Dhammapada Verse 282: The Empty Book

0:03So today we're looking at Dhammapada verse 282, which reads as follows. Yoga ve jayati buri, ayoga buri sankayo, etang dvedha pathang yatva, bhavaya vibhavaya ca, tatha tanang niweseya, yatha buri pavadrati, which means from application comes greatness. With the absence of application, greatness ends. Knowing this twofold path of becoming and non-becoming, one should settle oneself in that by which greatness increases. This verse was taught in regards to a fairly famous story in Buddhist circles, the story of Portila.

1:31Portila was a monk in the time of the Buddha Bhutila means something like text or document, manuscript, which I don't know whether that was his birth name or a name he received because he was a scholarly monk, incredibly well learned in all the many aspects of the Buddha's teaching. In fact, according to the commentary, he had been this way under the auspices of seven buddhas in past times means he had been born again and again and every time a buddha arose he had some kind of incredible connection with the buddha in his teaching to be able to memorize and teach explain spread the Buddhist teaching far and wide, and so he became quite famous.

2:32He appears to have been someone with great renown and esteem and respect among his fellow Buddhists, someone who could be relied upon to share the Dhamma, someone with a great ability to teach. but someone who had never applied themselves to the practice of the Buddhist teaching, not to any appreciable degree, not to the extent that he was ever able to attain enlightenment. Obviously, having been born again and again, it's impressive to have met with seven Buddhas, but it's kind of, on the other hand, shameful because it means under none of those Buddhas was he able to ever practice to attain enlightenment.

3:18And the Buddha, realizing this, thought it was time to do something about this monk. Maybe the Buddha realized that his time had come in a way that it hadn't come under any of the other Buddhas. But at this point in time, he was ready to change his ways, to be humbled. And so from then on, whenever the Buddha came in contact with Potila, he gave him a new name. He would call him Tucha Potila. So when Potila came, he would say, oh, have you come, Tucha Potila?

3:56And when he was leaving, he said, oh, you're leaving now, Tucha Potila. Or when he saw Tucha Potila sitting down, he would say, oh, there's Tucha Potila sitting down. He made it a narrative, making very clear that Potila had a new name, Tucha Potila. Tucha means empty. It can mean useless or bad or that sort of thing, false, but literally means empty. And in this case, empty book or empty manuscript, empty document, which surprised, of course, surprised Potila initially.

4:36Because, of course, it wasn't logical. There was something, some deeper meaning here because clearly, Potila's document or his book was not empty. He had so much. in his mind in his brain in his mind and it wasn't like it was useless either he couldn't say means useless in this case because well all the things he learned were of greatest use of greatest value and his students could all attest to that many of them probably going on to become enlightened themselves And so it took him off guard and kind of embarrassed him and he became ashamed and wondered why was the Buddha not recognizing the vast wealth of knowledge that Bhutila had gathered.

5:32Until he finally took a look, reflected on all of these many teachings that he supposedly had internalized and kept with him and realized that all of these teachings were pointing to one thing and that's the application, the practice of the teachings. Obviously the Buddha or no Buddha would ever teach to study and learn or even teach the Dhamma. Buddha is always taught to practice. He taught the path. And he realized that he wasn't even listening to his own advice.

6:08He wasn't applying the teachings in the way that he was presenting them to others. Never practicing the Dhamma. And it changed his whole perspective. It's kind of surprising to think, but certainly does happen where someone can take and take something up as the object of their study but never actually put it into practice and so he changed and he made a determination that from then on he was going to apply himself to the practice and so that very day when he realized this He gave up his students, gave up his position as teacher, gave up his fellow monks, gave up the monastery he was staying in.

6:59And something like in the middle of the night, left the monastery without letting anyone know. And traveled far away to a monastery that I guess also had some great renown. as a place of great practice a remote area where there lived 30 monks all of them dedicated to the practice and all of them also arahants enlightened beings so with good reason they had great reputation and that's probably why Bhotila went there knew where he was going had heard of this place and decided to seek refuge in the teachers there So in the morning he went to the most senior monk and bowed down before him and said, Venerable Sir, please be my refuge, teach me the Dhamma.

