(01)-Introduction

Okay, tonight's talk is on Vijacarana Sampanno. This, as you all know, is one of the ten names given to the Buddha. That means the Samasambuddha. And the Samasambuddha is completely endowed with this Vijacarana. But other Buddhas, like Pachekabuddha, and Arahant disciples, they have Vijja Carana, but they are not completely endowed. So, or they may not be completely endowed with Vijja Carana. Vijja is knowledge, and Carana is practice or cultivation of the holy path. So when you practice Carana, the cultivation partner, the result is vijja, knowledge. So, now I will explain these two things. Charana is the practice of cultivation which has to be undergone by an Arahant, a Pacheka Buddha and a Sammasambuddha. All of them have to practice these things completely, these three things completely. Sorry, these ten things completely. There are ten items in this Charana. And anyone who is enlightened has to completely practice these ten things.

(02)-Carana

Now the first one is Sila. Sila is moral conduct. And you can say it is Aryan Sila. Not an ordinary layman Sila. Aryan Sila. And Aryan Sila comes from looking at this Noble Eightfold Path, we know that the Noble Eightfold Path consists of eight factors, and these eight factors can be said to consist of three sections, sila, samadhi, panya, moral conduct, concentration and wisdom. So in the Noble Eightfold Path, there are three factors out of the eight that constitute silal. The first one is right speech. The third factor, right speech. Then the fourth factor, right action. And then the fifth factor, right livelihood. So these three constitute the RNC. Now the right speech consists of four things. The first one is not to lie. The second is not to engage in malicious tail-bearing. In other words, if you hear A talking bad about B, you don't go and report to B what A said. If you do report to B what A said, then B will come and quarrel with A and maybe fight with A. So, if we don't practice malicious tail-bearing, then we encourage unity rather than discord, disharmony. Then the third item in right speech is not to engage in coarse or vulgar speech. In other words, not to speak very loudly, very coarsely. We use gentle speech instead. Then the fourth item in right speech is not to engage in idle gossip, not to engage in idle chatter, which is time-consuming, wasting time. So these four things constitute right speech. Not to lie, not to engage in malicious tail-bearing, to speak coarse words, and not to engage in idle gossip. Now the other factor is right action. Right action consists of the three bodily karmas. The first one is not to kill. The second is not to steal. And the third is not to engage in adultery. So abstaining from the three evil body karmas, that is right action. And then the third factor is right livelihood. Right livelihood means to engage in, to earn a livelihood without causing harm to others. And in the sutras, the Buddha said that a lay person who does trade should not engage in five types of trade not to buy and sell human beings that's the first one this was more common a long time ago when they had slaves but nowadays you still have a bit of it in the sense that some people they kidnap children and sell and they kidnap young girls or sometimes they just kidnap anybody just to get some organ out of the body. So for children and young girls, they will kidnap them for vice. So that's the first type of trait that a layperson should not engage in. Second one is not to rear animals to sell for slaughter. In other words, to rear pigs or goats or chickens for slaughter. And then another trade that is not right for a layperson is to trade in weapons, guns. and other type of weapons that kill. Then another trait that is not right is insecticides and poisonous things that can also take the lives of other beings. Insecticide, if farmers spray, they kill a lot of insects and worms and other living beings. Then the last one is not to trade, buy and sell liquor. So these are the five traits that a lay person should not engage in. Trading in human beings, breeding animals for slaughter, weapons, poisonous poisonous drugs and insecticides, and liquor. Now, right livelihood for a monk is also mentioned in the sutra, but it doesn't concern lay people very much. But briefly, it's like not talking bad about another monk, belittling another monk, hinting that some monk is not good or anything like that. That is wrong livelihood for a monk. So this is concerning right livelihood. So these three factors of the Noble Eightfold Path make up the Aryan Sea. right speech, right action and right livelihood. So this is what Sīla is about. So if you look into these, you find actually there are seven precepts in this Ārya Sīla. Four concerning speech and three concerning the body. That's why we see in the suttas, originally the Buddha mentioned seven precepts for lay people and then later it was modified to five to include the precepts against liquor or drugs. Okay, now we come to the second item in Charana is Santosa, which means contentment. Contentment