This talk was given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre on the full moon night of July 2019
The Buddha is staying in the Eastern Park just outside Savatthi, a rainy season residence provided by Visakha, known as Migara's mother. She was the chief female patron of the Buddha and a number of his teachings are given at this place known as the mansion of Migara's mother.
This sutta is all about the true man and the untrue man or as Bhikkhu TThannisaro translates it – the person of integrity and the person of no integrity – or as we might say in Triratna, the true individual and the individualist. The Buddha says that a person of no integrity would not be able to recognise a person of integrity and that they would not even be able to discern another person of no integrity. Then he talks about the qualities or actions that make some one untrue or without integrity. There are 7 personal traits they have which lead them to behave in unskilful ways. The personal traits are that they:
have no faith
have no shame
no fear of wrongdoing
are lazy
are forgetful or unmindful
are unwise
These lead them to behave in the following ways:
they associate with others who are lacking integrity
their mental states lead to their own suffering and that of others
they give bad advice
they speak falsely, harshly and in a gossipy and malicious way
they constantly break the first three precepts, which are the precepts of loving kindness, generosity and contentment.
they hold wrong views
They give gifts as a untrue person:
carelessly, not with own hand, without respect, give what is to be discarded, don't believe in the karmic consequences of generosity.
Then he goes on to talk about the qualities and actions of the true man or person of integrity as being the opposite of those of the person of no integrity.
I would like to go into some of the qualities and actions of the person of integrity a bit more. So this talk is just a series of reflections on some of the Buddha's teachings in this Full Moon Discourse. The main qualities of a person of Integrity that the Buddha highlighted and that I want to talk about are:
Faith
Ethical sensitivity
Receptivity
Energy
Mindfulness
Discernment
These qualities lead a person of integrity to behave in particular ways:
to observe the precepts – the ten precepts in this sutta
be helpful to others
develop good friendships
practice generosity.
There are more things mentioned in the Sutta but this is more than enough to explore for now.
Faith comes up again and again as both a prerequisite for the spiritual life and the main quality of an experienced practitioner such as a stream entrant. Faith in the Dharma and faith in the teacher are mentioned again and again by the Buddha. It's as if the deepening and strengthening of faith or confidence is one of the main qualities that permeate and enhance any spiritual life. Or to put it another way we won't get very far without faith and with faith we can move mountains. The opposite of faith is of course doubt and indecision and when we are prone to doubt and indecision we need to get into communication with spiritual friends and guides, we need to study and reflect on the Dharma and go deeper into what holds meaning for us through meditation and especially by going on retreat.
The second quality the Buddha talks about is ethical sensitivity. This is my gloss on what in Pali is hiri and ottapa or hri and apatraya in Sanskrit. Usually these terms are translated as shame and fear of censure by the wise. Or we could shorten that to conscience and concern. What it comes down to though is ethical sensitivity. Bhante Sangharakshita talked about the need to be scrupulous in our observance of the precepts. What this means is that it isn't enough to be aware of the ethical principles of non-violence and awareness and so on, we also need to pay attention to a more detailed practice of the precepts. We need to notice how skilful or unskilful we are in the details of our daily life. We need to notice our resistance to deeds of kindness and generosity, notice any subtle manipulation, notice any juggling with the truth and so on. It is in the details that we practice and it is in an awareness of the details that we develop our ethical sensitivity.
The third quality the Buddha attributes to a person of integrity is what the text translates as learned. But that isn't really what it means. The bahussuto is made up of two words – bahu means 'a lot ' and suto or suta is listening or hearing as in the trio of listening, reflecting and meditating. This quality is the quality of receptivity which manifests as listening to the Dharma, listening to a teacher. It is what another sutta refers to as taking delight in the Dharma and being inspired by the Dharma. And just to be clear listening includes reading and Dharma discussion and study.
Next
is the quality of virya or energy
in the practice of the precepts, meditation, study and so on. In the
Padhana Sutta of the Sutta Nipata. The Buddha says Mara
approached him as he was striving speaking
kind words (karunam vacam bhasamano). The
words attributed to him are as follows:
“O
you are thin and you are pale,
And you are in death’s presence
too;
A thousand parts are pledged to death,
But life still
holds one part of you.
Live, Sir! Life is the better way;
You
can gain merit if you live,
Come, live the Holy Life and
pour
Libations on the holy fires,
And thus a world of merit
gain.
What can you do by struggling now?
The path of struggling
too is rough
And difficult and hard to bear.”
The fifth quality of a person of integrity is mindfulness – sati. I probably don't need to say much about mindfulness, as it is a very popular topic these days. I will just emphasise one aspect of mindfulness and that is mindfulness of things or of our immediate environment. Working at a Buddhist Centre it is quite noticeable that people are often aware of others and generally courteous and kind, but when it comes to objects and the immediate environment people can be much less aware. That is not just things in the Centre but people's own property – the lost property box fills up every few months. It's good to make a practice of being aware of your immediate environment and treating it with courtesy and kindness too. As a I said in regard to ethical sensitivity – it is good to practice being mindful in detail and not just in some vague general way.
