EFTA00286476

4. Appropriate Spending: [samajtvittA]. This means 
being thrifty in spending your earnings. Anyone who 
has already expended so much effort in earning a day's 
wage should get full benefit from their own earnings 
without being extravagant and also without being so 
stingy they don't allow themselves to use their money 
for any material comfort. 
C.4.2 Spiritual profit defined (A.iv.284) 
The wise man recognizes that he cannot live by bread 
alone and that for all the material wealth he might earn, 
it cannot buy him spiritual fulfilment. Thus a second 
important form of profit in life is spiritual profit —
better known as profit in life for the hereafter. This 
again consists of four virtues to be cultivated during 
one's lifetime [sampAyikattha-payojana]. 
I. Faith or Confidence means faith that doing good 
deeds will lead to good outcomes (for the doer) and that 
doing evil will lead to bad retribution and giving rise to 
the commitment to perform the maximum of good 
deeds throughout one's life. Faith is the first step upon 
the road to striving to do so many good deeds. 
Sometimes the clarity of peoples' minds is insufficient 
for their mind to be faithful continuously. They may be 
faithful when they wake up but later on in the morning 
the inspiration fades away. The Lord Buddha referred 
to such faith as `turtle-head faith' because sometimes 
the faith shows itself like the head of a turtle, but just as 
often it will disappear out of sight inside its shell! This 
is not the nature of the faith of a wise man whose faith 
is steadfast and commitment continuous. 'Turtle-head 
faith' is not so hard to find — like the man who takes 
the Precept in the morning not to kill any living being 
but as soon as the tiniest of mosquitos tries to bite him 
he is slapping it as if his good intentions are all 
forgotten — but the mosquito disposed of he thinks, 
"Oh! I'm taking the Precepts today, all you mosquitos 
had better get out of my way before I change my 
mind!" Such 'turtle-head faith' is no use to a wise man. 
With a mind that is crystal clear, a promise even to 
oneself, is a promise to be kept. 
Z The Precepts. You must keep the minimum of Five 
Precepts as the baseline of one's virtue because the 
Precepts measure the degree to which you are a person 
as opposed to being a savage. Any time you want to 
find out to what extent you are human, you can use the 
Five Precepts as your benchmark. If all five of the 
Precepts have been perfectly kept, you can conclude 
that you are 100% human that day. If only four of your 
Precepts remain intact, you can conclude that you are 
only 80% human. If only three remain you are only 
60% human, your fangs are beginning to show. If only 
two remain you are only 40% human, your fangs are 
longer and traces of a tail are visible. If only one 
remains you are only 20% human and the remainder of 
you is 80% savage. If none of your Precepts remain 
intact, nothing human remains about you. Try swapping 
yourself fora dog in anyone's house but no-one will 
accept the trade in. The dog is worth more than you are. 
You can fairly say that keeping the Five Precepts is the 
thing that closes the doors of hell. Because Five 
Precepts are the only thing that underpin our status in 
the human realm. Thus for the wise man, there is no 
doubt as to maintaining the Five Precepts and his hu-
manness for the whole time, throughout his life. 
3. Generoshy: That we are still alive and well today on 
the long path since our birth is only because we have 
relied upon the generosity of others all along the way. If 
on the day we were born, our mother had refused us her 
milk, our first day of our life would have been our last. 
If all throughout our childhood, our mother, father and 
relatives had refused us their care and attention, where 
would we be today? The fact that we have managed to 
learn to read and write and master knowledge of the 
world is only because our teachers have given their time 
and energy to educate us all through our schooldays 
[vidhayadAnaJ. Whenever we have made mistakes, in 
our childhood and maybe only been punished for it and 
then forgiven (rather than being put to death for our 
errors) is because others have been prepared to forgive 
us our tres-
EFTA00286516

passes [abhayadAna]. When you grow up and many, 
again you can only get by as a result of the time and 
energy your spouse gives to support you, sharing 
mutual earnings. Without such giving the marriage 
would certainly be on the rocks within the space of 
seven days. Ultimately, even the pavilion where you 
go to listen to sermons and the chairs you sit on to 
listen to it, all originate from the charity of others and 
that there is a monk with the time and energy to give 
you 
the sermon 
is another sort of giving 
[dhammadAna]. Thus, in addition to faith and 
keeping the Precepts, it is necessary to be generous 
too if you are to number amongst the wise. 
4. Wisdom [paiiiiA]: To be specific, anyone who is 
diligent in studying the teachings of the Lord Buddha 
will attain wisdom — the mark of a wise man. Anyone 
who lies around in bed all day has no chance of 
accruing wisdom. For the wise man, simply developing 
the four chambers of the millionaires' heart is not 
enough. He must seek out wisdom too. When it comes 
to a holiday instead of lying around in front of the TV 
or going to the cinema, he is already on his way to the 
temple in the early morning to study what the Buddha 
taught. This is what we call seeking out wisdom. 
The fool is one whose understanding of profit in life 
conforms neither to material nor spiritual profit in life. 
Thus we can say that the wise man is one who 
understands and works towards profit both in this 
lifetime and the here after — i.e. both material and 
spiritual profit in life. 
C.5 Defined in terms of quality of mind 
The wise man is one whose mind is habitually pure. A 
person could be completely unqualified. He could even be 
completely illiterate — but if his mind is habitually pure, 
he is a wise man. The reason for this is that just the fact 
that the mind is pure has a snowball effect because it sets 
his standards of judgement and discretion and this alone 
will ensure that wisdom is invested in everything he does 
— whether it may be thought, speech or action. 
D. RECOGNIZING A WISE ONE 
D.I Tell-tale Behaviours (5) 
Many of the characteristics of a Wise One mentioned 
above may not be immediately apparent to us because 
they are not external features. Thus we may have to look 
at the following five characteristics which will betray the 
wholesome inward qualities of someone who is wise: 
I. The wise like to shepherd others to live their lives in 
a proper way. Asked where one can go on a Sunday, he 
will reply, "to the temple of course 
— don't waste your time going to the cinema." Or 
passing him in the street, "it looks like rain, you 
ought to get the harvest in before it spoils." If you 
were to meet a fool in the same circumstances, he'd 
give you altogether different advice — "it looks like 
rain, if you're feeling aches & pains you'd be better 
off down at the bar with a stiff whisky down your 
throat!" Both the fool and the wise man are 
persuaders but their persuasion leads to different 
results indeed. 
2. The wise take full responsibility for the things that 
are their own business. Apart from being responsible, 
they will influence those around them to be responsible 
in the same way. What the wise won't do is interfere 
with other peoples' business. They know where to draw 
the line in order to avoid nosing into others' affairs. The 
fool by contrast is often more interested in interfering in 
other peoples' business than he is about taking 
responsibility for what he's meant to be doing. 
3. The wise favour the honest and the decent. Its no 
use trying to persuade him to be dishonest or 
unscrupulous, because he is above those sort of things. 
The fool by contrast is proud of the fact that he can get 
away with anything. Nothing is too low for him. 
4 The wise man is not easily angered. He is grateful 
for criticism from others. The fool, by contrast, even if 
criticized in the politest of ways will lose his temper. 
Even if someone offers him criticism with the best of 
possible intentions, he'll turn round with a scowl and 
answer back, "you've been constantly picking on my 
faults". 
EFTA00286517