7:56And the senior monk being an Arahant was pretty clearly cognizant of the fact that Potila didn't have any sort of experience practicing the Dhamma. But nonetheless, in order to test him, said to him, Oh, venerable sir, but you're the great teacher. You've memorized so much. You're so well known. Everyone knows that you're the teacher of the Dhamma. How could I possibly have anything to offer you? How could I be your refuge? And Portilla said, That knowledge is useless.

8:33Tucha. He said, that's meaningless, that's of no consequence. You as a practitioner of the Dhamma can offer me the teaching. Please teach me the Dhamma. But the senior monk was hesitant, immediately appreciating the fact that most likely Potila still had a lot of ego and could still use with some humbling. And so he devised this means of humbling, which was to send him to the next monk. He said, yeah, I'm not going to be able to do that. Please go to see this monk.

9:17He's the second most senior monk in the monastery. So Votila immediately went to the second monk, asked him the same thing, the same reply. And again, the same rebuff. refusal of the second senior monk saying oh please go and speak to this monk he's the next senior monk and according to the text on and on and on it went each monk having the same opinion that likely potila is going to be hard to teach People who have studied the Dhamma can be increasingly difficult to teach much more than those who have never studied the Dhamma at all, because they argue with their teachers and so on.

10:09And most likely having heard, oh, the senior monk sent him to me. Well, that's a good idea. I'll just send the next one on. I appreciate this instruction by the senior monk. So I'll further the instruction by sending him to the next monk. All the way down to the most junior monk in the monastery. And the most junior monk in the monastery thought, well, let's see how far we can push this. And he said, Venerable Sir, I'm not able to teach you. I'm just the junior monk here.

10:40But there is a novice down by the, there is a teacher down by the pond. He's a seven-year-old novice. Why don't you go, I encourage you, Venerable Sir, to go and see him. Maybe he can teach you. And Potila thoroughly humbled and to his credit, willing to follow any instruction whatsoever took himself to the pond saw the young novice there mending his robes the novice was also an arahant seven years old and bowed down before the novice and said venerable sir please teacher please be my refuge the novice said I'm just a novice I'm not even a monk why are you coming to me as your teacher Bhotida said, doesn't matter, none of that's meaningful.

11:44Anything, give me anything, some instruction. And the novice said, well, this is difficult because I'm a novice. You're not supposed to bow down to me and I can't expect you to respect me. So here's the deal. I will teach you, but you must promise me to do everything, whatever I say. Whatever I tell you to do, you will do it. And then I will teach you. And Potila immediately agreed. Whatever you tell me to do, I will do it. And the novice's first instruction, without hesitation, run into the pond.

12:27He says to Potila, run into the pond. And so Bodhila, without taking off his robes, again to his credit, which attests to how well-versed he was in the Buddha's teaching and these good teachings on humility and listening to your teacher, following instruction and letting go of your own preference not to walk into the pond, without taking off his robes, walked into the pond, immediately following the instructions. And the novice said, good, good, well done.

13:08Now come out of the pond. And so immediately he walked out of the pond and was standing in front of the novice again, dripping wet. And the novice said, ah, well, now he's ready. Now he's ready to hear the Dhamma. And so he said to Potila, venerable sir, suppose there is a termite mound, a big mound, termites make these big mounds. And a lizard goes into the termite mound. I guess lizards went in to eat the termites. And the termite mound has six holes, but you see the lizard go into the termite mound.

13:51And Tutu Botila is thinking, what kind of a teaching is this? It's nothing like anything that he's ever heard before. Seems kind of ridiculous. Suppose there are six holes, but you want to catch the lizard. And you see the lizard go in by one of the holes. You know it's in there. How do you catch the lizard? And Bodila thought for a moment. And he said, well, you close off five of the holes and then just watch the sixth hole. And it has to come out of that sixth hole.

14:24And the novice said, Venerable Sir, in the same way, if you want to catch the mind, you want to be free from suffering, you want to follow the path to liberation, close off the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue and the body and keep the mind open and watch the mind. And Bhautila was immediately able to grasp the meaning behind the teaching. He said, venerable sir, that will suffice. Went back under a tree or wherever he was staying, sat cross-legged and began to meditate.

