Excellent. All right. So last week we looked at the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta. And we have a series of four talks, I'm assuming that most of you are going to be here for all four of the talks. So I won't go back over what we did last week in much detail, but just to briefly recap, we began with the opening of the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta where King Ajātasattu the king of Magadha wants to invade the Vajjis he sent his minister Vassakāra to ask the Buddha's opinion, the Buddha gave a very diplomatic response. And I pointed out that this sutta located the events of the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta in the dramatic changes and challenges that were going on, in the time of the Buddha towards the end of the Buddha's life. Thank you so much to everyone for all of your responses. And great to see so many people from so many different places... from New Mexico. Yes, I remember New Mexico. I had a cup of coffee in New Mexico. Ayya Sevira is Vessantara in between Sydney and Canberra; must be on the train up for the ASA conference. I'm going to be zooming into the conference tomorrow, as I've talked today and tonight, so I wouldn't be able to make it.
Alright, so yes, so the Buddha was...oh, sorry the compiler- Ananda and who compiled the text was situating it in the midst of that social and political turmoil and uncertainty, which reflects the unease and the concern of the tradition as a whole for the survival of the dhamma. Think about it, think about how many religious movements there are, how many gurus there are, how many different sects and orders and centers and all of these things, and how many actually survived, how many go, you know, even past the death of their founder, much less how many are gonna survive longer than that. So it was a very real concern, I think among those people, it was a really kind of unprecedented thing, to imagine that a tradition could be set up and could be sustained. And so that kind of anxiety really permeates the entirety of the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta. After that, I won't be reading the whole sutta, even in four weeks, we won't nearly have time for that. But I will just briefly recap the details. So the Buddha told the seven principles that prevent decline among the Vajjians, and then the further principles that prevent decline among the mendicants, after which the Buddha set north from Rājagaha and he arrived at Nālandā, where he met Venerable Sariputta for the last time, and Sariputta gave his lion's roar of confidence in the Buddha. The Buddha then continued further north to Pātaligāma later renamed Pātaliputta the Capital of Ashoka and currently known as Patna on the Ganges River on the Ganges crossing, so this is the major crossing from what was then the Magadhan kingdom to the Vajjian Federation. There he met Vassakāra the brahman once more, gave some talks and some teachings before crossing over the Ganges river and into the Vajjji Federation. Once he was there, he visited a town called Ñātika, and a number of towns including a town called Ñātika, which a number of disciples had died, somewhat curious episode, where the Buddha was telling Ananda about where all these disciples had been reborn. And I think I've found the reason why that episode is told and reason why Ñātika which doesn't feature anywhere else in the sutta suddenly became so important. I believe it's the hometown of the Nataputta, more commonly known as Mahavira Vardhamana who was the founder or the leader of the Jain community. And so effectively, this is a bit of kind of propaganda, saying that, even in the hometown of Mahavira, was full of disciples of the Buddha. The suttas aren't above a little bit of propaganda now and then. Okay, so then, the Buddha went further to Vesālī where he met the courtesan, Ambapālī. In a very famous event, Ambapālī came to see the Buddha. And she donated her mango grove to the Buddha which later became one of the great monasteries in that region. And she invited the Buddha for a meal. The leaders of the Vajjian clan, the Licchavis, were kind of upset by this. And they felt they'd been one-uped by Ambapālī. And they tried to get the meal offering off her but she refused and the Buddha accepted the meal at Ambapālīs.
Following that, the Buddha entered the rains nearby to Vesālī in a little town called Beluva. And while he was there, or a little bit afterwards, he surrendered his life force. And there's a somewhat complex series of teachings around that. But the main principle there is that the Buddha said that in three months time he would, he would become finally extinguished, he would enter parinibbāna. Worth noting that that detail of the three months contradicts the date of putting Vesak on in May, and more likely Vesak would have been in... sorry, more likely the Buddha's parinibbāna would have been in December or January, which is confirmed in addition, by the mention of some flowers, which were out of season when they blossomed. But the May season, the hot season is in fact the time when they are in season. So once again, showing that they couldn't have been blossoming out of season in May. So again, supporting the idea that the the actual date of the parinibbāna was probably in December or January.
Moving along, the Buddha gives a number of different teachings which I will pop over. And famously he gives the elephant look where he visits these places for the last time and turns around and gazes back on them. And that's probably the closest, just about the closest, that you'll find the Buddha coming to sentimentality really, is when he looked back at those villages. All right. So all of those events all are very interesting and so on. And I'm going to skip over all of them. And I'm going to proceed to when the Buddha arrived at Bhoga City. And I'm just going to share the screen for this. I will say though, if anyone has any particular questions about those events, in that period that I've just skipped over, please do let me know, I'm trying to... I just want to focus on a few parts of it, rather than trying to cover too much, I'd rather cover a few bits well, then try to get all of it less well. Okay, so I'm now going to share my screen. Alright, so here's the beginning of this section that we've reached to. So just just a moment to take a breath, just to recall that we've already been on a long journey together. And the Buddha has already been through a lot of different things. And with Ananda and met so many people moving steadily, not moving quickly, but just moving steadily, little bit by little bit. The way the Pāli suttas are phrased, is always very emotionally reserved, and tends to be very understated. But you can imagine that kind of swirling around this journey of the Buddha, there would have been a lot of gossip, people would have been, "Oh where is the Buddha going next?" they would have been "Oh. what did he say to Ajātasattu?" That would have been saying, "Oh, is war going to come?" and all of these kinds of things. So you know, this whole kind of thing would have swirled around it and as he went to these different villages, then you know, there probably would have been quite some commotion there remembering the Buddha was already quite famous by this point.
Now we have here, a series of villages that that would have went to. These are all still within the Vajji Federation. And I've decided to translate the names of these villages because I think that most of these places in the Vajji Republic or Vajji Federation, are named after the chief livelihood of the village. And they had this system in Thailand when I was there. Basically that each village would have a particular livelihood. And I think that's what these are named after one would have been the elephant village, probably elephant trainers, and then mango village, a mango grove, it throws up a village, Bhoga City being an exception, the Bhoga doesn't mean wealth here which it might mean in some cases, but rather the Bhogas were a tribe who were one of the tribes making up the Vajji Federation. So that would have been the capital city of that tribe. Then the Buddha traveled with a large sangha of mendicants arriving at Bhoga City where he stayed at the Ananda shrine. Ananda, of course, being quite a common name. So not really named after Venerable Ananda. But just after something... a bit hard to say, because it's such a common name. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants: "Mendicants, I will teach you the four great references, the four mahāpadesa." And so this is a set of standards or a set of principles that the Buddha used for assessing what is the teaching and what is the dhamma after he has passed away, there is another set of four great references, which are found in the Vinaya, which are different set, which has kind of a similar kind of idea, but much more limited in application. So the vinaya four great references are about knowing what is allowable and what isn't allowable by comparison with other things that are allowable. So you might have seen before, I'm enjoying a nice cup of green tea here. So green tea didn't exist in the time of the Buddha. But there are various things kind of like that which were allowed in time of the Buddha. And so these days, we take this under the four great references as been allowable.
