(E24)-01-Intro-of-Ven-Dhammavuddho-Thero

I'm happy to be here tonight. It's the first day, first time I've come to this association. And so I think as Brother Chua said just now, since you're not familiar with me, I'll introduce myself a bit. I was originally from Kuala Lumpur. I grew up in Kuala Lumpur. And then I worked in JKR for 12 years. And after working in JGR for 12 years, I came across the Dharma. Actually, I was searching for the meaning of life about 20 years ago. So I started to read books of the various religions, the Bible, the Koran, Sikhism, Taoism, Hinduism, most of the other religions. Until finally I came to Buddhism. Then after I came to Buddhism, I found that it was quite different from other religions and I got more interested and investigated it more deeply. And I found that the more I studied the Buddha's teachings, the more happy I was. So I decided to renounce Initially, like most people, you think you want to renounce and then get scared. Then sometimes you want, sometimes you don't want. So I had this ding-dong going on for six years. So after six years of investigating the Dharma, my father passed away and the conditions were right. So I left and became a monk. When I first came into Buddhism, I came to Mahayana Buddhism. I did study some Theravada Buddhism, but my inclination at first was towards Mahayana Buddhism. And for six years as a layman, I practiced Mahayana and some Tibetan Buddhism and investigated some Theravada Buddhism, but mainly Mahayana Buddhism. And then when I decided to become a monk, I went to America. to the Mahayana temple there and became a novice monk there for three years. Then after three years, I came back for various reasons. I was a bit disappointed, so I came back. And after that, I switched over to Theravada Buddhism. I went to Thailand. But before that, I came back to Penang. I ordained as a Mahayana Bhikkhu. I was only a Mahayana Bhikkhu for a few months. After that, I went to Thailand in 1986. In March, then I took the higher precepts. So now, I've been a Theravada monk for 10 years. When I was in Mahayana Buddhism, I was more investigating Mahayana Buddhism. I didn't have a chance to compare with Theravada Buddhism. Later, when I came into Theravada Buddhism, then I could compare the two. Then I started to realize there were some discrepancies. So, that's basically, I think that's all I have to say about my background. I've been staying in Penang, in Penang Hill, up on the hill. And now, after six and a half years staying up on the hill, I decided to do a bit of travel. Later this month, I'll go to Australia and spend my Vassa in Perth, where they have, I hear, a very beautiful 97-acre monastery. under Ajahn Brahmavamsu. So by the end of the year I'll come back to Malaysia.

(E24)-02-The-importance-of-understanding-Kamma-Vipaka

Now I'd like to talk a bit about the Dhamma now. The first thing I'd like to talk about is concerning kamma, because in the Buddha's teachings, the Arin-epulpa begins with right view. Right view is the most important thing in the practice of the Buddha's teachings. And basic right view concerns karma. Because I find everywhere I go in Malaysia, a lot of people call themselves Buddhist but they don't have a very good understanding of karma. So much so that many people, they come to the Buddhist society or to the temple and they pray to the statue of the Buddha. And many people don't realize that for about 500 years after the Buddha's passing away, there were no Buddha images. Nobody made Buddha images because they understood the Dhamma and they understood that there's no point to pray to a Buddha image. The Buddha never asks us to pray to him. Buddha cannot really bless us. The Buddha cannot really bring us out of samsara, cannot end our suffering. He can only show the way, as in the Dhammapada he said, The Buddha showed the way and we ourselves have to walk the way. So formally, for 500 years after the Buddha's passing, there was no Buddha images. It's only nowadays there's a lot of Buddha images and Bodhisattva images, etc. So, sometimes we see some people come to the temple, they kneel before the Buddha image and talk to the Buddha image as though the Buddha image was alive. First, it's understandable when we come, we are new into the Dhamma, there's a lot of things we don't understand. We pray to the Buddhas and we like to do a lot of chanting, etc. And later we find that the real practice is like keeping our precepts, doing some dana, investigating the suttas, and sitting in meditation, etc.

(E24)-03-The-real-meaning-of-Kamma-Vipaka

Now, coming back to this karma, sometimes karma is karma and vipaka. In Pali we always talk about karma and vipaka. Sometimes this has been translated as cause and effect. It is a very bad translation because cause and effect can mean many other things which are unconnected with the Buddha's teachings. Even in science, in physics, there is a Newton's second law, which concerns also cause and effect. For every action, there's a reaction, something like that. So, kamma actually is more than just cause and effect. Kamma in the Sutta, the Buddha said intention is kamma. That means any intentional deed is kamma. So vipaka is the result of the fruit. So kamavipaka concerns any intentional deed that is done by a living being. If there is no intention, then there is no kama. For example, if you were driving a car on the road and a little boy ran across the road, and then your car hit the boy and killed the boy, In that case, because you did not have an intention to kill that boy, there is no karma involved. But there is cause and effect, because after you kill the boy, maybe the boy's father might stop your car, drag you out of the car and beat you up. So that is a worldly cause and effect. But it does not concern the Buddha's teachings on kamavipaka. So that is the first thing you've got to understand. Karma only concerns intentional action through the body, speech and mind. Now basically the law of karma says that if we, other living beings, we will also reap the fruit which benefits us correspondingly. And if we harm other living beings, we will also suffer by being harmed correspondingly. That means if you kill a living being, you make other living beings' lives short, then the natural result of it is that you will have short life. And if you do not kill, do not make other living beings' life short, you allow them to live out the full span of their life, then the natural result of it is that you will also get the benefit of long life. Now this karma is, just now I said the corresponding result, you read the corresponding result. is very rich and then he likes to go hunting. He doesn't really need to hunt for a livelihood, just for sport, just for fun. He goes and shoots a lot of animals and kills them. Then one day maybe suddenly he gets cancer or something and then he finds that his life is going to be very short. Now this person, if he doesn't understand kamma, he might think, oh, I'm going to do a lot of dana, I'm going to offer a lot of money to the temples, to the monks, and maybe that will give me long life. But it will not, because The action of his was to shorten other living beings' life. And that doesn't correspond with giving dana, giving material benefits. So we have to be quite clear, if we want long life, we have to help other beings to have long life. If we want to be rich, then we can do dana, do charity, and perhaps that will make us rich in future.

