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4. Appropriate Spending: isamajivitta]. This means 
2. 
being thrifty in spending your earnings. Anyone 
who has already expended so much effort in 
earning a day's wage should get full benefit from 
their own earnings without being extravagant 
and also without being so stingy they don't al-
low themselves to use their money for any ma-
terial comfort. 
C.4.2 Spiritual profit defined (A.iv.284) 
The wise man recognizes that he cannot live by bread 
alone and that for all the material wealth he might 
earn, it cannot buy him spiritual fulfilment. Thus a 
second important form of profit in life is spiritual 
profit— better known as profit in life for the hereaf-
ter. This again consists of four virtues to be cultivated 
during one's lifetime [sampayikattha-payojarus]. 
1. Faith or Confidence means faith that doing good 
deeds will lead to good outcomes (for the doer) 
and that doing evil will lead to bad retribution 
and giving rise to the commitment to perform 
the maximum of good deeds throughout one's 
life. Faith is the first step upon the road to striv-
ing to do so many good deeds. Sometimes the 
clarity of peoples' minds is insufficient for their 
mind to be faithful continuously. They may be 
faithful when they wake up but later on in the 
morning the inspiration fades away. The Lord 
Buddha referred to such faith as 'turtle-head 
faith' because sometimes the faith shows itself 
like the head of a turtle, but just as often it will 
disappear out of sight inside its shell! This is not 
the nature of the faith of a wise man whose faith 
is steadfast and commitment continuous. 'Tur-
tle-head faith' is not so hard to find — like the 
man who takes the Precept in the morning not 
to kill any living being but as soon as the tiniest 
of mosquitos tries to bite him he is slapping it as 
if his good intentions are all forgotten — but the 
mosquito disposed of he thinks, "Oh! Staking 
the Precepts today, all you mosquitos 
better 
get out of my way before I change my mind!" 
Such 'turtle-head faith' is no use to a wise man. 
With a mind that is crystal clear, a promise even 
to oneself, is a promise to be kept. 
The Precepts. You must keep the minimum of 
Five Precepts as the baseline of one's virtue be-
cause the Precepts measure the degree to which 
you are a person as opposed to being a savage. 
Any time you want to find out to what extent 
you are human, you can use the Five Precepts as 
your benchmark. If all five of the Precepts have 
been perfectly kept, you can conclude that you 
are 100% human that day. If only four of your 
Precepts remain intact, you can conclude that 
you are only 80% human. If only three remain 
you are only 60% human, your fangs are begin-
ning to show. If only two remain you are only 
40% human, your fangs are longer and traces of 
a tail are visible. If only one remains you are only 
20% human and the remainder of you is 80% 
savage. If none of your Precepts remain intact, 
nothing human remains about you. 'fry swap-
ping yourself for a dog in anyone's house but 
no-one will accept the trade in. The dog is worth 
more than you are. You can fairly say that keep-
ing the Five Precepts is the thing that closes the 
doors of hell. Because Five Precepts are the only 
thing that underpin our status in the human 
realm. Thus for the wise man, there is no doubt 
as to maintaining the Five Precepts and his hu-
manness for the whole time, throughout his life. 
3. Generosity: That we are still alive and well to-
day on the long path since our birth is only be-
cause we have relied upon the generosity of oth-
ers all along the way. If on the day we were born, 
our mother had refused us her milk, our first day 
of our life would have been our last. If all 
throughout our childhood, our mother, father 
and relatives had refused us their care and at-
tention, where would we be today? The fact that 
we have managed to learn to read and write and 
master knowledge of the world is only because 
our teachers have given their time and energy 
to educate us all through our schooldays 
Ividhayadana). Whenever we have made mis-
takes, in our childhood and maybe only been 
punished for it and then forgiven (rather than 
being put to death for our errors) is because oth-
ers have been prepared to forgive us our tres-
Blessing Two: Associating with the Wise 
41 
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passes [abhayadana]. When you grow up and 
marry, again you can only get by as a result of 
the time and energy your spouse gives to sup-
port you, sharing mutual earnings. Without such 
giving the marriage would certainly be on the 
rocks within the space of seven days. Ultimately, 
even the pavilion where you go to listen to ser-
mons and the chairs you sit on to listen to it, all 
originate from the charity of others and that there 
is a monk with the time and energy to give you 
the sermon is another sort of giving 
[dhammadana]. Thus, in addition to faith and 
keeping the precepts, it is necessary to be gener-
ous too if you are to number amongst the wise. 
4. Wisdom [pan fia]: To be specific, anyone who is 
diligent in studying the teachings of the Lord 
Buddha will attain wisdom— the mark of a wise 
man. Anyone who lies around in bed all day has 
no chance of accruing wisdom. For the wise man, 
simply developing the four chambers of the mil-
lionaires' heart is not enough. He must seek out 
wisdom too. When it comes to a holiday instead 
of lying around in front of the TV or going to the 
cinema, he is already on his way to the temple in 
the early morning to study what the Buddha 
taught. This is what we call seeking out wisdom. 
The fool is one whose understanding of profit in 
life conforms neither to material nor spiritual profit 
in life. Thus we can say that the wise man is one 
who understands and works towards profit both 
in this lifetime and the here after — i.e. both mate-
rial and spiritual profit in life. 
C.5 Defined in terms of quality of mind 
The wise man is one whose mind is habitually pure. 
A person could be completely unqualified. He could 
even be completely illiterate — but if his mind is 
habitually pure, he is a wise man. The reason for 
this is that just the fact that the mind is pure has a 
snowball effect because it sets his standards of 
judgement and discretion and this alone will en-
sure that wisdom is invested in everything he does 
— whether it may be thought, speech or action. 
b. RECOGNIZING A WISE ONE 
D.1 Tell-tale Behaviours (5) 
Many of the characteristics of a Wise One men-
tioned above may not be immediately apparent to 
us because they are not external features. Thus we 
may have to look at the following five characteris-
tics which will betray the wholesome inward quali-
ties of someone who is wise: 
I. The wise like to shepherd others to live their lives 
in a proper way. Asked where one can go on a 
Sunday, he will reply, "to the temple of course 
— don't waste your time going to the cinema." 
Or passing him in the street, "it looks like rain, 
you ought to get the harvest in before it spoils." 
If you were to meet a fool in the same circum-
stances, 
give you altogether different ad-
vice — "it oolcs like rain, if you're feeling aches 
& pains 
be better off down at the bar with 
a stiff w es y down your throat!" Both the fool 
and the wise man are persuaders but their per-
suasion leads to different results indeed. 
2. The wise take fidl responsibility for the things 
that are their own business. Apart from being 
responsible, they will influence those around 
them to be responsible in the same way. What 
the wise won't do is interfere with other peo-
ples' business. They know where to draw the line 
in order to avoid nosing into others' affairs. The 
fool by contrast is often more interested in inter-
fering in other peoples' business than he is about 
taking responsibility for what he's meant to be 
doing. 
3. The wise favour the honest and the decent. Its 
no use trying to persuade him to be dishonest or 
unscrupulous, because he is above those sort of 
things. The fool by contrast is proud of the fact 
that he can get away with anything. Nothing is 
too low for him. 
4. The wise man is not easily angered. He is grate-
ful for criticism from others. The fool, by con-
trast, even if criticized in the politest of ways will 
lose his temper. Even if someone offers him criti-
cism with the best of possible intentions, he'll 
turn round with a scowl and answer back, 
"you've been constantly picking on my faults". 
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If you smile at him, he'll interpret your smile as 
teasing and turn his back on you. Even just 
speaking to a fool can make him lose his temper. 
Sometimes you don't even need to say anything. 
