The way of the Path

The best path is the Eightfold path. This is the only Way. There is none other for the purity of vision. Do you follow this path?. This is the bewilderment of Mara.

Magga Wagga - The Dhammapada
 

Are you a hasty critic of people?

Once the Venerable Ananda, having dressed in the morning, took his bowl and went to the house of the female lay disciple Migasala, where he sat down on the seat prepared for him. The female lay disciple Migasala, after having paid homage to him, sat down to one side and said to him:

"Please, venerable sir, how ought one to understand this teaching taught by the Blessed One: namely, that one who leads the pure, celibate life and one who does not should both have the very same status after death? My father Purana, venerable sir, was (in his later years) a celibate, living remote from sensuality, abstaining from the low sexual life; and when my father died, the Blessed One declared that he had attained to the state of a once-returner and had been reborn among the Tusita devas.

"But then, venerable sir, there was my father's brother Isidatta, who was not a celibate but lived a contented married life. When he died the Blessed One said that he too was a once-returned and had been reborn among the Tusita devas.

"Now, Venerable Ananda, how ought one to understand this statement of the Blessed One, that both had the very same status?"

"Well, sister, it was just in that way that the Blessed One had declared it." When the Venerable Ananda had taken his almsfood at the house of the female lay disciple Migasala, he rose from his seat and left. And in the afternoon, after meal time, he went to the Blessed One, paid homage to him, and sat down to one side. So seated, he told the Blessed One what had occurred.

The Blessed One said: "Who, indeed, is this female lay disciple Migasala, this foolish, inexperienced woman with a woman's wit? And who (in comparison) are those who have the knowledge of other persons' different qualities?

"There are, Ananda, six types of persons found existing in the world. What six?

"There is one person, Ananda who is gentle, a pleasant companion, with whom his fellow monks gladly live together. But he has not heard the teachings and acquired much learning, he has no keen understanding nor has he attained even temporary liberation of mind. With the breakup of the body, after death, he will be set for decline, not for progress; he will deteriorate and not rise higher.

"Then there is one who is gentle, a pleasant companion, with whom his fellow monks gladly live together. And he has heard the teachings and acquired much learning; he has a keen understanding and had attained temporary liberation of mind. With the breakup of the body, after death, he is set for progress, not for decline; he will rise higher and will not deteriorate.

"Then, Ananda, the critics will pass such judgement: 'This one has the same qualities as the other. Why, then, should one be inferior and the other better?' Such judgement, indeed, will for a long time cause harm and suffering to those critics.

"Now, Ananda, one who has heard the teachings and acquired much learning, who has a keen understanding and attains a temporary liberation of mind - such a one surpasses and excels the other person. And why? Because the Dhamma-stream carries him along. But who can be aware of these differences except a Tathagata, a Perfect One?

"Therefore, Ananda, you should not be a hasty critic of people...

"Further, there is another person prone to anger and pride, and from time to time states of greed rise up in him. And he has not heard the teachings or acquired much learning; he has no keen understanding, nor has he attained even temporary liberation of mind. With the breakup of the body, after death, he will be set for decline, not for progress; he will deteriorate and not rise higher.

"Then there is one likewise prone to anger and pride, and from time to time states of greed rise up in him. But he has heard the teachings and acquired much learning; he has keen understanding and has attained temporary liberation of mind. With the breakup of the body, after death, he is set for progress, not for decline; he will rise higher and will not deteriorate.

"Then, Ananda, the critics will pass such judgement: 'This one has the same qualities as the other. Why, then, should one be inferior and the other better?' Such judgement, indeed, will for a long time cause harm and suffering to those critics.

"Now, Ananda, one who has heard the teachings .... surpasses and excels the other person. And why? Because the Dharmma-stream carries him along. But who can be aware of these differences except a Tathagata, A Perfect One?

"Therefore, Ananda, you should not be a hasty critic of people....

"Further, there is another person prone to anger and pride, and from time to time verbosity rises up in him. And he has not heard the teaching and acquired much learning he has no keen understanding nor has he attained even temporary liberation of mind. With the breakup of the body, after death, he will be set for decline, not for progress; he will deteriorate and not rise higher.

"Then there is one likewise prone to anger and pride, and from time to time verbosity rises up in him. But he has not heard the teachings and acquired much learning; he has keen understnading and has attained temporary liberation of mind. Witht the breakup of the body, after death, he is set for progress, not for decline; he will rise higher and will not deteriorate.

Then, Ananda, the critics will pass such judgement; 'This one has the same qualities as the other. Why, then, should one be inferior and the other better?' Such judgement, indeed, will for a long time cause harm and suffering to those critics.

"Now, Ananda, one who hs heard the teachings and aquired much learning, who has keen undeerstanding and attains temporary liberation of mind - such a one surpasses and excels the other person. And why? Because the Dhamma-stream carries him along. But who can be aware of these differences except a Tathagata, a Perfect One?

"Therefore, Ananda, you should not be a hasty critic of people, should not lightly pass judgement on people. He who passes judgement on people harms himself. I alone, Ananda, or one like me, can judge people.

"Who, indeed, Ananda, is this female lay disciple Migasala, this foolish, inexperienced woman, with a woman's wit? And who (in comparison) are those who have the knowledge of other persons' different qualities?

