A tamed mind brings happiness
Dhammapada verse 35
By Dr. Ari Ubeysekara
Introduction
Lord Gautama Buddha lived and preached in India during the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Throughout the ministry of forty five years from enlightenment at the age of thirty five to passing away at the age of eighty, Lord Gautama Buddha, through compassion for other beings, travelled from place to place mainly in North Eastern India, teaching the path out of suffering to a diverse range of people. Since the first Buddhist council that was held three months after the passing away of the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings were categorised into the now well-known Pāli Canon consisting of the three baskets. The teaching of the Gautama Buddha which is believed to consist of around 84,000 items is contained in the three baskets (tripitaka).
- Basket of the disciplinary rules for the monastic community (vinaya pitaka)
- Basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka)
- Basket of the Buddha’s higher teaching (abhidhamma pitaka)
The basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka) consists of:
- Collection of long discourses (dīgha nikāya)
- Collection of middle length discourses (majjhima nikāya)
- Collection of connected discourses (samyutta nikāya)
- Collection of numerical discourses (anguttara nikāya)
- Collection of minor discourses (khuddaka nikāya)
Collection of minor discourses (khuddaka nikāya) consist of 15 divisions of a variety of small discourses and others. The second division is the Dhammapada, the other divisions being Khuddaka pātha, udāna, itivuttaka, sutta nipātha, vimānavatthu, petavatthu, thera-gāthā, theri-gāthā, jātaka stories, niddesa, patisambhidā magga, apadāna, Buddhavamsa and cariya pitaka.
The Pāli word “Dhamma” seems to have several meanings such as the natural law, natural phenomena, objects of the mind, religious doctrines and specifically the Lord Gautama Buddha’s teachings. The word “Pada” means path, step, word or the foot. So, the word Dhammapada has been described as the “Path of Righteousness”. The Dhammapada containing a collection of the sayings of the Buddha in verse form, is one of the best known books in Buddhism familiar to almost all of the practising Buddhist disciples universally as well as to others who study the teachings of the Buddha.
Dhammapada contains 423 verses said by the Buddha in different contexts. Most of the verses have been taken from the discourses of the Buddha. It has been noted that more than two thirds of the verses are taken from the discourses contained in the two collections of the Buddha’s discourses known as the Samyutta Nikāya and Anguttara Nikāya. The 423 verses are divided into 26 chapters or vagga, each with a particular heading. The third chapter is named “Citta vagga” meaning the chapter on “Mind”, which contains 11 verses said by the Buddha. The back ground story to verse 35 which is the third verse of the Citta vagga, is about a certain monk during the time of the Lord Gautama Buddha, who was afraid that someone with super normal powers could see the impure thoughts that arise in his mind.
Background story of verse 35
At one time the Buddha was staying at the Jetavana monastery in Sāvatti which was donated to the Buddha by the chief benefactor Anāthapindika. Then a group of sixty monks decided to go away to a village monastery and practise meditation. They approached the Buddha to receive advice on suitable meditation objects to meditate on and left Sāvatti to go and live in a village called Mātika, which was situated at the foot of a mountain. In that village, there was a lady devotee named Mātikamātā who was the mother of the village headman. She was pleased that the monks had arrived in their village to stay and meditate and arranged to build a monastery for the monks to stay during the rainy season. She also continued to provide food to the sixty monks on a regular basis.
Mātikamātā also developed an interest in meditation and requested the monks to teach her how to meditate. The monks taught her to meditate on the thirty-two loathsome parts of the body, which can help one to gain insight into the nature of decay and dissolution of the body. Mātikamātā began meditating diligently and was able to attain the first three paths and fruitions of the Buddhist spiritual path of liberation. The first three paths and fruitions are: Stream Enterer (Sotāpañña), Once returner (Sakadāgāmi) and Non-Returner (Anāgāmi). She also developed Analytical Insight (patisambhidā) along with mundane supernormal powers even before the sixty monks did.
A meditator who has attained the fourth of the four fine material absorption states (rūpāvacara jhana) through meditation, is said to be able to develop certain super normal powers if the meditator has the determination to develop them. They include the ability to perform miracles, the ability to hear subtle or coarse sounds not heard by the normal physical ear, the ability to recollect the previous lives, the ability to read the mind of others and the ability to see the births of others based on their good or bad actions.
With her super normal powers, Mātikamātā came to know that none of the sixty monks had attained any paths and fruitions of the spiritual path as yet. She also saw that all of the sixty monks had the potential to gain enlightenment as Arahants but that they needed proper food to be able to meditate properly. So she arranged to prepare good and choice food and offered to the monks on a regular basis. Having received proper and choice food and applying right effort and diligence, the sixty monks were able to develop right concentration of the mind and eventually all of them realised the Truth and gained enlightenment as Arahants.
They continued with their rains retreat (vas) in the Mātika village well looked after by Mātikamātā who had become a Non-Returner, and when the rainy season was over they returned to Sāvatti where the Buddha was staying in the Jetavana monastery. When the Buddha made enquiries about their well-being, they reported to the Buddha that all of them were in good health and experienced comfortable circumstances in the Mātika village and that they did not have to worry about their food. They also reported to the Buddha about Mātikamātā who was able to read their minds and who prepared and offered them whatever food that they wished to have.
A certain monk residing at the Jetavana monastery overheard the conversation between the Buddha and those sixty monks and when he heard what the monks were saying about Mātikamātā, he too developed a wish to go and live at the same village monastery. He informed the Buddha about his wish to go there, and having received advice on a suitable meditation object from the Buddha, he travelled to the village monastery. When he arrived at the village monastery, he discovered that whatever he had wished to have has already been sent to him by Mātikamātā, the lay devotee in the village.
While staying at the village monastery, he found that whenever he wished Mātikamātā to come to the monastery, she came bringing with her any food that he has wished to have. One day, after having the food that she had brought, the monk asked Mātikamātā whether she is able to read the thoughts in other people’s mind. She did not give a direct answer to the question but said: “People who can read the thoughts of other people behave in such and such a manner”. Then this thought occurred in the monk’s mind: “Should I, like any other ordinary worldling, have any impure thoughts, she is sure to know them”. With that thought, he became frightened of the lay devotee Mātikamātā’s ability to read his mind and decided to leave the village monastery and return to Jetavana monastery in Sāvatti.
On his return to Savatti, the monk informed the Buddha that he could not continue to live at the village monastery as he was afraid that the lay devotee Mātikamātā will know the impure thoughts that might arise in his mind. Then the Buddha advised the monk to observe just one thing; that is to control his mind. The Buddha also advised the monk to return to the Mātika village monastery and not to think of anything else, but the object of meditation that he has been given. Following the Buddha’s advice, the monk retuned to live at the Mātika village monastery. Mātikamāta the lay devotee, continued to bring good food for him as she did before when the sixty monks were living there, so that the monk will be able to practise his meditation without any worry. The monk practised meditation as advised by the Buddha and within a short time gained enlightenment as an Arahant.
It is in reference to this monk that the Buddha has said the following verse which is recorded as the 35th verse of the Dhammapada.
“Dunniggahassa lahuno,
Yattha kāmanipātino,
Cittassa damatho sādhū,
Cittaṁ dantaṁ sukhāvahaṁ.”
“The mind is difficult to control,
swiftly landing wherever it pleases,
it is good to tame the mind,
a tamed mind brings happiness.” (1)
References
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