Just seeing you look at him can upset him —
"What are you looking at me like that for?" The 
fool is constantly on the lookout for a fight. The 
wise man by contrast is hard to stir to anger. Thus 
if you recognize yourself as hot-tempered, you 
ought to associate with the wise and this will 
gradually cool down your fiery temper. How-
ever, you shouldn't confuse the cool-tempered 
wise man with the inert and irresponsive char-
acter of the sort of guy who sleeps all day and 
seems to do everything in slow-motion. These 
dopey sorts are irresponsive to nearly everything 
around them, but don't think they're free of all 
defilements. They are another breed of person 
altogether from the wise men we aim to associ-
ate with. 
5. The wise favour self discipline and orderliness. 
When we live together in society with a huge 
number of other people, if we don't comply with 
the laws laid down in society, we end up as mis-
anthropes. The regulations say that when you 
are at the temple, at the appropriate time you 
must come to sit in the main pavilion and sit in 
neat lines, without encroaching on the people 
sitting next to you, that way there is enough 
space for everyone and everyone has an equal 
area to sit in. The fool, however, doesn't respect 
the rules. He doesn't like obeying anyone or any-
thing. He'll be the only one to sit out of line, stick-
ing out like a sore thumb. He's like a spanner in 
the works. For temples in general, people go to 
the temple with the best of intention to accrue as 
much merit as possible but when it comes to 
mealtimes, they end up fighting to get to the front 
of the queue like vultures. In the morning they 
are like angels walking on the Earth, but when 
lunchtime comes, they are like hungry ghosts! 
In conclusion, the good thing about associating with 
the wise is that it will develop our discretion to be 
that of the wise with whom we associate — or to 
come to the real point — it will allow our mind to 
become bright and clear like that of the wise man. 
112 Qualities of a IVise One's Friendship 
Alternatively, the Wise One can also be noticed by 
his characteristics of being a true friend who exhib-
its all three sorts of responsibility: 
• responsibility for his own personal dignity 
• responsibility for the human dignity of oth-
ers 
• responsibility for a fair economic system 
In our association with such Wise Ones, we will be 
able to recognize their level of responsibility from 
the quality of their friendship. If we are a good 
friend to them, then we should see the following 
characteristics in the friendship which is returned. 
However, even amongst True Friends, the respon-
sibility can be manifested in different ways. The 
Buddha subdivided True Friends into four groups. 
He identified each group by four examples of be-
haviours — giving a total of sixteen characteristics 
to look for in a good friend. 
1. The Helpful Friend lupakarakal 
2. The Constant Friend isamanasukhadukkha] 
3. The Friend of Wise Counsel Iatthokkhayil 
4. The Sympathetic Friend Ianukampaka] 
1. a helpful friend is one who: 
1. protects you even when you are off your 
guard; 
2. helps protect your property even when you 
neglect it; 
3. is your refuge in times of danger; 
4. always provides you with twice as much as 
you asked for; 
2. a constant friend is constant in bad times and 
good: 
1. they confide in you; 
2. they don't go spreading your secrets around; 
3. they don't abandon you when you fall on hard 
times; 
4. they would even die in your place; 
3. they give you good counsel: 
1. they warn you against unwholesome behaviour 
2. encourage you towards wholesome behaviour; 
3. save up new things to tell you; 
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4. point you in the direction of heaven. 
4. they empathize with you: 
1. they don't laugh at your misfortunes; 
2. they congratulate you on your good fortune, 
3. they speak out against anyone who maligns 
you, 
4. they stand up for those who speak well of you 
As you can see, all sixteen characteristics of the True 
Friend are characteristics that lead to the creation 
of positivity. 
E. ASSOCIATION 
£1 How to associate with the wise (7) 
The Lord Buddha taught seven features of behav-
iour which counts as association with the wise. If 
your association misses out on any of these seven 
factors, it cannot be counted as fruitful association. 
The seven features are as follows: 
1. Frequently meeting up with them. If you know 
that someone has the characteristics of a wise 
man, you ought to seek him out and visit him 
regularly. If you hear that such and such a tem-
ple has wise people going to it, then that should 
be the temple you are visiting regularly. This is 
the first step to true association. Without it no 
association can come about. 
2. Make yourself known to them. What this means 
is that when you have gone out of your way to 
seek out a wise man, you should make yourself 
known to them, not sit just out of their line of 
vision round the corner. Whenever they go to 
the boxing or the fashion show they are right at 
the ringside or up against the catwalk, but when 
they go to the temple and see one of the monks 
coming, they will disappear to the back row of 
the pavilion. In such a case, even though they 
have come as far as the temple where the wise 
are to be found, they cannot be said to have as-
sociated with the wise. 
3. Sincerety towards them. If there is any affection 
in your association, you must be sincere to one 
another—with nothing behind your back. There 
is no secret which your other half can't ask about 
and get a straight answer. Loyalty means that 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
there is no hidden agenda concerning your as-
sociation. But even this is not enough. 
Loyalty towards them. Where in sincerety, your 
association is bound through affection, in loy-
alty the association is bound through respect. 
Thus to make for the best of possible associations 
you should do nothing to diminish either the 
love or respect that bonds the relationship. Also 
you should do nothing to interrupt the train of 
thought of the wise man with whom you have 
chosen to associate whether it be through care-
less speech or otherwise. This is what we call 
loyalty. 
Help them in times of need. Whenever we notice 
that our associate (the wise one) is busy with 
something we could help with, we should offer 
our help without reluctance. However, if we 
know that our associate has something that we 
could help with and we keep our silence instead 
of offering our assistance, we can hardly call our 
association a friendship. Just imagine if a group 
of so-called friends all come together at meal time 
but cannot be found when it comes to time for 
work. Such a group could hardly be called 
friends. 
When free j . ' g up to talk and eat together. 
When the wise have free time they come together 
to discuss the Dhamma and to clear up their 
doubts (not to gossip about the neighbours). 
Reflection on Dhamma and Getting Down to 
Earnest Practice. This is one of the most impor-
tant headings. Even if you have diligently fol-
lowed the previous six steps but omit this sev-
enth step, you cannot call it true association. Also, 
if you do none of the first six but do the seventh 
one, it is as good as true association, because 
Dhamma always has the same flavour — it al-
ways gives rise to self discipline [sik]: it always 
gives rise to concentration [samadhi]: and it al-
ways gives rise to wisdom Ipafifio]. Thus even 
if you have never met your wise associate be-
fore, even on your first meeting you will feel as 
if you have been friends for a thousand years, or 
for many lifetimes — because both of you have 
Dhamma in your hearts — it is Dhamma that 
binds your association. 
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The behaviour that we refer to as association means 
that that whatever happens you will do things in 
togetherness. If there is work you will work to-
gether. Accept each others' help, accept the same 
identity, accept the same place of abode, accept 
work in the same place. If you possess anything, 
you will be willing to lend it to them or give it to 
them, giving them possessions or respect. In con-
clusion the operant parts of the process of associa-
tion with the wise are sharing, accepting and giv-
ing. If you expand upon these three then you ar-
rive at the seven steps described at the beginning 
of this section. 
£2 Principles of Association 
Like all the groups of people closest to us in the 
world, the best way we can get the virtues of the 
wise to brush off on us is associate with them as 
'good friends'. The Buddhist teaching most relevant 
to the cultivation of a fruitful friendship is the 
'northern quarter' of the Singalovida Sutta which 
gives us the following practical advice about how 
good friends should treat each other: 
The Buddha laid down five examples of duties 
we ought to practice in order to express our respon-
sibility towards our friends: 
1. generosity: anyone possessed of Right View 
[sanunn clitthi] is bound to moved to compas-
sion when seeing others experiencing hardship 
or suffering—and generosity is the way in which 
he can ameliorate the lot of friends caught in such 
a situation, while at the same time strengthen-
ing his bond of friendship to that person; 
2. kind words: if a person is able to relinquish the 
Four Defilements of Action, and has the altru-
ism of a Good Friend [k,alyariamitta] he will be 
of the habit of speaking only words that are po-
lite and true; 
3. helping and acting for their welfare: endowed 
with the characteristics of a True Friend, one will 
have the altruism to want to do things for the 
benefit of one's friends; 
4. being consistent: however well one has treated 
one's friends in the past, one will not suddenly 
change to treat them better or worse because of 
force of circumstances. Just because one gets a 
promotion in rank which is better than that of 
one's old friend, one will not subsequently look 
down on him; 
5. never telling them lies: as good friend what one 
says will never deviate from the truth. 
