Everyone wants a successful life how come some fail?
Speaking Evil Words
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There are four ways in which the
fool speaks evil words.
1. He likes to tell lies. For some
people, lying is the spice of life. They look so trustworthy and yet, in broad
daylight they are robbing you with their lying words. Nothing they say adds up
to the truth.
2. He likes to use his words to
divide others. He is a go between - telling damaging things about that side to
this side, by telling damaging things about this side to that side - in the end
causing a fight to ensue between the two.
3. He likes to swear and use crude
words. He is constantly insulting other people.
4. He likes to engage in idle
chatter. He says whatever he likes without any consideration for the
usefulness. Some is true. Some is lies. He just keeps chattering incessantly,
about every subject under the sun - just like the rambling conversation of a
group of drunkards - from dusk until dawn. Spreading gossip that is of no good
to anyone - but asked to examine their own affairs with the same detail as they
examine the affairs of others, they always manage to avoid the topic.
There are four particular topics for
idle chatter favoured by the fool:
1. They like to gossip about the
faults of others.
2. They dislike admitting to the
virtues of others and if a good person
has even the slightest fault, they would rather pick up on those bad deeds than
talk about the goodness which is so abundently obvious.
3. They like to boast about their
own successes even when nobody asks. They might do even the tiniest of good
deeds, such as giving a glass of water to a passing traveller, and a glass of
water is exaggerated to a water butt. A single person is exaggerated to a crowd
to show what a sporting person he is.
4. They dislike disclosing their own
faults, even when asked about them directly, they change the subject or put an
end to the conversation.
Performing Evil Deeds
There are three ways in which the
fool performs evil deeds:
1. Killing living beings;
2. Stealing;
3. Performing sexual misconduct;
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In summary, there are ten attributes
of a fool: three to do with the mind, four to do with speech and three to do
with bodily action. Our ancestors called these ten attributes the Ten
Akusaladhammas. The fool is permanently immersed in these ten Akusaladhammas this is how you can spot the fool for
yourself.
The Disadvantage of Associating with
Fools
Even for the fool himself, there are
severe disadvantages of having faulty use of body, speech and mind:
1. Causes him faulty judgement and
false views, such as will bring him suffering all day long and throughout his
life.
2. Messes up his chances for
accruing any benefits for himself in this lifetime or the next. The benefits
which he ought to be accruing for himself in this lifetime are at least to set
himself up in life. However, with his habit of thinking, speaking and doing
only evil things all day long, he fails even to set himself up in life. He
manages only to immerse himself deeper and deeper into debt. Wherever he gets
recruited, it only takes three to seven days before he gets the sack. If he
isn't sacked, then at least he will be invited to leave. Everyone knows that he
affects the quality of the work of those around him, so no-one allows him to
stay in any one place for very long - so he never manages to set himself up in
life. So what do we mean by making a mess
out of our lives? We mean not being able to accrue the merit we need for future
lifetimes.
3. Messes up the chances for others
for getting benefit out of their lives
by upsetting the lives of those around
them.
4. Damaging your own reputation.
5. You fail to command the respect
of others.
6. You stir the hatred of others.
7. You run out of all blessings (in
the words of the ancient ones). Someone who has run out of all blessings has
some special characteristics - they seem to attract all sorts of disasters, for
example, all those people we have been avoiding for so long, all come to see us
at the same time trying to frame us with this case or that, conspiring against
us.
Moreover, once you have run out of
blessings, you will be like a jinx wherever you go for example causing any house you enter to
burn down just like a friend of Luang
Por's at university who borrowed a brand new machete which Luang Por had bought
but still not had the chance to use. Only just stripping the bark from a tree,
he managed to break the blade! Well anyone can make a mistake.
The next day the same friend
borrowed Luang Por's bicycle, saying he was just going for lunch. He only got
as far as the middle of the road and experienced a blow out in both tyres.
Well, Luang Por didn't blame him, but from that day forth, didn't see that
friend for a long time. When eventually they met up again, the friend said he
had been working in Chiengmai. Someone had employed him as a tractor driver. He
had driven the tractor only a hundred metres and the tractor blew up!