here means having few wants, to be contented with whatever we have. Contentment does not come from wanting or getting a lot of things. It is from not wanting much things that brings contentment. So contentment is something that we have to cultivate. It does not depend on outside factors, it depends on our state of mind inside. So in the spiritual path, contentment means to let go, not to want many things, just to be contented. This contentment is very important because if a person is not contented, then the mind cannot calm down. And if the mind cannot calm down, then you practice meditation in vain. The mind cannot calm down. The third item in Charana is guarding the Sixth Sense doors in Riesu Guttadwara. Guarding the Sixth Sense doors means not to allow the Sixth Sense objects to snare us. In the sutras, the Buddha said that Mara, Satan, is like a fisherman with a baited hook, trying to catch the fish. So in the same way, the six-sense doors is the hunting ground for Mara, i.e. Mara uses the six-sense objects to snare us, to bait us. So we are attracted by beautiful sights, beautiful sounds, smells, taste, etc. Then we can get caught. That is why the Buddha said, especially for a monk to guard the six sense doors, whatever we see, whatever we hear, the Buddha said, don't observe too closely at the general features or at the details. Just know, know. Because in the spiritual path, we are supposed to look inwards, not outwards. Outwards is the domain of Mara. The Buddha said our attention should be brought inwards to the body and the mind. The fourth item in Charana is Bojjane Matanyutta, which means moderation in eating. In other words, not to eat too much. If we eat too much, then we tend to become very sleepy. become too heavy and makes us more lethargic and sloth and topper increases That's why the monks precepts allows monks to eat only in the morning from dawn until noon which means in Malaysia it's about 7am until 1pm So, for monks, we are allowed to take two meals, the breakfast and the lunch. Originally, the Buddha allowed his disciples to eat freely whenever they wanted. Then, because they went on alms round at odd hours, it created problems because sometimes some women were frightened at night. or in the early hours of the dawn by the monks so the Buddha slowly reduced three meals to two meals and then after that to one meal but some monks complained so later the Buddha allowed them to eat one meal and to leave whatever food left over they could eat it again as long as it was before noon So in other words, a monk could have two meals. So that's why lay people who practice keeping the eight precepts also eat only in the morning, early part of the day. The fifth item in Charana is Jagarya Nu Yoga. This translates as devotion to wakefulness. Devotion to wakefulness means striving to keep awake all the time. This is not easy because most of us, we have to sleep. But the Buddha encouraged his monks to sleep less, less and less and less. So the Buddha said in the suttas that during the day monks should practice sitting and walking meditation and then at night to lie down for four hours. Because if your mind is not strong, four hours of sleep is not enough. But that is the ideal initially. And then if a person progresses in his meditation, then the mind gets stronger, then he can sleep less and less. And if he can maintain his mindfulness and his recollection, sati sampajani, If he is progressing well enough on the way to Arahanthood, if he has attained the four jhanas and the mind is so strong, then only can he keep awake 24 hours a day. In the monk's Vinaya, Arahant cannot be blamed for any wrongdoing because the Buddha said that an Arahant is as Sati, 24 hours a day. Sati is recollection. Some people translate it as mindfulness. But it is not a general mindfulness, it is a specific mindfulness on whatever object he puts his attention to. So, You can see if an Arahant is mindful or collected 24 hours a day, that means he has to train himself to maintain that state of wakefulness 24 hours a day. So this is the fifth item in Charana. So it's something that's not easy to do, to keep meditating and making the mind stronger and stronger. then only can we maintain our wakefulness. The sixth item in Charana is Satta Saddhama. In many books, if you look for this explanation of Charana, you will not find this item number six, seven good qualities. But because I have compiled this list from many suttas, And so I have included it because it is one item mentioned in the Majjhima Nikaya. So seven good qualities that we should cultivate on the spiritual path. The first one is saddha, having faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Faith you could say also is unshakable faith. Believing that the Buddha is enlightened, that the Dhamma he teaches is the truth that will lead us out of the round of rebirths, and that the Sangha, monk, disciples, are practicing the good way, they can show us the Dhamma. The second quality here is hiri, a sense of shame, having a sense of shame. If a person has a sense of shame, then