1 00:00:00,031 --> 00:00:03,176 Okay, so today we continue our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:04,218 --> 00:00:06,321 Today into the Appamadaranga. 3 00:00:07,162 --> 00:00:13,372 Appamada means heedfulness or vigilance, as I say. 4 00:00:13,392 --> 00:00:17,078 It's the opposite of Pamada, which means negligence or heedlessness. 5 00:00:19,184 --> 00:00:24,749 So, the first story is based on three verses, which go as follows. 6 00:00:25,770 --> 00:00:47,149 APAMADO AMATTA PADANG APAMADO MATCHUNO PADANG APAMATTA NAMIYANTI YEPAMATTA YATHAMATTA EVANGBUISESATONYATVA APAMADAMHIPANDITA APAMADE PAMODANTI 7 00:00:47,973 --> 00:01:08,545 aryanam gocharirata te jainog satatika nityang dalha-parakama pusantidhira nibhanam yogake manganuttaram Three verses. 8 00:01:08,565 --> 00:01:15,195 So the first verse, apamado amatapadam negligence or heedlessness is the path 9 00:01:16,660 --> 00:01:26,551 No, vigilance is the path to the deathless, to immortality. 10 00:01:28,974 --> 00:01:32,497 Heedlessness or negligence is the path to death. 11 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:38,384 The one who is vigilant never dies. 12 00:01:41,367 --> 00:01:44,811 Whoever is negligent is as if already dead. 13 00:01:47,930 --> 00:02:01,787 Knowing the difference between these two, the wise set themselves in heedfulness. 14 00:02:04,349 --> 00:02:21,615 They rejoice greatly in needfulness, delighting in the pasture, the resort of the noble ones. 15 00:02:23,705 --> 00:02:35,571 They meditate constantly, continuously, establishing themselves in effort. 16 00:02:36,935 --> 00:02:41,644 permanently in effort or constantly in effort. 17 00:02:42,946 --> 00:02:59,618 These wise ones touch or reach nibbana, freedom, which is nibbana, which is the yoga kemang, the safety, the highest safety from bondage. 18 00:03:02,129 --> 00:03:03,774 Okay, let's explain them. 19 00:03:04,034 --> 00:03:05,318 I'll try to explain them simply. 20 00:03:06,241 --> 00:03:12,097 The first one, the path, heedfulness is the path to immortality. 21 00:03:12,839 --> 00:03:15,486 Heedlessness is the path to death. 22 00:03:15,807 --> 00:03:17,151 The one who is heedful... 23 00:03:17,131 --> 00:03:18,252 never dies. 24 00:03:18,312 --> 00:03:21,915 Those who are heedless are as if already dead. 25 00:03:21,935 --> 00:03:26,980 Seeing the difference here, the wise will set themselves in heedfulness. 26 00:03:29,062 --> 00:03:35,268 They delight in heedfulness and therefore they delight in the refuge of the noble ones. 27 00:03:36,088 --> 00:03:46,598 They meditate constantly and put out effort constantly and therefore they touch Nibbana, which is the supreme safety from bondage. 28 00:03:46,578 --> 00:03:51,169 So being safe from getting trapped or falling into suffering. 29 00:03:52,853 --> 00:03:54,156 So what were these three verses? 30 00:03:54,216 --> 00:04:00,992 These three verses were said in relation to the story of Samavati. 31 00:04:02,407 --> 00:04:11,244 Samavati, who was a queen in the time of the Buddha. 32 00:04:11,264 --> 00:04:21,104 And the story here is actually incredibly long, because it tries to tell the stories of just about every character involved, which takes quite some time. 33 00:04:21,144 --> 00:04:23,368 I'm going to try to limit it to 34 00:04:23,348 --> 00:04:28,796 hopefully just two people, the protagonist and the antagonist in the story. 35 00:04:29,717 --> 00:04:36,347 Protagonist is the queen Samavati and the antagonist is the queen Magandiya. 36 00:04:37,969 --> 00:04:39,251 They were queens of the same king. 37 00:04:39,271 --> 00:04:41,254 And how it came about? 38 00:04:41,775 --> 00:04:48,985 Samavati was born into the family of a banker in one city. 39 00:04:50,180 --> 00:04:56,853 And it happened that there was a great plague in their country. 40 00:04:56,873 --> 00:05:05,390 And as a result, she and her parents escaped, had to run away from the city and leave behind all their belongings. 41 00:05:06,031 --> 00:05:07,935 But they were friends with... 42 00:05:08,101 --> 00:05:12,789 Gosaka Sethi, who actually there's a big story about him, but he's not really important, so we're going to skip it. 43 00:05:13,450 --> 00:05:21,984 The important thing is that he lived in this other city, the city of King Udena, who we're also not going to tell the story. 44 00:05:22,004 --> 00:05:30,177 But Samavadi and her parents went to this city looking for the Gosaka Sethi. 45 00:05:30,157 --> 00:05:42,718 Because since they were friends of Gosaka the banker, they thought for sure he would take care of them and look after them and help them out in this difficult time. 46 00:05:42,778 --> 00:05:55,219 So it was very difficult on the travel and they were very much worn out and famished by the time they got to the city of King Udena. 47 00:05:56,701 --> 00:06:06,979 And what they did is they found out that Gosaka Sethi had set up these almshouses where they could get free food from. 48 00:06:07,059 --> 00:06:09,924 So they thought, well, what we'll do is we'll stay here. 49 00:06:09,964 --> 00:06:13,951 And they stayed in this rest house for travelers. 50 00:06:14,151 --> 00:06:17,477 It's just an empty place for people to rest. 51 00:06:17,457 --> 00:06:21,645 and send Samavati to get food for the three of them. 52 00:06:21,665 --> 00:06:37,795 So she went to Gosaka the banker's house and found this man who distributes the food to the beggars and to people who have... 53 00:06:39,125 --> 00:06:40,368 who have no work and no food. 54 00:06:41,570 --> 00:06:44,557 And they said, how much meat, that was his name. 55 00:06:44,737 --> 00:06:46,381 They said, how much food would you like? 56 00:06:46,421 --> 00:06:47,202 How many portions? 57 00:06:47,282 --> 00:06:49,628 And she said, I'd like three portions. 58 00:06:49,648 --> 00:06:51,010 And he looked at her, this little girl. 59 00:06:52,173 --> 00:06:53,837 And so he gave her three portions. 60 00:06:53,937 --> 00:06:55,480 And she took them back to her parents. 61 00:06:57,130 --> 00:07:03,498 And out of respect, of course, in India, the respect was always given to the man. 62 00:07:03,518 --> 00:07:06,823 So out of respect, they encouraged him to eat first. 63 00:07:07,343 --> 00:07:08,365 Yeah, whatever. 64 00:07:08,925 --> 00:07:09,646 That's the way it was. 65 00:07:10,488 --> 00:07:23,765 But as luck would have it, because they had him eat first and he was so famished, he ate the best food and got sick and actually passed away that night because the food was too rich and because he hadn't eaten for such a long time. 66 00:07:24,025 --> 00:07:26,108 He gorged himself. 67 00:07:26,088 --> 00:07:28,351 And that was pretty upsetting for the two of them. 68 00:07:28,371 --> 00:07:33,499 It was like now their husband, the man of the family who would have supported them in that culture. 69 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:36,363 It would have been very difficult for these two women to get along. 70 00:07:36,383 --> 00:07:40,609 And of course this was their loved husband and father. 71 00:07:40,749 --> 00:07:46,037 But the mother anyway had Samavati go to get food the next day. 72 00:07:46,017 --> 00:07:48,260 And the same thing asked, how many portions? 73 00:07:48,340 --> 00:07:49,922 And today she said she wants two portions. 74 00:07:51,023 --> 00:07:53,106 And so he gave her two portions and she brought them back. 75 00:07:53,967 --> 00:07:57,210 And this time she had her mother eat first. 76 00:07:57,271 --> 00:07:58,492 And the same thing happened to her mother. 77 00:07:58,512 --> 00:08:00,434 Her mother got sick and died. 78 00:08:02,757 --> 00:08:07,603 So I don't know whether there was some problem with the food or not, but it sounds like it was just because they were gorging themselves. 79 00:08:08,917 --> 00:08:14,628 And so Samavati was now alone, an orphan in the world, and very, very distressed. 80 00:08:15,069 --> 00:08:17,774 And you have to think, also, she was born in a good family. 81 00:08:17,814 --> 00:08:21,862 Her parents were the head bankers in their country. 82 00:08:22,844 --> 00:08:28,275 And so she was a very high-bred and, of course, not used to things like begging. 83 00:08:28,255 --> 00:08:30,778 So she went back the next day to get one portion. 84 00:08:30,838 --> 00:08:33,280 And they asked her, how many portions? 85 00:08:33,300 --> 00:08:34,201 She said, one portion. 86 00:08:34,241 --> 00:08:44,932 And this man, Mita, got very, very angry at her and called her all sorts of names, like, you vile woman, don't know what's wrong with you. 87 00:08:44,972 --> 00:08:48,295 And she was just shocked. 88 00:08:48,376 --> 00:08:50,558 She'd never heard such terrible words in her life. 89 00:08:51,319 --> 00:08:53,541 And she never thought anyone could ever be called such a thing. 90 00:08:53,581 --> 00:08:54,702 And she was... 91 00:08:54,682 --> 00:08:57,066 mortified and asked, what did I do wrong? 