On another day it was the birthday
of one of the lecturers. The friend visited the lecturer's house for the
birthday party. At that time he was still not completely drunk and invited the
rest of his friends to continue their drinking spree. They went to one of the
new bars in Bangkok and sat drinking for a while. Eventually, a flirt came and
sat down on the same table as the friend. The friend didn't say a word. He did
nothing either to welcome her or drive her away.
At one o'clock in the morning, as
the friend was getting up to leave, that was all it took to provoke a guy on
the next table who the flirt had previously been sitting with. "Are you
starting a fight?" asked the guy on the other table. "Any night when
I haven't had a punch-up I can't get to sleep!" Well, it's no big deal to
get into a fight in a bar or nightclub. It takes two to make a fight - all you
need to do to avoid one is to walk away. But for this friend it was as if karma
was blocking his use of common sense. All he had to do was repeat the words the
other guy said and that night the punch-up only came to an end when they were
both thrown out of the bar.
These are the marks of someone who
has run out of blessings. It is not only the one whose blessings have run out
who will suffer - those around him are bound to suffer too. Thus, it is only
fitting to reiterate the important advice to avoid associating with those who
have run out of blessings at all costs.
8. You will bring disaster to your
family and relatives.
9. You will have the hell realms as
your afterlife destination. The hell realms include hell itself, the animals,
ghosts and the asuras. When fools pass away from this world, as a result of
thinking, speaking and doing evil all their lives, they are unable to enter
upon heaven. The evil they have done is like a heavy weight that is bound to
drag them down to one of the four hell realms. When at last they manage to
escape the effects of their evil deeds, and they manage to work their way back
to the human realm again, they return still crippled by the residue of their
past evils and only gradually manage to return the ranks of the healthy after
many lifetimes.
The chances for a fool to return to
the ranks of the virtuous and be possessed of right view are slim. In just the
same way as low lying land is a magnet for all sorts of rubbish, all the bad
things of the world will be attracted into the lives of fools both in this life
and the hereafter.
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How to tell a fool.
We already know that a fool is one
who has the habit to think, speak and do evil deeds bringing at least nine different sorts of
disadvantage to the life of that fool. Having realized the damage caused by a
fool to himself and others, it is vital that we know the features that mark out
a fool so that we can do our best to avoid such people.
When identifying whether someone is
a fool or not, the Lord Buddha advised us not to base our judgement on external
features we must base our judgement on
internal features. The things we should avoid basing our judgement on
appearances, gender, age, lineage, nationality, connections, knowledge, job or
wealth. The Lord Buddha taught us to identify fools by the characteristically
evil actions of their body, speech and mind, because all of these three come
from within they are directly connected
with the quality of the mind. Appearances, gender, age, lineage, nationality,
connections, knowledge, job and wealth are only indirectly connected with the
quality of the mind.
You might wonder how to observe how
others think. Of course it is true that we can observe only the things which
others express publically that is others
words and actions. But what if someone never gives themselves away in public by
speaking evil and they never disclose their evil deeds? Even these sort of
people have gaps in their armour, however. In fact there are five in all which are the marks that identify someone as a
fool.
1. Likes to persuade others to do
evil things. Not only does he persuade others to do evil. He will also
exemplify those evil deeds for others to follow. For example, he knows that we
have some free time today, so he invites us to play Mahjong. At this point you
should realize without anyone having to tell you, that you are speaking to a
fool. Or today it's raining and the sky is overcast - what a good excuse to
take the day off work and lie in at home! Again, you must be talking to a fool.
2. Likes to interfere with things
that are none of his business. For example, the person in question is a
cleaner. Her duty is simply to keep the office clean, but instead of doing her
duty, she leaves her work undone and spends her whole time gossiping about the
neighbours. A student has the duty of studying, but instead of studying their
subject they waste their time on protests against the government.
3. Likes anything that is improper.
They have a dislike for anything that is right and proper. They like playing
with fire. They like drinking alcohol. They like gambling. They like fighting
fish. They like the opportunity to put a spanner in the works. You can be sure
that anything they like has someone on the receiving end of their suffering.
