Dhammapada Verses 318 and 319
Titthiyasvaka Vatthu

Avajje vajjamatino
vajje cavajjadassi no
micchaditthisamada
satta gacchanti duggatim.

Vajjanca vajjato natva
avajjanca avajjato
sammaditthisamadana
satta gacchanti suggatim.

Verse 318: Beings who imagine wrong in what is not wrong, who do not see wrong in what is wrong, and who hold wrong views go to a lower plane of existence (duggati).

Verse 319: Beings who know what is wrong as wrong. who know what is right as right, and who hold right views go to a happy plane of existence (suggati).

The Story of the Disciples of Non-Buddhist Ascetics

While residing at the Nigrodarama monastery, the Buddha uttered Verses (318) and (319) of this book, with reference to some disciples of the Titthis (non-Buddhist ascetics).

The disciples of the Titthis did not want their children to mix with the children of the followers of the Buddha. They often told their children, "Do not go to the Jetavana monastery, do not pay obeisance to the bhikkhus of the Sakyan clan." On one occasion, while the Titthi boys were playing with a Buddhist boy near the entrance to the Jetavana monastery, they felt very thirsty. As the children of the disciples of the Titthis had been told by their parents not to enter a Buddhist monastery, they asked the Buddhist boy to go to the monastery and bring some water for them. The young Buddhist boy went to pay obeisance to the Buddha after he had had a drink of water, and told the Buddha about his friends who were forbidden by their parents to enter a Buddhist monastery. The Buddha then told the boy to tell the non-Buddhist boys to come and have water at the monastery. When those boys came, the Buddha gave them a discourse to suit their various dispositions. As a result, those boys became established in faith in the Three Gems i.e., the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Samgha.

When the boys went home, they talked about their visit to the Jetavana monastery and about the Buddha teaching them the Three Gems. The parents of the boys, being ignorant, cried, "Our sons have been disloyal to our faith, they have been ruined," etc. Some intelligent neighbours advised the wailing parents to stop weeping and to send their sons to the Buddha. Somehow, they agreed and the boys as well as their parents went to the Buddha.

The Buddha knowing why they had come spoke to them in verse as follows:
Verse 318: Beings who imagine wrong in what is not wrong, who do not see wrong in what is wrong, and who hold wrong views go to a lower plane of existence (duggati).

Verse 319: Beings who know what is wrong as wrong. who know what is right as right, and who hold right views go to a happy plane of existence (suggati).

At the end of the discourse all those people came to be established in faith in the Three Gems, and after listening to the Buddha's further discourses, they subsequently attained Sotapatti Fruition.

End of Chapter Twenty-Two: Niraya

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Taung Kalat Buddhist monastery, Mount Popa, Mandalay, Burma.

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Abhidhamma in Daily Life
By Ashin Janakavibhamsa

A treatise ennoscriptd "Abhidamma in Daily Life" is written for the welfare of people, with a view to assist them in acquiring good conduct.

The author's aim can be summarized as follows:

(1) For the reader to develop rightful attitude regarding the objects and senses perceived, to be always broad-minded, to live the way of (brahmacariya) noble living, and to conduct a harmonious life.

(2) For the reader to be always in good mood,develop an unwavering attitude towards life and to be able to live in grace whether they be wealthy and happy, being successful and prosperous, or whether they are poor and unhappy meeting with failure and calamity.

(3) For the reader to be able to fulfill the (parami) perfections such as dana (charity), (sila) morality etc. in this existence so that they may be reborn in happy abodes in the existences to come till the attainment of the supreme bliss of nibbana.

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===

Dhammapada Verses 320, 321 and 322
Attadanta Vatthu

Aham nagova sangame
capato patitam saram
ativakyam titikkhissam
dussilo hi bahujjano.

Dantam nayanti samitim
dantam raja' bhiruhati
danto settho manussesu
yo' tivakyam titikkhati.

Varamassatara danta
ajaniya ca sindhava
kunjara ca mahanaga
attadanto tato varam.

Verse 320: As an elephant in battlefield withstands the arrow shot from a bow, so shall I endure abuse. Indeed, many people are without morality.

Verse 321: Only the trained (horses and elephants) are led to gatherings of people; the King mounts only the trained (horses and elephants). Noblest among men are the tamed, who endure abuse.

Verse 322: Mules, thoroughbred horses, horses from Sindh, and great elephants are noble only when they are trained; but one who has tamed himself (through Magga Insight) is far nobler.

