ONCE WHEN LORD BUDDHA, who expounded the Dhamma to you in so simple a manner as this, was in an Atteriya grove, taking a fistful of leaves fallen on the ground, the Buddha said, “If the extent of the Dhamma I have realized, monks, were equal to the amount of leaves in this entire forest, the extent of the Dhamma I have preached would only equal the amount of leaves I hold in my hand.” If so, out of the entire Dhamma the Buddha had realized, what a minute amount he has set forth to the world. Even when as little a volume of Dhamma as exactly pertinent to the path for your extinguishment has been set forth in so simple a manner as this, without taking heed if our folks still get enmeshed in this much pernicious views, opinions, rites and rituals; [just imagine] then, if Buddha had preached at least half of what he had realized, what a good deal of havoc we would have wreaked upon ourselves. It is purely due to the faculty of great compassion of buddhas that they preach only those particulars essential for the cessation of ‘becoming’ (bhava) and nothing else.

Having taken the pernicious view “if one commits no wrong, one needn’t do benevolent, merit-producing deeds” mentioned in the preceding article, at this moment that person has taken rebirth as a human being with Wrong View (micchā diṭṭhi). In his present life, he hasn’t the faintest idea that in his previous life he was a Buddhist―one who had made the acquaintance of the Dhamma. Could there be a worse self-ruination than this? One brings as massive a destruction as this upon oneself due to the self-view (sakkāya-diṭṭhi) they build up as ‘I’. Revered-people! You, who had performed scores of benevolent deeds in the previous life to have got this worthy human life, having risen above the fourfold hell swarming with untold inhabitants and fraught with infinite suffering, take a moment to think, leisurely! There is a particular point at which you left off in the previous life. That point where you left off is a very pure place. Pure in the sense, upright in generosity (dāna), moral conduct (sīla) and faith and confidence (saddhā). Now you contemplate, in keeping with the law of causality. Surmise that you were indeed a human being in the previous life, that you were indeed one with Right View, born in this land of Dhamma.[1] Call to mind how you, up until the ripe old age of 85 or 90, clad in white, faithfully preserved the moral precepts you regularly observed. Hark back to how you heeded the advice of the Mahā Saṅgha, how you proffered alms food [to the Saṅgha].

Performing these wholesome karma-formations, what might you have wished for? You must have wished that you be reborn only in this land of Dhamma, that you once again become a lay disciple of Buddha in this land of Dhamma. Revered-you, both young and old, would do well to be skilful to evoke those lost memories again. Then you could pick up right where you left off. Otherwise, what you [invariably] try to do is start again from scratch. If it be a young man or woman, they think they must wait until old age to offer alms and observe moral precepts and practise the path of the Dhamma. Don’t you let that false idea in. At the young age itself, be a white-clad lay adherent of Buddha. Only then will you be deemed not to have been heedless (pamāda) in the present life. Firmly believe you weren’t such a Buddhist as that who had been in the grip of pernicious views and opinions in the previous life. Well, had that been the case, due to causality, you would have taken rebirth as a person with Wrong View. So, be assured through your own self that you had indeed been one with Right View whose refuge in the Triple Gem was very much intact in the previous life. Never imprison the endowment of Dhamma―which preserved your refuge from one life to the next―in the confines of pernicious views and opinions or empty rites and rituals, either due to association with unworthy men or your own disobedience. To do so, would be to tear down what you yourself built. 

The following account would help you make more meaning out of the above.

There is a particular upper-class woman, a member of the moneyed elite, living in this country. She is extremely rich and powerful. A woman of social grandeur. A bhikkhu, through the noble samādhi―a state of deep concentration of the mind―aimed to see her previous birth. What the bhikkhu saw through the vision was that even in her previous life she had been a human being, a woman, arrayed in plain white raiment―which is customary for observing moral precepts―both at the young age as well as the ripe old age. That means, from her youth up until her death, she had been one whose moral conduct and virtue were very much a part of life.

Now you consider her present life, in keeping with the law of causality. Not because someone else gave it to her but simply as rewards for the morality and virtue she practised in her erstwhile life did she receive this grandeur in the present life. Not grandeur bestowed upon her by a deva or brahma or given to her by the husband. Rather, it is the power of the moral precepts that she herself guarded, believing in karma and karma-results.