there are certain things he could not possibly do. For example, a person has a sense of shame, he won't be a gigolo or a prostitute, or do something like drug running. And the third quality is otapa, fear of wrongdoing. To fear the consequences of doing wrong, that means understanding samkama vipaka. These two, hiri otapa, sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing, are two things the Buddha said that protects the world. If people did not have the sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing, this world will go upside down. People will not believe in karma, ipaka, and will do anything that comes to their head. The fourth quality is bahusacca, much learning. Much learning here means much knowledge of the Buddha's words, much knowledge of the suttas. We want to practice the spiritual path taught by the Buddha, the direct path, the fastest path. then we have to be quite familiar with the Buddha's words because the Buddha's words lead us on this spiritual path out of saṃsāra, the round of rebirths. So it's very important to have much knowledge of the Buddha's teachings. The fifth quality is effort, vīrya. Effort to develop good states of mind and wholesome states of mind and to discard unwholesome states of mind. Unwholesome states of mind are like agitated mind, restless mind, having a lot of sloth, lazy, having no shame, jealous, angry, all that, unwholesome states, and the opposite, wholesome states, having a calm, peaceful mind, diligence, renunciation, generosity, all these wholesome states of mind. So effort here means to develop good states and to discard unwholesome states. Then the sixth quality, good quality, is sati. Sati is recollection. Recollection means remembering to contemplate or to put your attention in your object of meditation or to remember to be mindful of our body and our mind and not allow our mind to go outwards to the sixth sense objects. So, that is recollection. Then the seventh quality is pannaya, wisdom. Wisdom means having the wisdom to understand the Buddha's words, having the wisdom to observe that what the Buddha has said is true in the world around us, that everything in this world is causally arisen, dependently, arisen and that everything is impermanent. And because everything is impermanent in this world, it causes dukkha. And also because everything is impermanent, that there is no one thing that is unchanging. In other words, there is no self. There is no unchanging core in anything in this world. Everything is anakta, no self. So these are the seven good qualities that we should develop on this spiritual path in this practice or cultivation. First is faith, then a sense of shame, then fear of wrongdoing, then much learning, and effort, recollection and wisdom. These are the seven good qualities that we should develop. Now we come to the seventh item in Charana which is Sati Sampajanya. Sampajanya is mindfulness and Sati is recollection. So this is mindfulness and recollection. mindfulness we practice mindfulness it helps us to develop sati recollection and mindfulness also mean mindfulness here is not general mindfulness general mindfulness we all have or we all need, because general mindfulness, if you don't have, you can get into accidents. For example, if you are walking on the street and you are not mindful, you can bump into somebody, or you get run down by a car, or you can fall into a drain, etc. So, general mindfulness we all need. But here, in the Buddha's teachings, mindfulness is concerned with being mindful of our body and our mind. Whatever our body is doing, we are mindful. Whatever our mind is thinking, we are mindful. So that is the mindfulness in the Buddha's teachings. And Sati is recollecting, remembering to put your attention on your object of meditation. And your object of meditation comes from the four objects of Satipatthana, the body, feeling, the mind, and dharma, the Buddha's teachings in the sutras, discourses. So, practicing sati sampajanya is practicing mindfulness and recollection. And these two, as I mentioned, always refers to the body and the mind. The eighth item is viveka. Viveka is seclusion. And this seclusion is the start of a serious practice. Because seclusion, another word you can use is aloofness, aloofness. Because if you are really serious about the practice or cultivation or the spiritual path, then you will start to be aloof from people. There are two types of viveka here, kaya viveka and citta viveka. Kaya viveka is body seclusion or body aloofness. So if a person is intent on the spiritual path, then slowly he becomes more and more aloof from his friends, from his family members. And he goes inwards, he is more concerned with his practice and he doesn't keep constant contact with the world, with friends and all that. And that is letting go, letting go. So a person practices this body aloofness or body seclusion by distancing himself from friends and relatives and from the world in general. So in other words, like he's less interested in what's happening around the world, in watching TV, in looking