So that's the vinaya four great references. But in the sutta, the four great references have a much wider scope of application. And they refer to standards by which the entire dhamma can be assessed, and we can know what is the reliability and authenticity of the tradition. Now, despite the fact that these teachings are very well known, and very often cited, there's considerable confusion, I think as to what they actually mean. And what might appear on the surface to be the most obvious reading of them isn't, in fact, the reading which is explained in the earliest commentaries to this text. So the earliest commentary to this text is, in fact, a late canonical text in Pāli, called the Nettipakaraṇa. The Nettipakaraṇa is a text that sets out to give a method for explaining and interpreting the Buddha's teaching in the suttas, and so this is kind of its special topic area. And we'll talk about the explanation that it gives soon, but there's basically two two ways that you can explain this. One is that what's the dhamma is explained in terms of like a principle of what's right and what's wrong. And the other way is to explain it in terms of a text, like a particular scriptural expression of that principle. And so the question here is which one is being emphasized? Probably, my view, probably a bit of both. But let's have a look at it in a little bit more detail.
So the Buddha says this, "Take a mendicant who says, Reverend, I have heard and learned this in the presence of the Buddha. This is the teaching this is the training. This is the Buddha's, the teachers' instruction. You should neither approved nor dismiss that mendicants' statement. Instead, having carefully memorized those words and phrases, they should fit in the discourse and be exhibited in the training. If they do not fit in the discourse, and are not exhibited in the training, you should draw the conclusion: clearly, this is not the word of the Buddha. It has been incorrectly memorized by that mendicant and so you should reject it. If they do fit in the discourse and are exhibited in the training, you should draw the conclusion: clearly, this is the word of the Buddha, it has been correctly memorized by that mendicant you should remember it. This is the first great reference. All right. So this is the first one, the second, third and fourth great references are similar, but they vary only by the person who makes the claim. The kind of claim and the procedure that's followed are the same, only the person. So the first one is a mendicant who heard it in the presence of the Buddha. has some will carpeting a heater. The second one is one who claims to live in a sangha, that is to say, a full community, which has many seniors and leaders. The third one is saying in such a monastery, there are several mendicants, who are learned and inheritors, of the, of the heritage. So that means that rather than there being like a complete community is a few individuals who are quite murdered, know what they're talking about. And then the last one is that there is a single mendicant who is learned. So there's a kind of decreasing standard of reliability if you like. So from somebody who heard it from the Buddha himself, to someone who heard it from a sangha, to someone who heard it from a few mendicants, to someone who heard it from a single mendicant and, but in each case, the same procedure is to be followed. Alright, let's have a little bit more of a close look at the language is being used and what exactly the meaning is, does this mean? You know, just keep an open mind for now. We can at least start with an open mind, even if we even if we close our minds down by the end of it, at least, we can begin with some kind of openness of mind. All right. This is a teaching this is training. Okay. So the first thing is I've heard and learned this in the presence of the Buddha. So that's significant because they they're saying that this is this is definitely a specific scripture, right, it's a particular text or particular saying, not just sort of a general idea that seems to be wafting around the community. And some will, particular haitang is the word that is used to mean that you are directly in the Buddhist presence that you heard it from His own lips. This is the teaching the hammer. This is the training the veneer. And this is the sutra Sasana the teaching of the Buddha. So notice, you can probably see on the screen the cool little Pāli utility that we have here. So you can enable that via the Settings here at the top of sort of central and the views. And then you can see the Pāli look up here and various other things. Okay. So this is the teaching, this is the training. This is the teachers instruction. All right. This is the teaching, this is the training. This is the main teachers instruction. Now, on the one hand, it might seem that this is fairly straightforward, because the dhamma is you know, there's the teaching we find in the sutras. The Vinaya, of course, is the Vinaya pedicab but then it's a bit kind of odd. Why do we say this is a teaching? This is a training and and this is the teachers instructions such as Asana, why is that like a separate category? Are these others not the teachers instruction? Well, presumably they are. So maybe, rather than being separate things, one teaching one training one teacher instruction, this is these are just all synonyms for the same thing. And in fact, the normal case in the suitors is that when the word Vinaya is used, the word Vinaya is used as a word for the if you like the practical application of the dhamma zweier, translated as training. So when, when, when, when people are arahants, for example, then the arahant chip is described as being virāga Vinaya, dos Vinaya, moha Vinaya, the removal the dispelling of greed, hatred, and delusion. And so it's that practical application of the dhamma, which is really meant under the title of Vinaya. And then later, that's formalized as the video Pitaka. So sometimes in the sutras, it means the veneer Pedego, like the code of monastic discipline, but very often, probably most commonly, it doesn't mean that it actually is just a synonym for the dhamma or the teaching, with a special emphasis on the practical application of that teaching. Right. This is a teaching this is the training. This is a teacher's instruction, I think these are basically synonyms.
And together, they're taken in a sense of the entirety of the Buddha's teachings and hear as we saw last week, there are some notes so if you're interested, the notes are there. And it gives some references to where these appear in different places. Okay, so now moving on the next slide, you should neither approved nor dismiss that mendicant statement, right. Just stop and think about that for a minute. Imagine, imagine what the world would be like if Facebook had rolled out a button saying, I'm going to neither approved nor dismissed. Right? What kind of world would we be living in? If that was our response? I'm going to hear what you're saying. I'm going to pay attention because because I have respect for you as a human being. So I'm going to listen to what you say. But I'm not going to rush to judge you. I'm not going to assume that I know better. I'm going to listen carefully. Hmm. So maybe, maybe maybe the solution to all of our problems is that simple, we could just get Facebook to take off the like button and just have a neither approved nor disapproved pattern. I think I've just I think I've just invented the concept of a Buddha's social media platform there anyway. So I'll just hand that over to you guys. You can take that idea and run with it. That's fine. All right, very good. Share again.
Right. Now the approved nor dismissed science. So you put into that state almost have like a hovering that suspension. And to suspend judgment is one of the prerequisites of wisdom. To suspend judgment is one of the prerequisites of wisdom. And we live in a world where we are almost sort of railroaded into passing instant judgment about things. And as if the opinion like and dislike that we have about something is worth anything based on just like an immediate reaction. So from a Buddhist point of view, those kinds of opinions are really kind of worthless. What matters is, is a opinion from a perspective of wisdom. And opinions that have wisdom have some space around them, they take some time to sink in. Yeah, they take some time to sink in. And one of the reasons why I'm emphasizing this aspect of this teaching, is that I find that when people I'm gonna stop sharing for another minute, when people when people talk about these four great standards, or when they talk about Buddha's teachings in general, they often sort of, you know, you summarize them, but you leave out a lot of these details, you know, so you can summarize the four great references. And so it means that you should compare what somebody says to what it says in the sutras, something like that. And sure, it's not it's not incorrect as a summary. But it's kind of missing something that's really important about what the Buddha is saying here. It's not, it's not just what it is that we're comparing. But it's the manner in which we compare things as well. And to take time, to be slow, to give space. And to do that with a spirit of respect and empathy is fundamental to the Buddhist approach.
