Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.
Today we continue on with verse number 117 which reads as follows Which means
If one should do an evil deed, one should not do such a deed again and again.
One should not become content or pleased by such evil deeds.
Because suffering comes from the accumulation of evil.
So this is actually quite an important verse.
The story is quite simple.
Although to get the full story, we have to go back to the Vinaya.
This is in relation to a monk called Seyasakka.
Sayasaka was a roommate or a fellow resident of the monk Udaya or maybe Laludaya
or Laludai, who was not a very good friend.
He didn't have the best of habits himself.
And Sayasaka was a monk who was discontent with the homeless life, discontent with the monk monastic life.
he had been practicing but was very much attached to sensuality and the home life, the worldly life and all the things, all the wonderful bubbles and attractions that exist in the world that entice the senses and so
He became rather sick, sickly.
He wasn't able to eat the food because he would miss more luxurious food.
He wasn't comfortable with his bedding.
He wasn't comfortable with his lodging.
He just wasn't happy.
And not being happy
his body shriveled up and his demeanor became unpleasant or he became less radiant.
He lost the radiance and the sort of the glow about him.
So he became rather pale when they said the veins were sticking out of his skin and so on.
He looked really, really bad.
And so Lalu Dayi, concerned, asked him, you know, what's wrong?
He said, you look like you're having some trouble.
He said, yeah, I am.
I'm really not happy.
And he said, well, here's what you should do.
Eat whenever you want.
Sleep whenever you want.
Bathe whenever you want.
And when you get this desire, this sexual desire come up, it just...
Well, he basically tells him to just masturbate.
Go ahead.
And I mean, the story, this is a story in relation to the Vinaya, so it does get into some fairly intimate details in that regard.
And the Buddha eventually catches wind of it.
Well, so what happens is Sayasaka becomes quite radiant again.
He regains his color and suddenly he looks normal again.
And the other monks look at him and say, wow, hey, you look good.
You were looking really kind of sickly and pale there for a while.
What happened?
And he said, oh, and he told them what the advice he'd been given and how he had changed his behavior.
And the monk said, so do you use that same hand to eat the food that people give you?
Is that the same hand that you used to, I mean, not that it mattered which hand, but basically making a point.
So, and then you go ahead and eat food that's been given as a gift with the same hand?
He said, yeah.
And everyone got very kind of ashamed and upset.
And the thing is, this was back in the beginning of the Sangha, and there was no rule against masturbation.
And so it wasn't actually against any rule that had been set down, but it clearly was
unacceptable for many of the monks and so the word got around to the Buddha and the Buddha called him up and admonished him and said you worthless you worthless man worthless monk I mean it's it's just not something that I mean the whole idea of being a monk is to be celibate and so masturbation just doesn't fit into the equation and
So the Buddha then laid down the rule that this was against the rule.
So that's the back story.
But in this story, in the Dhammapada, which led the Buddha to tell this verse, was apparently Sayasaka, either during this time or after, he was just having
he was unable to give up this habit and so the Buddha then taught this verse to try and help him give up the habit whether he did or not it's not clear probably he didn't but other people gained from the verse it was beneficial as a teaching because other people were able to see what comes of bad deeds now the interesting thing here with this verse and with the story is that it appears to be the opposite right
Here was someone who was doing his best to refrain from unwholesomeness and suffering from it.
And when he began to engage in unwholesome activity again, he got better, he got healthier, he got happier.
So this is an argument that people give in favor of sexuality, in favor of all kinds of sensual indulgence.
They say, well, it leads to both happiness and even, you could say, physical health, to have good food and so on.
And there's arguments to be made in that regard both ways, because of course eating good food eventually leads to an obsession with good food and can lead to an obsession with taste.
And as we know, our obsession with food and tastes often does lead to great physical suffering.
As for things like sexuality, well, it can lead to great obsession and it does lead to irritation.
and can lead to other complications, sexually transmitted diseases.
But the point being with this kind of argument is that that's not really the important point here.
We're not really talking about
the Buddha's talking about something quite a bit deeper that's hard to really understand and it's a reason that white people are understandably turned away from turned off by religious teachings or are uninterested in things like self-control or celibacy or giving up just in general giving up desires even if it were possible they said why would you want to give up desires why would you want to give up the things
that bring you happiness.
And so the Buddha cuts deeper than that, and agree with him or not, he's making a bold claim that that actually, that the true result of unwholesomeness is not happiness but suffering, which appears to fly in the face of the evidence.