(E24)-04-The-importance-of-Present-Life-Kamma

The other thing I'd like to say is karma, vipaka, concerns not only past karma and the present result. It has a lot to do with present life karma. In other words, if a person wants to be rich, then he finds that perhaps there's a lot of obstruction to becoming a rich man. But if he makes a lot of effort, That effort that he makes, if he's very, very determined, that effort may overcome a lot of that bad karma. For example, a very good example you all might know is the case of Angulimala, the person who killed hundreds of people. He was a kind of bandit, but he was a lone ranger bandit. He lived in the forest and then anybody came, he would kill them. So he killed hundreds of people. Now the result of killing so many people would have naturally would have brought him to hell to suffer for a long time. But because the Buddha converted him, helped him to become a monk, then he practiced very hard. He practiced very hard, but as a monk he had to suffer some of that bad karma, because in the Sutta we find that sometimes when he went out for alms round, people would throw a rock on him and hit him, and he would bleed on the head. Or people would hit him with sticks or something. So he came and he told the Buddha what happened to him and he was in tears. And the Buddha asked him to bear it, told him to bear it, because the Buddha said, if you don't bear this result of your evil karma now, we don't strive very hard, you might go to the woeful plains and suffer much, much more. So the Buddha made him realize that he had to overcome this bad karma, this very life itself, by cultivating very hard so that he could overcome this bad karma. Then he did the Buddha's advice, he cultivated very hard until he became an Arahant. And when he became an Arahant, even when a person becomes an Arya or even a Sotapanna, he already would not be reborn into the woeful planes. So this Angulimala is a very good example. Sometimes people say, like they say if you I think some of you are familiar with the traditional interpretation of paticca samupada. They say we are in samsara because we create a lot of karma. If we stop creating karma, we'll get out of samsara. But that's not what we understand from the Buddha's teachings. Buddha's teachings is karma can be stopped if we make the effort. Not all karma ripens. All karma has the potential to ripen. But if you strive and then you let go of the will to live, become an arahant, you stop a lot of, even very heavy karma from ripening. That is possible.

(E24)-05-We-reap-what-we-sow

Now, just now I was saying that people sometimes like to pray to the Buddha and to the Bodhisattvas and ask for this and that. There is a sutra in the Anguttara Nikaya where the Buddha said very clearly, the Buddha said there are several things that beings, living beings want or people want. For example, people want to be happy, people want to have long life, People want to be born beautiful, to be born into a good family, a rich family. And then people want to be reborn after death into a very good place of rebirth. All these things, the Buddha said, are desirable but very hard to obtain. And then the Buddha said very clearly, the Buddha said, these things that we want and difficult to get, they are not to be gotten by prayers and vows. The Buddha said prayers and vows will not get us these things that we want. The Buddha said if prayers and vows can get us these things that we want, then why is there still so much suffering in the world? You can see in the world almost everybody prays for this and for that, always going to the temple. But the Buddha said that's not the way to get what we want. Otherwise, there'll be less dukkha in the world. Dukkha in the world never decreases, it's always about the same. In spite of so many Buddhas having come, in spite of so many Bodhisattvas having come, you'll find there's still a lot of animals, there's still a lot of ghosts, there's still a lot of beings in hell. So here is a very clear advice from the Buddha that prayers and vows do not get us what we want. Then the Buddha said, if you want something, you must walk the path that leads you to get what you want. For example, like here, we are in Telok Intan. If you want to go to Singapore, There's no point if you walk. Singapore is the south of Telok Intan. There's no point if you walk towards the north and make a vow that you'll reach Singapore because you'll never reach Singapore. So if you want to reach Singapore, you must walk in the direction of the south. Then you walk in the southern direction without praying, without making a vow. One day you will naturally arrive in Singapore because you are walking in the right direction. So similarly, the Buddha said, if we want to have long life, we should not kill, should not take other living beings' life. If we want to be born beautiful, we must not always throw tempers, get angry so much, because every time we get angry, we become very fierce, then our face contorts and becomes very fierce. Then naturally, you make it a habit, the face always contorting and becoming so fierce and ugly. And next time you'll be born ugly. So if you want to be born beautiful, the Buddha's advice is to be very chinchai. Then the Buddha said, if we want to be born intelligent, smart, we should inquire. If there's something we don't know, don't keep quiet. We should make inquiry investigation to understand what we don't know. Then also it helps if we don't drink liquor, because if we drink liquor, it damages our brain cells. And the third way of being intelligent is to meditate. Because if we meditate, we cultivate our mind. Our mind is like a computer, you know. If we don't meditate, if we sleep too much, many sections of our brain shut down. Like various circuits shutting down, you know. So when you meditate, you meditate after a long time, you find like currents going in your brain. All the circuits starting to energize. So it's quite interesting. So this is concerning karma. For example, we want to be born or reborn into a good family. well-to-do family where people sort of look up to us, then we should be humble. We should not look down on other people. For example, we should respect our elders, our parents and our aunties and uncles and grandparents, and our teachers, and our monks, etc. We pay due respect to those worthy of respect. Next time we might be reborn. There's a very good chance that we'll be reborn into a family where people will look up to us. So this is all concerning Dhamma. Now, if a person does not do the action to sort of bring you to what you want, It's just like a worker, you know, he does not do his work and then he pleads for the boss to give him the salary. The boss definitely will not give him the salary because he has not done his work. But if he were to do one month's, the complete month's work without begging the boss for the pay, at the end of the month the boss will naturally give him the pay. So that's just like the working of karma. If we do the necessary action, we will get the corresponding fruit without having to pray, without having to ask for it.

