Deep Commentary

These three verses were taught by the Buddha to Māra while he was living in seclusion in the Snow Mountains of the Himalayan region. The story says: “When the Bodhisatta was still in the period of solitary practice in the Snow Mountains, the rule of kings was harsh. The Blessed One saw people subjected to many cruel punishments and felt deep compassion for them. He thought to himself: ‘Why should there not be a just and upright form of rule, free from killing, conquest, and suffering?’ At that moment Māra noticed this thought passing through the Buddha’s mind and thought: ‘The ascetic Gotama has just thought about ruling. Perhaps he now wishes to become a king; this is an opportunity for him to become distracted. If he takes up worldly power, I can tempt him. I will go and arouse greed in him.’ Māra came to the Buddha and said: ‘Venerable Sir, let the Blessed One rule; let the Supreme One rule. There will be no killing, no conquest, and no suffering, only justice and righteousness.’ The Buddha asked: ‘Māra, what do you see in me that makes you speak in this way?’ Māra replied: ‘Venerable Sir, a Buddha can display four kinds of miraculous power. If you merely command, “Let the Himalaya become gold,” it will at once turn into gold. I too will use such wealth to accomplish whatever can be accomplished through wealth. In this way, you will rule with justice and righteousness.’ The Buddha said: ‘Human craving is never satisfied, even by a mountain of pure gold. Knowing this, the wise seek the straight and upright path. One who has clearly seen the causes of suffering could never hand his life over to sensual pleasure. Let the one who has understood the causes of birth-and-death in the round of rebirth train himself and subdue the “net of craving” that has bound beings for countless lives.’ Then the Buddha warned Māra: ‘Māra, I advise you once again: I am not like you. That is what I have to say.’ From these three verses, in verse 331 the Buddha points out four kinds of happiness. First, it is a joy to meet a friend after a long separation. This is a very natural human feeling. If that friend is truly close to us, a companion who has shared hardship and danger with us, then when we have been apart for a long time and suddenly meet again, both of us feel a joy beyond description. This is a matter of direct experience. That is the ordinary meaning in human relationships. If we look more deeply, however, the “friend” the Buddha speaks of here is the nameless friend, the “Friend” who does not become attached to any phenomenon. This is the friend referred to in the old Zen exchange: a lay practitioner once asked a great master, ‘What is the person who does not make a companion of any of the ten thousand things?’ The master replied, ‘When you can drink up the whole river in one gulp, I will tell you.’ The person asked about here is no longer on the level of an ordinary person. This is the one without name or lineage, beyond the world, though in truth there is nothing specially beyond the world. From this Friend we have been separated for an immeasurably long time, through countless lifetimes. Today, if we suddenly meet again—that is, if we recognize our awakened nature, our original mind—what joy could be compared with it? This alone is a supreme joy beyond words. Second, it is a joy to have prosperity at the right time. Prosperity means abundance and sufficiency. What does it mean to have prosperity at the right time? Prosperity has two meanings: material and spiritual. Material prosperity, if it is created by our own hands, through effort, sweat, hardship, and honest, upright work, is what the Buddha calls prosperity at the right time. But if one builds wealth by gathering up and exploiting the life-blood of others, that is not prosperity at the right time. Such prosperity is inhuman, unrighteous, and unlawful. To take what belongs to others and make it one’s own is to live by feeding on others. Such a life is no better than that of a blood-sucking insect. Spiritual prosperity is the prosperity truly worth speaking of. Material abundance is temporary and impermanent: present today, gone tomorrow, changing unpredictably. Spiritual abundance means richness in moral discipline and virtue. A person becomes spiritually prosperous by skillfully building life upon a noble ethical foundation. Because such noble human virtue is full and abundant, that person’s mind is always peaceful, joyful, free, light, and unburdened. This is the spirit of liberation. This true prosperity of virtue is lasting and durable, something that can be used forever without being exhausted. This is genuine happiness. Third, it is a joy to have wholesome karma at the time of death. Wholesome karma means good actions and their wholesome force. There are two basic kinds of karma to which we should pay attention: wholesome karma and unwholesome karma. Because one has accumulated wholesome karma in daily life, one has no anxiety or fear when death comes. One knows with certainty that one will follow the wholesome habits one has cultivated. Closing one’s eyes, one goes in a wholesome direction and receives joyful results. If, at the time of death, one also receives good supporting conditions, such as virtuous friends who remind and assist one in mindfulness, and if a wholesome thought arises as the breath ceases, then one will surely be reborn in a peaceful realm. This is death-proximate karma, the habit of wholesome recollection near death. Otherwise, the result is painful karma. Fourth, it is a joy to be free from all suffering. This joy is concrete and clear; there is no need for long argument. To be free from suffering is joy: this is the most practical truth. But when the Buddha speaks of ending suffering here, we must understand its root. What causes us to suffer? Sufferings are many and cannot all be listed, but in brief the Buddha taught three kinds of suffering and eight kinds of suffering. The three are the