Good evening and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.
Tonight we continue on with verse number 82, which reads as follows.
yatapi rahado gambhiru vipasanno anavilo evangdhammanisutvana vipasidanti pandita Which means,
Yathapi wa rahado, just as a lake.
Gambiro, that is deep.
Vipassano, that is clear.
Anawilo, that is undisturbed.
Just as a calm, clear, deep lake.
Just like a calm, clear, deep lake.
evam dhammani suttvana, so are those who have having listened to the Dhamma, or so are the wise having listened to the Dhamma, so too the wise having listened to the Dhamma, vipasi danti, become tranquil, become calm.
So the idea here is of a lake that becomes calm.
A person who listens to the Dhamma becomes calm just like a calm, deep lake.
Gambiro, depth, is used the same way it is in English to talk about a person's depth, their wisdom.
So a wise person will be deep, profound,
This story was, this verse was told in regards to a story about a woman named Karna and her mother.
Now Karna was married to a man and of course she would have gone to live in her husband's house and one time she went back to visit her parents
and stayed there for quite some time.
Eventually her husband called for her and said he was missing her and asked her to return.
So Khana was preparing to return, but her mother said, oh no, you can't go back empty-handed after all this time.
You should bring something back to give to your husband as a gift.
So the mother was kind-thinking, had good intentions, and Khana herself was a kind person.
She had good intentions, so she was happy to do this.
But Khanna was also, beyond that, she was a generous and compassionate person.
And so she waited.
And when the cake was ready, sorry, it was a cake.
So the mother said, wait, I'll bake you a cake and you can bring the cake back to your husband.
So Khanna waited.
And when the cake was ready,
She was preparing to leave, and then all of a sudden a monk showed up, a Buddhist monk showed up at her door.
And so she had nothing else.
She thought, yeah, I'll give this cake to the monk.
What a good opportunity to give alms.
And so she gave him the cake.
which would have been a real find for him because cake wouldn't be something that you would get, especially a fine cake here that this woman was ready to give to her husband.
So she gave him the cake and went back to her mother and said, Look, I gave the cake to a monk.
Can you bake me another one?
And her mother was so fine with that.
Oh, that's great.
Good for you.
Meanwhile, this monk did something that he probably shouldn't have done.
He was an older fellow and a little bit excited about the cake.
And so he went back to the monastery and told the other old monks about it.
They sit around, a bunch of old guys.
Oh yeah, I got a cake from this house.
You got a cake?
So a second monk heard this and
He went to the house.
And he got there just as the cake was baked.
And the woman, Khanna, was getting ready to return to her husband.
She saw him coming and again felt obligated to give another cake.
So she gave the new cake to the second monk.
And she was still happy, but she was like, okay, well, it's good that we're giving to monks.
Really better get going.
So she asked her mother, please, mother, one more time.
That's all.
Just last time.
One more cake.
And the mother was like, oh, well, okay, very well.
Baked her a third cake.
Of course, the second monk went back to the monastery and told his friends.
and a third monk came.
Getting a little bit frustrated at this point, but still not wanting to turn anyone away empty-handed, she gave a third cake to the third monk.
Meanwhile, her husband was kind of
kind of frustrated at this point.
I think this all happened on one day.
It would sort of make more sense if it happened one per day, but I think it was the same day.
And so her husband sent a messenger and said, okay, wait, wait, she's coming, but we just have to wait a little bit longer because we're baking the second cake and then baking the third cake.
And they baked the third cake and a fourth monk, a third monk came, right?
And we said that third monk came, baked the fourth cake, gave the third cake away, baked the fourth cake, a fourth monk came.
And at this point the husband got fed up and was told that he should just find another wife.
And indeed that's what he did.
He figured that his wife was never coming home.
And so he went and found a new wife.
Anyway, just a story of one of those things that happens.
But the upshot of it was that Kannan was not happy.
And she blamed the monks.
She felt sort of obligated to give food to these monks.
And you could say the monks were to blame.
The Buddha in fact used this situation to create a rule.
We have one of our rules in regards to this story.
And the rule is that you have to take a limited number of cakes.
If people are offering cake, and I guess by extension anything that's sort of a fine food, there's a limit on what you can take.
And when you get something like that, you have to share it, whatever you get, with the other monks.
It's not like, I got some, so you go and get your own cake, and everyone gets an entire cake for themselves.
But anyway, Khanna, prior to this being a gentle and kind person, became a mean and vicious person.
Towards the monks, anyway.
And whenever she saw a monk, she would revile them.
Call them beggars and greedy and mean and nasty.
So she would say mean things to them.
Doesn't say what she actually said.
But she said, they have ruined, these monks have ruined my married life because her husband went and got another wife.
Husbands could sort of do what they wanted in India.
Indeed, that's what he did.
Fickle sort of fellow.
The Buddha found out about this and he went to see Khanna and he asked her, is it true that this is happening?
And
She said, yes, they destroyed my marriage.
And he said, well, did they steal the cakes from you or did you give them willingly?
I gave them to them.
Did they even ask you for cake?
No, they didn't ask me for cake.
And so the Buddha just pointed out how silly she was being.
And he said, in that case, who is to blame here?
