EFTA00286476

out any thought of the negative repurcussions for 
others in society or the harm brought by fanning the 
flames of greed. No matter how much is earned, 
even in unscrupulous ways, it is never enough to 
satisfy the appetites of those addicted to materialism. 
Expenditures exceed spending power and when the 
businessmen concerned cannot earn money fast 
enough by scrupulous methods then they will soon 
resort to dishonest ones 
— like puppets dancing on the strings of the de-
filements of greed in the mind. As such one goes 
through life distancing oneself further and further 
from all reasonableness and moderation — for one 
key reason — the lack of contentment. 
Social progress requires both contentment and the 
investment of effort. Effort needs to be regulated by 
contentment just as a powerful car needs to have a good 
set of brakes. Without contentment, efforts made will 
tend to be excessive, misplaced and vulnerable to 
risk-taking. Thus contentment is one of the most vital 
virtues contained in the Blessings. It is for progress at 
individual, family and even national levels. The mind 
of someone versed in contentment will always be ripe 
for the fruition of other higher virtues instilled there. 
Those who know contentment will be able to cultivate 
all manner of virtues without risking 'burnout'. Virtue 
will always be cultivated with the most honest of 
intentions. When society fails to make progress or 
progresses slowly, it is not because people are content, 
but on the contrary because of those lacking in 
contentment who constantly undermine the fair 
economic system. 
D. I Danger of discontentment 
The trouble with discontent is that it develops from an 
insignificant emotions in the mind into more and more 
serious attachments — until it becomes wanting 
without end. The point of studying about the 
symptomology of greed is that you can more easily 
learn to catch yourself before the symptoms become too 
serious. You can observe your own tendencies by 
examining the symptoms of greed as they develop in 
your own mind. This is the nature of the escalation of 
greed in the mind. In what follows we will examine the 
way in which greed progresses from subtle emotions to 
powerful and damaging 
temptation. In essence greed has many components and 
as it gets worse, more and more components become 
involved: 
• 
attraction (or preference) [rati]; 
• 
attachment (wanting it for ourselves) [icchA]; 
• 
losing our consideration for others [mahicchA]; 
• 
losing our scruples about how to earn the 
money to pay for what we want (pApicchA]; 
• 
losing our scruples about exploiting others 
[lobha]; 
• 
getting down to out and out stealing 
[adinnadAna]. 
The last involves a total loss of conscience in this 
matters again undermining our discretion in the manner 
of the recklessness we studied in the most recent 
lecture. 
In conclusion, from someone who likes something, we 
become someone who is attracted to it — from being 
attracted to it, we want to own it — from wanting to own 
it, we want own it so strongly that we are not interested in 
anyone else's feelings concerning it 
— from being interested in nothing else but owning it, 
we would even do evil to own it — making people 
suffer throughoutthe neighbourhood. This is how 
something seemingly benign like discontent dete-
riorates into a serious social evil. 
D.2 Objects of Discontent 
In general there are four types of things that are the 
objects of peoples discontent: 
1. greed for power: those who get elected as a member 
of parliament and they are not content, wanting to be 
prime minister. 
Z greed for possessions: those who have pearls and 
want diamonds, they get diamonds and want rubies etc. 
etc.. Someone who used to live in a hovel and wants to 
get a house. When they get a house they want to get a 
mansion. When they get a mansion they want a palace. 
When they get a palace, they still want to be king of the 
world. 
3. greed for food (overeating): some people are not 
interested in power or possessions as long as they can 
get their hands on delicacies to eat. 
4. promiscuity: they have a family in every new 
town they visit. All of these things can be the source of 
discontent. 
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D.3 Acquisition with and without discontent 
If we want to have something that belongs to someone 
else, but by honest means, for example if you want a 
new Mercedes and it costs a million so you save up to 
buy it (such a feeling is not succumbing to discontent) 
— however, if you have a salary of a million per month, 
but you think to cheat someone else in order to get the 
Mercedes you want, instead of paying for it (discontent 
is at work in the mind for sure). Wanting to obtain 
things is not wrong in itself, if it doesn't lead us to lose 
our scruples about exploiting others. If you really want 
to buy a Mercedes and you save up your salary to buy 
it, that is not discontent. However, if you can't wait and 
get involved in corruption to boost your earnings, then 
that is submission to the discontent. And eventually it 
will lead to greed for things without end. 
aspects of career progress will come to us automatically 
by the fact one is devoted and enthusiastic about ow 
present position. Similarly, if one feels as if one's 
married relationship is going badly, before harbouring 
discontentand thinking that a new spouse would fix the 
problem, one should try cultivating contentment with 
one's present spouse by practising one's duties (see 
Blessing 13) towards them to the best of one's ability. 
E.2 Principles for administering one's possessions 
Principles concerning assets 
I. Acquisition: When acquiring assets, you should earn 
them in a scrupulous way without having to take 
advantage of other people to do so — not breaking the 
law, breaking with custom, breaking one's Precepts or 
breaking with virtue. 
2. Expenditure: When using your wealth, you should 
E. CULTIVATING CONTENTMENT IN EVERY AM stingy — but you should also not be extravagent. 
EIFEarning one's living contentedly 
You should not be reluctant to use what you have 
In Buddhism, the purpose of earning one's living is 
earned for your own welfare and the welfare of those 
nothing more than to procure sufficient of the basic 
closest to you — while at the same time practising 
requisites of life to support one's physical needs, so 
generosity, sharing with others and for good works. 
that one can use one's time, strength and ability to do 
what is really important in life — namely to cultivate 
the maximum possible virtues in the space of one's life. 
Buddhism has never seen the working life or the 
accrual of material assets as an end in itself. Thus 
Buddhists define the economic and social prosperity of 
a country as being in inverse proportion to the number 
of people on the poverty line rather than in proportion 
to the amount of money in the national treasury, in 
keeping with the saying: 
"the absence of poverty is a better measure of a 
nation's success than the number of wealthy 
people" 
To cultivate happiness and progress one should start by 
contentment for what one already has — doing one's 
duties to the best of one's abilities without hankering 
unduly after other things. For example, if one has the 
position of 'head of department' at work, and would 
like to experience both job satisfaction and progress in 
one's career, one should start with contentment for 
one's own position and doing one's duty to the best of 
one's ability. Apart from being happy at work, 
promotion and other 
3. Attitude: One should not worship money but should 
see it as a means or a tool by which one can live one's 
life. 
E.3 Cultivating Contentment 
I. Daily Reflections: There is a habitual reflection 
contained in the Evening Chanting: We are of a nature 
to age, we have not yet gone beyond aging — we are of 
a nature to sicken, we have not yet gone beyond 
sickening — we are of a nature to die, we have not yet 
gone beyond dying." If we think habitually of the 
limited nature of our life it will help to reduce the time 
we waste greedily chasing after desires for things that 
are ultimately unimportant to our real well-being 
2. Moderation in eating: Train yourself to know 
moderation in eating. Eat to live rather than living to 
eat! If you can appreciate moderation in simple things, 
it will be easier to know contentment in more complex 
ones. 
3. Generosity: If we often give things to others it will 
help us to overcome greed. 
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4 Keeping Eight Precepts: 
Keeping the Eight 
Precepts, especially the Third Precept of abstaining 
from sexual relations, will directly train us to overcome 
greed concerning the opposite sex. The Sixth Precept of 
not taking food in the evening will help us to overcome 
our interest in food. The Seventh Precept of not wearing 
jewelry or make-up will train us to be content with 
ourselves as we are. The Eighth Precept of not sleeping 
on a luxurious bed will train us not to be overcome with 
desire for comfort. 
5. Meditate every day: When the mind becomes more 
refined, our temptation to hunger for power and fame 
will be reduced. 
If you have a good friend, never ask them for the thing 
they love the most, it may cost you your friendship —
unless they give it to you without your asking. 
E4 Monastic Life as training in contentment 
Since ancient times, Thai society has had a way of 
training in contentment which has always been very 
efficient in instilling contentment in its people — this 
ancient training is the tradition of temporary ordination. 