Even if they take the chance to ordain as a monk, they end up being the one to
cause a split in the order. Their predicament is the same as the one
illustrated in the ancient tale of the angel and the worm. Once upon a time there were two
young men who were friends. How they came to be friends no-one knew, because
one was fond of doing meritorious deeds, while the other did only evil deeds
all his life like cockfighting, fish
fighting, taking drugs and alcahol.
When he was working as a merchant,
he would sell only fake goods and stolen goods. When he was a teacher, he
wouldn't teach normal subjects to his pupils he would teach all the shortcuts and loopholes
in the law.
Even with such different tastes, the
two friends managed to maintain both their identity and their friendship until
they both passed away. When the good guy died, he was reborn as an angel in
heaven. The bad guy was reborn as a worm in a lavatory. One day the angel was
wondering what had become of his friend. The angel checked every level of
heaven but could not find his friend. He checked the human realm, but again his
friend was nowhere to be found. The angel made a further check and was
surprised to see that his friend had been born as a worm in a lavatory. The
angel thought what he could do to help his friend, and tolerated the revolting
smell of the lavatory out of compassion in order to stand at the edge of the
toilet bowl and make himself known to his friend. Standing at the rim of the
toilet bowl, he changed himself into his old human form.
"Old friend do you remember
me?" asked the angel.
"Of course," said the worm.
"We used to be friends a long time ago."
"O! Worm! Now I am an angel.
Today I have come to do you the biggest favour of your life. I have come to
invite you to join the heavenly host of angels. However, there is one
condition. If you want to be an angel you have to keep all the precepts without
breaking any of them from this day onwards. You must think only meritorious
thoughts and do meritorious deeds and before long we'll be able to abide in the
same heavenly host."
"What's so great about being an
angel?" asked the worm.
"You can get whatever you wish
instantly simply by thinking of it. As soon as you think of angelic sustenance,
angelic sustenance manifests itself. If you think of clothing then instantly
you are clothed in angelic apparel. If you think of a heavenly mansion, then a
heavenly mansion arises instantaneously.
All you have to do is have the
intention and hundreds of good things will come your way.
Everyone born into the world has the
greatest of intentions to live a decent life no-one wants to make a mess of their lives.
Even a criminal doesn't particularly want to live his life dishonestly, but he
thinks that being a criminal is good enough it's a good shortcut in earning one's living thus why not be a criminal. Having become a
criminal. it is only later that he finds out that being a criminal is no good,
but by then it's too late he can't
change his mind or his life and ends up being a criminal for the rest of his
life. Thus you can conclude that although everyone would like to be good, not
everyone manages to live out their wishes.
The point of this observation is to
illustrate that although everyone has the best of intentions, not all people
see their good intentions through to fruition. There are many factors which
cause this to be the case for example: physical handicap or lacking sufficient
knowledge. The reasons are too numerous to mention here however, the most damaging of obstacles to
success is the lack of discretion or
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"In that case I don't want to
be an angel. I'm better off as a worm thank you."
"What do you mean?" asked
the angel.
"If you are an angel you have
to make the wish before you get what you want. As a worm I don't even have to
make the effort to think. Faeces in the toilet just keeps on flowing into my
mouth. Just leave me alone because I'm better off as a worm."
">In such a case it is obvious that he
is so used to the bad and corrupt that in the end he is beyond help.
">4. Gets angry even when spoken to
decently. Just like when a mother warns her daughter to dress modestly before
leaving the house or else the neighbours will gossip. The daughter replies
angrily that this is how modern people dress. Her mother gave her a perfectly
reasonable piece of advice but her own daughter answers back with the verbal
equivalent of a slap in the face.
Or when the father advises his son
that he should be revising instead of going on outings now that he is so close
to his examination time. "How can you say that?" shouts the boy.
"Didn't you go for outings when you were younger?"
Often the other person knows that
they are in the wrong, but when they are found out and their fault is pointed
out, they lose their temper the mark of
a fool. A fool is like a person covered in open wounds. If he bumps into
something even only lightly, it hurts. For a fool, his mind is covered in
wounds, and when confronted with the truth, it hurts. Sometimes even just a
glance is enough to provoke him to aggression.
