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unwholesome course of action? If I had not been here 
today, your blood would have been flowing like this 
river by now. You are living with hatred, but I live free 
from hatred. You are ailing with moral defilements, but 
I am free from moral defilements. You are striving to 
develop selfishness and enmity, but I don't strive for the 
development of selfishness." Both sides then became 
ashamed of their foolishness and thus bloodshed was 
averted. 
The Buddha was also to help his extended family, the 
Sakyans by prohibiting VilElabha from massacring 
them out of anger, as many as three times (See Blessing 
Thirty-Three §D.6) 
D.4 Er. Kukkura JAtaka (J.22) 
Because his carriage straps, left in the rain, are gnawed 
by his own dogs, the king of Benares orders all dogs 
except his own to be killed indiscriminately. The 
Bodhisattva, who was the leader of the pack of dogs in 
the cemetary, visited the king and pointed out to him his 
iniquity, and reveals the truth by causing an emetic to 
be administered to the king's own dogs. In this way the 
Bodhisattva cared for his "extended family" by making 
sure justice was delivered to all of his kind. Having 
convinced the king, the Bodhisattva taught him the The 
Ten Virtues of a King and to avoid the Four Forms of 
Bias. Great are the benefactions thereafter made to dogs 
in the kingdom. 
D.5 Ex. Buddha tends the sick monk himself 
(DhA.L3I9ff) 
Once the Buddha happened to see the sorrowful state of a certain 
monk called 'Tissa'. The monk had been meditating diligently 
until becoming afflicted with a disease of stinking open sores 
covering his whole body. Because of the smell, he had been 
abandoned by his fellow monks.The Buddha knew that Tissa 
would soon attain Arahanthood. so he proceeded to the fire-shed, 
close to the place where the monk was staying. There, he 
personally boiled some water, went to the place where the monk 
was lying down, and took hold of the edge of the couch. It was 
only then that the other monks also gathered round him, and as 
instructed by the Buddha, they carried him out where he was 
washed and bathed.While he was being bathed his robes were 
washed and dried. After the bath, the monk became fresh in body 
and mind and soon developed one-pointedness of concentration. 
Standing at the head of the couch, the Buddha told him that this 
body when devoid of life would be as useless as a log and would 
be laid on the earth. At the conclusion of the sermon. Tissa 
attained Arahanthood. Soon after, he passed away into 
ParinibbAna.The Buddha then directed some hhikkhus to cremate 
his body and enshrine his relics in a sttpa. 
Subsequently, the Buddha taught, Thikkhus! You do 
not have your mother or father here who can tend to 
you. If you do not tend to one another, who will be 
there to tend to you? Tend a sick fellow monk as if you 
were tending me.' 
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Blessing Eighteen: 
Blameless Work 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.l Blessing Eighteen in the Sequence of the 
Blessings 
The workplace is somewhere we have already been 
familiar with since Blessing Fourteen — but last time 
we visited, we were interested in work only as a means 
to earn the salary we needed to support the close family 
(as covered in Blessings Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen). 
Now we have matured a little further in the sequence of 
the Blessings, we return to our work, not as simply 
something which needs to be completed, but to be 
completed well! Within the context of this Fifth 
Grouping of Blessings, 'Becoming a pillar of society', 
it matters not simply that we finish ow work, but also 
how well we do it and how beneficial it is to society 
too! In this Blessing we are to learn about the quality 
and the ethicality of the work we do — important 
factors in being the sort of person others in society can 
look up to. 
A.2 Buddhist Economics 
'Economics' is not a term native to Buddhism. "Bud-
dhist Economics" is a phrase coined by E.F. 
Schumacher — but the concepts involved (especially 
Right Livelihood at the mundane [lokiya] level) are 
very relevant to explaining a second visit to the 
workplace is necessary. Like the diligent but shoddy 
and corrupt worker tolerated by Blessing Fourteen, 
contemporary western economics tries to measure 
social well-being by financial transactions 
alone. Western economists try to avoid involvement of 
values when considering the 'economics' of different 
actions — and their approach is thus radically different 
from that of Buddhism. To give some examples of 
iniquities in the modem economic analysis, transactions 
which are considered ... : 
• 
Economic non-events: Any work which doesn't 
get paid a wage is a non-event to an economist — so much 
for voluntary work in the temple! 
• 
Economically equal activities: The purchase of a 
bottle of whisky and or a sack of rice to feed a village of 
hungry refugees have the same economic value 
• 
'Negligible' economic by-products: That vices are 
by-products of attending night-clubs, rampant 
consumerism the result of advertising, temptation towards 
unethical business practices the result of competition —
have no place in the economic equation. 
Costs given consideration in the Buddhist economic 
equation: To Buddhism, by contrast, the economics of 
livelihood has a human face (i.e. it acknowledges 
values). Below are listed some of the factors to be 
encouraged in the equation of Buddhist economics: 
• Physical health and security of the population: If 
the public are made ill by unethical business 
practices, the medical costs it is the victims who end 
up paying the bill through 
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their own taxes! When consumerism exacerbates 
crimes, guess who has to pay for police 
investigations and prosecution of the offenders? 
2. those who finish their work to the best of their 
quality; 
3. those who care that the result of their work is 
beneficial to society; 
Spiritual Health: the ravages of over-consum-The Buddha taught that anyone who wants to be a pillar 
ption and over-production reflect unhealthy mental 
processes in the population generated by the superficial of society must pay attention to the quality of every 
emotions of want, choice and material satisfaction 
piece of work they do as well as finishing it. 
emotions which Buddhism does not encourage; 
• 
Quality of work: Shoddy work is produced by 4.4 Three types of work 
shoddy minds. Buddhism foresees a working environm 'ork in Buddhism, as already discussed in Blessing 
where workers are enthusiastic to give their best, becauTourteen (a source of food both for body and mind) is a 
in so doing, apart from job satisfaction, workers will ha Yerrn which relates to a much wider scope of activities 
the chance to train and better themselves and refine theifhat that implied by our 40-hour week! Thus, before 
minds through their working experience; 
ing into further detail as to which sort of work is 
• 
Job satisfaction: If workers enjoy their work itmeworthy and which not, it is important to 
are industrious, productivity will be high. On the other 
hand, if they are dishonest, disgruntled or lazy, this willrecognize the scope of this analysis. The term 'work'
.
have a negative effect on the quality of production and tr
ues' 
amount of productivity. 
• 
Respect for individual human dignity: To be 
ethically sound, economic activity must take place in a 
way that is not harmful to the individual, 
1. physical work (e.g. cooking or governing the 
country); 
2. verbal work (e.g. training ow children or 
grandchildren, business negotiation or chanting) 
• 
Respect for interpersonal human dignity: To be (most of the details of this sort of work have already 
ethically sound, economic activity must take place in a 
been discussed in Blessing Ten); 
way that does not encourage one individual to take 
advantage of another; 
• 
Respect for fair economics/human dignity of 
society at large: society or the natural environment. In 
3. mental work (adjustment and development of our 
own thoughts to overcome the inbuilt tendency of 
our thoughts to degenerate into preoccupation with 
sensuality [kAmavitaldca], vengefulness 
other words, economic activity should not cause problems [byApAda-vitakIca] or aggression [vihiOsavitakka].; 
for oneself, agitation in society or degeneration of the 
ecosystem, but rather enhance well-being in these three 
spheres. 