There is a tradition in Thailand for young men to take 
temporary ordination as a monk at the age of around 
twenty-years old. Usually the ordination is no longer 
than three months, however it gives the ordinands the 
chance to experience inner happiness first hand, and 
especially the happiness that comes from knowing 
contentment. Those who ordain as monks are allowed 
to use only the bare minimum of material requisites, 
namely three robes and a bowl — one's living is earned 
by almsround — such a simple life without worries 
about material wealth easily facilitates the freedom of 
mind which gives rise to the subtle states of inner 
happiness — allowing those with the chance to ordain 
to understand the importance to their happiness of 
attaining contentment in life. 
F. ILLUSTATIVE EXAMPLES 
F.1 Metaphor: A drop can fill a glass but a river 
cannot fill the sea ... 
Even the smallest drop of water can make the dif-
ference between whether a bottle is full is not. On the 
other hand no much water you may have you 
cannot cause the ocean to overflow. In the same way, 
even a small amount of money can make a difference to 
a person who knows contentment. On the other hand, 
no matter how much wealth you may have, for those 
who don't know contentment, it will only add to that 
person's discontent. 
F.2 EL Happy beggar, discontent businessman 
There was a minister of commerce who told the story of 
two events he came across in the same day which had 
impressed him from that day to this. He left his home one 
day and passed a beggar in the street. In his family there 
was a tradition that they would never pass a request for 
help unanswered 
— how much they helped someone in need depended — but 
they would never refuse someone help. To give a beggar a 
cent would normally be a lot, but that day in his pocket there 
was no loose change. He had to open up his wallet where the 
smallest note was a five-dollar bill. He gave the five dollar 
bill to the beggar. The beggar was so happy that he bowed 
down on the pavement at the feet of the minister. The beggar 
said that he had been a beggar since he was a child and today 
was the first time in his life he had met someone so generous 
as to give him five dollars. The beggar's eyes shone with 
appreciation.The beggar's delight gave the minister a certain 
cheerfulness to start his day. 
When the minister reached the ministry, he met a bank 
manager with a pained expression of woe on his face. 
The minister asked whether the banker was ill. The 
banker said,"I am so upset I haven't slept for a week. I 
told my son to order a certain product that was bound to 
be missing from the market, right from early in the 
year. The son didn't believe me at first so he made his 
order a little late. Only the first order had been ahead of 
the competitor. For the second and third lots, there had 
been sales competition from other companies. The son 
should have had a profit of 100 million this year, but 
because he didn't believe me, he could only manage a 
profit of 60 million. We have lost 40 million we could 
have had." 
The minister expressed his condolences and entered his 
office and that day, could hardly get any work done, 
because of his musing about the ways 
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of the world — a beggar who is happy all day with a 
five dollar bill and a banker who cannot sleep because 
he only got a profit of sixty million. He sat and 
wondered whether even if he managed to achieve 
miracles as the minister of commerce whether anyone 
would be happier as the result. 
F.3 Ex. AsitAbhu JAtaka (1.234) 
There was a prince in the time of the Buddha who already 
had a wife, but he wasn't content with her. If his father 
wasn't vigilant he would mess around with the maids in 
the royal court. One day the king discovered his son's evil 
ways so he banished him into the forest. If it had been 
anyone else he would have had them executed. 
The prince escaped into the forest with his wife and the two of 
them lived in a hovel. Instead of realizing the peril of 
non-contentment with one's own spouse, one day the prince 
saw some female kinnarees in the forest so he left his wife in 
the hovel and ran after the  
rees trying to catch one as a 
wife. The wife despaired and went to a hermit in the forest, 
asking him to teach her how to meditate. With the 
determination and lack of attachments in the world, before 
long the wife was able to meditate so well she was able to 
float in the air and flew away from the forest leaving the 
prince to his ignorance. The prince couldn't catch any 
kinnarees . When he returned to the hovel, even his old wife 
hadn't waited for him. So he sat in his hovel and cried like a 
drowned and helpless rat. 
Even today, them are people with the same tendency. 
You ask them if they would like a wife. They think 
having a wife would satisfy them. But when married if 
they could have another mistress or two, they would 
certainly feel that it would add a little more spice to life 
— and if they had four or five mistresses — the more 
the merrier. They are not content with what they 
receive. Even if you were to give them a mountain of 
gold they would not be content. 
F.4 Er. Kumbhaghosaka DhAj.321ff 
In the time of the Lord Buddha, there was an outbreak 
of an infectious disease. In the home of a millionaire, 
the two parents decided they were too old to escape the 
infection, but they 
told their son to run away as far as he could to save his 
own life. Before the son went, the father pointed out 
where all the family treasure was buried. The son cried 
to think that he had to leave his parents to die, but all 
the same he fled despite being only 12.13 years of age 
at that time. In ten years time he returned to his home-
town. The disease had long subsided. He thought of 
digging up the treasure, but he decided that it was not 
yet appropriate for him to obtain a fortune. He thought 
that if anyone saw him with a fortune, they would think 
that he had stolen it, so he might be caught by the po-
lice. He also reflected that he had nowhere to store the 
fortune even if he did get it — because he still had no 
house of his own — so to have the fortune would put 
his own life at risk. 
Therefore he waited and took a job working as a guard in the 
house of a wealthy family, ringing the bell to tell the family 
the time of day. One day King BimbasAra heard the sound of 
the man ringing the bell in the morning and could tell at once 
that the person ringing the bell was no ordinary person but a 
rich man. The king sent a courtier to see the man and she 
came back to the king to report that the guard ringing the bell 
was no rich man, but just a guard employed in a rich 
household. The king would not believe her therefore the 
courtier found ways of finding out the background of the man 
until she found out that he was the owner of a fortune. 
King BimbasAra thus summoned the man curious to find out 
why he lived like a poor man even though he was heir to a 
treasure. The man told the king the reason why he was waiting 
for the appropriate time to take advantage of his fortune. The 
king told him that the time had now come to dig up the 
treasure. The young man dug up his fortune and the king 
made him the treasurer of the kingdom as the result of his 
wisdom and patience in the use of his savings. 
The wisdom of this man has a useful message 
especially for ladies who are tempted to wear expensive 
jewelry beyond their means and even for ladies who 
dress provocatively. 
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F.5 Er. Paticuposatka Atoka (J.490) 
There was once a hermit that had a pet bear. One day the bear 
was bored of the food it was given so it decided to go into the 
town to look for delicacies to eat. The bear disappeared into 
town, but before it could get its paws on anything to eat, the 
town dwellers chased the bear away with arrows and spears. 
The bear returned covered in blood to the dwelling of the 
hermit and had no more discontent. The bear learned from its 
hard lesson, and decided to take the Eight Precepts and would 
no longer take an evening meal even if the hermit offered it 
food at that time. When the hermit asked why the bear didn't 
accept food, the bear said it had decided to keep Eight 
Precepts to learn to be content with the food it was given. 
The same JAtaka told the story of a past life of 
Devadatta when he was born as a greedy fox. The fox 
found the carcass of an elephant recently died and 
licked its lips. It made its way inside the body of the 
elephant through one of the openings and started to eat 
the soft inner organs of the elephant. When the fox was 
full it fell asleep where it lay, inside the elephant, for a 
day or two. In the sun, the carcass of the elephant 
started to dry out and the bodily openings all closed 
trapping the fox inside. The fox was trapped there for 
seven days until the fox was thin. Only then did it rain 
and when the bodily openings loosened, the fox was 
able to escape with its life, but it was so shocked by the 
whole experience that it wanted to overcome its attach-
ment to food and so kept the Eight Precepts from that 
day forth. 
F.6 Ex. SuraAAahat5sa JAtaka(J.136) 
There was a greedy bhikkhuAi who was the origin for 
the Vinaya rule for bhikkhuAis not being allowed to eat 
garlic. The bhikkhuAi called TulAnandA loved to eat 
garlic and one day she became acquainted with a garlic 
farmer. The farmer thought that a bhikkhuAi should 
know moderation in eating so he pointed to the garlic 
field saying, whenever you want any garlic, just go to 
the field caretaker and tell him I gave you permission to 
help yourself. The bhikkhuAi picked cartloads of garlic 
and the neighbours gossiped and spread it about 
that the bhikkhuAi was shameless. The farmer himself 
didn't know what to say. 
