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Petals of Wisdom: Thoughts for August 2001

Collected by Thich Nu Chan Nguyen


1. Of slight account, monks, is the loss of such things as relatives. Miserable indeed among losses is the loss of wisdom. (The Book of the Gradual Sayings I, p. 10).

  

2.  Of slight account, monks, is the increase of such things as relatives. Chief of all the increases is that of wisdom. (The Book of the Gradual Sayings I, p. 10).

 

3. Monks, there is one perdon whose birth into the worth is for the welfare of many folk, for the happiness of many folk: who is born out of compassion for the world, for the profit, welfare and happiness of devas and mankind.

Who is that one person? It is a Tathagata who is Arahant, a fully enlightened One. This, monks, is that one person. (The Book of the Gradual Sayings I, pp. 14-15).

  

4.
The friend who’s ever seeking what to take,
The friend whose words are other than his deeds,
The friend who flatters, pleasing you withal.
The boon companion down the errant ways:
These four are foes. Thus having recognised,
Let the wise man avoid them from afar
As they were path of peril and of dread.
(Dialogues of the Buddha III. p. 178)

  

5.
The friend who is a helpmate, and the friend
Of bright days and of dark, and he who shows
What it is you need, and he who throbs for you
With sympathy: - these four the wise should know
As friends, and should devote himself to them
As mother to her own, her bosom’s child.
To him amassing wealth, like roving bee
Its honey gathering [and hurting naught].
Riches mount up as ant-heap growing high.
When the good layman wealth has so amassed
Able is he to benefit his clan.
In portion four let him divide that wealth.
So binds he to himself life’s friendly things.
One portion let him spend and taste the fruit.
His business to conduct let him take two.
And portion four let him reserve and hoard;
So there’ll be wherewithal in times of need.
(Dialogues of the Buddha II. pp. 179-180)
 
 
6.
Who follows mean companions soon decays:
He never fails who with his equals mates:
Who leans towards the noble rises soon.
So do thou serve a better than thyself.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings I, p. 108).
 
 
7.
Giving and harmlessness and self-restraint,
Control of sense and servece to the parents
And holy ones who live the righteous life,
If any one be wise to do these things
By good men favoured, he, an Ariyan
Clear-sighted, will attain the world of bliss.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings I, p. 135f).
 
 
8.
Just as a mountain, all of solid rock,
Stands in a forest, in a mighty grove,
And neath its shelter grow the forest-lords:
So in this world, dependent on their head,
A virtuous believer, wife and children,
Kinsmen and friends and relatives, who live
Supported by that clan-head, grow apace.
When they behold that good man’s charity,
His virtue and the righteous life he leads,
If they have wits, they follows his example:
So in this life treading with righteousness
The path that leads unto the Happy Lot,
In the Heaven World they win the bliss they seek.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings I, p. 136).
 
 
9.
Whoso is wise and confident,
Of learning deep, a Dhamma-bearer,
And lives accordantly therewith,-
“Light of the Order” such is called.
The virtuous monk, the learned nun,
The layman and laywoman staunch,
These four illuminate the Order.
“Lights of the Order” they are called.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings II, p. 9).
 
 
10.
 
Mother and father and the Enlightmened One,
Tathagata, and those who follow him,
Whoso entreateth ill stores up much woe.
For such ill deeds to parents, in this life
The sages blame that man, and in the life
That follows to the place of woe he goes.
Mother and father and the Enlightened One,
Tathagata, and those who follow him,
Whoso entreateth well stores up much merit.
For such good deeds to parents, in this life
The sages praise that man, and afterwards
In the world of heaven he wins happiness.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings II, p. 4)
 
 
11.
 
Who praiseth him who should be blamed,
Or blameth who should praised be,
He by his lips stores up ill-luck
And by that ill-luck wins no bliss.
Small is the ill-luck of a man
Who gambling loseth all his wealth.
Greater by far th’ill-luck of him
Who, losing all and losing self,
Gainst the Well-fares fouls his mind.
Whoso reviles the Worthy Ones,
In speech and thought designing ill,
For an hundred thousand periods,
For six and thirty, with five more
Such periods, to Purgatory’s doomed.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings II, p. 4).
 
 
12.
 
Bound by the bond of passions and becoming,
Bound by the bond of view, by ignorance
Circled about, to birth and death returning
Creatures go faring on samsara’s round.
But they who, passions fully comprehending,
Have learned becoming’s bond and have thrown off
The bond of view and ignorance abandoned,
Freed from all bonds have surely bonds transcended.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings II, p. 12f).
 
 
13.
 
Contented with what brings no blame,
A trifling, easy-gotten thing,
His mind untroubled by the thought
Of lodging, robes, or food and drink,
He is not worried where to go.
And thus the things declared to suit
The life of the recluse are won
By that contented, earnest monk.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings II, p. 30).
 
 
14.
 
Not covetous, with heart of malice void,
A man should dwell, with concentrated mind,
With mind one-poined, in the self controlled.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings II, p. 32).
 
 
15.
 
Of those who have faith at its best
Who comprehend best Dhamma
Of those who have faith in the Buddha,
Gift-worth, unsurpassed:
Of those who have faith in Dhamma,
Passionless, calming, blissful:
Of those who have faith in the Order,
The field of merit supreme:
Of those who give gifts of their best
The merit doth increase.
Best is their life and beauty,
Fame, good report, bliss, strength.
The sage who gives of his best,
In best of dhammas calmed,
Deva-become or human,
Winning the best rejoiceth.
(The Book of the Gradual Sayings II, p. 39f).

 


Updated: 1-8-2001

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