(E20)-01-Introduction-of-Mangala-Sutta

Tonight the topic of the talk is the Mangala Sutta. Probably some of you would know that the Mangala Sutta is said to be the most popular of all the Pali chants. It is the most popular because it is In a way, you could say it's better than striking a lottery. It's teaching us how to be wealthy. But this wealth we get is inside of us, so it is not obvious. Unlike lottery where you strike and immediately you can see the money, this wealth we get from the Mangala Sutta, we carry with us to our next few lifetimes. So because of that, it is very popular. And not only humans are interested in this kind of wealth, here it is called blessings. blessings or merit. Punya is the Pali word. But, this, we sometimes can see the benefit even in this lifetime. And probably some of you have heard this chant before. It starts off, if I chant the Pali, it goes like this. So, these blessings, not only human beings are interested in it, but devas are also interested in it. heavenly beings, celestial beings. And this Sutta was spoken by the Buddha at the request of a Deva. Because Devas, they know more things than we human beings know. So this Deva knew that the Buddha, the Enlightened One, is here on the Earth. And he took the opportunity to get advice from the Buddha how to get the highest blessings so that he will reap this reward this life and in the future lives. So that is why this chant is very popular. You can also say it's very auspicious. So whenever we do some auspicious, we have some auspicious occasion where you invite monks to the house because you want to get blessings and all that. Or sometimes you have some event, somebody's birthday or something in the house where everybody's happy and you want to get a lot of blessings. So this is one of the chants that the monks will do. Now, I will read. the English translation of this chant and then try to explain the terms.

(E20)-02-Origin-of-Mangala-Sutta

Thus have I heard. That's the equivalent of Eva Mei Sutang. In Chinese, it's Ru Si Wo Wen. At one time, the Exalted One, the Bhagavata, was staying near Savati, in Jeta's grove, at Anathapindika's path. I'll stop here for a moment to explain some of the terms. Most of our sutras, in fact, all of our sutras, are supposed to start with these words. Thus have I heard. And then here, the Exalted One is a translation for the word Bhagavata. The Buddha had 10, you could say 10 epithets, 10 names. The Bhagavata is one of them, and the Bhagavata is the one probably used most by people in addressing the Buddha. Here it's translated as the Exalted One. Elsewhere, it could be translated as the Blessed One. And in Chinese, it's Se Chun. was staying near Savatthi. Savatthi is a place where the Buddhas used to go quite frequently. He spent most of his vasas, reigns, periods at Savatthi in Jeta's grove, this Jeta Vane. This Jeta was a prince and he owned this grove, this kind of forest area. And this man called Anathapindika bought this grove from this Prince Jetha. So that's why it's called Jetha's Grove. And it's also called Anathapindika's Park or Monastery. Here the word is Arame or Arama is a word for a monastery. and they have a few ways of calling a monastery. Arama is one, Vihara is another one, Avasa is another one. This word Avasa, the Thais have shortened it to, Avasa can also be said to be Awasa, and they shortened it to Awat, Awat, and then later they call it Wat. This man, Anathapindika, he was a very generous person, a philanthropist, and he used to build this orphanage. That's why he was given the name Anathapindika, one who helps the orphans. Actually, his real name was a bit different, but people used to call him Anathapindika. At one time the Exalted One was staying near Savatthi in Jeta's Grove at Anathapindika's Park. Is this microphone working? Can you all hear me? Then a certain Devata or Deva, a heavenly being, in the night's last extreme, whose extreme brilliance lighted up the whole of Jeta's Grove, approached the Exalted One. Having approached the Exalted One and revered Him, he stood to one side. I'll just stop here for a moment. So this Deva, sometimes these Devas used to come to see the Buddha in the night. Because in the night, normally, human beings won't be coming to see the Buddha. Most people will be sleeping at night. So the devas would come at night when nobody was around and you are able to speak to the Buddha personally. So sometimes like some of the women arahants, arahant nuns, some of them like Upalavanna, the nun with the greatest psychic power, she also would come and see the Buddha at night because nobody's around. The Buddha is free. So, like this Upalavanna, because she had great psychic power, she would fly in the air, fly and then come to see the Buddha. So in the same way, these devas also flew and came to see the Buddha. So when they came, their brilliance, their light would illuminate the whole of the monastery. But this light, that illuminated the whole monastery, maybe only those who had psychic power could see. Then having approached the Exalted One and revered Him, he stood to one side. You see, these devas, after they pay respect to the Buddha, and they want to speak to the Buddha, they stand to one side, and then they speak to the Buddha. This is their way of showing respect. Just like I heard, it seems like this was told, like some of these Western monks in England, When the Sri Lankans come to see the monk, the monk is sitting down. Then the Sri Lankans would come, pay respect to the monk, and then they stand and talk to the monk. And then the Thais would come, pay respect, and then they sit down lower than the monk and talk to the monk. So it's a different, they have different convention. To the Sri Lankan, when you sit down, it's not respectful. You have to be standing to be respectful. But to the Thais, standing up so high is not respectful. You have to sit lower than the monk. So it's all different convention. So this, for the Deva, the thing, standing is more respectful. Standing there to one side, that Devata addressed the Exalted One in verses. Many Devas and men have pondered on blessings, longing for safety. Tell them the highest blessing. So here, I stop here for a moment to comment. So here this Deva is saying that many heavenly beings and human beings have wondered how to get blessings because they long for safety. So he asked the Buddha to tell how to get the highest blessing. The highest blessing here is Mangala Muttamang. consists of two words, mangala and utamang. Utamang, we know the Malay word utamang is the first. So here it means also the supreme, the highest. So mangala utamang, the highest blessing.