The news reached the Buddha so the Buddha made the 
simple rule that bhikkhuAis may no longer eat garlic. The 
Buddha looked at the past lives of the bhikkhuAi and 
caused pictures of those previous lives to manifest 
themselves for the bhikkhuAi and others to see. 
TulAnandA had been a female Brahmin with a husband and a 
daughter. The Brahmin died but because of not understanding 
the working of merit had done both good and bad deeds. The 
Brahmin was born as a golden goose. The goose was able to 
recognize his former wife and daughter in their poverty and 
shed its golden feathers for them to ameliorate their poverty, 
feather by feather. In that lifetime, TulAnandA had also been 
greedy. She wanted more than just a few feathers and a few 
days later plucked the goose bare and shut the goose away in 
a coop. From that day forth, the goose could no longer 
produce golden feathers. With its new conventional plumage 
the goose flew away and did not return. The mother and 
daughter thus returned to poverty and starvation. 
A clear message from such stories is that if you are 
going to help someone, you have to observe first 
whether they know moderation first or not. 
F.7 Er. A stray dog grown fat 
If you notice the habits of a mangy, starved dog — if 
you give it a bowlful of offal it will be glad of even this 
and will finish the whole plate. However, if you feed it 
offal for seven days, if after a week there is no meat in 
its bowl it will start to refuse food. If you continue to 
give it better food, in no time it will be climbing on the 
table competing with the master for the food on his 
plate. If you meet this sort of stray dog, you have no 
alternative but to chase it away, because it is a dog of 
the sort that never knows enough. 
Not only animals are like this — even some people, 
although they may not be at all poor, never know 
enough of a good thing. The richer they get, the richer 
they want to be. Even when they are quite comfortable 
in their own lifestyle, they will still go out of their way 
to take advantage of others to 
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widen their own profit margin. There have been society in all cases. The illness such people suffer such people in 
every period of history and they from is that they `never know enough' of something have brought only suffering 
and degradation to or to be more specific, they lack contentment. 
EFTA00286741

Blessing Twenty-Five: 
Gratitude 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.I Blessing Twenty-five in the order of things 
This blessing is the twenty fifth step on the stairway of 
Buddhist practice. In fact we have already come across 
much of the material in this unit already in the 
preceding units — such as 
Blessing Three 'Paying 
Respect to those worthy of respect', Blessing Twelve 
'Cherishing 
One's 
Parents, 
Blessing 
Thirteen 
'Cherishing One's children and Blessing Seventeen 
'Cherishing One's extended family.' Sometimes it 
looks as if much of the material is repeated but in fact 
there are new things to study which go beyond the 
mundane household situations already discussed —
because in this Blessing, gratitude is considered 
particularly in the context of the learning of virtue. This 
is why the Lord Buddha chose to give special 
consideration to this virtue for the purposes of Group 
VII of the Blessings. 
A.2 The Rarity of Altruism 
In the words of the Lord Buddha, there are two very 
rare sorts of people [dullabha-puggala] in the world 
(A.i.87): 
I. those who initiate favours to others [pubbakArE] 
— whether they be our parents, relatives, elders, 
monks, the Lord Buddha or the King — it is no 
accident for someone to mature into a person who 
values virtue and who is dedicated to the cultivation of 
virtue; 
2. those who are grateful and repay the benefits they 
receive from others [katafiliEmkatavedt]. 
Such altruism is hard to find amongst people in general 
because it requires a high degree of spiritual maturity. 
According to the research of psychologist Lawrence 
Kohlberg (late 1950's), ow wish to help others around 
us is a form of maturity that we acquire with age, we 
tend to start out in life selfish, but become less 
self-centred as we mature. From birth to age eleven 
children tend to be motivated mainly by self-interest —
being mainly interested in avoiding punishment and 
maximising rewards from their parents and teachers. 
During the teenage years, motivation shifts to give more 
credance to social approval — they need to be liked by 
their peers or else to conform to social order such as 
staying on the right side of the Law. Only those who 
manage to extricate themselves from the mind frame of 
a teenager does a person's ethical motivation move onto 
considerations of social contract such as not doing 
something because of being obliged not to or Universal 
Rights such as those characterized by the spiritual 
traditions. Altruism belongs to this final category of 
abstract ideals. From such research we learn two things: 
• 
that an altruist is rare and that without an attitude 
of gratitude from those on the receiving end of such 
altruism it will surely become still harder to find; 
• 
that we cannot underestimate the role of social 
contract in bolstering our efforts to do good deeds; 
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A.3 Gratitude in the Cultivation of Virtue 
This second observation is borne out by experience. 
Although by this stage in the Blessings we ought to be 
beyond the self interest of 'reward' and 'punishment', 
we are not yet at a level where our patience is at the 
level of abstract ideals unaffected by emotions. 
Therefore we still have to use social approval 
(especially the approval of those to whom we owe a 
debt of gratitude) to give ourselves extra moral 
leverage. Somehow if left to our own devices we can 
succumb all too easily to temptation. Harder than 
simply doing good deeds, is to keep one's en-
couragement for the cultivation of good deeds going 
indefinately — rather than giving up at the first 
obstacle to come along. It is the nature of cultivating 
virtue that one must always come up against obstacles 
and hindrances — sometimes problems from our 
associates or our immediate surroundings, sometimes 
inner problems from the working of our defilements. 
Not to succumb to discouragement in the face of such 
hardships needs special strategies which we can use to 
help us overcome our tendencies to backslide in the 
cultivation of goodness: 
L patience [khanti]: Such patience particularly needs 
development of 'shame of evil' [hiri] and 'fear of the 
consequences of evil' [ottappa] — and can eventually 
allow us to be a good teacher to ourselves 
[yonisomanasikAra]. When we are not sufficiently 
definitive in our own mind to keep to our own 
principles, sometimes we need to give ourselves some 
extra moral leverage by thinking of the other people 
who our behaviour affects. Patience will be developed 
to the full in Blessing Twenty-Seven. 
2. respect [gArava]: Sometimes, even though we know 
full well that something is wrong, we still do it, because 
we lack the patience. Because our patience is not yet 
fully developed (we didn't complete Blessing 
Twenty-seven yet), it will reach a dead-end or a ceiling 
if we don't develop the virtues of respect and gratitude 
(together with the wish to repay the debt of gratitude) in 
relation to our spiritual teachers too. Respect doesn't 
just mean bowing or expressing reverence towards 
one's teacher, it means using our sincer 
est effort and ability to ensure the transfer of the 
virtues of the teacher towards ourselves — and to rid 
ourselves of our remaining bad habits — to the point 
that all their goodness becomes ours and they 
become a part of us — while avoiding the 
temptation to dwell on any faults the teacher may 
still have — and avoiding the temptation to answer 
back whenever the spiritual teacher delegates work 
or gives advice.If we recall our debt of gratitude to 
them, sometimes, even if we couldn't be bothered to 
make the effort for ourselves, we would still do it 
"just for them". 
3. gratitude 
[katafiftE]: 
Sometimes 
what our 
teacher asks of us exceeds the threshold of our patience, 
and even our respect cannot bolster our morale enough 
to keep us going. Sometimes it is because of our limited 
understanding, that we cannot understand by reasoning 
why a teacher has asked us to do one thing or another. 
Such limited understanding is often exactly the same 
reason why we are unable to make any progress in our 
spiritual practice. However if we think to ourselves that: 
"before I got to where I am today I was like the 
majority of other people in the world, up to my 
neck in water, drowning a slow death in the 
shark-infested sea of sense-pleasures [saOsAra]. 