On Subduing Oneself

While residing at the Ghositarama monastery, the Buddha uttered Verses (320), (321) and (322) of this book, with reference to the patience and endurance manifested by himself when abused by the hirelings of Magandiya, one of the three queens of King Udena.

Once, the father of Magandiya, being very much impressed by the personality and looks of the Buddha, had offered his very beautiful daughter in marriage to Gotama Buddha. But the Buddha refused his offer and said that he did not like to touch such a thing which was full of filth and excreta, even with his feet. On hearing this remark both Magandiya's father and mother discerning the truth of the remark attained Anagami Fruition. Magandiya, however, regarded the Buddha as her arch enemy and was bent on having her revenge on him.

Later, she became one of the three queens of King Udena. When Magandiya heard that the Buddha had come to Kosambi, she hired some citizens and their servants to abuse the Buddha when he entered the city on an alms-round. Those hirelings followed the Buddha and abused him using such abusive words as 'thief, fool, camel, donkey, one bound for niraya'. Hearing those abusive words, the Venerable Ananda pleaded with the Buddha to leave the town and go to another place. But the Buddha refused and said, "In another town also we might be abused and it is not feasible to move out every time one is abused. It is better to solve a problem in the place where it arises. I am like an elephant in a battlefield; like an elephant who withstands the arrows that come from all quarters, I also will bear patiently the abuses that come from people without morality."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 320: As an elephant in battlefield withstands the arrow shot from a bow, so shall I endure abuse. Indeed, many people are without morality.


Verse 321: Only the trained (horses and elephants) are led to gatherings of people; the King mounts only the trained (horses and elephants). Noblest among men are the tamed, who endure abuse.


Verse 322: Mules, thoroughbred horses, horses from Sindh, and great elephants are noble only when they are trained; but one who has tamed himself (through Magga Insight) is far nobler.

At the end of the discourse, those who had abused the Buddha realized their mistake and came to respect him; some of them attained Sotapatti Fruition.

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Dhammapada
The Judge : 266-267

Begging from others
doesn’t mean one’s a monk.
As long as one follows
householders’ ways,
one is no monk at all.
But whoever puts aside
both merit & evil and,
living the chaste life,
judiciously
goes through the world:
he’s called a monk.

Leshan giant Buddha, the tallest pre-modern statue in the world built during Tang dynasty era, Sichuan, China.

Hands restrained,
feet restrained
speech restrained,
supremely restrained–
delighting in what is inward,
content, centered, alone:
he’s what they call
a monk.

362
Dhammapada XXV : Monks

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Fundamentals of Buddhism: Four Lectures
By Nyanatiloka Mahathera

I. The Essence of Buddhism (Radio Lecture, Colombo, 1933)
II. Kamma & Rebirth (Lecture, Ceylon University, 1947)
III. Pa†icca-Samuppåda: Dependent Origination (Second Lecture under the Dona Alphina Ratnayaka Trust, University College, Colombo, 1938)
IV. Mental Culture (Based on a lecture delivered in Tokyo, 1920)

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Dhammapada Verse 323
Hatthacariyapubbaka Bhikkhu Vatthu

Na hi etehi yanehi
gaccheyya agatam disam
yatha' ttana sudantena
danto dantena gacchati.

Verse 323: Indeed, not by any means of transport (such as elephants and horses) can one go to the place one has never been before (i.e., Nibbana); but by thoroughly taming oneself, the tamed one1 can get to that place (i.e., Nibbana).

1. The tamed one: One, who having first controlled the senses, has later developed Magga Insight. (The Commentary)

The Story of the Bhikkhu Who Had Been a Trainer of Elephants

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (323) of this book, with reference to a bhikkhu who had previously been an elephant trainer.

On one occasion, some bhikkhus saw an elephant trainer and his elephant on the bank of the river Aciravati. As the trainer was finding it difficult to control the elephant, one of the bhikkhus, who was an ex-elephant trainer, told the other bhikkhus how it could be easily handled. The elephant trainer hearing him did as told by the bhikkhu, and the elephant was quickly subdued. Back at the monastery, the bhikkhus related the incident to the Buddha. The Buddha called the ex-elephant trainer bhikkhu to him and said, "O vain bhikkhu, who is yet far away from Magga and Phala ! You do not gain anything by taming elephants. There is no one who can get to a place where one has never been before (i.e.. Nibbana) by taming elephants; only one who has tamed himself can get there."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 323: Indeed, not by any means of transport (such as elephants and horses) can one go to the place one has never been before (i.e., Nibbana); but by thoroughly taming oneself, the tamed one can get to that place (i.e., Nibbana).
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For six years Gautama starved and deprived his soul in search for meaning, hoping that these extreme measures may hold the truth. But soon he found that this new extreme, a life of complete scarcity, nor his previous life of opulence held the answers he was so determined to find. Gautama then decided to take the middle way. He began to eat and nourish himself again but sought a new path to enrich his soul.

