Parallel Reading (paragraph granularity) of The Buddha's Path of Wisdom-- Dhammapada (Dhp.) Chapter 2. Heedfulness; Appamādavaggo (Dhp.21-32)

(Ven. Nārada 02-08) Nibbàna = ni + vàna, lit., departure from craving. It is a supramundane state that can be attained in this life itself. It is also explained as extinction of passions, but not a state of nothingness. It is an eternal blissful state of relief that results from the complete eradication of the passions.

Metaphysically Nibbàna is the extinction of suffering; psychologically it is the elimination of egoism; ethically it is the eradication of lust, hatred and ignorance.

(Ven. Nārada 02-14) Sa§yojana - lit., that which yokes beings to the ocean of life. There are ten kinds of fetters- namely: self-illusion (sakkàyadiññhi), doubts (vicikicchà), indulgence in (wrongful) rites and ceremonies (sãlabbataparàmàsa), sense-desires (kàmaràga), hatred (pañigha), attachment to the Realms of Form (råparàga), attachment to the Formless Realms (aråparàga), conceit (màna), restlessness (uddhacca) and ignorance (avijjà).

The first five, pertaining to This Shore (orambhàgiya) are regarded as small, the rest, pertaining to the Further Shore (uddhambhàgiya) as great.

The first three are eradicated on attaining the first Stage of Sainthood (Sotàpatti).

The second two are attenuated on attaining the second stage of Sainthood (Sakadàgàmi).

The second two are destroyed on attaining the third stage of Sainthood (Anàgàmi).

The last five are eradicated on attaining the fourth stage of Sainthood (Arahatta).

(DLMBS Commentary V021) Conscientiousness is one of the most important characteristics to be developed. Without it, we can not proceed on our path towards awakenment. If we are negligent, how can we find energy to purify our minds?

So, the conscientiousness is the path to deathlessness. Only with it we can find our way to the final goal, Nirvana, which is the deathless state. Negligence on the other hand is the way to the repeated cycle of birth and death.

Conscientious people are able to reach the Nirvana, thus escaping the cycle of rebirths, whereas those, who are negligent, can not escape. They might as well be dead already.

(DLMBS Commentary V022) The wise people know very clearly, that the conscientiousness is the state of deathlessness (the word thus refers to the previous verse, DhP 21). Therefore, they rejoice in conscientiousness, they praise it and pay high attention to it.

They are delighting in the "sphere of the Noble Ones". This is of course nothing else than the Nirvana. So, again, the only way to reach this state is to make conscientious effort in this direction, applying all one's energy and striving.

(DLMBS Commentary V024) The story says that there was an heir of a rich family, named Kumbhaghosaka, once in the city of Rājagaha. His parents died in the epidemic and he alone escaped and lived in the forest for some time. When he returned, nobody recognized him. He did not want to use the family wealth (which was buried in a safe place) out of fear that people might think he found it accidentally and thus the king might confiscate it. So he found a job (waking people in the morning) and lived a poor life.

But the king saw him once and recognized that his voice and manners are of a man of great wealth. He then sent his maid to investigate. At the end he summoned Kumbhaghosaka to the court. There the young man told him the story and the king made him a banker and gave his daughter in marriage to him.

When the Buddha heard about it, he spoke this verse.

If one always acts properly, with energy and mindfulness, applies self-control and consideration, is always conscientious, his good repute will increase, because people will know that he is a man of honor, that they can trust him. And they will report this to the others - who will then come to see for themselves, again telling other people about this. So the good word will spread around and everybody will trust such a person.

(DLMBS Commentary V025) With this verse is associated the famous story of Cūḷapanthaka. There were two brothers, Mahāpantkaha and Cūḷapanthaka. Both become monks, but Cūḷapanthaka was not very clever and he was not able to learn the Buddha's Teachings. Mahāpantkaha on the other hand was very bright and he soon became an arahant.

The Buddha once gave a clean piece of cloth to Cūḷapantkaha and told him to rub it while repeating the words "taking on impurity". Cūḷapanthaka then did as instructed and soon the cloth became dirty. The Buddha then told him, that our mind is very similar to that piece of cloth, becoming dirty with the "dust of passion, hatred and delusion. Attaining of arahantship is not very different from cleaning the piece of cloth - we have to "wash" our minds of this dust diligently.

Cūḷapanthaka realized this and practiced meditation accordingly. Soon, he too became an arahant, as his elder brother.

The Buddha then spoke this verse, telling us that only by diligence, self-control and applying energy we can make an island in ourselves which the flood of passion, hatred and delusion will not be able to overwhelm.

(DLMBS Commentary V026) The story associated with this verse and the following one (DhP 27) speaks about a festival that was celebrated in the city of Sāvatthī while the Buddha was residing there.

Many young men were practicing some sort of religious rituals, roaming about the city, shouting and begging for money at every door in the city.