However my teacher came along in his boat, and 
hoisted me to safety. After coming aboard and 
helping to row the boat so that it can go around 
helping to rescue others like my former self who 
are still adrift in the ocean. Although such rowing 
is undisputably hard work, it is a thousand times 
better than being eaten up by sharks. No-one has 
forced my teacher to work his fingers to the bone, 
day-in-day-out to perform this great act of altruism 
in helping other people — my teacher could just as 
easily opt for the quiet life of meditation —
without having to bother about anyone else — thus 
I owe my life to the pure compassion of my 
teacher. Therefore even if I feel tired now and then 
and would prefer to take a rest, out of gratitude I 
realize that for as long as my teacher 
EFTA00286743

doesn't rest from our mission, it is not my place 
to protest "How much longer do we have to wait 
before we can take a rest," or worse than that to 
go about persuading other oarsmen to take a rest 
too." 
We will begin to realize that the difficulties we are 
facing in our personal cultivation are very minor 
when compared to the huge debt of gratitude we 
have to our teacher for ameliorating the course of 
our destiny! 
Thus gratitude is a form of social approval which can be used 
to give leverage in elevating the usual threshold of our 
patience in cultivating virtue to the level of the ideal — even 
beyond the bolstering effect of respect. But something which 
remains of the utmost importance in the cultivation of virtue 
is that we must train ourselves a great deal in the regular 
practice of meditation — especially at times when we must 
'weather out' conflicts or when we are feeling demoralized —
we must be quick to sit for meditation, because otherwise 
hesitation can cost us our career of virtue cultivation. 
Schoolchildren persevere in their studies, often not 
because of their own intent, but out of gratitude to their 
parents 
and 
teachers. 
Similarly 
spiritual 
practitioners,who in spite of their good intentions often 
succumb to petty quibbling with their fellow 
practitioners, can keep themselves on track to 
self-betterment by reminding themselves of their 
gratitude to the Lord Buddha and their spiritual 
teachers, even when their own vocation might be weak. 
Thus gratitude is one of the most important virtues 
which will act as a catalyst to allow even higher virtues 
to be developed in the future. 
B. GRATITUDE AND INGRATITUDE 
B.1 Definitions 
The Pali word for 'gratitude', katafifiE, used in this 
Blessing means recognizing benefit or virtue (in Pali 
the same word `guAa' is used for both commodities). It 
is similar to the western notion of `loyalty' — but 
loyalty to those people or things that have done favours 
for us or brought us benefit in the past. For our 
purposes in this blessing, `katalifiE means: 
L Recognizing benefit brought to us by others: Such 
benefit usually comes to us as the result of an 
intentional effort on behalf of benefactor. In this 
context, the word 'gratitude' is a reasonable translation. 
Z Recognizing the latent benefit: sometimes benefit 
comes to us not by any intentional action, but simply by 
the presence of a personage or a thing with latent virtue. 
An example of this is a paccekabuddha who is 
enlightened and has rid himself of all defilements —
but because he lacks teaching skills is unable to 
transform his latent virtue into benefit for others who 
want to learn from him. It also applies to the benefit of 
things like merit in our mind accumulated by our past 
actions. This second meaning is something we have not 
yet met in the preceding Blessings — and it is not quite 
the same as respect either. 
B.2 Degrees of Gratitude 
When we categorize any sort of thing in the world, we 
have to choose the standards by which we judge them. 
Some people divide up people according to the colour 
of their skin, or their nationality or the level of their 
knowledge, or maybe you can divide them into fools 
and wise men as we have done since the earliest 
Blessings. However, using gratitude as your standard, 
you can divide people into three different types: 
L Able to appreciate favours received front others 
[kataftftu]: This might be compared to virtue at the 
primary school level. Even some animals have virtue at 
this level of development so any person who still lacks 
this virtue should seriously question their own level of 
maturity. If you can already practice virtue at this level 
you can congratulate yourself that you are already more 
advanced than some dogs! 
Z Able to appreciate the favours received front others 
and repays his debt of gratitude to others too 
[katafiftE-katavedE]. This might be compared to virtue 
at the secondary school level. 
3. Being able to appreciate the favours received from 
others and repays his debt of gratitude to others such 
a person also honours the goodness of the person who 
has done that favour 
[pEjA]. This might be compared to virtue at the 
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• univer.earlpunlrhkatiscEIL ithheatIattbighly de- 
3. Treacherer: Such a person goes further than the 
• velopefflarricaohosis(zningigdatitadfa4omeone just 
forgoing — they will not only fail to recognize the 
• thinks,VirtjaisaschaitlarcitkaseadigallusaniF655) 
benefits they have received from others — they bite the 
• bringinkiritecup Iddnailille(aen tiab ElvenryiLpIdcdcidggehand that feeds. They will not stop short of killing those 
estiblithinohheroma4gdhairmajscanitigEbts4C2)to whom they have a debt of gratitude. Such a person 
at the secondary school level. If the person is truly 
might grow up as adopted child in someone's house, 
and as soon as they are old enough, run off with the 
householder's daughter. 
virtuous he will not only repay his debt of gratitude 
to his parents — he will also honour them in some of 
the ways already discussed in Blessing Eleven (§D. 
& E.). If you remember, you can honour people in 
two ways — with gifts [amisapEjA] and also by 
putting into practice what they have taught and 
exemplified for your benefit [paEipatipEjA]. You 
can see the distinction clearly in the case of a person 
who looks after their parents in their old age, but 
they never listen to any advice their parents give —
they do whatever they feel like doing — they never 
think what they might do to keep up the parent's 
inspiration to take concern for their child's 
well-being. 
B.3 Degrees of Ingratitude 
Similarly using ingratitude as your standard, you can 
divide people into three different types: 
L Low-down people: Even though you know that a 
person has done you favours in the past, you don't even 
attempt to repay your debt of gratitude. The Buddha 
didn't go as far as to cause such people wicked but he 
called them 'lowdown' people. Such people often try to 
forget the good things that people have done for them in 
the past. Even a pet dog will help the owner guard the 
house, but if human being doesn't even recognize the 
debt of gratitude they have to another, there is 
something seriously wrong. 
1. Wicked people: Such people are unable even to 
recognize the benefits or favours brought to them by 
others. In the olden days, even a robber wouldn't touch 
the possessions in a house where he had been given a 
free meal. However, the robbers of today are different. 
When they have finished the food they have been given, 
they will steal everything in the house and even hurt the 
householders too. Doing a favour for such a person is 
lost on them. 
Ungrateful people find it very difficult to integrate in 
society because they cannot accept the thinking of 
anyone else. If you are ever on the receiving end of a 
new acquaintance, employee, spouse etc. then always 
examine the degree to which they have or lack 
gratitude. If they have no gratitude and are unable to 
develop it, especially for their own parents, never 
shelter them in your house — no matter how tempting 
it may be to have someone who is very skilled or 
talented close at hand. You may find otherwise, it is 
like letting a cobra into your house. If you find your 
own children have such a tendency, quickly reeducate 
them from an early age, otherwise when they grow up 
there will be no limit to the evil they will be capable of. 
Don't go thinking that they will understand for 
themselves when they get older. You have to take 
responsibility for guiding them from the earliest 
possible age. 
C. OBJECTS OF GRATITUDE 
Cl Comparison between Respect and Gratitude 
There are many parallels between the list of people and 
things worthy of gratitude and those worthy of respect 
already discussed in Blessing Three. Gratitude is 
elicited not merely by a person or a thing that has latent 
virtue — but by the good that person or thing has done 
us. Thus the objects of gratitude tend to be more 
concrete than the corresponding list for 'respect'. Thus 
to avoid repetition, in this Blessing we cover the details 
only of the objects of gratitude not shared with the list 
of objects of respect — with the following list serving 
as a rough-and-ready comparison: 
Personages 
• 
Lord Buddha (see BL Three §C1) 
• 
Community of Enlightened Monks (see M. Three 
§C2) 
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Animals 
• Beasts of Burden 
Inanimate Objects 
• 
Educational Objects (see BL Three §D3) 
• 
Dhamma Scriptures (see BL Three §D2) 
Pagodas (see BL Three §DI) 
Homeland 
Shade-giving Trees 
Goodness 
• Merit 
Yourself 
• Your own health 
C2 Gratitude to Animals 
The people of old were grateful to their beasts of 
burden by which they earned their living. They would 
not use their water buffaloes to plough in the heat of the 
midday sun when it would be torture to the beasts. They 
would find only the best of soft grass and pastures for 
their beasts to graze during their time of rest. They 
would never kill an old beast when it was beyond its 
working life — out of gratitude for all it had helped 
them with. They would maintain the buffalo to the end 
of its days. Some people loved their buffalos and felt 
their debt of gratitude so strongly that they would 
hardly ever beat them and some would even put up a 
mosquito net for the buffalos at night! When the buffalo 
passed away of natural causes, the owner would divide 
up the meat with his neighbours. People in the old days 
would even choose new employees based on the level 
of gratitude they displayed towards their old buffalos. If 
anyone didn't keep buffalo beyond their working age, 
they would not be accepted into a company. 