92 00:08:57,126 --> 00:09:09,028 And she said, well, and he said, well, first day you have three portions, a greedy, greedy pig, and then you realize it's too much, so you only have two, and now finally you've realized how much is enough, so you're only taking one portion. 93 00:09:10,460 --> 00:09:15,907 And she started crying and she said, that's not why I took three portions. 94 00:09:16,067 --> 00:09:17,449 And she explained what had happened. 95 00:09:18,630 --> 00:09:24,518 And that she had come actually to see their friend, Gosaka Sethi, whose almshouse it was. 96 00:09:25,219 --> 00:09:30,766 And this man, Mita, he started crying as well and he was so sad for Samavati. 97 00:09:31,707 --> 00:09:33,950 And so he said, from now on you will be my daughter. 98 00:09:34,050 --> 00:09:35,472 And he took her in as his daughter. 99 00:09:35,452 --> 00:09:45,983 So this story is, you see it's a very long story, but this part is important only because it tells us where Samavati comes from and also gives us her name. 100 00:09:46,223 --> 00:09:47,865 Because her name at that time was Sama. 101 00:09:48,846 --> 00:09:53,431 And what she did, they had this almshouse and everyone would just rush in to get the food. 102 00:09:54,051 --> 00:10:00,598 All these people, the supplicants, coming in, just rush in to get their food. 103 00:10:00,578 --> 00:10:10,697 And Samavati heard this great noise and she said to her father, isn't there some way you can stop, or this man who had taken her in, isn't there something you can do? 104 00:10:10,717 --> 00:10:12,239 And he said, oh, there's no way to stop it. 105 00:10:12,259 --> 00:10:18,952 And so she said, well, why not build a fence and have them come in from one door and out the other door, so two entrances. 106 00:10:19,152 --> 00:10:24,662 And they can just come in one by one by one and get their food and there'll be no jostling and no shouting. 107 00:10:25,621 --> 00:10:28,367 And so he did that, and then it was totally quiet from then on. 108 00:10:28,547 --> 00:10:31,013 So she became known as Sama of the Fence. 109 00:10:32,135 --> 00:10:33,258 And it was Sama's Fence. 110 00:10:33,298 --> 00:10:37,487 Fence means wati, which gave her the name Samavati. 111 00:10:38,868 --> 00:10:43,155 Now, the other part of the story is that Gosaka liked to hear this noise. 112 00:10:43,195 --> 00:10:49,246 He heard this noise and he always thought, oh, that's my almshouse where they're giving away free food. 113 00:10:49,286 --> 00:10:51,009 And he felt really good about that. 114 00:10:51,029 --> 00:10:54,134 And now all of a sudden there was no noise and it kind of bothered him. 115 00:10:54,154 --> 00:10:57,239 And so he asked, where did the noise go? 116 00:10:57,259 --> 00:11:02,428 And he said, oh, my daughter devised some clever plan for this fence. 117 00:11:02,408 --> 00:11:04,431 And Gosaka said, you have a daughter? 118 00:11:04,452 --> 00:11:05,053 I didn't know that. 119 00:11:05,073 --> 00:11:05,954 And he said, well, actually. 120 00:11:05,974 --> 00:11:13,787 And then he realized that, he said, actually, this is the daughter of your friend, the other saint, the other banker. 121 00:11:15,110 --> 00:11:16,111 And Gosaka was shocked. 122 00:11:16,152 --> 00:11:17,854 And so he took her as his own daughter. 123 00:11:17,874 --> 00:11:19,097 He said, why didn't you tell me? 124 00:11:19,157 --> 00:11:28,112 And took her as his own daughter and raised her as a high-bred woman again. 125 00:11:29,543 --> 00:11:44,140 Now then it happened that she was seen, she was going bathing one day and King Udayana saw her coming by the palace and asked for her hand, fell in love with her and thought she would make a good queen and asked her to become his queen. 126 00:11:44,721 --> 00:11:47,224 And there was a big fight about it and she gave in. 127 00:11:47,865 --> 00:11:53,391 Kings in that time were not to be denied. 128 00:11:53,371 --> 00:12:01,382 So they tried to say, the parents tried to say no and they were almost thrown out of their house and finally Samavati said, no, no, no, you don't say no to kings, I will go. 129 00:12:02,363 --> 00:12:04,486 And so she went and became the queen. 130 00:12:06,509 --> 00:12:08,652 That's the story of Samavati, how she became queen. 131 00:12:08,672 --> 00:12:12,036 The story of Magandiya, in brief, is a little more interesting. 132 00:12:12,096 --> 00:12:18,265 The Buddha found out about Magandiya and her parents because he realized the parents were ready to become enlightened. 133 00:12:19,186 --> 00:12:21,469 They were highly developed individuals. 134 00:12:22,751 --> 00:12:23,091 And 135 00:12:23,375 --> 00:12:25,058 So he went one day on alms round. 136 00:12:25,899 --> 00:12:31,308 And the story goes that Ma Gandhia was probably a fairly... Ma Gandhia is the bad guy in this story. 137 00:12:31,348 --> 00:12:35,976 So she was probably a fairly proud and cruel and wicked sort of person. 138 00:12:36,036 --> 00:12:40,744 So very hard to find a husband for, very picky. 139 00:12:41,546 --> 00:12:44,330 And it's said that the parents were also picky. 140 00:12:44,371 --> 00:12:48,037 So the father would never accept anybody for her daughter. 141 00:12:48,057 --> 00:12:49,399 So she was probably spoiled as well. 142 00:12:51,556 --> 00:12:53,419 Because he only wanted the best for his daughter. 143 00:12:53,719 --> 00:12:58,165 And so they denied all these sutras who came and tried to take her as their wife. 144 00:12:59,307 --> 00:13:00,588 Until finally they saw the Buddha. 145 00:13:00,608 --> 00:13:02,010 And he saw the Buddha standing there. 146 00:13:02,050 --> 00:13:05,255 And he said, this is the man for my daughter. 147 00:13:07,638 --> 00:13:07,858 Uh-oh. 148 00:13:08,579 --> 00:13:12,344 And he was, there's no man in India like this one. 149 00:13:12,865 --> 00:13:14,527 This has to be the one for my daughter. 150 00:13:14,587 --> 00:13:18,513 And so he rushed back home and told his family and told his wife. 151 00:13:18,573 --> 00:13:20,095 And everyone was like, wow, you're 152 00:13:20,075 --> 00:13:21,278 This must be something. 153 00:13:21,318 --> 00:13:22,801 And they wanted to see this guy. 154 00:13:23,342 --> 00:13:24,225 So they all went out. 155 00:13:25,608 --> 00:13:26,851 And suddenly there was no Buddha. 156 00:13:27,091 --> 00:13:27,953 The Buddha had gone. 157 00:13:28,394 --> 00:13:30,439 He had asked the Buddha, he said, stay here, stay here. 158 00:13:30,459 --> 00:13:32,724 I want you to meet my daughter. 159 00:13:32,784 --> 00:13:34,027 So he brought his wife and daughter. 160 00:13:34,568 --> 00:13:35,350 The Buddha was gone. 161 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:38,747 And so they're looking around for him and then they saw on the ground his footprint. 162 00:13:39,428 --> 00:13:42,576 He had put, specifically, he had put intentionally, he had put a footprint there. 163 00:13:43,458 --> 00:13:47,367 Because the thing in India is that they knew how to read palms and they knew how to read feet. 164 00:13:48,048 --> 00:13:53,541 So they looked at this footprint and the wife, Magandiya, the woman, the mother, 165 00:13:53,521 --> 00:13:58,388 She knew right away that this wasn't the one for her daughter. 166 00:13:58,548 --> 00:14:00,250 She said, this guy is enlightened. 167 00:14:00,571 --> 00:14:03,295 This guy has no more lust in him. 168 00:14:04,637 --> 00:14:04,797 Why? 169 00:14:04,857 --> 00:14:12,087 Because you can tell by the footprint, if you're very clever, she said, if a person is angry, 170 00:14:12,067 --> 00:14:14,451 then the heel will go down heavy. 171 00:14:14,471 --> 00:14:24,065 When people stomp because they're angry, a person with anger, a person with lots of greed will step on the tiptoes because they're always hurrying towards something. 172 00:14:25,046 --> 00:14:33,118 And a person with delusion will not have an even footprint because they're wobbling all over the place. 173 00:14:33,138 --> 00:14:37,264 But this is a perfectly pure individual who puts this footprint down. 174 00:14:38,932 --> 00:14:40,113 So she could apparently see that. 175 00:14:41,315 --> 00:14:43,898 And the man said, oh, be quiet. 176 00:14:43,958 --> 00:14:45,339 You don't know what you're talking about. 177 00:14:45,359 --> 00:14:47,402 You're always seeing crocodiles in water pots. 178 00:14:47,742 --> 00:14:52,588 And so he searched and searched, and he found the Buddha. 179 00:14:52,688 --> 00:14:54,830 And he bowed down to the Buddha. 180 00:14:55,411 --> 00:14:57,313 And he said, this is my daughter, Magandiya. 181 00:14:57,353 --> 00:14:59,135 Please accept her as your wife. 182 00:15:00,717 --> 00:15:04,281 There's no one in all of India who's more worthy of her than you are. 183 00:15:06,067 --> 00:15:07,209 And the Buddha looked at him. 184 00:15:08,330 --> 00:15:10,073 And of course the Buddha had a purpose here. 185 00:15:10,113 --> 00:15:12,417 He was coming to teach these two, the two parents. 