The principles of 'blame' discussed in relation to work, 
A.3 Three types of Worker 
Workers in the world have many styles and qualities, 
but in conclusion you can divide successful workers 
into three major kinds: 
I. those who finish what they do without being 
interested in the quality; 
although mostly dealing with the context of physical 
work here, can in fact equally be applied to verbal and 
mental work too. 
B. JUDGING THE ETHICAL VALUE OF WORK 
Often when people am looking to measure the standard 
of the work they are doing they rely too heavily on the 
amount of praise or criticism they receive from others 
(see example §E. I below). The Buddha warned us that 
to use such an arbitrary measurement as our standard is 
not foolproof. In the world there are so many people of 
different viewpoints that you could never please all of 
the people all of the time. Some people cannot find a 
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word of praise for anyone. Thus whatever the task you 
do, you cannot listen simply to the criticism of others 
— because some people's criticism is possibly without 
any foundation. You have to measure the quality of 
work based on reason. Therefore whatever work you 
are doing, never base your decisions on the criticism of 
others. What then can you base your decisions on? The 
Buddha taught that we should make sure any work we 
do is: 
ter. 
Not breaking the Five Precepts: This en-
sures that you don't compromise the human dignity 
of others or of yourself (as already described in 
Blessing Nine). 
2 
Not compromising your Five Virtues 
Ipaticadhammap This ensures that you don't 
fall 
into 
unwholesome 
ways 
which 
compromise virtue or justice (in the ways 
Not illegal: this is the grossest filter of blame in 
already described in Blessing Seventeen) 
work — but it is too gross to cover all eventualities, anAnint if in the future, you want to be a pillar of society, 
this is why we need to resort to the other three criteria then give things careful consideration before you do 
too; 
them. You have to do things well — not just finish 
2 
Not breaking with tradition: Some things do om.
tn
 If you want to know if there is going to be any 
break the law, but because they are out of keeping with oad side-effects occurring as the result of something we 
local customs or traditions, they may bring you into do, check by using these four principles. Check the law, 
conflict with others. Supposing a man wears women's 
clothes — will the police arrest him? Probably not, butcustoms, Precepts and virtue.
it 
is certainly not very good. Or when you are eating, thee. AVOIDING WRONG LIVELIHOOD 
is a division made between sweet and savoury food. The Buddha taught that we should earn our living by 
Some countries eat savoury food before they eat sweecorking for it and by working honestly too —
desserts. Some, like Japan, eat their sweet food first. 
erwise the economy and society cannot truly 
all customs are universally good. They may be applic I8sper. Of course earning your living by thieving, 
only to the particular locality or climate in a place. So op-lifting or pick-pocketing is not supported by 
uddhism — these forms of work have already been 
how can you tell if a custom is worth respecting or no 
Supposing you want to choose what W wear to go to the 
ruled out in our consideration of the ethical value of 
temple. You know that it certainly won't break the law. work above. But there is a grey area of what constitutes 
As for customs, you know that in different places, the ei fair profit, which the Buddha charted for us with the 
way people dress is not the same — to go to the mark 
you dress in a cosmopolitan way, to go to the cinema fecept of Right and Wrong Livelihood. Those who 
ake a success out of Right Livelihood in business will 
dress in a fun-loving way, to go to the seaside you dreN 
to the minimum — but if you go to the temple, becaust2ave a positive effect on the economic situation of their 
the atmosphere must be peaceful, you should dress mcfi€untry too — but those involved in Wrong Livelihood 
modestly and conservatively. It is customary to dress ifirderprises, 
whether 
directly 
or 
indirectly 
are 
modest colour like white to go to the temple because undermining the well-being of their country by so 
doing so forces you to be careful of your own level of doing. The Buddha said that a person who earns their 
cleanliness and such mindfulness aids you to meditate Wing by Wrong Livelihood is like someone who 
intentionally advises a traveller to take a dangerous 
road, saying that it is safe, but when travelling 
themselves, will always take another (safer) route. The 
main ways people earn a living are in either in the 
public or in the private sector — and we will look at the 
specific considerations of Right and Wrong Livelihood 
for each in turn: 
Cl Private Enterprise 
Most work in private enterprise can be simplified 
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down to trading a product or a service. For Right 
Livelihood in the trading scenario the Buddha taught us 
to avoid five specific types of Wrong Livelihood: 
I. Dealing in slaves [sattavaAijjA]: This means buying 
people at a low price and selling them at a higher price 
and supporting oneself from the profit made — or 
running a brothel where you are making a profit out of 
the loss of another person's dignity. Taking on such an 
occupation will change the quality of your mind 
— it will cause you to see people as something 
inanimate. You will eventually lose your sense of 
humanity because you will no longer be able to 
appreciate others' human dignity. 
2. Dealing in weapons [satthavaAijjA]: This means 
weapons for killing animals or people and 
supporting oneself from the profit made 
— selling weapons will make you see the world 
in a strange way. The quality of the wares you are 
selling all depend on the efficiency with which 
the weapons can kill men or animals —
eventually it will cause your own Precepts to 
suffer. 
3. Dealing in flesh [maOsavaAijjA]: This means 
rearing live animals (like buffalos, pigs, ducks and 
chickens) to slaughter oneself or have someone else 
slaughter for us and supporting oneself from the 
profit made — most people see animals with 
compassion, but if you kill them or trade with those 
in the abattoir, instead of seeing the nice side of 
animals, you will see animals as nothing more than a 
walking meat counter. Even though you might not 
be directly involved in such a trade, your ap-
preciation of the preciousness of life will disappear. 
If ever you lose your temper there will be an 
increased intention for you to threaten people with 
the same murderous intentions that belong inside the 
abattoir. 
4. Dealing in alcohol [majjavaAijjA]: This means 
selling alcohol (or any other sort of substance 
causing heedlessness) and supporting oneself from 
the profit made — it doesn't break the law or 
customs — but it does break with Right Livelihood. 
If you sell alcohol you know that 
it will lead to the drunkenness of the customer 
- 
it will destroy their reputation, their wealth, their 
health etc. etc. — however, you don't feel any 
compassion for such a person or responsibility for their 
human dignity. You know all the damaging 
consequences of buying our alcohol for the customer, 
but you look beyond these in your search for profit. 
Loving kindness becomes a stranger to your heart. The 
more evil of this sort you collect for yourself, in this 
lifetime or in future lifetimes, if ever you find yourself 
in difficulties yourself, your evil will prevent others 
from having any compassion for you — even those you 
have helped before — even your own children. The 
karma will block out the reality and you won't be able 
to blame them. 
5. Dealing in poisons [visavaAijjA]: This means 
selling poisons for killing animals (e.g. insecticide) 
and supporting oneself from the profit made. In 
many places where mosquitos are not even the 
vectors of malaria (like in Bangkok) people are 
dying not of malaria, but of self-poisoning from the 
DDT they spray on the mosquitoes. People think that 
insecticide will become benign again within a few 
hours but actually it takes about fifteen to twenty 
years to break down. If a bottle of such poison 
smashes on the floor, even if you clean up 
thoroughly, the smell still remains for two or three 
weeks. If you work in the poison trade, there are 
broken bottles and spillages nearly every day. Even 
if you never use the poison, you are inhaling it every 
day. Those in the trade die of respiratory disease and 
blood cancer almost without exception. 
