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have to observe first 
whether they know moderation 
first or not. 
F. 7 Ex. 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 
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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, 
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they will still go 
out of their way to take advantage 
of others to 
280 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
widen their own profit margin. 
There have been 
such people in every period of 
history and they 
have brought only suffering and 
degradation to 
society in all cases. The illness 
such people suffer 
from is that they `never know 
enough' of something 
or to be more specific, they lack 
contentment. 
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Blessing Twenty-Five: Gratitude 
281 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.1 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 
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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 
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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 
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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 
[katafniE-katavedE]. 
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), 
our wish 
to help others around us is a form 
of maturity that 
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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 
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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 
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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; 
Blessing Twenty-Five: 
Gratitude 
282 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
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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 encouragement 
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 — 
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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: 
I. patience [khanti]: Such patience 
particularly 
needs development of `shame of 
evil' [hiri] and 
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`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. 
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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. 
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Respect doesn't 
just mean bowing or expressing 
reverence towards 
one's teacher, it means using our 
sincerest 
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 
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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 [katalnit]: Sometimes 
what our 
teacher asks of us exceeds the 
threshold of our 
patience, and even our respect 
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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 
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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 
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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 
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