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VaIgisa would 
have been able to find the afterlife 
destination of 
the arahant. 
D.2 Ex. KuEumbiyaputta-Tissa 
Thera (MA.i.188ff) 
A young man called Tissa heired 
from a wealthy 
KuEumbiya family of SAvatthE. 
He renounced a 
legacy of forty crores and became 
a monk dwelling 
in the forest. His younger brother's 
wife who 
had inherited the wealth in his 
place was afraid 
that he might give up his vocation 
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as a monk and 
come home asking for his fortune 
back. She could 
not sleep in peace and therefore 
decided to send 
five hundred ruffians to kill 
him.The ruffians went 
to where Tissa was meditating in 
the forest and 
surrounded him. Tissa asked them 
why they had 
come. The ruffians replied that 
they had come to 
kill him. He didn't resist, but 
begged them to spare 
his life for one further night (to 
give him enough 
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time to strive for enlightenment). 
The ruffians 
asked who would guarantee that he 
would not run 
away in the night. Because there 
was no-one else 
who could be his witness, he 
picked up a stone 
and used it to break both his own 
thigh-bones as a 
token that he would not attempt to 
escape — asking 
them whether that would be 
sufficient guarantee. 
The ruffians, however, were not 
entirely 
satisfied and built a fire nearby on 
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the place where 
the monk normally did his walking 
meditation 
and slept there. During the night he 
overcame his 
pain and, reflecting on the purity 
of his own selfdiscipline, 
meditated for the whole of the 
night to 
became an arahant at dawn. 
Blessing One: Not Associating 
with Fools 393 
The Tenth 
Group of Blessings 
"The Fruits of Having 
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Practised until reaching an 
end of defilements" 
Having rid ourselves even of 
the subtlest defilements as a 
result of 
our practice in in Group IX 
culminating in the Attainment 
of Nirvana 
(Blessing Thirty-Five) 
the 
only remaining work on the 
Buddhist 
path of progress, is to receive 
the fruits of our labours. Group 
X is entitled `the fruits of 
having practised until reaching 
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an end of 
defilements'. In fact, there is no 
practice left to do in this 
grouping, 
and the remaining blessings are 
more a description of the fruits 
of 
one's practice. It is like having 
washed oneself thoroughly, all 
there 
is left is the feeling of 
cleanliness and refreshedness. 
This grouping 
contains four blessings: 
• Blessing Thirty-Five: A Mind 
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Invulnerable to Worldly 
vicissitudes 
• Blessing Thirty-Six: The 
Sorrowless Mind 
• Blessing Thirty-Seven: 
Freedom from Subtle 
Defilements 
• Blessing Thirty-Eight: The 
Blissful Mind 
The Group describes the 
qualities of a mind freed from 
the influence 
of defilements. The first of 
these we are to examine in this 
chapter is the state of 
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./J1o可一曲饪244I 
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人pe9JIe 
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c6Es 
dflUS'锣3纫 
呻 p/.io 
oi 2/qVd2恤JM UJ 
pU!J4T V .M？厚一磁1q18U!SS2iEf 
.'U!417paU211声？7uf sp.iv4t叨 
sda1Sgs:a?md 扣/VflUVJ/1/VP6E 
' SapmTSSToTA 
JcIPTJ0M 0证1T'Tq1J0u'nAuT 
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given here for how 
to minimize your vulnerability to 
worldly vicissitudes 
for those whose mind is not yet at 
the 
transcendental level. Having 
practised all the 
forgoing blessings, you will have 
attained a 
body of enlightenment within 
yourself which 
has an appearance like a living 
Buddha of crystal 
at the centre of one's body. Your 
doubts about 
reality and world will be almost 
completely 
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overcome, having used the 
DhammakAya to examine 
the nature of the world, especially 
the 
Four Noble Truths. You will be 
able to understand 
for yourself the answers to so 
many of 
those questions that are useless to 
have explained 
to you by anyone else. If you can 
attain 
the ability to see the Four Noble 
Truths, and see 
Nirvana for yourself, the next 
outcome of your 
practice is that your mind starts to 
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become invulnerable 
to the temptations of the world. If 
you are an arahant, you will be 
completely invulnerable 
to the temptations of the world 
however, if you have attained the 
DhammakAya 
at any other level, although you 
will still be vulnerable 
to the temptations of the world, 
you will 
only be partially vulnerable. 
