Dhammapada Verse 303: Worshipped Everywhere

0:04Today we're looking at Dhammapada verse 303, which reads as follows, sadhosi lena sampanno, yaso bhoga samapito, yangyangpadesam bhajjati tatthattheva pujito, which means, confident and possessing morality, one comes to possess reputation and wealth. Whatever place one lives, one is worshipped there. So this verse was taught in regards to a householder, Chitta, in the time of the Buddha, who actually features in another story that we've already talked about for verses 73 and 74, I think.

1:41But those verses were about one part of the story. This verse is about the last part of the story, the second half of the story. So, Citta was a very prominent citizen of a suburb of Kasi, a city in India. He was rich and he was well respected. And so his history is that he met Mahanama, one of the group of five, and listened to his teaching and became a Sotapanna by following the teaching of this monk. And was so impressed and changed and moved by his experience that He bought a forest, Ambatavana, or maybe he owned a forest, I'm not sure.

2:51And he donated it to the Buddhasasana. And that the monks, female monks, male monks, might live there and establish Buddhism in his city, in his area. And his new monastery flourished and monks came and lay people came to practice and follow the monks' teachings and Buddhism flourished in the area. Eventually, Sariputta and Moggallana, the Buddha's two chief disciples, came to visit. And there was a whole story that we went through in the other verses that doesn't have anything to do with this verse, so I'm going to basically skip it, about a monk living in the monastery who was a resident who was resentful of the attention that he showed to Sariputta and Moggallana, ended up having to apologize to Chitta.

3:53Chitta didn't accept his apology and so on and so on. Eventually he was humbled and I think became an Arahant. But from listening to Sariputta and Moggallana's teaching, he became a Sakadagami, the second stage of enlightenment, a once-returner. And he reflected that without even meeting the Buddha, he had become a Sotapanna and a Sakadagami, but he still had never met the Buddha himself. And he thought, well, that's kind of a shame. Why don't I make the trip travel to Savatthi and meet and pay respect and practice with the Buddha himself.

4:40And so he made a big deal of it. He got together many carts, a large number of carts, and invited all of the monks, female monks, male monks, all of the lay people, female and male lay disciples, to join him on his voyage, on his trip. So he went in a big procession. He filled up his carts with requisites to support the monks and the lay people and with gifts to give to the Buddha and the monks when he reached Savatthi, reached Jetavana and was able to minister to the Buddha himself.

5:22But he was so well respected that all along the way people would give him or join in his giving of requisites and provide for him and for the monks and the lay people and all of the people who came along were all supporting him. So he never had to actually use the supplies that he had collected and prepared and brought with him. And when he reached the Buddha there was much rejoicing and much celebration. And he was able to pay his greatest respect to the Buddha and request to take care of the Buddha for one month.

6:15And he spent the entire month living with the Buddha and caring for the Buddha and all of the monks. preparing food and requisites and providing for their every need for an entire month. But again, because he was so well respected, people would give him gifts. They say even the devas, the angels, would provide with gifts and support. such that for an entire month he still didn't have to use any of the gifts that he had brought. So when the month was finished, he came to the Buddha and kind of complained.

6:54What he said was, Bante, Venerable Sir, I have spent a month ministering to the needs of the Sangha. And yet I haven't been able to spend any of my own gifts that I have brought. Please give me a plate. I'm going to leave now. Tell me where I can put all these things. I'm just going to give everything and empty my carts because these were meant to be gifts for the Sangha. So the Buddha had Ananda clear a spot and they dumped all the carts with all of the, I guess, cloth and foodstuffs and non-perishables and whatnot, medicines, various requisites and things that the monastery might need.

7:53And he left empty-handed. The story also says that as he went back, people were still rejoicing in his goodness and supporting him and that he actually didn't need for anything on his way home either but the verse comes because Ananda asked the Buddha he said that was quite an impressive display Chitta appears to be so well respected but he was so revered is that because he came to see the Buddha? Is it all just the power of the Buddha that makes those sorts of things happen?

8:45For Citta, when he came to see the Buddha and was so well received and well taken care of that he didn't have to make use of any of his own possessions, is that just because of the greatness of the Buddha and that he came to see the Buddha? And the Buddha said, no. No, Ananda, that's simply because of his own greatness. And the Buddha told a story of the past that in the past he had given gifts and changed his life. He was a hunter and he changed his life to become a Buddhist in a past life under a different Buddha.

