Dhammapada Verse 304: A Snowy Mountain

0:02So today we are looking at Dhammapada verse 304, which reads as follows, dhure santo paka senti himavanto vabhato asante tha nadi santi ratinkitaya thasara, which means, From afar the tranquil are apparent like a snow-covered mountain. The not tranquil are here not seen like an arrow shot into the night. This verse was taught following the events surrounding a woman named Chula Subadha. Chula Subadha, the daughter of Anattapindika, one of the Buddha's great lay disciples.

1:31So the story goes that Anathapindika, when he was young, he was studying with another student under the same teacher. The student's name was Uga. Or he's from the city Uga. He was a man from Uga. And they became good friends and they made a promise that they would join their families when they grew older. That if they had sons and daughters, they would marry their sons and daughters to each other. Arranged marriage as being a thing in that time. And so when they grew up, Anathapindika became quite wealthy and Uga became quite wealthy in his city.

2:31And one day the man from Uga came to visit Anathapindika. He came to visit him and met his daughter Chula Subada and was quite impressed by her character. by her selflessness, by her nature, and reminded Anattapindika of their promise as children. Now Anattapindika was not immediately enthused about this idea because whereas Anattapindika became a student of the Buddha, Uga became a student of the naked ascetics. So he was following a doctrine which from a Buddhist perspective is wrong view and the wrong path.

3:24So he was concerned that his daughter should be put out by living in such a household. Of course she would be living not only in the household of her husband but the household of her husband's parents. and would be in contact with this teaching and the people of this religion. So rather than accepting, he went to see the Buddha. and told the Buddha of his dilemma. This was a good friend of his who was a good man but there was this concern that these weren't Buddhists and getting too caught up or sending his daughter to live with such a family might be a bad idea.

4:24Now the Buddha had of course the special ability to see things see things in a situation that ordinary people couldn't see. And he was able to see the potential that probably Anathapindika could sense, knowing that his friend was a good man and they were good people. But the Buddha confirmed that all would be well, that this was a decision that would lead to good things. And so Anathapindika arranged for his daughter to be married into their family and sent with all pomp and ceremony, sent also with protection.

5:11So he established people in the city of Uga who could act as her witness. If she was ever accused of anything, they should act as her supporter, her protector, her defender, if she was ever taken advantage of. Jullasubada lived well in the city and had many friends and had as best a life as she could have but was not comfortable with the religious aspects of their household so the father-in-law was Uga this man was want to to invite and cater to the naked ascetics in their home.

6:07And, of course, wanted his family to come and pay respect and serve them. But Chulha Subhadra had grown up a Buddhist and had grown up quite a conservative, in a conservative sort of household, where the idea of going naked was not something she was comfortable with. And so she refused to be in the room with these men, these naked ascetics. And the father called to her to come and to pay respect to them and she refused. And again and again he called and again and again she refused until finally he blew up, got very angry and said she had to be cast out of the house.

6:53She must be forced to, she must be thrown out because she refuses to pay respect to these worthy arahants, these worthy enlightened naked ascetics. called upon her protectors in the city to come together and to hear her case and to decide on her guilt or her innocence. And they found that she had done nothing wrong. They said, well, this is reasonable. She's not comfortable with these naked ascetics and they really can't make her bow down to a religion that she doesn't support.

7:38And the man said, well, why is she refusing? And she said, these men are, these are shameless individuals going naked. This is a shameless and an immoral and an immodest activity. And she said, the religious people in my religion would never do such a thing. And her mother-in-law picked up on this. The Uga guy wasn't really interested in hearing what she had to say, but her mother-in-law, who isn't given a name in the story, asked her about this.

8:15Said, well, what are these... The people in your religion are different. They don't do such things. What are they like? And Chula Subada... presented her mother-in-law with some very valuable praise of Buddhist monastics and Buddhist leaders, the people who follow Buddhism, of what they're like. And so it's given in verses. I won't recite the verses here, but basically she said they are tranquil. They are modest and they are tranquil. They are pure, clean of mind, pure of mind.