"These, Ananda, are the six types of persons to be found in this world.

"If Isidatta had possessed the same degree of virtue that Purana had, Purana could not have equalled Isidatta's status. And if Purana had possessed the same wisdom that Isidatta had, Isidatta could not have equalled Purana's status, These two persons, however, were each deficient in one respect."

Anguttara Nikaya

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The problem of conflict

by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

"Since conflict is rooted in envy and avarice, it follows that the path to non-conflict must be a course of relinquishment, of removing the constrictive thoughts and desires that pivot around the notions of "I" and "mine", the drives to identify and to possess."

It is one of the bitterest ironies of human life that although almost all human beings cherish a desire to live in peace, we continually find ourselves caught in conflict, pitted against others in relationships marred by tension, distrust, or open hostility.

This irony is particularly poignant because it is immediately evident to us that cordial, harmonious relations with others are a necessary condition for our own genuine happiness. Not only do such relations allow us to pursue undisturbed the goals we consider essential to our personal fulfilment, but they bring us the deeper joy of meaningful communion with our fellow human beings. Quarrels and disputes, in contrast, are always intrinsically painful.

They lead to a hardening of our subjective armour; they tighten the knots of anger and hate; they erupt in violence and destruction. Indeed, whatever the outcome of conflict may be - whether victory or defeat - the result itself is ultimately harmful for both victor and victim alike.

Nevertheless, although harmonious living promises such rich blessings while conflict entails so much harm and misery, our lives - and the lives of those around us - are usually entangled in a ravelled net of conflicts and disputes.

Conflict may simmer within as silent suspicion and resentment or it may explode into violent rage and devastation. It may involve us at the level of personal relationships, or as members of an ethnic group, a political party, a social class, or a nation. But in one or another of its many manifestations, the presence of conflict in our lives seems inescapable.

Peace and harmony hover in the distance as beautiful dreams or as nobel ideals which we admire from a distance. But when reality knocks and dreams are dispelled, we find ourselves drawn, often against our better judgment, into an arena where the pleasures that we seek exact as their price the hard cash of struggle and contention.

While the Buddha made liberation from suffering the ultimate goal of His teaching, he also sought to teach people how to live in harmony. Such harmony is desirable not only as a source of satisfaction in itself, but also because it is prerequisite for treading the path to the higher freedom.

The final peace of enlightenment can arise only in a mind that is at peace with others, and the mind can only be at peace with others when we are actively committed to a course of training that enables us to remove the roots of conflict buried deep within our hearts.

Once, in ancient India, Sakka, the Ruler of the Gods came to the Buddha and asked: "By what bonds are people bound whereby, though they wish to live in peace, without hate an hostility, they yet live in conflict, with hate and hostility". The Buddha replied: "It is the bonds of envy and avarice that so bind people that, though they wish to live in peace, they live in conflict, with hate and hostility".

If we trace external conflicts back to their source, we will find that they originate not in wealth, position, or possessions, but in the mind itself.

They spring up because we envy others for the things they own and the qualities they possess which we desire for ourselves, and because we are driven by an unquenchable avarice to extend the boundaries of what we can label "mine".

Envy and avarice in turn are grounded in two more fundamental psychological conditions. Envy arises because we identify things as "I", because we perpetually seek to establish a personal identity for ourselves internally and to project that identity outward for others to recognise and accept. Avarice arises because we appropriate: We attempt to carve out a territory for ourselves and to furnish that territory with possessions that will titillate our greed and sense of self-importance.

Since conflict is rooted in envy and avarice, it follows that the path to non-conflict must be a course of relinquishment, of removing the constrictive thoughts and desires that pivot around the notions of "I" and "mine", the drives to identify and to possess.

This course reaches consummation with the full maturity of wisdom, with insight into the empty, selfless nature of all things; for it is this insight which exposes the hollowness of the notions of "I" and "mine" that underlie envy and avarice.

However, although we may now be far from realising the final liberation from clinging, the path leading to it is a gradual one, growing out of simpler, more basic steps that lie very close to our feet. Two such necessary steps are changes in attitude with the power to transmute envy and avarice. One is altruistic joy (Mudita), the ability to view the success of others with the same gladness we experience at our own success.

The other is generosity (Caga), the readiness to give and to relinquish. The former is the specific antidote for envy, the latter the antidote for avarice. What is common to both is that they lift the sense of identity up from its narrow fixation on the self, and expand it so that it encompass others who share our desire to be happy and free from suffering.

As private individuals we cannot hope to resolve by our private will the larger patterns of conflict that engulf the societies and nations to which we belong. We live in a world that thrives on conflict, and in which the forces that mature conflict are pervasive, obstinate, and terribly powerful. But as followers of the Buddha what we can do and must do is to testify by our attitudes and conduct to the supremacy of peace.

We must avoid words and actions that engender animosity; we must always act in ways that will help to heal divisions and demonstrate the value of harmony and concord. The model we must emulate is that provided by the Buddha's description of the true disciple as "one who unites the divided, who promotes friendships, enjoys concord, rejoices in concord, delights in concord, and who speaks words that promote concord."

(Adapted from the Buddhist Publication Society Newsletter No. 13, 1989)