If you smile at him, he'll interpret your smile as teasing and 
turn his back on you. Even just speaking to a fool can make 
him low his temper. Sometimes you don't even need to say 
anything. Just seeing you look at him can upset him — -What 
are you looking at me like that for?" The fool is constantly on 
the lookout for a fight. The wise man by contrast is hard to stir 
to anger. Thus if you recognize yourself as hot-tempered, you 
ought to associate with the wise and this will gradually cool 
down your flay temper. However, you shouldn't confuse the 
cool-tempered wise man with the inert and irresponsive char-
acter of the sort of guy who sleeps all day and seems to do 
everything in slow-motion. These dopey sorts are irresponsive 
to nearly everything around them, but don't think they're free 
of all defilements. They am another breed of person altogether 
from the wise men we aim to associate with. 
5. The wise favour self discipline and orderliness. 
When we live together in society with a huge number of 
other people, if we don't comply with the laws laid 
down in society, we end up as 
misanthropes. The 
regulations say that when you are at the temple, at the 
appropriate time you must come to sit in the main 
pavilion and sit in neat lines, without encroaching on 
the people sitting next to you, that way there is enough 
space for everyone and everyone has an equal area to sit 
in. The fool, however, doesn't respect the rules. He 
doesn't like obeying anyone or anything. He'll be the 
only one to sit out of line, sticking out like a sore 
thumb. He's like a spanner in the works. For temples in 
general, people go to the temple with the best of 
intention to accrue as much merit as possible but when 
it comes to mealtimes, they end up fighting to get to the 
front of the queue like vultures. In the morning they are 
like angels walking on the Earth, but when lunchtime 
comes, they are like hungry ghosts! 
In conclusion, the good thing about associating with the 
wise is that it will develop our discretion to be that of 
the wise with whom we associate — or to come to the 
real point — it will allow our mind to 
become bright and clear like that of the wise man. 
D.2 Qualities of a Wise One's Friendship 
Alternatively, the Wise One can also be noticed by his 
characteristics of being a true friend who exhibits all 
three sorts of responsibility: 
responsibility for his own personal dignity 
responsibility for the human dignity of others 
responsibility for a fair economic system In our 
association with such Wise Ones, we will be able to recognize 
their level of responsibility from the quality of their 
friendship. If we are a good friend to them, then we should 
see the following characteristics in the friendship which is 
returned. However, even amongst True Friends, the respon-
sibility can be manifested in different ways. The Buddha 
subdivided True Friends into four groups. He identified each 
group by four examples of be 
haviours — giving a total of sixteen characteristics to 
look for in a good friend. 
I. The Helpful Friend [upakaraka] 
2. The Constant Friend [samanasukhadulckha] 
3. The Friend of Wise Counsel [atthakkhayi] 
4. The Sympathetic Friend [anukampaka] 
I. a helpful friend is one who: 
I. protects you even when you are off your guard; 
2. helps protect your property even when you 
neglect it; 
3. is your refuge in times of danger; 
4. always provides you with twice as much as you 
asked for; 
2. a constant friend is constant in bad times and good: 
I. they confide in you; 
2. they don't go spreading your secrets around; 
3. they don't abandon you when you fall on hard 
times; 
4. they would even die in your place; 
3. they give you good counsel: 
I. they warn you against unwholesome behaviour 
2. encourage you towards wholesome behaviour; 
3. save up new things to tell you; 
EFTA00286518

4. point you in the direction of heaven. 
4. they empathize with you: 
I. they don't laugh at your misfortunes; 
2. they congratulate you on your good fortune, 
3. they speak out against anyone who maligns you, 
4. they stand up for those who speak well of you 
As you can see, all sixteen characteristics of the True 
Friend are characteristics that lead to the creation of 
positivity. 
E. ASSOCIATION 
E.I How to associate with the wise (7) 
The Lord Buddha taught seven features of behaviour 
which counts as association with the wise. If your 
association misses out on any of these seven factors, it 
cannot be counted as fruitful association. The seven 
features are as follows: 
I. Frequently meeting up with them. If you know that 
someone has the characteristics of a wise man, you 
ought to seek him out and visit him regularly. If you 
hear that such and such a temple has wise people going 
to it, then that should be the temple you are visiting 
regularly. This is the first step to true association. 
Without it no association can come about. 
2. Make yourself known to them. What this means is 
that when you have gone out of your way to seek out a 
wise man, you should make yourself known to them, 
not sit just out of their line of vision round the corner. 
Whenever they go to the boxing or the fashion show 
they are right at the ringside or up against the catwalk, 
but when they go to the temple and see one of the 
monks coming, they will disappear to the back row of 
the pavilion. In such a case, even though they have 
come as far as the temple where the wise are to be 
found, they cannot be said to have associated with the 
wise. 
3. Sincerely towards them. If there is any affection in 
your association, you must be sincere to one another —
with nothing behind your back. There is no secret 
which your other half can't ask about and get a straight 
answer. Loyalty means that 
there is no hidden agenda concerning your as-
sociation. But even this is not enough. 
4. Loyalty towards them. Where in sincerety, your 
association is bound through affection, in loyalty the 
association is bound through respect. Thus to make for 
the best of possible associations you should do nothing 
to diminish either the love or respect that bonds the 
relationship. Also you should do nothing to interrupt 
the train of thought of the wise man with whom you 
have chosen to associate whether it be through careless 
speech or otherwise. This is what we call loyalty. 
5. Help them in times of need. Whenever we notice 
that our associate (the wise one) is busy with something 
we could help with, we should offer our help without 
reluctance. However, if we know that our associate has 
something that we could help with and we keep our 
silence instead of offering our assistance, we can hardly 
call our association a friendship. Just imagine if a group 
of so-called friends all come together at meal time but 
cannot be found when it comes to time for work. Such a 
group could hardly be called friends. 
6. When free joining up to talk and eat together. When 
the wise have free time they come together to discuss 
the Dhamma and to clear up their doubts (not to gossip 
about the neighbours). 
7. Reflection on Dhamma and Getting Down to 
Earnest Practice. This is one of the most important 
headings. Even if you have diligently followed the 
previous six steps but omit this seventh step, you 
cannot call it true association. Also, if you do none of 
the first six but do the seventh one, it is as good as true 
association, because Dhamma always has the same 
flavour — it always gives rise to self discipline [sEla]: 
it always gives rise to concentration [samAdhi]: and it 
always gives rise to wisdom [paiiiiA]. Thus even if you 
have never met your wise associate before, even on 
your first meeting you will feel as if you have been 
friends for a thousand years, or for many lifetimes —
because both of you have Dhamma in your hearts — it 
is Dhamma that binds your association. 
EFTA00286519

The behaviour that we refer to as association means that 
that whatever happens you will do things in 
togetherness. If there is work you will work together. 
Accept each others' help, accept the same identity, 
accept the same place of abode, accept work in the 
same place. If you possess anything, you will be willing 
to lend it to them or give it to them, giving them 
possessions or respect. In conclusion the operant parts 
of the process of association with the wise are sharing, 
accepting and giving. If you expand upon these three 
then you arrive at the seven steps described at the 
beginning of this section. 
£2 Principles of Association 
Like all the groups of people closest to us in the world, the 
best way we can get the virtues of the wise to brush off on 
us is associate with them as 'good friends'. The Buddhist 
teaching most relevant to the cultivation of a fruitful 
friendship is the 'northern quarter' of the SilgalovAda 
Sutta which gives us the following practical advice about 
how good friends should treat each other: 
The Buddha laid down five examples of duties we 
ought to practice in order to express our responsibility 
towards ow friends: 
I. generosity: anyone possessed of Right View [sammA 
diEEhi] is bound to moved to compassion when seeing 
others experiencing hardship or suffering — and 
generosity is the way in which he can ameliorate the lot 
of friends caught in such a situation, while at the same 
time strengthening his bond of friendship to that person; 
2. kind words: if a person is able to relinquish the Four 
Defilements of Action, and has the altruism of a Good 
Friend [kalyAAamitta] he will be of the habit of 
speaking only words that are polite and true; 
3. helping and acting for their welfare: endowed with 
the characteristics of a True Friend, one will have the 
altruism to want to do things for the benefit of one's 
friends; 
4. being consistent: however well one has treated one's 
friends in the past, one will not suddenly change to 
treat them better or worse because of 
force of circumstances. Just because one gets a 
promotion in rank which is better than that of one's 
old friend, one will not subsequently look down on 
him; 
£ never telling them lies: as good friend what one says 
will never deviate from the truth. 
It is only possible to fulfil the demands of these five 
duties if one has already had the qualifies of a true 
friend instilled by effective upbringing at the hands of 
one's parents, teachers and employers. 
In turn those wise friends should practice the following 
five duties towards us in order to express their sense of 
responsibility towards us: 
1. protect us when we are off our guard: learning that 
we are in the midst of problems as a result of our own 
recklessness, if it happens that such recklessness is not 
in our nature, if a friend is true, they will intervene and 
help — if they leave us to our recklessness you can 
know that they are an enemy in a friend's guise; 
Z help protect our property even when we neglect it: 
such is the behaviour of a true friend; 
3. be our refuge in times of danger: willingness to let 
us rely on them is the sign of a true friend; 
4. not abandoning us in times of trouble: this is the 
sign of a Good Friend [kalyAAamitta]; 
5. show due respect to other members of our family: 
friends who not only show us respect, but also respect 
those to whom we have debts of gratitude, our children 
and grandchildren as if they were part of their own 
family — are indeed true friends. 
All five duties of a friend are identifying features of a 
truly Good Friend — if we ever have the luck to come 
across such a genuine friend, we must take care to 
associate closely with them, treating them with respect, 
in keeping with the Buddha's advice: "associate with 
them respectfully, like a mother to her sons" 
It is pertinent to observe that such a genuine friend 
could only arise in the world as the result of an 
amenable environment (see forthcoming Blessing 
Four), especially those in whose company they grew 
up, in order for the good habits of those people to 
EFTA00286520