9:28And it was that greatness that he had carried life after life and his own greatness even in this life that had given him such a reputation, such esteem, even such wealth. And wealth beyond his own possessions, wealth in that he was never lacking for anything. He was surrounded by people who rejoiced and joined in his giving, joined in his generosity. All because of his own goodness. And then the Buddha taught this verse. that one who is confident and moral, possessing morality, becomes respected and wealthy and is revered, worshipped wherever they go.

10:23So the story isn't all that. complicated or deep. And the Dhamma here is quite simple, but there are a couple of things that are actually quite appropriate and important for us as Buddhist practitioners, even as Buddhist meditators. The first lesson from this story that we can gain is a reminder that There are such thing as enlightened lay people. There are even leaders of the Buddhasasana, leaders of the religion that live life in the household.

11:06And though they may be preoccupied with worldly affairs, they dedicate themselves in heart to goodness and spirituality, and end up being an important core part of the continuation and longevity of the Buddhasasana. Without them, monks alone would not be able to keep the sāsana going. It's an important reminder. Reminder that one doesn't need to leave home, go and live in the forest in order to progress and succeed in practicing the Buddhist teaching.

11:56All one needs is a teacher. and the right teaching, and the qualities of mind that allow one to be receptive to the teaching, all of which citta had. The second lesson is this idea of gain and goodness, gain and sacrifice. because they seem to be in opposition that for one to gain any sort of personal benefit superficially though it's likely this isn't an explicit view but implicitly there's this idea that you have to be Selfish in order to gain for yourself that you want to gain wealth you want to gain Success You got to do it by any means necessary and you've got to seek it out directly But Buddhism teaches that the opposite is true that in fact by seeking out directly things like wealth or fame or worldly success you actually ruin your long-term chances of gaining any of those things, long-term.

13:35It's incredibly short-sighted to be manipulative and cheat and harm others to get what you want, that you lose so much, so much of the foundation which allows for the growth of wealth, the growth of reputation, but it's simply in no way worth the short-term benefit that you might get from robbing others or cheating others or manipulating others. The story is a reminder that good things come to those who do good things, that goodness is the cause of happiness.

14:17Happiness isn't the cause of happiness, meaning if you seek out happiness you don't get happier. But if you seek out goodness, if you dedicate yourself to goodness, as opposed to dedicating yourself to happiness, then happiness comes to you. The case of citta is a remarkable but not unique example of this, where someone is good, generous, kind and sacrificing. The idea of giving up the things you have, not for the purpose of getting, but as a cause for getting.

14:52See, even if you do good things hoping to get good things, it kind of is a sullying of the goodness. And if you're dedicated to goodness, goodness because it's good, because you know that it's an improvement of your own character, it's a benefit to your mind, this is the best way to give. And that goodness by itself without any wish or determination of yours becomes a cause for others to be kind to you, for others to respect you, to be generous and so on to you.

15:31So sacrifice, giving, kindness, all of these things end up being a net gain where you can give of yourself and if you truly give with a good heart to a good cause it actually benefits you. It makes your life more fulfilled, more bountiful. Sacrifice doesn't take something away from you because it purifies your mind and it creates respect with others and so on. So, just a reminder that this is the direction that Buddhists go, and in Buddhism we're taught to direct ourselves, to concern ourselves with our benefit, in terms of the quality of our minds.

16:42Even with the practice of meditation it can feel like a sacrifice. You give up your life for a time to dedicate yourself to meditation. You give up the time that you could have been spent finding happiness, right? You could have been seeking out sensual pleasure, you could have been seeking out worldly wealth, reputation, any of these things you could have been seeking out. When you undertake a meditation course, it really feels like you're sacrificing that time.

17:09And yet the result is the opposite. And this is the point, is that what we don't, what's hard to see before you undertake the practice is that this sort of sacrifice, whether it be through meditation or the gift of your own personal wealth for causes that are worthy or so on, or whether it be morality and ethics. The cultivation of morality can seem like a sacrifice. You have to give up something you want to do. You want something, well, you don't steal it.