Those who do any of these trades, will find themselves 
increasingly unable to cultivate an `Emotional Bank 
Account' [salgahavatthu] with anyone else. 
Furthermore, those who work in commerce but who are 
dishonest (by for example fixing their weights and 
measures) also fall into the category of Wrong 
Livelihood. Another variety of Wrong Livelihood are 
the forms of deception used by forg 
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ers — for example, they provide the first batch of their 
work all in solid gold — however, as soon as the order 
is placed, the remainder of their work will be in 
gold-plated brass. 
C.2 Public Sector 
It would be impossible for Wrong Livelihood en-
terprises to exist, whether on the large or small scale, 
without some form of cooperation from a corrupt Public 
Sector — whether it be the "soft drug" industry, gun 
running, casinos, forgery, prostitution, or assassination. 
Any such involvement shows that those implicated are 
devoid of any sense of responsibility for human dignity 
in the fairness of the economy of their own country. 
Usually the enemy of Right Livelihood in the Public 
Sector is bribery or corruption — for example 
surveyors in charge of measuring land for a buyer, if 
they are dishonest or corrupt and don't get paid 
protection money, will over-measure 
the 
land. 
However, if they are bribed, will undermeasure it. 
Judges who can be bribed to come to a verdict are no 
better. All come under the heading of Wrong 
Livelihood. 
C.3 Special Occupations 
C.3.1 Military 
In addition to the work categories already explained, 
special mention should be given to the work of the 
professional 
soldier 
which 
comes 
into 
strong 
disagreement with any form of Buddhist practice. In the 
time of the Buddha there was a soldier who thought that 
soldiers who fought bravely for their king and country 
would have heaven as their afterlife destination. 
However, the Buddha explained that: 
`those who kill will be killed in return' 
Dutiya KAmavatthu Sutta (S.i.83) 
And that there are only two possible afterlife desti-
nations even for those who (only) consider killing 
others — and those are hell and the animal realms 
— whether they be soldiers, cavaliers or soldiers 
mounted on elephants. [YodhAjEva Sutta (S.iv.308), 
AssAroha Sutta (S.iv.310), HatthAroha Sutta (S.iv.310)] 
C.3.2 Doctors and Nurses 
On the contrary, to be a doctor or a nurse can be a 
profession which can bring great merit if it is done 
well. If it is done badly, it can bring serious demerit. It 
was therefore for this reason that the Buddha gave 
guidelines on the abilities of those prerequisite for 
making a good doctor or nurse (in his particular context 
to look after sick monks): 
I. Must have the ability to prescribe the appropriate 
medicine; 
2. Must know the difference between what is for the 
comfort and discomfort of patients, being able to 
increase the comfort and decrease the discomfort of 
the patient by his or her actions; 
3. Not just interested in the payment received from 
the treatment — healing should be done out of the 
prime motivation of compassion 
4. Does not object to the removal/excretion of the 
patient's excrement, urine, vomit and saliva; 
5. Able to cheer up the patient with timely 
Dhamma teachings Dutiya UpaEEhAka Sutta 
(A.iii.144) 
C3.3 Devious Customers 
Even customers can do it! Supposing a butcher has two 
deer for sale, a big one and a small one. He asks $20 for 
the big one and $10 for the little one. A devious 
customer comes up and buys the little one for $10. 
Some time later he comes back and says he changed his 
mind and he wants the big one. The butcher asks $20 
for the big deer, but the customer says that he already 
gave the hunter $10 and that the small deer he is 
returning is also worth $10. Together they are worth 
$20, the price of the big deer. The customer therefore 
exchanges the big deer for the small one. Meanwhile 
the butcher is not smart enough to keep up with the 
customer's trick and is thereby cheated. On this 
occasion, the customer is guilty of Wrong Livelihood 
even though he might say the butcher deserved it. 
Therefore, if you aim to be a pillar of society who is 
beyond criticism by any reasonable person in the world, 
measure your work carefully by the standard of Right 
Livelihood. Apart from avoiding criticism, all tasks 
which you do will be done to the 
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best of your ability. Others will regard you as an elder 
in society not only because of your advancing age, but 
also because of your wisdom and example to upcoming 
generations. 
D. RELATIONSHIPS IN THE WORKPLACE 
Apart from the ethicality of work, a second area of 
problems in the work we do may come from personal 
conflicts arising at work. Irrespective of the nature of 
the work, we need to cultivate good human 
relationships in the workplace otherwise we might risk 
blame and undermine our job satisfaction. We have to 
be able to get along with our colleagues whether they 
are true friends or false. Our relationship with this 
group of co-workers (whether they be ow boss, 
employees, servants, inferiors or slaves!) are covered in 
the fifth grouping of relationships mentioned in the 
SilgalovAda Sutta. From this teaching we find out 
about the reciprocal relationship between the boss and 
the employee. 
D.1 Duties of an employer 
The Buddha laid down five responsibilities of a boss to 
his employees as follows: 
L Delegating appropriate work: Work given to an 
employee should be chosen as appropriate to that 
person's age and gender and disposition and 
capability in order that they can work efficiently; 
2. Give food and remuneration: A decent wage 
should be given which is not less than the legal 
minimum. There should be wage increase with time 
and bonuses. Employees who live "on site" should 
be provided with regard to appropriate food — not 
left hungry! A boss with such caring behaviour will 
be able to relinquish the effects of both bias and 
defilements of action; 
3. Take care of employees in time of illness: 
Employees should be allowed to take leave if sick 
and enquiries should be made about their 
recovery to show the features of a "true friend" of 
the boss; 
4. From time to time give delicacies: organize 
celebration for special occasions for the employees 
etc. — and this will give them the 
encouragement which will keep the boss-em-
ployee relationship an amicable one; 
5. Allow holidays on occasion: 
employees 
should be allowed holidays according to the usual 
working calendar and national festivals 
Employers and bosses who take responsibility for their 
employees in these five ways will in such a way 
cultivate a mind of loving-kindness and compassion 
instead of simply thinking to take advantage of others. 
A boss with all the features of a true friend — but such 
an attitude doesn't occur by accident — it needs for the 
boss to have been instilled with such responsibility 
since an early age, whosoever fulfil their duties to the 
"nadir" in these ways. 
D.2 Duties of an employee 
The Buddha also laid down five responsibilitiesan 
employee ought to have towards his employee: 
1. Start work before him; 
2. Finish work after him: If any employee who can 
practise both of these duties, it shows that they have 
a strong degree of responsibility towards their 
employer — a sincere respect, love and gratitude 
towards their employer — rather than having the 
hidden intention that their behaviour be conditional 
on their employer raising their salary; 
3. Taking only the things (expressly) given to them 
by the employer: an employee who can have the 
control of himself to avoid the defilements of action 
will not help themselves to the things 'left lying 
around' in the workplace or steal the boss's 
belongings; 
4. Doing their work better: Means giving their all to 
fulfil their duties for the greatest benefit 
— without having conditions to negotiate salary 
increases from their employer — such behaviour 
shows that the employee really has the generosity 
befitting a "wise one". 
5. Maintaining and defending the boss's good 
reputation: employees with such behaviour do so 
because of their loyalty to their employers — they 
see their boss as similar to the ways they would 
regard a kindly relative or parent. 