15:11The Buddha, who was 120 leagues away, a long distance away in Sabhati, I think, through his own highly developed mental faculties, was able to was cognizant, was able to have knowledge of the fact of what was happening so far away and sent an image of himself to Bhautila. So Bhautila in his mind suddenly was able to see the Buddha and the Buddha recited this verse saying, now this monk is ready. I will give him the push that he needs. the encouragement that he needs to follow the path.

15:58And he thought this verse. It's a well-known story. mostly because it relates to the difference between study and practice. There are various stories like this. Potila's story, I think, is the most famous. Potila is a famous individual that we always bring up when talking about the shortcomings of those who dedicate themselves to study and teaching of the Dhamma as opposed to practice. And so that's our first lesson from the story, is that there's a difference between study and practice, the application versus the intellectualization.

16:45And it relates to how different the state of mind is when you study versus the state of mind when you practice. The ideas are the same. You can study impermanence, you can practice to see impermanence. You can study suffering, you can practice... But the state of mind is on a completely different plane. So rather than concern yourself with the ideas that you're internalizing, to understand the shortcomings, the inadequacy of intellectual study, you have to understand what's going on in your mind at the moment of study.

17:28You have to ask yourself or understand what is important is what's happening in reality so at the moment of study you're not seeing impermanent suffering and non-self no matter how much you understand those concepts intellectually there's something happening with your mind even with your body that you're completely ignoring during that time so in other words you're not in in contact with ultimate reality and not being in contact with ultimate reality even though you're studying such great and noble topics you will never be able to see or understand impermanent suffering and non-self.

18:08You will never be able to experience them. You'll never be able to let go. You'll never be able to come free from suffering. And this is, it may seem for someone who is meditating, glaringly obvious. But for someone who has never engaged in the practice of mindfulness, it isn't obvious. It seems like one should be able to intellectualize their way to enlightenment. One should be able to affirm their understanding of impermanence, suffering and non-self based on intellectual principles.

18:40And it's only when you realize that there's something going on at the time of study that has nothing to do with the things that you're studying, or nothing to do with the knowledge that you're gaining, that you can begin to make this shift and realize how inadequate, even meaningless, is that knowledge. The second lesson is about ego and it relates to study because things like study, since they're not able to help you have a direct relationship with reality they lend themselves easily to things like ego and so this is sort of another theme of the story it doesn't seem like potila had great ego and yet it was enough to prevent him from gaining access to the practice and so he was constantly belittled by everyone, starting from the Buddha all the way through all 30 of those monks and the novice sitting down by the pool, that this was something that they felt or they saw as being important in guiding Potila on the right path.

19:57So he was externally, ostensibly humbling himself at every turn to his credit again. And so it's not that there was anything really wrong with him, but clearly that much intellectual knowledge is going to easily lend itself to ego, even in the best of people. So someone with the best of intentions will always constantly beginning the reassurance, I already know that. Anytime they're given instruction like this is impermanent, this is suffering, yes, yes, I already know that.

20:34Even though they might try their best to listen and appreciate the teachings, it's very difficult to free yourself from this I know already, this feeling of already knowing these things, which is one of the reasons why it's very difficult to teach people who have great knowledge. You can teach them and they'll just nod and say, yes, yes, I know. And it's hard to impress upon them the fact that they don't yet know. And so we can think of this as an important aspect of our practice and aspect of our teaching.

21:07Something to keep in mind when you're teaching others, something to keep in mind when you're practicing, that you constantly have to be vigilant. To avoid any sense of greatness, like sense of already being enlightened or already being free. So the practice is always about facing our shortcomings. facing the problems. We don't have to worry about the good side. If it's good, it's good. It's already good. It's not why we're here. We're here to free ourselves from the bad side.

21:45And so ignoring it or pretending that we're already okay or focusing on the good side will do us no benefit. Especially with ego. The third lesson is about obedience. As relates to the novices teaching a reminder that there is great value in obedience now Absolutely if someone your teacher Directs you to do something that is harmful that goes against the Buddhist teaching. There's no there's no call to There's no cause or no reason that could ever Impel you to follow that teaching but When teachings come down to something you don't want to do, something you're afraid to do, something that you don't see the benefit of, like running into the pond.