Now, instead, having carefully memorized those words and phrases, again, think about that. How many? How often do we take the time to memorize something, before we're going to evaluate it? That implies that we're really getting to know it, well, spending quite a bit of time with it. Now, these days, the way that we learn things is different, we often don't learn things by memorizing. So it's not saying that you have to necessarily memorize it's not the only way you can do it. But it's a reminder, take some time and care really go into if you want to if you want to pass judgment on something, go into it and spend that time. And conversely, you know, if somebody else is passing judgment about something, then ask yourself whether they have done that, whether they have taken the time and the effort to to study and to learn exactly what that person is saying to give that them that respect. Look, I mean, if you're just giving a review for a restaurant or something like that, then maybe it doesn't matter that much. But we're talking about a spiritual training here. And we should take the time to read it compare these days. We If the kind of standard, you know, comment, people will be like, Well, I didn't read the article but and then as if their opinions domain something anyway, alright having carefully memorized they should fit in the discourse and be exhibited in the training. And these two words also, I think a quite interesting, very specific Oh Sarita Barney. When I send this editor bhante, remember I said that Vinaya was about the practical application of things. And the word Sundar said that is related to the word which you may be familiar in Pāli, some deputy code. So if you've done the chanting of the recollection of the dharma, one of the qualities of the dharma is son get Pico, meaning a parent in this life. What it means is that if you practice the dharma, you can see the outcome in this life. You don't have to wait for a future life. You don't have to wait to get reborn in heaven. You don't have to make a determination to be born as a buddho and fuge far future life or something like that? No, no, no. You can see the results of practice here and now in this very light. And that's why I've translated this as being exhibited in the training. So when I think this, so when the neti explains this explains the sutta here as the Four Noble Truths and explains the viññāna as the removal of greed, hate and delusion. So I mentioned before the neti is the early canonical text on scriptural interpretation, now, the commentaries give a lot of different readings of it. And they say the neti means the VA Vinaya they agree with the neti on the meaning of Vinaya. But say that sutta means the entire tipitaka. Now, the very fact that there is this kind of discussion within the community suggests that there's a range of readings which are possible. I think, clearly, there's some sense in which this means, you know, you're actually looking at the scriptures, you know, you're looking at the text. I mean, clearly, there's that that implication is that, but I think what these these commentaries are saying is that it's not so you know, it's a kind of balance between the letter and the spirit, the spirit of the text is to lean towards the removal of greed, hatred, and delusion. And sorry, I just lost that note. Right, and the the idea of the fitting in, that the teaching should fit in the discourse, if the discourse is the Four Noble Truths, It recalls the elephant's footprint. sutta, which says that all of the teachings of the Buddha can fit in to the Four Noble Truths, just as the footprints of any animal can fit into an elephant's footprint. So this is really what I think it's saying here that that these things should be a part of it, that they should be able to fit in and be harmonious with those things. But again, it's not saying that it's not about you know, comparing with the Scripture, it's just saying that you're comparing it, while looking at like, what the meaning is, and understanding the purpose of others teachings. So if they do not fit in with the discourse and not exhibited in the training, you should draw the conclusion clearly, it is not the word of the Buddha, it has been incorrectly memorized by the mannequin. And so you should reject it. They do fit in the discourse and are exhibited, then you should draw the conclusion, this is the word of the Buddha, it has been correctly memorized. This is the first great reference. So I think that there's a really important that that understanding of these foreground references has taken me years to get around to this, like, like, I've looked at this back, and again and again over many years, and I've heard many different opinions from different monks, different teachers, different scholars about this. And you know, you keep on coming back to this same idea, you know, is it talking about Scripture? Is it talking about the purpose of the Scripture, but then idea that the teaching is exhibited in this life, I think is really interesting. Basically, it's saying that, if you're practicing the dharma, it's got to mean something. It's got to make a difference. If you're saying that this is the dharma, and this is this is the thing that I'm practicing, but it doesn't actually change you. Right? If you end up being the same person, you were then what are you doing? Like, what's the point? So the purpose of the dharma is that they should make a meaningful difference. And I don't know about you, but I've seen this both in myself. And I've seen this in so many people in people's practice that it really does make a difference. And you know, people will say they come they come on retreat, and they'll do was to meditation for 10 days and, and they say that the family will be so happy with them and they come back and they'll say, Oh, you really changed, I really see a difference in you. And this is a sign that actually there's some, it's actually making a difference. I'll give you one just one more story about about this. This was years ago, when I was in Perth, I was I had a wonky knee and I went to a physio to get it looked at. And I asked that guy who did it was this kind of Western guys, Aussie guy who was like surfing? And I asked him, How did you get into Buddhism? And he said, Well, he used to hang around with a bunch of mates and they used to go down surfing and used to hang around and various things. And he said, you know, how are these young guys sometimes you get in a bit of bit of Argy bargy Bit of a fight a bit of an argument, something like that. But is it bad year and American word than Australian? It's probably not Mr. anymore. Anyway, moving on. And so, but he noticed that one of his friends who he was with, would always, whenever whenever other people would get angry or upset or something, he'd always kind of just stay away from it. And he'd always just stay calm, no matter what the circumstances were. And he saw this happening a few times. And he went up to talk to him about and he said, Look, I've just noticed that when everyone else is getting angry and upset that you're not, what's your secret? And he said, Well, come with me on Friday night, we're gonna go go to ajaan Brahma talk. And so that's, that's, that's how he came to Buddhism. And to me, that is the best way for Buddhism to spread and for the dharma to grow, people will see that it really makes a difference. And that means more than all of the textbooks and all of the suitors and all of the dhamma talks that people have given all right. That is go back and continue. So this is the four great standards, and as I said before, the rest of them merely change the person rather than changing the procedure. Now, so you can see, obviously, this fits in with the general principle of establishing the sound saññā, establishing the Buddhist dispensation, in the period after the Buddha had passed away. Now then, while he was still at the Ananda shrine, the Buddha often gave this dhamma talk to the mendicants, such as ethics, such as immersion, such as wisdom, immersion, that is Samadhi is imbued with ethics. It's very fruitful and beneficial. And wisdom is imbued with immersion. It's very fruitful and beneficial. When the mind is imbued with wisdom, it is rightly freed from the defilements, namely, the defilements of sensuality, desire to be reborn and ignorance. And when the Buddha had stayed at bahagia city as long as he pleased, he addressed and under come and under, let us go to Parvati. All right.