(E24)-06-Different-result-for-the-same-actions

The other thing I'd like to say is that the Buddha said that the vipaka, the result of a deed of kamma is not the same for two persons. Two persons doing the same kamma will probably have different results. Why? Because these two persons are different. The Buddha said if a person has a lot of good karma behind him, he has a store, a treasury of good karma, he's got like a bank account, karma is like our bank account, he's got a lot of good karma, then we're like a rich man. Then if we do an evil deed, the Buddha said, if we do a small evil deed, we might feel remorse, we might feel unhappy for one day or two days or three days. But after that, the Buddha said, we don't have to pay anymore for that evil deed. It's sort of wiped out. But another person who's got a bank account in the debit, in the red, that means he's got a lot of evil karma stored up. Then if he does the same small evil deed, the Buddha said that small evil deed might pull him down to hell. Why is it like that? The Buddha gave two types of simile. The Buddha said in the olden days, during the Buddha's time, they did not have this fine salt, they have a rock salt. lump of salt. So the Buddha said, if you take a lump of salt and put it into a cup of water, then you stir it, then you drink the cup of water, it's very salty. But if you take the same lump of salt, you put it into a river, which has a lot of water, then you stir the river water and you drink it, you don't feel the salty taste. Then the Buddha said, the water represents our good karma, the salt represents our evil karma. So if we have a lot of this good karma, it helps to dilute the effect of the evil karma. That's a very good simile. Another simile the Buddha gave was suppose you are in the house, at the back of the house cooking or doing some work. And then a beggar comes to your house, he enters your door, hoping to beg for some money, but you're not in the front, you're at the back and you don't realize he came to the house. So he came to the house, he saw perhaps you put $10 on your table. So this beggar, he saw the $10 and then he pocketed the $10 and walked out. Now, then you come out and then you see this beggar going away and you find your $10 missing. What most people would do is to shout, thief or something, and then catch him or clobber him and then report to the police and then he will end up in jail. But suppose you get another, say like a VIP, a Tansri or a Datuk or something, coming to visit the constituency and then perhaps with a few other VIPs. Then he came to your house. In a similar way, you were at the back and then he saw the $10. He pocketed the $10 and walked out. Then when you came out, he saw your $10 missing and these people walking away. Most people would just keep quiet. You think to yourself, if I report to the police, maybe I might get caught. I might get into trouble, not him. So, you see, two persons doing the same act, the result is different. So from here, we can understand why it's very important to have a good stock of merit. The more merit we do, it helps us much more.

(E24)-07-Human-life-=-Deciding-ground

The other thing we want to know is that we should understand our human plane, our human life is very, very important. Because if we look into the realms of existence, we find above us are the heavens, and then below us are the woeful planes. There are three woeful planes below us, the hells, the animals, and the ghosts. Now, if we compare our human life with the other beings, you will find that human beings, we do a lot of karma. Every day we are creating karma. So, in other words, the human level is the deciding ground. The next few lives will depend on what we are doing now, because the karma that we do now is going to have an effect over several lifetimes. Whereas other planes, they are reaping the result of their past karma. The devas, the heavenly beings, are reaping the result of their good karma. And then the woeful planes, the living beings there, are reaping the result of their evil karma in the past. And they are not creating much karma, they hardly create karma compared to us. Because every day we are thinking and doing intentional deeds. So we should remember that this is a very important place of existence, the human plane.

(E24)-08-Human-birth-is-very-rare

The other thing is, there is one sutra where the Buddha said that most human beings, after we pass away, most of us will go into the woeful planes. and few will be reborn as human beings or be reborn into the heavenly planes. And the Buddha was comparing in India during the Buddha's time, about 2,500 years ago, the Buddha said in India, those inaccessible places, the mountains, the high mountains and the deep forests, all those places which are not kept, There are much more than those habitable places like the towns and villages where people can live, much less than those places which are inaccessible during the Buddha's time. So I would imagine, for example, out of 10 people, what the Buddha is trying to say, out of 10 people, when 10 people pass away, about 7 or 8 will be reborn into the woeful planes. only two or three will be reborn back as human beings or go to the heavenly planes. So from here, you should know that we are very lucky, we are indeed very fortunate to come into the Buddha's teachings because we understand the Buddha's teachings about karma, then we practice We do more good karma instead of evil karma. Then we try not to be like the ordinary people. The ordinary people are like what we call kutujanas. Most of them will be reborn into unpleasant places, full planes of rebirth.

(E24)-09-Do-our-relatives-really-get-the-merit-transferred

Now, I haven't spoken about karma. I'd like to deal with another topic, which concerns merit for the dead. Nowadays, there are people who always, when their relative passes away, some of them spend a lot of money to cultivate merit for the dead. Now, during the Buddha's time, on this Qingbing, all souls day, Chinese people will go to the cemetery, clean up the cemetery, they put out some food, some food offerings, and then they pray and offer this food to the dead. But the difference here is that we Chinese, after praying and offering, we take back all this food and go home and eat. Now the Brahmin practice is slightly different. After they have offered all these things, they will burn them, burn all the food and then hope that their relative gets the food. So one day when Brahmin came to ask the Buddha, he said we do these offerings to the dead and he asked the Buddha, Does our dead relatives really get these offerings? Then the Buddha said, it depends on where they are reborn. If our dead relative is reborn in heaven, they won't get it. And they also don't need it. If they are reborn as human beings, they also won't get it. If they are reborn as animals, they won't get it. If they are reborn in hell, they won't get it. Only if they are reborn as ghosts, then they can get it. But the Buddha didn't explain why. But we can think and perhaps guess it's because ghosts, when they are reborn as ghosts, they might be hungry, they might be cold, because they might not have clothes to wear. they go here, they go there, they are suffering, nobody wants to help them. So they'll think, who can help me? Then they'll think of their close relatives, maybe their sons, their daughters, someone close to them. Then they come back, you know, they come back. Ghosts live near human beings and sometimes if they are suffering very badly, They might make you dream, or they might even make you see them. Then, if that happens, then we should do merit for them. In our Theravada teachings, it's very simple.