at newspapers, etc. Now, if a person is in a monastery where he has to be in contact with other people and when he practices Kaya Viveka, body seclusion or body aloofness, it means that he doesn't talk so much with other people although he sees other people around him and there is contact. He keeps his talking to a minimum. He doesn't engage in idle gossip with people around him. So that he is still practicing Kaliya Viveka, body seclusion. Now, Chitta Viveka is a more advanced stage. Chitta Viveka means Mental seclusion. Mental seclusion means he cuts himself off from the world. In other words, he spends most of his time in meditation. He goes into his mind. He goes into his mind and is no more interested in the world around him. So, you find, like some of the Buddha's disciples, they are so serious about their practice that in the morning they go on alms round, and then when they come back from alms round, they go back to their kuti, they take their meal. After they take their meal, then they lock themselves inside their kuti. They don't want to see anybody, they don't want to talk to anybody, and they meditate the whole day. And if possible, at night also. So this is citta viveka, mental seclusion, where he is totally not interested in the whole world and people. Now this seclusion viveka is a condition or precondition for the next item, number nine in Charana, which is nivaranapahana, abandonment of the five hindrances. Abandonment of the five hindrances means that a person has attained Upacara Samadhi. Upacara Samadhi is threshold concentration or assessed concentration. That is the type of concentration quite near to jhana. When a person attains this type of concentration, the mind stills down and he experiences bliss. And then a light wells up from within him. A light wells up from within his body. He can feel a brightness coming forth. So when that happens, then the five hindrances are reduced. And after he has that experience, then he will notice that his anger and his lust has come down considerably. These two things, anger and lust, is part of the five hindrances. Why? Because if a person has attained such a peaceful state of mind as his concentration or threshold concentration, He doesn't like to be agitated, so sometimes there's reason for him to get angry also. He's not inclined to get angry because he likes that ease of mind, likes to maintain that calmness within. If a person gets angry, then that calmness will just break and go away. So this is number nine, abandonment of the five hindrances. When a person abandons the five hindrances, then the mind is free of the five hindrances for some time. If the five hindrances come back again, he can abandon the five hindrances again easily by regaining that state of SS concentration. Once a person has the experience of gaining that concentration, he knows the way to get back to that concentration. But sometimes conditions might not allow him, then when the conditions allow him, then he can get back to that state. And the tenth item under Charana is attainment of the four jhanas. Samma Samadhi. This Samma Samadhi is the four jhanas. It is a state of concentration and the mind becomes very still and very peaceful and you have these factors of jhana like piti and sukha delight and happiness and also one-pointedness of mind and It has nothing to do with like vipassana jhāna. Vipassana jhāna is not something taught by the Buddha and in the Buddha's teachings there is no such word. It's only coined recently by some monks. So the only type of jhāna is the samādhi concentrated type of jhāna that the Buddha taught. And these states are very high states, not easy to attain. And it is precisely because it is not easy to attain that nowadays people don't practice it because they are not able to attain these jhanas. These jhanas are only attained by letting go, practicing aloofness, seclusion from others. from the world, then only you can attain such high states. Like the fourth jhāna especially is very hard to attain, because the fourth jhāna, if you attain the fourth jhāna, then it's such a deep state of concentration that the breath stops, the breath stops, and According to the suttas, people who can attain the four jhanas, many of them they can see devas and they can talk to devas and they can hear devas talking. So this is ten things that make up charana, cultivation of the spiritual path, the holy path. The first one is moral conduct, the second is contentment, then guarding the six sense doors, Then moderation in eating. Number five is devotion to wakefulness. Number six is seven good qualities. Faith, sense of shame, fear of wrongdoing, much learning, effort, recollection, wisdom. And the seventh item in Charana is mindfulness and recollection. The eighth item is seclusion or aloofness. The ninth is abandonment of the five hindrances. And number ten is attainment of the four jhanas. So that is Charana. And anybody who wants to be liberated from samsara, he has to attain all these ten things under this Charana. Then only he can become an Arahant or a Buddha.

