Blessing Two:
Associating with the Wise
Associating with the Wise
B. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A FOOL & A WISE ONE
We are all people alike, equipped with a body and a mind, so what can be blamed for the different amounts of success people meet with as they go through their lives? Why is it advantageous to associate with one sort of person and not another? If you look at people just on the surface, the reason is not obvious. You have to look deeper.
B.1 People distinguished by quality of mind
In these days of human rights, we do all we can to make people equal, but it is not always so easy. When it comes to differences of wealth or access to education, it makes sense to give people the maximum of opportunities to help themselves. But where the system of rights breaks down is when people no longer want to help themselves any more — or when people don’t even want to live their lives by the rules of decency that bind society together. Of course there are some people who claim that even criminals should be given full human rights and who spend their time feeling sorry for sentenced murderers. However, for the most part we accept that when a person’s behaviour deviates into violence or vengefulness or cruelty so far as that of a wrong-doer, no matter whether the police catch him or not, that they are no longer dealing with a person like you or me any more. There is a “screw loose” somewhere in the thinking of such people. Even though they might have two arms, two legs and a head just like you or me, but there is a difference of mind so great that it makes that person dangerous. What more the deviation of thinking of such people is (as discussed in Blessing One) so contagious that it brushes off on the people who associate with them.
B.2 Effect of differences in the quality of mind
It is differences of mind1 that distinguish such people from the rest of the world whose lives are governed by discretion. To pinpoint why a fool suffers from faulty discretion, is hard to explain to a person who has never tried meditation. The difference between the mind of a fool and the mind of a wise one is a difference of quality. The mind of a fool is one where the thoughts are confused — a mind which is unyielding and blind. Such a mind is dull and cannot think constructively about any subject. Such a mind is blind to reality. If you were to compare such a mind to glass, you could compare it to opaque or frosted glass. Whatever you look at through glass of this type will appear distorted, dark and formless. By contrast, the mind of a wise man is like crystal clear glass. Everything viewed through the glass is crystal clear. Like a clear mirror, you can even see yourself as you really are.
You might doubt that the mind, as an abstract phenomenon, could have such a powerful influence on our destiny — but the mind is in fact of utmost importance because every dealing we have with the world must pass through the channel of our mind. Consider looking at the world in the mirror. What ever is situated in front of the mirror will show its reflection instantly. Furthermore, a mirror only the size of the palm of your hand is large enough to show the reflection of an entire mountain! All it needs is for the mirror to be really clear, that’s all, in order to be able to show instantly the reflection of any object, indiscriminable from the real object itself. In the same way, all it takes is for the mind to be really clear and it too can instantly hold, examine and understand anything and everything as it really is. All of this is by contrast with the man who has a clouded mind (who we have compared to a dull or frosted mirror) which can do nothing to facilitate clear understanding, who cannot comprehend clearly because his own mind is clouded. Because the mind of a fool is distorted, he sees the world in a distorted way. When everything he sees is distorted, how does he interact with the world? The answer to this question is, “in the way he thinks is appropriate” — namely, according to thought, speech and action which are distorted from the norm. On the contrary, because a wise man has a mind that is crystal clear like a diamond he sees the world clearly — as it really is. Thus, he can deal with the world in a way that is appropriate on a more cosmic level than the fool who is locked up in his own selfish view of the world.
Meditation is the main means by which we can upgrade the quality of our mind. Once we realize the peril of having a mind which is dull, clouded and of generally low quality, we can start to appreciate why meditation is so important in the prevention and cure of problems in our lives.
B.3 The Ups and Downs of the Mind from Day-to-Day
Very few people are out and out murderers and plunderers. At the same time very few people are completely pure in mind. The ones who are already “arahants” have no need to waste time reading a book like this.
An example of ups and downs in the quality of mind of someone like you or me, who lies between the extremes, is the man who gets up in the morning with the best of intentions and enthusiastically prepares alms food to offer to the monks. At the time he is preparing the food his mind is as clear as that of a wise man. However, even before the monks have arrived on alms-round, he has lost his temper, shouting at his children and his state of mind has been reduced to that of a fool. When the monks arrive, his mind is back to a state of clarity as he gives the alms and pours water from the vessel to transfer the merit — he has recovered for himself the clear mind of a wise man. But as he is leaving for work he spoils his state of mind again, shouting at his kids for being late for school. As soon as he leaves the house, he gets his temper back. In the best of moods he makes the intention to do the very best he can at work that day — to make every penny of the wage he receives from his employer worthwhile. The black clouds in his mind go over the horizon and he’s back in the frame of mind fitting for a wise man. But alas, another car cuts in front of him, someone overtakes him on the inside and thoughts of revenge stir up a storm of road rage in his mind spoiling his quality of his mind and the rest of his day. Don’t worry this man is not something special. When talking about such imperfection of mind, it is not the same as mental illness — merely inefficiency in our quality of mind. Most of us have the same ups and downs in the course of making our way through life in the real world.
B.4 Varieties of people
If we were to divide people according to the quality of their minds, being very simplistic we can divide people into a minimum of three different types:
1. Those whose mind is usually clouded — the fools;
2. Those whose mind is usually clear — the wise;
3. Those half way in between whose mind is not entirely clear, but at the same time their mind is not completely obscured by clouds.
This third category represents the majority of good intentioned people in the world. We’re not yet free of mental defilements and for this reason we earn the special name of kalyāṇabāla. ”Kalyāṇa” means beautiful or good. “Bāla” means the fool. Together
the two words mean the good-intentioned fool. Sometimes a fool, sometimes a wise man — but not a 100% accomplished example of either of the two. Another term often used in Buddhism for this sort of person is ‘puthujana’. The root meaning of
“puthu” is ‘thick’. The root of “jana” means person. Such a thick person doesn’t mean that he lacks intelligence, but conveys instead that he has a thick rind or peel — and the thing that makes it thick is the defilements in the mind. In the case of those whose layer of defilements is not so thick that they can still listen to reason, they can be referred to as kalyāṇaputhujana, because they still have some hope of scrubbing through those defilements to reach the innate wisdom that lies within. The first step for a kalyāṇaputhujana in working his way towards his own inner wisdom is to be able to recognize the wise men amongst his acquaintances so that he can pick up on the good character possessed by a wise man as his standard in elevating the quality of his own mind.
1 The terms ‘mind’ or ‘mental’ are used in the Asian sense meaning the abstract phenomena of ‘spirit’ or ‘awareness’ rather than the western concept of ‘brain’ or ‘nervous system’.
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