And as a result, many people are not interested in spirituality, in things like Buddhism, for example.
It's quite a turn-off of a thing.
Maybe that's the wrong word in this context, but it's quite unpleasant for when people hear about it.
I mean, even just the idea of celibacy for many people evokes repression and a lot of suffering.
We have to deal with this in this verse in the three parts.
So he talks about not doing, if one should do deeds, do things that are unwholesome.
First of all, the real problem here is not actually the performance of the deed.
The real problem that the Buddha is talking about is becoming pleased by them or becoming attached to them so that they become a habit.
Because, of course, the underlying problem is not the deed itself, but it's the unwholesomeness.
It's the, not even say unwholesomeness, but it's the desire attached to them.
Now, why do we call things like desire unwholesome?
Because they become an obsession.
And while they do have, and the Buddha was quick to acknowledge, they have a benefit.
There is the gratification of sensual desires, and that's
what you could say the good side of it.
And yes, so there is pleasure that comes from the gratification of all kinds of sensual desire, sexual desire, but also food and even beauty, music, all of these things bring pleasure, and that's certainly a gratification.
Even the act of obtaining one of these,
desirable things, it's not actually a problem.
It's not actually a problem to hear a beautiful sound.
That's not unwholesome.
It's not unwholesome to see something beautiful.
It's not unwholesome even to feel physical pleasure.
It's not unwholesome to feel the pleasure.
Now, the problem is, unless you're truly mindful and objective and seeing it as something that arises and ceases,
Absolutely, we're going to become attached to it.
We're going to like it, and that's going to leave an imprint on the brain, which causes us to want it, and be discontent when we don't have it, such that we think about how to get it, how to obtain it.
And we enter into the cycle of addiction.
And then we wonder why we're dissatisfied, why we have discontent in our lives, why we get frustrated, why we get angry, why we get bored, why we are given to rage, why we are given to argumentation, why we fight with each other.
If we looked closely, if we looked carefully, we would see how closely related this is to our desire.
We want something, we wish we could just enjoy all kinds of sensual pleasures all the time, like this monk was trying to do, without realizing that... And then, when we can't get it,
We become bored, upset.
When someone stands in our way, we get angry at them.
When someone comes and provides us with a stimulus that is unpleasant, making us hear something, saying words that are unpleasant, make us angry.
Because we just want to listen to music.
We just want to see beautiful sights.
We just want to feel beautiful feelings and so on.
And so it leads directly to great suffering.
Because of addiction, you see, you can say, well, I can always get what I want, things are going to be fine.
But you can never be sure and you can never say that it's going to, it's not going to change.
It could change at any time.
And in the meantime, all you're doing is building yourself up
to eventual disappointment you're not gaining anything else there's nothing else changing in your life you're not becoming more satisfied you're not becoming happier
If anything, you become less happier because the way the addiction cycle works is the more you get what you want, the less satisfying it is.
This is why we have to indulge, indulge more and more and why our tastes become more and more exotic.
Because it's diminishing returns.
It becomes less and less satisfying, in fact.
So anyone who says that this stuff leads you to happiness is incredibly short-sighted.
I mean, most of us are.
There's no real criticism here.
I mean, it's just a general criticism that we are missing a very important piece of the puzzle in general.
It's very hard for us to see deep enough to get past this, well, it makes me happy.
If you look deeper, and if you look really deep,
meaning look, and it's not looking far, looking very closely at the present moment through meditation, which is how this verse very much relates to our practice, you will see that in fact even pleasure, there's nothing about it that makes it preferable to pain.
If you think objectively, there's no reason to think
that pleasure is better than pain.
Why do we think that pleasure is better than pain?
It's a good question.
And if you look closely, you'll see it's just an experience.
Pleasure is just pleasure.
And so in the meditation, the way we deal with or the way we approach this real problem, the problem of addiction, the problem of attachment, this problem that sets us up for such suffering and keeps us so caught up in this cycle,
is to see it clearly, to look clearly, to see the pleasure as pleasure, to see the liking as liking, the wanting as wanting, the seeing as seeing, the hearing as hearing, the feeling as feeling.
to break it up and look at what's really happening.
And when you see what's really happening, you see there's nothing about it that's really worth clinging to.
There's nothing in the world, nothing in existence that is worth clinging to.
And you see that,
And it's not a matter of repression, it's just a matter of letting go, a matter of freeing yourself from any need or any partiality.