22:43There's no benefit to running into a pond. I hope no one ever hears this story and says, oh, well, that's the way to enlightenment. I'll go run into a pond. But it could happen, right? With someone who has little knowledge of the Dhamma, these sorts of things have happened before where people have no clue about the way to go and so just will follow anything grasping at straws. But there was great value in this instance because that's what he was told to do.

23:12So there are two values to obedience. One, obviously, if you found a teacher who knows their stuff, there's incredible value in following their teaching simply because they know their stuff and they know the sorts of things that you need to hear. And most likely the things that they teach you will benefit you even if you don't realize it. So they're valuable even if you don't know why. There's that. The other side though is the value in obedience as it relates to humbling you, as it relates to freeing you from the ego.

23:48Following what other people tell you to do, has great value in freeing you, not just from ego, in fact, but also from greed, partiality, fear, and aversion. If I tell you to sit, it can be very uncomfortable to sit. And if I didn't tell you, maybe you wouldn't sit. But when you do, you will have to face your aversion. When I tell you to sit in a certain way, but you want to sit in another way, not getting what you want is a great way to free you from wanting.

24:17Help you to see the suffering of wanting. Not that there's necessarily any reason to sit in a certain way. Doing it the way someone tells you has incredible value, not just because of intrinsic value, but also because it's not necessarily what you want to do. And it ignores completely your own preference. So ego, greed, aversion, fear, lots of things are ignored. In other words, are not followed, are not encouraged. as a result of following what someone else tells you to do.

24:57Obedience has great value. I don't want to say that Buddhism demands obedience, because absolutely that's not the case. If you don't want to obey, you just leave. There's no sense of that. Before you argue, be sure that there's a good reason for not doing whatever it is that you don't want to do. And if given the opportunity, if you can't find a valid, important reason not to do something, obedience has incredible value for freeing you from all of these things.

25:26What I want to do, what I'd rather do, what I don't want to do, what I'm afraid to do, or just the idea that I know better. than this person who's telling me, this seven-year-old novice who's telling me to run in the pond. Because he certainly knew better than to run into the pool, especially with all of his robes on. But it was a very noble thing that he did. I will follow. I said I will follow. I will follow. It can be very valuable. The fourth lesson is in skillful means.

26:02skillful means is a term in buddhism as again things which are not harmful but not necessarily intrinsically useful and not core teachings but things that have particular value in particular circumstances for example calling someone an empty book someone who has great knowledge There can also be great value in praising such people. Sometimes when you praise them, it's quite clear that it shows the shortcomings. So you can praise someone and extol how great it is, for example, that they have such great learning.

26:46And it can be just like calling them an empty book. Because it ends up falling flat in a Buddhist context. As soon as you put into context the person's greatness, I've seen that as well. But certainly the Buddha, probably one of the few beings who could ever get away with such a harsh rebuke without incurring any sort of wrath or... anger from the from the audience because he's the buddha so he can get he can certainly get away with it and and there's great value in what he did obviously the necessity of it was that well potila was quite sure of himself as being full of greatness full of wisdom and the buddha had to completely shut that down by calling him an empty book Those sorts of skillful means in teachings are valuable, but the story is full of them.

27:47There's the skillful means of refusing to teach, sending him to the next monk. I mean, it's not a great lesson, but it's something worthy of us taking note of, the kind of thing that as teachers we have to pay attention to. Sometimes as students we have to understand that sometimes we need to use ourselves, unorthodox methods of furthering our own practice. And of course the running into the pond is the best example of this. Where sometimes you have to do something that just wakes the student up, wakes the person up.

28:33And the fifth lesson, the final lesson, I think, from the story that I can think of is, well, of course, the lesson from the novice. So the novice gives this lesson, and it's a confusing one, I think, because it sounds somewhat contradictory to the teachings to close the senses. It's not something the Buddha ever taught, as far as I'm aware, using that sort of verbiage. But there is a very real sense in which this is exactly the way of practicing the Buddhist teaching, closing the five senses and keeping the mind door open.