186 00:15:14,700 --> 00:15:35,331 And so he explained to them his story of how he had left behind the kingdom in Kapilavatthu and gone forth and for six years had tortured himself until finally he realized the middle way and became enlightened and was... 187 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:43,429 was confronted with Mara along with Mara's three daughters. 188 00:15:43,469 --> 00:15:50,039 And he talks about the three daughters of Mara, who of course would be the epitome of sensual attraction. 189 00:15:50,379 --> 00:15:56,948 Mara being the evil one, so his daughters were this... If you've ever seen The Little Buddha, you know the three daughters. 190 00:15:59,138 --> 00:16:15,940 And he said, having seen those three and not given rise to any lust, any desire, having totally thrown out all lust and desire myself, would you survive for this sack of urine and feces that you present to me? 191 00:16:15,980 --> 00:16:17,702 I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. 192 00:16:18,563 --> 00:16:21,607 Or I wouldn't touch it with my baby toe or something like that. 193 00:16:23,450 --> 00:16:27,475 And listening to this, and because of course he was teaching the Dhamma as he spoke, 194 00:16:28,906 --> 00:16:30,909 the two of them became enlightened, listening. 195 00:16:32,371 --> 00:16:43,387 Or they, I can't remember, maybe they became Sotapanna, and then they asked permission to become monks, and then they went forth, and then they became, something like that. 196 00:16:44,228 --> 00:16:50,998 But Magandiya, the daughter, was of course not impressed, being called a bag, a sack of crap. 197 00:16:50,978 --> 00:16:57,228 And she said, one day I will know what to do with this ascetic Gautama. 198 00:16:57,248 --> 00:16:59,853 So she vowed revenge against him. 199 00:17:00,894 --> 00:17:01,996 That's how our story starts. 200 00:17:02,257 --> 00:17:05,322 That's the introduction of these two. 201 00:17:05,362 --> 00:17:16,480 The last thing is that Magandiya was then placed into the protection of her uncle, who got the bright idea to bring her to the king, saying, well, if there's no one else good for him, bring her to the king. 202 00:17:16,460 --> 00:17:20,467 brought her to the king, and the king fell in love with her as well, and took her as his wife as well. 203 00:17:20,927 --> 00:17:26,136 He had a third wife, but we won't talk about her because she's not important, not for this story. 204 00:17:26,156 --> 00:17:27,118 Well, that's the way of kings. 205 00:17:27,158 --> 00:17:29,622 They have as many wives as they want, and whoever they want. 206 00:17:32,046 --> 00:17:33,488 Okay, so that's the beginning. 207 00:17:33,528 --> 00:17:36,373 Now, how did it come about that the Buddha told these three verses? 208 00:17:36,473 --> 00:17:39,318 Well, where do we start? 209 00:17:39,418 --> 00:17:42,383 Samavati 210 00:17:44,860 --> 00:17:49,526 Samavati had a slave girl, a servant. 211 00:17:50,086 --> 00:17:51,929 Kudutra, I think is her name. 212 00:17:52,589 --> 00:17:54,412 Kudutra, you should know her name. 213 00:17:54,432 --> 00:17:55,573 She's a very important person. 214 00:17:56,514 --> 00:18:02,902 Kudutra, who was a bit of a hunchback and a servant. 215 00:18:02,922 --> 00:18:13,635 And every day the king would give Samavati eight pieces of money for flowers, or every week or something. 216 00:18:13,615 --> 00:18:21,055 And Kujutara would go out, steal four, pocket four of the gold coins, and buy flowers with the other four gold coins. 217 00:18:21,075 --> 00:18:23,060 And she would do this, and Samavati didn't know any better. 218 00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:25,567 She said, oh, this is four gold, this is eight gold coins worth of flowers. 219 00:18:25,647 --> 00:18:29,076 Okay, so she took four gold coins worth of flowers, thinking it was eight. 220 00:18:30,845 --> 00:18:32,428 And all the time it went like this. 221 00:18:32,970 --> 00:18:42,029 Now, it so happened that at that time the Buddha was staying, being patronized by the three bankers, one of them being Gosaka. 222 00:18:43,152 --> 00:18:44,494 At any rate, the Buddha was in the area. 223 00:18:45,837 --> 00:18:50,828 And Kujutara one day went out to get flowers, and it turned out that the flower, the gardener, 224 00:18:50,808 --> 00:18:57,154 had decided to patronize, had asked permission to be able to feed the Buddha on one day. 225 00:18:57,254 --> 00:19:01,077 And so he got the permission, he got that day to give food to the Buddha. 226 00:19:01,858 --> 00:19:03,720 And part of it was to make a lot of flowers. 227 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:09,145 And so he said, okay, I'll get you some flowers, but first I'm going to feed the Buddha. 228 00:19:09,165 --> 00:19:11,947 And so he went, he said, you come with me and you sit by me. 229 00:19:12,748 --> 00:19:18,553 He said to this servant, Kujutara, come with me and at the end I'll give you some flowers. 230 00:19:19,799 --> 00:19:26,708 And she went in and the Buddha saw her and knew right away that actually she had some perfection in her. 231 00:19:27,429 --> 00:19:29,712 And so he taught with her in mind. 232 00:19:29,772 --> 00:19:39,985 And at the end of his teaching, of course after he eats then he gave the talk, he gave the teaching and as a result of the teaching she became a Sotapanna. 233 00:19:39,965 --> 00:19:45,370 She was sitting there listening and of course applying the teachings and became a Sotapanna. 234 00:19:45,650 --> 00:19:47,631 Now the thing about a Sotapanna is they don't steal. 235 00:19:47,692 --> 00:19:54,737 So here she had eight gold coins in her possession and instructions to get eight gold coins worth of flowers. 236 00:19:54,798 --> 00:19:55,518 So what did she do? 237 00:19:56,019 --> 00:19:57,820 She bought eight gold coins worth of flowers. 238 00:19:58,841 --> 00:20:02,724 Now what happens when she brings eight gold coins worth of flowers back to Samavati? 239 00:20:03,865 --> 00:20:06,167 It's twice as many as she normally comes with. 240 00:20:06,187 --> 00:20:09,550 So Samavati says, what happened today did 241 00:20:10,053 --> 00:20:12,556 How did you get twice as much? 242 00:20:12,736 --> 00:20:15,138 Did they put a special on in flowers or something? 243 00:20:15,799 --> 00:20:16,520 Are they on sale? 244 00:20:18,282 --> 00:20:23,787 And Kututra said, no, no, my lady. 245 00:20:25,549 --> 00:20:26,690 But here's how it happened. 246 00:20:28,012 --> 00:20:32,296 Before, I actually was stealing four of the gold coins. 247 00:20:32,356 --> 00:20:34,118 I mean, she just said it because she's enlightened. 248 00:20:34,138 --> 00:20:34,959 She's a sotapanna. 249 00:20:34,999 --> 00:20:37,181 She has no fear for herself. 250 00:20:37,342 --> 00:20:38,743 She had no... 251 00:20:38,723 --> 00:20:40,125 no desire to hide her. 252 00:20:40,185 --> 00:20:41,287 She couldn't lie either. 253 00:20:42,068 --> 00:20:47,856 She had seen the baseness of it, and of course felt great shame as a result. 254 00:20:47,876 --> 00:20:51,341 And she said, in the past I was stealing half of the money. 255 00:20:52,322 --> 00:20:57,370 And she said, well then why, and what, so today you're not stealing them? 256 00:20:57,390 --> 00:20:58,351 What happened today? 257 00:20:58,391 --> 00:20:59,112 And she said, 258 00:20:59,092 --> 00:21:05,363 Well, today I heard the teaching of the Buddha and I realized the truth of it. 259 00:21:06,125 --> 00:21:08,609 And so I could never steal. 260 00:21:08,629 --> 00:21:12,135 I could never do such a terrible thing again. 261 00:21:13,698 --> 00:21:15,882 And Samavati, Samavati was a very good person. 262 00:21:15,922 --> 00:21:19,328 She wasn't the kind of cruel, wicked person that we're going to see Magandiya being. 263 00:21:20,742 --> 00:21:27,509 So instead of saying something like, you evil slave, give me all my money back, she said, can you teach me the Dhamma? 264 00:21:27,930 --> 00:21:29,331 And she said, yeah, I can do that. 265 00:21:29,371 --> 00:21:35,958 And so they had, because she was going to be their teacher, they actually put their servant up on a higher seat. 266 00:21:35,998 --> 00:21:39,942 First they bathed her in this rose water, and then they put her up on this higher seat. 267 00:21:40,523 --> 00:21:41,784 And then they listened to the Dhamma. 268 00:21:42,305 --> 00:21:47,070 She had called all of her ladies in waiting to come, and they all listened to the Dhamma from their servant. 269 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,619 And from that point on they said, from now on you will be our teacher. 270 00:21:51,679 --> 00:21:53,871 And they said, we want you to go to the Buddha constantly. 271 00:21:54,222 --> 00:21:59,008 and receive all the teachings you can from him and come back every time and teach us. 272 00:21:59,869 --> 00:22:14,909 And she did this faithfully and as a result she became, actually this servant lady became, was able to memorize the whole of the Buddha's teaching, the whole of the Tipitaka, they say, or all of the trainings of the Buddha. 