9:14And they are not moved by worldly affairs, so they are not inclined to strive for praise and so on for good things or to be moved or upset by bad things by things that they don't like she gave some high praise that caused the mother-in-law to ask her is it possible for us to meet these monks these beings that you praise so highly because she was able to compare it with these naked ascetics who didn't have any of these qualities These naked ascetics, the only thing they had going for them was their nudity, their refusal to wear clothes.

9:57They weren't modest, they weren't tranquil, they didn't appear to be pure in any way. They didn't have these qualities of purity and equanimity that Subhadra was describing. focused on, that Subhadra was praising as the focus of the Buddha's teaching. She said, is it possible for us to meet? Now Uga was, the city of Uga was quite far from Savatthi where the Buddha was saying, but Subhadra said, sure, it's absolutely possible. I'll invite them for tomorrow's meal.

10:36And so she went up to the top of the house, to the top floor and opened a window. And she bowed down and expressed her praise for the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha and made a determination, may the Buddha come to my home for breakfast, for the meal. And she threw these flower petals into the air. And the story goes that these flower petals floated all the way from the city of Uga to the city of Savatthi and past the city of Savatthi to Jetavana where the Buddha was staying.

11:12And at that time the Buddha was sitting teaching the Dhamma and Anathapindika happened to be in the audience. And when the Buddha was done teaching, Anathapindika invited him and said, Tomorrow, sir, please come for food in my house. And the Buddha said, Oh, the Buddha refused. He said, I've already received an invitation. Anathapindika said, But there's no one here. I've watched and no one has come to extend an invitation. He said, Oh, did you see those flower petals?

11:46Your daughter, Shula Subada, invited me tomorrow to the city of Uga. And Anathapindika said, how is that possible? So far away, how could she possibly make herself known from so far away? And the Buddha said, gave this verse in response. He said, those who are far away are readily apparent to us like a snow-covered mountain. And then he traveled to Uga and taught the Dhamma to the parents and to Srila Subbaddha and they all gained and benefited from it and many of them became enlightened and Uga as a result became a Buddhist city according to the text.

12:40They all followed the Buddha's teaching and the Buddha told Anuruddha to stay there. The story goes that as a result of these events and the greatness of Chula Subhadra, it became a bastion of Buddhist practice and teaching. So, one of the many stories of events that supposedly happened in the time of the Buddha. But the lesson for us, the first lesson from the story relates to relationships, relationships with people who aren't Buddhists. The easiest thing to say of course is don't relate or don't engage or don't get involved with non-Buddhists but that's rarely if ever tenable.

13:34Even for Buddhist monks we're often confronted and forced to engage with non-Buddhists in various capacities. It's something you can't avoid and people in the world obviously can't avoid it rarely at all ever we're often put in situations with family with friends with work with our social environment where we're forced to engage with people of all different walks of life and I think the story reminds us that it's not so important for us to consider the religion one ascribes to.

14:24There is an aspect to that. Of course, if someone is particularly invested in religion outside of the Buddhist teaching then they're particularly invested in wrong view and they're quite likely to be possessed of many qualities that the Buddhist teaching is against. So many religions are inclined to killing or even lying. Drugs and alcohol. Alcohol is a common thing in many religions. This sort of thing. And then there's the wrong views about what constitutes right practice.

15:18what is essential and what is unessential, that it's essential that one go naked, for example, or it's essential that one torture oneself. In many religions there are sorts of torture that are considered, self-torture that are considered valuable, this sort of thing. Ideas about the afterlife, about what constitutes enlightenment. There's lots of problems therein, but For the average practitioner of any religion, there is a great deal of flexibility.