It is only possible to fulfil the demands of these five 
duties if one has already had the qualifies of a true 
friend instilled by effective upbringing at the hands 
of one's parents, teachers and employers. 
In turn those wise friends should practice the fol-
lowing five duties towards us in order to express 
their sense of responsibility towards us: 
1. protect us when we are off our guard: learning 
that we are in the midst of problems as a result 
of our own recklessness, if it happens that such 
recklessness is not in our nature, if a friend is 
true, they will intervene and help — if they leave 
us to our recklessness you can know that they 
are an enemy in a friend's guise; 
2. help protect our property even when we neglect 
it: such is the behaviour of a true friend; 
3. be our refuge in times of danger: willingness to 
let us rely on them is the sign of a true friend; 
4. not abandoning us in times of trouble: this is the 
sign of a Good Friend Elealyagamittal; 
5. show due respect to other members of our fam-
ily: friends who not only show us respect, but 
also respect those to whom we have debts of 
gratitude, our children and grandchildren as if 
they were part of their own family — are indeed 
true friends. 
All five duties of a friend are identifying features 
of a truly Good Friend — if we ever have the luck 
to come across such a genuine friend, we must take 
care to associate closely with them, treating them 
with respect, in keeping with the Buddha's advice: 
"associate with them respectfully, like a mother to 
her sons" 
It is pertinent to observe that such a genuine 
friend could only arise in the world as the result of 
an amenable environment (see forthcoming Blessing 
Four), especially those in whose company they grew 
up, in order for the good habits of those people to 
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have brushed off on him and been preserved in his 
own personality. It is such people that society and 
nation alike are crying out for — because such a 
person has tremendous power of virtue stored up 
inside them — sufficient power to channel the tide 
of society and economics around him down the 
same virtuous path. 
.E.3 What are the consequences when there are 
no Wise Ones to be found? 
If there are no genuinely wise ones to be found in 
society or if those posing as 'wise' fail to cherish 
others according to the advice of the Buddha, many 
sorts of harm arise on individual, interpersonal and 
social levels. Many of the potential problems can 
be extrapolated to the relationship between gov-
ernment and the citizens it is supposed to be a ref-
uge too. If the government fails to be a Wise Friend 
toils citizens, it the false friendship brings serious 
problems on a national level. In conclusion, the 
harm that arises when there is lack of association 
with the wise manifests itself on three levels: 
1. Losing a sense of responsibility for their own 
human dignity: If friends lack self-discipline and 
don't fulfil their duties towards one another as 
prescribed by the Lord Buddha, the first level of 
disaster which will happen to them is that they 
will lose their sense of responsibility for their 
own human dignity — this loss giving rise (at 
the minimum) to the following three undesirable 
symptoms: 
1. Breaking the Five Precepts: Because there is an 
atmosphere of mutual suspicion, former 
friends will deceive and lie to each other. The 
pledges of allegiance they formerly kept to 
one another will be nullified in the way often 
seen in political circles; 
2. Chronic False View: Lacking discretion as to 
right and wrong, virtue and misdeed, appro-
priate and inappropriate and the Law of 
Karma, there is nothing they will not do as a 
means to procure power, money and personal 
profit; 
3. Mistreats Friends: They might resort to back 
stabbing of former friends in order to procure 
personal ends; 
2. Losing a sense of responsibility for the human 
dignity of others: If friends lack self-discipline 
and don't fulfil the duties towards one another 
prescribed by the Lord Buddha, the second level 
of disaster which will happen to them is that they 
will lose their sense of responsibility for the hu-
man dignity of others — this loss giving rise (at 
the minimum) to the following three undesirable 
symptoms: 
1. Harbours bias: They will lose their sense of fair-
ness and will be continually biased in favour 
of their own cronies — not with altruistic 
thoughts for even their own people, but in 
order to pave the way to personal profit; 
2. Disloyalty to homeland: Out of selfishness and 
False View, they will become narrow-minded 
and unrefined in their thinking. All they will 
think about is how to maximize the profits 
they can procure for themselves and their cro-
nies — to the point they will no longer have 
any sense of loyalty to their own country, re-
ligion or nationality — they wouldn't feel any 
scruples about making a profit, even if they 
have to destroy the national heritage to do so; 
3. Misuse of rank or position: When they lack any 
accurate sense of justice, they will attempt to 
make illegal dealings look legal or outlaw le-
gal things, if it suits them to do so. 
3. Losing a sense of responsibility for economic 
fairness in society at large: If friends lack self-
discipline and don't fulfil the duties towards one 
another prescribed by the Lord Buddha, the third 
level of disaster which will happen to them is 
that they will lose their sense of responsibility 
for economic fairness in society at large — this 
loss giving rise (at the minimum) to the follow-
ing three undesirable symptoms: 
1. Corruption: When false view and selfishness 
get the better of their thinking, they will wor-
ship money alone—because they understand 
that the more money they have, the more 
power they can gain. Money will be the means 
that they can secure the any position of au-
thority they hold (through bribery). 
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2. Implicated in dealings with the Six Roads to Ruin: 
When money becomes important above all 
else, they will have no scruples about taking 
shortcuts to find it. Of course the most profit-
able forms of trading are dealing in drugs, for-
geries, arms smuggling or casinos — the fad 
that they are illegal or exploit the poorest sec-
tors of society — considerations which mean 
nothing to those so far alienated from 
thoughts of fairness in economics; 
3. Betrays homeland: if such people find them-
selves in positions of legislation, because of 
selfishness and False View, if they can make a 
'quick buck' from foreign investors, they will 
not think twice about waiving laws which for-
merly protected their country from foreign 
exploitation. 
The problems of lack of association with the Wise 
can be summarized down to two main points: 
1. Obvious social problems: In countries such as 
Thailand, social problems which are out of hand 
are high-level corruption, partiality of the legal 
system, degeneration into vice and widespread 
prostitution; 
2. Covert social problems: The covert social prob-
lems exist in the form of False Friends in posi-
tions of influence — whether it be positions in 
politics, the civil service, government utilities—
who have less than scrupulous behaviour. Un-
fortunately what the people see of such public 
figures — an image of respectability and chiv-
alry — often belies illicit dealings behind the 
scenes. Such false friendship has its origins in 
undisciplined parental upbringing, undisci-
plined schooling and eventually, having become 
a fool, seeking the company of other fools is the 
final nail in the coffin of true friendship. 
Possible solutions to these problems are: 
1. In the short term are to avoid voting those with 
the character traits of 'false friends' into positions 
of authority; 
2. In the long term are to use the nets of 'sixteen 
characteristics of true friends' and 'sixteen char-
acteristics of false friends' to identify and replac-
ing the weaknesses in yourself with virtues start-
ing with yourself— associating with the wise so 
that their good virtues can brush off on you too. 
VARIEI 
WISE; ONES 
El Inner teacher, outer teacher 
Broadly speaking, there are two categories of the 
wise—the outer wise ones and the inner wise ones. 
The outer wise ones can be subdivided into the wise 
who are truly wise and those who are not truly wise. 