have brushed off on him and been preserved in his own 
personality. It is such people that society and nation 
alike are crying out for — because such a person has 
tremendous power of virtue stored up inside them —
sufficient power to channel the tide of society and 
economics around him down the same virtuous path. 
E.3 What are the consequences when there are no 
Wise Ones to be found? 
If there are no genuinely wise ones to be found in 
society or if those posing as 'wise' fail to cherish others 
according to the advice of the Buddha, many sorts of 
harm arise on individual, interpersonal and social 
levels. Many of the potential problems can be 
extrapolated to the relationship between government 
and the citizens it is supposed to be a refuge too. If the 
government fails to be a Wise Friend toils citizens, it 
the false friendship brings serious problems on a 
national level. In conclusion, the harm that arises when 
there is lack of association with the wise manifests 
itself on three levels: 
1. Losing a sense of responsibility for their own 
human dignity: If friends lack self-discipline and don't 
fulfil their duties towards one another as prescribed by 
the Lord Buddha, the first level of disaster which will 
happen to them is that they will lose their sense of 
responsibility for their own human dignity — this loss 
giving rise (at the minimum) to the following three 
undesirable symptoms: 
1. Breaking the Five Precepts: Because there is an 
atmosphere of mutual suspicion, former friends will 
deceive and lie to each other. The pledges of 
allegiance they formerly kept to one another will be 
nullified in the way often seen in political circles; 
2. Chronic False View: Lacking discretion as to right 
and wrong, virtue and misdeed, appropriate and 
inappropriate and the Law of Karma, there is nothing 
they will not do as a means to procure power, money 
and personal profit; 
3. Mistreats Friends: They might resort to back 
stabbing of former friends in order to procure 
personal ends; 
2. Losing a sense of responsibility for the human dignity 
of others: If friends lack self-discipline and don't fulfil the 
duties towards one another prescribed by the Lord 
Buddha, the second level of disaster which will happen to 
them is that they will lose their sense of responsibility for 
the human dignity of others — this loss giving rise (at the 
minimum) to the following three undesirable symptoms: 
I. Harbours bias: They will lose their sense of fair-
ness and will be continually biased in favour of their 
own cronies — not with altruistic thoughts for even 
their own people, but in order to pave the way to 
personal profit; 
2. Disloyalty to homeland: Out of selfishness and 
False View, they will become narrow-minded and 
unrefined in their thinking. All they will think about 
is how to maximize the profits they can procure for 
themselves and their cronies — to the point they will 
no longer have any sense of loyalty to their own 
country, religion or nationality — they wouldn't feel 
any scruples about making a profit, even if they have 
to destroy the national heritage to do so; 
3. Misuse of rank or position: When they lack any 
accurate sense of justice, they will attempt to make 
illegal dealings look legal or outlaw legal things, if 
it suits them to do so. 
3. Losing a sense of responsibility for economic fairness 
in society at large: If friends lack self-discipline and don't 
fulfil the duties towards one another prescribed by the 
Lord Buddha, the third level of disaster which will happen 
to them is that they will lose their sense of responsibility 
for economic fairness in society at large — this loss giving 
rise (at the minimum) to the following three undesirable 
symptoms: 
I. Corruption: When false view and selfishness get 
the better of their thinking, they will worship money 
alone — because they understand that the more 
money they have, the more power they can gain. 
Money will be the means that they can secure the 
any position of authority they hold (through bribery). 
EFTA00286521

2. Implicated in dealings with the Six Roads to Ruin: 
When money becomes important above all else, they 
will have no scruples about taking shortcuts to find 
it. Of course the most profitable forms of trading are 
dealing in drugs, forgeries, arms smuggling or 
casinos — the fact that they are illegal or exploit the 
poorest sectors of society — considerations which 
mean nothing to those so far alienated from thoughts 
of fairness in economics; 
3. Betrays homeland: if such people find themselves 
in positions of legislation, because of selfishness and 
False View, if they can make a `quick buck' from 
foreign investors, they will not think twice about 
waiving laws which formerly protected their country 
from foreign exploitation. 
The problems of lack of association with the Wise can 
be summarized down to two main points: 
I. Obvious social problems: In countries such as 
Thailand, social problems which are out of hand are 
high-level corruption, partiality of the legal system, 
degeneration into vice and widespread prostitution; 
2. Coven social problems: The covert social problems 
exist in the form of False Friends in positions of 
influence — whether it be positions in politics, the civil 
service, government utilities — who have less than 
scrupulous behaviour. Unfortunately what the people 
see of such public figures — an image of respectability 
and chivalry — often belies illicit dealings behind the 
scenes. Such false friendship has its origins in 
undisciplined parental upbringing, undisciplined 
schooling and eventually, having become a fool, 
seeking the company of other fools is the final nail in 
the coffin of true friendship. 
Possible solutions to these problems are: 
I. In the short term are to avoid voting those with the 
character traits of 'false friends' into positions of 
authority; 
2. In the long term are to use the nets of 'sixteen 
characteristics of true friends' and 'sixteen char-
acteristics of false friends' to identify and replac 
ing the weaknesses in yourself with virtues starting 
with yourself — associating with the wise so that 
their good virtues can brush off on you too. 
F. VARIETIES OF WISE ONES 
F.I Inner teacher, outer teacher 
Broadly speaking, there am two categories of the wise — the 
outer wise ones and the inner wise ones. The outer wise ones can 
be subdivided into the wise who are truly wise and those who are 
not truly wise. The truly wise are start with the Lord Buddha, the 
arahants and those who have attained the various levels of 
Buddhist sainthood. The wise who am not truly wise arc those 
who arc as wise as or wiser than us. Examples of these are monks 
who truly train themselves in meditation. Even though such 
monks may not be arahants, they come up to the standard of a 
wise man. You should seek him out for association and 
familiarize yourself with his virtues. You can only gain from such 
association. As for your own parents, given that we arc their chil-
dren, 
we ought to do our best to associate with them. 
Sometimes we encounter difficulties however. Sometimes our 
parents have the character of fools. If this should be the case then 
we have the duty to live in the same household, but with the 
utmost care not to let those foolish habits rub off on ourselves. If 
your parents drink alcohol, don't go prohibiting them from such 
behaviour. It is not your place to do so. However, at the same 
time you shouldn't go joining them in their drinking. If your 
mother loves playing poker, it's no good telling her to give up. 
Let her carry on with her gambling — but don't go joining in 
with her. Even though we know these arc the habits of a fool, 
they arc our own mother and father. We can't just ditch them. We 
must carry on living in the same household while taking care not 
to be infected by their foolish habits. 
The wise also extend to our friends and relatives who 
are a good example to us by their behaviour. Even if 
they might not be right all the time, or they may not be 
as wise as an arahant, to associate with them is still to 
our benefit. 
In the case of associating with the wise who are not yet 
perfect, the Buddha taught that we should 
EFTA00286522

