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B2.1 Warnings about 
prevarication 
On the subject of setting oneself up 
in life, there are 
several common misconceptions 
which you ought 
to avoid: 
I. Don't wait until you are old 
before getting spiritual: 
You should devote yourself to 
spiritual 
practice starting from the time 
when you are still 
young and healthy. In fact even to 
start templegoing 
from the time you are twenty is 
still too 
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late. If you start temple-going from 
the age of 
Blessing Six: Setting Oneself up 
Properly in Life 95 
five or six, like RAhula in the time 
of the Buddha, 
it is your advantage. You should 
start studying 
the spiritual side of yourself early 
in life so 
that you don't make grave moral 
errors. How 
many of us spend many years 
drinking alcohol 
and damaging our minds before we 
realize what 
we are doing to ourselves? You 
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can bypass the 
problem completely if you attend 
the temple 
from your youth. 
2. Don't prevaricate about setting 
yourself up in 
life: You should work hard to 
make yourself selfsufficient 
in life at the earliest possible 
opportunity 
— anyone who is still a parasite 
living in 
someone else's house should be 
quick to make 
yourself independent. 
3. Don't prevaricate about paying 
off your debts: 
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Don't let your debts be something 
you carry with 
you to your next life! The interest 
on loans that 
span into the afterlife are too high 
to be worth 
risking slow repayment. Thus pay 
off your debts 
and make sure that you don't put 
yourself in debt 
any more. You should build up 
your own financial 
reserves before making an 
investment, not 
rely on borrowing from others or 
from the bank. 
If you die before you have paid 
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back your loan, 
next lifetime you will have that 
debt hanging 
round your neck like a dead 
albatross. Suppose 
you borrow a dollar but die before 
you can pay 
it back — supposing you are an 
angel for a thousand 
years — just think what the 
compound interest 
will add up to during that time! 
You might 
never manage to pay it back. 
4. Don't prevaricate about 
improving on your bad 
habits: If you know anything 
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about yourself is a 
bad habit, give up doing it 
immediately. Check 
your own behaviour as a regular 
part of your 
practice and improve on yourself 
instead of wasting 
time finding fault with others. 
5. Be careful of bad deeds in the 
guise of good ones: 
When you have done a good deed, 
don't go wishing 
for things that are irresponsible. 
B3. Exclusively spiritual 
Even the Bodhisattva himself 
needed an aim in life 
when pursuing perfections in 
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preparation for Buddhahood. 
Thus it comes as no surprise that 
on the 
exclusively spiritual level of aim in 
life, it is still 
important to have an aim in life, in 
order to waste 
no time in pursuing the goal of 
purifying the mind 
to a point where it can enter upon 
Nirvana. On this 
level, even material convenience is 
sacrificed in order 
fully to cultivate spiritual 
development. 
B3.1 Human Realm as the 
crossroads of existence 
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The clearer one's aim in life, the 
more clearly one 
will understand the preciousness of 
human life —
and that we cannot afford to waste 
a moment. Even 
if you look around your house, of 
which you pride 
yourself as being the owner, if you 
count the 
number of fleas, mosquitos, ants 
and mice, you will 
realize that you are in the minority 
— even though 
it's your house! This is intended to 
give you an inkling 
of how rare it is to be born human 
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and what a 
precious opportunity our human 
lifespan is in forging 
our destiny. In our human 
company there are 
basically four sorts of pathway of 
human destiny 
forged during a lifespan (A.ii.85): 
I. Out of the darkness into the 
darkness: Born with 
all the disadvantages of nature and 
nurture, they 
did what came naturally and made 
a worse mess 
out of their lives; 
2. Out of the darkness into the 
light: In spite of 
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ample disadvantages of nature and 
nurture, they 
struggled against hardship until 
being able to 
make some sort of success out of 
their lives; 
3. Out of the light into the 
darkness: In spite of all 
the advantages of nature and 
nurture, they became 
complacent and made a mess out 
of their 
lives. 
4. Out of the light into the light: 
Avoiding the trap 
of complacency, they built on the 
advantages of 
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nature and nurture they brought 
into the world, 
storing up a yet brighter future for 
themselves. 
