Deep Commentary

This verse was taught by the Buddha at Jetavana Monastery in connection with four novice monks. According to the story, a Brahmin family wished to offer a meal to four specially invited ascetics. The wife prepared the food and told her husband to invite four senior Brahmins. Unfortunately, the four who were invited were novice monks only seven years old, though all four had already attained arahantship. When the wife saw that her husband had brought home four young novices, she became furious and scolded him: “You went to the monastery and brought back four children, younger than even your grandchildren.” Instead of seating them in the prepared seats, she asked them to sit elsewhere and told her husband to return to the monastery to invite four others. This time he invited the Elder Sāriputta. When Sāriputta arrived and saw the four novices sitting there, he asked whether they had already received their meal. Learning that they had not, he took his bowl and left. The wife then sent her husband to invite another monk. This time he invited the Elder Mahāmoggallāna. Like Sāriputta, when Mahāmoggallāna knew that the novices had not yet been served, he too left without accepting the meal. The wife then ordered her husband to invite a truly senior ascetic. Meanwhile, the four novices sat there for a long time without being offered food, and they became very hungry. Sakka, lord of the gods, saw the situation and appeared as a very old, frail ascetic. When the husband saw him, he invited him at once, thinking that this time his wife would surely be satisfied. But as soon as the old ascetic arrived, he went directly to pay homage to the four novices and paid no attention to the invitation of the wife. He then sat cross-legged in a low place near the novices. Seeing this, the husband and wife thought the old man was senile and tried to drive him away. Yet no matter how many times they pulled him out, they found him again seated in the same place. Terrified, they finally invited all five to receive the meal. After the meal, each novice flew out through a different window. When the novices returned to the monastery, the monks gathered around them and asked what had happened during the meal. The novices told them the whole story. After hearing it, the monks asked, “When they treated you like that, were you angry with them?” All four replied, “We were not angry.” The monks did not believe them and reported the matter to the Buddha. The Buddha said, “Monks, one who has destroyed the taints does not oppose those who oppose him.” This verse praises the virtues of gentleness, patience, and forbearance: to cultivate friendship among the hostile, to remain peaceful among the violent, and to stay unattached among the attached. True friendship is the spirit of universal kinship. In the Buddhist vision of compassion and equality, no one is regarded as an enemy. Even if someone acts with harmful intention, Buddhism still looks upon that person with compassion rather than hatred. Buddhism does not look down on, discriminate against, or reject any people or community. It does not view the world through the narrow lens of sectarian identity. It sees all beings as sharing the same fundamental nature. On the surface, beings appear different because their actions and conditions differ; but when seen deeply, there is no essential separation. Just as rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans may differ in shape and size, yet all are water, so too all beings share one nature. Buddhism teaches practitioners to see beyond outward forms and not become trapped by appearances. All conditioned things arise through causes and conditions and have no fixed self. If people cling to forms, identities, and divisions, conflict, resentment, opposition, and violence naturally arise. With this insight into formlessness, Buddhism stands above narrow systems of power that create division, hatred, and mutual harm. Buddhism respects human dignity and the freedom to grow spiritually. It calls on humanity to abandon suspicion, prejudice, and rigid differences, and to join hands in love, building peace, joy, and happiness for all. This is the message of peace the Buddha offered to the world more than twenty-five centuries ago. Yet humanity still has not fully awakened to it. People remain sunk in ignorance, conflict, hatred, and destructive wars, causing immense suffering for all. As long as people do not truly recognize their shared humanity, their common tears, and their capacity for love, they will continue to suffer under the command of craving and ambition, which tear love apart. If humanity wishes to live peacefully in mutual care, there is only one way: as the Buddha taught, people must let go of narrow views, possessive attachments, struggles for power, and cultivate generosity, forgiveness, compassion, and mutual love. Only then can humanity hope to live in true peace and happiness.