Who is the one who is to blame?
Okay, well, it's true.
I guess I am to blame.
And because of that, once she accepted that, the Buddha taught her the Dhamma.
And she actually, sitting there, was able to put it into practice and become a Sotapanna.
And then she asked his forgiveness for being rude to the monks, even though you could argue that the monks weren't completely properly behaved.
It's true.
They didn't even beg for anything.
They just came to see whether they were giving.
And indeed, she kept giving.
It was up to her.
She could have stopped and said no.
But on the other hand, it was kind of a neat thing to do.
You could say, oh well.
Either way,
It wasn't a very neat thing for her to revile other people, right?
And so this is why the Buddha taught this verse.
The monks were talking about it.
The Buddha taught about how she had been a mouse in a past life, but I'm not going to get into the Jataka story.
She reviled a bunch of cats, and the cats ended up dying.
There's not much point to the Jataka story except she was reviling cats.
But then the Buddha taught the story, taught the verse.
He said, Our mind was turbid and became calm as a lake of still water.
And then he taught the verse, And so on.
Dhammani Sutwana is interesting.
Dhammani means the Dhammas.
It's plural.
And it's neuter plural, which probably doesn't mean much to most people, but it's an interesting use of the word Dhammani.
But it means the Dhammas, so truths, good teachings.
So how does this relate to our practice?
Well, what immediately comes to mind for me is the whole concept of meditation interviews that we've been conducting.
We have these weekly interviews, so people have been making appointments on our meditation page, and then we have a Google Hangout one-on-one and help people out, give them advice.
So I've been doing this for a few weeks now, and it's worked really great.
But before that, I've done this in person.
And just having someone there to remind you and to clarify your doubts is quite a stabilizer for your practice.
It's easy to get caught up.
We get all worked up about turning mountains into mole, making mountains out of molehills, turning something very small into something very big.
because it's very hard for us to see our faults.
It's very hard for us to guide ourselves, especially on something that is new to us, something unfamiliar.
But hearing the Dhamma is a great thing.
It's amazing how in the Buddha's time, just hearing the Dhamma was often enough to enlighten someone.
And people often question how this could be possible.
But this is a part of it, really, that the Dhamma is something that quiets your mind and focuses your mind.
Hearing it is keeping it fresh.
It's bringing your attention back again and again to the truth, to good things.
So if someone teaches about the four satipatthana, or someone teaches about insight, someone teaches about the five aggregates, the nature of reality,
At the same time, the mind of the listener becomes not only calm, but becomes clear.
So he's able to see things clearly.
We talk about how a meditator knows when they're sitting that they're sitting.
Then everyone listening suddenly becomes aware of the fact that they're sitting and becomes aware of the present moment.
So the mind of the listener is brought back again and again to these and other good things.
On top of that, listening is kind of a special interaction.
Listening live, anyway, because you're forced to stay still.
Those of you listening at home, there's something lacking here.
You're still listening to the Dhamma, potentially, but you have the ability to get up.
talk to other people in the room, make fun of me, check Facebook, make comments and so on, because we can't see or hear you.
But when you're sitting in a... There's something about sitting in front of a teacher, listening to them teach, that makes it a meditation in itself.
You can't move, you can't even respond.
You just have to receive, receive, receive.
As a result, becoming enlightened when listening to the Dhamma talk is a very viable thing.
Becoming a Sotapanna, there's no reason to doubt that this was possible, that the Buddha could teach and people would become enlightened while they were sitting there.
Sometimes all they needed was a little nudge and the Buddha was very good at nudging people in the right direction.
So this is why we encourage listening to talks.
It's why we encourage going to see people who can teach you the Dhamma.
It's why we encourage undertaking courses under a teacher as opposed to just reading about them.
But even reading, you know, there's something just about hearing the truth, having someone teach you good things, or reading or learning about good things.
That's what the Buddha said, better than a thousand words that are meaningless is one word, when you hear it, that brings you peace.
So, quite a simple verse, simple little story.
One other thing you could say about this in regards to the idea of how it can help an angry person is often we wonder how to deal with conflict.
When someone's accusing me of things, shouldn't I fight back?
When someone's attacking me, shouldn't I defend myself?
How do I convince someone of my position and so on?
I think the key is in this verse.
This is a good point as well that
You say the truth.
When people hear the truth, they become calm.
You don't have to argue, you don't have to persuade.
You listen, and if you're mindful and your heart is pure and clear, when you speak, it's the truth.
And just hearing the truth calms people.
Arguing doesn't solve things.
Defeating the other person doesn't create peace, you know.
But hearing the truth creates peace.
When you give people the truth that they need to hear, the Dhamma, the good teachings, it brings peace
That's why mindfulness is so important in a conversation.
Mindfulness is so important in our dealings with other people.
It's difficult, but it is something that we should always think about when we're approaching a conversation, especially one that we know is going to be hostile or fraught with emotion.
We should bring mindfulness to the fore.
parimukhaṁ sat-tingu pāda-pitvāḥ
bring mindfulness to the fore first off, and then engage in our activities.
So, anyway, that's Dhammapada, verse 82.
Thank you all for tuning in.