Buddha's Teaching : What is Dhamma ( Part- IV )

4  To Give up Craving is Dhamma

• In the Dhammapada the Buddha says: " There is no greater benefit than. health and there is nothing more valuable than the spirit of contentment." .
• This spirit of contentment is not to be understood to mean meekness or surrender to circumstances. 
• Because that would be quite contrary to the other teachings of the Buddha.
• The Buddha has not said, " Blessed are they who are poor." 
• The Buddha has not said that the sufferer should not try to change his condition.
• On the other hand, he has said that riches are welcome and instead of listless suffering he taught Virya which is energetic action.
• What the Buddha meant when he said that contentment is the highest form of wealth is that man should not allow himself to be overpowered by greed which has no limits. 
• As the Bhikku Rathapala has said: " Rich men I see who, folly-led, never give, but still amass, athirst for pleasures new; the king whose conquests to the sea extend, for sway over empires overseas will pine, still craving, kings and subjects pass away; lacking, still lacking, they their bodies quit; never on earth can pleasures' measure be filled."
• In the Maha-Nidan-Suttanta the Buddha has explained to Ananda the necessity of controlling greed. This is what he said.
• "This it is, Ananda, that craving comes into being because of desire for gain, when desire for gain becomes a passion for possession when the spirit of possession gives rise to tenacity of possession it becomes avarice. 
• " Avarice or possession due to uncontrolled acquisitive instinct calls for watch and ward.
• " Why is this craving or greed to be condemned ? Because of this," said the Buddha to Ananda, " many a bad and wicked state of things arises—blows and wounds, strife, contradiction and retorts ; quarrelling, slander and lies." 
• That this is the correct analysis of class struggle there can be no doubt. 
• That is why the Buddha insisted upon the control of greed and craving.

Buddha's Teaching : The Path of Purity

The Path of Purity

• The Parivrajakas once asked the Buddha to explain to them his Dhamma.
• And the Buddha was pleased to do so.
• He addressed them first on the Path of Purity.

" The Path of Purity," he told the Parivrajakas, " teaches that a person who wishes to be good must recognise some principles as principles of life.

• According to my Path of Purity the principles of life recognised by it are : 

Not to injure or kill : Not to steal or appropriate to oneself anything which belongs to another : Not to speak untruth : Not to indulge in lust : Not to indulge in intoxicating drinks.

• " The recognition of these principles, I say, is most essential for every man. For every man must have a standard by which to judge whatever he does. 
• And these principles according to my teachings constitute the standard.
• " There are everywhere people who are patit (fallen). 
• But there are two classes of the patit : the patit who has a standard and a patit who has no standard.
• " The path who has no standard does not know that he has fallen. Consequently he always remains fallen. 
• On the other hand a patit who has a standard tries to rise from his fallen state. Why? The answer is because he knows that he has fallen.
• "This is the difference between having a standard and having no standard for regulating a man's life. 
• What matters is not so much the fall of the man but the absence of any standard.
• " You may ask, ye Parivrajakas ! Why are these principles worthy of recognition as a standard of life.
• "The answer to this question you will find for yourselves, if you ask : "Are these principles good for the individual ? " also if you ask : " Do they promote social good ? "
• " If your answers to these questions are in the affirmative then it follows that the principles of my Path of Purity are worthy of recognition as forming a true standard of life."