Then with the passing of those seven days, the Gracious One arose from that concentration. Then the Nāga King Mucalinda, having understood that the sky was now clear without a cloud, having unravelled his coils from the Gracious One’s body, and after withdrawing his own form, and creating the appearance of a young brāhmaṇa, stood in front of the Gracious One, revering the Gracious One with raised hands.

Then the Gracious One, having understood the significance of it, on that occasion uttered this exalted utterance:

“There is happiness and detachment for the one who is satisfied,
who has heard the Dhamma, and who sees,
There is happiness for him who is free from ill-will in the world,
who is restrained towards breathing beings.

“The state of dispassion in the world is happiness,
the complete transcending of sense desires,
But for he who has removed the conceit ‘I am’—
this is indeed the highest happiness.”


Udāna 2.1
Mucalindasuttaṁ 11

A Caution Against Superiority Conceit

An argument to abandon preconceived prejudices against different Buddhist traditions.
By Bhikkhu Analayo

Part 1 of 2

Probably all Buddhist traditions would agree in principle that superiority conceit is a detrimental mental condition and better overcome. Yet, the historical reality of various forms of Buddhism reflects recurrent manifestations of superiority conceit. These can take the form of gender discrimination or of dismissive attitudes toward other Buddhist traditions. When confronted with the forms of conceit, time and again I found that an understanding of the religious and historical conditions responsible for a particular situation was both sobering and liberating. Insight into the why and how of certain aspects of the Buddhist traditions can help to see these in the proper perspective and find ways to adjust. For this reason, I hope that the material presented here will be helpful to the reader, enabling a more informed perspective and consequently a letting go of ignorance and conceit.

Various forms of daily discrimination toward women who have renounced lay life exist in Theravada countries. The main problem remains their ambiguous position between the lay and the monastic world. This in-between status can find reflection, for example, in the type of dress worn. The nuns of Myanmar often wear pinkish colored robes, a color never worn by bhikkhus, and the nuns of Thailand wear only white, similar to lay people on observance days. Nuns in both countries usually do not officiate at public ceremonies or preach in public. Whereas nuns in Sri Lanka take ten precepts, in Thailand they usually only take eight, another similarity to the practice of lay people on an observance day. The Thai government denies the nuns the right to vote, in line with the custom that monastics do not vote, but at the same time does not concede them the benefit of free travel on public transport, a privilege accorded to bhikkhus.

The bhikkhuni ordination lineage was transmitted from India to Sri Lanka and from there to China, although the latter transmission appears to have happened in a way that does not fully satisfy strict Theravada legal requirements. Due to the subsequent decline of the order of bhikkhunis in India and Sri Lanka, since the time of the eleventh century, there appear to have been no more bhikkhunis ordained according to Theravada law who could have collaborated with a Theravada order of bhikkhus in granting ordination to a female candidate.

Depictions of the Buddha in the early texts do not present him as a paragon of masculinity, unlike later texts. According to a listing of impossibilities, a woman cannot be a Buddha. Although probably originating from leadership conceptions in the ancient Indian setting, where a female stood little chance of being recognized as an accomplished teacher, the idea of such an impossibility could easily have fostered a tendency to belittle women’s abilities. This had an impact in particular on conceptions of the path to Buddhahood, in that the accomplishment of an advanced bodhisattva came eventually to be seen as manifesting in the leaving behind of the female body in order to continue for the rest of his career as a male.

The various strands of negativity toward women that emerge in this way are not in conformity with the early teachings. After the Buddha’s passing away, it was perhaps natural for ensuing generations of Buddhist monastics to move more in line with general biases prevalent in the patriarchal setting of ancient India, in their attempt to ensure the survival of the fledgling tradition in the face of competition with other religious groups and under the threat of internal disintegration.

Thanks to the efforts of the Buddhist monastic institutions over many centuries the teachings and discipline have been transmitted until today.