5. Refuses to comply with rules and
regulations. He heeds neither the laws of the country nor the local customs. If
you meet someone who refuses to comply with the regulations, you can be 99%
sure that you are dealing with a fool. If it wasn't for the law, there would be
a lot more opportunity for fools to express themselves through the performing of
evil deeds. The law forces fools to have to express themselves less freely or
in secret. The law will thus obscure from the public eye the real nature of a
fool's mind. It is for this reason that we have to notice the marks of a fool
from the five sorts of behaviour mentioned above.
">The Varieties of Fools
There are two different types of
fool in the world the fool in the
outside world and the inner fool. In religious terms the fool in the outside
world can be further divided into the delinquent and the well-meaning fool. The
first of the fools in the outside world the delinquent, is weak both in thought and in
action. He is a professional fool, like a crook or a gangster with very little
chance of changing.
The other sort of fool in the
outside world is the temporary fool or well-meaning fool. He becomes a fool
every time an evil thought creeps into his head just like you or me. Whatever category of fool
we ourselves fall into, it is important to get rid of every last trace of
foolishness in the mind.
The inner fool are the evil thoughts
that creep into our heads, and it is our task to put and end to the arising of
such fools in the mind.
">Defining the word 'association' When we talk of associating with
others, what are the limits of our definition? In fact there are seven
different ways in which it is possible to associate with others:
1. Meeting up with fools. This can
be called associating with fools but it is only association in it's most
rudimentary form. Of course such association might not lead to anything, after
all it is just our visiting them and their visiting us, we may not even
particularly enjoy each others company.
2. Getting closer. Once you start
getting more familiar with the fools we meet up with, start lending things to
one another, talking on subjects of common interest, and following common
pastimes.
3. Feeling a liking for one another.
Once you start to get more familiar, you start to believe that you have common
tastes. You start to believe that you yourself like anything that they
like.
4. Respecting them. After a while,
you start to find that you respect that fool for his particular skills: e.g.
his skill in gambling, and you start to think what good luck it is to have this
fool as your acquaintance and an example to follow.
5. Moral Support. After having
admired the fool for a long time from a distance, we start to believe anything
they think.
6. Joining in. After sharing the
same opinions for a long we start to join in with their activities and follow
the same way of life.
7. Influencing and instilling
behaviour to one another. In the final stages of association, it is impossible
to tell the difference between the fool and his associates. It has also come to
the stage when it is impossible to reverse the effects of the fool on his
associate. Thus for any reader who realizes
that they are under the influence of a fool they should realize too the danger
of even casual contact with the personality of someone who is a fool. There
will be an unavoidable escalation of intimacy even without realizing it.
Some texts summarize the functions
of association as twofold. Others summarize association as a pathway as
follows: joining, receiving, and giving.
Joining means eating, sleeping and
investing together.
Receiving means taking someone on as
one's spouse, one's child, one's employee or as one's extended family. The
point where we start to associate with them is the point when we take them
on.
Giving means that after joining them
and taking them on, we give to them. Such giving includes giving them honour
(kreng jai), praise, encouragement, lodging, food, payment. All of these are
included in the definition of association.
If you are associating with fools on
any of these three levels you should we warned to withdraw yourself before
sustaining any further damage.
">The dangers of associating with
fools
Earlier we examined the dangers of
being a fool yourself. At this stage we examine the dangers of associating with
fools.
1. to be lead away from the straight
and narrow;
2. to be sullied by the same
defilements possessed by the fool in the
same way that the leaves wrapping a putrid fish take on the same putrescant
smell.
3. to damage our own reputation and
credability in the eyes of others;
4. to become a magnet for misfortune;
5. to lose the path to salvation and
the ability to control ourselves;
6. to destroy the unity and harmony
of the community (because of provocation and shunning of rules and regulations;
7. to have hell as one's afterlife
destination.