suffering of pain, the suffering of conditioned existence, and the suffering of change. The eight are birth, aging, illness, death, separation from those one loves, not obtaining what one seeks, meeting those one resents, and the flourishing burden of the five aggregates. These are the great sufferings of human life. All these great sufferings arise from ignorance and afflictions. To end suffering, one must uproot ignorance and afflictions. When the causal accumulation of affliction is no more, the results of suffering cease right there. That is the peace and joy of Nibbāna. This is the ultimate joy. But the important question is: how can ignorance and affliction be completely ended? This is a difficult matter toward which every practitioner must aim. In verse 332, the Buddha again presents four kinds of happiness. First, it is a joy in this world to honor and support one’s mother. This is the greatest joy in the life of anyone who still has a mother to care for. A mother is like an entire sky of tenderness and love. Her labor and sacrifice cannot be fully counted. Her love is completely given to her child. The child is flesh of her flesh. People often say that while one still has one’s mother, one still has everything; when one loses one’s mother, one loses everything. Yet in this world there are children who, while their mother is still alive, treat her cruelly and poorly. They calculate every coin with her and are unwilling to part with even a little. Meanwhile they forget that the debt of birth, nurturing, and education owed to their mother is as vast as the sky and ocean. Truly, a mother’s love is as immense as the great sea. Because of such cold calculation, people have long said: ‘A mother raises her child with boundless care; a child supports the mother by counting the months and days.’ When the mother is alive, if one treats her badly, then after she dies one regrets it. But that regret comes too late. It is better, while she is still alive, to care for and support her wholeheartedly. If we can do this, then even if she later passes away, we will feel fulfilled and will have no painful regret in our heart. Second, it is a joy to honor and support one’s father. This is the joy of being able to care for one’s father. Father and mother both have immense merit in raising and educating their children. Therefore, as children, we should repay their kindness. Gratitude and repayment of kindness are noble and essential acts in the way of being human. If this essential quality is lost, the human way is lost. In other words, the meaning of being human is no longer complete. We should remember that when we care for and support our parents, we must do so with reverence. Without reverence, even if we offer many valuable things, we cannot truly gladden our parents’ hearts. Supporting parents is not only a matter of material offerings; it must also be expressed spiritually. Spiritually, this means reverence with one’s whole heart. When parents are happy, we ourselves gain a very great joy. Therefore the Buddha says that honoring and supporting one’s father is joy. Third, it is a joy to honor and support ascetics. Ascetics are those who have renounced the household life and undertaken the higher training and discipline of monks. True practitioners of high virtue should be wholeheartedly respected. To have the good conditions to make offerings to them is a great blessing. Such offerings must be made with complete sincerity. We should remember that offering has two aspects: material and spiritual. The material aspect depends on our ability; whether much or little is not the main point. The important thing is to express sincere reverence. This reverence is the foundation of offering. Because there is reverence, both the receiver and the giver gain benefit. The benefit is the growth of merit and virtue. If one gives with an attitude lacking respect, then not only does one fail to gain merit, one also adds the heavy fault of arrogance and contempt toward others. How then could one have joy? To have complete joy, we should follow the Buddha’s teaching and sincerely and respectfully make offerings to true ascetic practitioners. Fourth, it is a joy to honor and support noble ones. Noble ones are practitioners who have cut off the roots of affliction. There are many levels of noble ones, high and low. The Buddha is the supreme noble one among all noble beings. Below him are bodhisattvas, arahants, and others. In the four fruits of the disciples’ path, beginning with stream-entry, all are generally called noble ones. Among bodhisattvas too there are many different stages. These differences are based on how much affliction, outflow, and ignorance have been eliminated. The scriptures say that when a practitioner eliminates one portion of ignorance, that practitioner realizes one portion of the Dharma body. If we sincerely make offerings to such beings, we naturally receive great blessed results. Therefore the Buddha says: ‘It is joy to honor and support noble ones.’ In verse 333, the Buddha also presents four kinds of happiness. First, it is a joy to keep the precepts even in old age. Elderly people are often less clear in mind; memory weakens, and confusion easily arises. Yet if one still remembers and properly preserves the precepts one has undertaken, that is indeed a joy. It is a joy because the mind is still bright and able to distinguish wrong discipline from right discipline. There are people who, when young and healthy, keep the precepts very strictly, but when they grow old they develop habits of breaking fasting practices and violating the precepts. Sometimes they even turn back to indulgent habits, saying that because they are old and weak, they need nourishment. Formerly they practiced strict restraint; now they practice only occasionally, and some no longer keep any restraint at all. They may even argue sophistically: ‘In ancient times the Buddha did not follow such practices, yet he still became the Buddha.’ This is truly blameworthy. They forget that the Buddha was free from ignorance and affliction. When he ate, he did not discriminate between delicious and unpleasant food; he ate only to maintain health and benefit living beings. We, on the other hand, are still ordinary beings full of ignorance and afflictions. When we eat, we still praise and criticize tastes, become attached, give rise to afflictions of like and dislike, create karma, and undergo suffering. How could we dare compare ourselves with the Buddha? Such people are like those who are deaf to warning and unafraid of falling into ruin. Why is this so? Because they value the body too heavily and therefore break the restraints and precepts they have received. This is a truth that cannot be defended or denied. They may enjoy material things and take pleasure within suffering, but that is not the joy of a practitioner who delights in the Way and is filled inwardly with the joy of the Dharma. Second, it is a joy to accomplish right faith. Right faith is the opposite of wrong belief. Wrong belief means not trusting the Three Jewels, cause and effect, and karmic results. Such people naturally fall easily into decline. By contrast, those with true faith rightly directed toward cause and effect do not create evil karma. Not creating evil karma, they do not fall into the three lower paths. That is, they do not enter the path of suffering. Not only do they refrain from evil karma, they also know how to create wholesome karma. When wholesome karma is created through body, speech, and mind, then in this present life they do not meet painful results, and in the future they also enjoy wholesome results. What joy could be greater than that? The reason they enjoy such joy is that they have true faith in the Three Jewels and in the principle of cause and effect. Thus they have fully accomplished right faith. Third, it is a joy to be endowed with wisdom. For one who studies and practices the Buddha’s teaching, without wisdom it is difficult to succeed in cultivation. Wisdom is the great and important work of the practitioner. Thanks to wisdom, one can distinguish right from wrong and true from false. Without wisdom, practice is like a blind person walking in the dark. In such a state, it is hard to avoid falling into pits and holes. The pits and holes of wrongdoing wait before them. A person with wisdom is like someone with clear eyes, able to see far and broadly and avoid falling into danger. That means avoiding faults and mistakes. Through wisdom, the practitioner is quickly led to the shore of liberation and peace. What joy could equal this? Therefore the Buddha says: ‘It is joy to be endowed with wisdom.’ Fourth, it is a joy not to do evil. Anyone who has created evil karma certainly finds it difficult to have even a moment of peace. Why? Because when one does evil, the heart is restless, agitated, and uneasy. One fears all kinds of things. Suppose someone has killed another person. What would that person’s heart be like? Perhaps, at the moment of violence, that person may briefly satisfy anger by striking down an opponent. But afterward that person must receive tragic results. The heart becomes desolate like a graveyard. There is not a moment of peace. The law will not spare such a person; it must punish appropriately the evil cause that has been created. And the image of the killing continues to haunt and follow that person. It has sunk deeply into consciousness. Thus that person faces the suffering of loneliness and despair within dark walls of confinement. This is a prison that torments both body and mind. The suffering is extreme; one cannot eat or sleep in peace. This is especially so whenever the terrifying image of violently taking a life returns to mind. This is not yet to mention revenge and repayment of resentment in the future. Therefore, anyone who wishes to be joyful in this life and in lives to come should follow the Buddha’s teaching and not create evil. From the story cited above, there are several points we should notice. First, when the Buddha gave rise to a thought, Māra clearly saw what the Buddha was thinking. Spirits and unseen beings can clearly see our thoughts. When we think wholesome or unwholesome things, good or bad things, they see them clearly. This is why people say that one cannot hide from unseen spirits. One may conceal unlawful and wrongful deeds from ordinary people, but how could one conceal them from spirits? If one cannot hide them even from spirits, how much less from Buddhas and bodhisattvas? Why can they see so clearly? Because when we give rise to a thought, that thought has an image or trace. If we think of a house, the image of the house is immediately imprinted in the mind. But if we do not give rise to any thought at all, spirits have no way to see anything. That is the place where all traces are cut off. A practitioner whose mind is peaceful and settled in this way will surely attain liberation. Second, Māra tempts and entices us when we give rise to evil thoughts. That is the best opportunity for Māra to lead and urge us into wrong action. Therefore, when thoughts arise, it is best not to think evil thoughts. If an evil thought has already arisen, we must cut it off immediately and not leave an opening for Māra to exploit. Once we obey the command of such temptation and express it through mistaken actions of body, speech, and mind, the harm is very great. Therefore we must be careful, cautious, and vigilant. Third, we should always maintain right view and right mindfulness. With right mindfulness, we clearly recognize wrong and sinful thoughts, especially thoughts of greed for fame and gain. Their root is ignorance. We must firmly refuse to become slaves driven by ignorance. To do this, we need wisdom. Only wisdom can shine through and break ignorance. When ignorance and afflictions no longer arise, right there we are liberated from all suffering and bondage. Chapter XXIV: Craving.