So now moving on to another episode. Another interesting and also controversial episode in terms of the interpretation. Now parva itself is an interesting town. bit of background I mentioned earlier that I think I mentioned last week that the leader of the Jains, Mahavira water dimana had passed away. Not too long before these events, we don't know the exact time it wasn't like immediately before, but probably some months before, perhaps. And we mentioned that the Buddha had visited Niyati car, which was probably his hometown, or at least the main town of his clan, then the Arctic people. parva is also significant in this context, because it was the town where Mahavira died. Now there's some, some lack of clarity about this, because while the Buddhists and the Jains both agree that Mahavira died in parva, the Jain say that it was a different parva east of Nalanda in magga, dhamma. But anyway, as far as the Buddhist tradition goes, it was at this parva now is a rather curious association that parva has been the home of Mahavira course. They, you know, belong to a highly ascetic sect. And the Jain sort of usually kind of looked down a bit on the Buddhists as being a bit kind of wishy washy, a bit kind of indulgent. You know, like we say that We care about animals and things like that. But, you know, we still tread on ants when we walk along the ground and this kind of thing. But interestingly, that parva had also became kind of associated with ascetic monks in Buddhism. So in samudaya, nicaya, number 15 point 13. There's a discourse where the Buddha gives a very, how do I put this a very hardcore discourse to these 30 months, I'll let you look up sn 15 point 13. If you want to read one of the most hardcore discourses in the Pali Canon Mahakasyapa, also associated with parva since he was near there, when he heard the Buddha's passing, and the strict monks from parva were part of the alliance of monks arguing for a strict interpretation of Vinaya in the second Council, so all of these sort of create a sort of cluster of connotations with bhava, as being a place where sort of the real hardcore, mendicant so associated with all right, then the Buddha together with a large sangha mendicants, arrived at Parvat, where he stayed and chunda, the Smiths mango grove. Now, when we read about somebody who's a Smith, right, that is a metal worker, doesn't necessarily mean all that much to us. But just remember that, in those days, metal work was the most advanced industrial technology. And in fact, the, the spread or the advance in civilization that we are seeing at the time of the Buddha, was really stimulated by parallel innovations. Shortly before this time, probably a few 100 years before this time, in pottery, and in metalwork, particularly the work of iron. And both of these, of course, requiring a high degree of control of fire. And so these being foundational technologies, and so, the time of the Buddha is characterized by what's known as northern Black polished ware, which we find mentioned a few times in the sutras, which was a kind of very fine pottery that's distributed through the same cultural region that the Buddha lived in. And it was also characterized by iron work, which of course led to a lot of advances in terms of like farm machinery and various kinds of things, but also led to deadlier warfare. So when when the Buddhist staying at chunder, the Smiths mango grove, it's not like we might think like staying in someone who's like a car mechanic or something like that. But it's more like staying in someone who's an engineer or a factory owner, that you know, quite a wealthy person of status in society. Now turn to her the Buddha had arrived and was staying in his mango grove, he went to the point of balance that down to one side, the Buddha encouraged and fighting with any dhamma talk, and chunder said to the would have made the buddho except a meal from me. Now, the dharma talk that's given there is not stated. But elsewhere. toondah asks, the Buddha isn't the certainly part of the Buddha as the Buddha to give a teaching on the different kinds of aesthetics. And he's interested to know which ones are the real ones, and which ones are the fake ones. Again, kind of in line with that idea that parva was a place that was sort of concerned with the strictness of maintaining the ascetic life. So the Buddha goes there for the meal and then follows one of the most curious episodes in the whole of the Buddhist scriptures. He dressed under coming to offer the meal, and the Buddhist says, And he prepares what's called sukha Māra muditā bhava. So you can see the Pāli here sukha magga deva. And not entirely clear exactly what this is. As you can see from the analysis of the party word there sukha is a pig or a hog. That's pretty straightforward. Mud bhava softness, mildness, a soft thing. Tender pork perhaps? I've called it pork on the turn. And the reason why is because it's quite a common thing that people will sort of, you know, let your let your meat hang for a while. That sort of start to get a bit wishy, get a bit on the turn which tenderizes it and gives it more flavor. And but that's also a risky procedure. If you don't do it right. Then you can get bacterial growths. We if you could explain the fact that the Buddha got sick from it later on. So this is this is kind of, I think, one explanation for what this phrase sukha or magga might mean. Others explain it as a kind of mushroom. And there's support for that in a Chinese translation, which calls this tree is, and like the kind of fungus that grows on trees, it looks like ears. So a kind of mushroom or some kind of fungus or something. And there are quite a number of foods in ancient India, which have that kind of name, like you begin with sukha, Māra, or some other kind of animal name, but actually is a kind of vegetable or something like that. So that kind of is a naming convention or pattern it was, what it is found. So it's a bit unclear, and I've translated as pork on the turn, but it could easily be a kind of mushroom. Now, one of the things that this is used it for is a in the discussion about people want to make a discussion about whether the Buddha was vegetarian, and about whether we should be vegetarian today. So I'll just say a few words about that, first of all, is that as a matter of textual procedure, it is unwise to rely on an uncertain passage, when making a decision about a controversial or difficult topic. It's an unwise procedure. And a lot of people will look at that, and then they'll make an argument on my area that would aid made well, that was mushrooms and the veggie. But in fact, we don't really know what it is. So when I see people making that kind of argument, then it doesn't convince me about what the case is, it convinces me that the person who's making the argument needs to learn to be a bit more careful in the way that they're making textual arguments. In fact, there are a number of places through the suttas, as well as through the veneer, where it makes it clear that the Buddha did eat meat. And eating meat is in the passati mukha rules, one of the regarded as the the fine foods. And there's a number of places where that's the case.
