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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 elephant 
 
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 
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hunter stood 
and sucked him directly into hell, 
without having 
to wait for him to die. 
Blessing Twenty-Five: Gratitude 
289 
E.6 Ex. JavasakuAa JAtaka 
(J.308) 
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 
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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 
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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 
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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?" 
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"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. 
290 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
Blessing Twenty-Six: Listening 
Regularly to Dhamma Teachings 
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291 
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 
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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.2 Objectives of listening to the 
Dhamma 
Of course the point of listening to 
a sermon is to 
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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 foundation 
of faith it is unlikely that you will 
see the 
value of the teachings to the extent 
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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 
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you can see some value in the 
Buddha, the 
Dhamma and the SaIgha, then you 
begin to 
open your heart to the benefits 
which you can 
absorb from Buddhism. 
2. 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 
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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 
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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 
Blessing Twenty-Six: 
Listening Regularly 
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to Dhamma 
Teachings 
292 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
B. LISTENING REGULARLY 
TO DHAMMA TEACHINGS 
B.1 Definitions 
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 
one's mind 
for the better 
and having heard 
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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 
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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 
room 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. 
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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 
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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 
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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: 
1. On 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 
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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 
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