(E13)-01-Ten-Evil-Kamma

You know that karma is intentional action. So if we do any intentional action that harms others, that will give us suffering later. Now the Buddha wanted us to understand that there are ten evil karmas. which are very important for us to know so that we don't perform these ten evil karmas. We know karma comes about through the body, speech and mind. So three of these ten evil karmas come through the body. That is killing other living beings, taking, number two, Taking what is not given. Number three is committing adultery with somebody's wife or somebody's husband, etc. So these are the three evil body kamas you can do. Killing, taking what is not given and adultery. Then there are four evil verbal karmas. The first one is lying, lying or cheating others. The second one is carrying tales and causing people to quarrel and fight. For example, you hear A talking bad about B, then on another occasion you go and report to B what A said about him. and then you cause B to go and quarrel with A. So this kind of speech divides people, causes disharmony. And this is very destructive. Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to do this. Third type of evil verbal karma is cause speech, using foul language, using loud words, etc. is cause speech. The fourth one, is idle gossip, idle chatter, wasting your time. We know that time is very short. Every day we live 24 hours. About 8 hours goes to sleep, to sleeping. Another 8 hours or so goes to work. And then you are left with the balance of 8 hours for you to eat, bathe, dress yourself, go to the toilet, etc. So for most lay people, you're left with one or two hours every day to do what you like. And there is not very much time. A lot of people waste it by watching TV or gambling or doing something like that. So, you're not putting very much, making good use of your time. And we know that life is very short. Around the age of 70 or 70-something, our life would come to an end. So if you are about 50 now, you have about 20 over years. That's not very much time. So you have about 20 new years to celebrate. One goes by, you have 19. Then you're 18, so it's good to count how many New Years you have left, so that you don't waste your time. So these four evil verbal karmas I repeat, one is lying or cheating, number two is carrying tales and cause disharmony, number three is cause speech, number four is idle gossip. Then you have three evil mental karmas. The first one is covetousness, excessive greed, greed for others' things. Second one is ill will, having a lot of anger. Third one is wrong view. And here wrong view refers to worldly wrong view. That means not believing in karma, vipaka. not believing in karma and its result. So these are the three evil mental karmas, covetousness, ill-will and wrong view.

(E13)-02-How-to-aviod-evil

So to avoid doing these evil karmas, the Buddha taught that we should keep the five precepts, panca sila. But actually in the earlier stage, the Buddha taught seven precepts. The lay people should keep seven precepts. What are these seven precepts? The three The first three refers to the body kammas, not to kill, not to take what is not given, not to commit adultery. Then the other four refers to the verbal kamma, not to lie, not to carry tales to cause disharmony, not to use coarse speech, and not to engage in idle gossip. So these were the first precepts that the Buddha taught. Then later, because one of his monk disciples became drunk, because people offered him liquor, he drank until he got drunk. So after that the Buddha also taught the the liquor precept, the precept against liquor or intoxicants. So the Buddha made it shorter and made it the five precepts. But you can understand from the fourth precept, the lying precept, You can include the other verbal kamas, not to carry tales, not to engage in coarse speech and idle gossip. So, everyday laypeople should remember to keep the five precepts. The five precepts are not to kill, not to take what is not given, not to commit adultery, not to lie, and not to take intoxicants to the extent of being intoxicated.