The human realm is like a 
crossroads where destiny 
can be transformed for the better or 
for the 
worse. For sure, transforming 
one's destiny for the 
better means going against the tide. 
Spiritual cultivation 
is often hard in the beginning, but 
pays off 
in the long-term — something that 
may not be immediately 
obvious to someone who sees 
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everything 
96 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
in the short-term. Therefore a 
proper aim in life is 
vital for anyone navigating the 
human crossroads 
who wants to make a success in 
forging a brighter 
destiny. 
B3.2 Prerequisites for fulfilling 
the Highest Aim in Life 
In a Buddhist context, fulfilment of 
Highest Aim in 
Life, the fruition of all levels of 
cultivation is to 
purify the mind completely or to 
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enter upon Nirvana. 
In order to fulfil this goal six 
conditions must 
be fulfilled— without these six 
prerequisites, all our 
effort in setting an aim in life will 
be in vain. These 
six prerequisites are: 
1. You have to have been born in 
an amenable location 
i.e. Blessing Four 
2. You must have done good deeds 
until used to 
them i.e. Blessing Five 
4 - 6. The Four Accomplishments 
already met as 
catalysts determining the speed 
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with which merit 
can take its effect as described in 
Blessing Five 
These six factors go together as a 
set of conditions 
known as the Six Catalysts or 
Accomplishments: 
1. Catalytic Circumstances 
[gatisamapati] 
2. Catalytic Timing [kAlasampatti] 
3. Catalytic Location 
[padesasampatti] 
4. Catalytic Family [kulasampatti] 
5. Catalytic State of Well-being 
[upadhisampatti]
6. Catalytic View [diEEhisampatti] 
If you find that you are hampered 
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in setting yourself 
up in life in the way you would 
wish, perhaps 
you have to consolidate Blessing 
Four and Blessing 
Five to contribute sufficient 
Accomplishments 
to your spiritual quest to give you 
the `escape velocity' 
you need to forge your destiny to 
the full! 
C. ILLUSTRATIVE 
EXAMPLES 
C.1 Metaphor: Boat must have a 
rudder 
If the ship that must struggle to 
make way in 
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the ocean waves is to reach the far 
shore, its captain 
must have a clear destination in 
mind and 
keep the ship firmly on course, not 
allowing the 
ship to drift 
no less important is 
an aim in 
life to those wishing to achieve 
success and 
profit in their lives. 
C2 Metaphor: The one-eyed sea 
turtle 
(S.v.455) 
The Lord Buddha taught that the 
birth of someone 
as a human is as rare as the chance 
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of a blind 
turtle in the ocean which surfaces 
for air once a 
century popping its head through 
the middle of 
the only flower garland which 
happens to be 
floating in the sea. The chance of a 
being which 
is a denizen of hell, an animal, a 
ghost or a demon 
attaining human birth is even 
slighter 
still.Therefore having obtained 
yourself a human 
birth make sure you make the best 
of your 
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life. 
C.3 Metaphor: Saving for the 
Future 
Just as a wise merchant must keep 
aside someof 
his money for investment in the 
future, the wise 
man must keep aside some of his 
time for the 
practices that will allow him to 
renew his merit 
for future lifetimes. Just as the 
wise farmer keeps 
aside some of his rice crop for next 
year's sowing, 
the wise man will take the 
opportunity 
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while his old merit is still giving 
its fruit, to accrue 
new merit for use in future 
existences. 
C.4 Ex.: The Retribution of 
Kapila Bhikkhu 
DhA.iv.37ff 
In the time of the Lord Buddha 
named Kassapa, 
there was a gang of five hundred 
thieves who 
were bringing misery to the whole 
of the kingdom. 
The householders, together with 
the police 
and the army thus hunted down the 
gang 
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and when the thieves saw that they 
could no 
longer defend themselves, they 
escaped into the 
forest. The vengeful householders 
did not give 
up chase and so the thieves went 
deeper and 
deeper into the forest until they 
came to a clearing 
in the heart of the forest. There 
they met a 
monk, and seeing the monk, they 
started to see 
the error of their ways. They were 
receptive to 
what the monk had to say, and the 
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