Deep Commentary

These two verses were taught by the Buddha at Jetavana Monastery and are connected with Venerable Lakuntaka Bhaddiya. According to the traditional account: “At one time, the Blessed One was staying at Jetavana. A number of monks came to visit Him. After paying homage, they respectfully withdrew and sat to one side. At that moment, Venerable Lakuntaka Bhaddiya was walking by not far away. Knowing the minds of the monks at that very moment, the Buddha looked at the Venerable one and said to the monks: ‘Look over there! That is the monk who has killed father and mother and has escaped from suffering.’ ‘What has the Blessed One said?’ the monks exclaimed. Looking at one another in doubt, they asked the Buddha: ‘Venerable Sir, what did You say?’ The Buddha then spoke these two verses. After hearing them, the monks attained arahantship.” The main meaning of these two verses is that the Buddha taught that a practitioner who wishes to attain liberation must eradicate ignorance and craving. These are the driving forces that impel beings to create karma and to be reborn again and again in the cycle of birth and death, filled with suffering. At the same time, the Buddha further taught: “Destroy the two Brahmin lineages,” which means cutting off two kinds of wrong view: eternalism and annihilationism. These were two doctrines held by non-Buddhist schools in the Buddha’s time. The eternalist school maintained that there is an immortal soul. By contrast, the annihilationist school maintained that after death a person is completely extinguished, with no soul or continuity of rebirth in a future life. To say “destroy the kingdom” means to cut off the twelve sense bases: the six faculties—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—and the six sense objects—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mental objects. The “ministers” refer to the worldly pleasures of the five senses. “Going toward the sorrowless Brahmin” means going toward the fruit of arahantship, the state in which all defilements have been exhausted. “Destroying also the tiger-like general, doubt” means cutting off the five hindrances. The five hindrances are sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and remorse, and doubt. These five obstruct the practitioner’s work of meditation. They also belong to the class of dangerous defilements, possessing great power and creating serious obstacles for practitioners on the path of training toward the noble fruit. This is especially true of the defilement of doubt. Doubt is a state of indecision; its nature is to hesitate and question the truth, and its function is to obstruct faith and the realization of truth. Reading the story quoted above, we may feel that it is very simple, but it is not easy to put into practice. The Buddha pointed out Venerable Lakuntaka Bhaddiya to the monks and said that he had killed father and mother and had escaped from suffering. Hearing the Buddha speak in such a strange way, the monks were startled, amazed, and filled with doubt. Why would that monk have killed his father and mother? Everyone knows that such an act is one of the five gravest offenses, leading to rebirth in the Avīci hell. But after they heard the Buddha explain more clearly through the two verses, their minds became illuminated, all doubt was ended, and right there they attained the noble fruit of arahantship.