It's about rooting yourself in reality as opposed to clinging to the past or the future, things that don't exist, always wanting, always being unsatisfied.
or having your satisfaction depend on things that are undependable, that are not dependable, that you can't depend upon in the end.
So this is in regards to
to actually doing.
Now, that's really just the first part.
So, in regards to doing of unwholesome deeds.
Now, the second part, deals with a habit.
So, I talked a little bit about it, but just to go through this first.
The second part is in regards to how it becomes habit-forming.
How addiction... The problem with addiction is...
that anything you perform, any activity that you perform becomes habitual.
So wanting breeds more wanting.
And the same goes with anger.
If you're a person who gets angry or averse to certain things, you'll cultivate a habit of aversion.
So the idea of doing things again and again is a real issue in Buddhism, a real problem.
Something that we have to be very careful when cultivating habits, that they are wholesome, that they are beneficial.
So the whole idea behind constant meditation, daily meditation, is to cultivate wholesome habits, positive habits.
habits that do lead to true peace and happiness and clarity that allow us to see things as they are and not set ourselves up for real disappointment.
And the third part is not just doing things again and again but on top of that
we become content with it.
We like the fact that we like.
We're happy about the fact that we want things.
We become, and not just wanting, but with anger, with aversion, with arrogance and conceit, we hold onto these, and that's even worse.
So doing a bad deed, this is problematic.
Doing something, if you hurt someone else or if you steal from someone else or if you take what is not yours, well those are fairly obvious unwholesome deeds.
We call those evil.
They're evil, why?
Because they hurt others and they come from a point of view of hypocrisy where you don't want to experience it yourself and yet you impose suffering on others.
or any number of deed that stains your mind in some way, whether through anger or through greed.
Even if you just engage in some kind of addictive behavior, well, then it leaves a stain on your mind.
It affects your mind.
Once off, it's still considered harmful, but when you do it again and again, this is when the real trouble comes, when you get caught up in it.
Because it changes your mind, it changes your life, it changes your course.
But worse than that, the worst of all, is when you become happy about it, when you're content with it.
So sometimes you do something and you're like, oh yes, well this is a problem I have and I'm trying to work on it.
An alcoholic who knows they're an alcoholic better than an alcoholic who is in denial.
And who is trying to change.
People, I think, often dismiss this desire to change because, well, the person wants to change, but they're not changing.
And it's true.
I think you could argue that sometimes we just use it as an excuse or we feel guilty about it instead of actually doing something about it.
But there's a story that I'm trying to find.
It's a story that I plan on sharing with a group here.
I'm pretty sure it's in the Jatakas about this bird who lived in this forest, and the forest caught on fire.
And the bird didn't want to abandon the forest, so it flew all the way to the lake.
plunged into the lake and flew back to the forest and shook itself vigorously over the fire.
And there was an angel or a god or something watching.
And the god said, the angel said, what are you doing?
And he said, I'm trying to put out the fire.
And he said, what are you, crazy?
You're not going to put out the fire that way.
And he said, well, what else can I do?
Well, yeah, but what do you mean what else can you do?
It's hopeless.
You're trying to do something and you're never going to succeed, is the point.
And he gives some fairly wise teaching on why it's important to try.
And this is, I think, important in Buddhism, the mind state, one's mind state.
Because when you get, if you compare that to someone who gives up or gives in and says,
not even just gives in, but goes full on and says, yes, it's good to eat, drink and be merry, for example.
Or like these two monks who got it in their heads that if they were having a problem with the holy life, well, just, you know, stop being so holy.
And somehow that would work.
really problematic because then when you're 100% behind something you see it becomes much more powerful in the mind and so the result is going to be much stronger.
So consider these levels as well.
I think that's important.
Don't feel too guilty about bad things you do.
I mean, they're bad but just be careful about cultivating bad habits and even if you cultivate bad habits
work be clear about where you stand because the worst would be if you become content with complacent or if you become of the view that it's good good to become addicted good to be angry good to be arrogant good to cultivate unwholesomeness why and that's the fourth part
Because the accumulation of evil, especially when you're keen on it, when you're happy about it, is suffering.
So that's the teaching for this verse.
Very simple story.
Very simple verse.
And we have its pair coming tomorrow, which is on more of a lighter note.
But a very good teaching, a verse to remember.
If one should do evil, one should not do it again and again.
One should not cultivate contentment or desire for that.
One should not be pleased by that deed.
for the accumulation of evil is suffering.
So that's the Dhammapada teaching for tonight.
Thank you all for tuning in.
Wishing you all the best.