(E20)-03-The-1st-group-of-the-Highest-Blessing

Here onwards, you will be listening to the Buddha's advice. The first advice the Buddha said, Asevana ca bala nang. Asevana is not to associate. Sevana is to associate, not to associate with bala. Bala is fools. not to associate with fools, with the wise to associate, and to honour the honourable, or those worthy of honour. This is the highest blessing." This is the first four verses. The Buddha speaks four verses each time. So the first advice, he said, is not to associate with fools. The Buddha did say in a few other suttas that our friends are very important. The type of people we associate with, the type of people we mix with. The Buddha said, birds of the same feather flock together. He didn't say exactly like this English saying, but his meaning was this, birds of the same feather flock together. So if we mix with evil people, we will also acquire evil habits and we will walk their way. If you mix with wise people, then you will also get some wisdom and you walk the way of the wise. So who are fools and who are wise people? In the Dhamma, fools are those who do not understand the Dhamma. because they do not understand the Dhamma, they do not practice the Dhamma. And if they do not practice the Dhamma, that means they are walking the way that will bring them to a bad rebirth, to a rebirth in one of the three woeful planes. The Buddha said that we, when we die, we can be reborn in five possible places. The best is heaven. There are many levels of heaven. And then below that is the human realm. We can be reborn in the human realm, that's the second. And then after that, three are the woeful planes below the human realm. What are these three places? Slightly worse than the human realm is the ghost realm. The ghost realm is a realm where people without sufficient blessings, With very little blessings, they are reborn there because they don't have enough, have not done enough good deeds. But worse than the ghost realm is the animal realm. Animal realm, those people, you see animal behavior is firstly the temper is very bad. People whose temper is very, they are very fierce people, gangsters and all that, who like to fight, they get reborn as dogs and monkeys and all that where they fight again. The second characteristic of an animal is lust, where the lust, sensual desire is very strong. So people with this type of characteristics who are violent and who have great lust or sensual desire, they fall into the animal realm. And then worse than the animal realm is the hell realm. For those beings who do very great evil, who harm a lot of people, not necessarily a lot of people, even if you harm one person to a very great extent, you can also be reborn in hell. So these are the five planes of rebirth. Later books talk about six realms of rebirth. In Chinese they say 六道轮回, yes or no? But actually it's 五道, five. In the earliest sutras of the Buddha, it's only five. Later they added the asura. The asuras are actually heavenly beings. This is very definite from the Dīgha Nikāya because in the Dīgha Nikāya, there's one sutta that the Buddha said the lowest kind of asuras are the Kalakanja asuras. That's in one sutta. Then in another sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya, the Buddha said one day a lot of devas came to visit him and then he was telling his monks, look at this deva, so powerful, look at that deva. And then he mentioned the Kalakanja asuras also. So you see that the Kalakanja asuras are devas, therefore since they are the lowest of the asuras, therefore all asuras are devas.

