Blessing Two:
Associating with the Wise
Associating with the Wise
C. DEFINING THE WISE ONE
We can define the Wise One in any one of four ways. In effect, the definitions overlap — they differ only in emphasis:
C.1 Defined in terms of discretion
A Wise One is one who has the discretion to discriminate what behaviour is wholesome and what behaviour is unwholesome, specifically:
• knowing what constitutes good and what constitutes evil;
• knowing what constitutes right and what constitutes wrong;
• knowing what constitutes merit [puñña] and what constitutes demerit [pāpa]
C.2 Defined in terms of behaviour
A Wise One is someone who habitually thinks, speaks and acts in a good way. All of the features of a wise man discussed so far have all been his external characteristics — but on closer inspection it turns out that the wise man has several spiritual features that distinguish him from the ordinary fool:
1. The wise one is wont to think habitually in a good way: His habitual way of thinking comprises at minimum: non-greed, non-hatred and right view. Going beyond this, his thoughts are downright wholesome and include loving kindness (in place of non-hatred), generosity (in place of non-greed) and right view (in place of wrong view).
2. The wise one is wont to speak habitually in a good way: The wise man is apt to be well spoken in diametric opposition to the fool who has only a babble of insults to decorate his intelligence. There are four ways in which the wise speak good words:
1) He avoids telling lies. The wise one will always speak the truth. He is always a man of his word.
2) He avoids divisive speech. The wise man by contrast will always be the one to mend the differences between others by his words. He will be the one to forge harmony within a group.
3) He avoids the use of swear words and harsh words. No matter how angry the wise man is, he will not even consider insulting others. The wise man gives careful thought to the every word that escapes his lips.
4) He avoids idle chatter. If the wise man knows what he has to say is without use, he will keep it to himself — he will maintain ‘noble silence’.
3. The Wise One is wont to do only good deeds: The wise one likes to perform physical good deeds with an emphasis on being compassionate [mettā/karunā], getting down to earning an honest living [sammā ājīva] and marital fidelity. The fool by contrast is continually killing, stealing and committing adultery
C.3 Defined in terms of virtues
A Wise One is wont to demonstrate the following four virtues:
1. Gratitude [kataññū]: He recognizes the debt of gratitude he may have to others
2. Self-Purifying [attasuddhi]: He purifies himself of all evil
3. Purity [parisuddhi]: He purifies others of all evil
4. Endearing [saṅgaha]: makes himself useful to society
C.4 Defined in terms of the profit sought from life
In Blessing One we have already seen that the discretion concerning the nature of profit in life for a fool is different from that of a Wise One. In Buddhism we have two definitions of profit in life: profit in the short-term and profit in the hereafter.
C.4.1 Material profit defined (A.iv.281)
The Lord Buddha taught four ways in which the wise one accrues benefits in the present lifetime (in Pali the diṭṭhadhammikatthapayojana). In Thai culture they are colloquially referred to as the ‘four chambers of the millionaire’s heart’ or more simply, the way to set yourself up in life. As we have said, sitting idle will do nothing to ensure your comfort in life. Comfort doesn’t come unearned. Thus comfort in one’s old age must come from hard work in one’s youth, when one is still physically strong enough to be productive in one’s work. The wise will, while they are young, store up the means to live comfortably in their old age when they are no longer able to earn. There are four virtues for accruing benefit in the present life. These are:
1. Diligent Acquisition [uṭṭānasampadā] i.e. not being too lazy to go out and earn a living. Wise is the man who applies himself to the task in hand (not sitting around all day and waiting for money to appear magically)
2. Stewardship [ārakkhasampadā] means both saving and protecting what you have earned
3. Associating with Good Friends [kalyāṇamittatā]means the same as associating with the wise — that is the title of this Blessing — and to avoid associating with the evil — especially the sort that are always trying to persuade you to go and gamble or go down to the pub.
4. Appropriate Spending: [samajīvittā]. 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 fulfillment. 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 [sampāyikattha-payojana].
1. 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 mosquitoes 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 mosquitoes 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.
2. 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 for a 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 humanness for the whole time, throughout his life.
3. Generosity: 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 [vidhayadāna]. 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 trespasses [abhayadāna]. When you grow up and marry, 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 [dhammadāna]. 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 [paññā]: 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 judgment and discretion and this alone will ensure that wisdom is invested in everything he does — whether it may be thought, speech or action.
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