15:48As we can see, in many cases people change religions when they become convinced of something better. And from a Buddhist perspective it's quite common for people to appreciate the qualities of the Buddhist teaching and come to respect and even follow Buddhism as a result of investigation, as a result of the simple contact with the Buddhist teaching or with Buddhists which they may never have in their ordinary daily life. So we shouldn't shun people of any sort, simply because of their religious affiliation.

16:31It's valuable to see the good in people and to associate with those people who have good qualities, that are able to appreciate good things, like the practice of meditation, the cultivation of good deeds, the adherence to ethics and ethical principles. and wisdom and right view. People who can appreciate a good argument, who can appreciate reason and can acknowledge when something that they believe goes against reality. But our relationship with people of other religions is a valuable topic of discussion, something that we should not take lightly and we should not see as a simplistic avoidance of people outside of the Buddhist religion.

17:24we should be friendly and focus on the good and try to appreciate and cultivate good qualities in ourselves and others people of all walks of life the Buddha of course was not trying to distance himself from people of other religions he was when he first started out very much open to allowing people to keep their religions and learn from him and gain benefit from his teachings The second lesson from the story relates to the verses which I didn't relate, the verses that Subhadra taught to her mother-in-law.

18:04So what she said was first that Buddhist monks, the true followers of the Buddhist teaching are tranquil. This means they don't act in ways that are reckless or rambunctious. They don't speak a lot. They don't chat. They don't chatter. They don't engage in useless speech. They don't engage in useless actions. they don't dance, they don't sing they're modest they're tame they're tranquil a follower of the Buddha's teaching as we're learning here in the meditation center someone who truly follows the teaching walks slow speaks thoughtfully and speaks only when necessary here you're doing a great engaged in a great and valuable practice by moving and acting in a very peaceful and a very tranquil way and only engaging in speech when it's necessary.

19:20These are a very powerful practice that cultivates this habit of mental tranquility has a cleansing effect on the mind. She said that true followers of the Buddhist teaching are pure. They're pure of mind. And this is what we're cultivating here as a result of our practice. The practice of mindfulness, the greed in the mind, you cleanse the greed in the mind. The anger in the mind, you cleanse the anger in the mind. Delusion in the mind, you cleanse it through the light of mindfulness, the clarity and the brilliance of the wisdom that comes from seeing things as they are So simply walking with mindfulness being aware of the foot moving there's a clarity, there's an equanimity there's a purity to the movement When you say to yourself, step, being right, this is a pure experience.

20:23There's no room for greed, there's no room for anger. You're training yourself out of it. It's opposed to the ordinary experience where you like something or you dislike something, where we're always judging everything, where we're confused and muddled and not really paying close attention, allowing for delusion to arise, wrong view, allowing for greed and anger to arise. When you sit and watch the stomach rising and falling, just saying to yourself, rising, has a clarity to it, has a purity to it.

20:57This is the practice of the Buddhist teaching. This is a quality that Buddhists develop, something that is very rare in the world, very unique and very special, very valuable and very powerful. This quality of purity, purity of thought, purity of speech, With a pure mind your speech becomes pure. You don't speak useless words, you don't speak harmful words, you don't speak manipulative or untrue speech or useless speech. Your speech is thoughtful, is measured and is for the purpose of what is valuable, what is of true value and true meaning.

21:41And your actions are pure. When you walk, you walk with mindfulness. When you stand, you stand with mindfulness. When you act, you act mindfully. There's such great value in this that we're not ever taught in life and outside of the Buddha's religion is very rare to see. most people's actions are mindless without thought, without full awareness and a full mental capacity without the clarity of mind that allows you to act beneficially and to act with tranquility And the third thing she said relates to the ways of the world.

22:31So the sorts of things that worldly beings strive for and strive against. There are eight of them. Four things they strive for which are gain, station like fame and high social status, praise and pleasure. These are the four things Buddha pointed out that worldly beings strive for and are moved by. The point is that they are shaken by them. So their tranquility, their purity of mind is threatened by these things. When confronted with the potential for gain, many people will do almost anything.