The truly wise are start with the Lord Buddha, the 
arahants and those who have attained the various 
levels of Buddhist sainthood. The wise who are not 
truly wise are those who are as wise as or wiser 
than us. Examples of these are monks who truly 
train themselves in meditation. Even though such 
monks may not be arahants, they come up to the 
standard of a wise man. You should seek him out 
for association and familiarize yourself with his vir-
tues. You can only gain from such association. As 
for your own parents, given that we are their chil-
dren, we ought to do our best to associate with 
them. Sometimes we encounter difficulties how-
ever. Sometimes our parents have the character of 
fools. If this should be the case then we have the 
duty to live in the same household, but with the 
utmost care not to let those foolish habits rub off 
on ourselves. If your parents drink alcohol, don't 
go prohibiting them from such behaviour. It is not 
your place to do so. However, at the same time you 
shouldn't go joining them in their drinking. If your 
mother loves playing poker, it's no good telling her 
to give up. Let her carry on with her gambling —
but don't go joining in with her. Even though we 
know these are the habits of a fool, they are our 
own mother and father. We can't just ditch them. 
We must carry on living in the same household 
while taking care not to be infected by their foolish 
habits. 
The wise also extend to our friends and relatives 
who are a good example to us by their behaviour. 
Even if they might not be right all the time, or they 
may not be as wise as an arahant, to associate with 
them is still to our benefit. 
In the case of associating with the wise who are 
not yet perfect, the Buddha taught that we should 
Blessing Two: Associating with the Wise 47 
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concentrate on observing only their good points and 
mimic only these good behaviours. If that person 
has his faults, don't waste your time criticising them 
for these, because for as long as one hasn't come to 
an end of all defilements, faults and weaknesses 
will always remain. Don't go looking for peoples' 
faults. Look for their strengths and make the effort 
to instil these strengths in ourself. In the end we 
will be like an ocean full of all types of virtue. Don't 
go letting someone's minor fault blind you to all 
their virtues. If you are only interested in peoples' 
faults, by the time you have picked out everyone's 
weaknesses, there will be only one good person left 
in the world — yourself. 
Thus the wise in the outside world are of two 
types: the permanently wise who have rid them-
selves of all defilements and the sporadically wise 
who still have defilements remaining. Both types 
of wise ones are beneficial to associate with. 
You may have noticed that sometimes when we 
think of doing something evil there will be a little 
voice inside that warns us not to do it. Have you 
wondered where that little voice inside comes from? 
Usually we cannot see whose voice it is, but if we 
meditate until our mind is much dearer, we will be 
able to see the wise one inside who is the owner of 
the voice. Information, whether it be in the form of 
knowledge as a voice or the content of a dream or 
sixth sense, is transferred down the line from deep 
inside ourselves, like a baton between the runners 
of a relay race. 
G. THE PRACTICALITY OF CIII,ERA I 'NG 
ASSOCIATION WITH THE WISE 
It is for this reason that we must do two things—
try to find the wise in the outside world and find 
the best ways to associate with them. If we know 
that anyone is a good example then we should make 
sure we get to know that person. That way the good 
character that makes that person a wise one will 
begin to brush of on us as well. Secondly, once we 
have seen the nature of those who are a good ex-
ample to follow, we should start to cultivate an in-
ner self which has the same good qualifies so that 
the self which is wise will manifest itself inside 
ourselves. If we already have an inner self that is 
wise, even if we don't meet any more wise people 
ever again, it will not matter to us, because we have 
our inner source of wisdom from which we can 
draw the knowledge of our inner teacher. 
H. ILEUM RAI in, MAMMALS 
H.1 Metaphor: Leaves wrapping a perfumed 
fish 
A parable used by the Lord Buddha is that of the 
leaves wrapping a perfumed fish taking on the same 
perfume as the fish itself. 
H.2 Red-Bearded Executioner saved by 
Association with the Wise (Dlutii.203) 
Tambadithika who was a former thief had served 
the king as the public executioner for fifty-five 
years; and had just retired from that post. One day, 
he went to the river for a bath, intending to take 
some specially prepared food on his return home. 
As he was about to take the food, Venerable 
Sariputta, who had just arisen from sustained ab-
sorption in concentration [}hang sanzapatti], stood 
at his door for almsfood. Seeing the monk, 
Tambadithika thought to himself, "Throughout 
my life, I have been executing thieves; now I should 
offer this food to the monk." So, he invited 
Sariputta to come in and respectfully offered the 
food. 
After the meal, Sirriputta taught him the 
Dhamma, but TambarlitIhika could not pay atten-
tion, because he was extremely disturbed as he rec-
ollected his past career as an executioner. This men-
tal disturbance did not allow him to concentrate 
properly. Sariputta knew this, and in order to put 
him in a proper frame of mind, he asked 
Tambadithika tactfully whether he killed the 
thieves because he wished to kill them out of anger 
or hate, or simply because he was ordered to do so. 
Tambadithika answered that he was ordered to 
kill them by the king and that he had no ill will or 
wish to kill. 'If that is the case,' Sariputta asked, 
'What wrong did you do?' Thus re-assured, his 
mind became calmer and he requested Sirriputta 
to continue his sermon. As he listened to the 
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Dhamma attentively, his mind became tranquil 
and he developed the virtues of patience and un-
derstanding. After the discourse, Tambadfithika 
accompanied Sariputta for some distance and 
then returned home. On his way home he died due 
to an accident. 
When the Buddha came to the congregation of 
the bhikkhus in the evening, they informed him 
about the death of Tambadfithika. When asked 
where Tambadathika was reborn, the Buddha 
told them that although Tambadfithika had com-
mitted evil deeds throughout his life, because he 
comprehended the Dhamma, he was reborn in the 
Tusita deva world. The bhikkhus wondered how 
such an evil-doer could have such great benefit 
after listening to the Dhamma just once. To them 
the Buddha said that the length of a discourse is 
of no consequence, for one single sentence of the 
Dhamma, correctly understood can produce much 
benefit. 
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Blessing Three: 
Expressing Respect 
to Those Worthy of Respect 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.1 People Differentiated by their discretion 
As seen in the previous blessings, the brightness of 
a person's future relies on his ability to judge the 
difference between good and evil. If his judgement 
is faulty, there is no way he can make a success out 
of his life. Even though people may look superfi-
cially similar, their standards of judgement can be 
so different. As human beings we are born equal —
we all have a pair of hands and ten fingers — but 
some people use their hands to perform works that 
are useful to society while others think that their 
hands will become more famous as fists and go 
around punching up the neighbours for a living. In 
this Blessing we look at the third of three major in-
fluences on our development of sound discretion 
— having the right sort of "role model" in our 
hearts. This blessing doesn't imply that we model 
ourselves on anyone or anything at all — but if we 
want to develop sound discretion we need to model 
ourselves (recognize and pay respect to) only those 
worthy of our respect. 
A.2 Effect of one's "hero" on one's discretion 
Hearing such terms as "paying respect", "express-
ing respect" or "people worthy of respect", the 
casual reader might come to the premature conclu-
sion that this blessing is irrelevant to our day and 
age. However, if we rephrase what we mean in 
modern terms, asking "Who is the hero of your 
heart — which celebrity do you model yourself on 
or dream of emulating?", the pertinence of this 
blessing will become much more immediate. 
When we are children and the horizons of our 
experience do not extend beyond the walls of our 
house, maybe our own parents represent all that 
we want to achieve in our lives. We try to play at 
being "grown-up" like our parents, imitating them 
in our play. If we are exposed to a good parental 
example, our idea of what we perceive as normal 
or ethical will develop quite accurately from an 
early age. However, if, for example, parents lie to 
their children often or beat them out of anger, then 
that comes to be what the child perceives to be the 
standard of "justice" in life. 
During one's teen years, when one's horizons 
extend beyond the home, the influence of construc-
tive or destructive role models becomes stronger 
and stronger. These role models are over and above 
the influence of good or bad friends as studied in 
the previous two blessings. 