(E20)-04-Not-assorciate-with-the-fool

So not to associate with fools. Fools are those people who do not know the Dhamma and they do not practice the Dhamma. So when they do not practice the Dhamma, they do a lot of evil deeds. And what are the evil deeds that we can possibly do? The Buddha mentioned that there are ten types of evil deeds that we can possibly do. And these ten deeds are divided into bodily deeds, verbal deeds, and mental deeds or karma. So the body karma that we can do and which is evil, the first one is to kill, kill other living beings. For example, some people who like to go hunting. for just to have some fun, they are willing to take other beings' lives. So when they take other beings' lives, sometimes not only that being itself suffers, sometimes other members of that family also suffer. For example, if a person goes hunting, and then he sees a fat wild boar, then he shoots the fat wild boar, kills the wild boar, But that wild boar may be suckling 10 piglets. There may be 10 babies, baby pigs, waiting for the mother to come and feed them. And then you kill that one wild boar, and then the 10 babies will starve to death. So in fact, you are killing 11 pigs. So the same with even human beings. Sometimes you kill a man, then the families, the wife and the children suffer. So the first evil deed we can do is killing. The second evil deed we can do with the body is stealing because we use our hand to steal something. That's bodily karma. Buddha taught us that we should keep this precept not to take what does not belong to us, what is not given to us, sorry, what is not given to us we should not take. So the third bodily evil that we can do is sexual misconduct. That means a person already has a husband or a wife, then that person fools around with another man or another woman. That is adultery like sexual misconduct. Maybe I should mention the consequence of each one of these. If we frequently kill, we shorten the lives of other beings, the natural consequence is that we will have short life, either this life itself or the next few lifetimes. And the second one, when we steal, and then also the retribution is that we get stolen. Sometimes a person may employ a few workers And then the workers tend to steal from the boss. That's because the boss in the formerly used to also steal. And then the kamavipaka, the yenko, the result of adultery is that you will be hated. You will be hated and everybody will dislike you. And also because if you break up, because of committing adultery, you break up other people's family, then in future also possibly, in a future lifetime when you have a family, your family also might be caused to break up. But that's adultery. So these are the three body kamas, evil kamas, that we can do. And how about the verbal kamma? Verbal kamma, there are four types of verbal kamma the Buddha warn us to avoid. The first one is lying. Lying. If we lie and even to the extent of cheating people, then next time also people will lie about us and cheat us. The second one is to carry tales and cause people to quarrel. For example, you hear A talking bad about B. After hearing from A, you go to B and you tell B, A said such and such a thing about you. And then B will get very angry and go and quarrel with A. So you cause disharmony, cause people to quarrel. That is the second type of evil verbal karma. If you do that, the natural consequence is in the future, people will do the same thing to you. Then number three, the third evil verbal karma is to use cause of harsh speech. Like some people have a filthy mouth. Every time they open their mouth, they speak four-letter words and all these things. And they talk very rough. So if you do that, people will have no respect for you. So in the future lifetime or so, people will have no respect for you and maybe people also will say the same things to you. Then is the third, evil verbal karma. The fourth evil verbal kamma is idle talk, idle gossip. Sometimes we gossip too much and we cause problems for people. Another thing is when we gossip too much we are wasting our time. Life is quite short especially human life is very short and we have to remember that a lot of our time is spent on necessary things like working, sleeping, eating and then the The actual spare time we have left is very little. In one day, suppose you want to use that spare time to, for example, meditate or learn the Dhamma, you find you don't have very much spare time. For most people, say somebody who's working, maybe at the most you have one or two hours a day. So if you go and talk too much, then you'll be wasting a lot of your precious time, especially if you talk a lot of unnecessary gossip. So that is the fourth type of unskillful verbal kamma that we could indulge in. So these are the four verbal kammas, evil verbal kammas we have to avoid. First one is lying. Second one is carrying tales to cause people to quarrel. Third one is harsh speech or coarse speech. The fourth one is idle gossip. Now mental karma, there are three types of evil mental karma that we have to avoid. The first one is excessive greed, covetousness, wanting other people's things to the extent of maybe even wanting other people's husband or other people's wife and all that. That is covetousness. Then the second evil mental karma is excessive anger or hatred. You have too much ill will or hatred, that is also very bad. Some people, it seems like they have a lot of anger, always having a temper, breaking into a tantrum. So that also we want to avoid. That's the second type of evil mental karma. The third one is wrong view, having wrong view. And in this case, what is this wrong view? This wrong view is worldly wrong view. That means not believing in karma and not believing that doing good will benefit you either this life or a future lifetime. And not believing that doing evil will bring you evil consequence. So there are some people like that because they don't believe in karma. So they don't like to believe in a future rebirth. They think, oh, after I pass away, no more, nothing left. Don't talk about the next life. There's no next life. Why? Because that person is scared. Scared that if there is such a thing, that person will be reborn in a whole full plane of rebirth. So that is the three mental evil karmas. First one is excessive greed or covetousness. The second one, hatred, strong anger or ill will. The third one is wrong view, not believing in karma or yantra, karma vipaka, karma, intentional action and its result.