273 00:22:14,929 --> 00:22:17,372 And she faithfully brought them back to Samavati. 274 00:22:17,593 --> 00:22:19,335 Now one day Samavati wanted 275 00:22:20,665 --> 00:22:25,811 to be able to see the Buddha, because of course this was their teacher and they were practicing according to the Buddha's teachings. 276 00:22:25,831 --> 00:22:28,674 So they wanted to see, to meet with the Buddha. 277 00:22:28,794 --> 00:22:29,876 He said, can you do this for us? 278 00:22:29,896 --> 00:22:34,220 And she said, it's not easy for a queen, because the queens were totally trapped. 279 00:22:34,241 --> 00:22:35,222 They never saw the city. 280 00:22:35,482 --> 00:22:38,786 The king was so jealous that he would never let his queen out, of course. 281 00:22:39,847 --> 00:22:40,207 Of course. 282 00:22:41,168 --> 00:22:43,391 It was pretty terrible, actually. 283 00:22:44,913 --> 00:22:46,575 But what she said, well, then do this. 284 00:22:46,595 --> 00:22:49,558 She said, poke some, cut some holes in your walls. 285 00:22:49,538 --> 00:23:19,528 and in each of your rooms make a hole and when the Buddha walks by on alms round you'll be able to hold up your hands and pay respect to him so they did that now Magandiya at this time she was walking around and she saw these holes and she says what are those for and one of the ladies says oh those are so we can pay homage to the Buddha and Magandiya right away she said oh this arch villain no this arch enemy of mine my nemesis 286 00:23:19,508 --> 00:23:22,660 And so Magandhi right then thought, well, I'll know it. 287 00:23:23,021 --> 00:23:31,392 Now I'll figure out something to do to destroy both the Buddha and this queen and her followers who are followers of this nasty, mean ascetic. 288 00:23:32,890 --> 00:23:46,812 And so she tried to think, this is where she tried to think up all these ways to... So the first thing she did is she went to the king and said, Samavati was plotting against the king, and tried to turn the king against Samavati. 289 00:23:47,694 --> 00:23:48,936 And the king said, why do you say that? 290 00:23:48,976 --> 00:23:52,261 And she said, well look, they're not even faithful to you. 291 00:23:52,321 --> 00:23:59,252 They've put these holes, and instead of coming to pay respect to you, they're now paying respect to the Buddha. 292 00:23:59,232 --> 00:24:01,916 The king went and he saw these holes and he smiled. 293 00:24:04,279 --> 00:24:08,966 Instead of getting angry and upset at it, he ordered that there be windows placed there. 294 00:24:09,647 --> 00:24:13,693 He put some nice windows so they could be able to see the Buddha comfortably. 295 00:24:14,774 --> 00:24:18,740 So the king wasn't moved and he didn't listen to Magandhi, not the first time. 296 00:24:19,781 --> 00:24:20,863 She was very, very angry. 297 00:24:21,504 --> 00:24:23,687 So what she did as a result of that is... 298 00:24:23,667 --> 00:24:33,458 got together some of these other religious groups who would have been anti-Buddha, against the Buddha, jealous of the Buddha and so on, 299 00:24:34,771 --> 00:24:44,688 and got them together and bribed them to set up some people to say nasty things to the Buddha. 300 00:24:44,988 --> 00:24:52,361 Every time they saw the Buddha, to revile the Buddha, to generally make a nuisance of themselves, which they did. 301 00:24:52,621 --> 00:24:57,409 This is an important part of the story because it's an important story that we always bring up. 302 00:24:57,429 --> 00:25:00,795 What happened then is Ananda, the Buddha's attendant and cousin, 303 00:25:01,265 --> 00:25:03,871 said to the Buddha, we should go somewhere else. 304 00:25:03,891 --> 00:25:05,194 The Buddha said, why go somewhere else? 305 00:25:05,234 --> 00:25:06,897 Well, these people are reviling you. 306 00:25:06,958 --> 00:25:10,345 I can't take it to hear them saying such nasty things about the Buddha. 307 00:25:11,788 --> 00:25:12,951 And the Buddha said, where will we go? 308 00:25:12,991 --> 00:25:15,055 And the Buddha said, well, we'll go to some other city. 309 00:25:16,118 --> 00:25:18,042 And the Buddha said, and what if they revile us there? 310 00:25:19,017 --> 00:25:21,463 And Ananda said, well, then we'll go to another city. 311 00:25:21,483 --> 00:25:25,251 And the Buddha said, and then, if they revile us there, then we'll go to another. 312 00:25:25,271 --> 00:25:28,519 And Buddha said, Ananda, this isn't how you deal with problems. 313 00:25:29,581 --> 00:25:32,207 A problem that arises should be dealt with right then and there. 314 00:25:32,247 --> 00:25:33,350 This is the correct way. 315 00:25:33,931 --> 00:25:36,216 And then he used the simile of an elephant 316 00:25:36,601 --> 00:25:39,765 The elephant goes, the Buddha said, I am like the great elephant. 317 00:25:39,826 --> 00:25:46,875 If an elephant goes into battle, it doesn't go in there and as soon as it gets attacked by arrows and so on, it runs away. 318 00:25:46,895 --> 00:25:52,243 It has to stay in the battle and carry the king and so on. 319 00:25:53,284 --> 00:25:57,951 It can't be afraid of these things and it must settle it right then and there. 320 00:25:57,931 --> 00:26:05,025 He said, so how can I not suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous people? 321 00:26:05,045 --> 00:26:11,258 And the Buddha said, in any way, it's only going to last seven days. 322 00:26:11,638 --> 00:26:13,843 And indeed it did only last seven days. 323 00:26:14,103 --> 00:26:17,430 Because he said, no one can revile a Buddha for more than seven days. 324 00:26:17,510 --> 00:26:18,091 It's too wicked. 325 00:26:18,152 --> 00:26:18,893 You can't do it. 326 00:26:18,873 --> 00:26:24,262 So eventually they just couldn't bear it anymore, they're evil, and had to give it up. 327 00:26:24,603 --> 00:26:30,353 So Magandiya was very, very angry, and at this point it started to go to her head, and she started getting crazy ideas. 328 00:26:32,336 --> 00:26:38,286 So what she did next is she was trying to find a way to get at Samavati. 329 00:26:38,367 --> 00:26:41,232 She said, I can't get at the Buddha, but I can sure destroy Samavati. 330 00:26:41,332 --> 00:26:42,113 There's got to be a way. 331 00:26:44,270 --> 00:26:51,403 And so what she did is she knew that these samavati and her followers were now keeping the precepts, at least the five precepts. 332 00:26:52,224 --> 00:26:58,556 And so she said to the king, or she got her relative to bring eight live chickens as a gift to the king. 333 00:26:58,596 --> 00:27:04,086 And the king said, oh, what a nice meal that will be. 334 00:27:05,028 --> 00:27:08,033 And through Magandhi's prompting, he asked, oh, 335 00:27:08,013 --> 00:27:08,954 who's going to cook them? 336 00:27:08,994 --> 00:27:11,337 And Magandhi right away said, oh, Samavati will cook them. 337 00:27:11,498 --> 00:27:12,679 Her maids are doing nothing. 338 00:27:12,719 --> 00:27:17,626 Send them to Samavati and her ladies-in-waiting and they will cook them up. 339 00:27:17,646 --> 00:27:18,647 And she said, oh, good idea. 340 00:27:18,707 --> 00:27:20,609 So he sent them off to Samavati. 341 00:27:21,471 --> 00:27:27,318 So they brought these live chickens to Samavati and said, kill these and cook them and serve them to the king. 342 00:27:28,239 --> 00:27:30,983 And Samavati said, we don't take life. 343 00:27:30,963 --> 00:27:35,529 We refuse to take a life of any being. 344 00:27:35,549 --> 00:27:36,330 And they brought them back. 345 00:27:36,390 --> 00:27:40,655 And Megandiya said, see, see, they won't even do this for you. 346 00:27:40,676 --> 00:27:44,440 They have no love for you, O king. 347 00:27:45,462 --> 00:27:54,253 And she said, but let them take the same eight chickens and tell them that they're for the ascetic Gautama, for the Buddha. 348 00:27:54,233 --> 00:27:56,655 And I bet they'll do it. 349 00:27:56,695 --> 00:27:59,298 And the king said, the king didn't say anything. 350 00:27:59,338 --> 00:28:00,760 And Kanna, okay, let's go along with it. 351 00:28:01,661 --> 00:28:08,547 Mukundi said, here, take these back and tell them to cook them up and serve them to the ascetic Gautama. 352 00:28:08,568 --> 00:28:14,433 But what she did is she switched them with eight dead chickens and sent them eight dead chickens. 353 00:28:14,854 --> 00:28:16,035 And they said, oh, we can do this. 354 00:28:16,095 --> 00:28:18,958 And so they cooked them up and sent them off to the Buddha. 355 00:28:18,938 --> 00:28:32,650 And when the king found out, or when Magandiya found out, and she told the king, and the king was kind of quiet, but at this point probably losing a little bit of faith in Samavati, because she said, oh look, see, they killed them and took them for the Buddha. 