(03)-Vijja

Now we come to Vijja. Vijja is knowledge or the result of practicing Charana. Under Vijja we have eight items. First I'll mention the items. The first one is Vipassana, Jnana, contemplation knowledge. The second is Mano, Maya, Idi, mind created body. Number three is Idi, Vida, psychokinesis. Number 4 is Dibba Sota, clairaudience. Number 5 is Ceto, Pariya, Jnana, knowledge of others' minds. Number 6 is Pube Nivasa, Nusati, knowledge of past lives. Number 7 is Dibba Chakku, clairvoyance or heavenly eye. Number eight is Asavakaya Jnana, knowledge of the destruction of the Asavas. Okay, the first one, Vipassana Jnana, contemplation knowledge, comes from contemplating the body and the mind. A person having practiced Charana, then he contemplates the body and the mind, and then he has knowledge that The body is dependent on the mind and the mind is dependent on the body. The mind meaning consciousness. And he also knows that the body is basically the four great elements. When you say body, you talk about the four characteristics of earth. Earth means the hardness element. When we touch our body, the hardness part, It's called the earth element. And then earth, water. Then the water characteristic of our body is the liquid inside our body that gives us the shape of the body. If we were to take away all the liquid from this body, this body would become powdery and would just collapse. and we will have no shape. So because we have the water element inside us, then we have a shape. So that is the water element. Then the third characteristic of our body is fire. Fire is the heat element, the heat element inside our body. The Buddha said if the heat element were to be taken away from us, then we would die. Or when we die, then the body will grow cold. So, one way to know for certain that a person has died is to feel the body. When the body is cold, then he is certain that he will not wake up again. So, that is the third characteristic of our body. The fourth is wind. The wind element in our body means the element of motion. that which causes movement in our body, because of the wind element in our body, our blood circulates in our body, the gases in our body moves up and down, etc. So these are the four elements in our body. So contemplation knowledge means knowing these things. The second is mind-created body, mano maya iddhi. This is the start of the psychic powers. If a person has this ability to create a body that comes out from the top of the head, the Buddha said, the Buddha and some of the Arahant disciples, from the top of the head, a golden colored body can come out, which looks exactly like the flesh body. So sometimes when the Buddha found that some of his disciples were practicing and they fell asleep or they needed some instruction, the Buddha would go to them with this this mind-created body. Sometimes in other religions, maybe they call it the astral body. So that is the number two. Then number three is Ed Veda. Ed Veda is psycho-kinesis or the various types of psychic power that a person very accomplished in meditation can possess. For example, sitting cross-legged, the Buddha said, this person can fly, fly like a bird, and he can fly up to the heavens, he can go up to the six heavens in the sensual realm, and he can go with the flesh body as far as the Brahma heavens, which is the first jhana, first jhana heavens of the So that is one type of psychic power. And then there are others, like for example, being able to go across a wall with a flesh body, to walk across the wall. And then also to be able to dive into the earth, just like diving into water and coming out. And then to be able to walk on water. And then to be able, sitting down with the hand to touch the moon, with the hand to touch the sun even. multiplying one body, becoming two, becoming ten, becoming a hundred, becoming a thousand bodies. He can multiply his bodies. So these are the various types of psychic power under this Idi-Vida, psycho-kinesis. Number four is Dibba-Sota, clear audience, ability to hear, to hear sounds near, to hear sounds very far, and to hear devas talking, or other beings talking, So this is clairaudience, another type of psychic power. Then number five is ceto-pariya-jnana, knowledge of others' minds, being able to know what other people are thinking. Like Achan Man, in Thailand, is the most famous Thai monk. and he was reputed to be able to read his disciples' minds. That's why they had such great respect for him. So, that's number five. Then number six is kube nivasa nusati, knowledge of past lives. So you have the ability to recall your past lives, one life, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, hundreds of thousands, a world cycle, or more than a world cycle. This one, how many lifetimes you can recall depends on how great is your samadhi, how deep is your concentration. So this is another ability. The Buddha in the suttas, the Buddha said that he looked into the past 91 world cycles, kappa. One kappa, a world cycle, is an extremely long time. The Buddha said it's very hard to imagine how long. So for the Buddha to recollect 91 world cycles, I imagine he must have sat the whole night recollecting for 12 hours probably from dusk until the next dawn. and he managed to see 91 world cycles. In that period, the Buddha said he saw 6 Sammasambuddhas, only 6 Sammasambuddhas. But nowadays, later books talk about 24, 28, in Mayana tradition they have 88 Buddhas and all that, that was created later. So as far as our Sakyamuni Buddha is concerned, he said he only saw six Samasambuddhas before him. So this is knowledge of past lives. Number seven is clairvoyance. Clairvoyance, Dibbacaku, heavenly eye, being able to see devas, and to see ghosts, to see other beings, unseen beings. This is not to be confused with some people's ability to see only ghosts. They call yam yong ngan in Cantonese. That is not psychic power. Those people, they probably have been reborn in the ghost realm for so many lifetimes, that their frequency is ghost frequency, so it's easy for them to be able to see ghosts. But such people cannot see devas. They only see ghosts. Whereas a person with this Dibbha Chakru, he not only sees ghosts, he can see devas also. So then the last one, number 8, Asavakaya Jnana, destruction of the Asavas, knowledge of the