(E20)-05-With-the-wise-to-consort

And then with the wise to consort. So who are the wise? The wise is the converse of the foolish. That is, wise people are those who believe in kamma, who understand the dhamma, who are practicing the way to lead them to a good rebirth. That means either rebirth in heaven or if not, at least the human realm. and not going to the woeful plains. So if you associate with the wise, then you will learn the Dhamma from the wise people, and then you will learn to practice the Dhamma, and you will not regret it in the end. Life, actually, the Buddha said life is suffering, dukkha. Actually, dukkha and sukha is just two sides of a coin. It's just like black and white. If you have white, you must have black. If you have black, you must have white. They come together, they come in a pair, good and bad. So, suffering and happiness, So you see, people like fools, they want to have happiness and the greed for happiness is so strong that they forget about all other things and they just want to enjoy themselves, even to the extent of harming other people. They dare to do because their ego, they are self-centered. They want to benefit themselves only. So in the end, they have to suffer. So they enjoy first and then they suffer in the end. Whereas people who practice the Dhamma, they are willing to forego some of their happiness and even take on a bit of suffering initially because the end result is happiness. Right? People like monks, we are willing to forego some of our worldly happiness. And in a way, suffer a bit more material wise compared with worldly people because we know in the end we will have more happiness than worldly people. So you have to choose whether you want happiness first or you want happiness in the end.

(E20)-06-To-honour-those-worthy-of-honour

And then number three, to honour those worthy of honour. Those worthy of honour are those people like your parents, your elders, monks and nuns, teachers, etc. These are said to be those worthy of honour. Now, So if we honour those worthy of honour, next time when this kamma ripens, people will also honour us. For example, you see, in this world people are all born differently. There are some people born in a very low family where people look down on them. That's probably because in the previous life, they look down on others. They are not respectful of those worthy of respect. So they have to learn this lesson. So that's why they are reborn in the low station of life where people look down on them. Whereas other people who are very respectful of those worthy of respect and all that, they may be reborn like to be somebody like Princess Elizabeth, now Queen Elizabeth, in a royal family where people are very respectful towards them. They have a very good rebirth. That's probably because they are worthy of that kind of honor.

(E20)-07-The-2nd-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Now the next advice the Buddha said, living in suitable places, in the past we have made punya or merit, and with oneself rightly guided or directed, this is the highest blessing. Living in suitable places, in what sense is a place suitable? Here, it is in a sense that a suitable place is a place where you can learn the Dhamma, you can practice the Dhamma. That is a suitable place. Like here in Ipoh, it can be said to be a suitable place because you have people to teach you the Dhamma and also you can practice the Dhamma in the sense of going to do dāna, offerings to a monk, then you can keep your precepts. You can either keep your precepts in the Buddhist society or you can go to a monastery to keep the precepts. and you can hear the Dhamma, you can learn meditation, et cetera. That is said to be a suitable place. In this world you find, in this whole world, there are not very many places where you can learn the Dhamma and practice the Dhamma, right? If you look at this whole world, how many places are there where you can hear the Dhamma and learn the Dhamma and practice the Dhamma so that you walk the good way and bring you to a good rebirth? Not many places. For example, if you go to Africa, you find such a large continent of Africa, there's hardly any place where you can find some monk, some monastery to learn the Dhamma from, right? So if you stay in a suitable place where you can learn the Dhamma, then you are very lucky. In the past, to have made merit or punya, this is another blessing. If in the past life you had done merit, you had done good, then this life you will reap the result. That you can see. If you, for example now, I think all of you here are fairly okay in terms of you get enough to eat. Most of you have your own house. Many of you have cars to drive. And then you are able to come here to learn the Dhamma. You can practice the Dhamma. That means compared with a lot of people in the world, you are very fortunate. So it must be that in the past you have done a lot of merit. That is why now you are blessed with good fortune in this lifetime. and with oneself rightly guided or rightly directed. This attasamapanidhi. This one, with oneself rightly directed, that means you are walking the right way. You are walking the right way. That means you are not walking the way that will bring you to a woeful plane of rebirth. That is the highest blessing. So I think all of you here, you are learning the Dhamma, definitely you are walking, you are rightly directed, rightly guided. So that is a very great blessing.