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In general, it is the employer who controls the benefits 
and disadvantages coming to an employee. That an 
employee fulfils these five responsibilities towards an 
employer means that the employer must have treated 
the employee well in the first place — to want to show 
these responsibilities to repay his debt of gratitude. 
D.3 Reciprocal Relationship between Boss It Employer 
If the boss does not fulfil his duties but the employee does, 
the boss does not deserve such a good employee — in the 
end harm will come to that workplace because seeing the 
boss's attitude, before long the employees will imitate his 
example. 
If the boss fulfils his duties, but the employee doesn't 
— the employee does not deserve such a good 
employer — the workplace will not prosper because the 
boss cannot control the employees. 
If both boss and employees fail to fulfil their duties, the 
workplace will go bankrupt because it will become a 
den of thieves — having dire consequences for society 
at large. 
However if both boss and employee fulfil their 
responsibilities, the workplace will prosper — both 
boss and employee will enjoy happiness and peace and 
society will benefit too. 
D.4 Possible Harm coming from unfulfilled duties 
between boss and employee 
I. When employees have no sense of responsibility for 
their own human dignity — if a boss or employer lacks 
the self-discipline according to the teaching of the 
Buddha, the first disaster coming to him is that his 
employees will have no sense of responsibility for their 
own human dignity, producing at least the following 
three character traits: 
I. Chronic false view: Mostly employees come from 
an unwealthy and uneducated background and if 
they come into contact with an undisciplined boss 
who is a false fiend, the employee will be 
discontent and will resist against the boss — an 
emotion which may exacerbate False View in the 
employee's mind. 
2. Breaks the Five Precepts: Those of False View 
also tend to break the Five Precepts. Employ 
ees might deteriorate into the Four Defilements of 
Action in order to fight back against the 
employer, without any fear of the legal 
consequences 
3. Brings disadvantage to the employer: in order to 
avoid breaking the law, employees band together to 
strike in order to claim rights and benefits for 
themselves. Any form of strike will disadvantage the 
employer. 
2. When employees have no sense of responsibility for 
the human dignity of others — if a boss or employer 
lacks the self-discipline according to the teaching of the 
Buddha, the second disaster coming to him is that his 
employees will have no sense of responsibility for the 
human dignity of others, producing at least the 
following three character traits: 
I. Looking for ways to take advantage of the 
employer: When bias arises in the mind of the 
employee — they will want to put the employer at a 
disadvantage — something they can do in many 
ways, e.g. by "going slow" (ljpaid by the hour) or 
producing shoddy work (ifpaid for productivity). 
2. Mistreats employer: In order to get revenge for 
the resentment they feel, they produce shoddy goods 
or feign quality; 
3. Ruin the employer: Sometimes the employee 
divulges trade secrets to competing companies etc. 
3. When employees have no sense of responsibility for 
the human dignity of economic fairness 
— if a boss or employer lacks the self-discipline 
according to the teaching of the Buddha, the third 
disaster coming to him is that his employees will 
have no sense of responsibility for the human dignity 
for economic fairness, producing at least the 
following three character traits: 
I. Addiction to the `Sir Roads to Ruin': because of 
working to express animosity towards the employer, 
they will feel insecurity about working in that 
enterprise and immerse themselves in 'Roads to 
Ruin' to forget their woes by drinking alcohol or 
lialighliMplinal in expenditure: When they are 
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addicted to 'roads to ruin', they will lose the 
intelligence to use their earnings beneficially; 
3. Consequent debt problems: The combination of 
addictions and lack of discipline in expenditure will 
lead them to indebtedness — producing problems 
not only for themselves but eventually for the 
employer too! 
E. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES 
E.I Er. The Father, the Son and the Donkey 
Once there were a father and a son who went to the 
market in a distant town and bought a donkey. They led 
the donkey back towards their home on a rope. On the 
way back from the market, they passed through the first 
village and all the villagers exclaimed, "What a stupid 
father and son, they have spent good money on a 
donkey and now they lead it along the road instead of 
riding it". The father and son thought, "What they say is 
true," and so the father sat the son on the donkey and 
they went on their way. They passed through the second 
village and all the villagers exclaimed, "What an un-
grateful son to ride the donkey and leave his poor father 
to walk — if the son were to walk and let his father 
ride, it would show that the son at least repays his debt 
of gratitude to his father". The father and son thought, 
"What they say is true," and so the father sat on the 
donkey and the son walked and they went on their way. 
They passed through the third village and all the 
villagers exclaimed, "What a cruel father! He has 
hardly any more years of life in him, and he lets his 
poor son walk along the road in his place". The father 
and son consulted one another, "What they say is true," 
and so both the son and the father sat on the donkey and 
they went on their way. They passed through the fourth 
village and all the villagers exclaimed, "What a cruel 
father and son! Both of them together weigh more than 
the donkey itself and they are both riding the donkey —
they're not interested even if they break the donkey's 
back". The father and son consulted one another, "What 
they say is true," — if they ride the donkey singly, 
together or lead the donkey, they get criticized — what 
can they do? They found a rope and tied the donkey so 
that it hung on the pole by its feet. The father took one 
end of the pole and 
the son the other and they went on their way. They 
passed through the fifth village and all the villagers 
exclaimed, "This father and son must be mad. What 
could be the reason they have bought a donkey to carry 
around like that. Wouldn't it be better just to walk 
empty-handed?" This story only goes to show that if 
you want to find something to criticize, you can always 
find something. However, unfortunately, those who 
spend their whole time criticizing others are very 
numerous in the world. The moral of the story is that 
you cannot rely on others' criticism to tell you the truth 
of a situation — you must have principles which are 
tried and tested to use as a rule of thumb. 
£2 Ex. Seriv a Atoka (13) 
The bodhisattva was once a hawker of Seriva and was 
called SerivA. Once, in the company of a greedy 
merchant of the same name, he crossed the TelavAha 
and entered Andhapura. In that city was a family who 
had fallen on hard times, the sole survivors being a girl 
and her grandmother. The greedy merchant went to 
their house with his wares. The girl begged her 
grandmother to buy a trinket, and suggested that they 
should give the hawker the golden bowl from which 
they ate. The bowl was a valuable heirloom, but it had 
lost its lustre and the woman didn't know its value. The 
hawker was called in and shown the bowl. He scratched 
it with a needle and knew it was solid gold, but wishing 
to have it for nothing, he bluffed saying it was not 
worth half a farthing — so he threw it aside and left. 
Later, the bodhisattva came to the same street and was 
offered the same bowl. He told them the truth, gave 
them all the money he had and his stock too, leaving 
only eight pieces of money for himself. These he gave 
to the boatman and boarded the boat to cross the river. 
Meanwhile, the greedy merchant went again to the old 
woman's house, hoping to get the bowl in exchange for 
a few trinkets. When he heard what had happened, he 
lost command of himself, and throwing down all he 
had, ran down to the river to find the bodhisattva's boat 
in mid-stream. He shouted to the boatman to return, but 
the bodhisattva urged him on. The merchant, realizing 
what he had lost through his greed, was so upset that 
his heart burst and he fell down dead. 