29:10What it means is that you can think of each of the senses as a door. Seeing is a door, hearing is a door, smelling, tasting, feeling, these are doors. And so at the moment of seeing, there arises something outside of seeing. There arises concepts of the thing that you are seeing. This is a dog, this is a cat, this is a human person, a man, a woman. There arises beautiful, ugly, liking and disliking. These are things that you can say are outside the door.

29:46This is going beyond seeing. It's outside the door because it's more than just seeing. You have seeing and then you have something more than that. This can be considered outside the door. So closing the door doesn't mean not seeing. It's not like closing your eyes. Of course, you can't close your ears. Your tongue is hard to close. The body, almost impossible to close. Not in that sense. It means you close it such that seeing is only seeing. And this is of course how we practice in the Satipatthana practice.

30:23So that seeing just be seeing, hearing just be hearing. And then the door is completely closed. Closed to any kind of extrapolation, any kind of judgment, liking, disliking, me or mine, good or bad. more making, meaning making, I making, my making, none of that has an opportunity. Close the door to all of that. Seeing is just seeing. It's like you're looking at a closed door. That's all it was. Keeping the mind open. I mean, in English, having an open mind is considered a good thing and it means not being biased.

31:02But I think it's more about watching. And when you watch in this way, you will see the mind. The Visuddhimagga explains this, that when a hunter wants to find his prey in the forest, they don't go running around chasing after deer or rabbits or whatever. They go and sit by the water. And when the deer or the animals get hungry, they all will come to the water, the water hole in the forest. And in the same way, when you want to catch the mind, you want to gain this understanding, you want to see these very difficult things to see, impermanence, suffering and non-self, don't go looking for them.

31:47Go and sit by the senses, the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body. and the mind, the thoughts. And when you sit by those, well of course the mind has to go to see, to hear, to smell. You'll be able to see the mind indirectly, and you'll be able to understand the mind, and you'll be able to purify the mind. So the focus of the practice is the mind, but only indirectly. You can say the focus in terms of what we're trying to change, well we're trying to change the mind obviously, But in order to change the mind, your direct focus is in fact not the mind.

32:27It's the doors. These doors that we have closed off. And if you're constantly, all you have to concern yourself is keeping these doors closed, then the lizard has to come out the sixth hole. It means you will see the mind and you will gain the understanding and you will free yourself from attachment and suffering. So those are the lessons from the story. And after Potila gained this teaching, then as I said, he went to practice and the Buddha taught this verse.

32:58So this verse is meant as an instruction to Potila after he had already gained all these other lessons. And he was well and truly on his path, on his way to freedom from suffering. And the verse is very simple. Yoga and Buri are the two words that the Buddha uses. I'll have to explain these. Yoga I translated as application. Yoga is a word, and this is the same word that we know in modern times from Hinduism. It's a Hindu practice involving bodily stretching and so on.

33:36And why they refer to that as yoga is because unlike some kinds of silent meditation or even philosophy or that sort of thing, study, This is something that you actually do. It means the application. So it's a word that can be used to refer to things that are physical, things that are active. The word yoga comes from the same root or the same source as the English word yoke. Yoke, Y-O-K-E, is the piece of wood that you put on an ox. So when the ox is doing work, the ox is yoked to the plow.

34:13And so it's a very simple analogy. of the ox. The ox, when it's doing work, it's in the yoke. So a person, a spiritual individual who is undergoing some kind of activity will be called a yogi, someone who has yoga. What they are doing is yoga. And so the Buddha is using it here to refer to that which is opposed to study or teaching or recitation or any of the more intellectual aspects or applications of the Dhamma. yoga he doesn't say practice he says yoga meaning application putting in the work doing the work with of course what is precisely what people do when they come to a meditation center and apply themselves to the practice so when we refer to all of you you may not hear it but when we talk about you we'll say oh the yogis we call you yogis yogi is a word throughout the buddhist world theravada buddhist world anyway that's used to refer to those who are doing the work you're all here doing the work we're here to support you but you are the yogis you are the ones doing yoga so the Buddha said yoga application as opposed to study or anything else is what leads to buri Buri is a word that originates as a name for the earth or a description.