(E20)-08-The-3rd-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Now the next one is bahusacancasipanca. This bahusacca, the first word, bahu means much or many. Sacca is truth. This word bahusacca is equivalent to another word, bahusutta. Sutta is hearing, that means much hearing. This one is much of the truths. That means it also means much hearing of the truths. These two words are equivalent, bahusutta and bahusacca. It means much learning of the Dhamma because sacca is the truths, the four noble truths, that type of truth. So you have much learning or you have much knowledge of the Dhamma. Much knowledge of the Dhamma, that is a very great blessing. You have much knowledge of the Dhamma, you are definitely walking the right way. That will lead you to happiness, not only this life, in the future life also. The second word is Sipanca. Sipanca is general knowledge. Sometimes here they translate it as handicraft. I think it's more of general knowledge. So you have general knowledge also is beneficial. in life, the more we know, the better. And then, being well-trained and disciplined. And that speech which is well-spoken, this is the highest blessing. So, well-trained and disciplined. That means you are a disciplined person. If you are a disciplined person, that is a very great blessing. A lot of people are not disciplined. not disciplined. When you are not disciplined, then sometimes they say fang pian. It's not fang pian. It becomes sui pian. You do what you like. You just follow your moods. The Buddha said, if a person is diligent, if a person is hardworking, I think it's one in the Diga Nikaya, Cikalo Bada Sutta. Buddha said, if a person It's hard working. And the Buddha said, hard working or diligence is the one quality that will benefit you this lifetime and the future lifetime. Because some, I think some deva asked the Buddha, is there one thing that will benefit us this life and future lifetime? The Buddha said, yes. What is that one thing? Diligence. Hard working. Having a lot of energetic effort. So, If you are hard-working, then you will benefit yourself this lifetime and another lifetime. And in this Śikāluvāda Sutta, the Buddha said, if a person is diligent, he won't say, I won't do this work because the weather is too cold, or the weather is too hot, or because I'm hungry. or I'm too full. If you are not hardworking, you are lazy, you give all kinds of excuse not to push yourself to do something. But if you are hardworking, then all these conditions doesn't matter. You want to do something, you just go ahead and do it. So there is a kind of person who is disciplined, and a person is disciplined, then you benefit yourself a lot You can easily see from our younger days, those of us who studied very hard, they do well in the exam and all that because they put in a lot of effort, they are disciplined. And then that speech which is well-spoken, Subhāsita Chāyāvacāra, this speech which is well-spoken, that means, Well-spoken, that means when you speak to somebody, you use the kind of speech which doesn't hurt that person too much and the person feels grateful to you for having uttered that speech. Sometimes if we speak some words, sometimes not well-spoken, that people get angry with us. Instead of thanking us for giving them that advice, sometimes they get angry. So if you use speech which is well spoken, that is a great blessing. The Buddha said there are a few characteristics of good speech. One is it must be beneficial to that person, not harmful. Secondly, that speech must be truthful, not a lie. Thirdly, that speech must be The speech is given at the right time, at the right time. Sometimes when a person is very angry, then that is not the right time to give advice. When that person has calmed down, then you give advice, then that person will accept. So the timing is also very important. Fourthly, when we speak, the words must be gentle. Sometimes we might give good advice, but we give it in a very harsh way, in a very fierce way. People may not accept, so we give it in a gentle way. That's the fourth. The fifth one, the Buddha said, when we utter something, we have a mind with a mind of loving kindness. It comes with a loving heart. then people would also recognize that. So these are the five qualities of good speech. The first one is beneficial, second one is truthful, third one is spoken at the right time, fourth one is spoken gently, the fifth one is spoken with a mind of loving-kindness.

