1. The confidence, the faith,―saddhā―in the triple-gem1

The person who has formed Right View is someone who has formed faith, confidence,―saddhā―in the Buddha’s supreme qualities, supreme intellectual faculties, with a proper understanding. Not because of what others say, nor by reading what’s stated in books, but purely by listening to dhamma-discourses and wise reflection upon that noble, supremely enlightened disposition and omniscient intellectual faculties he or she forms confidence in the Buddha. Won’t perceive a world, a happiness, devoid of Lord Buddha. Sees Buddha as this incredible noble person who uncovered and pointed out for all beings the path that yields the world’s truest worldly (lokiya) as well as supermundane (lokuttara) happiness. He or she sees that a world beyond Buddha’s refuge is a world of ‘wrong view’ (miccha-diṭṭhi); is a world that points the way to unwholesome actions (akusala); is a world where beings plunge to woeful destinations of rebirth. Sees that you owe the happiness and solace you find at this moment entirely to Buddha’s faculty of great-compassion (mahā-karunā). As you close your eyes what you will visualize is the image of the Buddha. You will make the strength of that unwavering supreme quality of enlightenment, that great wisdom of enlightenment, a strength for your own life, for your practice of the Dhamma. As you make this strongest refuge in the world system your protection, the phenomenon called fear will grow distant from you.

Secondly, you become certain about the confidence in the Jewel of Dhamma. The noble Dhamma the Buddha expounded out of great-compassion is what’s known as the Jewel of Dhamma. The 37 things whose propensity is for enlightenment―the bodhipakkhiya-dhammā―not only sides with the path to extinguishing suffering, but also makes for worldly comforts and fortunate destinations of rebirth.2 Simply by empirically experiencing these 37 things slanted towards enlightenment he or she discerns the path that affords worldly as well as supermundane happiness. Beholds that every being ensconced in fortunate destinations is a product of Dhamma and that every being languishing in woeful destinations is a product of fallacious or unrighteous-dhamma (adhamma). He or she forms confidence in the Jewel of Dhamma, realizing that to evade the Dhamma, to defy the Dhamma, is the greatest harm one could inflict upon oneself. Sees that one owes their affluence to thinking in accordance with the Dhamma and another becomes poor owing to not thinking in accordance with the Dhamma. Beholds that one owes their good looks to thinking in accordance with the Dhamma and another becomes ugly due to not thinking in accordance with the Dhamma.

The Dhamma set forth by the Buddha―the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the five aggregates that are the objects of clinging (pañca-upādānakkhandha), the continuum of dependant-origination (paṭicca-samuppāda), the fourfold establishing of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna)―affords us insight as to the suffering in the peregrination of ‘becoming’ (bhava) and the path to freedom in the extinction of ‘becoming.’

Despite the Dhamma being part and parcel of every being’s life, simply because of the hankering for fallacious or unrighteous-dhamma, the phenomena―the dhammatā―that operate from within oneself get overlooked. Having discerned the Dhamma, making it a raft [to convey you to deliverance], when you incorporate it in your life, you will realize that the Dhamma that liberates you from the world has remained hidden simply within you all along. Where the world, the Dhamma, and life converge as one and the same operation, a deep-rooted saddhā with a proper understanding will arise in you towards Buddha―who uncovered with his buddha-omniscience such profound phenomena about the world―and the Jewel of Dhamma.

When saddhā towards the Jewel of Saṅgha forms in you, you will place faith, confidence, in the supreme qualities and intellectual faculties of all venerable monks from Venerable Kondañña3 to the venerables of the present to the venerables of the future. The whole time it is the Mahā Saṅgha―the wider community of monks―who have relentlessly protected and preserved the path of Dhamma the Buddha taught, for the benefit of all beings of the entire trifold world. It is only because this noble Dhamma and the lofty monastic training precepts of virtue (pātimokkha) have been continually preserved through the unparalleled commitment and dedication of the Mahā Saṅgha that at this moment you can form saddhā towards the Buddha and the Dhamma. As you proceed along the Noble Eightfold Path, at every step of the way it is purely the supreme qualities and intellectual faculties of the Mahā Saṅgha that you must be reminiscent of.