C3 Gratitude to Inanimate objects 
In the old days, those who took their rest under a tree 
for many years, even though the tree is inani 
mate (it has no mind) people would still be grateful for 
the shade and shelter they had had from it. Maybe they 
will take care of the tree as a result so that others might 
get the same benefit. They might not make a mess 
under such a tree or cut it down. You will miss the 
forests and realize the forests when they're gone. If you 
have gotten benefit even from your meditation centre or 
temple you ought to treat that place with respect. 
Some people might even go as far to reflect as to the 
value they have taken from their homeland, home 
country or even the territory fought for and won by 
one's ancestors, where one has grown up in peace. You 
would know the value of your own country ifyou were 
ever made a refugee and had to leave your own country. 
You will miss it when its gone. 
C4 Merit 
Just as electricity works invisibly to bring us many 
benefits and conveniences, the Lord Buddha discovered 
that there is another force which brings benefit to all of 
our lives, but about which (in general) we understand 
little of the workings — and that is merit — which had 
brought all forms of success and happiness into ow 
lives. It gives us life and strength and protects us from 
handicap at birth. It brings us material comfort and 
intelligence. Most of us are new to meditation so we are 
still not particularly versed in the real value of merit, 
but if you meditate further until you attain the 
DhammakAya, you will be able to start to understand 
the workings of merit in the same way that a scientist 
understands the workings of electricity. This is why 
merit deserves our gratitude 
CS Yourself 
None of the forgoing forms of gratitude are of any great 
surprise to anyone — but something which is many 
times more miraculous is gratitude to yourself. Your 
physical body is a vital piece of equipment for you to 
use in the pursuit of goodness. You can't have anyone 
else do it for you. Those who use their body for doing 
evil things such as breaking the Precepts: killing, 
stealing, committing adultery, lying or taking 
intoxicating drugs and alcohol. It is as good as 
destroying your own body. The 
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demerit of all these activities will follow you like a 
shadow. However, if you use your body to perform 
generous actions, keep the Precepts and meditate 
— the merit which arises as the result will nourish the 
mind and when it comes to time to leave this world, our 
physical body will go to the graveyard but ow merit 
will be collected by our astral body and angelic body, 
leading us to take new life in heaven. When the power 
of that merit is exhausted then you return to be born as 
a human again. You will be the sort of person they 
invite to be born human — not the sort who has to 
compete to be born as a human. The proportions and 
characteristics of your body will be better than before 
— not excessively fat or thin, or white or black —
everything will be in equilibrium. Eventually you will 
be able to advance you meditation until you are able to 
overcome all the defilements in the mind and you can 
enter upon Nirvana in the footsteps of the Buddha. You 
have to rely on your own body to do this. Thus 
everybody should be grateful to their own body which 
is their vehicle on the path to Nirvana. 
and unconditional love (described in Blessing Seven-
teen §A.2) which will allow you to size up your debts 
in a way that allows you to set your priorities without 
conflicting loyalties. 
If someone has done you a favour, be quick to repay your 
own debt of gratitude (without them having to ask) — not 
just once but many times until your dying day. Don't go 
thinking like some children, "I lived in my parents' house 
for fifteen years 
— therefore I will look after may aging parents for only 
fifteen years, no more than that." If a person has done 
both good and bad things to you in the past, try to 
remember that person for the good things they have 
done, and be grateful for those good things. If you are 
to remember the bad things they have done, don't 
remember thinking only of vengeance, but remember in 
order to protect yourself from further such situations. 
Don't allow a few faults on the part of another person 
to obscure the good favours you have received from 
them. If you can manage to do this the whole of the 
time, you will be able to maintain a joyous heart and a 
happy face. You will not get old before your time with 
D. DEVELOPING GRATITUDE IN EVERYDAY LIFtlivwn established on your face. If all you can think of 
D.1 Repaying a Debt of Gratitude 
is the bad you have received at the hands of others, then 
this world will not appear a very pleasant place to live. 
How large or small does a debt of gratitude have to be 
You will fail to see any value in life. Some final hints 
for putting gratitude into practice in everyday life are as 
follows: 
before it is worth recognizing? Sometimes it is 
impossible to put a price on a favour one has received. 
If you are dying and someone donates a bottle of blood 
to save your life, how can you put a price on that blood 
you have received? The blood is worth your life. You 
cannot put a price on the milk you have suckled at your 
mother's breast. If your mother had refused to feed you 
since you were small, you would have died. That milk 
is worth as much as your life also. For some things it is 
likely that you will never be able fully to repay the debt 
of gratitude you owe. The best we can do is to do what 
we can to repay ow debt of gratitude until our dying 
day. Thus if not entirely necessary, stand on your own 
feet rather than accepting the help of others — but in 
case you cannot do without their help, then don't forget 
that debt of gratitude for the rest of your life. As a 
practical guideline, however for how a debt of gratitude 
can be repaid appropriately, bear in mind the definitions 
of conditional 
I. Build up the roots of gratitude in the younger 
generation: The people of old used to have a way of 
developing gratitude in the younger generation. 
Children would be trained to use only the very highest 
of words to greet and speak of their parents. They 
would bow to their parents every night before going to 
bed. When children get older, instead of just going 
through the motions of bowing they start to look for the 
virtues in their parents that make them worthy of 
respect. Once one can see the benefits received from 
one's parents one will be able to identify the goodness 
in others such as the Buddha or one's teachers. If we 
are unable to see the goodness received from our 
parents it is unlikely to be able to identify the goodness 
in anyone else. 
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2. Be grateful to your own body: by using it only for 
good deeds. Don't go destroying your health with 
alcohol. Don't abuse your mouth by lying or gossiping 
with 
the 
neighbours. 
Don't 
go 
using 
your 
handsomeness to become a womanizer. Everyone has 
the opportunity to go to Nirvana so why don't you 
hurry up and use your entitlement? Thus you should 
use your own body with gratitude. 
D.2 Words of Warning concerning Gratitude 
It should be noted that gratitude needs be moderated by 
'equanimity ' [upekkhA) (i.e. not allowed to be influenced 
by bias [Agati) or by familiarity rvisAsa) or else can lead 
to corruption. Thus the importance of understanding 
Blessing Sixteen (§C) before moving on to this blessing. 
Secondly, supposing you have done someone a favour 
in the past. In fact they owe you a favour in return. 
However if you are to openly claim a favour in return, 
then it makes you look like a manipulator instead of a 
benefactor in others' estimation. Thus if you ever do 
someone a favour, never go ask for that favour back! If 
you ask for money back that you have lent someone, 
that is alright — but when it is a favour you have given 
someone, asking for the favour back is not at all 
appropriate — because you often cannot put a price on 
a favour. 
E. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES 
El Metaphor: Sunlight is lost on a blind man 
In the same way that the light of the sun is blind man 
no matter how brightly it shines, the favours and 
compassions of a benefactor are lost on an ungrateful 
person no matter how much help they may give. 