(E20)-09-The-4th-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Then after that, support of mother and father, cherishing, no, looking after mother and father, support of wife and children, ways of work without conflict. This is the highest blessing. But this looking after mother and father, this every one of us, I think we recognize that this is very important. In our Buddhist tradition, looking after our parents is a responsibility that everybody should take care of. because our parents looked after us when we were young. Many times when we were sick, when we were young, our parents didn't take that extra care to look after us. We would have died many, many times, but because of our parents' loving care, we survived. So now when they are old, we have to look after them. This is simple gratitude. If a person has no gratitude to his mother and father, then that person is not behaving like a human being, they might not get back a human body in future. The support of wife and children, that also is a family responsibility. If a person is not responsible to the family, then that person is also inviting a lot of problem. Probably many of you know, recently there was this incident in Bidoh, I heard, where the man stabbed the wife to death, and stabbed his children also. because the wife was unfaithful and this man was working very hard in Singapore but the wife was flirting around. So this is the version I heard. So he came back and then so angry and he killed the wife. So a person who has a family, either, doesn't matter whether it's the husband or the wife, Both of them have responsibility to each other and to the children. Sometimes I've seen husband and wife break up. And then the one who suffers most is the children. I've seen with my own eyes sometimes because husband and wife, they break up. The child is very psychologically disturbed, becomes nervous, becomes very nervous because he loves both the mother and the father. Now they quarrel and fight. He doesn't know which side to take. There are ways of work without conflict in our working life. If we have the type of work which does not conflict with others, that is the best. If we have conflict with others when we do work, for example, some officers, there's a lot of politics, they say, and that is not good, backstabbing and all that. We create a lot of unpleasant karma and then next time it will ripen. So a world without conflict is also a very high blessing.

(E20)-10-The-5th-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Then giving and conduct according to Dhamma and support for relatives with unobstructed karma, this is the highest blessing. Giving is dāna, giving or charity, charity and conduct according to Dhamma. Conduct according to Dhamma, that means we conduct ourselves according to Dhamma, we accord with Dhamma. Simply put, this is also like keeping sila. This one, dāna and sila, these two qualities are very, very important. Why? Because in one sutta, the Buddha said that if a person keeps these two, does these two, a very minimum charity and keeping precepts. When we keep precepts, basically we are not harming other living beings. And the basic precepts that we should uphold every day is the five precepts, pancasi. First one, not to kill other living beings intentionally. Second one, not to take what is not given to us. You could say not to steal. Third one is not to commit adultery. Fourth one is not to lie. The fifth one is not to take liquor or drugs, et cetera, so that we are out of control of ourselves. So the Buddha said, so this is Sila. The Buddha said, if we do this charity and keeping precepts to a very low degree, very minimum, then at least we come back in the next rebirth very probably with a human body. we will have not much luck, person with not much luck. You find you want to get a living also, susah a bit, hard to get a living and all that. And then the Buddha said if we keep, if we do these two things, charity and keeping the precepts to a medium degree, we will very likely come back in the next rebirth as a human being with a lot of good luck, Thai folk, they say, a lot of good luck. You find you can easily become rich, such a person. And then the Buddha said, if we do these two things, charity and sila, to a high degree, very well, then we will very likely get a heavenly rebirth. We will be reborn as a heavenly being where we will enjoy ourselves for millions and millions of years. So from here you can see that if a person does not do these two things at all, charity and seal, that person won't come back as a human being or as a deva. That person will be reborn in the woeful place. A person without any merit at all will be born as a ghost. And if that person is very fierce and very lustful, might be reborn as an animal. And then if that person commits some heavy crime, serious crime, on top of that, person may be reborn in hell. So these two things are very basic. If we want a good rebirth, charity and keeping the precepts, basically the five precepts at least. And then support for relatives. Relatives, we should try to support. As the English saying goes, blood is thicker than water. Because relatives are close to us from young. So if we are not close to them, if we have any trouble, they won't support us. So we should start by being close to our relatives. Then after that, you may have good friends where you want to be very close to. But at least for our relatives, if we make the effort to be nice to them, people will respond. They'll also be nice to you. But I know some people, very sadly, their own brothers and sisters, they don't treat like brother and sisters. But they expect their brothers and sisters to treat them like brother and sister. So you don't treat your own brothers and sisters as brother and sister. How can you expect them to reciprocate? And then unobstructed karma. Unobstructed karma that means that karma, the action you do, that will not obstruct you in future. So if you don't want this this obstructive karma in the future, then you don't do that evil karma now. Just now I mentioned the ten evil karmas that you should not do that would obstruct you in future. First one is not to kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to lie, not to carry tales to make people quarrel, not to speak harsh or coarse speech, not to engage in idle gossip, not to be excessively greedy or capricious, and then not to have too much hatred or anger, and then lastly, not to have a wrong view. That means to have right view, right understanding of karma. This is unobstructive karma.

