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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.

Without in any way intending to turn a blind eye to this remarkable achievement of past generations, it nevertheless needs to be recognized that to insist on perpetuating outdated hierarchies based on male superiority conceit is not in keeping with the demands of current times and is detrimental to the welfare of the Buddhist traditions it seeks to protect.

AMahayana Buddhist superiority conceit finds expression in the belief that membership in the Great Vehicle, the Mahayana, automatically confers superiority over anyone else who does not aspire to Buddhahood.

The need for an authentication of Mahayana texts as teachings of the historical Buddha appears to be responsible for the emergence of Hinayana [the Lesser Vehicle] rhetoric. The distinction between those who follow the bodhisattva path and those who do not aspire to future Buddhahood is a vocational one and needs to be differentiated from monastic ordination taken in any of what are conventionally called the eighteen schools of Buddhism. The usage of the term “Hinayana” has its origin in polemics and lacks a grounding in the historical reality of Indian Buddhism. It cannot be used to refer to the Theravada traditions, as some Theravadins have been and still are practitioners of the bodhisattva path. Nor can it be applied to early Buddhism, as during that period the bodhisattva path had not yet come into existence. This leaves no basis for the application of a term that concerns the decision whether or not to pursue such a path.

The true seal of authentication for any Buddhist practitioner can be found by putting into practice the central discovery of the historical Buddha: emptiness, or not self.

The employment of the term “Hinayana” has a counterpart in claims to the superiority of bodhisattvas, actively encouraged in various texts through comparisons and illustrations expressive of contempt for those who are not in pursuit of Buddhahood. The same tendency to belittling can also find employment in the context of rivalry among different Mahayana traditions. Besides the need to set aside the term “Hinayana” in clear recognition of its polemical origins, historical unreality, and discriminatory nature, there is also a need to leave behind the underlying attempt to authenticate noscripture through untenable attributions to the historical Buddha.

In sum, the significant contributions made by Mahayana thought to Buddhism would shine forth more brightly if they could be divested of the blemish of superiority conceit.

The next manifestation of superiority conceit takes the form of assuming that membership in the Theravada tradition automatically implies being the true heir to the Buddha’s original teachings. As evidence that this notion lacks a foundation, there are several aspects of the Path of Purification, the Visuddhimagga, a key manual of the path compiled by Buddhaghosa in the fifth century, that involve some departure from early Buddhist thought. My point is not to imply a wholesale rejection but only that this work offers a distinctly Theravada perspective, which at times differs from the early Buddhist position.

One of which is the widespread belief among later generations of Buddhists that the Buddha was omniscient. The notion of the comprehensiveness of knowledge that underlies the idea of omniscience appears to have been a central undercurrent in the arising of Abhidharma, which the Theravadins—just as other Buddhist traditions—consider to have been taught by the historical Buddha himself. This attribution involves forms of textual authentication similar to those evident in Mahayana Buddhist traditions discussed previously.
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Dhammapada Verse 324
Parijinna Brahmanaputta Vatthu

Dhanapalo nama kunjaro
katukabhedano dunnivarayo
baddho kabalam na bhunjati
sumarati nagavanassa kunjaro.

Verse 324: The elephant called Dhanapala, in severe must and uncontrollable, being in captivity, eats not a morsel, yearning for his native forest (i.e., longing to look after his parents).

The Story of an Old Brahmin

While residing at the Veluvana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (324) of this book, with reference to an old brahmin.

Once, there lived in Savatthi an old brahmin who had eight lakhs in cash. He had four sons; when each one of the sons got married, he gave one lakh to him. Thus, he gave away four lakhs. Later, his wife died. His sons came to him and looked after him very well; in fact, they were very loving and affectionate to him. In course of time, somehow they coaxed him to give them the remaining four lakhs. Thus, he was left practically penniless.

First, he went to stay with his eldest son. After a few days, the daughter-in-law said to him, "Did you give any extra hundred or thousand to your eldest son? Don't you know the way to the houses of your other sons?" Hearing this, the old brahmin got very angry and he left the eldest son's house for the house of his second son. The same remarks were made by the wife of his second son and the old man went to the house of his third son and finally to the house of his fourth and youngest son. The same thing happened in the houses of all his sons. Thus, the old man became helpless; then, taking a staff and a bowl he went to the Buddha for protection and advice.

At the monastery, the brahmin told the Buddha how his sons had treated him and asked for his help. Then the Buddha gave him some verses to memorize and instructed him to recite them wherever there was a large gathering of people. The gist of the verses is this: "My four foolish sons are like ogres. They call me 'father, father', but the words come only out of their mouths and not from their hearts. They are deceitful and scheming. Taking the advice of their wives they have driven me out of their houses. So, now I have got to be begging. Those sons of mine are of less service to me than this staff of mine." When the old brahmin recited these verses, many people in the crowd, hearing him, went wild with rage at his sons and some even threatened to kill them.

At this, the sons became frightened and knelt down at the feet of their father and asked for pardon. They also promised that starting from that day they would look after their father properly and would respect, love and honour him. Then, they took their father to their houses; they also warned their wives to look after their father well or else they would be beaten to death. Each of the sons gave a length of cloth and sent every day a food-tray. The brahmin became healthier than before and soon put on some weight. He realized that he had been showered with these benefits on account of the Buddha. So, he went to the Buddha and humbly requested him to accept two food-trays out of the four he was receiving every day from his sons. Then he instructed his sons to send two food-trays to the Buddha.

One day, the eldest son invited the Buddha to his house for alms-food. After the meal, the Buddha gave a discourse on the benefits to be gained by looking after one's parents. Then he related to them the story of the elephant called Dhanapala, who looked after his parents. Dhanapala when captured pined for the parents who were left in the forest.

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 324: The elephant called Dhanapala, in severe must and uncontrollable, being in captivity, eats not a morsel, yearning for his native forest (i. e., longing to look after his parents).

At the end of the discourse, the old brahmin as well as his four sons and their wives attained Sotapatti Fruition.

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