(E13)-03-How-to-acquire-merit

Now, for lay people, for humans and even devas, heavenly beings, to have merit or blessings is very important. One night, a Deva, a heavenly being came to see the Buddha and he told the Buddha, he said, Devas and humans all want to have blessings, merit, and Devas and humans want to have a secure life, free from dangers and to have a lot of blessings. So he asked the Buddha, how do we achieve the highest blessings? This is the Mangala Sutta. And the Buddha gave him this advice in the Mangala Sutta. So the Mangala Sutta is a very popular Sutta for Buddhists, Theravada Buddhists to chant. I think most of you are familiar with the Mangala Sutta, but I will just state a few things which are important in the Mangala Sutta. The first thing the Buddha said is not to associate with fools, but to associate with wise people. in the Buddha's teachings refers to people who do not know the Dhamma, who do not understand the Dhamma, because such people who do not know the Dhamma, they conduct themselves they live their lives in such a way that at the end of life they will fall into the woeful planes of rebirth that is the animal realm or the ghost realm or the hell realm and actually the Buddha said in the sutras that most people will fall into the woeful planes of rebirth which actually proves that it is not difficult to fall into the woeful planes of rebirth, not difficult at all. If you lead your life as an ordinary person, not practicing much of the Dhamma, you will surely fall into the woeful planes of rebirth. So the Buddha has given us a lot of warning in the suttas. Once the Buddha was walking with his disciples in the forest, then he came across a very steep precipice, a very, very steep precipice that probably fell a few hundred feet down. So he asked his disciples, he said, look at this precipice, is it dangerous? They said, oh, it's definitely dangerous, meaning that if you fall down, you will surely die. But the Buddha said this precipice is nothing compared to the round of rebirth, because in the round of rebirth we fall down many times into the whirlpool planes. And when you fall down into the woeful plains, it is much, much, much more suffering than just falling down that precipice and dying, because you suffer for a long, long time. So, the Dhamma is always giving us this type of warning. The only problem is people are very careless. They listen, goes in one ear, goes out the other ear. They think, oh, this is for other people. Other people don't keep precepts. I keep precepts. But actually, their own precept is not very clean. Don't realize. So the Buddha said, associate with wise people. Wise people are those who understand the Dhamma and who walk the way that will bring them to rebirth in heaven, or at the very least, rebirth as a human being. And such people don't fall into the woeful plains of rebirth. Then the Buddha said, respect those who are worthy of respect. This is another thing that we should practice. Then another one is to support our parents, especially when our parents are old. We should take care of our parents. And then support wife and children, those Men who have families, it's their duty to support their wife and family. and then charity or dana and sila, keeping the precepts. These two are very basic practice for a lay person. The Buddha said if a person practices dana and sila, charity and precepts to a very low degree, it is very likely that he or she will come back as a human being but with not much merit. Difficult to make a living, might be born not very pretty or handsome, maybe with defects, paraplegic and all that, half blind or something like that. Then the Buddha said if you keep, if you do these two things, dana and sila to a medium degree, You will very likely come back as a human being, but with a lot of blessings. You are born into a good family, and it's very easy for you to earn a living, and you might be born with very beautiful or handsome features, etc., with a perfect human body, no defects, etc. And then if you observe Dāna and Sīla to a high degree, it's very likely that you'll be reborn in the heavenly planes where you enjoy life for a very, very long time. So, from here you can see, if a person does not practice these two things, charity and keeping the precepts, then it is very likely that he will not get a human body again. He will be reborn as an animal or a ghost or even in the hell realms. Another quality to practice, the Buddha said, that will give you blessings is humility, humbleness, humility. Another one is meekness, not being fierce, meekness, being very docile, not fierce at all. Another quality is gratitude, gratitude especially to our parents, to our teachers, to people who help us in any way, who teach us, etc. Then another one is contentment. Contentment comes from inside. Contentment does not mean if I have so much money, if I become a millionaire, I'll be contented. But when you become a millionaire, you think of becoming a billionaire. So, never contented. So if we are contented, then whatever we get in life, we think, oh, that's due to our karma. Must be previous life I didn't do enough good. That's why I'm not so successful today. So we accept what comes. Then we hope that by walking the good path now, we will have a better life in future. Another one is forbearance. Forbearance is to be patient with whatever comes our way. Be patient with how people treat you. Sometimes people are not good to us. We think why should this person be like this to me? I've been so good to him in the past. If that person is not good to you, it must be your kamma. So if we understand the working of kamma, then whatever people do to us, behave towards us, we can bear it because we understand it's all due to kamma. The Buddha said kamma, whatever we get now, we are born in a certain family or in a certain status in life, etc. All this is due to kamma. And every day whatever we get is also due to kamma supporting us. Another way to get blessings is to visit monks and learn the Dhamma from monks. Another one is listening to the Dhamma either through a monk or through tape talks or through the internet. Nowadays from the internet also you can get a lot of Dhamma. or through books, etc. Of course, if you study the Dhamma, the best Dhamma is the original discourses of the Buddha found in the Nikayas. Then discussion of Dhamma. Sometimes when you all study the Dhamma, there are certain things that you don't understand, but when you discuss the Dhamma with others, then you may understand better. So you find that the Buddha's disciples, they used to come together in the evening when the sun set, after meditating most of the day, then when the sun set, they would come together and they would discuss the Dhamma. Even arahants would discuss the Dhamma. Doesn't mean a person has an arahant already, he knows enough Dhamma. The Buddha's disciples, whether they were arahants or not, they used to discuss the Dhamma every night.