(E20)-11-The-6th-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Then after that, aversion and abstinence from evil, restraint from intoxicants, heedfulness in all that is Dhamma. This is the highest blessing. This one, abstinence from evil or aversion from evil. If we have aversion for evil, then we won't do evil and then we will abstain from evil. The Buddha said if we do good, we should also encourage other people to do good. In that way, you get more blessings. And then you should also praise the doing of good, and then support other people to do good. So the reverse is also the same. So if we have aversion towards evil, we should also encourage other people not to do evil, and then condemn the doing of evil, and then support people from not doing evil. Because when we do evil, we are reborn in the woeful planes of evil. Then restrain from intoxicants. These intoxicants, especially liquor, The standard for lay people is not that you cannot drink at all. The word is intoxicating. If you drink to the extent that you become intoxicated, that is bad. Then what you should not say, sometimes you say. What you should not do, you do. Right? because you are not in control of yourself. But for lay people, sometimes some people have to entertain customers and all that, bring them out at night and all that. If you have to drink, then only bring the minimum so that you are not intoxicated. And heedfulness in all that is Dhamma. That means to be heedful of the Dhamma all the time. Whatever actions we do, always remember the Dhamma. We get our guidance from the Dhamma. Now that the Buddha is no more with us, the Buddha said his Dhamma body is still with us. So we should consider the Dhamma as the Buddha's, the inheritance from the Buddha. And that is our guidance in whatever we do.

(E20)-12-The-7th-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Then respectfulness and humility, contentment and gratitude, the timely hearing of the Dhamma, this is the highest blessing. Respectfulness is the same just now as honoring those worthy of honor. That means you are respectful of those worthy of respect. And humility, humility also is a very good quality to cultivate because if we forget, we tend to be big-headed. So we always remember the way of the Dhamma, this kind of advice. He's telling us it's better to be humble than to be arrogant. And then contentment. Contentment is another quality that we have to cultivate. Contentment doesn't come from getting a lot. Some people think, oh, if I make $1 million, I should be content. After he makes $1 million, he's thinking of $10 million already, right? So there is never enough, there's never enough in this world. So we have to learn to be content. Whatever comes our way, we should remember that is our, we have like our destiny in a way because it is all because of past life, that what we get now is because of our past life actions. So we cannot grumble. You cannot say this world is not fair because what you get now is due to your actions in the past. And gratitude, this gratitude is one of the qualities which is hard to find in the world. The Buddha said difficult to find in the world are people who are grateful. Sometimes you help somebody, then after that, that person doesn't remember you at all. So if we want people to be grateful to us, we must also be grateful to those people who have helped us. So we have to cultivate this gratitude. And gratitude begins with our parents. Timely hearing of the Dhamma. Hearing of the Dhamma is very important. The Buddha said this too, hearing of the Dhamma and discussing the Dhamma. We hear the Dhamma, sometimes certain points we don't understand very well. When we discuss with other people, we understand better.

(E20)-13-The-8th-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Patience and obedience or meekness when corrected, the sight of samanas, timely discussion of the Dhamma, this is the highest blessing. Patience or forbearance is another very good quality, ren. Chinese is ren, yin. This one I think you all know. Whatever happens, we have to bear, we have to be patient. If we understand the working of kamma, sometimes we are very unhappy or so, we must understand this is the working of kamma, so we have to bear it. And then obedience when corrected or meekness when corrected. Actually, if somebody tells us our faults, we should be very grateful to that person. So sometimes there are some people when you tell them their faults, many of us, including myself when I was young, when somebody tells me my fault, I can never accept it. Then later I realized, why am I grumbling so much? Actually, sometimes other people can see our fault better than us, you know, because of our ego. Very often we don't want to acknowledge our weaknesses, but after some time you will see, actually, some of our faults we don't see so well. When other people correct us, we should be accepted. At least we listen. We listen and then think about it, whether it's right or not. Then the sight of Samanas, that means seeing of monks. Samanas here refers to monks or renunciants. This is a blessing if you have a chance to see monks. As I said, in this world there are not many places where you can see monks. And when you can see, when you get the sight of monks, that means you also get a chance to hear the Dhamma. That's why the sight of Samanas is a blessing. Also, because monks are renunciants, if you have an opportunity to do dana to monks, that also is a blessing. Then timely discussion of dhamma. Just now I mentioned hearing of dhamma and discussion of dhamma is important.