A.2 The point of studying 
vulnerability for those 
who have not yet attained 
The subject matter of this blessing 
concerns invulnerability 
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to the temptations of the world. 
Some 
might ask whether there is any 
point in studying this 
blessing for people who have not 
yet become arahants 
but in fact, by studying the 
invulnerability to the 
temptations of the world as one of 
the possible results 
of persevering with meditation 
practice, it is 
hoped to be inspiration to readers 
to practice further 
until they can attain such 
invulnerability for 
themselves. The objective is not to 
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'be invulnerable' 
without having attained 
DhammakAya, the Four 
Noble Truths and Nirvana, because 
without these 
things, your invulnerability is not 
yet watertight. 
A.3 Definitions 
The title of this blessing in Pali 
`phuEEassalokadhammehi 
cittaO yassa na kampati' is 
`Invulnerability 
(lit. untouched) to the vicissitudes 
of 
the world'. To define each of the 
constituent terms 
in turn: 
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• The Mind: When talking about 
the invulnerability 
of the mind, by `mind' we mean 
our good 
quality of mind; 
• Invulnerable: Invulnerable 
means not being 
dulled by aversive consequences 
such as loss of 
fame, loss of possessions or loss of 
loved ones. It 
also means not being elated by 
desirable consequences. 
If your mind is affected in either of 
the 
two ways mentioned, then it is still 
vulnerable. 
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Blessing Thirty-Five: 
A Mind Invulnerable 
to Worldly 
Vicissitudes 
396 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
• vicissitudes of the World 
[lokadhamma]: These 
are features of life in the world 
which are 
fraught with uncertainty and which 
no-one 
can avoid for as long as they live 
in the 
world. The varieties of the 
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vicissitudes are 
examined in more detail below. It 
is just like 
it is the nature of the ocean to have 
waves 
on it. If anyone goes to sea then 
they must 
meet with waves. If you go into the 
forest, 
then you cannot avoid trees 
because it is the 
nature of the forest to have trees. 
The nature 
of the world is to have vicissitudes 
which are 
always fluctuating for the better or 
the 
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worse. If we allow these 
fluctuations to dictate 
our mood, our quality of mind will 
be 
like a roller-coaster! In fact, there 
is only one 
type of person who is not affected 
by the vicissitudes 
of the world and those are the 
arahants. Their mind has sufficient 
self-confidence 
and steadfastness to be 
equanimous 
or indifferent in the face of worldly 
vicissitudes. 
Even though they too are subject to 
worldly vicissitudes, their mind is 
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not upset 
by unpleasant vicissitudes and it is 
not elated 
by desirable vicissitudes. The mind 
of such 
a person sees all vicissitudes as 
things that 
will not last forever, and lends 
them no more 
importance than they deserve. 
A.4 Why make our minds 
invulnerable to 
worldly vicissitudes? 
The Buddha warned of the dangers 
of acquiring 
the desirable vicissitudes when one 
doesn't 
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know how to prevent oneself from 
becoming 
attached to them. He compared 
acquired wealth 
in such a case as being like fish 
bait (BaOisa Sutta 
S.ii.226), a hunter's dart (Kumma 
Sutta S.ii.226), 
a thornbush entrapping long-haired 
sheep 
(DEghalomi Sutta S.ii.228) and 
turns those previously 
of good conscience into those who 
would rather tell a lie than lose 
what they have 
acquired (MAtarE etc. Suttas 
S.ii.242ff.),It is for 
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this reason that if we are not yet 
invulnerable to 
such vicissitudes, we have to train 
ourselves in 
contentment (as explained in 
Blessing Twenty-Four, 
§E.3). 
B. WORLDLY VICISSITUDES 
B.1 Varieties of Worldly 
Vicissitudes 
There are a total of eight types of 
vicissitudes in the 
world (A.iv.157). These eight are 
divided into two 
groups — the first group of 
desirable [iEEhAramaAa] 
vicissitudes which can make the 
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