Who are the wise ones that we should associate with and what is the good thing of associating with the wise people?

Answer
by Venerable Dhattajeevo Bhikku 

The Lord Buddha gave us a clue how a wise person was. He mentioned clearly that a wise person was the one who normally have good thoughts, good speech and good actions, and not only do good deeds once in a while, but usually. Why did he say that? The brief answer is because he knew well about the world and the life; that is he has a strongly right view.

 

Therefore, the hearts of the people who have only good thoughts, good speech and good actions like this are strong and bright all the time, no matter if they have degrees or not, or they might not even be able to read, just like our Khun Yay. Khun Yay Acharn Maha Ratana Ubasika Chandra Khonnokyoong couldn’t read or write, but she built this Dhammakaya temple for us to perform merit up to now. She was the real wise person both in the world and in the virtue. Though she couldn’t read, but she understood real well about the hell, the heaven, merit and demerit.

 

If we meet this kind of people, what shall we do? We should associate with them. Actually, we have to realize that for the people like us, we can use the word associate; but for the highly virtuous people like this, though we are their same age, but since their virtue is a lot higher than us, it’s not called associating, but giving ourselves to be their students. Anyway, in the religion, it’s still called associating, but it’s associating as their fellows because our virtue is not as high as theirs.

 

When we realize this and meet them, what next shall we do? We must serve them, so that they will have free time to figure out the good and bad things of us. Serve them closely with your wills. When they see our sincere, mercy will grow in their minds and then they can see us clearly and teach us both worldly and religious knowledge, also we should pay full attention.

1. Listen to their words.

2. Don’t leave their teachings in the air, but bring them to our hearts. Consider the words over and over again. The more virtuous a wise person is, the more meaningful his words are. His only one word can be considered throughout the whole year.

 

What shall we do next? After we are done considering their words, we have to follow them because it means nothing if we don’t follow what they teach.

 

It’s even better if we report them. The thing that we follow them and they see it doesn’t need to be reported, but for the thing they don’t see, we have to report it because though we do the right things, but to do it perfectly is not easy. When we report them, they can fill us what we are still missing.

 

I, myself, have done the same thing since I met our Khun Yay Acharn. I served her, listened to her, considered her words and followed her, and then I got knowledge and virtue consecutively. If we can see this picture, and agree to serve the wise people, listen to them, consider their words and follow them, our wisdom will grow strongly, and we will also receive merit and goodness, also our bad habits will be solved easily by them, the truly wise people.

 

Also sometimes, when we make mistakes and it’s so bad that they chased us away. It’s ok, but don’t leave them. After a while when they feel better, we have to get back to them to serve them again. And then their worldly and religious goodness will endlessly come to us. Keep this in your mind.