This august woman, who happily experiences in this life the wholesome karma-formations she herself had accumulated in her life of yore, despite having so far spent about half her present life, doesn’t yet seem to have picked up from where she left off in the previous life. Befuddled by sheer grandeur, she goes no further than simply enjoying the rewards of the wholesome karma-formations gained thanks to moral conduct in that past life. Though risking life and limb to abide by moral precepts in her previous life, she had had volitions not for renouncing sensual desire (nekkhamma) but for having pleasures of ‘becoming’ (bhava). Having received the fruit of such volitions in this life, and having become heedless as a consequence, now she’s experiencing the perilousness of the ‘becoming.’ Now she’s experiencing the precariousness of wholesome karma-formations. Let me reiterate this: Karma-formations―saṅkhāras―are highly dangerous! Handle with care! Correctly discern the right path as against the wrong. Were you to wield wholesome karma-formations unmindful of the cause-and-effect phenomena, those very wholesome karma-formations would pave the way for you to plummet into the fourfold hell.

Reflecting wisely upon the above matter, interrelate according to cause-and-effect phenomena the wealth, the power, the good looks your revered-life is endowed with. Identify, in keeping with Dhamma, what underlying causes have produced them. Start this life from where you left off in the previous. Indeed, you will have left off in previous life as a lay disciple garbed in white vesture customary for observing moral precepts. If so, become a white-clad male or female lay disciple in this life, at least at the young age itself. Honour the Dhamma that made it possible for you to have this prized human life.

You think this prosperity was the result of top positions you assumed, your education, your property holdings, or the patrimony passed on by forebears and parents. You may have heard some folks say, “It was by dint of my own striving to pursue education while suffering through considerable hardship that I reached this position. Not thanks to anyone else.” Granted, you have achieved this position, having born many a hardship indeed. No question about it. But there is a hidden phenomenon behind all these that you and I can’t see. A phenomenon of causality. It is but the force of the wholesome karma-formations you had given rise to in the previous life.

So, revered-you, show gratitude towards the Triple Gem. Be beholden to moral conduct (sīla) and generosity (dāna). Be a grateful human being. Don’t commit perfidy against this life by betraying it to fallacious views, immoral conduct, or miserliness. Don’t be an ingrate. Developing meaningfully the path of Dhamma, be a sagacious one who reaps to the fullest the fruits of the wholesome karma-formations you accrued in the past. In this journey of becoming, never lose your way, falling into the fourfold hell. Only for this exalted purpose have you received this present life. Therefore, summoning up the forgotten memory [of where you left off], without being heedless, be ever so diligent (appamāda). Think only of the fact that all karma-formations, whether wholesome or unwholesome, are impermanent.

Buddha says if you are to be solaced by the realization of enlightenment in this very life itself, if you are to do away with being liable to fall into the fourfold hell again, then you ought to be perfect in three things: saddhā―faith and confidence; viriya―energy; and hiri-ottappa―moral shame and moral dread. Hiri-ottappa denotes sīla―moral conduct. You must develop moral shame and moral dread never to fall into the fourfold hell: the animal world, peta world, asura world or niraya. This is where you need to cultivate indefatigable viriya. Otherwise, overpowered by sensuous desire, suppose you make such excuses as “I haven’t fulfilled enough perfections (pāramī)” or “There’s still a long way to go in saŋsāra for me to get a birth endowed with the three wholesome root conditions[2] whereby greed, hatred and delusion are attenuated.” Such prattle are not Buddha’s teaching at all. Rather, they are just things said simply for want of saddhā and viriya. Though there were indeed certain incidents during the time of Buddha that would substantiate the above thinking, here we must humbly notice why we seek such excuses is simply because we are lacking in saddhā, viriya and hiri-ottappa. The above excuses we line up to absolve ourselves only tell of the length and breadth of our defilements, rather than being any fault of the attribute of Dhamma known as sandiṭṭhika―that Dhamma is directly visible by oneself. So perilous would it be to rove about in bhava any longer that, to point this out, Buddha says, “just as much as a man whose head has caught fire would strive to douse it, so too you must strive as much to escape the flames of bhava.” Be afraid of the unspeakable suffering embodied in that thought. Have faith in the Dhamma. Then, to penetrate the māra phenomenon called ‘the mind,’ the viriya that was found lacking in you will surge.

[1] The phrase “one with Right View, born in this land of Dhamma” has been rendered here in context (as the Author anyway refers to ‘land of Dhamma’ in the next paragraph), whereas a verbatim translation would have produced “a Sinhala Buddhist.”

[2] The three wholesome root conditions are: alobha – ‘greedless’ (generosity); adosa – ‘devoid of hate’ (loving-kindness); amoha – ‘undeluded’ (having wisdom (paññā)).