(E13)-04-What-are-the-causes-of-downfall

Now I'll mention another sutra which is important for lay people called the Parabhava Sutra in the Kutaka Nikaya. This sutra is a little bit you could say the opposite of the Mangala Sutra. The Mangala Sutra tells you how to get blessings and this Parabhava Sutra explains the causes of downfall, how people have a downfall. the reasons why people have a downfall. Downfall here can refer to two things, either downfall in this very life, or a downfall in the next life. If you have a downfall in the next life, it will be worse, because you might be reborn in the whirlpool planes of existence. So the first cause for downfall, the Buddha said, is neglecting Dhamma, not bothering to learn the Dhamma, to understand the Dhamma. So this is mainly people who are too worldly. They are so worldly chasing after material benefits that they are not interested in the Dhamma. They always give some excuse, no time. But time, every day we have 24 hours. It's up to you what you do with your time. Some people, they have time to play Mahjong or go play some games and all that, but they have no time for Dhamma. So, this is a cause for downfall. Actually, Buddhists should be very ashamed. I find that it's very hard to get Buddhists to send their children to the Buddhist Society Sunday class. The Sunday class in the Buddhist Society might take maybe two hours, and they say their children are so busy with homework, with tuition, that they have no time. But you find Muslims, every day they send their children for the agama class. Every day, two or three hours. It's not once a week, you know, it's every day. So, in that respect, we should be quite ashamed. Now, another cause for downfall is evil companions. That means friends. who are not interested in the Dhamma. If you mix with friends who are not interested in the Dhamma, your friends are going to have a downfall in their next rebirth. And if you mix with them, you are also walking the way to a bad rebirth. Actually, a lot of people, they waste their time, you know. and they don't realize that they're going to have to suffer very much for it. In the sutras, the Buddha said, if a person idles his time by drinking every day, this person is heading for hell. He's totally wasting his time as a human being. It's very difficult to get a human body If you waste your time drinking every day, getting half drunk every day, chances of going to hell is very high. Similarly, for a person who gambles his time, has free time, he spends with his friends gambling. He thinks that is enjoyment. It's totally a waste of time and thus people are heading for hell. Another cause for downfall is laziness. The Buddha said, if you want to benefit yourself in this life and to benefit yourself in the next life, one quality is very important. Diligence, using effort, ardent effort. So in this life you will If you put in a lot of effort and you walk the right path, you are going to get a lot of happiness in this very life and in your future rebirths. Because whatever we do now is going to affect the next few rebirths. It's not just one rebirth after this, it's many rebirths. Because in the human plane, we do a lot of kamma. We do a lot of karma that's going to decide the next few rebirths. Because other planes of existence, you don't do much karma. If you're in heaven, you're just enjoying yourself like a small child, enjoying yourself every day. So you don't create much karma. As an animal or a ghost also, you don't create much karma. Because you see animals, even though they kill to eat, We don't kill unnecessarily, right? Animals, if they're hungry, they kill the prey just to eat. They're not like human beings, going around with a gun just to get some excitement, shooting here and shooting there. Not necessary. Sometimes they don't even eat the animal. They shoot and then they find their friends don't want to eat, they throw away the animal. So this unnecessary killing for animals is different. So because their intention is not to kill, their intention is just to satisfy their hunger. So they don't create that much karma as human beings. So if we are lazy, we don't help ourselves. We are going to suffer not only this life, we are going to suffer the future lifetimes also. Another cause for downfall is does not support his old parents. If a person's parents are old, does not bother with them, and this happens quite often, you know, sometimes parents can have many children, then the children will be, each child will be expecting the other brother or sister to take care of the parents. Just plain Tai Chi, pushing away responsibility. Then the cause of downfall is, the Buddha says here, deceives a monk. Sometimes a monk who keeps the precepts, he does not want to keep money, so he gets some lay person to help look after the fund. Then he's called a kapiya, one who looks after the monk's money. And sometimes this kapiya, he makes use of the money without permission. This, in the precepts, is called taking what is not given. And this kind of action, if you go to a civil case, if you go to a civil court, is called a CBT, criminal breach of trust. This is a very easy way to go to hell, because the Buddha said, If you make an offering to an ordinary person, your merit is not so great. If you make an offering to the Sangha of monks, your offering is very, very much greater. So similarly, if you cheat an ordinary person, your karma is not so bad. If you cheat the Sangha, you cheat the monks of their funds, your karma is multiplied many, many times. And this is a very, very easy way to go to hell. Sometimes people think you have to do a very evil karma to go to hell, like kill a holy man. It's true that it's a very evil kamma, but if you kill a holy man, you may go to hell for millions and millions and millions of years. In the sutras, the Buddha talked about a monk, Gokalika, who used to revile the Arahants, Sariputta and Moggallana, because he was a disciple of Devadatta. He used to talk bad about Sariputta and Devadatta, said a lot of nasty things, evil things about these two Arahants. And the Buddha warned him, don't say such things. He continued to say. And then a few years later, just before he died, his body, boils started to appear, big boils. Then after that he died, he died of this sickness. Then later when the other monks asked the Buddha, where is Gokalika reborn? The Buddha said, oh this foolish man, I told him not to talk bad about Sariputta and Devadatta, he's gone down to one of the very deep hells, I forgot the name, a Buddha hell or something like that. Then the Buddha said, you'll be there for a very, very, very long time. And then the Buddha said, The length of time is so long, it's hard to imagine. Then the Buddha gave a simile like a bullock cart loaded up with sesame seeds. How many sesame seeds do you expect in a bullock cart? There'll be a lot, isn't it? Then the Buddha said, don't know how many bullock carts of sesame seeds. If you do such a heavy crime, then you'll be there for millions and millions of years. But a lot of people fall into the hells for hundreds of thousands of years. Hundreds of thousands of years. That is quite common. And it is not that difficult. People who do things like killing, Like some people, they like to go hunting. They do a lot of hunting. At the end, when they are about to die, then they know they are going to a bad rebirth. And they are shocked, you know. Why? I haven't done any evil, they think. Because they have been taught in such a way that they didn't expect that killing animals is a very evil thing. So, that's one way to Go to hell, shooting a lot of animals for fun. Number one is committing adultery. Committing adultery. And a person who commits adultery can expect to go to hell. And after coming out from hell, he can expect to be reborn as an animal. And when that person is reborn as an animal, he'll be castrated many lifetimes. Castrated. And then when he comes back as a human being, people will dislike him, will hate him, because you commit adultery, you break up families, break up people's family. So it is not that difficult. I know of a supporter, a lady. She told me the father, about a week before the father died, The father was having dinner. He saw this Ngau Tau Ma Min, bull head and horse face, waiting for him. I mean, he was quite an ordinary person. You think he didn't lead a very evil life, but many people have reported Their parents, somebody, before they died, they saw this Ngau Thao Ma Min. That's why it's so common among Chinese to talk about this bull head and false face. So that was about deceiving a monk or the sangha. Now another cause for downfall is Being selfish, not charitable. Being selfish is quite normal. You see a child, a baby, if he's playing with something, you want to take it from him, he won't give it to you. Only when the child grows up, he knows his thought, how to share. So it is quite an ordinary human characteristic to be selfish. But we have to learn to be charitable. If we don't train ourselves, then we are walking the way to our downfall. Now, of course, our downfall is being conceited because of our wealth or because of our birth, etc. Then another cause for downfall is squandering one's wealth through womanizing, drinking, gambling, etc. That will cause your downfall. I learned from my parents that they had a rich relative in Penang, inherited a lot of money. But usually people who inherit money, because easy come, easy goes. They say easy come, easy go. So he mixed with bad friends, and these friends were all out to enjoy his money. So squandered all his money. Within a short time, all his wealth disappeared. And when his wealth disappeared, his friends also disappeared. So in the end, he became almost like a beggar. So this is a very fast way to lose your money. Drinking, gambling, womanizing, etc. Another cause for downfall is to put in authority an immoral person. Suppose you have a business or you have a company or anything and you appoint a manager or somebody who is immoral, who does not keep the precepts. If you appoint such a person, he's going to cheat you of your business. So that will be the downfall of your company. I think the cause of downfall is being over-ambitious. Over-ambitious. Every one of us, we have a limit to our merit, our blessings. Sometimes I've seen some people, they do business at a small scale, they are quite successful. and they have a small factory, they are quite successful. And then they are over-ambitious, they build a big factory, and then they collapse. Because their, what do you call it, their phuc hei, it's not so big, but their heart is so big, so they cause a downfall. Sometimes you find some people, they make some money and then they build a big bungalow to stay. After they stay in that big bungalow for a short while, then they have problems also, because they don't have that luck, the blessings to stay in that big house. I personally know of one such person, happened quite recently. Then the last I mention here is the case of an old man seeking a young wife. This is an old fool. The Buddha said he gets a young wife. And then when the young wife talks to some young man, whole night he cannot sleep. That's the cause of downfall. So these are the various causes of downfall. Neglecting Dhamma, having evil companions, being lazy, not supporting their own parents, deceives a monk, selfish, not charitable, conceited, can squander one's wealth through drinking, gambling, womanizing, putting in authority an immoral person, overambitious, and an old man taking a young wife.

