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that there was always wealth in 
Visayha's house 
for endless giving to his dying day. 
D.2 Ex. Buddha left hungry by 
Brahmin Verafija 
Having discussed the Dhamma 
witha certain Brahmin 
called Verarija (as related in 
Blessing Thirty §E.4) 
the brahmin was so impressed that 
he invited the 
Buddha and the whole monastic 
community to stay 
in his province for the duration of 
the Rainy Season. 
The Buddha accepted the 
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invitation but a short 
time later in that province, the 
harvest failed and 
there was a famine in the area. 
There was hardly 
enough food to go round. Veranj a, 
as one of the administrators 
of the province, was so busy 
solving 
the problems of the starving people 
in the province 
that he completely forgot to look 
after the Buddha 
and the community of 
five-hundred monks who 
had accompanied him. The Ven. 
MoggallAna offered 
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his services to the Buddha saying, 
"The Brahmin 
is too busy to be able to look after 
us. May I fly 
away to another continent (world) 
to look for alms 
there, to bring such alms back and 
feed our hungry 
community?" 
The Buddha said, "There is no 
need to go to so 
much trouble". 
"Then shall I penetrate down deep 
into the earth 
to find the `ambrosia' that is buried 
there and bring 
it back to feed our community?" 
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The Buddha said, "No, don't do 
that. Show a little 
patience." 
"Why do we need to be patient?" 
The Buddha replied, "Even, if you 
were to access 
the ambrosia from under the 
ground and the word 
spread around, before long people 
would stop offering 
almsfood to the monks in order to 
see which 
monk is an arahant able to access 
such ambrosia. It 
would be a disaster for the monks 
who are not yet 
arahants. Be patient just for three 
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months so that 
the monks to come in the future 
will not suffer as 
the result." 
Eventually the monks survived to 
the end of the 
rainy season on the `red rice' 
usually used for feeding 
horses. The happiness for the 
Buddha didn't 
come from the food he ate but 
from the purity of 
the mind arising from 
enlightenment. 
D.3 Ex. LakuAIaka Bhaddhiya 
Thera 
(DhA.ii.148f1) 
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Bhaddiya was one of the bhikkhus 
staying at the 
Jetavana monastery. Because of 
his short and childlike 
stature he was known as 
LakuAIaka (the 
dwarf). LakuAIaka Bhaddiya was 
very good natured 
— even young bhikkhus would 
often tease him 
by pulling his nose or his ears or 
by patting him on 
the head. Very often they would 
jokingly say, `Uncle, 
how are you? Are you happy, or 
are you bored 
with your life here as a bhikkhu?' 
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Bhaddiya never retaliated 
in anger, or abused them. In fact he 
was alBlessing 
Thirty-Five: A Mind Invulnerable 
to Worldly Vicissitudes 401 
ways serene and pleasing to the 
eye. 
When told about the patience of 
Bhaddiya, the 
Buddha said, `An arahant never 
loses his temper, 
he has no desire to speak harshly 
or to think ill of 
others. He is like a mountain of 
solid rock. As a solid 
rock is not shakeable by wind so 
also, an arahant is 
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unperturbed by scorn or by praise.' 
Only then did 
the other monks come to know that 
Bhaddiya had 
long before attained arahantship 
and was invulnerable 
to worldly vicissitudes. 
402 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
Blessing Thirty-Six: 
Sorrowlessness 403 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.1 True love and possessive love 
Second only to wisdom, 
compassion [karuAA] —
or true love — is considered one of 
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Buddhism's 
key virtues. The further we can 
extend our mind, 
the more broadly and impartially 
we will be able 
to spread our love. Compassion is 
not a virtue to 
make you a narrower or more 
egoistical person. 
On the contrary, it will lead to a 
breaking down 
of the barriers between yourself 
and the rest of 
the world. For arahants such love 
comes naturally. 
However, for those who are still 
unenlightened, 
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the love we experience, although 
called by the 
same name, is possessive in its 
nature. Possessive 
love is subject to the three 
Universal Characteristics 
and cannot last forever. It also 
re-inforces 
our egoism unlike its enlightened 
equivalent, 
`compassion'. However, worst of 
all, possessive 
love has a painful withdrawal 
symptom called 
`sorrow' — the nature of which we 
will discover 
later in this blessing. 
