Blessing Three:
Expressing Respect to Those Worthy of Respect
Expressing Respect to Those Worthy of Respect
F. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES
In order to illustrate the results of paying respect to those worthy of respect here are five examples, the second of which is an example of homage through gifts:
F.1 Metaphor: Small sapling with supporting stake
When a new-grown tree is still a flimsy sapling, it needs a supporting stake to protect it against strong winds — otherwise it will be blown down or torn up by its roots. Similarly, one who hopes for spiritual progress in one’s life needs to express respect to those worthy of respect — to keep a place for those people in one’s heart — so that those people can be a guiding light and an example, and a protection against False View and unwholesomeness which might otherwise reappear in one’s life.
F.2 Ex. Sumana the Garland-Maker
In the time of the Lord Buddha, within the walls of the palace the workers divided themselves up into different sections and one of the sections was specifically for flower arranging. The section head was called Sumana and his duty was to arrange flowers to decorate the palace, to decorate the throne and even decorate the royal bed chamber of the king, to give all of these places a delightful fragrance. Sumana fulfilled his duty to the satisfaction of all in the palace every day, year in year out without ever slipping up.
One day, in the season where flowers were the hardest to find, Sumana travelled to every part of the city and wherever there were flowers to be bought, he would buy them all. No-one else in the city had any flowers left to use for themselves. Every last flower in the city had to be used for the decoration of the palace.
Even though Sumana had exclusive rights to all the flowers in the city, because the dry season had caused a drought, he could hardly find any flower — even food was scarce let alone flowers. One day the flowers were so scarce that in the whole of the city all Sumana could find were eight (coconut shell) measures of jasmine flowers. Really, this wasn’t enough to decorate the palace, but it was better than nothing.
That day, as Sumana was bringing the eight measures of jasmine flowers to the palace, he met with the Lord Buddha along the way. The Lord Buddha was on almsround. Sumana regularly attended the Buddha’s sermons but he had never really had the chance to make a decent offering to the Buddha, partly because of his poverty and partly because his faith was not very profound.
That day, as Sumana saw the Lord Buddha he felt that the Buddha looked particularly resplendent and worthy of faith. The deportment of the Buddha seemed so perfect in every respect that he felt that it was only fitting to bow down before Him. Sumana’s next thought was that all he had was eight measures of flowers. If he used them to honour the king, all the king could give him was income, food and clothing to see him through the present lifetime. However, that day he was going to pay respect to the Lord Buddha to create for himself the positive karma that would bring him benefits not just in this lifetime but in many lifetimes to come. Even if the king were to execute him, it wouldn’t affect the good results of these deeds.
Sumana raised the flowers to his forehead and when he had made his resolution, sprinkled the jasmine flowers on the path ahead of the Lord Buddha with the intention that the Buddha would walk upon his fragrant offering.
The Lord Buddha saw the strength of Sumana’s faith — to the degree that he was prepared to lay down his life in order to make this offering. Thus the Lord Buddha created a miracle in order to bring Sumana real joy, to allow him to gain the full merit of his generous deed and lead him to attain enlightenment in the future.
Thus as soon as the flowers were released from Sumana’s hand, the flowers floated up as a net of flowers above where the Lord Buddha stood and this net would follow the Lord Buddha wherever He went. At both sides of the path all of the householders came out of their houses to see the miraculous sight and were inspired by the sight of the flowers which seemed to have a life of their own in honour of the Lord Buddha.
Through Sumana’s faith together with the power of the perfections of the Lord Buddha, the jasmine flowers sent their scent throughout the whole of the city. The scent followed the Lord Buddha wherever he went and this attracted everyone out of their houses to see the sight of the Lord Buddha.
Many of the householders had seen the Lord Buddha before, but they had never been inspired by Him. But that day the sight of the Lord Buddha was so impressive that many of the householders were inspired to faith. Those who were only slightly faithful put their hands together in a gesture of prayer. Those who were more inspired raised their hands in a gesture of prayer and offered words in praise of the Lord Buddha. Those whose faith was even greater prepared food to offer into the Buddha’s bowl and followed him around to see what would happen to the flowers.
The Buddha’s almsround took him all over the city and eventually brought Him to the front of the palace. The king heard the news and came to give alms himself. Then the king invited the Buddha to take his breakfast in the palace.