(E13)-05-Importance-of-studying-the-Suttas

There are a lot of other advice in the suttas that you can learn if you study the suttas. So it is very good if you try to get the Nikayas, the original discourses of the Buddha, and go and investigate those discourses, because if you take the trouble, it is going to benefit you for the next few lifetimes. So next time you go up to heaven, you may remember, oh, Bhante used to teach us Dhamma, now I'm in heaven. You see, in the sutras, the Buddha said that all ariyas, all holy persons, have one thing in common, that is right view. Then the Buddha said, to attain right view, only two conditions are needed. The first one is listen to the Dhamma. And the second condition is having yoniso manasikara. That means a fairly clear mind. where you can listen to the Dharma and understand. So, in other words, to become an Arya, the first step is to listen to the original teachings of the Buddha. If you take the trouble to study the Nikayas again and again, your chances of becoming a Suttapanna are very, very great. Firstly, when you study the suttas and you understand, you attain the first path. And then it takes some time before you become a first fruit, sattva-panna. Listening to the suttas are so important that the Buddha called his disciples, savakas, hearers or listeners. And now that the suttas, the discourses of the Buddha are available to us, if you don't take the opportunity to study the suttas, you are quite wasting your life as a human being.

(E13)-06-How-to-control-anger

Now, another thing I'd like to talk about is how to curb anger. It seems somebody asked me to give a talk on this, but it's difficult to give a whole one hour talk on how to curb anger, but I'll try to talk a little bit about this. We know that Christians are quite well known for Christian love. Actually, Buddhists are also quite well-known for Buddhist metta, loving-kindness. The only trouble is a lot of people don't know this. In fact, the Buddha always stressed on loving-kindness. The Buddha said it doesn't matter how people treat us, how people talk bad about us, even if people were to strike us or even kill us, The Buddha said we should have loving kindness towards that person because the Buddha said, he didn't say in this sutra, but what the Buddha meant is that whatever we get in life, it is all that we deserve. Everything that we get is what we deserve. So even if, the Buddha said, even if bandits were to catch you and use a two-handled saw and saw away your limbs one by one, if you have anger towards those bandits, Buddha said, you are not practicing his teachings. So, that's why actually our Buddhist metta, loving-kindness, is much higher than Christian love, much superior. Only thing is a lot of people don't know. In the Bible, Jesus said, if somebody slaps you on the right cheek, he offers the left cheek. This is easier to do than what the Buddha said. If people even were to saw your body and kill you, you should not have any anger towards that person. So our metta, loving kindness in Buddhism is very, very important. And how do we curb our anger if somebody is not good to us? One thing we can reflect, we can contemplate is, the Buddha said, it is very difficult to find a being you meet who was not related to you in the past. Very difficult to meet somebody who was not your father or your mother before, or your son or your daughter before. Somehow we are all related from the past. So, sometimes if somebody is unkind towards us, then we reflect, maybe this was my daughter before and I didn't treat her so well, so now she's saying all these nasty things about me. So that's one way. Another way is we should reflect, the Buddha said, life is dukkha. So every living being has also their share of dukkha. So sometimes like office mates, sometimes somebody in the office is not nice to us, we try to understand, maybe this person has a lot of family problems. So maybe in the house, having a lot of family problems, so comes to the office, how do you say, grumpy, grouchy and all that. So we try to sympathize because we try to understand that that person also maybe has more suffering than us, maybe has a lot of personal problems to deal with and needs our compassion. So we try to give compassion. Sometimes, when people are not nice to us, they expect us to be nasty with them also. But when we react differently, we are nice to them, they get a shock. They think this fellow is something behind. Then later they observe him. Then maybe you still have no ulterior motive. Then he knows you have a good heart. Then that person will change. Won't be so nasty to you. Another thing is we should think of the good deeds. You know everybody, we have our good points, we have our shortcomings, our mao ping, shortcomings. So instead of focusing on the bad points, we try to look at the good points of that person, to look at the good points and try to forget about the bad points of that person. Another way is we try to think maybe in the past that person has done some good towards us. If in the past that person has done some good towards you, then you try to remember that. So now if that person is not so nice to you, you try not to think of it and to think of what that person has done for you before. And another thing as I mentioned before is to think of our karma that whatever we are getting now must be because we deserve it. Another thing to reflect is that anger, if we get angry, anger is a poison. And then, some people, they have so much anger because somebody said something to them in the office. They go back and cannot sleep at night. So this anger is a poison that makes you unable to sleep. You'll be tossing and turning and thinking of what that fellow said. So, and some people, if they have too much anger, they get a pain in the head. migraine. So, if you have anger, you are the one who suffers, not the other fellow. The Buddha said, something about this in the sutras, that if you have anger, instead of harming that person, you are harming yourself. He said much more than that