahmin.
So samano, such a one is called a shaman or a recluse.
Sabikku, such a one is called bikku.
So this verse was taught in regards to the story of Santati.
Santati was a minister of King Pasenadi Kosala.
He was the king of the Kosala country in the time of the Buddha.
the story goes that Santati was instrumental in putting down a revolt maybe through violence or maybe just by hopefully by peaceful means but somehow there was a there was some problem in the frontier at the borderlands we're too far from the reach of the king so the king sent his minister maybe his general or something to
to see about it and he did such a good job at pacifying the situation that the king turned over his kingdom to Santati for seven days not to rule but to enjoy so he gave him the riches and luxury equal to a king for seven days and he gave him a woman
Or he hired a woman, probably wasn't, maybe it was a slave, but somehow he got him a woman who danced and sang.
And she entertained him for seven days.
And so for seven days he drank himself into a stupor, wearing all of his finery and riding on the back of the king's elephant.
And on the seventh day, he was riding to the bathing place.
He had to go to where he would bathe for the morning, all drunk and just enjoying incredible sensual pleasure.
And he saw the Buddha as he was leaving the gate of the city.
Buddha was coming in for alms.
And staying on his seat up on the elephant,
He nodded his head to the Buddha by way of respect and then passed on.
After he had passed, the Buddha smiled.
And a Buddha's smile is, of course, a rare and wonderful thing.
The Buddha doesn't just smile at anything.
It seems that these statues where they see the Buddha smiling, giving the implication that the Buddha is always smiling, are probably not correct.
It seems the Buddha's smile was a rare and wonderful thing.
And Ananda, who was of course always with the Buddha, noticed the smile and said to him, Venerable Sir, why do you smile?
And the Buddha said, Ananda, just look at that king's minister, Santati.
Here he is enjoying himself, totally steeped and intoxicated by sensual pleasure and by alcohol.
But this very day, this evening, he's going to come into my presence, decked in all of his finery, completely decked out and looking like a peacock.
And after listening to me teach him four verses
which is, of course, the verse of this Dhammapada.
He will attain Arahantship.
He will attain Arahantship, and not only will he attain Arahantship, but he will pass away into Parinibbana this very day.
Now it seems that wherever the Buddha goes, there are people listening.
So someone heard what he said, and the word spread quickly.
And the people were divided into two groups.
The people who were sort of against the Buddha said, look at this fool, Gautama, who just says whatever comes into his head.
Of course, this is something that is never going to happen.
And he just says whatever he wants, and now we've got him.
Now everyone knows that he actually made this ridiculous claim, and tonight we'll see.
Tonight we'll show what a fool he is.
And the other half of the people thought to themselves, wow, how wonderful is the Buddha?
I can't believe this is actually going to happen.
It's amazing that he's not doubting him for a moment.
And kind of waited around in the monastery just to watch this wonderful miracle, this thing that the Buddha could predict was going to come to be.
So what happened?
Well, it turns out that this woman who had been dancing and singing for Santati for seven days, she had been fasting to make herself thin or to improve her grace.
I guess that's a thing with dance, right?
Ballet artists are always starving themselves.
Anybody who becomes passionate about anything tends to have to suffer.
whether it be spiritual or whether it be worldly.
But she had overdone it, and so for seven days she hadn't really eaten much at all, and she had been dancing, and well, who knows what else.
It says she was dancing and singing, so maybe that's all she was doing.
But as a result of this, on that particular day, when after he had gone to the bathing place and was sitting there watching this woman dance, suddenly she dropped dead.
She felt this pain in her stomach shooting up her spine, shooting up to her heart.
I don't know what medical condition that is, but as it were, cut the flesh of her heart asunder.
And then and there, with open mouth and open eyes, she died.
This entity was, of course, shocked.
And he said to them, go take care of her.
Is she OK?
They said, she's dead.
And as soon as he heard those words, he sobered up.
He immediately became sober.