concentrate on observing only their good points and 
mimic only these good behaviours. If that person has 
his faults, don't waste your time criticising them for 
these, because for as long as one hasn't come to an end 
of all defilements, faults and weaknesses will always 
remain. Don't go looking for peoples' faults. Look for 
their strengths and make the effort to instil these 
strengths in ourself. In the end we will be like an ocean 
full of all types of virtue. Don't go letting someone's 
minor fault blind you to all their virtues. If you are only 
interested in peoples' faults, by the time you have 
picked out everyone's weaknesses, there will be only 
one good person left in the world — yourself. 
Thus the wise in the outside world are of two types: the 
permanently wise who have rid themselves of all 
defilements and the sporadically wise who still have 
defilements remaining. Both types of wise ones are 
beneficial to associate with. 
You may have noticed that sometimes when we think 
of doing something evil there will be a little voice 
inside that warns us not to do it. Have you wondered 
where that little voice inside comes from? Usually we 
cannot see whose voice it is, but if we meditate until 
our mind is much clearer, we will be able to see the 
wise one inside who is the owner of the voice. 
Information, whether it be in the form of knowledge as 
a voice or the content of a dream or sixth sense, is 
transferred down the line from deep inside ourselves, 
like a baton between the runners of a relay race. 
G. THE PRACTICALITY OF CULTIVATING 
ASSOCIATION WITH THE WISE 
It is for this reason that we must do two things— try to 
find the wise in the outside world and find the best 
ways to associate with them. If we know that anyone is 
a good example then we should make sure we get to 
know that person. That way the good character that 
makes that person a wise one will begin to brush of on 
us as well. Secondly, once we have seen the nature of 
those who are a good example to follow, we should 
start to cultivate an inner self which has the same good 
qualities so that the self which is wise will manifest 
itself inside 
ourselves. If we already have an inner self that is wise, 
even if we don't meet any more wise people ever again, 
it will not matter to us, because we have ow inner 
source of wisdom from which we can draw the 
knowledge of our inner teacher. 
H. ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIALS 
H. I Metaphor: Leaves wrapping a perfumed fish 
A parable used by the Lord Buddha is that of the leaves 
wrapping a perfumed fish taking on the same perfume 
as the fish itself. 
K2 Red-Bearded Erecutioner saved by Association 
with the Wise (Dhitii.203) 
TambadAEhika who was a former thief had served the 
king as the public executioner for fifty-five years; and 
had just retired from that post. One day, he went to the 
river for a bath, intending to take some specially 
prepared food on his return home. As he was about to 
take the food, Venerable SAriputta, who had just arisen 
from sustained absorption in concentration [jhAna 
samApatti], stood at his door for almsfood. Seeing the 
monk, TambadAEhika thought to himself, "Throughout 
my life, I have been executing thieves; now I should 
offer this food to the monk." 
So, he invited SAriputta 
to come in and respectfully offered the food. 
After the meal, SAriputta taught him the Dhamma, but 
TambadAEhika could not pay attention, because he was 
extremely disturbed as he recollected his past career as 
an executioner. This mental disturbance did not allow 
him to concentrate properly. SAriputta knew this, and in 
order to put him in a proper frame of mind, he asked 
TambadAEhika tactfully whether he killed the thieves 
because he wished to kill them out of anger or hate, or 
simply because he was ordered to do so. TambadAEhika 
answered that he was ordered to kill them by the king 
and that he had no ill will or wish to kill. 'If that is the 
case,' SAriputta asked, 'What wrong did you do?' Thus 
re-assured, his mind became calmer and he requested 
SAriputta to continue his sermon. As he listened to the 
EFTA00286523

Dhamma attentively, his mind became tranquil and he 
developed the virtues of patience and understanding. 
After the discourse, TambadAEhika accompanied 
SAriputta for some distance and then returned home. 
On his way home he died due to an accident. 
When the Buddha came to the congregation of the 
hhikkhus in the evening, they informed him about the 
death of TambadAEhika. When asked where 
TambadAEhika was reborn, the Buddha 
told them that although TambadAEhika had committed 
evil deeds throughout his life, because he 
comprehended the Dhamma, he was reborn in the 
Tusita deva world. The hhikkhus wondered how such 
an evil-doer could have such great benefit after 
listening to the Dhamma just once. To them the Buddha 
said that the length of a discourse is of no consequence, 
for one single sentence of the Dhamma, correctly 
understood can produce much benefit. 
EFTA00286524

Blessing Three: Expressing 
Respect to Those Worthy of 
Respect 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.1 People Differentiated by their discretion 
As seen in the previous blessings, the brightness of a person's 
future relies on his ability to judge the difference between 
good and evil. If his judgement is faulty, there is no way he 
can make a success out of his life. Even though people may 
look superficially similar, their standards of judgement can be 
so different. As human beings we are born equal — we all 
have a pair of hands and ten fingers — but some people use 
their hands to perform works that are useful to society while 
others think that their hands will become more famous as fists 
and go around punching up the neighbours for a living. In this 
Blessing we look at the third of three major influences on our 
development of sound discretion 
— having the right sort of "role model" in our hearts. 
This blessing doesn't imply that we model ourselves on 
anyone or anything at all — but if we want to develop 
sound discretion we need to model ourselves (recognize 
and pay respect to) only those worthy of our respect. 
A.2 Effect of one's "hero" on one's discretion 
Hearing such terms as "paying respect", "expressing 
respect" or "people worthy of respect", the casual 
reader might come to the premature conclusion that this 
blessing is irrelevant to our day and age. However, if 
we rephrase what we mean in modem terms, asking 
"Who is the hero of your heart — which celebrity do 
you model yourself on 
or dream of emulating?", the pertinence of this blessing 
will become much more immediate. 
When we are children and the horizons of our experience do 
not extend beyond the walls of our house, maybe our own 
parents represent all that we want to achieve in our lives. We 
try to play at being "grown-up" like our parents, imitating 
them in our play. If we are exposed to a good parental 
example, our idea of what we perceive as normal or ethical 
will develop quite accurately from an early age. Ilowever, if, 
for example, parents lie to their children often or beat them 
out of anger, then that comes to be what the child perceives to 
be the standard of "justice" in life. 
During one's teen years, when one's horizons extend 
beyond the home, the influence of constructive or 
destructive role models becomes stronger and stronger. 
These role models are over and above the influence of 
good or bad friends as studied in the previous two 
blessings. 
Look at some of the role models celebrities set for the 
youth of today and you can imagine some of the 
problems facing our impressionable youth of today. 
Supposing you plan to model yourself on Vincent Van 
Gogh, Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin, 
Dylan Thomas, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Jim 
Morrison, Keith Moon, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest 
Hemingway or Brian Jones all of whom killed 
themselves at an early age, you might come to the 
conclusion that truly creative people are "too beautiful 
for this world". You might come 
EFTA00286525