in the Anguttara Sutta, but I forgot to check that out. The other thing is when we have a lot of anger, we are temporarily mad. Many years ago I saw the newspapers about a young man. He had a furious argument with his father. Then he took the parang and chopped his father to death. Another recent case was in Penang, I think a few years ago. One lady, she found that the husband was having an affair with some other lady. So she asked the husband to stop the affair. The husband refused. The husband was a rich man. Then at night when the husband was sleeping, she took the chopper and chopped the neck. Then as the husband was struggling and gasping for air, she chopped the rest of the body into pieces. So you see, anger can make you do such things. So you have to be very careful. Another thing is, Anger can also make you a TR case. If you observe carefully, most of the people in TR, they have a lot of anger. It's because they have so much anger that's why they blew their mind. So they landed up there. Another thing the Buddha mentioned was if you are constantly angry, People don't like to befriend you. You become a very unpopular person. And if that is the case, you find that it's very difficult for you to progress on the social ladder. If you work with some big company and the boss will observe you. If you are the type, always can enjoy people's company, can joke and all that. That's the type of person the boss will promote, not the fellow who's angry and salty all the time. And then, in the future life, if we have anger, we're not going to be born beautiful. Buddha said, people who are sweet-natured, who are not angry, That is the type of people who will be born pretty and handsome. If a person has a lot of anger, every time you are angry, your face becomes fierce. Yes or not? Every day you make your face fierce, it becomes a habit pattern. You are born with an ugly face. Another thing to consider is if you look at animals in the animal kingdom, animals are very fierce. So that's one cause of rebirth in the animal kingdom, having too much anger. Then another one is, I think you have heard this story before, I said about one lady in Penang. She had so much anger that The children found it difficult to look after her. So when she was old, they put her in the nursing home. And even there also, she used to have a lot of anger. And one day, they found that they could not control her. She was getting so much anger that she was getting violent and all that. So they had to call the doctor to give her a jab, to temporarily put her to sleep. So this man who told me the story, he went to see her on that day. That was two days before she died. And he was surprised to see two fang teeth coming out, two long teeth coming out. So the two long teeth were there for two days before she died. But after she died, the two teeth disappeared. That shows that she was going to be reborn as that type of fierce ghost. So that's a warning to us. Too much anger. Another one is to overcome anger by mindfulness. Every time to remember to check. Sometimes some people say something to us. We find it hard to control our anger. Instead of bursting out, you walk away. Walk away. You don't have to say anything. Just walk away. If you find it difficult to control yourself. Another way some people do is count. One to ten or one to a hundred. By that time your anger has come down a bit. But actually the best way is two things. One is to constantly try to practice loving kindness towards all beings. Loving kindness or compassion towards all beings. And another very effective way is meditation. If we meditate and our mind becomes tranquil, if you attain what is known as excess concentration or threshold concentration, near to absorption, then the mind becomes very peaceful. When the mind becomes very peaceful, then even if somebody says something nasty to you, you don't feel like getting angry because you know if you get angry, you'll upset your whole system. So you want to enjoy that tranquility, that calmness, so you don't want to get angry. So meditation, if you get deeper concentration, then you find even that threshold concentration, if you get that threshold or excess concentration, you find your anger goes down a lot, automatically goes down a lot. So that is a very effective way to cut our anger through this tranquility meditation, practicing Samatha meditation. But meditation is very difficult for lay people. You don't have much time. But if you take the trouble to practice once or twice a day, half an hour or one hour, Then if you do it constantly every day, then over years you will find some progress. Because meditation is one thing, you cannot see the progress in a few months, but over a few years you can see your progress. So, in fact, two things in our Buddhist teachings, two things are very important for us to practice. One is to study the suttas, the original discourses of the Buddha. The other one is to practice meditation to get tranquility of mind. Because if you get tranquility of mind, it reduces your five hindrances. And when your five hindrances reduce, then you have more wisdom because you can see things more clearly. If you can't find the time to practice meditation, then at least try to study the original discourses of the Buddha. That is very important for everybody, lay people as well as monks and nuns. So I'll stop here, and if you have any questions, I'll try to answer.

(E13)-07-Right-View

Bhante, just now Bhante mentioned one form of wrong view is not to believe in Karma and Vipaka. Can Bhante please clarify other forms of wrong views? Wrong view, there are two types of wrong view. This one is worldly wrong view. The other one, wrong view in the Noble Eightfold Path. Right view, The first factor of the Noble Eightfold Path means an understanding of the Four Noble Truths. So in that respect, wrong view means one who does not understand the Four Noble Truths, is wrong view. So in the Aryan, sometimes the Buddha says, Aryan discipline, wrong view means not understanding the Four Noble Truths.