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The benefits of not associating with
fools
In the same way as there are dangers
involved in associating with fools, there are benefits involved in not
associating with fools:
1. to stay on the straight and
narrow, to keep our good discretion intact;
2. to maintain the good merit
accumalated since our previous lifetimes, while maintaining the opportunity to
accrue new merits in brief, in terms of
good deeds to be able to make both this lifetime and the next worthwhile;
3. to avoid criticism, trumped up
charges (being framed) or damage to our reputation;
4. to set one's life up in honesty;
5. to gain the trust of others in
every place and situation;
6. to gain happiness for oneself,
one's family, for society at large and for the whole nation;
7. to escape being destroyed by
fools. This last point is very important, but is overlooked by most people. A
fool, like a cobra, cannot be trusted. Today he may not destroy us, but this
doesn't mean that he will never destroy us. Rather, there has still not been the
opportunity for him to do so. Whenever the opportunity comes along he will not
spare us because he is irrevocably a
fool. He seeks the company of theives. He has stolen from people from every
compass direction and as soon as there
is no-one else left to steal from he will come to steal from us. Thus if we
avoid associating with fools, we sidestep the inevitable danger of being
destroyed by them.
8. It will prevent the spread of
fools in society.
">Parable for associating with fools
Our ancestors had a parable. They
said that to associate with a fool, no matter how good we might originally be,
is like building a palace next door to a hovel. Whenever the hovel catches
fire, no matter how safe the palace is from fire, as soon as the hovel goes up
in flames the palace burns down as well, just like the virtuous person
destroyed by association with fools.
Another parable used by the Lord
Buddha is that of the leaves wrapping a putrid fish taking on the same
putrescant smell of the fish itself.
">How to Practice in Everyday
Life
If you want to avoid associating
with fools in your everyday life, apart from avoiding social contact with fools
as already mentioned, it will be necessary to give special attention to the
following issues:
1. Prohibit yourself from every sort
of evil and from all of the roads to ruin. Don't go thinking that the odd game
of poker amongst close friends, or just to keep your hand in, surely is of no
harm to anybody. Prohibit yourself right from the start, this way you will save
yourself from tears in the long run.
Even if you are someone with weak
tendencies in the direction of being a fool, such as liking to get up late,
ignoring the alarm clock you have set for yourself, you should get tough with
yourself right from the start. Prohibit yourself from doing even the most minor
of evils.
2. Make the break from any evils we
may have committed in the past. It doesn't matter by which technique you may
have committed evil, by thought, speech or action, or even having read books
about the behaviour of fools, don't even speak of those things any more.
3. Make our performance of good
deeds continuous. There is no need to think over our past failures or entangle
ourselves in the guilt of our past bad deeds. Starting from today, we must
practise generosity, keep the Precepts and meditate and do the daily chanting continuously. In this way the scars left by
our old way of life will gradually heal leaving only the clear bright sphere of
inner radiance.
4. In the case you have to associate
with a fool be especially careful. Sometimes we are put in the situation where
we have to associate with fools, even though we don't want to. Sometimes, for
example, we find out that even our own boss is involved in corruption. If we
refuse to have any part in his dealings, we might get sacked. What should we do
in such a situation? If we do everything he orders, in the end we will pick up
his bad habits. Our ancestors had a simile for warning us of such a situation.
They said you should be as careful as if you were warming yourself before the
fire. If you stay too close to the fire for too long, you will get burned. If
you keep too much distance, then you will be left shivering in the cold. Thus,
just as with the fire, you need to keep the appropriate distance from the fool not too near and not too far. In the words of
the old Thai proverb, ÎAlways keep a safe distance give a hound an armslength, give a monkey six
feet but for a fool a hundred thousand miles may not be enough.â
5. We can associate with a fool only
in the case that we want to help them. There is one condition however which
dictates whether we can really help them or not and that is whether our own virtue is
sufficiently steadfast to allow us to help them unscathed. If you are not yet
sufficiently steadfast then keep your distance even if they are your own relatives! To try to
help when your own virtue is not sufficiently steadfast is like trying to save
the life of a drowning man when you can hardly swim even to save your own life.
If you come across a friend who takes no heed of your warnings, however many
times you might tell him, you have to resign yourself to helping him out
sometime next life, when the fires of hell make him a little more ready to
listen. However, if he is not such a bad guy, and you are able to make some
impression on him, then try to help him try to keep him from going under. It's not
that we're hard hearted, but we have to know our own limits and if helping a
fool is beyond our capability, we have to withdraw our help and keep our
distance in order to survive.