(E20)-14-The-9th-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Ardent effort, the holy life leading, insight into the noble truths and the realization of Nibbāna, this is the highest blessing. This one, ardent effort, is sauhang. Saohang is ardent effort in practicing the holy life and then the holy life leading, leading the holy life or living the holy life. That means you can either be a monk or nun or there are some people they cultivate at home and they practice the holy life at home. During the Buddha's time, there were many lay people who attained the third stage of Sainthood, Aryahood, by practicing at home. Insight into the Noble Truths. If you study the Dhamma and then you meditate, these are the two important things that will give you insight into the Noble Truths, and then you will be slowly free from samsara, the round of rebirths. And the realization of Nibbana, this is the highest blessing. Of course, realizing Nibbana, attaining Arahanthood, is the highest blessing.

(E20)-15-The-10th-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Though in contact with worldly Dhammas, yet his mind is not shaken, griefless, dustless, secure. This is the highest blessing. If you practice the Dhamma and then you meditate, if your mind is strong, then when you are in contact with worldly Dhammas, the mind is not shaken. The mind is easily shaken when the mind is not concentrated, when the mind is scattered. Then outside things can shake us easily, but when we are concentrated and we learn to concentrate the mind, the mind becomes very tranquil and is not easily shaken. Then that kind of mind slowly becomes griefless, dustless, secure. This is the highest blessing.

(E20)-16-The-11th-group-of-Highest-Blessing

Since by doing such things as these, men are everywhere unvanquished and go everywhere in safety, this is the highest blessing. So when we cultivate all these things and we get to the highest stage, which is Nibbana, then everywhere we go nothing can defeat us and we can go everywhere in safety and this is the highest blessing. One thing about going everywhere in safety, the Buddha said we should have a lot of metta in us, loving kindness. If we have loving kindness with us, wherever we go, these unseen beings, heavenly beings and ghosts, they will not harm us. But if you have a lot of anger, you don't have enough metta, then sometimes you go certain places, spirits can disturb us. So it's always good to have a lot of loving-kindness inside us. Wherever we go, we try to tell all these beings around us and wish them well, everything, and then they will protect us rather than harm us.

(E20)-17-What-does-it-means-by-'Middle-Path'

The question here is about the middle path. This middle path is mentioned in the first sutta, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta that the Buddha spoke. And in there, the Buddha talked about two extremes. And the two extremes mentioned by the Buddha, one was sensual enjoyment, the other one was self-inflicted Pain like some of these ascetics used to practice where they beat themselves or they stand the whole day, whole night they stand without lying down, without sitting, etc. So this kind of self-inflicted penance was one extreme. The other one was sensual enjoyment. Then the Buddha said, without going to these two extremes, this is the middle path. What is that middle path? The Aryan Eightfold Path is the middle path. It is not the middle path in the worldly sense. Why? Because it is not like in certain things you could see the Buddha was extreme in the sense of, for example, like keeping the precepts purely. The Buddha was, we could say, in certain ways quite extreme, right? That kind of extremism is, in the worldly sense, is extreme. But in the sense of Buddha's teaching, it was not extreme because it leads you to happiness later. So it's not, the middle path is not in the middle way of everything, you know. The middle path is actually the Noble Eightfold Path, not in the sense of other things. Now you could say not eating at all is one extreme. Eating 20 times a day is another extreme. So I will take the middle path, I will eat 10 times a day. That is not the Buddha's middle path. So you see like the Buddha, he advised his monks, to eat only in the morning. At first, the Buddha was quite relaxed, you know, initially when he started accepting disciples. He never made any precepts.