Look at some of the role models celebrities set for 
the youth of today and you can imagine some of 
the problems facing our impressionable youth of 
today. Supposing you plan to model yourself on 
Vincent Van Gogh, Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe, 
Janis Joplin, Dylan Thomas, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis 
Presley, Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, F. Scott 
Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway or Brian Jones all of 
whom killed themselves at an early age, you might 
come to the conclusion that truly creative people 
are "too beautiful for this world". You might come 
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to the conclusion that creative writers drank be-
cause they had to — or it was the "pressure of 
fame". Or that killing yourself is how to earn fame 
or emotionally blackmail others. We can overlook 
the insecure, grotesquely boring reality of these 
peoples' lives. We can rationalize away the brutal 
and banal nature of their addictions. We can for-
give our heroes and we come to be able to forgive 
ourselves as well. It gives us an instant excuse to 
be irresponsible and indecent. We can say we're too 
beautiful for this world too. We can act like drugged 
children, crash our lives and drop out. 
The truth about someone like Vincent Van Gogh 
is that when he painted he was beautiful, but in 
other matters he was not. He was always encour-
aging his emotions to work their dark magic. It's 
true that he ought to be admired while he had his 
paintbrush in his hand, but to be admired for his 
whole sorrowful life and to make a legend out of it 
is to confuse oneself. The problem for us as begin-
ners on the initial steps of the Manual of Peace, as 
debutants only just beginning to pick up an ink-
ling of what is good for our spiritual development 
and what is not, we don't yet have the ability to 
distinguish between the creative and destructive as-
pects of someone's behaviour — therefore, when 
you are starting out on your sojourn of spiritual dis-
covery, it's better to choose a role model who you 
can rely upon as an exemplar in all aspects of life. 
If you can choose a reliable role model for your-
self: 
• you will accelerate your acquisition of Right 
View and Wisdom. 
• you will become less vulnerable to the influ-
ence of fools 
• you will more easily be able to avoid associat-
ing with fools 
• you will facilitate the spread of virtue in soci-
ety and the world. 
• it will prevent you from becoming self-cen-
tred or arrogant about your own virtues. 
• it will facilitate the development of 
mindfulness that is the precursor of wisdom. 
• it will add to your enthusiasm for self-devel-
opment 
B. EXPRESSING RESPECT AND ITS PI RPOSE 
If you ask yourself what you automatically do, 
when you have a "hero" in your heart, on analysis, 
you find that you devote all your waking thoughts 
to them. We put their picture on the wall. When we 
speak about them, we only speak praise of them. 
we take every opportunity to learn their opinions 
and share them. Given the opportunity we try to 
meet with them and imitate what they do in their 
lives. Some people even go to the lengths of dress 
like them. All these are random components of an 
attitude we call "respect". Many of the behaviours 
are ways of "paying respect" or "expressing re-
spect". 
B.1 What do we mean by "respect"? 
Respect means the attitude of looking for the posi-
tive aspects of a person or an object and the effort to 
instill oneself with those same virtues. Such respect, 
in context of the Manual of Peace is for the aim of 
furthering one's spiritual development — it must 
not have any ulterior motive. It mustn't be like a 
judo player who raises someone up (in his own self 
esteem by flattering them) only to drop him onto 
the floor more easily. Some bosses blindly believe 
their subordinates' flattery is respect to the extent 
that they overlook the real state of affairs and end 
up getting fired. This latter case of expressing re-
spect does not come from a mind of pure innocence 
which expects or demands nothing material in re-
turn. 
True respect arises in response to someone's vir-
tues. Something else which may look like respect 
but which is in fact an imposter is the intention to 
help someone in the expectation of gaining some-
thing material in return. First comes the flattery, 
then comes the unrefusable request for this or that 
favour. Boyfriend praises girlfriend, saying how 
pretty she is, because he wants her to love him. He 
has an ulterior motive to get something in return. 
He's not interested per se in either her goodness or 
her prettiness. 
B.2 What do we mean by "expressing respect"? 
Expressing Respect means any polite and inten-
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tional action towards someone or something, both 
in their presence or behind their back, that is the device 
that demonstrates that one is really recollecting the 
virtues of that person or thing. 
£3 Purpose of Respect 
The reason behind paying homage to those worthy 
of homage is an extension of the reason for associ-
ating with the wise. We have already said that we 
associate with the wise in the hope that they will 
help us to develop accurate discretion in things con-
cerning virtue. It is to help us overcome the weak-
ness in our make-up, that we tend too easily to for-
get all the good and valuable things taught to us by 
our teachers and masters and parents or the mo-
nastic community, the Lord Buddha, or from books 
we read. When you are taught how to meditate for 
half-an-hour per day (or to do any other good 
deeds), however, your memory doesn't seem to be 
so reliable. The first day, you sit for meditation for 
exactly half-an-hour — no more, no less. On the 
second day, you sit for only fifteen minutes — well, 
that's better than nothing. On the third day, you 
think that while you are chanting is actually a sort 
of meditation, so five minutes of true meditation is 
enough. On the fourth day it is especially humid, 
so you think that chanting is enough, no medita-
tion today — after all, thousands of other people 
don't meditate, and they seem no worse off for it. 
By the fifth day you have entirely forgotten how to 
meditate for half an hour. It is for the reason that 
doing good deeds is so easy to forget that is the 
real reason for the need to pay homage. 
On the contrary, when it comes to being devious, 
or doing mischievous things, we remember the 
from the first time we're taught and never need to 
be taught again for the rest of our lives! We never 
forget how to play poker. We never forget how to 
shuffle a deck of cards. 
The real reasons behind paying homage areas fol-
lows: 
1. To give us a firm connection with the virtues of 
that person. Connecting up our thoughts with a 
person of virtue will elevate our own minds to 
the higher level of virtue of that person. 
2. To practice expressing virtues so that in the fix-
ture we might have the chance to gain a real ap-
preciation of the virtues of that person. Whether 
we are an adult or a child, if our appreciation of 
the real depth of virtue of a does not really do 
justice to the depth of their virtue, expressing 
homage can help us to appreciate it. When we 
were only five or six years old and our parents 
took us to the temple they would make sure that 
we paid respect to the Buddha images. For the 
child, he cannot see beyond the clay or the brass 
of the image and might wonder what all the fuss 
is about. A child that is so young can have no 
appreciation of the real depth of the virtues of 
the Lord Buddha. Taken to the home of their old 
uncle, they are told to pay respect to their uncle. 
The child cannot distinguish the goodness of 
their uncle's character, but pays respect because 
he has been told to. At school, the child is told to 
pay respect to their teachers. The child might not 
be able to tell the real virtue of the teacher, be-
cause the child's ability to comprehend is only 
limited. However, sometime in the future when 
we become so used to expressing our respect that 
we become used to it, the thought will eventu-
ally occur to us to look for the reason. 
BA Three Types of Bowing 
Sometimes people confuse respect with expressing 
respect. However, if you express respect when your 
attitude is wrong you will not succeed in further-
ing your spiritual progress. Consider the following 
examples: 
1. Bowing out of obsequiousness: Some people bow 
just because everyone else does. Usually they 
bow reluctantly. They have no attitude of respect 
in their mind. Therefore, all they get for their ef-
forts is a stiff feeling in their muscles. 
2. Bowing out of peer-pressure: Some people only 
show respect in order to please the person they 
pay respect to, so that they can ask favours from 
that person, often for things which are not en-
tirely honest or noble. 
3. Bowing in search of wisdom: This refers to those 
who have an attitude of respect and who also 
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express their respect with the determination to 
practice themselves all the virtues exemplified 
by the object of their respect. An example of the 
sort of attitude in mind of someone who ben-
efits from expressing respect is—supposing we 
bow three times to express respect towards the 
Buddha: 
1. Mien we bow the first time: to reflect on the 
supreme wisdom of the Buddha which allowed 
him to see the existence of suffering, know the 
origin and the cessation of suffering and find 
a Path to the Cessation of Suffering — wis-
dom arising from the Buddha's extended 
meditation mind until his mind had become 
sufficiently dear and bright to eradicate all de-
filements of the mind. Following his exam-
ple, we should also determinedly meditate 
until we can achieve the same wisdom as that 
of the Buddha. 