Personally, I'm a vegetarian. And honestly, I got I've got to say that when I first came to Buddhism, and you know, first came to the monastery, basically, I love pretty much everything about it. And the main things over time, the main things that have have disappointed me about Theravada Buddhism is, I guess the treatment of women is number one, and vegetarian ism is number two. And it's something which is quite how do I put this, it's quite notable, for example, when I was in Malaysia, that you'd have like Chinese families who might be brought up from a traditional Mahayana background. And they might be vegetarian because of their Mahayana background. And if they started going to a terabyte a temple and following following Tera Vaada, Buddhism, and then B, then they'd be like, Oh, we don't have to be vegetarian anymore, and they can start eating meat. And so it's not just something that follows what people use, but it actually encourages people to eat meat, which I think is a great shame. In the context that the Buddha was living, of course, is very different from today. There were no factory farms. There was no trawlers trawling the ocean for fish, there was no clear felling of the Amazon to grow beef. And all of those practices that we see today for producing the meat that we eat, weren't really there, people would, you know, go down to the local stream and grab if get a few fish. There will be some chickens clacking around the farmyard. There'll be some cows wandering around the countryside, people would go into the forest, although even hunting was restricted like to particular areas and so on. And so the the husbandry and industry, if you like of meat production was very, very different. One of the concepts that they had in ancient India for meat eating was what they call Pavada Monza which means meat that is available. And I think that the significance of that is underestimated when we're thinking about this issue. So the Buddha said you can eat a lot amongst meat that is available, but you can't eat meat that has been killed on purpose for you. All right. I think I think what's going on here is that in this kind of society, there was no there was No kind of industrialized capacity to change the amount of meat that you are producing to fit your demand. So these days we think of supply and demand, right? More people want me therefore more meat will be produced? I don't think that applied, how would you do that? How, what was the actual mechanism by which you're doing that you didn't have like intensive husbandry, you didn't have breeding programs, you have, how are you going to do these things, the amount of animals that were around with, generally speaking, have been, they're just, they're, you know, herds of cattle were just there. And so the amount of meat was determined by how many animals were around and not by the demand, relatively speaking. And so I think the idea was that, you know, animal, the animals were going to be killed anyway, because that balance was going to be kept, we hear of times when people were looking for meat in the city, even in the big city like Banaras, and there was no meat for sale. So this gives us a gives us an example of an idea of how, you know, relatively small sector of the economy was relatively rare, and not subject to the same economic principles that we regard meat eating today. So personally, you know, I would much rather if the Buddha had said, No, I'm not going to eat any meat, and you should all be vegetarian, it would make me happy. But I can't say that. What I can say is that there's a difference between what the Buddha allowed and what the Buddha encouraged, and that he would have never said, come to your spiritual life and try to get away with it if you can.
Right, he never said, monks, I urge you look for the loopholes. No, no, no, no, that's not how he taught for the dhamma. He said, He called us to aspire to what is better. And, you know, you could well understand that there might have been problems with you know, how If you'd said, no meat at all, maybe there'll be some places be hard to get food or people were unwell or different kinds of situations. But we can aspire to do better. And we can certainly aspire to do better in the knowledge that the production of meat and the industry of animal husbandry today is horrifying, in ways that were unimaginable to people in the Buddhist eight, frankly, unimaginable to most people today, who really don't know what goes on in all of these places. I won't spoil your day, by listing all of the horrors of the factory farms, and all of the things that go on in these places, but in terms of their environmental impact, animal welfare impact, and just the whole kind of toxicity that it introduces into who we are as human beings, I think that we'd be we'd be much better as a species, if we were to become vegetarian, or vegan even better. All right, moving along. So the Buddha asked to be served with either pork on the turn, or perhaps mushrooms and serve the mendicant sangha with the other foods. Now, this then introduces the second quandary here like why, why would you do that? If you know that the food, there's something wrong with it? What's he doing? Why, why not just say, oh, excuse me, I think that the food's gone off. Maybe we can eat the other things. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing no rule in the venue or anything that says you have to eat rotten food and get sick because of it. Why? Why did the Buddha go ahead and do it? It's a mystery. It's a mystery. Yeah. And I think sometimes mysteries are good. I'm not going to explain it because I can't maybe you can explain it. But I think that I think it's curious that this detail is there. I mean, clearly, it has some significance. The only thing that I would say here, I don't want to try to clear up the mystery, but only thing I would say is that in the account, some certain accounts of the Buddha's, after the Buddha's enlightenment of his first meal after enlightenment, have him also getting sick immediately after enlightenment, and immediately before powering the banner. And to me, it's something about the fact that he is stepping out of this mortal coil. You know, it's like everything's shutting down, everything's coming to an end, and and the food is there to sustain him. But he no longer needs that as He's stepping beyond conditions. I think it's something that's something to do with that kind of sense. Anyway, so this is what he did, then any pork on the turns left over, you can bury it in a pitch. This public I don't see anyone in this world with its Gods it's Māra has its population with its ascetics and Brahmins as gods and humans who could properly digest it except for the realized one. That's a fairly dramatic statement to issue when you're having a meal. But there we go. Of course, the irony of it is that the Buddha himself wasn't able to properly digest the food. And I'll just come back to sharing the tab once more. So the Buddha after teaching him, you left he fell severely ill with bloody dysentery, struck by paints dreadful paints close to death. But he didn't do it. unbothered with mindfulness and situational awareness, Seto sampajāna. Now, again, this is reminding us of the Buddha's mortality, the fact that he was just a human being. It just watch over the next little few passages about how the Buddha behaves as a patient, because one of his lessons is how to be a good patient. We see here that he is not whining and complaining about his illness. Then he says, Come on under let's go to Kuzey Nara, and so they go off, even though he's very sick. And now notice that the text here insert some verses. So these verses are said by the commentary to have been added at the council, presumably the first or second Council. And they summarize the events that are proceeding. Now, while they're still on the road, to Cosina, Māra, the Buddha's left the road went to the root of a certain tree and addressed an under, please fold my outer robe in for and spit it out for me, I'm tired, and we'll sit down. So the outer row, the sun Garki, has two layers, so and it's quite large. So you can if you hold it up like that, then it makes quite a nice mat. So use today for sleeping. So this is one of the things that monastic robes are really good for. They're very flexible, you can use them for all kinds of things. So the Buddha sat on the seat and when he was seated, he said to Venerable Ananda, please and under Fetch me some water, I'm thirsty, and we'll drink. I said before about to pay attention to what kind of patient that the Buddha was. And notice that at the beginning, he was not complaining about his sickness. But the other flip side of that is that he clearly expresses what he needs. So Nanda is his care and his nurse at this point, and he tells Amanda, this is what I need, I need to take a rest. Let's sit down, I need to get some water. And he tells an under clearly so I think this is really nice, little example of good behavior for those of us who are going to end up needing to be cared for at some time. Don't complain too much, but also be clear and telling what it is that you need when you need it. When he said this Venerable Ananda said to the Buddha serve just now about 500 cards have passed by the shallow water has been churned up by the wheels and it flows cloudy and murky. The Kakuta river is not far away with clear sweet cool water clean with smooth banks delightful. There the Buddha can drink and call his lamps. For a second time, the Buddha asked Ananda for a drink and for a second time and under suggested going to the Kakuta river. And for a third time or the Buddha session under Fetch me some water and thirsty I will drink Yes, sir applied and under. Taking his ball he went to the river. And notice that the bowl is the same thing as the ALMS bowl so used for both eating and for drinking. Now, though, the shallow water in that creek had been churned up by wheels and flowed cloudy and murky, and an under approach that it flowed, transparent, clear and unclouded. Then an under