17:43You want to hurt, you want to kill, you don't do that. You abstain from the benefit that you would gain in the short term from breaking the precept. It seems like a sacrifice, and yet the benefit is immediately apparent. So this idea of benefiting from sacrifice and gaining from giving, giving of yourself both materially and spiritually is incredibly valuable. It's not a loss, it's a gain, obviously. I mean, this is the core principle of the Buddhist teaching.

18:25For the verse itself, we can split into sections. The first part talks about the two qualities that become a cause for material reputation and wealth. The two qualities are confidence and morality. And they may not seem related or even all that core, but they're actually a description of an enlightened being they're the two pillars of what it means to be enlightened even at the level of a Sotapanna because ordinary people may be confident from time to time but their confidence will always be weak even when they are confident confident in themselves or what they're doing confident in someone else that confidence is always going to be shaken by the lack of the qualities that are associated with enlightenment, which is wisdom.

19:39So one can be confident without wisdom by convincing oneself of one's own goodness, someone else's goodness, the goodness of what one is doing, the rightness of the goodness of what one is doing. But without wisdom, without knowledge, without truly knowing goodness and recognizing and seeing the existence of goodness for yourself, what is good, what is right, what is wrong, even when there is confidence, it will always be weak, it will always be forced, it will never truly be unshakable.

20:21An enlightened being, even a Sotapanna, has unshakable confidence They cannot be shaken from their assessment of what is right and wrong because they have seen for themselves on an ultimate level what is right and what is wrong, truly right, because they have come to see the ultimate, which is nibbana. Likewise with ethics. An ordinary person can be ethical from time to time, but their ethics will always be conditional. and will always be susceptible to breakage, fragile.

21:07So many people go much of their lives without killing, even animals. Some people won't even kill an insect. But if the time came, if push comes to shove, they would very easily break their precepts because there's not a strong foundational basis for it. You can say, I don't want to kill for this reason or that reason, but without ultimate experiential knowledge and realization, experience allowing you to see the nature of realities like greed or anger It's still very easy for one to follow the wrong path and to break one's commitment to any set of moral precepts.

22:02But someone who has practiced mindfulness, cultivated it intensively, and has come to a clear realization of the nature of reality such that they no longer cling. They have let go. They see that nothing is worth clinging to. It's not possible for them to break certain moral precepts. They have no capacity to do it. The wisdom prevents them from killing, from stealing, from cheating, from lying. These things are no longer possible through the power of wisdom.

22:39Their ethics is unshakable. So these two qualities They may seem simple, they may seem ordinary but there's nothing ordinary about them They're two qualities that are very difficult for unenlightened people to maintain and to cultivate and they're always going to be shaken And as a result suffering and loss come Without confidence you lose many of the opportunities that you would otherwise gain. If you're not sure about something, you might not do it.

23:17You might not be given the opportunity. If people don't see you as confident, as sure of yourself, sure of what you're doing, opportunities might pass you by. If you're immoral, definitely many opportunities pass you by. You never get many opportunities. You'd be surrounded by immoral people as well. Loss of wealth comes from immorality, loss of health, loss of friendship. Hurting and harming others, manipulating others is a terrible way to live your life, even in a worldly sense.

23:57For worldly success and ambition there's nothing worse than immorality in the long term. In the short term it can be potentially beneficial to steal and cheat and manipulate, and it seems like In a dog-eat-dog world, that's what you have to do. But you gain none of the reputation and none of the true wealth that comes from being moral and ethical and respectable. No one will ever see you as worthy of respect, no one with any wisdom. will ever see you as worthy of respect if you have no confidence and no ethics if you have ethics and no confidence or confidence and no ethics I mean they'll always still be weak but even when they're strong someone who is confident without ethics is a real danger to themselves and others someone who is ethical without confidence will never be of any greatness either their ethics will not be strong will not be stable will not be sure because they're not confident in it.

25:07The only way to have these both and for them to be strong again is wisdom and enlightenment. So what the Buddha is saying is that this is common of those lay people who have been dedicated as citta had been for many lifetimes, dedicated to goodness, dedicated to good qualities of mind. that they gain both yassa and bhoga. Yassa is reputation. Again, reputation is something that comes from both confidence and ethics. And wealth, which again seems contradictory that if you want wealth you have to be cheating and conniving.