(E13)-08-Anger

Another question I want to ask regarding we are talking about anger. Usually we have anger and if I say that if we have a pure heart, so people something say something not pleasant to us and then we still can thinking, oh, this is better, good advice or teaching you something. I think that's an easy way to control the anger arise. I mean, because we have evil that usually, and then people say something, you know, not so pleasant, and then, oh, maybe you are scolding me or something. I think that also is good. practice and then have people have pure mind, pure hearts, what we call pure mind or something. But Ban Kye, I think, would that be easier, person to have such a pure heart? And then how you think people can practice, you know, and then make this heart pure? And then what your comment about, advice to people to how They are how the practice can make people heart pure and no evil. the time when he was an external ascetic in a previous life and he said he cultivated strong tranquility of mind and the Buddha said if a person gets this one-pointedness of mind or jhana then he is rid of the passions. So, rid of the passions here generally refers to anger and lust. If a person's mind has become very tranquil through deep samadhi or absorption in concentration, then you It's difficult to make him angry or to stir the lust in him because his mind is very calm and tranquil. So if you say pure heart you can refer to that.

(E13)-09-Is-it-necessary-to-memories-Suttas

Talking about the sutta reading, if we can read our sutta by heart, would you think that is necessary? During the Buddha's time, repeating the suttas by heart was necessary because they did not have books. But nowadays, it is not really... If we want to understand the suttas, it is best that we study the suttas, and then if we don't understand one particular sutta, never mind, we move on to another sutta. But we finish reading the Sutta, then if there are some points about it that we don't understand, we can reflect on it and if we still don't understand or cannot get somebody else to explain to us, then we move to another Sutta and continue studying all the Nikayas, all the Suttas. I have seen some people, I have seen some monks actually, who when they study a sutra, they want to understand thoroughly that sutra. So they go to the extent of studying Pali. Then when they study Pali, then when they study a sutra, they want to consult the original Pali text. and then they want to examine word by word every particular word. So they take a long time to study one sutta. So after a few years they have not studied many suttas. And I find their understanding of the suttas is less than a person who studies all the suttas and then goes back and study all the suttas and study the Nikayas again and again and again, and after you study the Nikayas five, six times, then you find you have a better understanding than that fellow who was plodding very slowly, going one by one, the suttas. Because every sutta will explain the Dhamma from a different point of view. So the more sutras you study, you see the Dhamma from more angles. So your understanding is better than a person who wants to break one sutra, split heads as they say.

(E13)-10-Why-most-people-get-reborn-into-woeful-planes

But there is one question. Just now you are mentioning that most of the people will go to hell. Yeah. I say most people will go to the woeful planes. Woeful planes, sorry, woeful planes. But from my experience, there are a lot of people who are, I mean they don't do wrong, neither they do a lot of charity, They do some maybe. They say, I look after myself, I look after my family. That's good enough. I don't bother anybody. I do my job. I bring up my children. Okay. And then they have a good salary. Dana, they don't have the, maybe sometimes they don't even have the chance to do Dana. They're so busy in their work, like in KL, they're so busy. Maybe they don't even meet a monk, or maybe they don't have the time to go to a temple or monastery. But they don't do bad things. They're good. They're good, you see? They go to work, they come back, look after the children, look after the wife, even look after the parents. That's all they do, you see? What would you think about them going to the woeful plains? These people, I think there are plenty of them. You see, the Buddha did say in the suttas that most people after we pass away will fall into the woeful plains. And one way to explain this is that You know when we die, there are five destinations of rebirth, called the five gati, destinations of rebirth. Later books talk about six, but the original teachings there are five. The best is the heavenly planes, and after that the human plane, and after that the ghost, animal, and hell realm. Now out of these five, The human and the heavenly realm is called Sugati, happy destinations of rebirth. The other three are called Dugati, woeful planes of rebirth. So actually the human realm is a happy place of rebirth. Because when we compare ourselves to animals and all that, we can see we are very, very much better off than animals. So, in a way, we are like a heavenly being. So, as long as we live and we have a good life, I mean a reasonable life, We are using up our merit, you know. We are using up our merit, our bank of merit. And over a period of 70 years that we live, we use up a lot of merit. Now, because samsara is so long, so long, we have a lot of evil Karma still unpaid, you know. A lot of evil karma still unpaid, waiting. Letters coming, calling. So, because of that, when we pass away, if we don't do a lot of strong merit, then there is no good merit to think of. If you don't have something good to think of, then the mind will go back and think of those strong, bad karma that we have done. That is why in the Sutta, in the Maha-Karma Vibhanga Sutta, the Buddha said, it is not always that a person who does good in this life will have a good rebirth. in the next lifetime, because when that person is dying, the Buddha said, the evil karma from a past life or several past lives might come calling, because when we are about to pass away, We are in a dreamy state. So when we are dreaming, we dream of whatever actions we have done. So if you have very strong evil karma from a past life, even though this life you have done more good than bad, but that evil karma, you are thinking of that evil karma, that can bring you to a bad rebirth. Another reason for a bad rebirth is having wrong view. When a person is dying, if he does not believe in karma, karma-vipaka, then at that last moment, that wrong view can bring him to a bad rebirth. So it is for this reason there is a lot of unpaid karmic debt from the past life. You know, nowadays, there's a lot of people getting cancer, right? We know that one in five people are getting cancer. But usually, most of us, we think, oh, some other people getting cancer. I'm not getting cancer. I'm quite healthy. I'm quite strong. Then one day, suddenly, you find you have cancer, and then you are shocked. Why me? Some people, usually when we get cancer, you know, people who get cancer, they always like to say, why me? Why so unfair? Actually, for various reasons, some people are very careless. You know that one of the causes of cancer is smoking. And if you continue to smoke, you are asking for cancer. Yes or not? Now you may not get it. When you continue to smoke, you are hardening your lungs, making that layer of soot, making your lungs less and less efficient. So it's not surprising at all, one day you find the doctor tell you, you have cancer. So in the same way, when we learn the Dhamma, some people are still very careless. We find in the suttas, that when people fall into hell, they are pulled before King Yama. King Yama for questioning, you know. Then King Yama will remind that person, you had a lot of warnings, you know, it's not that you did not have warnings. Then the blood said, what warnings? I never received any warning. And King Yama said, have you not seen an old man? They say, yes, I've seen an old man. That was a warning to you or one day you'll be old like that? Did you not see a sick man lying on the bed, lying on his own urine and shit, cannot get up from the bed? They say, yes, I saw. That was a warning to you, one day you'll be like that. Did you not see a dead man, a corpse? Two or three days dead, swollen up, bloated, blue-black, with liquid oozing out. He said, yes, I saw. That was a warning to you. One day you'll be like that. So King Yama said, this evil that you did was not done by your father, not done by your mother, not done by your relatives or friends. It was done by you only. And you have to suffer for it because of your carelessness. This word, careless, carelessness, a lot of people are careless. And when we are careless, we have to pay for it. Sometimes you think you didn't do any evil, just that you are careless. You suck all your good karma. So the dharma actually is like medicine. Medicine, good medicine is bitter to take, yeah? But it's good for you. Sometimes people, they don't like to listen to this kind of dharma because, yeah, always frightening me. Better to frighten you now than to be frightened in hell.