Buddha's lay disciples in that city warned him not to enter the city and they themselves did not leave their houses. After one week of the festival ended, the Buddha again entered Sāvatthī and then spoke these two verses (DhP 26 and 27).

(DLMBS Commentary V027) The story for this verse is the same as for the previous one (see DhP 26).

Whereas the foolish and ignorant ones indulge in negligence and sense-pleasures, as the young men did during the festival in Sāvatthī, those, who are wise, treasure the conscientiousness like a jewel. If they practice the meditation diligently, with perseverance, never becoming negligent, they will at the end definitely reach the "abundant happiness" - which is of course only another term for the Awakenment and the Nirvana.

(DLMBS Commentary V028) The story says, that one of the chief disciples of the Buddha, the Elder Mahākassapa was once practicing meditation, trying to find out which of the beings in the world were conscientious and which were negligent. He also tried to find who was about to be born and who was about to die.

The Buddha learned about this and told him not to waste his time on something like that - because such things do not lead to the Awakenment. In addition to that, such a task is possible only for a Buddha, because of the innumerable beings in the world. The Buddha the spoke this verse.

The negligence is of course best dispelled with the conscientiousness. When we are able to do that, we will "climb the stronghold of wisdom", we will reach the Nirvana. Then we can look at the others, who are still negligent, as somebody on the top of a mountain can watch the people on the plain below him.

(DLMBS Commentary V029) Once, there were two monks, who were friends. They both got a subject of meditation from the Buddha. So they went to the forest monastery to meditate. One of them was rather lazy. Because it was winter, he was warming himself by the fire the first part of the night and the other part he spent talking to other monks and novices. But the other monk was very mindful and diligent. He spent the night meditating and soon he became an arahant.

After the end of the retreat they went back to see the Buddha. The lazy monk actually accused the diligent one of laziness! He told Buddha, whereas he himself was first warming himself by the fire and then "not-sleeping", his friend was idling, lying down and sleeping all the time. But the Buddha of course knew the truth and he told them this verse. One friend was like a weak horse, lazy and talkative, but the other one, like a swift horse, was diligent and mindful. And he left the other friend behind - he became an arahant.

(DLMBS Commentary V030) A young prince named Mahāli from the Licchavi state came to see the Buddha. He wanted to hear some teachings, so the Buddha told him the Sakkapañha Sutta (The Sutta of Sakka's questions). Mahāli wondered how was it possible, that the Buddha knew so much about Sakka, the king of the gods. Has the Buddha ever met Sakka?

The Buddha confirmed that he indeed has seen Sakka and further told Mahāli the story of Sakka's previous existence.

He was a man named Magha. He was very righteous and did a lot of charitable work, building roads and rest houses with his friends. He took seven obligations: to support his parents, to respect elders, to be gentle of speech, to avoid backbiting, to be generous and not avaricious, to speak the truth and to restrain himself from loosing temper. He was always mindful and kept all of them. Thus in his next existence he became Sakka, the king of gods.

(DLMBS Commentary V031) Once there was a monk who received his subject of meditation from the Buddha. He practiced hard, but he made very little progress. So he became very depressed and frustrated. He went to see the Buddha about his problems. But on the way there he saw a big forest fire. He ran to the top of a mountain and observed. While there, he realized that just as the fire burnt up everything around, be it big or small, so the insights from the practice of meditation will burn up all the fetters, big and small.

The Buddha saw this from far away and appeared in front of the monk telling him that he was on the right track and to keep up the idea. The monk did accordingly and attained arahantship very soon.

According to Buddhist philosophy, there are ten fetters (saṃyojana). They can be divided into two kinds, five so called "lower" or "big" fetters and five "higher" or "small" fetters.

(DLMBS Commentary V032) Nigamavātissa was born and grew up in a small market town near Sāvatthi. He became a monk and lived a simple life. For his alms food he went to the village where his relatives lived and he kept away from all the big occasions. Even when big benefactors like Anāthapiṇḍika and king Pasenadi of Kosala gave monks alms on a grand scale, he did not attend. Some monks started to say, that he keeps only to his relatives and does not care about things.

The Buddha asked him about this. He replied that he goes to his village only for alms food, takes only as much as is enough, does not care if it is tasty or not. The Buddha praised him and told the other monks that they should all behave in this way. He also related the story of the king of parrots:

He lived in a grove of fig trees on the banks of Ganga with many subjects. When all the fruits were eaten, everybody left, except for the king, who was satisfied with little. Once Sakka, the king of gods, wanted to test him and his resolve. He assumed the form of a goose and asked him why doesn't he move away. The king said he can not leave out of the gratitude towards the tree. If he can find enough food to get by, he wouldn't go. It would be ungrateful. Sakka was impressed and revealed himself. Then he poured the Ganga water over the withered tree and it was suddenly green and full of fruit.

Then the Buddha said, that the king of parrots was himself in one of his previous existences and Sakka was Anuruddha, one of the Buddha's foremost disciples. He then uttered this verse (DhP 32). At the end of the discourse, Nigamavātissa became an arahant.