As the Buddha was taking his meal, the ceiling of flowers remained above Him — while the Buddha gave His blessing and until he returned to Jetavana Temple. As He entered the temple the flowers fell down in a pile at the temple gate. This only added to the faith of the followers and even Sumana thought, “If the king is to execute me for failing in my duty, it has certainly been worth it!”
By contrast, Sumana’s wife thought the opposite. She wondered how her husband could have been so incredibly stupid. If he had given the flowers to the king at least he would have got money in return. By giving the flowers to the Buddha, he got no money in return. All he got was faith and how was that going to feed his hungry children? And if the king were dissatisfied about not getting his flowers and decides to execute Sumana and decide to execute his wife and children too, they’d all suffer because of his stupidity. And if the king seized Sumana’s belongings, he would just take Sumana’s possessions — he would take the possessions of everybody in the household. She didn’t want that to happen. The wife went straight to the king and disowned all responsibility for her husband’s actions. She demanded divorce from her husband there and then, and swore before the king that if her husband was to suffer for his actions let him suffer alone. The king asked her if she was sure of what she was doing. The wife asserted that she was quite sure of her actions.
Instead of being angry with Sumana, the king felt intrigued and inspired by the flower-man’s example and decided to give Sumana a prize for his virtues. In the end Sumana received the prize alone because his former wife had already disowned him.
When the story reached the ears of the Lord Buddha, the Venerable Ānanda asked the Lord Buddha about the fruits of Sumana’s faith on that occasion. The Lord Buddha taught that with a strength of faith that someone is prepared to lay down his life, such as that of Sumana, faith is very deeply rooted in someone’s mind, making the mind of Sumana very radiant and that for at least a hundred-thousand aeons [kappa]. However many rebirths Sumana took, he would be born in only the human and the heaven realms. He would never be born in the neither realms of hell, animals, hungry-ghosts or asEras. After the appropriate length of time, Sumana would become enlightened as a paccekabuddha.
Thus from the power of faith in the Buddha, the resulting brightness and clarity of mind will stay with one throughout the course of many lifetimes. One’s discretion will be impeccable and because one’s judgment is sound, one will be a wise one in every lifetime. This is the fruit of paying respect to those worthy of respect — radiance of mind, which ultimately will lead to Right View in every lifetime.
DhA.ii.40ff.
F.3 Ex. Sudhāpiṇḍaya helps build pagoda
Another illustratory tale is that of Ven. Sudāpiṇḍiya Thera. When he became enlightened as an arahant he recollected his previous lives to see how he had come to attain arahantship and meditating to recollect his previous lives he discovered that he had made an offering of only a handful of lime.
Sudāpiṇḍiya Thera was born in the era of one of the previous Buddhas, at the time when that Buddha had already entered Parinirvana. The people of the country were building a cetiya in which to inter the relics of that Buddha. Sudāpiṇḍiya Thera was a man of faith despite his poverty, he thought, “I have relied on the Teachings and virtue of the Lord Buddha all along. Now that the people are all building a cetiya as a memorial to the generations of the future to take the same opportunity as the Lord Buddha to do good deeds all their life. It is only fitting that I should make some contribution to the building of the cetiya on this occasion.”
With this thought in mind, Sudāpiṇḍiya Thera felt strong faith in the Buddha and wanted to take a part in paying homage to the Lord Buddha along with the other people. As a pauper, he had no possessions to give as an offering. He went and bought a handful of lime and took this lime as his contribution to the building of the cetiya. But on this occasion, although the contribution was small, but his faith profound.
The fruit of Sudāpiṇḍiya Thera’s faith made his mind so radiant that from that lifetime onwards to his final rebirth, he was born only in the human and the heaven realms. He never descended into hell throughout 94 aeons and attained arahantship in his final lifetime.
In the opposite respect if we cultivate anger or vengefulness for 94 aeons this will lead us to do no end of hateful acts and the resulting extra interest of bad karma will ensure that you never get born in the human realm again.