(E13)-11-Buddha's-advice-on-response-to-unpleasant-speech

Bhante, will you permit me to read something? Actually, Bhante was telling us just now that even if robbers will saw you from limb to limb, you shouldn't be angry. Actually, in the same sutra, the simile of a saw, the Kakacupama Sutra, Majjhima Nikaya No. 21, we were quite taken up by some verses That's why studying the suttas has got a lot of benefits. These two paragraphs I've taken from there. This has got something to do with anger as well. I'll just quote. This is from the suttas. When others address you, their speech may be timely or untimely. When others address you, their speech may be true or untrue. When others address you, their speech may be gentle or harsh. When others address you, their speech may be connected with good or with harm. When others address you, their speech may be spoken with a mind of loving-kindness or with inner hate. Herein, bhikkhus, you should train thus. Our minds will remain unaffected. and we shall utter no evil words. We shall abide compassionate for their welfare, with a mind of loving-kindness, without inner hate. We shall abide pervading that person with a mind imbued with loving-kindness. And starting with him, we shall abide pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill-will. This is how you should train bhikkhus. So I think that these paragraphs are very meaningful. So one of the benefits of studying suttas would be getting caught, getting Attracted by the thought of seeing them,

(E13)-12-Wrong-View

Another thing I would like to mention is, I ask plenty about wrong views because in another sutra in Majjhima Nikaya, the dog-beauty ascetic, this Sinhaya, he always behaves like a dog. Then when he sees the Buddha, then Buddha, when he asks Buddha what will be the destination, then Buddha told him that this is wrong view because he thought that behaving like a dog, he will be born as a god or somebody, you know. The Buddha told him, he said, a person with wrong view, there are only two destinations after he dies, you know. One is straight to hell, and the other one is actually that you are behaving like a dog. You will be reborn among the company of a dog. You will be a dog, you know. So it means your wrong view is a good or a wrong view. That is why right view is so important. That wrong view there, I think, refers to not believing in the Karma Vipaka. Not believing, okay.