Maybe not immediately, that's what the text says, but it's perhaps more likely that he sobered up as far as any of us would, but, you know, it still had the effects of the alcohol.
And this is something that we've, this story is, of course, well known in Buddhist circles, and a lot of people say, use this as an example to say, well, someone who is drunk can sober up and learn the truth, because next thing he's going to do, of course, is come to realize the truth and become an Arahant, according to the prediction.
but it's not actually what happened you have to read carefully and it says that so he sobered up and he lost all interest in sensual pleasures which of course can happen but he waited until the evening so he went home
And he spent all day recovering and just reeling in the shock of it.
And by that time, of course, the alcohol would have naturally left his system to a great extent.
And then he went to see the Buddha, because he thought this morning he had seen the Buddha come through the gate.
And he had, of course, thought to himself, wow, what a magnificent person.
And he was so respectful that he actually
not very respectful at all, but was somewhat respectful.
And just that brief encounter made him think of doing something spiritual.
So he thought, this guy, I bet he knows.
I bet he can help me.
And he came and he bowed down to the Buddha and he said, Reverend Sir, I have this great sorrow.
I've come to you because I know you will be able to extinguish the fire that is in my heart.
be my refuge.
And the Buddha said, indeed, indeed you have come to find someone who can put out the fire in your heart, who can assuage this mighty sorrow.
And he said, Santati, on countless occasions, this woman in past lives of yours, innumerable, she has died and you have wept over her.
And the tears that you have shed are greater than the waters in the four great oceans.
This is the way with all of us.
This is something to remind us of the infinity of samsara.
All this is just a play that we go through again and again.
and again and again.
All the suffering that we have, we think, oh, wow, I've survived that.
But the thing is, you've survived it countless times.
And you don't really survive it.
You fall right back into it again and again and again.
And we never really learn our lesson, not in any lasting way.
And then he taught the four verses.
The verses actually that enlightened him are not the Dhammapada verses.
I confused them.
The verses that the story says brought him to enlightenment, let's chant those, let's repeat those in Pali, because they're actually quite useful meditative verses.
What is in the past, or what is previous, meaning what is in the past, that let one destroy.
That should be destroyed.
Let one destroy what is in the past.
Don't speak or think about the future.
Don't say anything about the future, about what comes after.
means before.
means after.
If you don't grasp what's in the middle, which means what's now.
upasanto charisasi you will dwell in peace I think the chai should go with it also if what is in the past you don't if you destroy what is in the past if you destroy what is what came before and say nothing of what comes after nor grasp
nor grasp what is in the middle, you will dwell in peace.
It's a very common teaching of the Buddha.
We hear this elsewhere.
It's a very famous verse.
Don't go back to the past.
Don't worry about the future.
What's in the present, see it clearly.
So if there's ever any doubt of where our mind should be, where the Buddha wished for our mind to be, this is actually a quote from the Sutta Nipata, this one.
It's not just in the Dhammapada verse.
It's in the Dhammapada story.
And so with that he became an arahant.
Hearing that, which of course brought his mind to the present moment and helped him to focus and meditate on the actual experience and see what was going on.
And it was really just a spark to light the incredible fire that was already inside of him.
Not the fire of sorrow, but something else entirely.
And he realized that he was about to pass away in the Parinibbana.
And so he asked the Buddha's permission.
The Buddha thought to himself,
If I let him go into Parinibbana now, people are going to doubt.
They're going to doubt as to whether he was enlightened or whether he just died.
So he said, well, before you go, you tell us what great merit you did to become enlightened.
What is this great thing in your heart that caused you to immediately on hearing this verse and realigning your mind to become enlightened?
And then you may go.
And so Santati sat down in meditation and floated up into the air, they say, the height of seven palm trees.
And then he retold this story.
The story is a simple story.
We won't go into too much detail.
But it goes that he was dwelling in a kingdom, in a past time, some other universe or other world cycle.
in a town that has the name of Bandhu something.
Bandhumatti?
Bandhumatti, yes.
In the time of the Buddha Vipassi.