2. When we bow the second time: to reflect on 
the supreme compassion of the Lord Buddha 
that instead of just keeping his wisdom to 
himself, he spent all his life teaching Dhamma 
to others so that they could become enlight-
ened in his footsteps. Following his example, 
we should also find ways of being generous 
as a way of expressing our compassion to oth-
ers. 
3. When we bow the third time: to reflect on the 
supreme purity of the body, speech and mind 
of the Lord Buddha cultivated through his ex-
tended practice of self-discipline. Following 
his example, we should also find ways of find-
ing better ways to extend our own self-disci-
pline so that we too can attain full purity of 
mind. 
B.5 Two sorts of Respect 
However, all four of these can be summarized un-
der just two headings, that is: 
1. Homage through gifts: remisapujil: this refers 
to all material forms of paying homage —
whether it be putting your palms together in a 
gesture of respect or even speaking words of 
praise about a person. 
2. Homage through practice: [patipatipuja] this 
means paying homage by doing as one is taught 
— for example, we pay respect to the Lord Bud-
dha by doing as he taught. 
Thus, in practice, expressing respect has two major 
components. 
£5.1 Relative importance 
When we pay respect to the Lord Buddha, we 
should emphasise homage through practice, while 
homage through gifts should play only a support-
ing role. As for paying respect to teachers who are 
still concerned with worldly matters (ie. king, par-
ents, teachers, elders and boss, we have to empha-
sise homage through gifts) while homage though 
practice plays only a supporting role. 
To give an example, if we are to meet up with our 
teacher and when we meet up with them all we 
have for them is the words,"I have put into prac-
tice everything you have taught me". This would 
hardly impress the teacher. It would have been ap-
propriate to have some sort of gift to give the teacher 
as well. 
Others go abroad and on the way back thinkof 
their teacher. They don't know what to get as a 
present for the teacher and so they get a bottle of 
liquor. In the end the result is that the teacher and 
the pupil sit down and drink liquor together. The 
more they drink, the more irritated they feel and 
end up fighting one another. When it gets to this 
point, that gift can hardly be counted as a token of 
respect any more. It is an unwelcome gift resulting 
from false view. 
C. PERSONAGES a OR 1 HY OF RESPECt 
The person worthy of respect, in its simplest terms 
is the wise one (as defined in the previous Blessing). 
The wise one in this context is someone whose sta-
tus or position or level of existence is so high that it 
would be completely inappropriate for us to asso-
ciate with them on equal terms or as peers. Exam-
ples of such people include: 
C.1 Buddha 
The Lord Buddha (who is truly wise), 
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C.1.1 Three worthy qualities of the Buddha 
For example, why we consider the Lord Buddha to 
be worthy of respect, and we find that it is because: 
I. His wisdom is so great that he could single-
handedly attain enlightenment 
2. His Compassion is so great that He sacrificed the 
rest of his life to teach the way for others to reach 
enlightenment as he had done. 
3. His body, speech and mind were so pure (be-
cause of the immaculateness with which he had 
kept the Precepts) that no one else in the world 
can compare — and for that reason we hold him 
in the highest of respect. 
To begin with we might not be able to appreciate 
the degree of his virtue, but after paying respect 
more and more, it makes our own mind more re-
fined, gives us the ability to consider things in a 
constructive way and in the end, opening to us the 
innate wisdom that will allow us to appreciate that 
virtue. In any place, there are many things that are 
worthy of respect and many more things that are 
not worthy of respect. Thus, when deciding about 
the type of people who are worthy of respect, the 
subject of this Blessing, it is important to be able to 
distinguish one thing from the other. 
C.2 The monastic community and other clergy 
The monastic community 1Satigha] (who can be 
divided into those who are devoid of all defile-
ment [ariyasanghaJ such as the arahants, the 
non-returners lanagamil, the once-returners 
Isakatagami] and the stream-enterers 
[sotapanct]; and the general monastic commu-
nity who are striving to train themselves to-
wards an end of all defilements Isammuti-
safighab Although the latter may not yet have 
purged themselves of all defilements, they are 
abundant in virtue to a degree that it is 
innappropriate to associate with them as if they 
were our equals. If we associate with them, we 
should treat them as our superiors — i.e. with 
respect — at all times. Monks or clergy worthy 
of respect are those who exemplify, teach and 
discern virtue for us by fulfilling the following 
six duties: 
1. restrain their congregation from evil; 
2. encourage them to establish themselves in vir-
tue: these two responsibilities are also the do-
main of parents and teachers; 
3. minister to them in kindness: this means spread-
ing loving-kindness towards the congregation 
without exception for their happiness. They 
might also visit their supporters, together with 
their monastic fellows, in order to give those con-
gregation members the chance to hear Dhamma 
teachings and have the opportunity to practice 
to practice generosity; 
4. teach them new or beneficial things: One of the 
most important functions of the clergy is to en-
courage study of the spiritual teachings amongst 
their congregation. Monks should have a large 
repertoire of teachings to give to the congrega-
tion, teaching without repeating themselves, so 
that the congregation can have a broad knowl-
edge of Dhamma knowledge, reinforcing their 
Right View and ability to be a teacher to them-
selves [yonisomanasikara] in relation to find-
ing the highest happiness in their lives; 
5. clarify things they already know: if monks give 
Dhamma teachings they have already give to a 
particular group from the congregation, they 
should enlarge the subject in more detail than 
before, giving additional meaning to materials 
or explaining in further detail how the Dhamma 
can be applied for problem solving in everyday 
life; 
6. show them the way to heaven: this monastic duty 
is particularly special in the system of the 'Six 
Directions' because no-one in any of the other 
social groups can do it in the monks' place. Those 
who are able to enter heaven must be those who 
live their lives in accordance with the noble code 
of Self-Discipline. 
This group consists of all forms of clergy who have 
an exclusively spiritual (rather than material) aim 
in life — namely monks in Buddhism, or priests, 
pastors or ministers for other religions. We hold 
them in respect, because they maintain their status 
through their high level of virtue. In conclusion, the 
responsibility of the clergy consists of training the 
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lay congregation to become Wise Ones or virtuous 
people —a noble duty indeed! Monks who are able 
to practice all six of these duties to their comple-
tion are of inestimable value to society and the 
world — they are worthy of respect both by men 
and angels alike. 
C.3 Virtuous monarchs 
Monarchs worthy of respect are those established 
in the Tenfold Virtues of a Monarch; 
C.4 Our Parents 
Our Parents and upstanding members of society. 
Our parents are wise ones. We should treat them 
with respect. Anything less would be inappropri-
ate. 
C.5 Our Teachers 
Teachers and masters established in right view. In 
this context we should mention the two identify-
ing features of a teacher's duties, both of which he 
needs to fulfil in order to qualify for the respect of 
his students. These two duties are: 
1. The duty to explain (i.e. teach a subject in theory) 
2. The duty to exemplify (especially the moral us-
age of the subject he teaches) 
If he fails to perform either of these duties his teach-
ing is no more than daylight robbery of his pupils. 
If he gives good explanations but his personal be-
haviour is no example for his students to follow 
(for example he teaches 'do as I say not what I do' 
and tells the class that liquor is evil while spend-
ing all his spare time inebriated at the bar, he is noth-
ing more than a mercenery teacher. 
If he both explains the theory well and is a good 
example to his students, he is a person worthy of 
respect. 
C.6 Virtuous employer 
Virtuous employers are also worthy of respect. It is 
hard to find bosses with virtue, so when we find 
one, we should not hesitate to pay them respect. 