356 00:28:32,871 --> 00:28:33,893 They wouldn't do it for you. 357 00:28:35,982 --> 00:28:54,244 Okay, and then the next thing she did is, when the king was going to stay with, so he would go from one queen to the other, one week, one queen, and she was just getting ready to go for one week to Samavati, and the queen, Magandiya said, oh, I had a bad dream last night, let me come with you. 358 00:28:54,224 --> 00:28:59,394 And she wouldn't listen to the king when he said no, so she went and she was looking around. 359 00:29:00,176 --> 00:29:09,735 And what she had done is she had had someone put a poisonous snake into the king's guitar or lute, a musical instrument, and put some flowers in front of it. 360 00:29:11,183 --> 00:29:13,828 And so she came and she pulled the flowers away. 361 00:29:13,888 --> 00:29:18,196 And then they all saw this snake come out of the king's musical instrument. 362 00:29:18,256 --> 00:29:19,818 And she blamed Samavati. 363 00:29:19,838 --> 00:29:20,900 She said, they want to kill you. 364 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,988 Look, they put a poisonous snake in your musical instrument or something like that. 365 00:29:25,929 --> 00:29:28,534 And she said, see, I told you, you wouldn't listen to me. 366 00:29:28,514 --> 00:29:31,780 And here the king just had had enough and he got very, very angry. 367 00:29:32,161 --> 00:29:39,255 So he started to believe Magandiya and he called up the samavati and got them all lined up in a row. 368 00:29:39,295 --> 00:29:40,959 This is apparently what he did. 369 00:29:40,979 --> 00:29:44,185 He put samavati in the front and put all of her ladies in waiting behind. 370 00:29:44,225 --> 00:29:49,155 And he got a bow with a poison arrow and he was ready to shoot her. 371 00:29:49,135 --> 00:29:53,920 Now Samavati, what she did is she told all of her ladies, she said, we have no refuge. 372 00:29:54,460 --> 00:29:59,885 Let us take the Dhamma as our refuge and bear no ill will towards the king and think of the king just as yourself. 373 00:29:59,945 --> 00:30:10,015 And so they would have had this method of developing loving kindness, first for yourself, then for someone you love, then for someone who's ready to kill you with a bow and arrow. 374 00:30:10,336 --> 00:30:11,216 So they were used to this. 375 00:30:11,236 --> 00:30:14,940 They would start with themselves and then they would send loving kindness out to the king. 376 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:19,067 And so the king shot this arrow, actually shot it at Samavati. 377 00:30:19,087 --> 00:30:26,721 And I'm trying to understand the Pali, but it says something like, because the, well, it basically says he shot the arrow and it turned around. 378 00:30:27,562 --> 00:30:35,376 Because of the power of the love, the arrow actually bent back and came to stand right in front of the king's heart, pointed at the king's heart, something like that. 379 00:30:35,356 --> 00:30:38,866 but it's almost as though it shot him through the heart, which it couldn't have done. 380 00:30:39,668 --> 00:30:46,767 What it says is, it says as though he was shot through the heart himself, but it must mean it was as though it would shoot him through the heart. 381 00:30:48,164 --> 00:30:49,406 And he became very frightened. 382 00:30:50,247 --> 00:30:54,352 And he asked Samavati to take refuge, if he could take refuge in Samavati. 383 00:30:55,514 --> 00:30:58,658 And Samavati said, you can't take refuge in me, take refuge in the Buddha. 384 00:30:58,678 --> 00:31:00,360 And he said, please, please let me take refuge. 385 00:31:01,502 --> 00:31:04,666 Samavati said, no, you must take refuge in the Buddha. 386 00:31:05,888 --> 00:31:07,370 So at that point he took refuge. 387 00:31:07,630 --> 00:31:09,433 He went to see the Buddha and took refuge in the Buddha. 388 00:31:09,453 --> 00:31:13,378 But he said to Samavati, please, I grant you one wish. 389 00:31:13,358 --> 00:31:18,445 And Samavati said, then I have no wish for gold or silver, but I have a wish to see the Buddha. 390 00:31:18,465 --> 00:31:25,555 She said, give me permission to see the Buddha, to have the Buddha come here regularly and give us teachings so that we may hear the teachings of the Buddha. 391 00:31:26,436 --> 00:31:29,480 And Udena went to the Buddha and asked the Buddha to come. 392 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:34,928 And the Buddha said, it's very difficult for the Buddha to go to one place all the time, but he sent Ananda instead. 393 00:31:34,908 --> 00:31:43,518 And Ananda therefore became a favorite among these queens and actually got a lot of reward from them. 394 00:31:44,619 --> 00:31:45,821 That's kind of a side story. 395 00:31:45,841 --> 00:31:47,663 Ananda got 500 robes from them. 396 00:31:48,203 --> 00:31:50,606 They gave him 500 pieces of cloth to make robes out of. 397 00:31:51,487 --> 00:31:56,713 And then the king found out and the king got very angry and went to see Ananda and said, so you heard you got 500 robes. 398 00:31:57,166 --> 00:31:58,429 And he said, you're going to wear them all? 399 00:31:59,010 --> 00:32:00,954 And he said, no, I'm not going to wear them all. 400 00:32:00,974 --> 00:32:02,477 Then what are you going to do with 500 robes? 401 00:32:02,497 --> 00:32:05,884 What are you doing accepting so many gifts when you know you can't use them? 402 00:32:05,925 --> 00:32:09,452 He said, well, I'll give them to those monks who have tattered robes. 403 00:32:09,612 --> 00:32:14,463 If the monk has robes with holes in them, then he can replace them with these robes. 404 00:32:14,563 --> 00:32:16,547 Oh, and then what's the monk going to do with his tattered robes? 405 00:32:16,567 --> 00:32:17,349 Just throw them away? 406 00:32:17,389 --> 00:32:18,010 And he said, no. 407 00:32:18,698 --> 00:32:21,383 No, they'll take their outer robes and make lower robes with them. 408 00:32:21,403 --> 00:32:24,708 Because the lower robe is smaller, they can cut it into pieces and make a lower robe. 409 00:32:25,450 --> 00:32:27,233 And then what will they do with their old lower robes? 410 00:32:27,934 --> 00:32:38,091 And Ananda said, well, then they'll make bandages to cover for those monks who need bandages or slings. 411 00:32:38,071 --> 00:32:42,080 And then what will they do with the bandages they already had? 412 00:32:42,100 --> 00:32:44,766 Well, then they will make patches for their robes. 413 00:32:45,106 --> 00:32:46,449 And what will they do with their old patches? 414 00:32:46,510 --> 00:32:48,233 Well, they'll make threads to sew their robes. 415 00:32:48,293 --> 00:32:50,518 And what will they do with the old threads? 416 00:32:50,538 --> 00:32:57,193 Well, they'll pound them up with mud and make bricks out of them for making kutis, making huts. 417 00:32:58,810 --> 00:33:02,196 And the king was so impressed by this, he said, that's incredible. 418 00:33:02,216 --> 00:33:06,624 He said, I'm sorry, you people really do know the worth of gifts. 419 00:33:06,644 --> 00:33:09,930 And he gave Ananda another 500 robes. 420 00:33:09,950 --> 00:33:22,253 And the commentary goes on about it, saying that Ananda actually gained thousands and thousands of robes, and he would travel all over India giving away his possession, his acquisition, his gifts. 421 00:33:24,224 --> 00:33:25,305 So, side story. 422 00:33:25,425 --> 00:33:30,632 But that brings us up to what really happened and why the Buddha told these verses. 423 00:33:32,213 --> 00:33:38,161 At this point, Magandiya had had enough, and she knew that now there was no way she could possibly say anything bad about Samavati. 424 00:33:38,181 --> 00:33:42,185 She was going to have to take matters into her own hands, which indeed she did. 425 00:33:42,566 --> 00:33:45,229 She committed a very terrible, terrible karma. 426 00:33:45,249 --> 00:33:48,713 She got her uncle, another Magandiya, 427 00:33:49,807 --> 00:34:05,571 to go to the Samavati's quarters and get rags soaked in oil, wrap them around the pillars, and close all the doors and light the place on fire with Samavati and her ladies waiting in there. 428 00:34:05,551 --> 00:34:10,038 So he started doing this and some avati ladies came in and said, what are you doing? 429 00:34:10,078 --> 00:34:12,301 And he said, oh, we're strengthening the pillars. 430 00:34:12,321 --> 00:34:13,362 They would have been wooden pillars. 431 00:34:13,422 --> 00:34:15,666 He said, yes, you put oil on them and it strengthens them. 432 00:34:15,686 --> 00:34:18,590 Now don't stay here because you won't like the smell. 433 00:34:19,291 --> 00:34:22,095 And so he sent them off and they all went into their rooms and closed the doors. 434 00:34:23,157 --> 00:34:28,625 Locked all their rooms and lit everything on fire and locked the other door and went on his way. 435 00:34:32,871 --> 00:34:34,393 The monks heard about this 436 00:34:35,622 --> 00:34:52,370 and went back, before what happened, the monks went back to find the Buddha, to tell the Buddha they heard about this on Amsran, saw the palace burning and they heard what happened, went to see the Buddha and the Buddha said, oh, this is the way of samsara. 