E.2 Ex. One ladleful of rice DMA l04ff 
Besides being the right-hand disciple of the Lord 
Buddha who was wise in teaching second to the 
Buddha himself. SAriputta was also unsurpassed in the 
virtue of gratitude. He would not let even the smallest 
favour pass by unnoticed. There was one day in the 
town of RAjagaha, the Lord Buddha was staying at 
VeOuvana Temple and SAriputta was there also. An 
aged brahmin called RAdha who had been shunned by 
his wife, family and in-laws 
because he was not very wealthy. They abandoned 
RAdha instead of looking after him in his old age. He 
didn't want to bother anyone unduly so he thought of 
becoming a Buddhist monk for the final days of his life. 
None of the monks in the temple were interested to take 
responsibility for his ordination because they saw that 
he was already old and would only be a burden on the 
temple. No-one would give him ordination. The Buddha 
asked if there was not a single monk in the temple who 
had received benefit from this Brahmin in the past. 
SAriputta spoke up and said that once a long time ago 
RAdha had given him a ladleful of rice when he was on 
alms round. The Buddha therefore asked SAriputta to 
help out RAdha on this occasion. SAriputta ordained 
RAdha and allowed him to stay in the same lodging 
teaching him meditation and the teachings of the 
Buddha. RAdha practised hard and before long was 
able to become an arahant. SAriputta certainly showed 
his gratitude and the Buddha revealed that it was not 
only in that lifetime that he had been grateful. Even in 
previous lifetimes, he had been grateful and this had 
built up the habits that allowed him to absorb the 
Dhamma to the point of mastery. 
E.3 EX. GuAa/SEha JAtaka (1.157) 
A second disciple of the Buddha well known for his 
gratitude was /nanda. /panda had his own disciples to 
look after — five-hundred of them — according to the 
duty of senior monks. There was a young monk who 
attendcd/nanda in every way 
— washing his robes, sweeping the lodging and 
massaging his feet because/nanda himself had many 
other responsibilities to attend to, especially as 
secretary to the Buddha. Even though/nanda did not 
have much time to spare to look after his charges, he 
thought of his junior monks with gratitude. One day 
when/nanda went to teach in the palace he was offered 
500 sets of robes./nanda offered all 500 to that faithful 
student of his. Some people wondered why/nanda was 
biased towards this particular student and whether he 
was really a stream-enterer [sotApanzt] as others 
claimed. Why didn't he divide up the robes equally? In 
any case the faithful student divided up the 
five-hundred 
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robes equally amongst the other 499 monks and kept 
only a single robe for himself. There were still tell-tale 
monks who went to ask the Buddha about what /nanda 
had done. The Buddha explained that/nanda had not 
given all the robes to a single monk because of bias 
because of three reasons: 
I. He recognized with gratitude the benefits he had 
received from that student; 
2. He knew that that particular monk possessed true 
virtue; 
3. That monk had made himself endearing. The Buddha 
praised/nanda for doing the right thing. If he had 
praised all the five-hundred monks 
equally, it would have obscured the special good deeds 
possessed only by a single monk. 
E.4 Er. Cullapaduma JAtaka (J.192) 
When the Lord Buddha was still pursuing Perfections 
as the Bodhisattva, he was born as a prince called 
Paduma. His father the king was suspicious of his 
young and handsome son because he was afraid that his 
son might compete with him for his own wives and 
consorts. He banished his son from the kingdom and 
told him to come back only after the death of the king. 
Prince Paduma lived in the forest with his wife. 
One day the prince came across a prisoner who had had 
his arms, legs, nose and ears cut off in punishment but 
who was nevertheless still alive and who had been cast 
away on a raft. The prince attended to the health of the 
prisoner even though the princess shunned him at first. 
Later, when the prisoner had recovered his health, 
somehow a love grew up between himself and the 
princess and the two of them had an affair. The princess 
was afraid she would be discovered so she lured the 
prince to the edge of a cliff and pushed him over. The 
prince survived by clinging to a branch below and re-
turned to his home kingdom, in time to become king. 
He was fed up with marriage and ruled the kingdom in 
justice doing only good deeds throughout his life. As 
for the princess, she put her lover in a basket and would 
carry him here and there begging for a living. They 
made up a story that they had been married only out of 
respect for the wishes 
of their parents. Everyone was sorry for them, thinking 
that the wife had gratitude towards both her parents and 
her husband so they gave their donations of food and 
money. One day, the princess crossed into the kingdom 
of King Paduma and that day the king himself was there 
making donations to the poor with the others. Of course 
he remembered the couple and was angry because he 
had still not come to an end of defilements. He ordered 
the execution of both the princess and the prisoner, but 
after a few moments, his temper cooled down and 
reduced their punishment to banishment. 
Thus you may trust a person but never trust their 
defilements — even if they are an invalid. Ingratitude 
has deep roots which can even be communicated from 
one lifetime to the next — therefore to get rid of 
ingratitude right from the present lifetime is the safest 
bet. 
E.5 Ex. AlavanAga JAtaka (.1. 72) 
In another lifetime the Lord Buddha was born as a 
white elephant in the forest. Devadatta was born a 
hunter. The hunter had lost his way in the forest so the 
elephant showed him the way home. The hunter left 
marks on the trees as he went and later found the 
opportunity to return to the same place in order to get 
the tusks of the white elephant. The first time the hunter 
came, the elephant gave him the tip of his right tusk. 
The second time the hunter came he gave him the tip of 
his left tusk. Each time the hunter came, the tusks of the 
elephant were cut a little shorter. As the tusks got 
shorter, sawing the tusks became very painful for the 
elephant. When only stumps were left, the hunter no 
longer used a saw. He cut into the flesh of the 
elephant's face to get the tusks out by their roots. The 
Bodhisattva elephant thought to itself,"It is not that I 
don't love my tusks, but I love them less than the 
prospect of pursuing perfection towards Buddhahood. 
The elephant thought of its giving as the perfection of 
giving. In the end the hunter took the life of the el-
ephant — it's final gift to the world. As the hunter was 
cutting the tusks from the carcass of the elephant, the 
earth split in two where the hunter stood and sucked 
him directly into hell, without having to wait for him to 
die. 
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E6 F.x. JavasakuAa JAtaka (1308) 
Once upon a time in the Himavanta forest a mountain lion 
was devouring his prey under a tree near his den. A piece 
of bone got stuck in his throat causing the lion extreme 
pain. A woodpecker perched above heard the lion's cries 
and asked what had happened to make him look so pained. 
The lion replied, "A piece of bone has stuck in my throat" 
"I can take it out," offered the woodpecker. 
"Please hurry up and remove it, my friend — you will 
be saving my life," roared the lion. 
"... but this is not going to be easy ..." 
... I don't see what is so difficult?" 
. . . the problem is I don't dare to go inside your 
mouth," said the woodpecker. "I am afraid you will eat 
me up!" 
"Oh! I wouldn't do that," said the lion. "Hurry up and 
save my life!" 
Thus the woodpecker accepted to help the lion 
— but not without circumspect. He used a stout 
branch to prop the lion's jaws open first and only then 
did he enter the lion's mouth and pull the bone from the 
lion's throat with his beak. Only then did he re-emerge 
from the lion's mouth, knock away the branch and 
retreat hastily to a nearby tree. The lion's pain 
subsided. Later, fit and well again, the lion caught a 
wild buffalo and returned to sit under the same tree to 
devour his prey. The woodpecker learned of the lion's 
success in his hunting and tested the lion asking: 
"I have heard you've been successful in your hunting 
— could you spare a little of the meat to share with 
me?" 
"Be off with you," growled the lion. "You don't 
deserve anything from me — think yourself lucky that I 
granted you your life when you were between my 
jaws!" 
The woodpecker criticized the lion for his selfishness 
and ingratitude and then flew away never to return. 
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Blessing Twenty-Six: 
Listening Regularly to 
Dhamma Teachings 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.1 The Place of Blessing Twenty-six in the order of 
things 
We come to the twenty-sixth step of the staircase of 
Buddhist practice entitled 'Regular hearing of Dhamma 
Sermons'. Only once we have availed ourselves of the 
first four virtues of Group VII of these Blessings is it 
useful for us to go on to listen to Dhamma Teachings 
regularly. If we have done the requisite groundwork for 
the mind, when we come to listen to the Dhamma, it we 
can use what we learn as a mirror to evaluate ourselves 
in order to know which virtues we possess and those we 
lack, the weaknesses we have, and those we have 
overcome — so that we know in which areas we have 
room for improvement. 