We may still be unable to be as virtuous as them, so 
we ought to pay them respect, in order that their 
virtues might never be far from our minds — in-
stead of being tempted to do something devious, 
we will be less tempted because we feel ashamed 
after the seeing the good example set by our boss. 
Also we will be more ashamed that anything we 
do wrong might reflect badly on our boss's good 
reputation. This is the value of having a virtuous 
boss. It keeps us on the straight and narrow until 
such time that we have reliable discretion for our-
selves. 
I). Oa 
WORTHY OF RESPECT 
There are certain classes of objects identified by the 
Lord Buddha as worthy of respect, and these are 
objects associated with people worthy of respect i.e. 
the Lord Buddha, the Sangha, monarchs, parents, 
teachers and bosses. There are two categories of 
such objects, pagodas (and their contents) and 
teachings: 
13.1 Pagodas 
D.1.1 Four Types of Pagoda 
The Buddha enumerated four types of pagoda 
worthy of respect: 
1. A relic pagoda: this is a pagoda containing the 
relics of a Buddha, a paccekabuddha, an arahant 
or a universal monarch. After the cremation of a 
truly virtuous person there are pearl-like relics 
left behind in the ashes. In keeping with the 
teaching of the Buddha, these are collected by 
the faithful and are paid homage to, by Bud-
dhists, not only with candles and incense, but 
by enshrining them in small pagodas. 
2. Paribhoga Cetiya: These include the Four Holy 
Sites connected with the life of the Lord Bud-
dha: the place where He was born, enlightened, 
where He gave His first sermon and where He 
passed away into Parinirvana. The Lord Buddha 
called these four places His Paribhoga Cetiya and 
taught that all Buddhists of following genera-
tions should visit these holy sites if they had the 
chance because it would awaken them to the 
urgent need to get down to practice. Many peo-
ple who have been to visit the Holy Sites have 
discovered that their inspiration to practice has 
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is strengthened from the feeling of going back to 
a time when they were in the presence of the Lord 
Buddha himself. This is the reason why these 
four sites are worthy of worship. 
3. Dhamma Cetiya: This is a Cetiya that contains 
Dhamma teachings such as books of the Tipitaka 
or other Scriptures. 
4. Uddesika Cetiya: This is a Cetiya that contains 
Buddha Images or images of His Noble Disci-
ples. Objects worthy of respect in this category 
also include the requisites belonging to monks 
— whether it be robes or bowl, all of the monks' 
requisites are worthy of respect. 
13.2 Dhamma Teachings 
A fifth sort of object worthy of respect are spiritual 
teachings and their sources. These may include the 
Teachings of the Lord Buddha, of members of the 
monastic community, of kings, of our parents and 
elders, of our teachers and masters, of our boss and 
the teachings of the wise with whom we associate. 
The teachings of all six categories of the wise men-
tioned above are the manifestation of the virtue of 
those people and should never be taken in vain. 
Making a mockery of such teachings will under-
mine our earnestness in putting those teachings into 
practice. If we lack earnestness in putting the teach-
ings into practice, we reduce our chance of ever un-
derstanding those teachings. In the absence of un-
derstanding, there remains only ignorance and false 
view. 
Thus any of the objects mentioned above should 
not be used for mockery or for fun. To treat these 
things without reverence robs them of their sanc-
tity and when we come to study them we will over-
look their depth or subtlety. An example of this 
might be the man who goes to receive Five Precepts 
from the monk at the temple and keeps the Pre-
cepts so well for the first few days. Later he joins in 
with one of his friends makes fun of the Precepts 
and says,"Oh the Precepts? Aren't they for keep-
ing one for each day of the week and weekends 
off?" Even if he still keeps his Precepts, the effect of 
these words is to gradually undermine the man's 
inspiration to keep them. 
The same principle goes for photographs or pictures 
of the Buddha, of monks, of the king, of our parents 
or teachers. Such photographs should not be left ly-
ing about or used without reverence. Chanting books 
shouldn't be left lying about either or folded up and 
shoved in the back pocket of one's trousers. They 
shouldn't be put down on a dusty surface and other 
things should not be placed on top of them. 
In conclusion, those worthy of respect are the wise 
who are established in virtue, or those who by their 
social standing are too high up for us to be able to 
associate with personally or as peers. Apart from 
these six categories of person, objects which should 
be treated with respect include the requisites they 
use as a way of recollecting the virtues of that per
Even though that person may already have 
passed away, treating their belongings with respect 
will help us to maintain high-mindedness and Right 
View concerning that person. 
113 Educational Objects 
Also we shouldn't forget that all books which con-
tain Dhamma should be treated with respect. The 
ancients would be very particular even about the 
notebooks in which we have taken note of Dhamma 
sermons. They forbade us from throwing such note-
books, stepping over them, putting them in low 
down places or tearing out pages — because all of 
these things would constitute disrespect to the 
teachings themselves. If we were to lack respect 
towards the Dhamma, then when we come to con-
sider Dhamma Teachings for which the meaning is 
very subtle, we will be unable to fathom the mean-
ing and our understanding of the Dhamma will be 
destroyed and we will be left with nothing more 
than our own ignorance. 
114 Objects not worthy of respect 
Correspondingly, we must be careful not to pay re-
spect to things not worthy of respect. In brief, there 
are four categories of things we should avoid idol-
ising or paying respect to: 
1. People not worthy of Respect: This means not 
idolizing fools, and not supporting them or prais-
ing them — no matter how high in rank they 
might be. 
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2. Objects not worthy of respect: This means not 
idolizing pictures, sculptures, works, possessions 
or tools of fools. 
3. Objects which lead to foolishness: This means 
not idolizing things like pictures of models, sing-
ers or sportsmen who lack virtue or advertising 
for "roads to ruin" such as alcohol. We shouldn't 
use these sort of things to decorate our homes. 
4. Objects which lead to gullability: This means 
not idolizing things which promote superstition 
such as "holy trees", "holy mountains", "spirit 
houses" etc. 
E. RE PRAIA 'tam or PAYING RESPECT 
£1 Erpressing respect with body, speech and mind 
Respect can be paid through the channels of body, 
speech or mind. 
1. Physical Respect: Physically paying respect 
means the various polite manners that we dem-
onstrate towards someone in their presence, such 
as standing up when they come into the room, 
or sitting politely when in front of them. Even if 
you are not in their presence, you should still 
show physical respect towards those worthy of 
virtue even if you are not in their presence but 
are in the presence of their photograph, their 
sculpted image — such as a Buddha Image or a 
photograph of your teaching master. We should 
show our respect by not pointing our feet to-
wards such an image, and even if we are lying 
down to sleep — pointing our head towards the 
image instead of our feet; 
2. Verbal Respect Homage through the channel of 
speech includes the speaking, chanting or sing-
ing of praises of one worthy of homage, rather 
than gossipping maliciously about them; 
3. Mental Respect Homage through the channel 
of the mind means recollecting the teachings of 
one worthy of homage to the degree that they 
inspire us. We might recollect what that person 
has taught us in the way of good deeds. We might 
also consider the good character and virtues ex-
emplified (but not taught) by that person. Both 
of these are homage through the channel of the 
mind; 
E.2 How to Express Respect 
Many people misunderstand paying respect as bun-
dling together a lotus, candles and incense, laying 
it before the object of respect and bowing down 
three times. Paying respect in this way is not incor-
rect, but it is not the whole story. Paying respect 
that is complete in all respects must exhibit four 
factors: 
1. Physical token of respect isakkaraj: This refers 
to a gift which is an expression of respect. It is 
something we must prepare in advance and 
which is presented during the act of paying re-
spect. Such a token of respect differs for differ-
ent situations and different categories of persons 
worthy of respect — for example, flowers, in-
cense and candles are worthy tokens of respect 
for paying respect to the Buddha, monks or 
teachers. Clothes or bedclothes might be more 
worthy tokens of respect for your parents. Nei-
ther of these tokens of respect are suitable as the 
sort of gift you might take with you when visit-
ing distinguished persons of social standing. Nor 
would they be suitable as the sort of gift you 
bring back with you for your friends when you 
have been away on holiday. Even money can be 
a token of respect. If your teacher has been 
putting in extra hours out of the kindness of his 
heart, giving up his time to give you tutorials at 
home, giving him money as a gift would not be 
out of place, and in this respect would be con-
sidered a token of respect, not a payment. An-
other consideration for tokens of respect is that 
they should be prepared in advance. To leave a 
bucket of cut flowers, no matter how big the 
bucket is, in the middle of the main temple 
pavillion would hardly be considered an act of 
respect. Any token of respect should be prepared 
with care and precision and be both clean and 
well organized. 
