Good evening and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.
Tonight we continue on with verse number 81, which reads as follows.
Se lo yatha eka ghano vaten na samirati evang ninda pasang sasu na samin janti pandita
which means just as a rock that is a single hunk in the sense of having no cracks or it's a solid piece of granite the just as the winds don't stir the rock don't disturb the rock wind can never make it waver even so a wang
In regards to Ninda, which is blame or criticism, insult.
Pasangsa, which is praise.
In the face of praise and blame, Natsaminjanti Pandita, the wise do not quiver, waver, are not stirred, are not moved.
This was given in regards to Lakuntaka Baddhya, a monk who was short.
His name was Baddhya, or whether that was his name or not.
Baddhya just means a royal or a high or a high class person, I think.
But it could be a name.
Yesterday I think we had, was also, no, yesterday was, sorry, the story that we had yesterday was similar to the one of Badia Raja, who was a king named Badia.
So Badia is maybe a common name, maybe it's an appellation.
We'll take it as a name, I guess.
But they called him Lakuntaka because he was a dwarf.
He was short, to say the least.
He was a dwarf.
and like many dwarves have to go through he suffered at the hands of the novice monks and the unconverted they say so those who were who hadn't yet realized the buddhist teaching unconverted i think is an old form the word would be the ordinary people people who haven't come to see it on a deeper level that things like
taunting and poking fun at people because of their height.
That's not a cool thing to do to those sorts of people.
In fact, this sort of thing happened in Thailand when I was there.
It's funny, the sort of things that happen.
It's a different culture, I guess.
Like if someone had dark skin, they'd make jokes about them being very black.
We were up on a mountain once, and one of the monks said, Oh, if we leave you here, when we come back, the clouds will be all dark.
That sort of thing just wouldn't fly in our country, in the West.
And things like calling people fat, they don't really have a problem with talking about people being fat or that kind of thing.
In Thailand there was one monk who was very short and he was constantly being harassed by the other monks, just joking and picking on him.
But I think another thing is in Thailand they have thicker skins, which means they don't respond so strongly to insults and criticisms.
I don't know.
On the other hand, I've also seen monks get up and start fist fights.
Yeah, different culture.
But in the time of the Buddha, this was also a thing.
But the story is just a simple expression of the fact that he didn't respond.
He didn't get upset.
He didn't lash out at them.
Probably because he was an Arahant.
But it's one of those stories that shows the expression.
It's an example of the expression of an Arahant, how an Arahant deals with things.
And it's good for us to compare with how we deal with things.
If someone picked on your height or your weight or your color of your skin or that kind of thing, how would you feel?
How do you handle it when someone points out flaws like your teeth are not straight or your head's going bald?
Someone actually said something really funny today.
I don't know, I don't want to poke fun, but it was really a nice someone.
I mean, everyone's so young here.
It's funny.
It kind of surprises me that these people are actually third and fourth year university students, because they seem very, very young all of a sudden.
And it's like I'm in a time warp coming back so many years later.
But this woman came up to me, and the student came up to me and said,
I wanted to know about Buddhism.
I wanted to know why I was wearing robes, actually.
That's how people start the conversation.
But she was interested, and she's probably coming to the Peace Walk tomorrow.
But she said, how old are you?
And I said, 36.
And she said, oh, you look really good for 36.
And I thought, what?
36 is really, is old?
Kind of funny.
I mean, that was actually a compliment, but it could easily go the other way.
I've heard that and people say, oh, you're only 36.
In Thailand it was like that.
Many people were surprised that I wasn't much older.
And actually when I was like 25 I was already going bald, I think.
They were like, you're only 25?
Which of course wouldn't be good for the ego.
But we're very much against holding on to the ego.
So it's good to have these kind of things happen.
Good to be tested.
But it's also good for us to see an example like this,
who wasn't affected by praise or blame.
Praise and blame are two of the eight, what we call lokiyadhamma or lokadhamma.
The dhammas of the world, they're truths in the world.
And they say you can't be free from praise and blame.
You can't say you're always going to be praised.
They also can be translated as the vicissitudes of life.
As in the Mangala Sutta where it says, It says basically the same thing as this verse.
The greatest blessing is when someone who is touched by the Dhammas of the world, the worldly Dhammas, worldly truths,
the characteristics of the world, the aspects of existence.
Jittang yasana kampati, whoever's mind doesn't waver.
Basically the same thing.
This is the greatest blessing.
