A PALU FOREST SURROUNDS the kuṭi in which Bhikkhu presently resides. Trees have erupted into fruit, making the whole range appear yellow. With the temperate climate [of early summer] in the month of Vesāka, there’s ample food for all creatures great and small. The sand courtyard encircling Bhikkhu’s kuṭi remains ever sullied. Bulls often come there to eat the Palu fruits fallen on the ground. Sand’s been littered with their hoof prints. It’s around 6 in the morning now. As Bhikkhu sweeps the kuṭi, a few bulls are eating Palu fruits off the sandy ground. The sand courtyard is utterly befouled. Instantaneously upon seeing the bulls, the words that escaped Bhikkhu were: “Son, eat quickly and be on your way without disturbing.”

Who was it that Bhikkhu spontaneously addressed as ‘Son’? Bulls that were in the courtyard. Many a time in the round of rebirths, how these bulls will have been children of the same mother and father as mine! Born in the round of rebirths due to nothing but causality, how much we will have eaten off the same plate of rice! How much we will have huddled together and wept in sorrow! Or laughed in glee! The only difference between you and me, son, is the disparity in karma formations―saṅkhāras. It is by being in this perception that the compassion and loving-kindness of the Mahā Saṅgha―the wider community of monks―permeate the world. Only with the sympathy “I have discerned the world; you haven’t discerned it” would Mahā Saṅgha behold the world. This sympathy arises from insightfully understanding the length, depth and suffering of the round of rebirths―saŋsāra.

As this note is being penned, Bhikkhu recalls how, in one forest hermitage, a pious elder monk admonished Bhikkhu for addressing a young novice monk as ‘Son.’ What we see in all this is the world; is the diverseness that pervades the world. Granted, addressing a junior monk as ‘āyusmant’[i] is the most correct for the sake of prolongation of the Order of Saṅgha. Afterwards, Bhikkhu corrected that mistake. But for some reason, a sense of compassion and loving-kindness that surpasses it prevails in the life of Mahā Saṅgha. There comes a day when we’ll have to behold even the cow that sullies the kuṭi’s sand courtyard as a child. It is to reach this station that you’re proceeding along this path of the Dhamma. But just think for yourself, can you honestly see the next-door neighbour as a friend? If you can’t see it that way, first you had better start from there. Turn the neighbour into a friend. However disobliging the neighbour may be, to that same extent you be equanimous. Here, revered you are thus striving not for others’ benefit but for your own. Make use of others’ intractability for your own triumph.

TODAY IS AN AUSPICIOUS day. That means a day of good fortune. When Bhikkhu was going on house-to-house alms round this morning, a car slowed down as it passed by. It was a wedding car, festooned with flowers. A bridegroom sat inside. Having picked an auspicious time, that is to say, having waited for a day of good fortune, he’s on his way to bring home a ‘suffering.’ Though Bhikkhu sees it as suffering, that groom sees this day as the most beautiful, most important day of his life.

In the Buddha’s teaching, the subject of auspicious times is repudiated. Buddha proclaims that if one lived with faith and confidence (saddhā) in the triple-gem, if one lived giving importance to moral precepts (sīla) through life, for them every day would be a day of good fortune, every moment an auspicious moment. So, you needn’t spend money looking for propitious moments, seeking auspicious times with horoscopes. If you’re upright in faith and confidence towards the triple-gem and in moral precepts, your whole life becomes an auspicious moment; every day is a day of good fortune for you.

During the days of Buddha, the ill-willed asura[ii] called Rāhu, using his power, totally eclipsed the sun. The whole world went into darkness. At that point, one deity affiliated with the sun recollected the supreme qualities of the Buddha and sought refuge in the Buddha. Buddha, with the faculty of divine hearing, perceived that this deity is seeking refuge and protection from him.

“Release my virtuous son, who has sought refuge from me,” said Buddha at that point, admonishing Rāhu.

At once, trembling with fear, Rāhu released from his clutches the deity affiliated with the sun and fled to Vepacitti, another ill-willed asura.  “Why did you set the sun free and come running to me?” asked Vepacitti.

“Had I not freed the sun like that and run away,” replied Rāhu, “my head would have split into seven pieces for disobeying Buddha’s order.”

Why, how Rāhu bolted before Buddha’s refuge! But simply for want of faith and confidence in the Buddha, what a great deal of offering, exorcism, sorcery, charms and incantations we perform, in [fallacious] fear of Rāhu, Saturn or Ketu!