(E24)-10-How-to-transfer-merit

In our Theravada teachings, we teach that there are two main things that a ghost needs. One is food, the other one is clothing. So we offer this food and a robe or a piece of cloth to, for example, monks. And then we transfer the merit to our dead relatives. Now before, like for example, if you're going to do the offering tomorrow, I would suggest that at night, perhaps you would light incense and then you inform your dead relatives and even all other beings, you say, tomorrow I'm going to do offerings of food or rope or any other thing and I want to transfer, I want to share this merit with you all. And then tomorrow you do the offering and after having done the offering, then you again inform them that you have already done the offering and you'd like to share the merit with them. Sometimes some people might not have a dead, I mean, maybe at a particular time, none of your relatives passed away, and yet you might have a dream where a ghost comes to you for help, or you might see a ghost. Now, it might be that this ghost was related to you in the past, not necessarily this life, perhaps in your previous life, that ghost was related to you and then you are reborn as a human being and you've forgotten about him or her, but that ghost still remembers you, that's why it comes to you for help. So if we dream or we see this kind of beings, then we try to help them by doing some merit. A few months ago in Penang, somebody told me that His brother who died a few years ago in an accident, entered the sister's body. The sister came back from KL and they were in Penang. Then this ghost entered the sister's body and said his name and said he was very hungry and his stomach was very painful. And he asked for them to help him and asked for the brother's name. So this brother came to ask me for advice so I told him to do some dana a few times but each time before he does the dana at night to inform the relative so that he can come and share in the merit. So that is concerning merit for the dead. From here you can see if our relative passes away only if he or she is reborn as a ghost, there is a chance of helping. So the best thing is if we care for our relatives before they pass away, we should help them.

(E24)-11-Four-fields-of-merit

Now, in doing merit, there are four fields of merit. If you do offerings to four types of people, there is great merit. One is the Buddha. Nowadays, you can't do offerings to the Buddha because the Buddha has gone to Nibbana. Second one is virtuous monks, Aryas, those who have understood the Dharma, those who keep the precepts. Third one is your mother. Fourth one is your father. These four types of persons, if you make offerings to them, you would gain great merit.

(E24)-12-How-to-repay-our-parents-kindness

Now the Buddha also said in another sutta, our parents have done a lot for us, so to repay our parents' kindness is not easy. The Buddha said even if you were to look after your parents for 100 years, to the extent of carrying them on your shoulders for 100 years, and you really looked after them, still you would not be able to repay your parents' kindness. The Buddha said to repay our parents' kindness, there are four ways. One is if our parents do not have confidence or trust or faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we bring him or her to understand the Buddha's teachings so that he or she, our parents, have faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. That's the first way we can repay our parents' kindness. The second way is, if our parents do not practice the precepts, do not keep the precepts, then we teach them to keep the five precepts, at least the five precepts. Now, the third one is, if our parents are very stingy, they don't like to do charity, they don't like to do dana offerings, then we teach them to like to do offerings, to make it a habit of making offerings. The fourth one is if our parents have no wisdom, then we teach them the Buddha's Dharma. Either we introduce them to the Buddha's teachings by books or by tapes, or by bringing them to listen to Dharma talk by monks. Then that's the fourth way we can repay our parents' kindness. Because these four ways, if we teach them to practice these four things, they will be reborn into very good places of rebirth, either into the heavenly realms or at least into the human realm. So that is repaying the parents' kindness. So before our parents pass away, if they have wrong views and all that, it's better that we teach them to correct the wrong views, teach them to make offerings, dana, charity, etc. Instead of waiting for them to pass away, then perhaps they might ask you to buy these paper houses and paper credit cards and all that rubbish. In the second case, you are wasting a lot of money and you are not getting much out of it. Whereas if you had taught your parents before their death to use their money constructively in better ways, then they would earn much more merit from it. So that concerns merit for the dead.

(E24)-13-Allowable-type-of-meat

Now, the last thing I'd like to talk about here is concerning vegetarianism. It is one of those issues that has been debated on for a long, long time, even from the Buddha's days. Now, in our Buddha's teachings, we find that if a person wants to practice vegetarianism very good, If the person does it out of compassion, it means we stop him from doing it. But on the other hand, the Buddha did say that if we want to eat meat, there is one kind of meat that we can eat. It's called in Chinese, 三清肉, that means meat with three conditions. Only if this meat has these three conditions can we eat it. First condition is, you did not see that the animal was purposely or specifically killed for you. Second condition is, you did not hear that the animal was purposely or specifically killed for you. Third condition is, you did not suspect that the animal was purposely or specifically killed for you. Then if there are these three conditions, if you fulfill these three conditions, that means you don't have the karma of killing that being. You are not involved because you did not have any intention to kill that living being. Then you can take that meat.

(E24)-14-Did-the-Buddha-and-his-disciples-eat-meat

If we investigate our Theravada suttas and the Vinaya, the monk's disciplines, Chinese called the Li Chang and the Qing Chang, we find that there is quite a lot of evidence to show that the Buddha and his disciples admit to these three conditions. There are a few suttas. One of the suttas indicated that there was a general during the Buddha's days. He was a follower of the external ascetics who were vegetarians. And then after he met the Buddha, he was converted to be a follower of the Buddha. He had strong confidence from listening to the Buddha's teachings that the Buddha was teaching the right Dharma. So he invited the Buddha to his house for a meal and then he served his meat to the Buddha. As soon as the external sect people heard about it, they spread the news all over that the Buddha was eating meat that was purposely killed for him. So when the general came to know of it, the general was very angry. Then he reported this to the Buddha. He said, even we are soldiers, even for our own livelihood, we don't purposely kill the animals to eat. Then from this sutta, you can know that the Buddha and his disciples ate meat.