The next quality of a person of integrity is discernment, or wisdom. This is usually understood as reflecting deeply on impermanence. Impermanence is something obvious and therefore it can seem that it's not really necessary to go into it more deeply. Everything changes all the time – what more is there to say. But it is precisely because it seems so obvious that we need to reflect more deeply on it. The purpose of the reflection is to take it from being an intellectual understanding to being an emotional and imaginative realisation that affects how we live our lives – how we think, how we act and how we speak.
In the Jewel Ornament of Liberation – a Tibetan text written about 900 years ago by a student of Milarepa called Gampopa – there is a teaching about impermanence. It says “ you may ask, how is transitoriness to be understood? The answer is that the end of every hoarding is spending, of every rising falling, of every meeting parting and of all living dying.” There is an interesting commentary on this by Bhante in a seminar. One thing he says is “ If one wanted to look at this systematically one could say that 'the end of every hoarding is spending' applies to external possessions, 'the end of every rising is falling' applies to one's position in life, socially, politically, in relation to other people, that 'every meeting parting' applies to one's personal relationships with those who are near and dear, and that 'all living dying' applies to just to oneself alone and separate.” (108 Ways of Looking at Death, p.60)
I would like to add though that I think Gampopa is looking at impermanence in a one-sided way. Yes, it is about endings but it is also about beginnings. That which is transitory is leaving something behind and moving on to something new. Every summer may end in an autumn and winter, but it also true that every autumn and winter ends with a spring and summer. Death is inevitable and necessary because it creates the conditions for life. As with the precepts it is worth getting into detailed reflection on transitoriness and applying it to various things, people and circumstances, but not only in a way that leads us to being gloomy or downhearted. We can also rejoice in change and growth as something that enables us to emerge from our delusions, addictions, quarrels and other suffering.
Then the Buddha goes on to talk about the behaviour of a person of integrity: There are three things in particular:
Keeping the precepts
Friendships
generosity
In this sutta observing the precepts means observing the ten precepts. That is what the Buddha talks about to these disciples on the Full Moon night – the importance of the the ten precepts. The ten precepts are of course the ethical code of the Triratna Order and are taken as vows by Order Members at the time of ordination. This does not mean that it is only Order Members who need to observe the ten precepts. They are here from the very earliest days of the Buddha's teaching and are applicable to all who want to live a Buddhist life. In fact we could say that the ten precepts tell us how we need to behave and think if we are to live as Buddhists. There are three precepts relating to the mind , which are really a wisdom practice if taken in the right spirit and gone into deeply. They are about making an effort to always move away from unskilful states of mind and towards skilful states, by cultivating contentment, metta and right views.
The four speech precepts are a very useful guide to how to communicate effectively, whether in conversation or in writing. Elsewhere the Buddha talks about speech needing to be timely or appropriate as well as truthful, kindly, helpful and harmonising. We could add to that the observation that much of what we communicate might be better replaced with a wise silence.
The three precepts about actions are familiar to all of us and therefore need an even greater effort to bear in mind and act upon. It is so easy to forget or be complacent about the things that we are very familiar with and perhaps regard as only suitable for the attention of beginners. It would be unwise to regard any of the precepts in that way.
With regard to generosity the Buddha says in this Sutta that a person no integrity gives a gift carelessly, not with his or her own hand, without respect, gives what is worthless and doesn't believe there are any consequences to giving. The person of integrity on the other hand gives a gift carefully, with his or her own hand, with respect, something that has value and with awareness that generosity has consequences.
There are a couple of things to draw out here – the first is that giving should be done with awareness of the person receiving and the gift should be as far as possible appropriate to them. The second thing is that the Buddha is keen to point out that giving has consequences and what he is getting at here is that generosity is spiritually and psychologically beneficial to the person giving. If you give then you receive. Giving with awareness means taking some time to to consider what is needed by the person or organisation that you are giving to. It also means being aware of your own resistance to giving and how if you contemplate it for too long the gift may shrink in size or never come to fruition at all as the Mara of your own insecurity gets louder.
Friendship is mentioned a lot in the Pali Canon. The Buddha repeatedly emphasised spiritual friendship and later Buddhism has it as a very strong theme. Usually,in the Pali Canon, spiritual friendship is of the vertical kind – between teacher and disciple or between peers but some of whom are more experienced or more ethical. There are famous instances of the Buddha recommending spiritual friendship and mutual kindness. The instance of Meghiya, the instance of the Buddha telling Ananda that Kalyana Mitatta is the whole of the spiritual life, the instance of the monk suffering from dysentery when the Buddha exhorted his disciples to look after each other's welfare. In the Itivuttaka the Buddha says: “In regard to external factors, I do not perceive another single factor so helpful as good friendship to a bhikkhu who is a learner, who has not attained perfection.” (Itivuttaka, 17)There appears to be a close link between shraddha or faith and Kalyana Mitrata in the Buddha's teaching. Sometimes faith will be enumerated as the starting point for spiritual practice and sometimes Kalyana Mitrata. But the faith is often in relation to a teacher and the relationship with the teacher is one of Kalyana Mitrata. This good friendship or spiritual friendship requires faith and faith is engendered by it.
These were some of the topics the Buddha touched on in his talk or discourse on the full moon night at the mansion of Migara's mother in the Eastern Park at Savatthi. At the end of the Sutta it says “the disciples were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words.”
You may not delight in my words and you may not even be satisfied, but whatever you feel I do hope that you continue to be inspired by these Dharma teachings, just like the monks of old.
No comments:
Post a Comment