A.1 Objectives of listening to the Dhamma 
Of course the point of listening to a sermon is to 
depthen one's wisdom. However wisdom in not an 
instant commodity. There are some things we don't 
understand immediately when we hear them, but that 
doesn't mean that listening to the Dhamma is a waste of 
time. Therefore listening to Dhamma sermons has 
objectives at many levels of complexity: 
I. To arouse faith in the Triple Gem: without a foun-
dation of faith it is unlikely that you will see the value 
of the teachings to the extent that you will want to 
reflect on them. Thus faith is like a sword which helps 
you to cut away the unnecessary doubts and fears. 
People are potentially so full 
of suspicions and doubts that they could write a list 
of hundreds. However, if you can put these doubts 
on one side to the extent that a few items of the 
Dhamma start to wake you up to reality, often these 
problems will be overcome. If at least you can see 
some value in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the 
Salgha, then you begin to open your heart to the 
benefits which you can absorb from Buddhism. 
Z To wake you up [saOvega] to the reality of life Most 
of the time our mind wanders about aimlessly. If you 
can point your finger at something that allows the mind 
to wake up to the real nature of mind (such as the 
imminence of death) it can stimulate people really to 
get down to practice of the Dhamma. It is like matches 
and a matchbox which may lie together throughout their 
lives but they never break into flame unless one is 
struck against the other. In the same way, people 
co-exist with the cruel reality of life for years but it is 
not unless people receive some sort of transformative 
shock that they will get down to earnest practice to 
improve their lot. This form of transformative shock is 
the function of Dhamma teaching. 
The Lord Buddha taught that whether Dhamma practice 
gives its fruit quickly or slowly, we still need to do it 
because at the very least such practice will start to 
engrain itself as a positive disposition [upanissaya] in 
oneself. 
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B. 
LISTENING 
THAIGILINtra 
The meaning of the title of this particular blessing is to seek out 
opportunities to hear Buddhist teachings and make time to listen 
to them from knowledgeable teachers in order to transform onc's 
mind for the better — and having heard teachings in theory, to 
use the virtues learned as a mirror to examine the presence or 
absence of those virtues in ourselves and to see whether the 
virtues we already have can be improved upon. For example, 
having heard a teaching about 'patience' one should use one's 
new knowledge to examine one's own heart to see the level of 
patience in oneself. If you have some degree of patience in you, 
you should be honest about yourself about how much — are there 
some things which still make you impatient? Can you put up with 
unpleasant things. but find it hard to say 'no' to temptations? 
Listening to a Dhamma sermon, you will know instantly where 
you have mom for improvement. The main point of this particular 
blessing is the choice of appropriate things to listen to and 
secondly the choice of appropriate time to listen to them too. 
REGULARLY 
The word 'Dhamma' means (also defined in Blessing 
Sixteen) Buddhist teachings as found in the TipiEaka. 
We need to find the time to listen to such teachings —
because the teachings of the Buddha are without a 
shadow of a doubt beneficial — because if anyone can 
really understand them and practice them 
for 
themselves, they will certainly manage to avoid 
hardship in the long or short term. Sometimes we hear 
that there are 84,000 headings of Dhamma in the 
Buddha's teachings. Do you think you know as many of 
these as 10,000 yet? Or perhaps 1,000? People in 
general know 10.200 headings of Dhamma from the 
Teachings. 
Sometimes, we only know such subject 
matter but we have still not got round to practising it for 
ourselves. Thus if you are to ask yourself which of the 
84,000 headings of Dhamma it would be useful to listen 
to, the answer is 'as many as possible'. 
B.2 Appropriate times to listen to the Dhamma 
There are four main appropriate times to listen to the 
Dhamma teachings. The Buddha taught: 
TO 
DHAMMIk Quarter-Moon Days (the Buddhist Holy Days): 
These are the full-moon days, new-moon days and 
half-moon days. Such days are about seven-days apart. 
You will find a similar rhythm of holy days in almost 
every religion. Christians observe their Sabbath every 
Sunday. Moslems observe the Sabbath on Fridays and 
Jews on Saurday. Why should all religions have such a 
seven-day periodicity for listening to religious 
teachings? Usually even if someone is impressed or 
inspired by a teaching, they will remember such a 
teaching for only a few days. Most people have so 
many other things on their minds, that within seven 
days will forget spiritual teachings they have learned 
and at the end of seven days they will return to their bad 
old ways. If you listen to a teaching which recommends 
that you study conscientiously, maybe you will become 
a conscientious student for a few days, but by the end of 
the week you will be back to your old lazy ways. 
Supposing your parents have given you some strong 
advice about a matter. Maybe you will remember what 
they have taught you for a few days, but by the end of 
the week you will start to forget again. It is the same for 
practically every good habit we set out to build for 
ourselves — if we are absent from our spiritual teacher 
for more than seven days, we start to revert to our old 
behaviour. Thus it is no coincidence that there is 
teaching every seven days no matter what the religion. 
It is like recharging your batteries every seven days —
topping up your morale. 
2. Whenever there are unskilful states arising in the 
mind: If unskilful states arise in your mind, you should 
be quick to listen to a Dhamma teaching. It doesn't 
matter what day of the week it is, if your mind has 
fallen into unskilful states — that is the right time to 
listen to the Dhamma. It doesn't matter where or from 
whom you listen to such Dhamma — from a monk in a 
temple or from a layperson or even from your parents 
or elders — the important thing is that you cannot just 
allow your mind to 'run riot' — you have to do 
something immediately to solve the problem 
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of the mind that you are experiencing. If you are 
feeling slighted or sorry for yourself, don't allow 
that state of mind to continue, but you should listen 
to some Dhamma teachings or else you might get so 
negative that you feel suicidal. Supposing that you 
are particularly angry with the neighbours, then you 
should go and listen to the Dhamma before you do 
something you will regret later. If ever the feeling 
that you would like to respond to any of these three 
sorts of unwholesome mental preoccupations 
[akusalavitakka] (A.iii.446) arises in the mind to 
make it unskilful, then find the opportunity to listen 
to the Dhamma without delay: 
I. preoccupation with sense-pleasures [kAma-
vitakka]: when your mind is overcome with desire 
(especially sensual temptation); 
2. preoccupation with vengefulness [byApAda-
vitakka]: (when you feel that you would like to steal 
from people, or damage their reputation or even 
when you are angry), 
3. preoccupation with violence or cntelty [vihiOsA-
vitakka]: when you want to hurt or take advantage 
of others 
3. When in Doubt: An appropriate time to listen to the 
Dhamma is when doubts arise in your mind 
— for example, when you feel there is something 
about your meditation practice or what you have 
heard that you don't understand or if you find 
something seemingly inconsistent in the Dhamma 
teachings you have heard. If you have doubts, then 
go to find a teaching monk or someone more 
experienced in the Dhamma practice than yourself—
so you can put your mind at rest. 
4. Whenever there is a sermon being given: If you hear 
that there is a sermon on Dhamma being given and you 
know that the person or monk giving the sermon is 
someone who has real knowledge, it doesn't matter 
what day of the week it is, or what time of the day it is, 
you should not hesitate to go and listen to such a ser-
mon. It is a very difficult thing for anyone able to 
understand the Dhamma to arise in the world. To study 
the Dhamma to the point of under 
standing takes time and it requires that they study 
from the Buddha Himself or someone who is as 
adept as the Buddha. Not only that, but they must 
also be able to communicate what they have learned 
in a way that others can understand. If there is such a 
person arisen in the world, you should not delay —
go and listen to what they have to teach without 
hesitation. If you hear that there is someone who is 
enlightened then you should see what they have to 
teach 
— but beware of those who make false claim to 
being enlightened such as the many people who have 
to advertise themselves. However, if someone is 
knowledgeable, has a good manner of practice and 
has a gift for making Dhamma easy to understand —
be quick to make yourself one of the audience 
whenever you hear news that they are teaching. 