(E24)-15-Majjhima-Nikaya-Sutta-55-Jivaka-Sutta

There is another sutta called the Jivaka Sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya, where this king's physician called Jivaka Kumarabaccha, at that time he was not yet a follower of the Buddha, but he heard people say that the Buddha and his disciples ate meat that was purposely slaughtered for them. So he came to ask the Buddha, he said, is it true? I hear you and your followers eat meat that is purposely killed for you. Then the Buddha denied it. The Buddha said they only eat meat with these three conditions that I mentioned just now. They did not kill, they did not ask somebody to kill, they did not see, they did not hear. So after that, in the sutra, after speaking to Jivaka Kumara Baccha, the Buddha called his disciples and then told them about this and also told them that if people offer them meat, they should make sure that fulfills these three conditions, then only they can eat the meat.

(E24)-16-Sutta-Nipata-Amagandha-Sutta

And there is another sutra I forgot to mention in the Suttani Bhakta called the Amagandha Sutra, where the Buddha said one of the previous Buddhas, I forgot which one, Kasapa Buddha or one of the previous Buddhas before our Satyamuni Buddha, He was a Brahmin. In spite of being a Brahmin, he ate meat and he also allowed his disciples to eat this type of allowed meat with the three conditions. So one external ascetic came to scold the Buddha. He said his mouth is defiled. So the Buddha answered that defilement is not in the mouth, defilement is in the mind. You have a lot of evil thoughts. evil intentions, you have a lot of kilesas, defilements. That is real defilement, not in eating, not in what goes into the mouth. Sometimes people don't realize, what goes out of the mouth is more important than what goes into the mouth. Whatever goes into the mouth ends up as shit. So that is in the suttas.

(E24)-17-Vinaya-reference-10-Prohibited-Meat

Now, in the Vinaya we find that there are precepts concerning this meat eating. In the Vinaya, monk's Vinaya, the Buddha said that a monk can eat ordinary meat but not ten types of meat. Ten types of meat were specifically mentioned by the Buddha as being not allowed. One, the first one was human meat. Why human meat? This one there's a story, there's a real story to it in the Vinaya. There's a follower of the Buddha by the name of Supriya. a lay follower, a woman. This Supiya was a very staunch supporter of the Buddha. So she used to go to the monastery often to see whether the monks needed anything. One day she went to the monastery and she found that one of the monks was sick. And being knowledgeable, having followed the Buddha for a few years, she knew that monks were allowed to, a sick monk is allowed to drink clear meat soup if he's sick, so that it gives him some strength. So he talked to this monk and told the monk that since he was sick, she wanted to make clear meat soup to offer to him in the evening. And he agreed. So Sophia went home and then asked the, I don't know, slave or maid to go to the market and buy some meat. Now there are certain days in a year where meat is not sold in India, not in the market. So on that particular day meat was not sold. So the maid came back and told Supiya that no meat was available for sale. So Supiya was very disappointed. She thought to herself, I've already promised this sick monk to provide this clear meat soup for him. If I don't, he's sick, he needs it, and if I don't carry out my promise, then it would be tantamount to lying. So she thought to herself, after a while she took the knife, she went into her bedroom, she cut a piece of flesh from her leg and asked the maid to take it and cook it for the monk. So the maid having made the soup, offered the clear soup to the monk to drink. Now in the evening the husband came back and then the husband found that Supiya did not come out to greet him as usual. So he went to the room and found Supya sort of lying on the bed and then he asked Supya what was wrong and then Supya explained everything to him. Now the husband didn't get angry because he was also a very devoted follower of the Buddha. Instead he was full of admiration for the wife. because he was thinking to himself how many women can do this and cut her own flesh to make soup for a monk so she had more admiration and love for the wife so at night he went to see the buddha and then he told the Buddha that he would like to invite the Buddha to his house the next morning for a meal. So the Buddha accepted. So at night, he asked the maid to prepare some food and all that. Then the Buddha came the next morning and they provided the food for the Buddha. After the Buddha had taken his meal, the Buddha asked the husband, where is Supriya? I didn't see her. Then the husband said, she's not well. in the room. So the Buddha said, call her to come out. And the husband said, it's not convenient, she has difficulty walking. Then the Buddha said, you help her, you help her bring her out. So the husband helped Supiya and both of them came to see the Buddha. As soon as the Buddha saw Supiya, the wound was completely healed. So husband and wife was very happy. So the Buddha went back to the monastery and then asked the monk, That monk, the Sikh monk, he said, yesterday did Supriya make some soup for you? He said, yes. Then he asked the monk, do you know what soup you drank? The monk said, I don't know. Then the Buddha said, you took human flesh soup? Then the monk also got surprised. Then from there the Buddha called all the monks together. and then told them that next time if people make soup for you, you should inquire what kind of meat it is. It is human flesh, you should not accept it. So that's the first one. The second animal that's not allowed for a monk is elephant. Third one is horse. This elephant and horse, they normally belong to the king. So, sometimes if a monk goes and pinpricks on Armstrong, and then he's offered this elephant or horse meat, then he might be implicated in the theft. He might get involved. People might accuse him of being involved in that crime. So for that reason, in order not to get into trouble with the king, the Buddha told his monks to find out if it is elephant meat and horse meat, not to take it. Now the others are wild animals, the Buddha said. Tiger, leopard, snake, bear, I think. And even horse, this dog meat. Now why did the Buddha tell them not to take this type of meat? It's because when before the Buddha made this rule, the monks would go on alms round, they go to the villages and sometimes these poor villagers, they go to the forest and hunt, kill the tiger or something for their own food. So happened the monk came along, then they offer some of this tiger flesh. cook tiger flesh to the monk. The monk unknowingly eats the flesh. After eating, the monk goes into the forest to meditate. Now when the monk goes to the forest to meditate, he sweats. He will emit this odor, this smell, this tiger flesh smell. So what happens is that the tiger will come and attack him. Or for example, if he unknowingly took dog meat, then if he walked on the road, the dogs will chase him and bark at him and all that. So from there, the Buddha said this type of meat should not be taken. So this is another instance in the Vinaya where we know that domestic animals were allowed by the Buddha, provided you have these three conditions. Now, the other thing is there are certain real life stories in the Vinaya. There is one story concerning the Arahant Upalavana. Because the Vinaya gives the background to why the Buddha made these 227 precepts for monks in the Theravada. Every precept that was made had a history behind it.