thought. It's incredible. It's amazing to realize one has such psychic power in mind, for though the shallow water in that creek had been churned up by wheels and flowed cloudy and murky. When I approached it, flow transparent, clear and unclouded. Gathering a bowl of drinking water he went back to the Buddha and said to him, it's incredible. So it's amazing to realize one has such psychic power and might. Then he gave a water to the Buddha and said he's saying Drink the Water blessing one drink the water or the one so the Buddha drank the water. Now, of course, this is a very small episode. So I love this little episode in this story, you know, so inconsequential, if you like the Buddha just asked for a drink of water. I mean, it couldn't, could hardly be something that's more mundane more every day. And but just that relationship between the Buddha and Ananda And Ananda trying his best to do what he can to look after the Buddha to take care of his beloved teacher in these final days, and wanting Oh, we can go there's a nicer place over there, we can just go there. Probably, you know, probably Ananda, maybe underestimating how sick the Buddha was, you know, the Buddha was being very quiet about it. He wasn't complaining. So and under probably didn't realize it but the Buddha again, clear about what he wants, just but very patient, just give me that glass of water very patient not getting angry with him. Until Ananda finally goes and gets a glass of water. So yeah, again, to see this as the kind of the inner reflection of Venerable Ananda you know, he's writing himself as the character here. And you know, you can see these kinds of values, I guess, like a vulnerability and sort of emotional openness to admit his faults which is implied in that narrative. So
whether the Buddha did use his psychic power to clear the water of the river, I am unable to say or whether perhaps and under merely Miss Stoker's, and it was really clear all along. Also, I'm unable to say, Okay, let's go and have a look at the next one. Remember, the buddho is now in the Mullen country. So the molars were the neighbors of the verges, Some sources say that they were sort of part of the same Federation. But others say they were separate, but allied. So there's a number of these tribes in that region, we've already seen the luxuries. We've seen the BOGOs, we've seen the neon stickers. And now the Marla's further North Koreans and the South Koreans were other tribes and then to the northeast, the V Day hands. So all of these tribes in that area had their own kind of region, which was all at that time, or federated. And now that time because the mullah disciple of a lot of Kālāma was traveling along the road from because he knew from between cuisiner and parva. Now, a slight mistake in my texts there. I've already fixed that one. Anyway. So what's interesting, so because of the Malla, we don't know about elsewhere, I think he only appears in this passage. But the interesting detail, of course, is that he's a disciple of ALARA Kalama. Now Alaric Kālāma was, of course, one of the Buddha's early teachers. So the Buddha, after he left her home, at the age of 29, went and practiced in the forest for six years. And he practiced under various teachers and traditions at that time, but prominent among them, were Alaric Kālāma, and Buddha, Rama, Putin, and it's the story of his apprenticeship under those two teachers, is told in quite some detail in a number of the sutras. Now, it seems from a variety of details that these were problematical teachers who we're teaching more or less the teachings of the Upanishads, particularly the teachings of yogic valkia, who is the founder of the non dual School of Biomedical philosophy. And yogic valkia taught that infinite consciousness was the highest self the the ultimate reality from which this phenomenal world arose and into which it dissolved once more. And these teachings were very influential in the time of the Buddha. And we see a number of Brahmanical teachers who appear to be influenced by these ideas in one way or another. Alaric Kālāma. Here is talking about his meditation teachings, and elsewhere. There's a wholesaler or Kālāma is gives a teaching, which the Buddha criticizes and it gives the teaching about a razor blade and says that it is you can see it but you can't see it. You can see it, but you can't see it. So you can see a razor blade when you look at it like this. But when you look at it like that you can't see it anymore. And the Buddha criticizes this particular teaching of Alaric alarma says, What's he talking about? He's just talking about a razor blade. There's no wisdom or anything there. But in fact, it seems that that teaching is a somewhat garbled version of teaching from the Upanishads. And is more evidence that that allowed Kālāma was in fact, premedical teacher just kind of call up that exact teaching that's in the Posada sukha. Sorry, that's not allowed Kālāma That was the Kurama put up my mistake, out of grammar Porter who gave that teaching. And you can see the blade of a razor but not the edge. But that's actually seems to be a reference to Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. One, point seven, where the self is said to be hidden in the body of a rate like a razor in its case, people do not see it turning up as the ante for they only see the partial and incomplete functions of the self such as breathing, speaking and so on. Seeing only these aspects, they do not see that each aspect is an expression of the one whole. So this passage that's quoted that's in dn 29, that that passage is quoted, that, to me, provides a strong confirmation that would occur on Twitter, and presumably, our Kālāma. Also, were, in fact, Brahmanical teachings. And that seems to be drawing directly on a teaching in the Upanishads. Okay, so then he says the Buddha, because this is the Buddha, and then he says, incredible, it's amazing how those gone forth remain in such peaceful meditations. Now, one thing is just interesting about, you know, that's just, again, just a small aside there, but it's worth noticing that it's not a partisan comment, right. He's impressed by people who are meditating, repressed by the peace that they reach. And he's not particularly fast about the fact that it's a Buddhist or whatever. So, once it happened, he goes on to tell about his own teacher, that ALARA Kalama, while traveling along the road, left the road and sat at the root of nearby tree for the day's meditation. Then, about 500 Cats passed by right next to Olara Kālāma. a certain person coming up behind those Park carts went up to Lara Kālāma and said to him, Sir, didn't you see the 500 carts pass by? And he said, most friends, I didn't see them. But sir, didn't you hear a sound? No, friend? I didn't hear us out. But so Were you asleep? No, friend, I wasn't asleep. But so Were you conscious? Yes, friend. So So while conscious and awake, you neither saw nor heard a sound as 500 carts passed by right next to you? Why, sir, even your outer robe is covered with dust? Yes, friend. And that person said, it's incredible. It's amazing. Those have gone forth remain in such peaceful meditations in that while conscious and awake in other saw nor heard a sound as 500 cards passed right by next to him. So this is a good reminder, next time that maybe you're meditating and you hear traffic noise, then remind yourself it didn't bother Olara Kālāma. So why should it bother you? And it's a it's one of the examples in the sutras that show the depth and the profundity of what we call Samadhi. And I know this is this has become, in modern Buddhist circles become a sort of somewhat controversial topic in recent years, you know, to what, how deepest state of mind do we are we talking about when we talk about Samadhi? Are we talking about jhānas? And I think, you know, for me, I'm not going to go into too much detail, but this is giving us one example of the depth of the state of Samadhi that people are talking about. And you know, a reminder that these states were things that people literally left behind everything in the world to go and practice. They gave up everything and they went up into the Himalayas or into the depths of the forest, and did nothing but practice meditation, day in day out year in year out decade in decade out in order to attain and to realize these dates, which is why they're talking about something which is quite profound going on. Now the Buddha This is a bit of A bit of a I'm just trying to think of a nice word for it. You know a bit of a bit of a boxing match here, I guess between the two, like no one's, no one's, the Buddha is not going to let that one pass so easily. So the Buddha says, To what do you think focus, which is harder and more challenging to do while conscious and awake to know the scene or hear a sound with 500 cards pass you by right next to you, or to neither see nor hear a sound as it's raining and pouring? lightnings flashing and thunders cracking? And because it says what a 500 cards matter or 600 or 700, or 800, or 900, or 1000, or even 100,000 cards, it's far more challenging and harder to see. neither see nor hear a sound as it's raining and pouring. lightnings flashing and thunders cracking the Buddha goes on this one time poker sir, I was staying the admin so again, just kind of notice the Buddha's rhetorical technique. He does these kinds of things so commonly, that you don't really notice it. He doesn't start out by contradicting what the what the what because his teacher did or by criticizing what because his teachers his teaching did I mean, that's the, you know, normally you might say something like that. You might say, Oh, well, that's nothing Oh, you know, I could do better than that. But he's not saying that. First thing he does is find a point of agreement. Speak to pick his own away and say, Well, let's find this common ground which one is better this one or that? Then he goes on? Well, this one time because I was staying the our dhamma in a threshing hat arkoma Just down the road from where they were at the time.