Ap.i.133
F.4 Ex. Kosātakī pays homage at pagoda
Another example is that of Kosātakī. Her name means ‘loofah’. There are many species of loofah. Some can be eaten. Some are inedible and have to be thrown away. At the time when the Lord Buddha had already passed away and his disciples were organizing a grand cremation, King Ajātasattu enshrined the relics of the Lord Buddha in a cetiya and when the ceremony was over, there was a festival. At that time there was a woman who was pitifully poor who had had faith in the Lord Buddha since the time when he was alive. When the people of the country were holding their festival to celebrate the completion of the new cetiya, this woman wanted to join in the celebration by honoring the cetiya with flowers. The woman wasn’t discerning enough to buy beautiful flowers like the rest of the people. She went and collected four loofahs from the edge of the forest — golden yellow in colour. These loofahs were priceless — because no-one would pay good money for something inedible. She took the four such fruits and set off in the direction of the cetiya with the full intention to offer them in homage to the Lord Buddha.
She was in such a rush that she didn’t look where she was going, so fixed was her mind on making her offering at the cetiya. In her path were a cow and calf. The cow saw the determination of the woman and misunderstood that she wanted to harm her calf and responded by goring the woman to death, before she could reach the cetiya. Even so, even though the woman never reached the cetiya, her mind had such a determination to accomplish her good deed that with the collected potential of a mind with shame and fear of evil, virtue and the wisdom to appreciate the good deeds of the Lord Buddha, meant that as she was gored to death she was reborn immediately as an angel — her clothes became immediately refined as angelic raiment of the same golden colour as the loofah and the angelic mansion that arose as the result of her merit was also the colour of the loofah.
Indra, the king of heaven saw the new arrival in heaven and asked what merit she had performed to cause the arising of a golden coloured mansion. The angel smiled shyly and replied that she had done only something very insignificant — just taking four loofahs to pay respect to the cetiya containing the relics of the Lord Buddha but she had been gored to death by a cow on the way and regretted not having reached her goal or else the golden colour of her raiment and the mansion would surely have been even more striking than this!
On hearing this, Indra exclaimed, “Paying respect to the Lord Buddha with a mind of faith, even though He has already entered parinibbāna in no way lessens the fruits of good karma. Whether the Lord Buddha is alive or passed away gives fruits of merits equally.”
For this reason, even though we have been born in a time after the Lord Buddha has already passed away, it should in no way lessen our diligence in paying respect to the Lord Buddha.
Pītavimānavatthu, Vv.iv.9, VvA.200ff.
F.5 Ex. Pañcapāpā pays homage with resentment
There is one more illustratory example — that of Pañcapāpā. This name means ‘five types of evil’ and is the name give to this particular woman by her father. The reason for such an inauspicious name was that the child was born defective with knarled hands, lame feet, a squint mouth, squint eyes and a crooked nose. None of her bodily organs were in symmetry. Her hands went one way and her feet went another. Although the child was repulsively ugly, she had one attractive point — her skin was soft like that of an angel. Because of her one good point, Pañcapāpā was to become the queen of the country late life. When she was in the royal palace as one of the royal consorts, her skin was so soft that the king forgot all the other women the palace. The other consorts were so jealous that they framed her so that the king had to float her away on a raft downstream. But as soon as she reached the next kingdom, all it took was one touch for the king there to take her as his queen. Everybody was so astonished that a woman so physically deformed could come to be the queen of two kingdoms that someone asked the Lord Buddha how this could come to be.
The Lord Buddha looked back at her previous lifetimes and discovered that the woman had made an offering to a paccekabuddha but the offering was made out of anger. On that day, the woman was shoring up the wall of her house with mud. A paccekabuddha also needed mud to build his kuti and seeing that the woman had more than enough mud came bowl in hand to ask for some of the mud. The woman was reluctant to give away any of her mud, but gave the paccekabuddha some anyway. Out of anger, she threw a clod of mud into the paccekabuddha’s bowl. At the time she was scowling, with her eyebrows knitted together, her feet stamping the ground and shaking a fist at the paccekabuddha. The result of her reluctant good deed in future rebirths was that her stamping feet were lame, the hand which threw the mud was knarled and her scowling face was deformed beyond recognition. The good part of her deed, the generosity, still gave its fruit — because the mud which built the kuti which helped shelter the paccekabuddha from the rain gave her angelic complexion. But this could not diminish the bad part of the deed that was not being polite to those worthy of respect.
J.v.440ff., Kuṇala Jātaka (J.536)
Thus in conclusion, not paying respect to those worthy of respect, or not having faith in those who ought to inspire faith clouds the mind and the extension of this ultimately to become a fool.
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