2. Gesture of respect Ivandana]. this refers to ges-
tures which express respect such as bowing or 
prostration or praise or chanting praise. Morn-
ing and evening chanting can be counted as 
vandana. Even recollection of what one has been 
taught by the wise or one's teacher can be 
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counted as uandana. 
3. Attitude of respect [mananaj: This refers to an 
attitude of respect. Respect consists of the stems 
're' which means again and 'spect' which means 
to re-examine a person (for their good points). 
Given that all people except the Buddha are 
made up of a mixture of both good and bad then 
we have to look for the good points in people. 
Taking these good points, apart from noticing 
these good points, part of respect is to praise 
them for these good points and use them as a 
good example to model ourselves upon. 
4. Content for the object of respect[garuketra]: this 
refers to an attitude of concern about the well-
being of the person who is worthy of respect and 
recollection of the good deeds and virtues of that 
person. 
All of these four components comprise the way of 
paying respect. 
£3 Consequences of Not Paying Respect to 
those worthy of homage 
If those held in high respect do not behave in a fit-
ting way, many sorts of harm are brought on the 
individual, interpersonal and social levels. To take 
the clergy as an example, if members of the monas-
tic community are undisciplined and do not cher-
ish their congregation according to the advice of 
the Buddha, the harm that will come to the congre-
gation can be concluded on three levels: 
1. Losing a sense of responsibility for their own 
human dignity: If clergy lack self-discipline and 
don't fulfil their duties towards their congrega-
tion as prescribed by the Lord Buddha, the first 
level of disaster which will happen to them is 
that the congregation will lose their sense of re-
sponsibility for their own human dignity — this 
loss giving rise (at the minimum) to the follow-
ing three undesirable symptoms: 
1. Breakdown of self-discipline: Society will degen-
erate to the point where the majority of peo-
ple do not keep the Five Precepts and do not 
even understand what keeping the Precepts 
means. This will increase the incidence of so-
ciety of people taking advantage of each other. 
When taking advantage of each other becomes 
the the norm, especially for those in positions 
of authority, the effects will have 
repurcussions on a national scale — therefore, 
citizens must unite in preventing those who 
don't respect the Five Precepts from being put 
in positions of power; 
2. Those seeking ordination are of low quality: Low-
quality ordinands burden their preceptors 
with problems — it is hard to train them at 
all. If clergy are unable to develop purity of 
body, speech and mind, they will undermine 
the existing faith of the congregation — ulti-
mately destroying the religion; 
3. Transcendental attainment becomes becomes in-
creasingly inaccessible: The highest aim of those 
who ordain is to attain Nirvana. Howeveti if 
those who ordain are of low quality and are 
difficult to train, there will be a continuous 
deterioration in the capability of the monas-
tic community to the point where they will 
no longer be able to reach any sort of tran-
scendental attainment. When there are no re-
ligious exemplars to look up to, the congre-
gation will become more and more firmly 
entrenched in False View — more and more 
ignorant of Dhamma teachings, self-discipline 
— with some of the most serious 
repurcussions for social chaos; 
2. Losing a sense of responsibility for the human 
dignity of others: If clergy lack self-discipline and 
don't fulfil the duties towards their congrega-
tion as prescribed by the Lord Buddha, the sec-
ond level of disaster which will happen to them 
is that the congregation will lose their sense of 
responsibility for the human dignity of others 
— this loss giving rise (at the minimum) to the 
following three undesirable symptoms: 
1. Verbal abuse of clergy and monks: Once the con-
gregation no longer realize the value to soci-
ety of clergy and monks, misunderstanding 
the duty and lifestyle of the clergy, the public 
will abuse the clergy shamelessly (as is hap-
pening currently in Thailand); 
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2. Lack of financial support for clergy and monks: 
Swayed by the often unjustified abuse of 
clergy in the media, the faith of the public de-
teriorates, and with it the support with which 
they should provide the clergy — religions 
such as Buddhism can only survive through 
the voluntary support of the congregation, 
and without it, there will soon be no clergy 
left, and consequently no-one to perpetuate 
the religion; 
3. Congregation is left without any true refuge: Hav-
ing dismantled their religion by their own ne-
glect, when the public find themselves in dire 
straits, they will be without a refuge, lacking 
the ability to be a teacher to themselves, they 
will resort to superstition or animism. 
3. Losing a sense of responsibility for economic 
fairness in society at large: If clergy lack self-
discipline and don't fulfil the duties towards 
their congregation as prescribed by the Lord 
Buddha, the third level of disaster which will 
happen to them is that the congregation will lose 
their sense of responsibility for economic fair-
ness in society at large — this loss giving rise (at 
the minimum) to the following three undesirable 
symptoms: 
1. Total enfatuation with the Six Roads to Ruin: In a 
society of deteriorating morals, it will become 
more and more common for people either to 
eke out their living via, or be enslaved by the 
consequences (such as debt and disease) of 
Roads to Ruin such as drugs, gambling, pros-
titution, entertainment and underground lot-
teries. 
2. Desecration of religious property and establish-
ments: The Roads to Ruin are part of the vi-
cious circle of poverty. Some people try to al-
leviate their poverty by theft —and religious 
property is an easy target of plunder. Some 
encroach on temple grounds in pursuit of their 
livelihood. In Thailand this practice is becom-
ing more and more widespread, especially 
because it has been legally condoned by bi-
ased legislators; 
3. Embezzlement of religious donations: Some peo-
ple like to extract some sort of 'commission' 
from the funds they manage to raise for the 
temple (in accordance with the phrase "half 
for the temple, half for the temple commit-
tee'!) In the present day, howevec. some legis-
lators try to go further than this by giving the 
government the right to control temple funds 
directly! 
Problems concerning not paying respect to those 
worthy of respect can be summarized down to two 
main points: 
1. Obvious social problems: Easily seen is public 
deterioration in morality as a result of ignorance 
of virtue. Such people like to say they have lost 
interest in virtue because they see so many ex-
amples of hypocrisy. For the same reasons they 
withhold financial support for spiritual causes 
and some go further, overtly making legislative 
changes necessary for the dismantling of the re-
ligious establishment; 
2. Covert social problems: The covert social prob-
lems mostly originate from the hypocrisy 
amongst those who should be behaving as ex-
emplars of virtue. Considered with wise reflec-
tion, the problems might be analyzed as such: 
1. Good exemplars are sometimes unable to pass 
on their knowledge to others because 
1. the public are not interested to learn from 
the clergy— all they want are the material 
trappings of spirituality and virtue such as 
holy water and amulets; 
2. the public undervalue the teachings on vir-
tue they receive because they think they are 
already highly qualified in academic sub-
jects — so thinking, they consider their abil-
ity in vocational subjects makes earning 
money more important than knowing spir-
itual teachings. 
1. 1U41.S1RA11N E EXAMPLES 
In order to illustrate the results of paying respect to 
those worthy of respect here are five examples, the 
second of which is an example of homage through 
gifts: 
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