destruction of the Asavas. This is the most important result of Charana, the most important result of cultivation or practice of the holy life, is to destroy the Asavas. can be translated as uncontrolled mental outflows, which boils down to the flowing of the consciousness. Consciousnesses keep flowing and the consciousnesses create the world. The five consciousnesses create the outer world. The mental consciousness creates the inner world. So as long as this consciousness flows, then the world exists. But when the consciousness stops, then the world stops too. exist so we will become enlightened or become or awaken awaken that's why the buddha is called the awakened one so this asavas mental outflows is characteristic of all beings all beings have this consciousness flowing so they see themselves in the dream created by this consciousness and they see themselves as a being in the dream of life just as at night when we go to sleep and we dream and we see ourselves in that dream and we really believe that it's real until we wake up from sleep so in the same way life is just consciousness flowing and This dream of life, we see ourselves, lifetime after lifetime. And so, a person becomes enlightened where he is able to destroy the asavas, where he is able to stop his tendency of the mind to flow. To do that, he has to be able to get a hold of the mind. And that is why the jhanas are so important, because the jhanas are the steps to enlightenment, the steps to destroying the asavas. When the asavas are destroyed, they are destroyed permanently. They will never flow again. But jhanas are states of concentration where the asavas are controlled. They are stopped from flowing temporarily. As long as you are in jhana, the asavas stop flowing, you are in a deep state of concentration and because the asavas stop flowing, then in these states of jhana, except for the first jhana, the other jhanas, the higher jhanas, there is no thinking at all. The mind is completely under control and there is no thinking. It is just awareness. It is just knowing. So that is why jhanas are so important. They are stepping stones to enlightenment. That is why in the suttas, the Buddha likened the steps to enlightenment as like the flowering of a heavenly tree. When the buds form and then the buds become bigger and slowly until the whole flower blooms. The Buddha described, gave a simile of this flower blooming to the different jhanas. The different jhanas, the first jhana, second jhana, third jhana, fourth jhana. So from there you can see that jhanas are the stepping stones to enlightenment. So, I think I will just mention again the eight knowledges under vijja. The first one is vipassana, jnana, contemplation knowledge, that means by contemplating the body and the mind, you understand the nature of the body and the mind. And the second one is Manomaya-Idi, the ability to have a mind-created body that comes out from the top of the head. And then the third is Idi-Vida, psycho-kinesis, the various types of psychic power. And then the fourth is Libha-Sota, clairaudience, being able to hear sounds near and far. Number five is ceto-pariya-jnana, knowledge of others' minds, being able to read other people's minds. Number six is pube-nivasa-nusati, the ability to recall past lives. Number seven is dibacaku, clairvoyance, the ability to see heavenly beings, ghosts, etc., unseen beings. The eighth is asavakaya jnana, knowledge of the destruction of the asavas, which also means the attainment of enlightenment. These eight knowledges under Vijja, the most important is the destruction of the asavas and attaining enlightenment. Now, whereas for Charana, for a person to become enlightened, he has to attain all the ten factors of Charana. Whereas in Vijja, when a person becomes enlightened, he does not attain it does not necessarily attain all the eight knowledges under Mija. Some might only attain one, which is the destruction of the Asavas and become an Arahant. That is why in the Suttas and the Vinaya books we find many Arahants. You could say one-third to two-thirds of the Arahants have no psychic power. So out of these eight, they only have attained destruction of the Asavas. They don't have any psychic power. For example, Venerable Sariputta did not have any psychic power. Now, when the Buddha was enlightened, he said he attained the three knowledges. So out of these eight, he only attained three. What was the three that he attained? The first one was The first one he attained was knowledge of past lives. He could see the past lives. But to see past lives, maybe that's recalling. But he's in the Vinaya books when the Buddha said that when he attained enlightenment, just before he attained enlightenment, he contemplated beings arising and passing away according to kamma. So if you could see beings arising and passing away according to kamma, that could be clairvoyance. and then after that he contemplated his past lives, and then after that he destroyed the Asavas. So these are the three knowledges the Buddha attained, number 6, number 7 and number 8. Knowledge of past lives, clairvoyance and destruction of the Asavas. So after the Buddha attained enlightenment, at first he did not want to teach the Dharma. He did not want to be a Samasambuddha. He actually wanted to be a Pacheka Buddha. And then this Brahma, Brahma Sahampati, came and appealed to the Buddha to teach the Dharma to the world. And later the Buddha, after contemplating and realizing that there are some people who can understand the Dharma, the Buddha decided to teach the Dharma. So I guess before the Buddha started to teach the Dhamma, he probably contemplated how other Buddhas taught the Dhamma. Then maybe he realized that to teach the Dhamma, he has to attain all the psychic powers. So later, he must have attained, cultivated all the eight knowledges under Vijja, all the psychic powers. Then only he started teaching. So the same with the Arahants and other Buddhas, some of them may have just one knowledge out of the eight, some may have two, some may have three, up to a maximum of eight. But it's not necessary that they have all eight, it's only necessary that they have the destruction of the Asavas, so that they become enlightened. So I guess I'll stop here. If you all have any questions or anything to discuss.