That time it was raining and pouring. Lightning was flashing and thunder was cracking. And not far from the threshing hat to farmers who have brothers were killed as well as for oxen in a large crowd came from asthma to that place. And that time I came out of the threshing carton was walking mindfully in the open near the door of the hut. Having left that crowd a certain person approached me bowed and stood to one side. I said to them, why a friend has his crowd gathered just now so it was raining and pouring lightning was flashing and thunder was cracking. And two farmers who were brothers were killed as were the willows for oxen. Then this crowd gathered here, but So where were you? I was right here friend was 30 Do you see no friend? I didn't see anything. Did you hear a sound? No, sir. I didn't hear a sound. Were you asleep? No friend. I wasn't asleep. Were you conscious? Yes, friend. So we're conscious and awake. You know, the sauna her heard a sound as it was raining and pouring. Lightning was flashing and thunder was cracking Yes friend. And the person thought is incredible. It's amazing. Those who have gone forth remain in such peaceful meditations in that while conscious in a way he neither saw nor heard a sound as it was cracking and pouring. Lightning was flashing and thunder was cracking up declaring their lofty confidence in me They bowed and respectfully circled me keeping me to the right before leaving. And he said this because I said to him any confidence I had in the locker column I sweep away as in a strong wind or float away as down as swift stream excellent, sir. Excellent. As if you were writing the overturned or revealing the hidden or pointing out the path to the last or lighting a lamp in the dark. So people with good eyes can see what's there. The Buddha has made the teaching clear in many ways. I go for refuge to the Buddha to the teaching and to the mendicant sangha. From this day forth. May the Buddha remember me as a lay follower, who has gone through refuge for life. So then the Buddha offered started Zen Picasa offered some robes, the color of gold to the Buddha, but I just stopped sharing there. So and I've mentioned before, that one of the you know, this, this whole sutta, though, it's kind of jockeying, you know, talking about the Buddhist narrative is jockeying for a place here between a jhāna sub two, and he's kind of expansionist imperial ambitions, and then the, the Virji Federation and, and they kind of need for security. Also, on the one hand, that political security but also jockeying for a place among the different the complex religious context at the time, and we've seen kind of implicit criticism or rebuttal of the Jain approach. And here also, the word sort of standing up for the Brahmins who were kind of the leading exponents of meditation in that in that time, but again, not doing so in an aggressive or really polemical way. But just sort of in an assertive way, where, you know, you're saying that we're that we're not, we're not intimidated by these kinds of things. All right. You So I might just leave, we've got a lot of comments in the chat there. I'm gonna go through and have a look at those and hopefully get a chance to answer them. I think we have about 15 minutes left in the session. So we'll see how we go with that. But I probably won't read any more right now
okay, so it interesting it, you always come up with something interesting in these things. So thank you very much for that. From the Canada English dictionary, bhikkhu, karma deva, kind of fungus Canada being a Dravidian language, maybe, although I would kind of suspect that it's probably just drawn from the Buddhist usage there. Because some people so many people say it's fungus, it's quite a to explain sukha samatha as mushroom is a is a common narrative in India, because people are very pro vegetarian there. And so you do find this. So I would want to check that that hadn't been contaminated. That entry hadn't been contaminated before reaching any conclusions. It points out that we often see wealthy Brahmins described in the Pali texts by how many head of cattle that they have, yes, that's true. So they would have these herds of cattle, you see that in the Brahmanical texts as well. When yogic valkia gave teachings, King Janica gave him a sort of a large herd of cattle as payment for those teachings and so on. But the point here is not that they didn't have herds of cattle, but they didn't have that kind of that mindset, that would be like, Oh, we're now going to increase or decrease the herd, we're not going to be breeding them in this way, or whatever. I mean, you'd have your lands and you maintain your cattle on them. But there wasn't the same kind of industrialized trade in that. I mean, it's really only in the industrial era, that you can sort of mechanically expand these things by, you know, by using fertilizers, and so on, and so forth, which allow you to expand your feedstock and so on. Like, you're always limited by the parameters of the world around you, you know, there's only so much grass, and ultimately, you know, you can only grow, you can only raise so many cows on them. Anyway. So somebody from around the body asks, do eggs count of meat according to the dhamma? Vinaya? I do not believe so I think eggs might be I'd be one of those curious things that are kind of omitted in the veneer, I can't really recall. But and I think there's that much mention of eggs in the Vineya. So maybe what maybe they weren't a large part of the diet at the time. But look, if you don't take my word for that, you probably want to check the details on that one.
So now comments that normal people when they do a Google review says I'll give a zero star if possible, bad service, food was burned, way overpriced, won't come back. Whereas the Buddha says you should bury it in a pit. I didn't see anyone in the world with its Gods Māra was and Brahmins who could properly digest it. What you're saying is that you're gonna leave that as your comment on the next Yelp review. Next restaurant that you go to, I think maybe maybe this is like the first maybe the maybe the Buddha was one who pioneered the restaurant review. I don't know if there's a there's a he invented the whole concept of Yelp. I don't know. Where are we going now? Yes. Okay. So, do you make the comment that Adam Brahma said that a pupil may want to see or tell others that the teacher has psychic powers? Not because the teacher has it? Because deep down the pupil wants to be associated with someone great. Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah. That's very insightful. So the Buddha was, of course very, you're very kind of cautious about these things. And we're kind of reluctant to display them. Please, comments on move to the side or sat down to the right. So there's an idiom in Pāli a command time VCD literally sat down to one side, which I think I think just is a kind of a it's just a kind of a polite posture. I think if you I think if you're if you're meeting someone, but I think like, like, if you sit back directly in front of them and facing them, it's kind of it's a bit confrontational, it's a bit aggressive. And but if you sit down to one side a little bit, then it's a bit more kind of deferential and a bit more. respecting their personal base. So I think this is that kind of EDM, about sitting down to one side. So someone asks, I'm sorry for asking you this, please don't be sorry. Never be sorry, I wonder if the Buddha's is in food. So someone asked whether whether perhaps the Buddha, he undoes food in order that he would make the merit from making the offering. Okay. But I mean, surely he would have made just as much merit if he'd eaten the other foods. Right? Remember, there was a lot of monks there. And they all ate perfectly? Well, why couldn't? I don't? I don't know. Maybe?