And it's really a good expression of our practice.
So to jump right into what this verse means to our practice,
This is really what it's all about, because if you've started practicing in this tradition, you can see that the mind is very apt, very quick to waver, quick to respond, quick to react.
And this is what we mean by wavering.
Forget about praise and blame, just sitting still.
We react to pain, we react to itching, we react to heat and cold and noise if we're trying to meditate and there's noise.
We react to our thoughts, we react to our emotions, we react to just about everything.
So our mind is constantly wavering.
And then it extends into our life as well.
Throughout our daily life we're worried about this, afraid of that, angry about this, wanting that, tossed and turned by the vicissitudes of life.
And so the answer to a lot of life's problems are simply stop wavering, stop reacting, stand firm like a mountain, like a stone.
stand firm like a rock, unwavering, unmoved, unshaken.
I guess it's a little bit
We have a little bit of a wrong idea, usually, of what it means to not waver.
We think that somehow you have to force yourself not to react, and so on.
And so in ordinary usage, we talk about, people will talk about being strong, stay strong.
Like as though you have to repress your feelings and grit and bear it, or grin and bear it, or something.
Bite your teeth.
Don't react.
Keep a stiff upper lip, that kind of thing.
But that's not what it means at all.
And that's what's so great about insight meditation.
It's in a totally different category from any kind of forced repression of reactions.
And that's important because what you realize after some time is repression doesn't really work.
Forcing yourself to be a good person, forcing yourself to be strong, forcing yourself not to react, forcing yourself in general is unsustainable.
So we start to get the idea, well, just forget that.
Let's just eat, drink and be merry because there's no way to... Repression is not good.
So...
Unknowingly, in modern times, we've come to see what the profound thinkers in the Buddhist time were also seeing, that there's only two extremes and you have to choose between them.
And nobody, very few people are able to see the middle way between this self-torture and indulgence.
Usually it's one didn't work, so we'd try the other one.
The other one didn't work, so we'd try the first one.
The Buddha taught the middle way, and that's why this middle way idea is so important.
It's the middle way between these two extremes.
It's not wavering.
It's not repressing at all.
It's seeing so clearly.
that you have nothing to react about.
It's like you already knew, you were already expecting it.
It doesn't surprise you, it doesn't impact on your mind at all.
It comes totally known and understood into your mind.
When it arises, you understand it.
When it ceases, you understand it.
And that's all that happens.
You were at peace before it arose, you're at peace after it leaves.
This is what we strive for, not repression, not forcing, not going somewhere or becoming something, but giving up and letting go and seeing clearly and understanding the nature of our experience, the nature of reality.
And then when someone calls you a buffalo, you know, I don't have a tail.
How can I be a buffalo?
Someone calls you short, well, I'm short.
I knew that already.
So if you're fat and someone calls you fat, well, yeah, I'm fat.
There's no reason to get upset.
Getting upset doesn't help.
It's a flawed reaction.
It hurts you.
It causes friction between you and the other party.
It doesn't make you any taller.
It doesn't change reality.
We get so incensed by these things.
Sometimes reasonably so.
For example, judging people by the color of their skin is no small thing.
It's obviously led to an incredible amount of suffering for large numbers of people.
And so the same goes for prejudice against short or tall people or fat people, that kind of thing.
There's no question that these novices were wrong.
What's just amazing is that in the face of such wrong, there was no anger, there was no reaction, there was no backlash, there was no enmity from the part of Lakuntaka Bandhya.
And that's what's great about an arahant is they've let go.
They've risen above this.
They have no quarrel with anyone.
And thus they're able to live with and be at peace with everyone.
And everything, no matter what dhammas arise, whether it be praise or blame or fame or infamy or wealth or poverty, happiness or suffering.
Their mind doesn't waver.
They are unsaddened.
They are free from sorrow, sorrowless.
Without any stains or stainless, means without any...
evil in their hearts ke mang safe it's true safety in fact invincibility because if nothing can affect you then no one can ever hurt you and no circumstance can ever cause you suffering because you don't react you don't um you don't waver you weren't shaken unshaken this is the highest blessing
And this is why ninda-pasang-sasu na saminjanti-bandita.
In regards to praise and blame, the wise do not waver, are unshaken, just like a rock, like a solid rock.
It's not shaken by the wind.
It's not moved by the wind.
Samirati.
It's not tossed about by the wind.
So that's the Dhammapada for tonight.
Thank you all for tuning in.
Keep practicing.