437 00:34:53,091 --> 00:35:00,583 And he said, all of these ladies actually, oh, what happened, sorry, I forgot the most important part is that 438 00:35:01,137 --> 00:35:11,737 While they were burning, once they found out what was happening and they found out that the doors were locked, she said to all of the ladies in waiting, she said, again, we have no refuge except for our practice. 439 00:35:11,757 --> 00:35:16,727 And she said, do you exert yourself, everyone exert yourselves in practice. 440 00:35:16,747 --> 00:35:21,576 And so the commentary says, by exerting themselves on the mindfulness of Vedana, 441 00:35:21,556 --> 00:35:30,908 the pain, even as their bodies were burning and the heat was enveloping them, some of them became Sotapanna, some of them became Sakidagami, some of them became Anagami. 442 00:35:31,809 --> 00:35:33,792 So none of the... And this is what the Buddha said. 443 00:35:33,812 --> 00:35:37,116 He said, well, they were... that they were not negligent. 444 00:35:37,156 --> 00:35:38,558 These people were Appamada. 445 00:35:39,479 --> 00:35:41,021 They were heedful or vigilant. 446 00:35:41,361 --> 00:35:50,533 And so even at the moment of death, being burnt to death, they alerted themselves in the meditation, obviously saying to themselves, pain, pain, and watching their emotions and... 447 00:35:50,513 --> 00:35:53,118 It's an incredible practice and one that really helps you let go. 448 00:35:53,159 --> 00:36:03,701 I mean, this is why in meditation we always say how good it is to look at the pain and how good it is for you to experience these difficulties. 449 00:36:04,282 --> 00:36:09,653 If you don't have the difficulties, if it's not unpleasant to you, you'll never let go. 450 00:36:09,633 --> 00:36:24,480 So we're looking at this unpleasantness again and again and again until finally the mind gets it that actually this really the whole of this being that we cling to is a cause for suffering and unpleasantness. 451 00:36:24,540 --> 00:36:29,970 So the mind lets go and it won't come back to have to be born again and again and again. 452 00:36:29,950 --> 00:36:31,292 I mean, this is the idea. 453 00:36:31,352 --> 00:36:33,456 Some people like to be born again and again and again. 454 00:36:33,696 --> 00:36:37,923 But what you see in the meditation is actually it doesn't come down to being burnt alive. 455 00:36:37,963 --> 00:36:46,256 Actually, you can see that the way the body and the mind work, there's really nothing beneficial or wonderful about them at all, and the mind lets go. 456 00:36:47,358 --> 00:36:48,559 And so this is what happened with them. 457 00:36:49,761 --> 00:36:54,288 And so the Buddha said they got their just desserts. 458 00:36:54,789 --> 00:36:56,532 None of them, they all got what they deserved. 459 00:36:58,283 --> 00:37:27,615 which is an interesting thing and we'll see why the Buddha said that actually and so the king then the king rushed in trying to he heard about this and he rushed in trying to put out the fire and found out that he was too late and they had all been burnt to death and he was so sad so grieved and he thought who could have done such a horrible deed and immediately he thought of Magandiya and he thought to himself well if I accuse her she'll never admit it so he said oh he thought of a plan he said oh 460 00:37:28,557 --> 00:37:30,163 How wonderful. 461 00:37:31,527 --> 00:37:36,572 Before, when Sama Wadi was still alive, I was always afraid of my life. 462 00:37:36,592 --> 00:37:38,293 I never knew what was going to happen. 463 00:37:38,414 --> 00:37:39,575 I could never trust her. 464 00:37:40,195 --> 00:37:41,877 Now I can sleep well at night. 465 00:37:42,537 --> 00:37:49,604 He said, boy, if only I knew who had done this, I could reward them so great, so highly reward them. 466 00:37:49,944 --> 00:37:56,591 I should treat them with great honor for having done this wonderful, having relieved me of this. 467 00:37:56,871 --> 00:37:59,053 Now I don't have to think of a way to kill her myself. 468 00:37:59,033 --> 00:38:05,491 And Magandiya, of course, held up her hand and said, Oh, Kim, it was me who did it all by myself. 469 00:38:05,591 --> 00:38:09,522 I thought it up and I gave the orders. 470 00:38:10,324 --> 00:38:13,212 You, Magandiya, oh, you're the only one who loves me. 471 00:38:14,677 --> 00:38:17,081 She said, come, I want to give you a reward. 472 00:38:17,181 --> 00:38:18,503 Bring all of your relatives. 473 00:38:19,865 --> 00:38:22,770 And she said, with the help of my relatives, I did. 474 00:38:22,790 --> 00:38:26,756 So bring all of your relatives, I will give you all a reward. 475 00:38:26,776 --> 00:38:30,202 And so everyone heard that Magandiya's relatives were going to get a reward. 476 00:38:30,222 --> 00:38:33,968 So people who weren't even related to Magandiya, they started saying, 477 00:38:33,948 --> 00:38:36,012 Oh, yes, I'm a Gandhian's relative. 478 00:38:36,032 --> 00:38:37,234 And so, oh, come on, God. 479 00:38:37,876 --> 00:38:41,923 Got them all in and brought them into the courtyard in front of the king. 480 00:38:42,685 --> 00:38:55,129 And the king had them dig big pits up to waist height, had them all put into these pits and the ground covered up and had the whole courtyard covered in straw. 481 00:38:56,206 --> 00:39:00,651 and lit the straw on fire, burning these people to a crisp. 482 00:39:00,671 --> 00:39:07,578 And I believe the idea is that they were still alive after that, their skin having these terrible burns, but still alive. 483 00:39:08,079 --> 00:39:14,366 And then he had the ground with them in it, plowed with an iron plow. 484 00:39:14,386 --> 00:39:17,309 And that's not the worst of it, because they didn't do that to Magandiya. 485 00:39:18,170 --> 00:39:19,952 What they did to Magandiya herself, 486 00:39:21,535 --> 00:39:35,376 He tied her up and took a knife and cut pieces of her flesh, roasted them, deep fried them in oil and had her eat them. 487 00:39:35,677 --> 00:39:36,838 This is the cruelty of kings. 488 00:39:36,879 --> 00:39:39,402 You have to think Udena is not such a good guy himself. 489 00:39:40,404 --> 00:39:43,088 This is the story of Samavati and Magandiya. 490 00:39:44,131 --> 00:39:47,177 So then the monks started asking these questions amongst themselves. 491 00:39:47,437 --> 00:39:52,406 They said, hmm, I wonder where these, you know, what can you say about these two? 492 00:39:53,188 --> 00:39:55,211 Can you really consider that Samavati is dead? 493 00:39:55,252 --> 00:39:57,836 Magandiya, is she the one that's dead? 494 00:39:59,018 --> 00:40:00,461 Which of these would we consider to be dead? 495 00:40:00,481 --> 00:40:02,044 It was kind of a philosophical talk. 496 00:40:02,064 --> 00:40:03,627 And the Buddha asked, what are you talking about? 497 00:40:03,667 --> 00:40:04,168 They told him. 498 00:40:05,110 --> 00:40:07,995 And the Buddha said, this is where he said these verses. 499 00:40:09,781 --> 00:40:11,464 And this is with a context for it. 500 00:40:11,484 --> 00:40:12,826 So, who is really dead? 501 00:40:12,886 --> 00:40:18,494 And the Buddha said, apamado, heedfulness, is the path to immortality. 502 00:40:19,616 --> 00:40:25,745 Those who are negligent and, of course, evil, go to death. 503 00:40:26,206 --> 00:40:31,193 He said, apamata namiyanti, the heedful, people like Samavati, never die. 504 00:40:32,916 --> 00:40:37,122 But the heedless are as if already dead. 505 00:40:38,705 --> 00:40:39,687 and so on. 506 00:40:41,389 --> 00:40:43,753 Now the monks asked, what had happened to Mugandira? 507 00:40:47,319 --> 00:40:48,361 I guess we can tell this part. 508 00:40:48,541 --> 00:40:49,903 What had happened to Samavati? 509 00:40:49,923 --> 00:40:53,249 He said, well, how did Samavati really deserve what had happened to her? 510 00:40:53,950 --> 00:40:57,435 And the Buddha said, well, if you look at just this life, it doesn't look like she deserved it at all. 511 00:40:58,197 --> 00:41:04,527 But what happened is, way back in the past, she and her ladies had 512 00:41:06,143 --> 00:41:09,889 I think they had been queen, she had been a queen, and these were her ladies-in-waiting at the time. 513 00:41:10,910 --> 00:41:14,916 And they wanted to make a fire for the king. 514 00:41:16,218 --> 00:41:18,541 And they wanted to set this grass on fire or something. 515 00:41:18,561 --> 00:41:23,108 They saw this grass, and they wanted to clear it or something, and so they lit it all on fire. 516 00:41:23,849 --> 00:41:25,772 Turns out there was a Pachayka Buddha. 517 00:41:25,752 --> 00:41:43,678 a Buddha, an enlightened being, sitting in the middle of the grass, sitting in, actually, in a high meditative attainment state, a state of high meditation, state of meditation, anyway, high state of meditation, meditative attainment. 518 00:41:43,698 --> 00:41:46,101 And so they were afraid. 519 00:41:46,122 --> 00:41:47,784 They thought he must have died as a result. 