23:16Will do immoral acts or engage in immoral speech. will have covetous thoughts to do whatever they can to gain money or possessions or wealth, power People will act in many immoral ways to get what they want. They're moved by these things, moved often to immorality. By stations, so people will clamber up the ladder trying to become famous or powerful or have a high social status. They will oppress others. They will lie about their or brag about their good qualities.

24:01in order to be impressive, in order to impress others, in order to acquire status in the world. People will lie about themselves or pretend to be something they're not in order to be praised. They will act in ways and speak in ways that make other people praise them. They will take credit for other people's work and do almost anything to get praised. present themselves in the best light, craving and yearning for praise, moved by praise and needing praise, unable to be happy with their good work unless it is praised by others.

24:51And pleasure, people will do many a thing for the experience of pleasure. Pleasure can make you go crazy, do many immoral things, things that you know you shouldn't do, steal, cheat. lie. People take drugs and alcohol just to experience the high or the bliss of intoxication, to not have to deal with the harshness of ordinary reality. And likewise with the other four, which are the opposite, so loss, low station, low social status. blame and suffering.

25:38These things most people can't abide by. But again, these are things that Buddhists, true followers of the Buddha, are expected to free themselves from. Not to not experience, but to free themselves from the power of these things. So when confronted with loss, most people are frightened and terrified by the potential to lose all of the things that they own but a follower of the Buddha is expected to let go of even their own possessions and to not be afraid of losing wealth or possessions or belongings lose people or even lose their own health their own body their own life to not be afraid of loss of any sort this is a huge part of what we're training and because it's valuable quality to be free from these things.

26:32These things for good and for bad are the vicissitudes of life. They're all of them occasional. You can't expect to always have gain, to always have praise, to always have high social status. to always have pleasure. You can't expect that you shouldn't have loss and low station in life and that you should never be blamed for anything or that you should never experience pain. And because of that you can't take as the solution to only have the good ones and not have the bad ones.

27:09This isn't tenable. This isn't the proper way to strive in life. the proper way to strive is to free ourselves again from the power these have over us, which is what we do by cultivating this clarity and this objectivity. So this is a very powerful praise that we can give to someone who follows the Buddhist teaching. If people ask, what is the benefit of doing all these difficult and uncomfortable practices of having to face your experiences, having to Engage in practices of long hours of walking and sitting and giving up this search for pleasure.

27:51What is the benefit? The benefit is this freedom, not being pushed and pulled by good things and bad things, not being susceptible, not being vulnerable to the ever-changing situation that we find ourselves in in life. So as for the verse, the verse has a very simple message. And I think it's often misunderstood. Most translations say that simply good people are seen from afar and bad people are unseen, like an arrow shot into the dark. But I don't think this is the message precisely.

28:41I don't think it makes even much sense as a message. If you take that as a doctrine, as a truth, it's not really true. It's quite readily apparent that quite often the worst people are the most easily seen, right? There's many terrible people in the history of the world and even in present time who are very clearly in the limelight, in the spotlight. Everybody knows about them. They are famous. They are even popular. Popular amongst people who agree with their horrible qualities and horrible acts and horrible views and so on.

29:29But there's one word that's often even not translated, as I've noticed, and the word is etha. The Buddha said, hear. Hear people who are not tranquil, are not seen. And so he means that we see the good in people. It's a powerful statement that we, we who have this greatness in us, this clarity, this purity of mind, we who are of clear mind, we see the goodness in people, even though it might often be ignored by the world. Good people are often not recognized for their goodness.

30:13They're often derided for their adherence to ethical principles or charity or generosity. It seems silly to give away your possessions to others, to work hard to help others. It seems ridiculous to sit and focus on your stomach rising and falling. What a waste of time. But here we recognize these things. Here we don't even see the evil. We don't look at the evil. We don't pay attention. It's not in our realm of perception. we move beyond it. Like a person at the top of a mountain might look down and see the things far below but has no real interest or connection with them.