to the conclusion that creative writers drank because 
they had to — or it was the "pressure of fame". Or that 
killing yourself is how to earn fame or emotionally 
blackmail others. We can overlook the insecure, 
grotesquely boring reality of these peoples' lives. We 
can rationalize away the brutal and banal nature of their 
addictions. We can forgive our heroes and we come to 
be able to forgive ourselves as well. It gives us an 
instant excuse to be irresponsible and indecent. We can 
say we're too beautiful for this world too. We can act 
like drugged children, crash our lives and drop out. 
The truth about someone like Vincent Van Gogh is that when 
he painted he was beautiful, but in other matters he was not. 
He was always encouraging his emotions to work their dark 
magic. It's true that he ought to be admired while he had his 
paintbrush in his hand, but to be admired for his whole 
sorrowful life and to make a legend out of it is to confuse 
oneself. The problem for us as beginners on the initial steps of 
the Manual of Peace, as debutante only just beginning to pick 
up an inkling of what is good for our spiritual development 
and what is not, we don't yet have the ability to distinguish 
between the creative and destructive aspects of someone's 
behaviour — therefore, when you are starting out on your 
sojourn of spiritual discovery, it's better to choose a role 
model who you can rely upon as an exemplar in all aspects of 
life. 
If you can choose a reliable role model for yourself: 
B. EXPRESSING RESPECT AND ITS PURPOSE 
If you ask yourself what you automatically do, when 
you have a "hero" in your heart, on analysis, you find 
that you devote all your waking thoughts to them. We 
put their picture on the wall. When we speak about 
them, we only speak praise of them. we take every 
opportunity to learn their opinions and share them. 
Given the opportunity we try to meet with them and 
imitate what they do in their lives. Some people even 
go to the lengths of dress like them. All these are 
random components of an attitude we call "respect". 
Many of the behaviours are ways of "paying respect" or 
"expressing respect". 
B. I What do we mean by "respect"? 
Respect means the attitude of looking for the positive aspects 
of a person or an object and the effort to instill oneself with 
those same virtues. Such respect, in context of the Manual of 
Peace is for the aim of furthering one's spiritual development 
— it must not have any ulterior motive. It mustn't be like a 
judo player who raises someone up (in his own self esteem by 
flattering them) only to drop him onto the floor more easily. 
Some bosses blindly believe their subordinates' flattery is 
respect to the extent that they overlook the real state of affairs 
and end up getting fired. This latter case of expressing respect 
does not come from a mind of pure innocence which expects 
or demands nothing material in return. 
you will accelerate your acquisition of Right Ware respect arises in response to someone's virtues. 
and Wisdom. 
Something else which may look like respect but which 
you will become less vulnerable to the influenft Sif fact an imposter is the intention to help someone in 
the expectation of gaining something material in return. 
you will more easily be able to avoid associatigarst comes the flattery, then comes the unrefusable 
with fools 
request for this or that favour. Boyfriend praises 
• 
you will facilitate the spread of virtue in societv_zirifriend, saying how pretty she is, because he wants 
and the world. 
her to love him. He has an ulterior motive to get 
• 
it will prevent you from becoming self-centredar ething in return. He's not interested per se in either 
arrogant about your own virtues. 
her goodness or her prettiness. 
• 
it will facilitate the development of mindfulness 
that is the precursor of wisdom. 
• 
it will add to your enthusiasm for self-devel-
opment 
fools 
B.2 What do we mean by "expressing respect"? 
Expressing Respect means any polite and inten 
EFTA00286526

tional action towards someone or something, both in 
their presence or behind their back, that is the device 
that demonstrates that one is really recollecting the 
virtues of that person or thing. 
R3 Purpose of Respect 
The reason behind paying homage to those worthy of homage is 
an extension of the reason for associating with the wise. We have 
already said that we associate with the wise in the hope that they 
will help us to develop accurate discretion in things concerning 
virtue. It is to help us overcome the weakness in our make-up, 
that we tend too easily to forget all the good and valuable things 
taught to us by our teachers and masters and parents or the mo-
nastic community, the Lord Buddha, or from books we read. 
When you are taught how to meditate for half-an-hour per day (or 
to do any other good deeds), however, your memory doesn't seem 
to be so reliable. The first day, you sit for meditation for exactly 
half-an-hour — no more, no less. On the second day, you sit for 
only fifteen minutes — well, that's better than nothing. On the 
third thy, you think that while you am chanting is actually a sort 
of meditation, so five minutes of true meditation is enough. On 
the fourth day it is especially humid, so you think that chanting is 
enough, no meditation today — after all, thousands of other 
people don't meditate, and they seem no worse off for it. By the 
fifth day you have entirely forgotten how to meditate for half an 
hour. It is for the reason that doing good deeds is so easy to forget 
that is the real reason for the need to pay homage. 
On the contrary, when it comes to being devious, or doing 
mischievous things, we remember the from the first time 
we're taught and never need to be taught again for the rest 
of our lives! We never forget how to play poker. We never 
forget how to shuffle a deck of cards. 
The real reasons behind paying homage areas follows: 
I. To give us a firm connection with the virtues of that 
person. Connecting up ow thoughts with a person of 
virtue will elevate our own minds to the higher level of 
virtue of that person. 
2. To practice expressing virtues so that in the future we 
might have the chance to gain a real appreciation of the 
virtues of that person. Whether we are an adult or a 
child, if ow appreciation of the real depth of virtue of a 
does not really do justice to the depth of their virtue, 
expressing homage can help us to appreciate it. When 
we were only five or six years old and our parents took 
us to the temple they would make sure that we paid 
respect to the Buddha images. For the child, he cannot 
see beyond the clay or the brass of the image and might 
wonder what all the fuss is about. A child that is so 
young can have no appreciation of the real depth of the 
virtues of the Lord Buddha. Taken to the home of their 
old uncle, they are told to pay respect to their uncle. 
The child cannot distinguish the goodness of their 
uncle's character, but pays respect because he has been 
told to. At school, the child is told to pay respect to 
their teachers. The child might not be able to tell the 
real virtue of the teacher, because the child's ability to 
comprehend is only limited. However, sometime in the 
future when we become so used to expressing our 
respect that we become used to it, the thought will 
eventually occur to us to look for the reason. 
B.4 Three Types of Bowing 
Sometimes people confuse respect with expressing 
respect. However, if you express respect when your 
attitude is wrong you will not succeed in furthering 
your spiritual progress. Consider the following 
examples: 
1. Bowing out of obsequiousness: Some people bow 
just because everyone else does. Usually they bow 
reluctantly. They have no attitude of respect in their 
mind. Therefore, all they get for their efforts is a stiff 
feeling in their muscles. 
Z Bowing out of peer-pressure: Some people only 
show respect in order to please the person they pay 
respect to, so that they can ask favours from that 
person, often for things which are not entirely honest or 
noble. 
3. Bowing in search of wisdom: This refers to those 
who have an attitude of respect and who also 
EFTA00286527

express their respect with the determination to 
practice themselves all the virtues exemplified by 
the object of their respect. An example of the sort of 
attitude in mind of someone who benefits from 
expressing respect is — supposing we bow three 
times to express respect towards the Buddha: 
L When we bow the first time: to reflect on the 
supreme wisdom of the Buddha which allowed him 
to see the existence of suffering, know the origin and 
the cessation of suffering and find a Path to the 
Cessation of Suffering — wisdom arising from the 
Buddha's extended meditation mind until his mind 
had become sufficiently clear and bright to eradicate 
all defilements of the mind. Following his example, 
we should also determinedly meditate until we can 
achieve the same wisdom as that of the Buddha. 
1. When we bow the second time: to reflect on the 
supreme compassion of the Lord Buddha that 
instead of just keeping his wisdom to himself, he 
spent all his life teaching Dhamma to others so that 
they could become enlightened in his footsteps. 
Following his example, we should also find ways of 
being generous as a way of expressing our 
compassion to others. 
3. When we bow the third time: to reflect on the 
supreme purity of the body, speech and mind of the 
Lord Buddha cultivated through his extended 
practice of self-discipline. Following his example, 
we should also find ways of finding better ways to 
extend our own self-discipline so that we too can 
attain full purity of mind. 
B.5 Two sorts of Respect 
However, all four of these can be summarized under 
just two headings, that is: 
L Homage through gifts: [AmisapEjA]: this refers to 
all material forms of paying homage — whether it be 
putting your palms together in a gesture of respect or 
even speaking words of praise about a person. 
2. Homage through practice: [paEipatipEjA] this 
means paying homage by doing as one is taught 
— for example, we pay respect to the Lord Bud 
dha by doing as he taught. Thus, in practice, expressing 
respect has two major components. 
B.5.1 Relative importance 
When we pay respect to the Lord Buddha, we should 
emphasise homage through practice, while homage 
through gifts should play only a supporting role. As for 
paying respect to teachers who are still concerned with 
worldly matters (ie. king, parents, teachers, elders and 
boss, we have to emphasise homage through gifts) while 
homage though practice plays only a supporting role. 
To give an example, if we are to meet up with our teacher 
and when we meet up with them all we have for them is 
the words, - I have put into practice everything you have 
taught me". This would hardly impress the teacher. It 
would have been appropriate to have some sort of gift to 
give the teacher as well. 
Others go abroad and on the way back thinkof their 
teacher. They don't know what to get as a present for 
the teacher and so they get a bottle of liquor. In the end 
the result is that the teacher and the pupil sit down and 
drink liquor together. The more they drink, the more 
irritated they feel and end up fighting one another. 
When it gets to this point, that gift can hardly be 
counted as a token of respect any more. It is an 
unwelcome gift resulting from false view. 
C PERSONAGES WORTHY OF RESPECT 
The person worthy of respect, in its simplest terms is 
the wise one (as defined in the previous Blessing). The 
wise one in this context is someone whose status or 
position or level of existence is so high that it would be 
completely inappropriate for us to associate with them 
on equal terms or as peers. Examples of such people 
include: 
Cl Buddha 
The Lord Buddha (who is truly wise), 
EFTA00286528