35:44It's in reference to the earth, the earth as the planet, as the world that we live in, the great earth. It's the thing which by and far is the greatest, the most profound, the most big thing that we know of. In ancient times, it was a word used to talk about something that was deep and profound, buri, greatness. Not precisely greatness, but more like profundity. like the great earth. And so the Buddha used this word to refer to wisdom, someone who was great, someone who had great profundity, was profound.

36:31So a shallow person, a small person is someone who didn't have any great depth of knowledge, great understanding or great wisdom. and someone who was buri panya or buri panyo is someone who had greatness of wisdom or wisdom as the commentary says wisdom that is as vast and expansive as the earth this is what buri means so simply put uh Practice, application, actually undertaking the practice of mindfulness, the practice of vipassana, the practice of the Buddhist teaching, it's that which leads to wisdom.

37:13So, wisdom is not something that you gain from books. Wisdom is not the intellectual knowledge of things. Wisdom is the experience. of reality. So when we talk about things like impermanence, suffering and non-self, what we really mean is seeing these things moment after moment. Seeing the physical sensations arise and seeing the mental phenomenon, thoughts and emotions and feelings and experiences arise and cease suffering is seeing that they're not worth clinging to that the good ones disappear the bad ones come again and again and they're incessant they're chaotic they're uncontrollable They're not me, they're not mine.

38:02Seeing the three characteristics means paying attention and seeing the obvious nature of experiential reality, moment after moment after moment. Application is what leads to wisdom, not some kind of intellectualization or thought or reflection or anything like that. Because again, when all of that's going on, it is not the truth of the nature of the mind that is behind all of that intellectualization that is happening moment after moment as you intellectualize.

38:37And so the Buddha said, this is without doubt, with no qualifications, this is a twofold path. It's one or the other. There is no... There's no middle way. Either you are applying yourself, you either are applying yourself and greatness comes to you, or you don't apply yourself, there's never a hope. No matter how wise and scholarly you might seem, like Bhutila who had the vast knowledge of seven Buddhas backing him up, there's nothing great about that.

39:21Buri Sankayo, this is the end of greatness. Greatness has no foothold in the mind of someone who is set on study. And then the Buddha says, so when you know this, you should settle yourself in that which leads to the increase, the growth of Buri, of wisdom, of greatness, of profundity. vastness, wisdom. And the one word I want to highlight there just as a closing remark is the word which means increase. A reminder that Wisdom, greatness is not something that comes all at once.

40:10It's not a momentary realization. Greatness is something that grows as a result of practice. So seeing reality is not a one-time thing. Seeing reality will be moment after moment after moment. And this is a description of the process of mindfulness practice and the cultivation of vipassana insight. It's not a moment of an epiphany. It's a gradual change of perspective from chasing after things in order to cling, to crave, to get, to possess. changing to letting go, giving up, discarding, abandoning, turning away, and becoming free from the chains of desire, aversion, arrogance, conceit, fear, worry, doubt, and samsara, suffering.

41:18This gradual turning away is the process of vipassana wisdom that comes as a result of the practice of the Satipatthana. As we apply mindfulness, simply facing our experiences, reminding ourselves, this is seeing, this is hearing, this is pain, this is thinking, and so on. Seeing again and again the very simple realities that these things are impermanent, they arise and cease. They're not satisfying. They're not a source of happiness. They aren't bringing me the happiness that I think they might.

41:52And they're not under my control. They're not me. They're not mine. They don't belong to me. They don't have a self or a soul. They're ephemeral illusory. They arise and then they cease. Seeing this again and again and again, moment after moment, this is what leads to freedom, enlightenment. This is what leads to greatment. greatness and this is the path of the Buddha so our lesson to take away is to of course not be content with studying the Dhamma listening to the Dhamma to be encouraged by the fact that we have undertaken actual practice and to be encouraged in the practice that this is the teaching enjoined by the Buddha that we are the yogis practicing the right yoga applying ourselves in order to become free from suffering in order to become great to gain the greatness of wisdom true wisdom so that's the Dhamma for today thank you all for listening