(E13)-13-Why-Arahant-disciples-of-the-Buddha-like-to-discuss-Dhamma

Now I don't understand why even the Arhat want to discuss Dharma. He's already enlightened, isn't he? He's already enlightened and still he want to know more about Dharma. Then that means there are further steps to go. Lower than, well, what I think is lower than the Buddha. Other than that, what more he want to talk about? It's something I don't quite understand. You see, this is because of the love and respect for the Dharma. After the Buddha was enlightened, then he thought to himself, I should perhaps follow somebody, even though he was enlightened, you know, a Buddha. He said, maybe I should follow somebody as a teacher to respect and revere. Then he contemplated, he found that there was nobody in the world higher than him. Then he said, there is nobody in the world higher than me. But there is one thing, he said, I should revere as my king and honor and respect. What is that? The Dhamma. So even the Buddha, he respects the Dhamma as the king. He expounds the Dhamma, but the Dhamma is there all the time, reality or truth. The Buddha said whether he teaches the Dhamma or he does not teach the Dhamma, the Dhamma exists all the time. This is the natural laws of nature. They exist all the time. Whether you understand or you don't understand also, it binds you. You are bound by the laws. So for the Arahants, their love for the Dharma is such that they like to discuss the Dharma. It does not mean that once a person is enlightened that he knows everything, even our Buddha. After the Buddha was enlightened, he sat under a tree for seven days, and then after that he sat under another tree for seven days. During one of the nights, he contemplated on dependent origination. The Buddha said he contemplated on dependent origination for twelve hours. from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Why does he have to contemplate on dependent origination? He is already enlightened. Because the Buddha said he can know something if he contemplates. If he does not contemplate, he may not know something. If he wants to know something, he can know. But it doesn't mean he knows everything all the time. The Buddha said you cannot find a person who knows everything all the time. Just like for example, if the Buddha say suppose you were in India during the time when the Buddha was around, okay? Then you are feeling a lot of dukkha, maybe living in one kampong, feeling a lot of dukkha. So you are shouting to the Buddha for help, Buddha, Buddha, come and help me. If the Buddha is not contemplating, is not sort of listening to the sounds, he won't know. He might be in deep samadhi, deep in absorption, and you're calling to him, he doesn't know. Only if he takes the trouble to contemplate, then he knows. Just like we, for example, some people, they pray to the heavens, pray to the gods for help. If the God is enjoying himself in heaven, you won't know you are calling out for help for him. But he happens to be contemplating, oh, this guy is asking for some help, then maybe I may come and help him. So remember, There was one of the first five monks who was taught by the Buddha and became enlightened. One of them was Venerable Asaji. Now, Venerable Asaji, after he became an arahant, he was going on alms round, Pindapak. Then Venerable Sariputta met him. Venerable Sariputta met him and saw that he was so striking, because he was an arahant, he looks different from ordinary people. So his face was so shining and all that. So Venerable Sariputta was very impressed and went to ask him, Venerable, who is your teacher? whose dharma do you follow?" Then this Venerable Asaji, he said, my teacher is Samana Gautama, he is a Bhagavad Arahant, Samasambuddha. Then Venerable Sariputra asked him, Can you teach me some of this Dhamma that your teacher teaches?" What did our Venerable Asaji say? He said, I have recently come into this Dhamma Vinaya, that means recently been ordained by the Buddha as a bhikkhu. So he said, I don't know much Dhamma. But if you want me to explain very simply, I can say very simply what this dharma is about. Then Venerable Sariputta said, whether you explain in detail or a little bit or so, it doesn't matter, but you please explain this dharma. Then he said something like, all dharmas arise through conditions and cease through conditions, something like that. And just by understanding this, Venerable Sariputta entered the stream, became the first path attained. So you see this Arahant, even though he is enlightened, he doesn't know much Dharma because at that time the Buddha only started preaching, started teaching the suttas. So he didn't listen to many suttas. So because he has not listened to many suttas, he cannot explain many suttas. But now we are very lucky, we have 5,000 suttas to learn from. All the 45 years of teaching by the Buddha is available to us now in book form. That's why we are very, very lucky. We are luckier than a lot of people born during the Buddha's time. A lot of people born during the Buddha's time didn't have the opportunity to study so many suttas like we have now. So because of that, the arahants, they also need to discuss the suttas, partly because they want to know the suttas, because not all of them were present when, for example, when the Buddha taught a certain sutta, they might be living in some cave somewhere or in some hilltop somewhere. They didn't know what sutta the Buddha taught. So when they come together, Then those who have learned some new sutra, they tell the others. Then the others also learn to memorize it. And then another reason for discussing the sutras is to teach those monks who have not learned the sutra before, like new monks and all that, teach them the sutras. So their love and respect for the Dhamma is so great, that's why they were able to transfer it by word of mouth from one generation after another generation, so that now 2,500 years later we still have the suttas. It's a great task. Imagine during the Buddha's time, thousands of monks memorizing the suttas and passing by word of mouth. And because there were so many thousands of monks memorizing the sutras, if you try to preach a different sutra, you won't be able to do it because so many thousands of monks are memorizing the correct sutra. But nowadays you can, because of printing books, you can simply print wrong teachings and distribute. During the Buddha's time you cannot.

(E13)-14-Why-the-Buddha-like-to-meditate

Actually, I kind of remember who was asking Buddha about, after he already enlightened, he's still practicing meditation. And then I only can remember that Buddha has said, this is a benefit for the future generation. So I can't quite understand why they say such a way of talking about, for the benefit of future generation. Here, explain, please. The Buddha said, like in practicing meditation, as well as going into the forest, going to secluded places to practice, Buddha said for two reasons. One was because of pleasant abiding here and now. That means he enjoy himself. Because when he's in samadhi, he feels a bliss, a happiness, which is much superior than anything you can enjoy in this world. So firstly, enjoy himself. Secondly, because of compassion for future generations, he is telling us this is the way to go. This is the way holy men spend their time, sitting in meditation. So if you want to walk the path of the Buddhas and the Arahants, you also spend your time in meditation instead of on the mahjong table. Even Venerable Kassapa, he was an arahant who was older than the Buddha, and when the Buddha was already old, Kassapa was much older, and yet this ascetic monk used to spend his time alone in the deep forest, high hills and all that. In the Theragatha, the verses of the elders, it seems sometimes he lived high up in the mountains. And because it's so difficult to climb, he used his psychic power to help him climb. And he liked to stay in those places which are so secluded. You can hear the sound of the elephants and the wild birds and all that calling. And for them, they like this type of life. They live very near the animals, hear the sound of the animals. So the Buddha saw that he was so old, the Buddha asked him to come and stay near me, come stay in the monastery. You are so old already, still wearing robes and all that, staying alone deep in the jungle. Then he said, Lord, I want to continue doing this for two reasons, also the same two reasons. One is because he is happy there. Another one is because of compassion for future generations, teaching the later monks to practice like this. This is the way to arahanthood, living alone in secluded places. Nowadays, some of the teachings are totally upside down. They are saying, if you go and practice in the forest like this, no use. You are low class. You must come and live in the cities. Enjoy yourself. Go to karaoke and bars and all that, and still be able to practice. You are like this. So some of these people, they have this type of concept, they came and asked me. So I asked them, now suppose you want to learn swimming, you don't know how to swim, you go to the Guantan Coast there, where the waves are 10 feet high and you go and learn swimming there." He said, no, you drown yourself. You want to learn swimming, you go and find a shallow water swimming pool and you are able to learn to swim. Then maybe you have a chance to survive in the Guantan Sea. So if you can't even meditate by yourself, how can you go and... But anyway, these arahants, these holy men, they never come and live in towns and big cities and all that. Even after they're enlightened also, they don't want to live in these towns and big cities. They always like to stay in quiet places.