C1.1 Three worthy qualities of the Buddha 
For example, why we consider the Lord Buddha to be 
worthy of respect, and we find that it is because: 
I. His wisdom is so great that he could singlehandedly 
attain enlightenment. 
2. His Compassion is so great that He sacrificed the 
rest of his life to teach the way for others to reach 
enlightenment as he had done. 
3. His body, speech and mind were so pure (because of 
the immaculateness with which he had kept the 
Precepts) that no one else in the world can compare —
and for that reason we hold him in the highest of 
respect. 
To begin with we might not be able to appreciate the 
degree of his virtue, but after paying respect more and 
more, it makes our own mind more refined, gives us the 
ability to consider things in a constructive way and in 
the end, opening to us the innate wisdom that will allow 
us to appreciate that virtue. In any place, there are many 
things that are worthy of respect and many more things 
that are not worthy of respect. Thus, when deciding 
about the type of people who are worthy of respect, the 
subject of this Blessing, it is important to be able to 
distinguish one thing from the other. 
C2 The monastic community and other clergy 
The monastic community [Salgha] (who can be divided 
into those who are devoid of all defilement [ariyasalgha] 
such as the arahants, the non-returners [anagAmi], the 
once-returners [sakatagAmi] and the stream-enterers 
[sotApana]; and the general monastic community who are 
striving to train themselves towards an end of all 
defilements [sammutisa]gha]. Although the latter 
may 
not yet have purged themselves of all defilements, they 
are abundant in virtue to a degree that it is innappropriate 
to associate with them as if they were ow equals. If we 
associate with them, we should treat them as ow 
superiors — i.e. with respect — at all times. Monks or 
clergy worthy of respect are those who exemplify, teach 
and discern virtue for us by fulfilling the following six 
duties: 
1. 
restrain their congregation from 
Aril; 
encourage them to establish themselves in 
virtue: these two responsibilities are also the domain 
of parents and teachers; 
3. 
minister to them in kindness: this means 
spreading loving-kindness towards the congregation 
without exception for their happiness. They might also 
visit their supporters, together with their monastic 
fellows, in order to give those congregation members 
the chance to hear Dhamma teachings and have the 
opportunity to practice to practice generosity; 
4. 
teach them new or beneficial things: One of 
the most important functions of the clergy is to en-
courage study of the spiritual teachings amongst their 
congregation. Monks should have a large repertoire of 
teachings to give to the congregation, teaching without 
repeating themselves, so that the congregation can have 
a broad knowledge of Dhamma knowledge, reinforcing 
their Right View and ability to be a teacher to them-
selves [yonisomanasikAra] in relation to finding the 
highest happiness in their lives; 
5. clarify things they already know: if monks give 
Dhamma teachings they have already give to a 
particular group from the congregation, they should 
enlarge the subject in more detail than before, giving 
additional meaning to materials or explaining in further 
detail how the Dhamma can be applied for problem 
solving in everyday life; 
6. show them the way to heaven: this monastic duty is 
particularly special in the system of the `Six Directions' 
because no-one in any of the other social groups can do 
it in the monks' place. Those who are able to enter 
heaven must be those who live their lives in accordance 
with the noble code of Self-Discipline. 
This group consists of all forms of clergy who have an 
exclusively spiritual (rather than material) aim in life —
namely monks in Buddhism, or priests, pastors or 
ministers for other religions. We hold them in respect, 
because they maintain their status through their high 
level of virtue. In conclusion, the responsibility of the 
clergy consists of training the 
EFTA00286529

lay congregation to become Wise Ones or virtuous 
people — a noble duty indeed! Monks who are able to 
practice all six of these duties to their completion are of 
inestimable value to society and the world — they are 
worthy of respect both by men and angels alike. 
C.3 Virtuous monarchs 
Monarchs worthy of respect are those established in the 
Tenfold Virtues of a Monarch; 
CA Our Parents 
Our Parents and upstanding members of society. Our 
parents are wise ones. We should treat them with 
respect. Anything less would be inappropriate. 
C.5 Our Teachers 
Teachers and masters established in right view. In this 
context we should mention the two identifying features 
of a teacher's duties, both of which he needs to fulfil in 
order to qualify for the respect of his students. These 
two duties are: 
I. The duty to explain (i.e. teach a subject in theory) 
2. The duty to exemplify (especially the moral usage 
of the subject he teaches) 
If he fails to perform either of these duties his teaching is 
no more than daylight robbery of his pupils. If he gives 
good explanations but his personal behaviour is no 
example for his students to follow (for example he teaches 
'do as I say not what I do' and tells the class that liquor is 
evil while spending all his spare time inebriated at the bar, 
he is nothing more than a mercenery teacher. 
If he both explains the theory well and is a good 
example to his students, he is a person worthy of 
respect. 
C.6 Virtuous employer 
Virtuous employers are also worthy of respect. It is 
hard to find bosses with virtue, so when we find one, 
we should not hesitate to pay them respect. We may 
still be unable to be as virtuous as them, so we ought to 
pay them respect, in order that their 
virtues might never be far from our minds — instead of 
being tempted to do something devious, we will be less 
tempted because we feel ashamed after the seeing the 
good example set by our boss. Also we will be more 
ashamed that anything we do wrong might reflect badly 
on our boss's good reputation. This is the value of 
having a virtuous boss. It keeps us on the straight and 
narrow until such time that we have reliable discretion 
for ourselves. 
D. OBJECTS WORTHY OF RESPECT 
There are certain classes of objects identified by the 
Lord Buddha as worthy of respect, and these are objects 
associated with people worthy of respect i.e. the Lord 
Buddha, the Saigha, monarchs, parents, teachers and 
bosses. There are two categories of such objects, 
pagodas (and their contents) and teachings: 
D.I Pagodas 
D.I.I Four Types of Pagoda 
The Buddha enumerated four types of pagoda worthy of 
respect: 
I. A relic pagoda: this is a pagoda containing the relics 
of a Buddha, a paccekalmddha. an arahant or a 
universal monarch. After the cremation of a truly 
virtuous person there are pearl-like relics left behind in 
the ashes. In keeping with the teaching of the Buddha, 
these are collected by the faithful and are paid homage 
to, by Buddhists, not only with candles and incense, but 
by enshrining them in small pagodas. 
2. Paribhoga Cetiya: These include the Four Holy Sites 
connected with the life of the Lord Buddha: the place 
where He was born, enlightened, where He gave His 
first sermon and where He passed away into 
Parinirvana. The Lord Buddha called these four places 
His Paribhoga Cetiya and taught that all Buddhists of 
following generations should visit these holy sites if 
they had the chance because it would awaken them to 
the urgent need to get down to practice. Many people 
who have been to visit the Holy Sites have discovered 
that their inspiration to practice has 
EFTA00286530