25:59Of course you also have to be confident, so that one's clear, but the relationship with ethics is very poorly understood. and we can see many people are pretty clear that if you want wealth quickly ethics is not the way to go and that's true in the short term it is very possible to use up all of the good will that you have gained as a human being use it all up by cheating and lying and manipulating and you can become very rich you can it's not sure of course but it can happen that you use up all the good will it's like using up all your bank your bank account using all your investments as opposed to investing if you invest wisely you become much more wealthy in the long term ethics is an investment wisdom is the greatest investment when you invest in wisdom you gain these qualities that create the foundation a stable and strong foundation for this life and all future lives and finally whatever place one lives wherever one goes one is worshipped there it doesn't matter if you go to see the Buddha you're not respected because you follow the Buddha wherever you go doesn't matter if you go to see Buddhists this is another thing that the Buddha is saying here is that the Buddha's teaching is not Buddhist this is not Buddhist goodness it is goodness and it is recognized by people with wisdom which is not Buddhist wisdom it's knowledge and understanding and familiarity with the nature of reality the singular reality of everyone not just the Buddhists

27:59So wherever you go, if you go to a Christian country, a Buddhist country, a Hindu country, a Muslim country, wherever you go, people will revere you. Not because you're Buddhist, not because you follow the Buddha, but because of these things, confidence. These things that come from practicing Buddhism, confidence, unshakable confidence. You have unshakable confidence because you have put your confidence in something that is true, something that is real.

28:29You put your confidence in reality which you have seen and come to see for yourself. And ethics, doesn't matter where you go, if you don't kill, don't steal, don't cheat, don't lie, don't take drugs and alcohol, if you're an ethical, kind, generous person, if you're a person who is content with little who is patient. Everywhere you go there will be respect. People respect greatness and learning. If someone who is ethical, someone who is confident, teaches others as well, citta was most likely a great, at the very least a great example for others to follow and was a great source of of growth for the Buddhasasana.

29:33And just having someone like that as an example, as a guide, as a leader. Again, he wasn't a monk, and he didn't have to be a monk. That a person who is like this in the lay life can be a great example for others to follow, can even be a great teacher, a great leader of the Buddhasasana. So for us in our meditation practice, how this verse applies, these qualities again are the very core of the qualities that we cultivate. And they're a way of describing the qualities that come from the practice of mindfulness.

30:16And we don't have to worry about our practice. material benefit or material wealth. We don't have to worry so much about the material world if we have these qualities, if we cultivate goodness and better ourselves and cultivate the good relationships and the good standing and respect that comes from goodness, comes from wisdom, comes from mindfulness. So the biggest lesson that we gain from this is just to dedicate ourselves not to the pursuit of worldly gain, not even to the pursuit of reputation, not worrying about what others think of us.

30:59If you focus on who you are, your own character, your own qualities, respect comes, even wealth comes. Material wealth, material benefit all comes by itself as a result of the strength of character, the goodness of mind that you gain. because our practice is focused on reality. It may seem simple and banal to focus on the stomach rising and falling, to focus on the foot moving, but it's these sorts of things that open the door to ground you in reality, ground you in truth.

31:41And to bring about wisdom, things that we can truly be sure of. So to bring about true confidence and to give us a proper grounding for our ethics and morality, for our moral fiber, our moral character. If we instead found our confidence and our ethics on concepts, there's no way we will ever have true confidence or true ethics. But the greatness of mindfulness is that it, again, approaches reality and gives us this stable foundation. So we can rejoice as monks and laypeople that we have found this and that we are practicing this and we can rejoice in how great it the greatness that it brings to us and to the world that we become a beacon for others become an example for others and we gain this coveted status of being respected and we gain material and spiritual wealth and live free from need, free from want, free from lack many good things, many promises that we can expect as a result of our practice, because we're not focused on them.

33:18Without focusing on getting and obtaining and being materially, worldly, being rich and powerful in a worldly sense. All of these things come as a result of qualities like confidence, but also qualities like ethics and morality. So, a simple verse, a simple story, a reminder of the existence of such people and a reminder for us to emulate goodness and focus on good things, whether we're lay people or monks. So that's the Dhammapada for today. Thank you for listening.