So Melanie says, she's also wondering, ah, wondering, good state of mind to be in about the Buddha's decision to eat the spoiled food, would you be willing to share some theories? Well, I'm not. I like I said, I honestly don't really know. But what I suspect that I suspect that it's, it's, it's, you know, rather than considering it purely in terms of, like, food that's gone bad, then to consider it in terms of the cultural and ritual connotations of food, like food was, food is fundamental right, throughout the the Upanishads, as Anna has been something which is essentially a gift from God, and so so. So from a grammatical perspective, life is that which is created by brahman created by God. And so Anna, which is food is that essence of the Divine, which sustains us to live in this material world. And so it has a very profound spiritual sense. And that profound spiritual sense, is also represented through very complex rules about eating, about who you can eat with, and about who can share food with who and under what circumstances, and all of these kinds of things. So there's a kind of complex sort of ritual and social array of beliefs and customs, which are associated with eating food, which come into play here. And again, I'm not entirely I don't I don't think that I can sort of sort through that. I've made some effort to do it, but I haven't been able to really sort of deep down to do it, but I think it has something to do with that. Anyway, moving on. Neither improved so Kaz expresses gratitude for the comments that are helpful to play everyday with neither approved nor dismiss to not immediately judge react, which is sort of reminds you of right speech, which is sometimes to remain in silence for a while. And you know, and I think that silence is also like, the more space there is around your speech, the more people will hear it. And yes, I know, often, it seems like it's those who speak the fastest and speak the loudest who will be listened to. And, you know, I know that if you look on a lot of television and stuff these days, you see the way that people talk, I think it's horrifying, that people just talking over each other all the time. How can anyone make sense of this? It's just nonsense. And so we should try to create contexts that value and appreciate silence. And the more space there is around words, then the more words those depths will be perceived with. So Gita says, Thank you for all your tireless dharma teachings are thank you so much, Geeta, that's very kind of you. I don't know about Tyler. So, but anyway, moving on Bantay. But is there any sort of evidence concerning the month that God attained full enlightenment? I don't believe so. Although I might have to get back to you on that. But so far, I haven't seen any any way of being able to test that. So as far as I can tell, ya sec. is still as good a month as any for celebrating the Buddha's enlightenment. So Charles Lee, Charles Lee, and says, Thanks so amazing to be on a zoom with so many monastics it is indeed, isn't it? Yes. Wonderful to see our friends IoT, and venerable Dumbo, Māra and venerable Sati karma from around your body, and so many others who are COVID coming and joining us, it is really a great honor and to see them, as well as to see everybody else of course. What are the chances of a seventh Buddhist Council occurring? And the Vinaya being updated to explicitly prohibit monks from eating meat? Do you know if this issue was discussed at the sixth Buddhist Council? Okay, well, we're the Okay. What's the chances of a seventh Buddhist Council slim at best, slim at best? was the issue discussed at the sixth Council? Not so far as I know. It's difficult to get too much detail about exactly what transpired at the Sikhs council. So this was held in Myanmar in the 1950s. But certainly there were major contingents of sangha from Sri Lanka and Thailand and different places, as well as from Myanmar. So I'm sure that they discussed different things, but mostly they were concerned with the preservation of the tipitaka. So the main purpose was to ensure that there was a unified tipitaka text, and to check all the different versions and so on. So no, they weren't interested in revising things. So look, the if that's just not how things work, right, it's a two and a half 1000 year old scripture, you don't revise it, okay? It's just just don't how things work, what you do is you can interpret it, and you can adapt the way that you understand it and the way you practice it. And that process has been going on since the venue rules are firstly laid down, we see that within the Parti mukha itself, the Buddha lay down a rule and then a new circumstance came up and the Buddhist said, Okay, I'll change it. At a certain point, the text itself becomes frozen. But you know, we can still interpret it, we can decide it. The rules of the veneer are not ironclad, and they're not. They're not harsh or punitive. There's nothing happens. You know, like there's a rule against not eating in the afternoon, right, but nothing happens to you. If you do eat in the afternoon, you just confess it to someone say I ate in the afternoon. It's like, it's not, it's not like the end of the world. If any of these things happen. There's a few that are expulsion, offenses, and so on. But most of the time, the venue is, in fact, very gentle. And so different communities all around the world. Interpret the vignette differently. Certainly, I think that it's good to encourage communities to be vegetarian, so far as possible. And there many communities that are vegetarian. And I think that that's a I think that's a good thing, I think we should encourage it. But no, you're not going to get everybody to agree, either on a second counsel, number one, number two, you're not going to get them to agree to change anything. And number three, you're not going to get too greedy them to give our eating meat. So ratty, I believe that he says, Why is it always on the right and walking or leaving the Buddha then the Buddha's left on the right side? So it's just a that's a gesture of respect. So it's the vedanā. So the right side is exposed, so that it has no there's no weapons or anything like that. And the right side was felt to be the respectful side. So that's all that that was. That's the convention. Do you think the Buddha could have had a psychedelic experience due to food poisoning prior to his peri nibbāna? Oh, interesting. I haven't heard that one. But do I think he could have had I mean, if he was eating mushrooms, so you think that whole thing was a bad trip? You Yeah, maybe? Maybe, maybe, maybe that could have been like the reveal. At the end of it. The Buddha World Cup. It was all just a bad trip, after all. No, I think it's it gets. I think it's unlikely, but I wasn't there. So I couldn't say. Couldn't say it's impossible. All right. So Gita says thank you once more, and that they're blessed to hear this profound dharma and may enjoy longevity with good health. Thank you so very much. That's very kind. I did a talk yesterday last night on muditā. And on congratulations and on about the fact that when something good happens, then we should acknowledge it. And so when people think now I was trying to set a good example With that, because I really do appreciate it and I appreciate the support that you're give, I appreciate the fact that you're coming and paying attention.
So it looks like we've run out of time now. So so far we've we've covered like in our code, from the beginning of moha, paññā, nibbāna sutta, roughly about halfway. And from next week, we'll pick up closer to the time of the Buddha's actual passing away. And so until then, may be happy for all the Venerables here. I wish you all the best, and May you prosper and thrive in the Buddhist teachings, and for all of the wonderful life folk who have joined us, may you to thrive and be happy in the dharma. And may the teachings of the sutras and the teachings of the Buddha take care of your sorrows. samādhi. kāma Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, bhante. Thank you bhāvanā. Thank you both. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, easy to sell. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