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E.3 Ex. Seci J 
Eitaka 
The bodhisattva Week a very clever smith of Kasi, 
but was very poor. The principal royal smith had a 
beautiful daughter and the bodhisattva, wishing to win 
her, made a needle so delicate that could pierce anvils 
and float on water. For this needle, he made seven 
sheaths. He then went to the village of the head smith, 
stood outside the house and sang the praises of the 
needle. The smith's daughter, who was fanning her 
father, told the bodhisattva to go elsewhere as no-one in 
that village wanted needles. The bodhisattva answered 
that his were no or 
dinary needles and the head-smith asked him to show 
them. The bodhisattva suggested that all the smiths be 
summoned and in their presence, he gave the 
needle-tube to the head-smith. He thought it was the 
needle itself, because he could find no end or tip. The 
tube was handed back to the bodhisattva who took out 
the first sheath. In this way the seven sheaths were re-
moved and when the needle was at last revealed, he 
made it pierce an anvil and float on water. The whole 
assembly was filled with envy and admiration and the 
head-smith gave his daughter to the bodhisattva. 
EFTA00286685

The Sixth 
Group of Blessings 
"Preparation of Mind" 
The first eighteen blessings form the first half of the Mangala Sutta. 
They are all concerned with transforming our lives. It is only upon 
the foundation of security in life achieved in the first half of the 
Blessings of Life, that one can go on, in the second half of the Sutta 
to cultivate purity of mind in earnest by following Blessings nine-
teen to thirty-eight. When we come to the start of the sixth group-
ing we are concerned with the preparation of the mind. 
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Blessing Nineteen: 
Abstaining from 
Unwholesomeness 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.I Introduction to the Nineteenth Blessing 
The mind is fickle and easily influenced. A person who is 
virtuous today can easily relapse into bad behaviour tomorrow 
if his mind has not been cultivated to the point of 
steadfastness. When you realize the weakness of the mind it 
immediately implies that we have work to do in the constant 
upgrading of the mind towards something better. If you really 
want to be sure that you will never do unwholesome deeds 
again, then at the least you have to attain enlightenment at the 
level of 'stream-enterer' lsotApanal. For those who still fall 
short of this initial degree of enlightenment 
— although you can always praise and encourage their 
good intentions — you can never entirely trust the 
working of the remaining defilements in their mind. 
Cultivating virtue can be compared to climbing a tree. 
Trees have no branches at the lowest level. The lowest 
branches are several metres above the ground. 
Therefore if you want to start climbing a tree you have 
to shinny up the trunk before you can sit to rest on the 
lowest branch. If you don't make it to the first branch, 
whenever you get tired you will slide back down to the 
bottom of the tree again. Only if you are on the first 
branch can you be sure you will not backslide and can 
you be sure that you have a chance of eating the fruit 
from the tree. In the same way, in the pursuit of virtue, 
no matter how many years you 
have been cultivating good deeds, if you have still not 
managed to attain the body of enlightenment 
(DhammakAya) inside yourself, you cannot be assured 
that one day, if you are short of encouragement you will 
not fall back to your old unwholesome ways. 
For most people in the world, unfortunately it is much 
easier to do unwholesome (wicked) things rather than 
wholesome (good) ones. To do unwholesome deeds is 
like going with the flow 
— but in fact is is the tide of defilements in the mind. Instead 
of being ourselves, we become like a puppet to the 
defilements or demons DitAra) in our minds — in the 
beginning it might seem easy, but in the long-term suffering 
and regret is the path to which it leads. By comparison to do 
good deeds is like travelling against the flow — it needs much 
more patience and precision to go against the tide of 
temptation and defilement in one's mind. However, although 
it may seem more difficult in the beginning, in the long term, 
it has true happiness as its destination. 
Thus to gain the steadfastness of mind and resist the 
temptation of slipping into the convenience of 
unwholesome ways, we have to study Blessing 
Nineteen 
concerning 
the 
avoidance 
of 
all 
unwholesomeness. It is the first step in adjusting our 
quality of mind. Adjustments to quality of mind will 
continue in a way that becomes increasingly refined all 
the way to Blessing Thirty-Eight. 
EFTA00286687

B. MORAL APPROACHES TO UNWHOLESOMENBBBier three headings: 
When comparing different systems of ethics, usually you 
will not find much disagreement in the discussion of what 
constitutes a good deed — however, when you come to the 
morality of avoiding evil, suddenly there is a lot more 
controversy. 
People like to do what they feel comes naturally and if 
you look at man to try to find out what appears to be the 
natural state of man you will come across a lot of 
surprises. If you were to describe what ought to happen 
to a rock when you drop it, it falls to the ground every 
time, so it is easy to make up a rule. However, if you try 
to make up a rule to describe what man ought to do in 
any situation, even if you expect the best of intentions 
from man, you will often be disappointed. Even if you 
take the most crude system governing morality, such as 
the law, you will find that many people disobey it. Even 
though people know perfectly well what is right and 
wrong, they still do misdeeds, and you might argue that 
if the nature of man is to be disinterested even in the 
most basic of morality, that it is not man that is the 
measure of morality, but it must lie elsewhere. Indeed, 
according to the rationale of Phramonkolthepmuni, the 
Great Abbot of Wat Paknam: 
"Force needs to be applied to improve peoples' 
virtues. The mind is like water which tends to sink 
to its own depth. Without effort, the mind's virtue, 
like water, will fall to the lowest level — that is the 
performance of evil deeds. If normal people are to 
develop their minds to the level of the arahant, then 
efforts need to be made. The mind has to be 
brought under control until it comes to a standstill. 
Thus, to govern others, there need to be rules. 
There needs to be something to force people to 
become better — and there need to be penalties for 
breaking the rules." 
If the rules are to be better than man himself, to make 
him better, then the question arises where they should 
come from. The answer to the question is different in 
different ethical systems depending on what each takes 
as its ideal. In general, you can summarize the origin of 
these rules 
I. Artificial Morality: artificial morality where the 
Law court decides what is right or wrong and 
retribution is man-made; 
2. Theistic Morality: where decisions about what is 
useful or unuseful behaviour are attributed to a 
supreme supernatural being. In deified religions such 
as Christianity or Islam, sin originates from 
displeasure or disloyalty to the will of this supreme 
being and can also be nullified by confession and 
penance to that being. Supposing the Creator ordered 
Christians always to think of God and never to take 
His name in vain — if they were to blaspheme or use 
God as a swearword — because that is against God's 
will, it is a source of sin. Because God and not the 
perpetrator is the source of the sin, this logic can 
lead to strange beliefs such as that sin can be 
transmitted from parents to their children. Adam and 
Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and 
so committed the primordial sin. As a result of that 
action all subsequent generations down to the 
present day all have to suffer as the result. 
3. Natural Morality: This does not mean doing 
'whatever comes naturally'! It refers to guidelines 
for morality which are not attributed to any 
supernatural source, but which are passed down 
from a time when men were wiser, more insightful, 
perceptive and shameful than in the present day. The 
men did not make the rules but observed the long 
term consequences of the behaviours — thereby 
coming up with recommendations for how to behave 
in order not to risk regret at a later time. It is just like 
a person who vainly tries to wear shoes that are two 
sizes too small for them. No-one says such 
behaviour is good or bad 
— but the truth is that by wearing them, later they 
will suffer from pain as a result. Thus, natural 
morality is not a system of judgements, but a 
description of the likely consequences of 
behaviours in the long term. 