The Buddha even went further to enumerate the virtues 
of those who teach the Dhamma and those who listen to 
the Dhamma. 
B.3 Marks of a good Dhamma Teacher 
Those who are good at teaching the Dhamma should have 
the following characteristics (A.ii.184Xyou can use these 
characteristics as quality control for any Dhamma teacher 
about whom you have your doubts): 
1. Expounds Dhamma sequentially: This means the 
speaker must teach the Dhamma in way that becomes 
gradually more profound (not someone who skips over 
important subject matter vital for the listener's 
understanding). To be sequentially profound requires 
that the speaker: 
I. has a real understanding of their own subject 
matter; 
2. has skill in communication 
3. must have prepared and planned what he is going 
to teach. It is not good enough just to speak 'off the 
top of one's head'. 
2. Gives reasons for the Dhamma taught: It is not 
good enough just to repeat what you have memorized 
from a textbook or even from the Scriptures. It is 
unacceptable for a teacher who has not done any 
preparation simply to take the same textbook which the 
students already have 
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and read it aloud to than. You have to be able to 
explain the causes and effects in any relationship, be 
able to categorize, analyze, generalize and 
distinguish. When teaching virtue, it is only possible 
to explain something thoroughly if one has practiced 
such a virtue for oneself. How can you expect to 
teach meditation if you have never practised for 
yourself? How can you expect to teach about the 
Five Precepts or Eight Precepts, if you are unable 
even to keep a single Precept yourself? If you are 
giving a description or an example and there are only 
the examples of what others have done, but you can 
never pay witness to your own good deeds, who will 
be convinced by what you have to say? 
3. Teaches out of sincere compassion for the listener: 
The goodwill of loving kindness and compassion are 
the basic foundation of a good teacher. Supposing 
someone is very virtuous and can practice many virtues 
for himself (like a paccekabuddha) but lacks 
compassion for his fellow man — supposing he gives 
up teaching as soon as someone doesn't understand a 
few words of what he has said — then it may be that he 
lacks sufficient compassion to teach others. 
4. Teaching without the motive of gaining something 
(material) in return: A good teacher must not teach 
with a wish for something material (e.g. wealth, praise 
or fame) in return. Some monks lose their interest in 
giving sermons if they are offered insufficient 
donations. Such thinking is more worthy of a 
mercenary Dhamma teacher. Some are not interested in 
the income from their sermon, but will be disappointed 
if their audience is small. If there is a large audience, 
they will rise to the occasion — but if there are only a 
few in the congregation, they don't really bother what 
they teach and try to finish as early as possible. This is 
wrong. Thus if you can be pleased no matter how many 
or few come to listen to your teaching, that is one of the 
signs of a successful Dhamma teacher. The Great 
Abbot of Wat Paknam taught: 
"If a thousand come, we teach a thousand: (its 
tiring but a few words can change the lives of 
many, so the speaker accrues a lot of merit — so 
that's good). If a hundred come, we teach a 
hundred: (its not so tiring — so that's also good). 
If a handful of people come, we teach a handful: 
(so we don't have to speak so loudly, and the 
atmosphere can be a little more informal — so 
that's also good). If no-one comes, we sit for 
meditation and teach ourselves (so that's also 
good)" 
5. Teaching without bringing conflict to yourself or 
others: Sometimes when someone is teaching, they are 
not firmly established in the virtues they teach — when 
they see someone they don't like in the audience, they 
take the opportunity to insult that person in the course 
of their teaching (bringing yourself into conflict with 
others). Others use giving sermons as the opportunity to 
boast about themselves (bringing yourself into conflict 
with yourself). This is a very important distinguishing 
feature of how the teachings of Buddhism have always 
been spread — the Buddha laid down guidelines for his 
monks so that they never teach in a way that brings 
Buddhism into conflict with other religions — but that 
doesn't mean Buddhism is a religion of laissezfaire' —
it means that when teaching, one should choose one's 
explanations and subject matter with care. 
If you ever hear that someone who has all five of these 
qualities who will give a sermon, then if you can take 
leave from work, go and listen to them without delay 
and without worrying what day of the week it is. 
B.4 Marks of a Good Listener to the Dhamma 
The person who is a good listener to the Dhamma also 
should have five qualities (MNidA.8): 
I. Doesn't look down on the subject matter: Never 
look down on the subject matter being taught that it is 
too basic 'for the likes of yourself. The Buddha taught 
that each and every item of Dhamma that he taught has 
the quality that if it is practised to the full it can lead to 
enlightenment in the end — but some people fail to see 
the teachings in sufficient depth because they 
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look down on the subject matter and thus miss the 
real value. Some people, for example, think that the 
First Blessing (not associating with fools) just means 
being choosy about one's friends — and conclude 
that it is too simple to waste their time with. They 
have their own preconceived ideas about what fools 
are like so they don't want to waste time hearing a 
sermon about such a subject! But looked at through 
the eyes of the initiated, even this single subject 
practised properly can allow us to enter upon 
Nirvana! — however a person needs to look at the 
teaching sufficiently deeply to realize that they must 
also give up associating with the fool in themselves 
— the part of themselves that is stingy, undisciplined 
and too lazy to meditate. Thus don't go thinking any 
item of the Dhamma is too simple to bother learning 
or revising. Thus those who appreciate Dhamma 
teaching never look down on the materials they are 
taught. 
2. Doesn't look down on the level of knowledge of the 
teacher: Don't go thinking that a monk is young, 
therefore there is probably nothing you can learn from 
him. Don't go thinking that as an older person you have 
to hear the Dhamma from and old monk to be a match 
for your own level of experience. It is therefore a great 
mistake to look down on the knowledge of a Dhamma 
teacher. In order to help remind the people not to look 
down on the knowledge of a teacher, in the olden times, 
people would hold their hands in a gesture of prayer 
throughout the sermon they were listening to. However 
in the present day, you can sit however you like, but 
don't fall asleep or chat with your friends during the 
sermon or else that is showing that you are looking 
down on the knowledge of the teacher. You close the 
door on your own possibility of spiritual progress. The 
Buddha warned (Dahara Sutra 5.1.68) that there are 
four small things which you should never underestimate 
the importance of: 
I. a small fire: even a small fire can grow to burn 
down an entire city 
2. a small poisonous snake: you can die from the 
bite even of a small snake 
3. a young king: some kings have reigned since they 
were not yet thirty (e.g. Alexander the Great) 
4. a young monk: some have become arahants since 
the age of seven. 
3. Never look down on yourself: Don't go thinking that 
you have no chance of being able to understand 
anything as profound as the Dhamma. In fact, even the 
most unlikely of people have benefitted from Dhamma 
teachings to the degree they could become arahants. See 
the story oft CElapanthaka §D.2 below). Some people 
think that they have no chance of being able to trans-
form themselves for the better so they give up even 
before they start. They think to themselves that success 
in the study of the Dhamma may take years even for an 
enthusiastic person — so what hope does a lazy person 
like them have? 
4. Keeping the mind in meditation (concentration) 
when listening: Your mind should be in meditation 
while listening to sermons — you shouldn't distract 
yourself during a sermon by chatting or picking your 
fingernails etc.. The better your mind is concentrated in 
meditation as you hear a talk the more you will 
understand of the subject being taught. In the time of 
the Buddha, when He needed to teach a very subtle 
subject, he would sit with his eyes closed in meditation 
to teach and the listeners would do the same in order to 
be able to follow the subtleties of his teaching. In this 
way, many people were able to attain the path and fruit 
of Nirvana. Thus we too, should keep a mind of 
meditation when listening to Dhamma teachings in 
keeping with this age old Buddhist tradition. 
5. Reflects wisely [yonisomanasikAra] on everything 
learned: You should reflect further on the things you 
have learned from a sermon — turning the subject 
matter over in your mind and examining it from 
different angles. Such a habit will allow you a fast and 
quick mastery of the subject matter. 
Thus both the teacher and the listener each have five 
points of practice which they need to apply if a sermon 
of the Dhamma is to give its maximum benefits. 
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