is strengthened from the feeling of going back to a 
time when they were in the presence of the Lord 
Buddha himself. This is the reason why these four 
sites are worthy of worship. 
3. Dhamma Cetiya: This is a Cetiya that contains 
Dhamma teachings such as books of the Tipitaka or 
other Scriptures. 
4 Uddesika Cetiya: This is a Cetiya that contains 
Buddha Images or images of His Noble Disciples. 
Objects worthy of respect in this category also include 
the requisites belonging to monks 
— whether it be robes or bowl, all of the monks' 
requisites arc worthy of respect. 
D.2 Dhamma Teachings 
A fifth sort of object worthy of respect are spiritual teachings 
and their sources. These may include the Teachings of the 
Lord Buddha, of members of the monastic community, of 
kings, of our parents and elders, of our teachers and masters, 
of our boss and the teachings of the wise with whom we 
associate. The teachings of all six categories of the wise men-
tioned above are the manifestation of the virtue of those 
people and should never be taken in vain. Making a mockery 
of such teachings will undermine our earnestness in putting 
those teachings into practice. If we lack earnestness in putting 
the teachings into practice, we reduce our chance of ever un-
derstanding those teachings. In the absence of understanding, 
there remains only ignorance and false view. 
Thus any of the objects mentioned above should not be 
used for mockery or for fun. To treat these things 
without reverence robs them of their sanctity and when 
we come to study them we will overlook their depth or 
subtlety. An example of this might be the man who 
goes to receive Five Precepts from the monk at the 
temple and keeps the Precepts so well for the first few 
days. Later he joins in with one of his friends makes 
fun of the Precepts and says,"Oh the Precepts? Aren't 
they for keeping one for each day of the week and 
weekends off'?" Even if he still keeps his Precepts, the 
effect of these words is to gradually undermine the 
man's inspiration to keep them. 
The same principle goes for photographs or pictures of the 
Buddha, of monks, of the king, of our parents or teachers. 
Such photographs should not be left lying about or used 
without reverence. Chanting books shouldn't be left lying 
about either or folded up and shoved in the back pocket of 
one's trousers. They shouldn't be put down on a dusty 
surface and other things should not be placed on top of 
them. 
In conclusion, those worthy of respect are the wise who 
are established in virtue, or those who by their social 
standing are too high up for us to be able to associate 
with personally or as peers. Apart from these six 
categories of person, objects which should be treated 
with respect include the requisites they use as a way of 
recollecting the virtues of that person. Even though that 
person may already have passed away, treating their 
belongings with respect will help us to maintain 
high-mindedness and Right View concerning that 
person. 
D.3 Educational Objects 
Also we shouldn't forget that all books which contain 
Dhamma should be treated with respect. The ancients 
would be very particular even about the notebooks in 
which we have taken note of Dhamma sermons. They 
forbade us from throwing such notebooks, stepping 
over them, putting them in low down places or tearing 
out pages — because all of these things would 
constitute disrespect to the teachings themselves. If we 
were to lack respect towards the Dhamma, then when 
we come to consider Dhamma Teachings for which the 
meaning is very subtle, we will be unable to fathom the 
meaning and our understanding of the Dhamma will be 
destroyed and we will be left with nothing more than 
our own ignorance. 
D.4 Objects not worthy of respect 
Correspondingly, we must be careful not to pay respect 
to things not worthy of respect. In brief, there are four 
categories of things we should avoid idolising or 
paying respect to: 
1. People not worthy of Respect: This means not 
idolizing fools, and not supporting them or praising 
them — no matter how high in rank they might be. 
EFTA00286531

2. Objects not worthy of respect: This means not 
idolizing pictures, sculptures, works, possessions or 
tools of fools. 
3. Objects which lead to foolishness: This means not 
idolizing things like pictures of models, singers or 
sportsmen who lack virtue or advertising for "roads to 
ruin" such as alcohol. We shouldn't use these sort of 
things to decorate our homes. 
4. Objects which lead to gullabilhy: This means not 
idolizing things which promote superstition such as 
"holy trees", "holy mountains", "spirit houses" etc. 
E. THE PRACTICALITY OF PAYING RESPECT 
E.I Expressing respect with body, speech and mind 
Respect can be paid through the channels of body, 
speech or mind. 
I. Physical Respect: Physically paying respect means 
the various polite manners that we demonstrate towards 
someone in their presence, such as standing up when 
they come into the room, or sitting politely when in 
front of them. Even if you are not in their presence, you 
should still show physical respect towards those worthy 
of virtue even if you are not in their presence but are in 
the presence of their photograph, their sculpted image 
— such as a Buddha Image or a photograph of your 
teaching master. We should show our respect by not 
pointing our feet towards such an image, and even if we 
are lying down to sleep — pointing our head towards 
the image instead of our feet; 
2. Verbal Respect: Homage through the channel of 
speech includes the speaking, chanting or singing of 
praises of one worthy of homage, rather than 
gossipping maliciously about them; 
3. Mental Respect: Homage through the channel of the 
mind means recollecting the teachings of one worthy of 
homage to the degree that they inspire us. We might 
recollect what that person has taught us in the way of 
good deeds. We might also consider the good character 
and virtues exemplified (but not taught) by that person. 
Both of these are homage through the channel of the 
mind; 
£2 How to Express Respect 
Many people misunderstand paying respect as bundling 
together a lotus, candles and incense, laying it before 
the object of respect and bowing down three times. 
Paying respect in this way is not incorrect, but it is not 
the whole story. Paying respect that is complete in all 
respects must exhibit four factors: 
I. Physical token of respect [sakkAra]: This refers to a 
gift which is an expression of respect. It is something 
we must prepare in advance and which is presented 
during the act of paying respect. Such a token of respect 
differs for different situations and different categories 
of persons worthy of respect — for example, flowers, 
incense and candles are worthy tokens of respect for 
paying respect to the Buddha, monks or teachers. 
Clothes or bedclothes might be more worthy tokens of 
respect for your parents. Neither of these tokens of 
respect are suitable as the sort of gift you might take 
with you when visiting distinguished persons of social 
standing. Nor would they be suitable as the sort of gift 
you bring back with you for your friends when you 
have been away on holiday. Even money can be a token 
of respect. If your teacher has been putting in extra 
hours out of the kindness of his heart, giving up his 
time to give you tutorials at home, giving him money as 
a gift would not be out of place, and in this respect 
would be considered a token of respect, not a payment. 
Another consideration for tokens of respect is that they 
should be prepared in advance. To leave a bucket of cut 
flowers, no matter how big the bucket is, in the middle 
of the main temple pavillion would hardly be 
considered an act of respect. Any token of respect 
should be prepared with care and precision and be both 
clean and well organized. 
2. Gesture of respect [vandanA]: this refers to gestures 
which express respect such as bowing or prostration or 
praise or chanting praise. Morning and evening 
chanting can be counted as vandanA. Even recollection 
of what one has been taught by the wise or one's 
teacher can be 
EFTA00286532

counted as vandanA. 
3. Attitude of respect [mAnanA]: This refers to an 
attitude of respect. Respect consists of the stems 're' 
which means again and 'spect' which means to 
re-examine a person (for their good points). Given that 
all people except the Buddha are made up of a mixture 
of both good and bad then we have to look for the good 
points in people. Taking these good points, apart from 
noticing these good points, part of respect is to praise 
them for these good points and use them as a good 
example to model ourselves upon. 
4. Concern for the object of respect [garulcAra]: this 
refers to an attitude of concern about the wellbeing of 
the person who is worthy of respect and recollection of 
the good deeds and virtues of that person. 
All of these four components comprise the way of 
paying respect. 
E.3 Consequences of Not Paying Respect to those 
worthy of homage 
If those held in high respect do not behave in a fitting 
way, many sorts of harm arc brought on the individual, 
interpersonal and social levels. To take the clergy as an 
example, if members of the monastic community are 
undisciplined and do not cherish their congregation 
according to the advice of the Buddha, the harm that 
will come to the congregation can be concluded on 
three levels: 
I. Losing a sense of responsibility for their own 
human dignity: If clergy lack self-discipline and don't 
fulfil their duties towards their congregation as 
prescribed by the Lord Buddha, the first level of 
disaster which will happen to them is that the 
congregation will lose their sense of responsibility for 
their own human dignity — this loss giving rise (at the 
minimum) 
to 
the 
following 
three 
undesirable 
symptoms: 
I. Breakdown of self-discipline: Society will degen-
erate to the point where the majority of people do 
not keep the Five Precepts and do not even 
understand what keeping the Precepts means. This 
will increase the incidence of so 
ciety of people taking advantage of each other. 
When taking advantage of each other becomes the 
the norm, especially for those in positions of 
authority, the effects will have repurcussions on a 
national scale — therefore, citizens must unite in 
preventing those who don't respect the Five 
Precepts from being put in positions of power; 
2. Those seeking ordination are of low quality: 
Low-quality ordinands burden their preceptors with 
problems — it is hard to train them at all. If clergy 
are unable to develop purity of body, speech and 
mind, they will undermine the existing faith of the 
congregation — ultimately destroying the religion; 
3. Transcendental attainment becomes becomes in-
creasingly inaccessible: The highest aim of those 
who ordain is to attain Nirvana. However, if those 
who ordain are of low quality and are difficult to 
train, there will be a continuous deterioration in the 
capability of the monastic community to the point 
where they will no longer be able to reach any sort 
of transcendental attainment. When there are no re-
ligious exemplars to look up to, the congregation 
will become more and more firmly entrenched in 
False View — more and more ignorant of Dhamma 
teachings, self-discipline 
— with some of the most serious repurcussions for 
social chaos; 
Losing a sense of responsibility for the human dignity 
of others: If clergy lack self-discipline and don't fulfil the 
duties towards their congregation as prescribed by the 
Lord Buddha, the second level of disaster which will 
happen to them is that the congregation will lose their 
sense of responsibility for the human dignity of others 
— this loss giving rise (at the minimum) to the 
following three undesirable symptoms: 
I. Verbal abuse of clergy and monks: Once the con-
gregation no longer realize the value to society of 
clergy and monks, misunderstanding the duty and 
lifestyle of the clergy, the public will abuse the 
clergy shamelessly (as is happening currently in 
Thailand); 
EFTA00286533