For Bhikkhu who writes this, in life, every moment is a propitious moment; every day is a blessed day. Not because of horoscopes or auspicious times but because of letting go of such things and truly taking refuge in the triple-gem. Whichever matter comes forth in life, Bhikkhu sees it merely as a result of karma formations. That is to say, as results of past wholesome actions and unwholesome actions of my own, in keeping with the phenomena of causality. No Rāhu or Saturn here. Simply due to the severity of our unwholesome karma itself, simply due to veering away from the refuge of the triple-gem, we ourselves deliberately place Rāhu, Saturn or Ketu upon our heads; And now the entire life is a spell of bad luck, a hoodoo, a curse. When one forfeits the refuge of the triple-gem, of course, the entire life is a host of problems.

When remembering this bridegroom who, despite the myriad problems he’s already beset by, went to shoulder a further host of problems, Bhikkhu harked back to a past incident. At the time of this incident, Bhikkhu was a lay householder of about 30. I placed a classified ad for a marriage proposal in a weekend paper. At one point in the ad it was said, “Seeking a pious, religiously inclined maiden for a quiet wedding.” Received a plethora of reply letters in about two weeks. Out of a selected few, I replied to one. What I said in it was that no wedding ceremony at all would be held; after registering the marriage, let us go to either Anuradhapura or Kataragama, make religious observances and start our life. About a week after posting the letter, I received a reply from her. It was a lengthy letter. At the start, it read, “You’re such a fickle, capricious man. You don’t recognize the hopes and aspirations of a young woman. The day a girl comes of age, she starts to have an aspiration. It is her greatest expectation; it would be her lifelong dream. That dream is: someday, surrounded by relatives, dressed in wedding finery, ascending the wedding dais, exchanging rings… A maiden lives every day cherishing this romantic dream. You’re a man who fails to recognize this dream of a damsel. What you tried to do was crush the dream of a young woman.” She had even stated that she wouldn’t expect a reply to her letter. By the time I had finished reading it, I was left dumbfounded. I actually realized I had tried to shatter that romantic dream a young woman has of a ceremonious wedding. What I saw was that there was a gulf between her and me as vast as that between sky and earth. The sky and earth would never meet. That’s just why she had said not even to reply to her epistle.

Upon wisely reflecting on the facts after having read this letter, honestly, I felt happy thinking how far removed my thinking was from the rest of the world. It is simply because of the adroitness there was in me to think miles apart from the rest of the world that at this moment I live in a place so distant from the world. But I’m quite sure if she is alive at this moment, she abides as a mother, bearing enormous suffering, with her numerous progeny. That day, that first meeting which took place via that letter turned into a parting not because of Rāhu, Saturn or Ketu but because of the saṅkhāra phenomena. The wholesome karma formations there were in me prevented those unwholesome karma formations from taking effect. For me to reach the place where I am now, it is but faith and confidence I had in the Buddha that saved me from those dangers then. For me to reach this place, Buddha's refuge has saved me from dangers like this in many instances in my past life. That means all this isn’t a coincidence, isn’t a chance occurrence. Nothing but results of karma formations.

Now, again I recall the bridegroom who sat in the wedding car when I was on the alms round early this morning. ‘Alas, dear groom, if your bride, too, turns out to be one whose clinging is as intense as the above, then may god help you!’

Here, ‘May god help you!’ means, my child, ‘When will you ever be able to free yourself?’ If lay devotees did away with customs born of fallacious views (micchā-diṭṭhi) and began life with faith and confidence in the triple-gem, what a strong and solaced place they could steer their lives to! Revered you have the rightful inheritance of this esteemed Dhamma: a Dhamma that edifies folks―who live utterly heedlessly, piling a mountain of hopes and getting buried under that same mountain―on the right way and wrong way. Seek out nothing but the association with a wise and virtuous friend (kalyāna-mitta). Listen to the true Dhamma. Reflect wisely upon the Dhamma that’s been listened to. That, for you, will be the beginning of a journey.

[i]  A term used by a senior bhikkhu, to address a junior bhikkhu – younger in ordination age.

[ii] Asuras are the lowest groups of deities or demigods (a group of power-seeking deities). Rāhu and Ketu (pronounced Kētu) are two of the nine planets in Vedic astrology (An asura is presumed to be ruling over each planet). The time of day (mythically) believed to be under the influence of these two planets is considered inauspicious in Vedic astrology.