As we shall see, the Buddhist understanding of 
EFTA00286688

wholesomeness andunwholesomeness accords to 
natural morality. 
C. UNWHOLESOMENESS 
The translation of the Pali word 'pApa' (which we 
translate glibly as 'unwholesomeness') in fact has very 
broad scope of meaning. The implication of the word is 
one of 'malfunction'. If you consider any other 
malfunctioning object such as a rundown house or a 
broken-down car or rotten food you might have a better 
idea of the unpleasant qualities of 'pApa'. However the 
important malfunctioning implied by the term is the 
malfunctioning of the mind. When the mind 
malfunctions it takes on the unpleasant qualities of 
cruelty, impurity and low quality. Anything that 
detracts from the quality of the mind is 'unwholesome' 
for the purposes of our understanding of the word 
'pApa'. 
Cl Origin of 'unwholesomeness' in Buddhism 
The Buddha taught that sin will not arise for those who 
do no unwholesome deeds. Unwholesomeness will only 
arise if you do unwholesome deeds, as we can see from 
the proverbs: 
Natthi pApaO akubbato 
No unwholesomeness accrues to those who do no 
unwholesome deeds Dh. v. 124 and 
AttanA pakataO pApaO attanA 
attanA akataO pApaO attanA 'va visujjhati 
Unwholesomeness accrues personally to those 
who do unwholesome deeds. Those who do no 
unwholesome deeds remain pure. 
Nd.32 
If you don't do any unwholesome deeds, there will be 
no unwholesome consequences. If you do un-
wholesome deeds you will receive unwholesome 
consequences. You don't find that one person does 
unwholesome deeds and another person receives the 
consequences. If a father eats a meal, he will be full. 
His son will be left hungry. It is never the case that the 
father eats a meal and his son has his appetite satisfied 
thereby! Thus in Buddhism unwholesomeness arises for 
a person as a result of the un 
wholesome deeds they do. Unwholesomeness arises in 
the mind of that person (not in their feet or hands etc.) 
Unwholesome will attach itself to the mind of the doer 
and will stain the mind of that person making the mind 
dull and clouded. 
Unwholesome for Buddhists is produced by action of 
body, speech or mind which leads to unwholesomeness 
in the mind. The result of practising discipline until 
attaining self-discipline is to remove oneself from the 
influence of the Tenfold Path of Unwholesomeness 
[akusaladhammapatha] (see Blessing Nine p.2). The 
Buddha analysed unwholesome states in a very detailed 
way, because he wanted us to be able to keep up with 
the changes occurring in our own minds. He expected 
us even to be able to recognize vengefulness arising in 
our own minds and withdraw from a situation before it 
worsens to anger, cruelty or aggression. 
C2 Characteristics of Unwholesomeness 
In fact many of the dynamics of unwholesomeness are 
the same as for merit but they take their action in the 
opposite way. It is the residue of unwholesome karma 
which can be done with body, speech or mind. They are 
like poisons for the mind where merit is a food. 
Unwholesomeness will tend to cloud the mind, worsen 
the quality of the mind, it can be accumulated, it 
belongs to the person who did its originating evil deed, 
as it gives its fruits it will be exhausted, the amount of 
demerit depends on the strength of intention, amount of 
effort and the amount of ingratitude of the originating 
deed, and it will attract misfortune at four levels: mind, 
personality, lifestyle and society. 
I. Level of mind: The first level of description at 
which unwholesomeness brings retribution is at the 
level of the mind. The retribution includes clouding 
the mind, decreasing the quality of the mind, 
bringing unease of mind, making the mind more 
unstable, making the mind less flexible, making the 
mind less radiant, decreasing the potential of the 
mind, obstructing decision-making, obstructing in-
sightful analysis of any situation, make thinking less 
thorough and comprehensive, obstructing thought 
that is noble or deep; 
EFTA00286689

2. Level of Personality: Damage to the quality of 
the mind brings about the following general changes 
in personality — physical awkwardness, bringing 
ignorance, crudeness and clumsiness, causing a 
decay of tastes and val 
ues, deterioration of character and personality, 
lack of skill in speech, deterioration of behaviour, 
more impatience, less control over temper, 
worsened personal appearance, more anxieties. 
3. Level of Lifesryle: Unwholesomeness will take its 
effect on ow mind and our personality immediately 
whenever we perform an unwholesome action. At 
the third level, that of the lifestyle, however, we 
cannot be sure how quickly the damage will be 
manifested because ow quality of lifetime arises as 
the result of both present and past deeds. General 
disadvantages include failure, condemnation, 
vulnerability to misfortune, lack of attainment, 
disappointment in the things we wish for. 
4. Level of Society: Beyond the level of lifestyle, 
accumulated collective results of the unwhole-
someness of many people together will give rise to: 
Sorrow, disharmony, injustice, aggression, lack of 
progress, hardship at the social and family levels 
C.3 Purifying oneself from unwholesomeness 
In Buddhism unwholesomeness arises as the residue of 
our own unwholesome deeds. Unwholesomeness which 
we have accrued for ourselves will stay with us until it 
gives its retribution. To do good deeds does not even out 
the bad ones we have done 
— they are like two separate bank accounts. However, 
if we would like to reduce the effect of un-
wholesomeness you have accrued for yourself in the 
past is to do as many good deeds as you can, thereby to 
dilute the relative amount of unwholesomeness in your 
karmic history (as already mentioned in Blessing 16, 
§A. 1, A.2). 
D. ABSTAINING FROM UNWHOLE-SOMENESS 
D.I Definitions 
This blessing uses two words to describe the way in 
which unwholesomeness can be eradicated from 
the mind. `Arad' means giving up any unwholesome 
habits which we have picked up in the past 
— i.e. eradication:Viral(' means not picking up any 
further types of unwholesome habit — i.e. by avoid-
ance. 
D.2 Strategies for abstinence 
The way we practice eradication and avoidance of 
unwholesomeness depends on the exact type of 
unwholesomeness. Even medicine needs to be sepa-
rated into different classes such as internal, external, 
vitamins etc. for convenience in using them to cure 
illnesses. In the same way if we understand the different 
sorts of unwholesomeness, we will be thorough in our 
giving up and avoidance of unwholesomeness 
behaviours and practice will be more convenient for us. 
Unwholesomeness is categorized according to its 
refinement and the appropriate way to avoid such 
unwholesomeness depends on their refinement. 
D.2.I Gross unwholesomeness 
Gross unwholesomeness includes physical and verbal 
misdeed such as killing, stealing, committing adultery 
and lying. No-one stops doing evil by accident. One has 
to start with the intention to avoid evil. It is like the 
person who wants to give up smoking has to start with 
the intention to give up smoking first of all. The 
intention to avoid evil is called "virati" in the Pali or 
"veramaAE" which you will recognize from the 
requesting of the Precepts. In fact there are three ways 
in which people avail themselves of the intention to 
avoid evil (DA.i.305, KhA.142). 