2. Lack offinancial support for clergy and monks: 
Swayed by the often unjustified abuse of clergy in 
the media, the faith of the public deteriorates, and 
with it the support with which they should provide 
the clergy — religions such as Buddhism can only 
survive through the voluntary support of the 
congregation, and without it, there will soon be no 
clergy left, and consequently no-one to perpetuate 
the religion; 
3. Congregation is left without any true refuge: 
Having dismantled their religion by their own ne-
glect, when the public find themselves in dire straits, 
they will be without a refuge, lacking the ability to 
be a teacher to themselves, they will resort to 
superstition or animism. 
3. Losing a sense of responsibility for economic 
fairness in society at large: If clergy lack 
self-discipline and don't fulfil the duties towards their 
congregation as prescribed by the Lord Buddha, the 
third level of disaster which will happen to them is that 
the congregation will lose their sense of responsibility 
for economic fairness in society at large — this loss 
giving rise (at the minimum) to the following three 
undesirable symptoms: 
1. Total enfatuation with the Six Roads to Ruin: In a 
society of deteriorating morals, it will become more 
and more common for people either to eke out their 
living via, or be enslaved by the consequences (such 
as debt and disease) of Roads to Ruin such as drugs, 
gambling, prostitution, entertainment and 
underground lotteries. 
2. Desecration of religious property and establish-
ments: The Roads to Ruin are part of the vicious 
circle of poverty. Some people try to alleviate their 
poverty by theft — and religious property is an easy 
target of plunder. Some encroach on temple grounds 
in pursuit of their livelihood. In Thailand this 
practice is becoming more and more widespread, 
especially because it has been legally condoned by 
biased legislators; 
3. Embezzlement of religious donations: Some peo 
pie like to extract some sort of `commission' 
from the funds they manage to raise for the 
temple (in accordance with the phrase "half for 
the temple, half for the temple committee'!) In 
the present day, however, some legislators try to 
go further than this by giving the government the 
right to control temple funds directly! 
Problems concerning not paying respect to those 
worthy of respect can be summarized down to two 
main points: 
I. Obvious social problems: Easily seen is public 
deterioration in morality as a result of ignorance of 
virtue. Such people like to say they have lost interest in 
virtue because they see so many examples of hypocrisy. 
For the same reasons they withhold financial support 
for spiritual causes and some go further, overtly making 
legislative changes necessary for the dismantling of the 
religious establishment; 
2. Coven social problems: The covert social problems 
mostly originate from the hypocrisy amongst those who 
should be behaving as exemplars of virtue. Considered 
with wise reflection, the problems might be analyzed as 
such: 
I. Good exemplars are sometimes unable to pass on 
their knowledge to others because 
I. the public are not interested to learn from the 
clergy— all they want are the material trappings 
of spirituality and virtue such as holy water and 
amulets; 
2. the public undervalue the teachings on virtue 
they receive because they think they are already 
highly qualified in academic subjects — so 
thinking, they consider their ability in vocational 
subjects makes earning money more important 
than knowing spiritual teachings. 
F. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES 
In order to illustrate the results of paying respect to 
those worthy of respect here are five examples, the 
second of which is an example of homage through 
gifts: 
EFTA00286534

F.1 Metaphor: Small sapling with supporting stake 
When a new grown tree is still a flimsy sapling, it 
needs a supporting stake to protect it against strong 
winds — otherwise it will be blown down or torn up by 
its roots. Similarly, one who hopes for spiritual 
progress in one's life needs to express respect to those 
worthy of respect — to keep a place for those people in 
one's heart — so that those people can be a guiding 
light and an example, and a protection against False 
View and unwholesomeness which might otherwise 
reappear in one's life. 
R2 Ex Sumana the Garland-Maker 
In the time of the Lord Buddha, within the walls of the palace 
the workers divided themselves up into different sections and 
one of the sections was specifically for flower arranging. The 
section head was called Sumana and his duty was to arrange 
flowers to decorate the palace, to decorate the throne and even 
decorate the royal bed chamber of the king, to give all of 
these places a delightful fragrance. Sumana fulfilled his duty 
to the satisfaction of all in the palace every day, year in year 
out without ever slipping up. 
One day, in the season where flowers were the hardest to 
find, Sumana travelled to every part of the city and 
wherever there were flowers to be bought, he would buy 
them all. No-one else in the city had any flowers left to use 
for themselves. Every last flower in the city had to be used 
for the decoration of the palace. 
Even though Sumana had exclusive rights to all the 
flowers in the city, because the dry season had caused a 
drought, he could hardly find any flower 
— even food was scarce let alone flowers. One day the 
flowers were so scarce that in the whole of the city all 
Sumana could find were eight (coconut shell) measures 
of jasmine flowers. Really, this wasn't enough to 
decorate the palace, but it was better than nothing. 
That day, as Sumana was bringing the eight measures 
of jasmine flowers to the palace, he met with the Lord 
Buddha along the way. The Lord Buddha was on 
almsround. Sumana regularly attended the Buddha's 
sermons but he had never really had the 
chance to make a decent offering to the Buddha, partly 
because of his poverty and partly because his faith was 
not very profound. 
That day, as Sumana saw the Lord Buddha he felt that the 
Buddha looked particularly resplendent and worthy of faith. 
The deportment of the Buddha seemed so perfect in every 
respect that he felt that it was only fitting to bow down before 
Him. Sumana's next thought was that all he had was eight 
measures of flowers. If he used them to honour the king, all 
the king could give him was income, food and clothing to see 
him through the present lifetime. Ilowever, that day he was 
going to pay respect to the Lord Buddha to create for himself 
the positive karma that would bring him benefits not just in 
this lifetime but in many lifetimes to come. Even if the king 
were to execute him, it wouldn't affect the good results of 
these deeds. 
Sumana raised the flowers to his forehead and when he 
had made his resolution, sprinkled the jasmine flowers on 
the path ahead of the Lord Buddha with the intention that 
the Buddha would walk upon his fragrant offering. 
The Lord Buddha saw the strength of Sumana's faith — to 
the degree that he was prepared to lay down his life in 
order to make this offering. Thus the Lord Buddha created 
a miracle in order to bring Sumana real joy, to allow him 
to gain the full merit of his generous deed and lead him to 
attain enlightenment in the future. 
Thus as soon as the flowers were released from Sumana's 
hand, the flowers floated up as a net of flowers above 
where the Lord Buddha stood and this net would follow 
the Lord Buddha wherever He went. At both sides of the 
path all of the householders came out of their houses to 
see the miraculous sight and were inspired by the sight of 
the flowers which seemed to have a life of their own in 
honour of the Lord Buddha. 
Through Sumana's faith together with the power of the 
perfections of the Lord Buddha, the jasmine flowers 
sent their scent throughout the whole of the city. The 
scent followed the Lord Buddha wherever he went and 
this attracted everyone out of their houses to see the 
sight of the Lord Buddha. 
EFTA00286535