And he was reborn in a household and he thought to himself, everybody listen up, it was a very good thought, he thought to himself, what can I do
What labor can I do that will do away with the want and suffering of others?
I thought, what can I do that is great?
What great thing can I do for the world?
People nowadays, there are people who think like that.
But what did he come up with?
He thought, I will go and proclaim the truth, the teaching, the teaching of the Buddha.
He had heard the teaching of Vipassi and he thought, this is what I will do.
I will go around telling people about this.
It's funny, he never became enlightened himself, but he went around telling people about it.
It's a great thing to do.
You're doing a great service for others, telling them about the Buddha.
The Buddha has come, kind of like an advertising service for the Buddha.
And then he would relate the teachings that he had heard.
So he would walk around through the streets.
And the king heard about this and called him to him and said,
What is it?
What are you doing?
And he said, Oh, I'm proclaiming the truth.
And he said, Well, what do you ride in when you do that?
And he said, Oh, I just walk around.
And the king said, Oh, you can't do that.
He said, If you're going to proclaim the Dhamma, you have to ride.
And he gave him a horse.
And so he went around in a horse and put on some nice clothes and went around riding on this horse, preaching the Dhamma throughout the countryside.
And the king remembered about him later on and talked to him later and said, Are you still doing that?
He said, Yeah, yeah.
Are you still riding that horse?
He said, You shouldn't ride on that horse.
You should ride something better than that.
So he gave him a chariot.
And the chariot eventually, he did that for a while and the king was so impressed by him that he gave him eventually a royal, not only that, he presented him with great wealth and a splendid set of jewels and gave him an elephant.
And he had him ride on the back of an elephant with probably one of those, how do you call them, palanque, whatever they're called, those things that you sit in on top of elephants.
You know, but royal people do.
And so he was completely decked out.
And so this is somehow, I think there's something there about the idea that maybe this last life was a sort of an echo of that, where in his last life he had still some of the goodness, the result of that goodness, allowing him to be decked out in finery one more time and riding on an elephant.
And he says that was the meritorious deed in a previous state of existence.
So that's the story of Santati.
The Buddha then collected his, they collected his, the relics, the bones from his funeral and they erected a chaitiya, a stupa somewhere in India, I guess.
And
He proclaimed the greatness of Santati.
Now the monks were talking about this later on, and this is where our verse comes from.
They were talking about it, and they said, it's amazing, Santati, he became an arahant, all decked out in his finery.
He had been drinking alcohol that morning.
And even though, and you have to remember, so when he sat cross-legged and rose up into the air, he was still decked out in all his finery, fine clothes, jewels, perfumes, you know, the whole nine yards.
And so the Buddha came in and asked them what they were talking about, and he said, well, and they told him what they were talking about, and the Buddha said, you see, this is the thing.
You want to call someone a Brahmin, you want to call someone a shaman, shaman, shramana, or shamana, samana in Pali, means like a recluse or an ascetic or a hermit, or a shaman, it's where the word shaman probably came from.
I said, you don't need to be wearing rags.
There's something else.
There's another reason for calling someone a Brahmin or a Shaman.
And then he taught this verse.
Even though he may be richly adorned if he walks in peace, if he be quiet, subdued, restrained, and chaste.
Yeah, I like my version better.
Let's go to the Pali and let's translate it.
Even decked out, even decked out if one fares in peace, peaceful, tame, stable, or constantly holy, practicing holiness.
having put aside violence towards all being, such a one is a Brahmin, such a one is a Shaman, such a one is a Bhikkhu.
Which is interesting.
Bhikkhu is the word we use for monks and this is a good example
of how the Buddha used the word primarily in a different sense.
He used the word Bhikkhu to talk about the monks and the monks became known as Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis for the female.
But it looks like the word to the Buddha actually meant something quite different.
And the commentary gives an interesting, explains it as it's explained elsewhere.
Bahita papata brahmano.
So one is a brahmana because of bahita, outside.
Bahita means out, as expelled.
So one who has expelled evil.