520 00:41:47,804 --> 00:41:49,206 And it turns out they knew this guy. 521 00:41:49,266 --> 00:41:55,455 This Buddha was supported by the king, and the king 522 00:41:55,908 --> 00:41:57,110 was always giving him food. 523 00:41:58,031 --> 00:42:03,618 So they knew the king would be very, very angry at them if he found out that they had burnt this guy. 524 00:42:04,259 --> 00:42:05,801 And they said, oh, we have to get rid of him. 525 00:42:05,821 --> 00:42:07,303 They thought, oh, he's still there. 526 00:42:07,343 --> 00:42:08,665 He must have died. 527 00:42:09,686 --> 00:42:12,891 Truth is, when you're in these states, even fire can't hurt you. 528 00:42:12,911 --> 00:42:14,693 This is what they said. 529 00:42:15,888 --> 00:42:16,669 So he wasn't dead. 530 00:42:16,689 --> 00:42:18,051 He was actually perfectly fine. 531 00:42:18,652 --> 00:42:20,034 And so they said, let's get rid of him. 532 00:42:20,094 --> 00:42:31,250 And so they put wood all around him and piled wood up all on top of him and lit him on fire again and went away thinking, ah, now he'll burn to a crisp. 533 00:42:31,270 --> 00:42:32,693 Turns out he didn't burn to a crisp. 534 00:42:32,753 --> 00:42:36,558 Seven days later, he got up and all, of course, the fire was totally gone. 535 00:42:36,638 --> 00:42:41,946 And he got up and looked around and went on his way. 536 00:42:43,428 --> 00:42:52,538 But as a result of that, as a result of the evil, see the first time they had no evil in their minds, but the second time they did a very evil deed to burn this Buddha. 537 00:42:52,558 --> 00:42:55,382 And as a result, so it says, they were burnt in this life. 538 00:42:55,402 --> 00:42:59,746 Because it weighed heavily on their mind, the guilt that was in their mind. 539 00:42:59,767 --> 00:43:00,227 Their minds. 540 00:43:00,848 --> 00:43:04,772 Even though they actually didn't kill the guy, but they had bad intentions, so it says. 541 00:43:04,992 --> 00:43:06,474 Okay, this is the story. 542 00:43:06,494 --> 00:43:11,680 And apologies, it's actually much longer than that even, but that's quite long enough. 543 00:43:11,660 --> 00:43:17,349 The important thing is this is the beginning of the Appamada Vagga, which is the most important teaching of the Buddha. 544 00:43:17,369 --> 00:43:21,597 As it says here in the commentary, what do we say of Appamada in the Samyutta Nikaya? 545 00:43:22,418 --> 00:43:35,760 The Buddha says this, he says, just like all of the footprints of all animals that exist, that walk on land, can fit inside the footprint of the elephant, in the same way all of the teachings of the Buddha 546 00:43:36,398 --> 00:43:39,042 fit inside this teaching on appamada. 547 00:43:39,062 --> 00:43:42,628 This is how important the Buddha took this teaching to be. 548 00:43:43,589 --> 00:43:53,985 This is also the last words of the Buddha, appamadena sampadita, develop yourselves, perfect yourselves, and become full of heedfulness. 549 00:43:56,598 --> 00:44:01,043 So what does it mean to say that someone who is heedful doesn't die? 550 00:44:02,425 --> 00:44:05,789 Basically, we're looking again at the idea of death. 551 00:44:06,170 --> 00:44:10,274 And really the truth is that death itself is only a concept. 552 00:44:10,635 --> 00:44:18,104 But if we're looking at absolute death or ultimate sense, death is this momentary birth and death of our experience. 553 00:44:18,124 --> 00:44:21,508 When you experience seeing or hearing or smelling or tasting or feeling, 554 00:44:21,488 --> 00:44:23,271 Or thinking, that's birth. 555 00:44:23,572 --> 00:44:25,796 And when the experience ceases, that's death. 556 00:44:25,816 --> 00:44:30,305 So we're experiencing constant death and birth, death and birth in every moment. 557 00:44:31,066 --> 00:44:39,683 So someone who is heedful is able to overcome this and is able to enter into nibbana, which is free from arising and therefore free from ceasing. 558 00:44:41,182 --> 00:44:42,304 That's what that means. 559 00:44:42,324 --> 00:44:47,532 What does it mean to say that a person who is heedless is as though one who is already dead? 560 00:44:48,053 --> 00:44:52,720 I think this is how you can say a person who is heedful dies. 561 00:44:53,221 --> 00:44:56,085 Because on the one hand they have to be born and die again and again and again. 562 00:44:56,125 --> 00:45:01,333 And they'll have to keep coming back, being born again, sometimes in hell, sometimes in heaven. 563 00:45:01,313 --> 00:45:05,901 always subject to more and more based on their clinging and their craving. 564 00:45:06,462 --> 00:45:07,263 So lots of stress. 565 00:45:08,064 --> 00:45:10,188 Even in heaven, people have, beings have stress. 566 00:45:10,709 --> 00:45:12,191 They worry about dying still. 567 00:45:12,692 --> 00:45:18,462 When they come to the end of their term, they might go back to the human world and eventually back to hell. 568 00:45:20,467 --> 00:45:27,233 But the most important part of this teaching is that one who is negligent, it doesn't matter whether they're born or die, they're as if already dead. 569 00:45:27,914 --> 00:45:33,699 And so this is what you should see in the meditation, that actually it's a part of being born or a part of waking up. 570 00:45:34,399 --> 00:45:35,440 And you really feel like this. 571 00:45:35,500 --> 00:45:41,846 Like before I started practicing meditation, I was alive, but really it's only a name. 572 00:45:41,866 --> 00:45:44,328 It wasn't as though I was alive really at all. 573 00:45:44,348 --> 00:45:48,972 It was more as though I was dead or asleep, sleepwalking. 574 00:45:48,952 --> 00:45:54,077 When you come to meditate, you wake up to so much and you're able to see clearly what's going on. 575 00:45:54,698 --> 00:46:02,726 You're able to see clearly your habits and your reactions and how you've built these up just out of the darkness of ignorance that you've carried with you. 576 00:46:02,766 --> 00:46:03,887 This is why we get angry. 577 00:46:03,927 --> 00:46:05,108 This is why we get greedy. 578 00:46:05,149 --> 00:46:10,734 This is why we are conceited and arrogant and attached to so many things. 579 00:46:11,615 --> 00:46:13,137 Why we are judgmental. 580 00:46:13,217 --> 00:46:14,218 Why we are partial. 581 00:46:15,039 --> 00:46:18,402 All of this comes from our negligence, our 582 00:46:19,327 --> 00:46:29,763 our laziness, really, in doing our duty, in not applying ourselves to our experience, not being careful. 583 00:46:30,444 --> 00:46:33,108 Another way of translating this is carefulness and carelessness. 584 00:46:33,749 --> 00:46:38,777 Simply by not being careful, not being thorough when we do something, even when we're eating. 585 00:46:39,979 --> 00:46:42,803 When we eat food, 586 00:46:42,783 --> 00:46:50,958 Every moment we're giving rise to craving and maybe we don't like this food so we're giving rise to aversion and we're feeding this partiality. 587 00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:59,593 Simply because of going by our old habits and going by ignorance and delusion and thinking that this is the way to find happiness and peace. 588 00:46:59,894 --> 00:47:01,496 When we come to meditate, you can see this. 589 00:47:01,536 --> 00:47:02,817 You can see your attachments. 590 00:47:02,837 --> 00:47:04,319 You can see your aversions. 591 00:47:04,940 --> 00:47:08,604 And you realize that they've just been cultivated. 592 00:47:08,644 --> 00:47:13,330 We've just been growing these like weeds in a garden or like fungus in the dark. 593 00:47:13,350 --> 00:47:20,398 And once you shine the sun in, all of the fungus, all of the rot dries up and fades away. 594 00:47:22,381 --> 00:47:26,025 A person who is negligent, it doesn't matter what they do or who they are. 595 00:47:26,526 --> 00:47:27,707 They will always be 596 00:47:28,126 --> 00:47:32,233 leading themselves to more suffering because they're like a person flailing around in the dark. 597 00:47:33,135 --> 00:47:36,981 Their life has no meaning, so therefore they're as if one who is already dead. 598 00:47:37,903 --> 00:47:47,820 So seeing this difference, when you come to practice meditation and you see the difference between the two, you set yourself and automatically the mind begins to change. 599 00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:53,830 Once you see things clearly and you apply yourselves to see things as they are, the mind can never go back to that. 600 00:47:53,894 --> 00:48:05,270 It sees something it's never seen before, and this is the suffering that follows necessarily from craving, from evil. 601 00:48:05,970 --> 00:48:09,355 So it will never go back and give rise to craving or partiality again. 602 00:48:10,577 --> 00:48:15,143 These wise ones set themselves in heedfulness or carefulness. 603 00:48:17,013 --> 00:48:18,014 And they delight in it. 604 00:48:18,495 --> 00:48:19,416 They rejoice in it. 605 00:48:19,516 --> 00:48:21,319 And this is what you gain from the meditation. 606 00:48:21,339 --> 00:48:25,484 It may not feel like it in the middle because you're suffering from all of this bad stuff. 