Where venerable monks deteriorate in terms of the lofty moral precepts, the Jewel of Saṅgha is going to fade away from the world. It is a law of nature that immediately upon the Jewel of Saṅgha disappearing from the world, the essence of the other two Jewels, the Buddha and the Dhamma, too, will disappear from the world. So, the confidence you’ve formed in the supreme qualities of the Jewel of Saṅgha will be your personal contribution to the preservation of the Buddha’s dispensation―the sāsana.4 In the present day, having noticed any shortcomings of venerable monks, when revered-you criticize those venerables or get cross with them as a result, you are helping to spawn contributing factors to weaken the dispensation. By having faith, confidence, in the Mahā Saṅgha, you are playing your part in the enterprise of safeguarding the dispensation. If someone sought to preserve the dispensation by disrespecting monks or by ostracizing monks, it’d be a mere fallacy, a mirage. If some fault arises in the community of Saṅgha, Buddha hasn’t assigned it to the laity to fix such faults. Here revered-laity need to be extremely careful in the present day. Rather than trying to correct venerable monks, try to set an example yourself. When you see a monk who’s lacking in abiding by the moral precepts (sīla), be skilful to look not at the monk but at your own mind that becomes resentful of that monk. Then you will sense that the problem lies not in the monk but purely within yourself.

There are some gentlemen the Bhikkhu knows well. When those revered-gentlemen attend to venerable monks, they don’t go inspecting the monk’s sīla―morality, samādhi―concentration, or paññā―wisdom. Every monk is ministered to and cared for while conjuring up the great arahats venerable Sāriputta or Moggallāna in their minds.5 As a result, minds of resentment or hatred don’t arise in those revered-folks. Due to having only minds of equanimity, the essence of the Dhamma blossoms from within their lives. Simply as a consequence, the saddhā towards the triple-gem burgeons in those revered-folks. Instead, because of a monk who is lacking in moral conduct (sīla), resenting and hating if you let suspicion arise in you, owing to that unwholesome deed alone one day you would form resentment and suspicion even towards monks who duly abide by moral precepts.

There is a particular kuṭī known to the Bhikkhu. A monk that resided in this kuṭī in the past had been openly committing serious misdeeds violating the Vinaya-rules―the monastic training rules of virtue. Due to this reason, even if monks who duly abide by moral precepts come and reside in this kuṭī at present, the revered-villagers regard those monks with suspicion. Simply because of it, those revered-people endlessly commit unwholesome deeds.

Therefore, the saddhā you cultivate towards the Jewel of Saṅgha alone will cause saddhā towards all three Jewels to form in you. If there are situations where revered-you become displeased with venerable monks, please steer well clear of those places. Don’t go to disrespect monks from now on. Likewise, hereafter, revered-laity must refrain from lying or tattling in a manner that might cause divisions or disappointments among monks. Such unwholesome actions end up being so grave that one plunges to the lowest hell. It’d be construed as the laity giving rise to contributory factors for creating schism in the Order of Saṅgha. For all the 45 years the Buddha lived in Jambudīpa, though, how many hundreds of thousands of people will have lived in that ancient India who didn’t see the living Buddha? In an era in which a Buddha emerged in the world, despite having been born in the same country as the Buddha, revered-you lose the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the Buddha because of such unwholesome deeds.

1 The Triple-Gem or Three Jewels means the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha, which are revered by all Buddhists as the most venerable things.

2 The phrase ‘fortunate destination of rebirth’ or ‘fortunate plane’ used throughout the translation refers to a relatively happy destination in which beings get reborn. The Pāli term is ‘sugati.’ The fortunate destinations consist of the human world and heavenly worlds. (Although heavenly planes include 6 deva-worlds and 20 brahma-worlds, as rebirth in a brahma-world is the result of generating meditative absorptions, brahma-worlds are generally not considered as part of the fortunate destinations as it relates to the sensuous sphere.) The opposite of this is the ‘woeful destinations’ (‘duggati’), which is simply the fourfold-hell.

3 Venerable Aññā-Kondañña was the first among humans to realize the Dhamma. It was when the Buddha visited Isipatana and preached the first discourse that Venerable Kondañña attained stream-entry, and five days later attained full enlightenment.

4 Sāsana means dispensation of the Buddha. As commonly used, it also refers to the time span throughout which a Buddha’s teaching (of the way things truly are) remains alive, before it gets completely concealed from human knowledge. 

5 Venerable Sāriputta and Venerable Moggallāna were the two chief disciples of the Gautama Buddha. Venerable Sāriputta is said to be the foremost among the Buddha’s disciples in terms of his wisdom and Venerable Moggallāna in terms of his magical powers.