Excerpt from The Most Venerable P.A Payuttos masterpiece ‘Buddhdhamma’

Excerpt from The Most Venerable P.A Payuttos masterpiece ‘Buddhdhamma’

Today, in reading in P.A Payuttos masterpiece, ‘Buddhdhamma’, I read something most interesting. After years of taking, reciting and also as a Bhikkhu, giving the ‘Five Precepts’, I had never understood the translation as explained by the venerable Buddhist master. Maybe because in all English translations of the Pali, the words recited by those requesting the precepts are translated where as, the parts recited by the monk are not.  

In his final section of the long and hugely insightful and beneficial chapter on ‘Happiness’, Ajahn is discussing the involvement of Buddhist practitioners, lay and ordained, in communal and social issues as spiritual practice, as well as our spiritual practice on an individual level. The most venerable Ajahn writes: 

‘Granted, personal issues are an essential aspect of spiritual practice. For people to develop spiritually, in must proceed according of laws of nature pertaining to the individual. Even on the level of the body, after swallowing food, we must digest it ourselves; no-one can help us to do this. If we are unable to swim, no amount of strident instructions by another, or even divine interventions will enable us to swim. If we are unable to do multiplication, our friends cannot calculate the answer and beam it into our brain. If we are suffering, no matter how much others love us, they won’t be able to imbue us with happiness. And if we lack wisdom, others are unable to infuse us with it. For this reason one must be able to rely on oneself; one must train oneself and cultivate the necessary natural conditions oneself. 

Having said this, Buddhism recognises the well-wishing, support and encouragement by others as an essential external condition for peoples spiritual development. As guides and teachers, wise and well-meaning people are able to apply social systems to act as a catalyst initiating natural dynamics within an individual (most notably wise reflection). Once these dynamics set in, the process of development reaches fulfilment. 

This is how other people are able to help. To begin with they express kindness and well-wishing, and then they actively assist as an external influence. For example, a teacher provides instruction to foster wisdom in his or her pupils, but if the pupils do not wish to learn, the teaching is in vain. The teacher is unable to automatically transfer knowledge into pupil’s minds. The pupils need to combine this teaching with internal factors. When one knows how to investigate, is determined to listen, and possesses skilful reflection (yoniso-manisakāra), the information one has learned, (referred to as sutta) is transformed into wisdom. The teacher is unable to inject this wisdom into the student. 

I have often pointed out how lay people go to monks and ask for moral conduct. They chant: ‘Mayam bhante tisaranena saha panca silāni yācāma’: we request the five precepts. Yet the monks reply: ‘We are unable to confer on you moral conduct- this is something you must develop yourself.’ 

So what is to be done? The monks know that moral rectitude arises from proper spiritual practice; it is not something that one person can give to another. They thus tell the lay people: ‘After reciting the precepts, go and keep them, go and follow them; true morality will then arise within you.’ 

The lay people ask for morality (sila) and the monks give them precepts or training rules (sikkhāpada). 

They recite: Pānātipāta Verami sikkhāpadam samādiyāmi: ‘I undertake the precept of refraining from harming living creatures.’ etc. By keeping the precepts, morality arises within the individual. Laypeople may ask for concentration from the monks, who will reply in a similar way, saying: ‘This is not something I can bestow upon you; you must develop it yourself. But I can teach you meditation techniques for you to practice. By developing these you will develop concentration’. The same goes for wisdom. The monks will reply: ‘I can’t give you wisdom, but I can share information and teachings for you to reflect on and investigate. In this way you will generate wisdom within yourselves.’

An excerpt from BUDDHADHAMMA

By The Most Venerable P.A.Payutto 

🙏🙏🙏❤️😁