(E24)-18-Theri-Uppalavanna-offered-Buddha-meat

Now there's one precept concerning where a monk is not allowed to accept a robe from a nun, a bhikkhuni, unless it is in exchange. Now the background to this precept is that once this Upalavana, the arahant, the bhikkhuni, the nun, was meditating in the forest, then there were a group of bandits who stole some cows. and then they killed the cows and ran off with the meat and they went to the forest to hide. Now the leader of this band of bandits, he was walking in front, just going ahead, way out, way ahead. So he came across this Upalavana, the Arahant, meditating in the forest. So he saw young woman meditating in the forest and he was full of admiration for this arahant Upalavana. So he decided to take some of his meat, of his stolen meat, he wrapped it in some leaves and then he put it near the arahant and then he said if you need this meat you can help yourself to it, for food. So he, after that, he led his group of bandits another way. He didn't want them to come across this Upalavana, this Arahant, for fear that they might do something to her. Then, when the Arahant Upalavana came out from the meditation, he saw the meat. the packet of meat there and then he contemplated and then he realized that this man offered him this meat. So he took this meat and he flew back to his monastery, then he probably got either an anagarika, a preceptor to cook it, or a samaneri to cook it. And then the next morning, after having cooked the meat, he wrapped it up in some leaves, some green leaves, and then he used one of his robes, a cloth, to wrap it. And then he flew to where the Buddha was staying. And he asked where the Buddha was in. He wanted to offer this cooked meat for the Buddha to eat. It so happened the Buddha had just gone out on alms round. So there was another monk in the monastery. So she offered this meat to the monk and told him it was meant for the Buddha. So when she was giving the meat, the cooked meat, she wanted to remove her cloth. Now this monk saw that she was a very beautiful woman and the monk probably had some unwholesome thoughts and then the monk wanted a piece of cloth, you see, a piece of cloth. So the monk told her not to remove the cloth. Then she said it was her, she only had one piece of that cloth. You see monks, we have what we call the three robes. This is the upper robe, then we have a sarong, and we have another piece which is double-layered, similar to this one, double-layered, which we use like a blanket. Now the nuns have five, in addition to these three, they have two more. One is the inner cloth, and another one, I forget what it's used for. But anyway, she had these five pieces of cloth, and one of them was used to wrap this cooked meat. So she wanted to take it back. The monk asked her for it. Then she said she only had one of these pieces of cloth. And the monk said, you know when people offer a horse, the horse is wrapped with a piece of cloth. they don't take away the piece of cloth, you know, they offer the horse together with a piece of cloth. So, hearing the monk say this, She just gave him the piece of cloth. Then she flew back to her place of residence. And the other nuns came to help her. Because during the Buddha's time, monks and nuns, they were very nice to each other. They followed the Vinaya. And if a senior nun came back, the junior nuns would help her to take off the robe and hang it to dry. So when they helped her to remove the rope, they found that one piece of cloth was missing. So they asked her what happened and then she explained to them how this bhikkhuni insisted on taking the cloth and she had to give it to him. So the nuns were very annoyed. They said, we nuns have more difficulty getting this cloth and food than the monks. Why should he take your cloth? So they complained to some other monks and the monks informed the Buddha. So the Buddha called this monk and the Buddha made a precept that the monk is not allowed to take a nun's robe or piece of cloth unless it is exchanged. So from here, we can know again that the Buddha and his disciples ate meat. There are many, there are several instances of this similar type of real story that showed that the Buddha during his days did eat meat.