I. Situational avoidance [sampattavirati]: This 
means avoidance of evil on a situational basis. There 
is no public declaration that a person will avoid evil 
in advance — he decides on the spur of the moment 
when confronted with the situation. If you see a fish 
washed up on the beach and you decide on the spur 
of the moment to throw it back into the water out of 
compassion, rather than killing it — this is the sort of 
avoidance which we call sampattavirati. Perhaps you 
would turn in a lost wallet with all of the money 
instead of keeping it for yourself, for fear of being ac 
EFTA00286690

cused of stealing. Such avoidance of evil occurs 
as the result of the important ability to teach 
oneself i.e. the fear and shame of evil or the 
consequences of evil [hiri-ottappa]. 
2. Planned Avoidance [samAdAnavirati]: This 
means avoidance of evil by formally requesting the 
giving of the precepts by a monk. Some people 
simply make a vow to keep the Precepts each day in 
front of the shrine. Even if someone were to give 
you a bottle of beer, not because you are ashamed to 
do so, but because you have taken the Five Precepts 
that day, you will turn down the offer for fear of 
breaking your vow. 
3. Transcendental Avoidance 
[samuccheda-
virati]: This is absolute avoidance of evil of the type 
achieved by those who have attained the stages of 
Buddhist sainthood. Their mind is on such a high 
level, that even the intention to do the evil doesn't 
enter into the mind, let alone the outcomes of evil 
thought like speech or action. 
Although there are different ways of abstaining from 
unwholesomeness, in practice, keeping the Precepts is 
the most workable. The Precepts are the means by 
which gross unwholesomeness can be avoided. Thus we 
use the Five Precepts, the Eight Precepts, the Ten 
Precepts and the 227 Precepts. 
D.2.2 Medium unwholesomeness 
Unwholesomeness at the medium level is anything that 
causes the mind to wander away from the centre of the 
body. The further the mind wanders from the centre of 
the body, the more damaging will be the things which 
the mind will think about — and the amount of 
unwholesomeness will increase in proportion.This is 
the reason why we must practice meditation as the way 
to bring the mind back from all those negative thoughts 
to the centre of the body. 
Supposing you are walking along and stub your toe on 
a step. When you are angry, your mind will go to the 
step. If you can bring the mind back to the centre of the 
body again, then the anger disappears. Even if you are 
not able to bring the mind back immediately, the 
sooner you can bring the mind back 
the sooner will you recover from the anger. If you are 
slow in bringing your mind back, before long your 
thoughts will elaborate onto who to blame and how to 
get your revenge. 
The same principles apply to greed. Whenever you see 
something as beautiful, it will cause your mind to be pulled 
away from the centre of the body to be with the beautiful 
thing. If your mind is away from the centre of the body for 
long enough, the thoughts that follow on will be thoughts of 
envy and how to obtain the thing for yourself, even if it is by 
dishonest means. If you see something as beautiful, if you 
want to maintain your quality of mind, then you should 
quickly bring your mind back to the centre of your body, 
repeat the mantra SammA-Arahao to yourself and be quickly 
on your way. 
Therefore, when we talk about unwholesomeness at this 
level, we mean the distancing of the mind from the 
centre of the body andthe associated negative thoughts. 
These negative ways of thinking can be categorizedas 
five sorts of mental hindrance [nivaraAa]. Most people 
overlook the damage of them. In fact they seriously 
impede your opportunity to do good deeds 
1. Sense-desire [kAmachanda]: 
2.1111011 [byApAda]: 
3. Sloth and Torpor [thEnamiddha]: 
4. Absent-mindedness [uddhacca-kukkucca] 
5. Doubt [vicikicchA]: 
Hindrances can be overcome by the practice of 
meditation until one-pointedness [ekaggatA] of mind 
can be achieved. Some days we meditate well. Other 
days we have to compete with many obstacles. All this 
is part of the fight against impurities in the mind. Thus 
don't think that if your meditation still seems to have 
many obstacles it is of no merit. In fact it is a fight 
against the unwholesome in the mind. One day in the 
future you achieve total victory. 
D.23 Subtle unwholesomeness 
Subtle unwholesomeness is yet harder to observe. 
These fetters [anusaya] (D.iii.254, A.iv.8, Vbh.383) are 
like habits that stop us achieving the path to Nirvana: 
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I. Sensual grasping [IcAmarAga]: 
2. Irritability [paEigha] 
3. Wrong View [diEthi] 
4. Doubt [vicikicchA]: 
5. Looking down on others [mAna] 
6. Grasping for existence [bhAvarAga] 
7. Ignorance [avijjA] 
You have to overcome such defilements by attaining 
the DhammakAya and using the DhammakAya for 
insight meditation to uproot them. 
D.3 Developing Conscience as Protection from 
Unwholesome Behaviour 
Sometimes we know that ow behaviour is unwholesome, 
but we carry on doing it nonetheless. In order to strengthen 
one's conscience, 
the 
Buddha 
recommended 
the 
cultivation of two additional virtues — that of being 
ashamed of unwholesomeness [hid] and fear of the 
consequences of unwholesomeness [ottappa]. Shame of 
unwholesomeness can be developed by recollecting: 
L Your own human status. You have to think that 
you are a human being and not a savage 
— having attained such a noble birth how can we 
stoop to killing, stealing or adultery? 
2. Your own family. You have to remind yourself 
that your family has been doing good deeds for 
generations — so how can you bear to be the one to 
destroy the family name. 
3. Your own age. If you remind yourself that at your 
age you ought to know better than to mess around 
with various sorts of immorality. 
4. Your own past good deeds You have to think 
how can you bear to spoil your track record 
5. Your own knowledge. You have to think how you 
can be so stupid to do bad things in spite of all you 
have learned. 
6. Your own teachers. You have to think of your 
spiritual teachers and academic teacher and think 
how they would feel about what you are doing. 
Another way of thinking is to remind yourself that 
there are no secrets in the world. If others don't see 
what we are doing, the angels will. Even if the an 
gels don't see, we are still witness to our own deeds. 
Similarly, fear of the consequences of unwhole-
someness can be developed by recollecting: 
Later Regret. If we were to do an unwhole-
some thing like this, it is not worth it because we will 
only regret it later. 
2 
Criticism: If we were to do an unwholesome 
thing like this, it is not worth it because others will 
criticize us for it. 
3 
Retribution: If we were to do an unwholesome 
thing like this, it is not worth it because we will only be 
punished later or receive the bad karma. 
4 
Hell Realms: If we were to do an unwhole-
some thing like this, it is not worth it because we will 
only be born in hell. 
In conclusion we can say that unwholesomeness is not 
just breaking the Precepts but it is what happens to the 
mind whenever the mind is distanced from the centre of 
the body. To avoid unwholesome we have to train the 
mind to return and establish itself permanently at the 
centre of the body. In the beginning we have to keep the 
Precepts, at an intermediate level we have to train 
ourselves in meditation until we can attain the 
DhammakAya. When we attain DhammakAya we can 
meditate oninsight and uproot the refined defilements 
from the mind too. In order to inspire yourself to train 
in keeping the Precepts and meditate conscientiously 
you should cultivate these hand-in-hand with your con-
science. 
E. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES 
£1 Metaphor: Just as we must freshen ourselves up... 
Just as we have to freshen ourselves up thoroughly 
before dressing up smart, before we avail ourselves of 
the higher virtues we have to make sure we are 
completely free of remaining unwholesomeness. 