(04)-Questions-and-answers

If for a fact you know that the other monk is not doing the right thing, isn't it correct for the monk to point out to that person, to the monk that he is doing the wrong thing and all this? Or just keep quiet? No, no. This one about not talking bad about another monk does not mean that you cannot point out another monk's mistake. It is actually a duty of a monk to point out another monk's mistake and shortcoming, but what is meant by wrong livelihood is to talk bad in a way, to talk bad when it is not true, when it's not true, just to boost your status or something, then you talk bad about another monk or another person, that's what it's meant. Hello, Bhante. I continue with this, that yesterday he was talking. Normally, Bhante, I've just read one of the books. It says if you want to complain about the monks, normally after the Katina or something like that, then if you found the monks have said something wrong, then they go to the monk to complain about his weaknesses. Is it something like that, Bhante? This one is the Avarana Ceremony. If monks have stayed together for the Vatsa, it means that they have stayed for three months together. And when they have stayed together for three months, it is possible that they may get on each other's nerves. They are unhappy with each other over something. to overcome this problem so that they don't keep it in their heart. So the Buddha said that they should invite, at the end of the vassa, every monk should invite other monks to criticize him in case they have seen or heard or suspect that he has done anything wrong. He gives permission to other monks to criticize him. So I think this is a very good thing. Because for most people who do not practice the spiritual path, we have this ego and we don't like to be criticized. In fact, even some people in the monastery also, staying in the monastery also, they haven't come to the state where they can accept criticism. Actually, in the Buddha's teaching, the Buddha said, if you can find somebody who can bring to your attention your faults, then you should value that person and stick to that person and not leave that person. Only when somebody can point out our mistake, then only we can improve. If we don't improve, then the Buddha said we might as well die today, because if we live another 20 or 30 years, we are not going to improve. We are wasting our time, we are wasting our life. So, not only are we not improving, we are using up our good karma, because as human beings and heavenly beings, we are in a happy destination of rebirth. So, every day that we live as human beings, we are using up good karma. So, in that sense, we are wasting our life. Making jokes is not an offence. Sometimes, like some people, jokingly you tell a lie. As long as it doesn't harm people, it's alright. In fact, sometimes telling a lie is necessary. may be necessary to prevent greater harm from happening. Sometimes monks are invited for talks and then for a fact we know that he is saying something against the suttas or whatever it is. Do we have the right to point out to the monk right away in front of everybody that he is saying the wrong things? Or do we just keep quiet and then later Go and see him personally and then talk to him about what he has said or something like this. I guess whether you can point out something that the monk has said is not correct would depend on the circumstances. Would depend on the circumstances. Firstly, maybe you think if you don't point it out some people might get wrong view. So, with that in mind, maybe it's good to point out. So, having pointed out, if that monk refuses to accept what you say, then you have done your duty. Keep quiet. Yes, it's good to put it in a nice way. Whether it's done in front of everybody or not also, you have to see the situation, whether he can take it. If he can take it, then it's all right. If he cannot take it, then maybe you should tell him in private. But then they criticize. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's better to talk in front than to talk behind. Recently we have one guest who came. I'm not sure whether he is correct or not. He came to give a talk on Dharma. Is he the monk? No, no. He's not a layman. He said the next Buddha will be an elephant from the... something like that. Elephant. Elephant. Elephant God, he said. Is there any connection with that, the next Buddha? Can you shed some light on that? Nowadays, Buddhism is 2,500 years old, so there's a lot of confusion, and there's a lot of later books. So a lot of things that were written later cannot be trusted. They were not spoken by the Buddha in the early suttas. We cannot take it to be the truth. As far as this elephant god becoming a Buddha, I've never heard about it. That was what we heard in the talk, the latest talk we had. I was a bit confused when I heard that also. So we went home and I talked over to Sue and said, is there such a thing like that? I never heard Pandit saying something like this. Oh, I never heard.