(E24)-19-Why-did-the-Buddha-allow-his-disciples-to-eat-meat

Now why is it that the Buddha allowed his followers to take this type of meat with the three conditions? Because the Buddha was a very practical person. The Buddha could see that even if you practice vegetarianism, you would still cannot avoid killing other living beings. For example, all of us want to live in a house, right? So because you want to live in a house, you have to make these housing estates, these huge housing estates. Now in making the huge housing estates, they have to clear a lot of forests to make these housing estates. When they clear these forests, a lot of animals are killed in the process. They clear and then they burn. Beams are killed. Now we want to use electricity. Because we want to use electricity, the government has got to dam up the river to make these dams, to provide this hydroelectric power. Now when the rivers are dammed up, the water level rises up. A lot of beams, creatures are killed in the process. Again, you want to use household items like cups, plastics, cloths, etc. Then, they have to make factories to produce these things. Now, when they make factories, they have to clear large areas of forest, again, to provide these areas for the factories. Again, a lot of animals are killed in the process. Then even when you want to take vegetarian food like vegetables or fruits or rice, they have to be planted. Now to plant them, huge areas also have to be cleared to provide for orchards and paddy fields etc. Cannot avoid being involved in the killing of other living beings. The other thing is most vegetarians they have this idea, just like I did also because I was a vegetarian for nearly 10 years. When I was a vegetarian I also did it out of compassion and I also had this strong idea that be very good if everybody in the world became vegetarians. Because if everybody in the world became vegetarians, then they would not kill animals for food. But then this is not really practical. Because we know, for example, in Australia, formerly they did not have rabbits. Then they imported a pair of rabbits and put them in Australia. Very soon it multiplied. Now we have millions and millions of rabbits in Australia. So every day, the farmers are killing rabbits, they are killing kangaroos, they are killing rats, etc. because these animals are eating the plants that they plant. But they are not eating these animals, they kill them and then they just throw them away. So, if you imagine, if everybody became vegetarians, then we set free all these pigs and goats chickens and ducks and they multiply so fast that very soon they will also be killed in a similar way when they start eating the vegetables and the fruit trees and all these things. So from here you find that it is quite impossible to avoid killing of animals. This is sangsara. That's why this place is called sangsara. It involves a lot of dukkha. Now most vegetarians are also have this idea that because people take meat, then these butchers and all that kill these animals to sell. So because you take meat, you are involved indirectly in the killing of animals. But then as I explained just now, even if you are a vegetarian, you are also involved indirectly in the killing of animals. You cannot avoid it. As far as this thing about eating this meat and indirectly involving the killing of animals, that is worldly cause and effect. It is not kamavipaka. Kamavipaka, as I explained just now, is intentional action and its result. So because we take the meat with the three conditions, it's very different. from somebody either killing the meat and eating it or going to the market and asking the seller to eat. If you choose, for example, a chicken, then you ask somebody to kill it for you. It directly involves killing. There is intention to do killing. But if you eat meat with the three conditions, you don't have the karma of killing. and that what is involved is worldly cause and effect. Worldly cause and effect is not kamma ibepaka. Just as, for example, a few years ago, I read, I think two years ago, I saw in the papers one item. Somebody gave me a page from the newspaper to show me something. Then I happened to see another column It was reported that every year, 700,000 human beings are killed on the road by motor vehicles. That means every day, 2,000 human beings are killed on the road every day by motor vehicles. And then, of course, animals are countless. Even if you go to Kedah, you can see every morning snakes are killed on the road near the paddy fields. Iguanas, birds, rats and all various types of animals are killed on the road by cars. And those animals killed by cars are countless. So if you use the worldly cause and effect, that means you should not drive a car. Because when you drive a car, you are encouraging people to make more cars, more motor vehicles. That means more human beings will be killed on the road, in addition to the animals. But then, as we said just now, you're driving a car, as long as you don't have the intention to kill, even if you do kill, it's not karma. because he did not have the intention to kill. So this is all I want to say concerning vegetarianism. So I'll stop here and if you have questions, we'll try to answer.

(E24)-20-Monks-Precepts-for-lay-people

Firstly, I'd like to say sadhu to you for being very understanding to the monks. It is true, it's almost impossible to keep the 227 precepts. If we investigate the precepts, we find actually the Buddha had this intention to make his disciples shine above the ordinary external aesthetics. So for that reason, sometimes he made very strict rules. which from another point of view you might think it's not really necessary. For example, one of the rules the Buddha made was that a monk must not keep any leftover food. He's not allowed to keep any leftover food to eat the next day. Now the origin to this rule is that There was an Arahant, I think one of the Kassapa brothers, you know, there were three Kassapa brothers. I think it was one of them. Now, he being an Arahant, he was staying up on the hill, high up on the hill, and he liked to meditate, he liked to spend his time meditating. Now, what he did was, he once, if he comes down on Pinnabat, alms round, he walks a long way to the village to get his food. Then he comes back perhaps with his bowl half full or full. And then he brings the food up to where he was staying. Then he ate what he needed to eat. And the rest of the rice, he would put it out into the sun and dry it. And then the next day, instead of going on alms round, he would just eat the dried rice. And then the third day, if there is still some rice left over, he won't go on alms round, he will eat the balance, so that he don't have to go on alms round every day, then he have more time to meditate. Now other monks saw this and they reported this to the Buddha. And then the Buddha called him, and then the Buddha said, you should not do this. The Buddha said, you should go on Armstrong every day. Now, this kind of rule, perhaps, you see, this person is an Arahant. Actually, what he's doing is morally not wrong. There's nothing wrong with it, right? Morally, there's nothing wrong with it. Yet, the Buddha made this rule because, as I said just now, the Buddha wanted his monks to have a very good reputation. Also, perhaps he wanted the monks to go on alms round every day and give the lay people the chance to do merit. Anyway, there are a few rules like this. where the Buddha was exceptionally strict. But I think the Buddha realized this because when the Buddha was about to pass into Nibbāna on his deathbed in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, nobody asked the Buddha about the minor rules. The Buddha out of his own initiative said to the monks that in future if the monks want to abolish the minor rules, they can do it. So it is up to the monk to use his discretion. And so when it concerns the minor rules, I don't think it's fair for lay people to criticize a monk. But there are certain major rules which if a monk breaks those rules, it's a heavy offense. So those rules cannot be compromised. There's two sets of rules. The first one is called the parājikā. There are four parajikas where the Buddha said if a monk breaks any one of these parajikas, he is automatically no more a monk, even if he wears the robe. First one is if he engages in sexual intercourse. Second one, if he steals something of value, that means more than $50 worth item, to the extent even if he purposely evades customs duties worth more than $50 worth of customs duties, if he purposely evades it, he's also guilty of that parajita. The third one, if he kills a human being, or encourages another person to kill a human being, even to the extent, for example, to asking a woman to have an abortion, is also parajika. The fourth one, if a monk is not an ariya, or does not have psychic power, and he claims to have psychic power, or knowingly, that means purposely, trying to fool people, then automatically he's no more a monk even if he wears the robe. These are the heaviest offenses for a monk. And I think if a monk breaks any one of these offenses while wearing the robe, then I think the consequences are very heavy. Now there's another set of 13 rules called the Sangha Dishesas, where if a monk breaks any one of these Sangha Dishesas, is considered like only half a monk. For example, he speaks lustful words to a woman, or he invites a woman to engage in sex or something like that, or this kind of heavy offense. Or for example, out of lust, he purposely touches a woman or fondles a woman or something, then he's guilty of that Sangha dishesa. Now to restore him back to the normal status of a monk, you need 20 monks. 20 monks. He has to undergo a period of probation, penance like that, at least six nights. And then after that, you need 20 monks to restore him. So these two sets of precepts are considered heavy. And if a monk breaks these, then he can get into trouble. But considering the minor rules, I think it's up to the monk. But then sometimes the monk has to be very careful also. The monk sometimes they say hong bian, fang bian, hong bian. If they are not careful, hong bian can become sui bian. So that's why you have to use your wisdom. The thing is not allowed for a monk. There are a few things which are not allowed for a monk. And if a monk practices them, it's called wrong livelihood. Fortune-telling is one. Another one is, for example, telling, teaching laypeople about this phong sui, with the purpose of making money, also not allowed.