607 00:48:26,105 --> 00:48:29,069 But once you come out of it, it's such a joy. 608 00:48:29,109 --> 00:48:41,505 And you have this great peace and happiness in your life, feeling very viscerally this freedom, like an open space that you've gained, whereas before it was like you were suffocating. 609 00:48:42,206 --> 00:48:43,929 And you feel this great weight lifted off. 610 00:48:44,269 --> 00:48:45,771 So you rejoice in it. 611 00:48:45,751 --> 00:48:48,175 And you dwell in the resort of the noble ones. 612 00:48:49,076 --> 00:48:51,980 Because the resort of the noble ones is to be mindful all the time. 613 00:48:53,583 --> 00:48:55,325 So how do you do it? 614 00:48:55,466 --> 00:48:58,210 De jai no satatika. 615 00:48:58,230 --> 00:49:00,133 You do it by meditating constantly. 616 00:49:00,153 --> 00:49:03,778 Satatika means incessantly or continuously. 617 00:49:04,499 --> 00:49:09,126 So the idea is not to just do, now I'll do meditation and then stop and then meditation. 618 00:49:09,106 --> 00:49:18,722 It's to be mindful all the time, even here when we're sitting, even when you're walking, when you're eating your food, to try to be mindful in everything you do, and to take it as a meditation. 619 00:49:18,762 --> 00:49:26,895 This means setting up your effort, which means the opposite of a 620 00:49:26,875 --> 00:49:30,160 Nikcham means permanently, really. 621 00:49:30,561 --> 00:49:32,283 To be permanently set in your efforts. 622 00:49:32,363 --> 00:49:47,046 So it means that you never give up your effort, never give up your working to get rid of the evil things inside, to develop good things, and to protect yourself from giving rise to evil and to protect the good things inside. 623 00:49:47,066 --> 00:49:49,710 Pusantidhira nibhanam. 624 00:49:49,730 --> 00:49:51,853 These wise ones touch nibhanam. 625 00:49:53,335 --> 00:50:00,086 How this happens, through exerting yourself and continuously practicing meditation, you start to see things clearly. 626 00:50:00,326 --> 00:50:02,390 You start to see the connections and the relations. 627 00:50:02,730 --> 00:50:04,513 But more importantly, you see the suffering. 628 00:50:04,693 --> 00:50:11,905 And you see that all of this being and this experience that we have is meaningless, is useless. 629 00:50:12,025 --> 00:50:16,272 The attraction you had, thinking this will bring me happiness, that will bring me happiness, 630 00:50:16,252 --> 00:50:17,414 is delusion. 631 00:50:17,914 --> 00:50:24,344 And you start to see that, that actually it's only bringing more and more attachment, more and more addiction, and more and more suffering. 632 00:50:25,906 --> 00:50:29,231 The mind changes, and the mind begins to look at these things as boring. 633 00:50:29,251 --> 00:50:33,257 This is where you get to the point where it seems like everything is the same, same old, same old. 634 00:50:33,277 --> 00:50:35,560 You really don't want to look at them anymore. 635 00:50:35,540 --> 00:50:40,485 And you keep looking and looking until finally the mind gets it and says, I want to be free from this. 636 00:50:40,545 --> 00:50:42,387 It gives rise to a desire to be free. 637 00:50:42,427 --> 00:50:46,451 Some people run away as a result, thinking, well then I'll go back home and I won't have to deal with this. 638 00:50:46,711 --> 00:50:48,713 But of course if you go home you take it all with you. 639 00:50:49,674 --> 00:50:53,338 So they don't generally actually want to go home, but they're desperate. 640 00:50:53,358 --> 00:50:55,060 And the mind is really looking for a way out. 641 00:50:55,100 --> 00:50:56,121 And that's really important. 642 00:50:56,641 --> 00:51:01,005 Because as you apply yourself again and again, eventually the mind will just have had enough. 643 00:51:01,926 --> 00:51:05,530 When it becomes unbearable, that's when the mind will let go. 644 00:51:05,510 --> 00:51:10,918 The mind will refuse to bear it anymore, refuse to go out, refuse to cling again. 645 00:51:10,958 --> 00:51:12,601 I'm going to cling again, and it's good. 646 00:51:12,621 --> 00:51:17,528 And then you hurt yourself again and again until finally the mind says, no, I'm not going to cling. 647 00:51:18,870 --> 00:51:19,671 And that's nibbana. 648 00:51:19,691 --> 00:51:23,898 The mind doesn't mean you just sit there, but it means actually the mind goes out. 649 00:51:24,218 --> 00:51:25,620 No more seeing, no more hearing. 650 00:51:26,021 --> 00:51:27,063 It goes in, actually. 651 00:51:27,083 --> 00:51:29,827 No more coming out to see, hear, smell, taste, feel, or think. 652 00:51:30,788 --> 00:51:31,990 The mind becomes free. 653 00:51:32,864 --> 00:51:40,854 That is called touching Nibbana, which is the supreme yoga kemanganuttara, which is the supreme freedom from bondage. 654 00:51:42,336 --> 00:51:46,662 Because we're only bound to suffering because of our attachment. 655 00:51:47,122 --> 00:51:53,310 Once you don't attach, once the mind is truly unattached, it will not even go out to the suffering again. 656 00:51:53,811 --> 00:52:02,702 It will constantly come back inside until finally this life is gone, and for the arahant, the mind... 657 00:52:02,682 --> 00:52:09,081 gives rise to no further becoming, and there is no more birth, and therefore no more aging, sickness, or death. 658 00:52:10,529 --> 00:52:16,574 So this is the meaning of these three verses and the rather long story that goes with them. 659 00:52:16,594 --> 00:52:17,916 So that's the teaching for today. 660 00:52:19,057 --> 00:52:23,080 And I think the application to our practice is quite relevant. 661 00:52:23,260 --> 00:52:29,806 The Buddha was very clear that this is the important thing to take in our practice, is to be careful. 662 00:52:29,866 --> 00:52:32,829 So we should constantly be bringing ourselves back. 663 00:52:33,270 --> 00:52:39,355 As my teacher, he gave an example of a man who's, a person who's 664 00:52:39,335 --> 00:52:47,646 rocking a cradle, you have to constantly rock the cradle just carefully so as not to wake the baby. 665 00:52:48,327 --> 00:52:59,301 The same way you have to, with your practice, you have to keep constant watch and to do it smoothly so that your practice never gets broken off course when you wake the baby. 666 00:52:59,281 --> 00:53:03,229 your practice will fall off, of course. 667 00:53:03,250 --> 00:53:07,819 A person who's practicing meditation should do it as though they're rocking a baby's cradle. 668 00:53:08,260 --> 00:53:08,641 Careful. 669 00:53:08,741 --> 00:53:11,868 As the Buddha said, as though carrying a pot full of oil. 670 00:53:11,908 --> 00:53:14,674 The story of this man who 671 00:53:14,654 --> 00:53:24,853 Buddha told the story of a man who was carrying a pot of oil and he said, I want you to carry this pot of oil full to the brim through the whole city during a festival. 672 00:53:25,554 --> 00:53:29,041 There was a festival and all these dancing and games and so on. 673 00:53:29,602 --> 00:53:33,108 And what we're going to do is we're going to have a man walk behind you with a sword. 674 00:53:34,070 --> 00:53:37,236 And if you spill one drop of that oil, we're going to cut your head off. 675 00:53:37,216 --> 00:53:42,288 And the Buddha said, now suppose there was such a man, and suppose such a thing happened. 676 00:53:42,308 --> 00:53:46,959 Now do you think he would be distracted by the dancing, by the singing, by the games and the sports? 677 00:53:47,720 --> 00:53:49,745 And the monk said, no, no, probably he wouldn't. 678 00:53:50,667 --> 00:53:56,220 And the Buddha said, then you should take this similarly to heart and you should act like that and be constantly vigilant. 679 00:53:58,259 --> 00:53:59,562 This is what is meant by this. 680 00:53:59,582 --> 00:54:02,828 So this is an element of our practice, the key element. 681 00:54:02,848 --> 00:54:07,276 The other reason why it's the key element is because it's a synonym for mindfulness. 682 00:54:07,998 --> 00:54:18,478 The Buddha said, sada sattva, the person who is constantly, always mindful, that is what is meant by appamadha. 683 00:54:20,804 --> 00:54:38,948 So our practice of mindfulness, where we know things as they are, where we're clearly aware, when a thought comes up we know it as thinking, when pain comes up we know it as pain, not letting our mind extrapolate on it and proliferate and make more of it than it is, simply seeing it for what it is, until the point that our mind 684 00:54:38,928 --> 00:54:46,983 settles and this changes its behavior, seeing the difference between going out and clinging and just simply knowing what it is. 685 00:54:47,063 --> 00:54:53,154 And it starts to rejoice and feel such great peace and freedom in just seeing things as they are. 686 00:54:53,936 --> 00:55:00,267 So this is the teaching and hopefully a good explanation of how it relates to our practice. 687 00:55:00,869 --> 00:55:04,395 Thanks for listening and now back to our meditation.