31:17So the meaning here is twofold. One, our goal in life should be someone that wise people appreciate. Our goal is to be someone who the Buddha would see. That being good doesn't give you universal praise. Being good doesn't make you shine like a snowy mountain for everyone. But we should be able to discriminate and understand that it's only goodness that is going to impress the good. It's only wisdom that is going to impress the wise. When we live our lives, we only need to concern ourselves with the opinion of those who have qualities that we recognize as as good, as pure, as based on wisdom and clarity of mind.

32:27And so a part of our meditation practice is about this aligning ourselves with those who are wise and good with the forces in the world that are pure aligning ourselves with wisdom and if we're going to accept praise and appreciate praise it should be appreciating the praise of those we know to be wise if someone wise praises you this is of true value it's of no real value if those who are corrupt and evil agree with the qualities you have in your mind But the other, and I think the more interesting lesson is that we should be like the Buddha.

33:17And it doesn't make you a good person because you are upset about the evil in others. When you see someone is engaged in evil activities, evil speech, one is corrupt in mind, polluted in mind, getting angry and upset about that, fighting against them, attacking them, denouncing them, is actually a sign that you yourself are not very wise or not very good. You're nothing like the Buddha. who taught us to overlook the evil in the world, not try and fix the world and remove the evil from the world, certainly not to fight against it, to get upset about it.

34:05The Buddha didn't teach us to fix the world. The world is something that is full of good and evil, sometimes more evil, sometimes more good. changing constantly, but full of so many different qualities that are never going to be fully eradicated. You're never going to have a world that is truly and fully good. Acknowledging this and recognizing this is an important part of freeing yourself from the pull of the world, the whirlpool of samsara dragging us down.

34:41When you fight or get angry or get upset about all the evil in the world and the evil people in the world, you only get dragged down by it. So the Buddha said a true sign of someone who is wise, someone who is here, someone who is with the Buddha, someone who is like the Buddha, who is following the Buddha, is that they see the good in the world. They're able to see and to align themselves and to strive for good in themselves and in those around them.

35:15Buddha said if someone has a bad quality about them, tear that off. Like you would a piece of cloth, if part of it is rotten, don't throw the whole cloth out. Tear off the part that is rotten and focus on the part that is good. Keep only to the good. And if someone is truly and thoroughly corrupt in all ways beyond redemption, don't let that upset you. Act in such a way that your realm of experience is outside of that. Move in different circles. Don't associate with such people.

35:56Find ways to align yourself with the good in the world. and become a person who sees the good in the world, who is able to see good, to know good, and to strive for good in themselves and in others. This is what I think is meant by the verse, that we should strive to be those who are seen by the wise, and we should strive to be wise in that. We stop mucking around in the evil of the world and worrying about all of the bad things that are never going to be completely eradicated.

36:34And we do our duty, do what's right for ourselves or as ourselves, for ourselves and others. And that's to be a good influence, to be a source of good and a source of peace and happiness for ourselves and for everyone around us. Which is of course essentially what we're striving for in our practice of mindfulness. The cleansing of the mind, the purification of the mind, purification of view, the purification of practice, getting on a path that is pure, that is free from greed, free from anger, free from delusion, free from the mire of samsara, free from the obsession with good and bad, with pleasant and unpleasant experiences.

37:26that is truly free from attachment to the world, truly free from corruption and evil. A very noble and valuable practice, something that makes us worthy of this esteem, worthy to say that we are the sort of people that Chulal Sumpadaya was talking about. people that are special in a religious capacity, whether it's monks or lay people. These are the sorts of qualities that we strive for, not simply to be called Buddhists, but to be called good, to be called pure, tranquil, pure, and free from attachment in the world.

38:08So that's the Dhammapada for today. Thank you for listening.