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Because an arahant has no further 
possessive 
love he is thus free of sorrow. Thus 
sorrowlessness 
is another of the four 
characteristics of 
an arahant described in Group X. 
In fact 
`sorrowlessness' is closely 
concerned with virtues 
discussed in the immediately 
preceding Blessings. 
In Blessing Thirty-three we talked 
about two 
types of suffering — the inevitable 
and the miscellaneous 
(largely avoidable). In Blessing 
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Thirty-
Five we have already been 
introduced to the vicissitudes 
of the world: which are all features 
of 
life in the world which are 
unavoidable — but to 
which you can make your mind 
invulnerable by 
attaining arahantship — allowing 
one to see the 
desirable and undesirable things of 
the world as 
subject to the Three Universal 
Characteristics. 
This blessing deals with making 
oneself invulnerable 
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to the second category of suffering 
which 
is avoidable — those that resemble 
sorrow. As we 
shall see, sorrowlessness is a fruit 
of attaining 
arahantship — but even though we 
may not have 
reached arahantship ourselves, it 
doesn't stop us 
from drawing some conclusions 
(see §C. below) for 
how to reduce potential sorrow in 
our life — even 
if we cannot completely eradicate 
it. 
A.2 Definitions: Sorrow & 
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Sorrowlessness 
The word `sorrow' or soka' has 
already been introduced 
since the Four Noble Truths of 
Blessing 
Thirty-three. It is a term which 
refers to the suffering 
state of a mind that is torn by 
dryness. A 
mind of sorrow is a mind that feels 
dry and 
cracked like the earth in a land 
suffering from 
drought. It is like a leaf that has 
become so dry 
that it has lost its life and 
freshness. Sorrow arises 
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when someone encounters an 
undesirable situation 
which makes us feel burned out 
and helpless. 
The antonym for sorrow, the word 
`sorrowless' (or in the Pali 
' asoka') refers to the 
mind that is not vulnerable to 
sorrow — and is 
the title for this blessing. 
Blessing Thirty-Six: 
Sorrowlessness 
404 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
B. NATURE OF SORROW 
B.1 Cause of Sorrow 
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The problem of the untrained mind 
is that it tends to 
pick up indiscriminately on all the 
negative emotions 
of perceptions coming to us 
through the senses. The 
mind will not stay still but will 
constantly try to find 
some new perceptual food to feed 
the senses. However 
whatever sort of thing it senses, it 
will not stay 
with that thing for long, but will 
soon be on the move 
searching for something new. If 
you listen to some 
pleasant music, after only a few 
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minutes you will become 
bored and start looking for 
something tasty to 
eat instead. Before you have eaten 
much, you think 
to yourself that you would rather 
lie down and take a 
sleep. Before you have been asleep 
for very long, you 
would rather go outside and take a 
walk. There is 
never any satisfaction with any 
particular sensation. 
There is only one sort of sensation 
with which the 
mind never gets bored — and that 
is when one falls 
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in love with someone or 
something. Such possessive 
love causes the mind to be fixated 
firmly with no more 
wandering. Once the mind has 
attached itself to possessive 
love it can no longer get itself free. 
In such a 
state of mind, any day you don't 
get a glimpse of your 
lover, you feel that you have no 
appetite. Even to hear 
their voice on the telephone, to see 
a glimpse of their 
face, or to catch sight of their 
house can help to satisfy 
you. If they love you in return, the 
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suffering remains 
within the limits of toleration 
but what if they don't 
love you in return? Or what if they 
start out by loving 
you and later change their mind —
or love someone 
else — or die? It is at this point 
that the mind will 
become so dry that it will feel like 
it will tear in two. 
Now if you hear a love song, you 
would rather cry. 
Now if someone invites you to go 
and see a romantic 
movie, you would rather stay at 
home. From a mind 
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that used to be interested in 
absorbing many different 
stimuli, now it has had such an 
overload from the 
stimulus of falling in love that it no 
longer wants to 
absorb any stimuli at all. Thus, 
sorrow is like a withdrawal 
symptom from possessive love —
in the words 
of the Buddha: 
Piyate jhayate soko 
Sorrow is caused by things that are 
dear to us 
J.iii.162, DhA.iii.277 
Thus if anyone wants to live 
sorrowlessly in the 
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