Blessing Three:
Expressing Respect to Those Worthy of Respect
Expressing Respect to Those Worthy of Respect
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 Saṅgha, monarchs, parents, teachers and bosses. There are two categories of such objects, pagodas (and their contents) and teachings:
D.1 Pagodas
D.1.1 Four Types of Pagoda
The Buddha enumerated four types of pagoda worthy of respect:
1. A relic pagoda: this is a pagoda containing the relics of a Buddha, a paccekabuddha, 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 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 are worthy of respect.
D.2 Dhamma Teachings
The fifth sort of object worthy of respect is 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 mentioned 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 understanding 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 idolizing 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.
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 sorts of things to decorate our homes.
4. Objects which lead to gullibility: This means not idolizing things which promote superstition such as “holy trees”, “holy mountains”, “spirit houses” etc.
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