2. Mind precedes all mental states.
Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.
If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness
follows him
like his never-departing shadow
I:2 GOOD BEGETS GOOD
Mano pubbangama dhamma1
- mano settha manomaya
Manasa ce pasannena - bhasati
va karoti va
Tato nam sukhamanvetic -
chaya va anapayini.
Mind is the forerunner of
(all good) states. Mind is chief; mind-made are
they. If one speaks or acts
with pure mind, because of that, happiness
follows one, even as one's
shadow that never leaves2.
I:2 Why cry for the moon? (Mattha Kundali)
Mattha Kundali was a young brahmin, whose father was very stingy and never gave anything in charity. Even the gold ornaments for his only son were made by himself to save payment for workmanship. When his son was suffering from jaundice, no physician was consulted until it was too late. When he realised that his son was dying, he had the youth carried outside to the verandah so that people coming to his house would not see his possessions.
On that morning, the Buddha arising early from his deep meditation of compassion, saw, in his Net of Knowledge, Mattha Kundali lying in the verandah. So when entering Savatthi for alms food with his disciples, the Buddha stood near the door of Mattha Kundali's house. The Buddha sent forth a ray of light to attract the attention of the youth, who was facing the interior of the house. The youth saw the Buddha. He was very weak and he could only profess his faith but he thereby gained some happiness. But that was enough. When he passed away with his heart in devotion to the Buddha he was reborn in the Tavatimsa celestial world.
From his celestial abode he saw his father mourning over him at the cemetery and appeared to the old man in the likeness of his old self. He told his father about his rebirth in the Tavatimsa world and advised him to approach the Buddha, offer alms and listen to the Buddha's sermon. The old man did as he was told and after the sermon, the question was brought up as to whether one could be reborn in a celestial world simply by mentally professing profound faith in the Buddha, without practising charity or observing the moral precepts.
So the Buddha willed that Mattha Kundali should appear in person. Mattha Kundali appeared in his celestial glory and told them about his rebirth in the Tavatimsa world. Only then did the listeners become convinced that the young man had attained much glory by simply devoting his mind to the Buddha. At the end of the discourse, the old man realised the Dhamma and donated most of his wealth to the cause of the Dhamma.
Notes
1.In this particular verse dhamma refers to good Kamma (action).
2.These two parallel verses
were uttered by the Buddha on two different
occasions to show the inevitable
effects of evil and good Kamma respectively.
Man reaps what he has sown in the past or in the present. What he sows now he reaps in the present or in the future at the opportune moment. Man himself is mainly responsible for his own happiness and misery. He creates his own hell and heaven. He is the architect of his own fate. What he makes he can unmake.
Buddhism teaches self-responsibility and the inevitability of the law of cause and effect. What one reaps accords with what one has sown, but one is not bound to reap the effects of all that one has sown. If one were, emancipation would become impossibility.
3. "He abused me, he struck me,
he overpowered me, he robbed me."
Those who harbor such thoughts do not still their hatred.
4. "He abused me, he struck me,
he overpowered me, he robbed me."
Those who do not harbor such thoughts still their hatred.
5. Hatred is never appeased by
hatred in this world.
By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law
eternal.
6. There are those who do not realize
that one day we all must die.
But those who do realize this settle their quarrels.
7. Just as a storm throws down
a weak tree, so does Mara overpower the man
who lives for the pursuit of pleasures, who is uncontrolled
in his senses,
immoderate in eating, indolent, and dissipated.
8. Just as a storm cannot prevail
against a rocky mountain,
so Mara can never overpower the man who lives meditating
on the impurities,
who is controlled in his senses, moderate in eating,
and filled with faith and earnest effort.
9. Whoever being depraved, devoid
of self-control and truthfulness,
should don the monk's yellow robe, he surely is not worthy
of the robe.
10. But whoever is purged of depravity,
well-established in virtues and filled
with self-control and truthfulness, he indeed is worthy
of the yellow robe.
11. Those who mistake the unessential
to be essential and the essential
to be unessential, dwelling in wrong thoughts, never
arrive at the essential.
12. Those who know the essential
to be essential and the unessential
to be unessential, dwelling in right thoughts, do arrive
at the essential.
13. Just as rain breaks through
an ill-thatched house,
so passion penetrates an undeveloped mind.
14. Just as rain does not break
through a well-thatched house,
so passion never penetrates a well-developed mind.
15. The evil-doer grieves here
and hereafter; he grieves in both the worlds.
He laments and is afflicted, recollecting his own impure
deeds.
16. The doer of good rejoices
here and hereafter; he rejoices in both the worlds.
He rejoices and exults, recollecting his own pure deeds.
17. The evil-doer suffers here
and hereafter; he suffers in both the worlds.
The thought, "Evil have I done," torments him,
and he suffers even more when gone to realms of woe.
18. The doer of good delights
here and hereafter; he delights in both the worlds.
The thought, "Good have I done," delights him,
and he delights even more when gone to realms of bliss.
19. Much though he recites the
sacred texts, but acts not accordingly,
that heedless man is like a cowherd who only counts the
cows of others
-- he does not partake of the blessings of the holy life.
20. Little though he recites the
sacred texts, but puts the Teaching into practice,
forsaking lust, hatred, and delusion, with true wisdom
and emancipated mind,
clinging to nothing of this or any other world
-- he indeed partakes of the blessings of a holy life.