(E24)-21-Are-monks-allowed-to-possess-money

Money, if you go strictly by the rules, is not allowed for a monk to not so much handle money as to possess money. Now, sometimes it might be necessary for a monk to handle money. For example, if a monk goes overseas, a monk takes a plane gets in the airport, there's an airport tax. So he's got to pay this airport tax. Especially if he goes to a foreign country where he does not have his supporters to help him. So he has to carry the money. But it would be best if the monk did not possess money. That means after he comes back, he gives the money to some lay person to look after for him.

(E24)-22-How-to-prevent-heavy-Kamma-from-ripening

prevent it from ripening, if you strive to get out of samsara, because once a person becomes an arahant, then he has a great store of merit. only certain karma can ripen. And even sometimes very heavy karma, as for example Angulimala, the case of Angulimala, where if he did not become an Arya, he might have to be reborn into the Wofu planes and suffer for a long time. Yet by cultivating and becoming an Arya, then he prevented those heavy karma from ripening But there are certain types of karma which according to the books, the five most heavy type of karma is supposed, like you intentionally injure a Buddha, that's one. Another one, you kill an arahant. Another one, you make schism in the Sangha. That means you become a batu api. You talk bad about this monk to another monk and say this monk is talking bad about you and all that and make the monks quarrel so that the Sangha splits. That's another type of very heavy karma. Then kill your mother and kill your father. So these five types of heavy karma, if you do it, it's supposed to ripen you can't prevent it from ripening unless you suffer for a long time maybe in hell

(E24)-23-How-is-life-in-different-planes-of-existence

Just now I did mention that like you inform them before you make the offering to monks. Usually they make offerings to monks. Yeah, and then you transfer the merit to them. But one thing just now you mentioned about you said hungry ghosts. I did not say hungry ghosts, you know, I just said ghosts. Because nowadays people tend to talk about hungry ghosts. Actually it's not mentioned in the not mentioned in the suttas. There are many things nowadays which are taught from later books. And I was also given the impression last time that ghosts suffer a lot. So I used to think, like most people, that ghosts are even worse than animals. But actually in the Buddha's teachings, the Buddha said that animals are worse off than ghosts. In the Majjhima Nikaya, there's one sutta where the Buddha said, the Buddha talked about six planes of rebirth, six realms of rebirth, but later books talk about, sorry, the Buddha talked about five realms of rebirth, but later books talk about six, because they added the asura. The asuras are not considered one plane of rebirth. Asuras are a type of devas. So in the Majjhima Nikaya, the Buddha said there are five realms of rebirth. The heavenly realm, the human plane, the ghost, then animal, then hell beings. Now the Buddha gave a similes to make us understand the relative difference between these five types of realms. The Buddha said, suppose there's a person who's very hungry, very tired, very thirsty. He's looking for a place, for a shelter, looking for comfort. So he's walking along the road, then suddenly he stumbles into a hole, you know, there's a big hole. He falls into it, and inside that hole is full of this burning charcoal, you know. And he falls into it, and he's being burned by these flaming charcoals. And he can't get out because it's higher, This pit is higher than him. He cannot get out, so he's being burned there all the time. That is a simile for us to understand the hells. When a person goes into hells, he suffers like this person having fallen into the pit. Now, the simile for the animal realm the Buddha gave is like a being, same like the first person, hungry, thirsty, tired. and then he is walking along and he falls into another pit. This pit is full of excrement, full of shit. So he is suffering inside there because of all this shit and he cannot come out. That is the simile for the animal realm. If we look at the animals, we find, if we observe, actually some of them suffer a lot. For example, some people, when the dogs are old, they don't want to look after the dog, they just throw it out. And the dog suffers terribly, you know, because it goes here, goes there, be bitten by other dogs. And I've seen sometimes these dogs get bitten And then the flies go and lay their eggs on it. And then it turns into maggots. And then the maggots are biting their flesh and they're howling in pain. And then they die because the hole gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And more and more the flies go and lay their eggs. It's a very pitiful way to die. So if you are a good Buddhist, don't take good care of your dogs. Because dogs, they depend a lot on the owner. So that is the animal realm. Then the ghost realm, the Buddha gave an example of a person hungry, thirsty, and tired, and looking for shade, looking for shelter. Then he comes across a tree, this tree, and then he goes and rests under the tree, hoping to find some shade from the sun. But this tree is The amount of leaves on the tree is not so much. It doesn't have very many leaves, so he doesn't get very much shade hiding under the tree. That's a simile for the ghost realm. Then the simile for the human realm is like a person, same like this, hungry, thirsty, and tired. He goes under a tree which is full of leaves, so he's very happy. He gets a very nice shade under the tree and he's taking a rest under the tree. The tree shields him from the sun. That's how life is to us. Now the simile for the heavenly realm is like a person, same, hungry, thirsty and tired. He comes and then he encounters Kidol. He goes inside. He finds a very comfortable dunlop pillow or something and maybe aircon and all that. and then he goes and sleeps in that bed and he doesn't want to get out from that bed because he's having such a nice, comfortable place to rest. So there's a simile for the heavenly realm. So from here, you find the ghost realm is not very much different from the human realm, slightly different. Not so bad, like some people make out. Sometimes you look at some of these books, the way they describe these ghosts, terrible.