">An Illustratory Tale
In the time of the Lord Buddha,
there was an elder monk of unblemished virtue named Kassapa. He was respected
by all of the enlightened monks and other members of the monastic community. Even
the Lord Buddha's closest disciple Ananda, had great respect for Ven. Kassapa.
It was the norm for the elder monks
of the community to accept newly-ordained monks as their disciples, in order
that those new monks could receive training. Some of the elders accepted more
than others in keeping with their ability as teachers. Ven. Kassapa accepted
three or four disciples but it turned out that among their number was a
stubborn monk who would listen to no-one's advice. On winter evenings it was
the duty of the disciples to boil water for the elder monks for them to take a
bath in comfort. The stubborn disciple would never boil water for Ven. Kassapa
in accordance with his duty. He would always leave the chore of boiling the
water to his fellows while going himself to invite Ven. Kassapa to wash as if
he had boiled the water himself.
Everything else the stubborn
disciple did was in the same style. Instead of going on almsround, if he
fancied something special to eat the stubborn monk would claim to temple supporters
that Ven. Kassapa wanted such-and-such to eat and when they brought
such-and-such a food to offer, he would eat it himself.
Ven. Kassapa knew what was going on
and warned the stubborn monk,ãto be so lacking in respect is not in keeping
with having ordained as a monk. You must train yourself better than this in
future.ä Kassapa warned the stubborn monk continuously, but the only effect of
the criticism was to make him feel as if his master was singling him out
unfairly for criticism. The more advice he received from his master, the more
victimized he felt. Instead of feeling grateful for all the special attention
his master had given him, he planned on getting his revenge. He thought,
tomorrow, instead of going out on almsround with the rest of the disciples for
the master's breakfast, I'll stay behind, let the master go for almsround
himself and burn down the master's kuti while he's gone. In this case it is
clear to see the behaviour of a fool who repays a master's advice given with
the best of intentions, by burning down his master's house. Ven. Kassapa came
back from his almsround to find only ashes where his kuti had stood. The
disciple had run away.
The Lord Buddha heard the story and
disclosed to Ven. Kassapa that the stubborn disciple had been a fool causing
damage not only in this lifetime, but in previous lifetimes as well:
In that previous lifetime, Kassapa
had been born as an oriole while the stubborn monk had been born as a monkey.
The two inhabited the same tree. The oriole wanted to waste no time in building
a nest to protect itself from sun, rain and dust but at the same time the oriole warned the
monkey, you ought to build yourself a nest against wind and rain, sun and dust,
because you have perfect gripping hands like a man, you can build a nest even
more easily than I can with my beak. The oriole told the monkey to build its
own nest again and again, but the monkey never took any notice. When it came to
the monsoon, the oriole ducked into the shelter of its nest whenever it rained,
while the monkey sat out in the rain sobbing. The oriole felt sorry for the
monkey and thought now is my chance to tell the monkey to build a nest. Perhaps
now that he's had a good soaking he'll see the value of my advice. Thus the
oriole poked its head out of its nest and told the monkey ,ãyou ought to build
yourself a nest against wind and rain, sun and dust, because you have perfect
gripping hands like a man, you can build a nest even more easily than I can
with my beak. As soon as the rain stops build yourself a nest.
The monkey replied,ãIf I wanted to
build a nest I could build one easily but even though my body is like that of a man,
my intelligence is the lesser.ä
ãYou're a strange case,ä said the
oriole. ãSome days you go around destroying the nests of others but when it
comes to the monsoon, you're the only one without a roof over your head. This
is the destiny of one ungrateful for the generosity of others. You had better
start improving yourself.
The monkey was stirred to anger by
the criticism. Soaked to the skin by rain and only insulted further by a bird
from inside the comfort of a dry nest, the monkey climbed up the tree to the
oriole's nest and pulled the nest to pieces.
As a monkey he pulled an oriole's
nest to pieces. As a human, he put his own master's kuti to the flame, even
though his master had spoken only kind words.These are the identifying features
of a fool and are the reason why we have to beware of this type of
person.
">Thus to avoid
associating with fools is the first step on the ladder of Buddhist practice. If
we don't start by practising this most basic of virtues by stopping behaving
like a fool and stopping associating with fools, we forgo the opportunity to
acquire any other of the virtues taught by the Lord Buddha.
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