With what virtue, what behavior, nurturing what actions, would a person become rightly based and attain the ultimate goal? One should be respectful of ones superiors[1] & not envious; should have a sense of the time for seeing teachers[2]; should value the opportunity when a talk on Dhammas in progress; should listen intently to well-spoken words; should go at the proper time, humbly, casting off stubbornness, to ones teachers presence; should both recollect & follow the Dhamma, its meaning, restraint, & the holy life. Delighting in Dhamma, savoring Dhamma, established in Dhamma, with a sense of how to investigate Dhamma, one should not speak in ways destructive of Dhamma,[3] should guide oneself with true, well-spoken words. Shedding laughter, chattering, lamentation, hatred, deception, deviousness, greed, pride, confrontation, roughness, astringency, infatuation, one should go about free of intoxication, steadfast within. Understandings the heartwood of well-spoken words; concentration, the heartwood of learning & understanding. When a person is hasty & heedless his discernment & learning dont grow. While those who delight in the doctrines taught by the noble ones, are unexcelled in word, action, & mind. They, established in calm, composure, & concentration, have reached what discernment & learning have as their heartwood.[4] Notes 1. According to the Commentary, ones superiors include those who have more wisdom than oneself, more skill in concentration and other aspects of the path than oneself, and those senior to oneself. 2. The Commentary says that the right time to see a teacher is when one is overcome with passion, aversion, and delusion, and cannot find a way out on ones own. This echoes a passage in AN 6.26, in which Ven. Maha Kaccana says that the right time to visit a monk worthy of esteem is when one needs help in overcoming any of the five hindrances or when one doesnt yet have an appropriate theme to focus on to put an end to the minds fermentations. 3. The Commentary equates words destructive of the Dhamma with animal talk. See the discussion under Pacittiya 85 in The Buddhist Monastic Code. 4. The heartwood of learning & discernment is release. Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 14:52:36 +0000
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