Papata.
Papa is evil.
That's why you call someone a Brahmin, because they've expelled evil.
Samita paapata samarno, one who has quieted or extinguished evil.
One is a samana, one is a shaman because one has samita, extinguished, appeased.
Bina kilesata biku.
One is a biku because one has bina, destroyed, or destroyed the defilements.
Kilesa.
So that's the real lesson in this.
This is one of those verses that you always recall to mind when you think of what's really important.
It has nothing to do with the clothes that you wear or the possessions that you own.
It has completely to do with the mind.
goes without saying that it's much easier to calm your mind when you don't have lots of possessions and finery and dancing women or men surrounding you.
So there's no question that there is a benefit to leaving all that behind and leaving the distraction of it all behind.
But it's important to note, and there are a lot of people who therefore criticize the monastic life and say, oh, it's not necessary.
It's not necessary.
Of course, yes, this is a great evidence or authority to attest to that, that it's not really necessary.
But it's one thing to say it's not necessary.
It's another thing to say that it's not useful.
It certainly is useful to give all that up.
It's also quite common for people who have given these things up to then become conceited or complacent and think that having given up external luxury that they've given up internal defilements which is certainly not the case because if you're not surrounded with finery or appealing things it's very easy to become
negligent and deluded into thinking that you're free because there's no problem.
It's like if you never get sick or if you never get hurt, you might think, well, life is great.
There's no potential for suffering.
My life is good.
Because we're always seeking for that, right?
The good life, which is ridiculous.
Life is very dangerous and it's very precarious.
And if you get intoxicated by the good, when the bad comes, you'll be devastated.
That's the first lesson of this.
The big lesson is
Learning how to see what's really important.
Because no matter what you experience, it's all just experience.
If you're wearing finery, it's still just seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking.
The food you eat is still just tasting.
The music and the sounds you hear, it's all just hearing.
The sights you see, they're all just seeing.
And the clinging to them, when you cling to beautiful sights or sounds, it will always be a cause for stress and suffering because none of it is stable.
The more you get, the more you want.
And you can't always get what you want.
That's the big lesson.
I mean the other lesson, which is interesting, is the one that the Buddha actually taught to Santati.
It's actually a little deeper.
It's to stay in the present moment.
Because Santati, of course, was dwelling in the past, the recent past, the morning.
In the evening he dwelt on the morning.
That's a good example for those of us who are in mourning.
Mourning.
When we mourn someone who has died.
When someone dies, you're dwelling in the past.
We're taught often that it's good to mourn and that if you don't cry, it shows you don't care and you should feel sad.
And if you don't feel sad, there's something wrong with you, which is quite bizarre because sadness is unpleasant.
Of course, crying is actually quite pleasant and it becomes addictive, but sadness is unpleasant.
Grief is unpleasant.
It becomes kind of a vicious cycle because the crying is such a relief and the sadness is such a pain that you keep crying to relieve the pain.
And you might even drink alcohol or do other crazy things.
But no, if you dwell in the present, if you're aware of the pleasure and the pain and the sadness and the happiness, as it happens, there's nothing to be sad about.
There's nothing to mourn.
The past is gone.
The future hasn't come yet.
YANG PU BE TANG WI SO ZE, destroy the past.
PAT CHA DE MA HU KIN CHA NANG, don't speak of the future.
If you will not grasp in the middle, because the middle is where it really is happening.
The middle is what is real.
You can't actually grasp the past.
What you're grasping is the present.
And when you realize that, when you say, oh, I'm holding on, that's the problem.
It creates the past.
It creates the future.
Holding on to the present creates the past and future.
When you stop doing that, upasanto charisasi,
You dwell peaceful.
That's our practice.
That's what we're striving for.
When we remind ourselves it is what it is, seeing, seeing, hearing, hearing, thinking, thinking, sad, sad, then we don't cling.
We just experience.
It comes and it goes, and we dwell in peace.
So that's the Dhammapada for today.
Thank you all for tuning in.
Wishing you all the best.