E.2 Er. Cakkana and the Rabbit SAiLl12, MA.LI65, 
DhsA.103 
There is a story of a young man whose mother was ill 
with a bad back. The doctor said the only way to cure 
the disease is to treat it with fresh rabbit blood. 
Because he wanted his mother to be cured he went out 
hunting for rabbits. He caught a rabbit but when 
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he was about to wring its neck, he saw its sad eyes and 
couldn't bring himself to kill it. He let the rabbit go and 
returned home empty handed. 
His brother asked him, "Where's the rabbit?" 
The boy said, he had let the rabbit go so his brother 
shouted at him, "Do you think the life of a rabbit is 
worth more than the life of your own mother?" 
The boy didn't say anything but went and bowed at the feet of 
his mother and said, "Mother I wanted to kill a rabbit to make 
medicine for you but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I 
thought to myself that your illness is only due to the karmic 
retribution of such killing for many lifetimes. Even if I were 
to have killed the rabbit, there is no guarantee that its blood 
would help you to survive. Whether the medicine worked or 
not, the killing would just make for more unwholesome karma 
so we would come across the same predicament in future life
times " 
-
The young boy made an act of truth, saying, "May the 
power of never having killed an animal since I was 
born cause my mother to be cured". 
Because of the boy's virtue and sincerity, miraculously 
the mother was cured. Thus if you keep the Precepts 
properly, when it comes to situations of hardship, your 
resolution will also be effective. This isan example of 
abstinence from unwholesomeness by situational 
avoidance. 
E.3 Er. The Man and the Python (Maigaladtpant 
2./158/129) 
There was once a young man who used to go to the 
temple regularly and request his Precepts from an 
arahant. He didn't have any special virtue except for 
the Precepts he had requested. One day he went to work 
in the forest. On the way a python captured him and 
coiled round him with the intention to crush him. 
Normally, forest travelers will keep a dagger on them 
for such an eventuality. Every time you breath out, the 
python will tighten its coils, but if the victim puts the 
knife between themselves and the coils normally the 
snake will release them.The young man immediately 
pulled out his dagger with the thought to stab the 
python in the head. Then he thought, it is such a rare 
opportunity for me to be 
born at a time when Buddhism is still known and 
practiced. It is so rare for me to be able to meet an 
arahant. If I were to die, I don't know how many more 
lifetimes it would take before I would have a similar 
chance again. If I were to kill this snake then there 
would be no end to the vicious circle of karma. It would 
also break my Precepts. It is also equivalent to lying to 
an arahant. He had to think to himself which was more 
important to him — Precepts or his own life. Finally he 
decided his Precepts were more important so he threw 
away his knife and concentrated at the centre of his 
body. The merit filled his mind. A strange thing 
happened. The snake, even though it was a humble 
beast, suddenly felt sorry for the man and let him go. 
This is an example of abstinence from 
unwholesomeness by planned avoidance. 
E.4 Er. Kukkutamina the Hunter (DhA.iii.24ff) 
In the time of the Buddha there was a woman who had 
been going to the temple with her mother since the age 
of seven. At that time she had already become a 
stream-enterer. A stream-enterer keeps the Precepts 
automatically the whole of the time and is unable to 
break their Precepts. Sense-grasping is still in the mind 
of a stream-enterer, however. Thus even though she 
was a stream-enterer, she still had subtle desires. As the 
daughter of a millionaire she had her own castle and 
each day she would look down from the castle at the 
people coming and going in the market place (because 
she had nothing better to do). One day she saw a hunter 
coming to sell the animals he had killed in the market 
place. She fell in love with him on first sight, and in the 
end eloped with him. Even though she could no longer 
bring herself to kill, steal, commit adultery, lie or drink 
alcohol, she could not help herself falling in love. Be-
fore long she had seven sons. When they married, she 
had another seven daughter in-laws. The Buddha saw 
that the time had come when the family could profit 
from his teaching so he passed by the home of the 
hunter. The Buddha spread loving-kindness so that no 
animals in the area got caught in any of the hunter's 
traps. The Buddha sat in the forest and meditated. 
When the hunter couldn't catch any-
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thing he thought that someone must be stealing the 
animals out of the traps, so he looked for the culprit. He 
saw the footprints of the Buddha and followed them to 
where the Buddha was. The hunter aimed an arrow at 
the Buddha but was unable to shoot and stuck there at 
the spot. All the seven sons came out looking for the 
father, and tried to shoot the Buddha and ended up the 
same as the father, frozen to the spot. Later in the day, 
the woman came out looking for the rest of the family 
along with her daughters 
in-law. When the woman saw the Buddha and what her 
husband was trying to do she called, "That's my own 
father. Don't harm him!" When the sons and father 
heard their mother's voice they thought that the Buddha 
was really her father and so laid down their bows. The 
Buddha was able to teach them until all of them could 
attain stream-entry in that family. From that time 
onwards no-one in the family could kill any more. This 
is an example of abstinence from unwholesomeness by 
transcendental avoidance. 
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Blessing Twenty: 
Restraint from 
Drinking Intoxicants 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.1 Western values concerning alcohol 
Alcohol in the West is a substance primarily associated 
with relaxation and celebration. Most westerners would 
shrink from any hint that alcohol is an agent of mass 
destruction. However, consider some of the following 
national statistics from the USA summarized in a 
Scientific American report in June 1998 (p.67): 
In the West before the popularity of tea and coffee in the 
late eighteenth century, alcohol was claimed to be one of 
the 
only 
hygenic 
drinks 
available. 
Although 
Judeo-Christian teachings prevalent in the west have never 
supported drunkenness, they have portrayed alcohol 
consumption as a necessary coping mechanism in the face 
of social hardship: 
Alcohol consumption contributes annually to 
100,000 deaths in the USA alone. 
• 
Alcoholism is the third most common preventable 
cause of death alter smoking and obesity. 
• 
14-20 million Americans have some history of thdWine has even been incorporated into the most sacred 
lives being disrupted by their relations with alcohol. 
of Christian ceremonies — the Mass. Historically 
• 
An estimated 40% of Americans have been inti- speaking, the escalation in the seriousness of alcohol 
mately exposed to the effects of alcohol abuse through a problems has been accelerated as the distilled liquor 
family member. 
products have become more readily available on the 
• 
As many as 12,000 children born annually to 
market. Research as early as 1813 established the 
drinking mothers in the US have mental and physical 
connection between alcohol consumption and liver 
deficiencies as a result of their exposure to alcohol in utertmiscasc, jaundice, wasting and mental disfunction. 
"Give strong drink unto him that is ready 
to perish, and wine unto those that be of 
heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his 
poverty, and remember his misery no 
more." (Proverbs 31) 
The mores and traditions of ow era form a veil of 
self-satisfying myths which often blind us to the 
damage alcohol consumption actually brings to modern 
society — and perhaps by understanding how deeply 
alcohol is woven into Western culture, can we take care 
not to have the wool pulled over our eyes too! 
Indeed, alcohol consumption has not gone completely 
unopposed in the West — however, in Christian circles 
such opposition has mostly come in the form of 
temperance rather than abstinence. It was Methodist 
values backed by clinical research which led to the 
American Prohibition from 1920 to 1933. 
Because of its long history of acceptance in 
Judeo-Christian culture alcohol remains deeply rooted 
in the Western idea of respectability. Thus, as we pur-
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