Last meeting together, and we're going to read the Angulimala Sutta. Since we don't have another meeting, we better make sure that we finish the whole thing. Everybody has a copy, I guess. It says in my little introduction here, I just, I didn't read this before, just now I'm reading it.

[01:16]

Somehow, the sutra, I assume that you read this, or most of you read it. In the text itself, I noticed when I read it today that it doesn't say anything about as I mentioned here, that Angulimala gets tricked into becoming a murderer. The sutra doesn't say that, doesn't tell you that. And I think it must be a commentary or a footnote or something. And, you know, unfortunately, you know, we didn't copy the footnotes, so... And I didn't have my... the original, so I didn't have a chance to look it up, but I recall that the story goes that Angulimala got somehow under the spell of a sorcerer who caused him to become a murderer. That it wasn't his idea that he was somehow under the spell of a sorcerer.

[02:28]

That's why in my little introduction here I say Angulimala gets tricked into becoming a fierce murderer in a way it's not really his fault. But nothing that you read indicates that, so I apologize for that. However, I think the idea is that that's true for anybody who becomes a fierce murderer or does any kind of habitual nasty action. Everybody is under the spell of a sorcerer, just like when Buddha, on the night of Buddha's awakening, all of his inner temptations and difficulties are, you know, symbolized by Mara, the evil one, the demon, you know, the tempter and adversary. So, I think that's the sense of it. So, but this is a really interesting text about karma, because here's a person who obviously is accruing huge amounts of very, very bad karma.

[03:39]

And then, by virtue of the Buddha's, the power of the Buddha's presence, manages to see what he's done, and repent for it, and change his life, and even become an Arhat. And, as the story shows, he still has to endure the karmic effects of his deeds, even though he's enlightened and an Arhat. So let's see how the story goes. Thus have I heard, on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savati in Jada's Grove, Anadapindika's Park. You all know the story of Jada's Grove, right? And Anadapindika's Park and how that came to be? Do you all know that story? No? I haven't mentioned this story before?

[04:42]

I always do. Maybe another class or... In this class today? No. Well, in brief, Anadapindika was a lay person who was one of the Buddha's best friends and disciples, a person of wealth, and when he first met the Buddha, he immediately felt a tremendous resonance with the Buddha's way of being and teaching. And he wanted to give Buddha a great gift of some kind. So there was this great beautiful grove and grounds, park, beautiful park that was owned by the Prince Jada. So Anadapindika said to Prince Jada, please sell me this park so that I can give it to the Buddha. It would be a perfect place for the Buddha to come when he comes through here in the rainy season, that the monks can stay here and we can build a pavilion for him. It would really be perfect. But this was Prince Jada's favorite spot, so he had no intention of selling it.

[05:49]

So he jokingly said to Anantapindika, well, the price of this place is the amount of money that will be there when the entire mini-acre park is completely covered with gold coins. When you do that, that's how much it'll cost to buy this. And so, he said as a joke, and Natapindica went out and did exactly that. Covered the entire thing, acres and acres and acres with gold coins, an unbelievable amount of money. And Prince Jadah was dumbfounded by this and said, well, I was only kidding. But Anandapindika said, no, no, don't you know that in the kingdom, the word of the sovereign is law. The sovereign can't say something and not have that be affected.

[06:52]

So because you said that, and this happened, you now must sell me the Jada Grove, sell me this grove. So Prince Jada was sort of stuck, and so he sold it. But Anadapindika had failed to cover, on purpose I think, a part of this grove with gold coins. So in the middle of this big, big park, many acres, was this little grove of trees. that he didn't cover. And the reason why he didn't cover it was because he thought that maybe Jada would himself give this growth to the Buddha. And that's what he did. When he saw how extravagant and thorough was Anadapindika's love for the Buddha and desire to give, Prince Jada was so overcome by this that even that piece of land that had been left to him purposely, he then gave to the Buddha. So that's why it's called Jada's Grove in Anadapindika's Park.

[07:53]

Because Anadapindika owned the park, but Jada still owned the grove, and Jada gave the grove. So Buddha often, because he liked Anadapindika so much, Buddha often came to this place. It probably was what really was a nice place. And many of the teachings in the sutras are set in this location, Jada's Grove, Anadapindika's Park. Anyway, that's where he was. Now, on that occasion, there was a bandit in the realm of King Pasenadi of Kosala. And King Pasenadi is someone who also appears quite a bit in the sutras. Although at the moment I can't think of any great stories about him, but he's commonly a character. In his realm, Kosala, there was a bandit named Angulimala, which means mala. You know what a mala is? This is a mala. Angulimala means finger mala.

[08:55]

And you'll see in a moment why his name is Fingermala. So there was a bandit named Fingermala who was a murderous, bloody-handed, given to blows and violence, merciless to living beings. Villages, towns and districts were laid waste by him. He was constantly murdering people and he wore their fingers as a garland. So he actually wore around his neck, if you can imagine this, a necklace which had on it the fingers of all the people that he had killed. And that was because the sorcerer who originally put a spell on him had told him to do that, had told him to collect 108 fingers from 108 different victims to collect as a mala around his neck. So, one day, when it was morning, the Blessed One, the Buddha, dressed and taking his bowl and outer robe, went into Savatthi for alms.

[10:06]

Which, as we've said, it was a normal thing to do every day. They would go out and beg for food. Camping on the outskirts of a nearby town. So he went to do that. And when he had wandered for alms in Savati and had returned from his alms round, after his meal, he set his resting place in order, and taking his bowl and outer robe, set out on the road leading toward Angulimala. So we've had discussions before about many of the practices that the Buddha suggests, which I think last week we were talking about this practice of cultivating a heart of kindness and compassion and absolutely not complaining or resisting no matter what anybody said or did to us. Remember the parable of the saw.

[11:08]

Even if somebody should cut you up with a saw, you should not have a single thought of ill will but should only have thoughts of love and kindness and so on. And we had some discussion about whether or not this was a sort of not setting aside the fact whether or not such a thing is possible, was it advisable? In other words, isn't this something entirely passive? Shouldn't one resist, you know, aggression and so forth? So lest you thought that the Buddha was passive and was not one who would confront aggression head-on, here He's being not only proactive, but we might say proactive in a foolhardy way. He's going all by himself to confront this serial killer. He's seeking him out. He's going there. And, you know, the way he goes about it is quite astonishing.

[12:11]

He goes out. He has his arms around. I mean, imagine, you go out, you go to work, you come home, you make dinner, you clean everything up and you go out and confront the serial killer when everything is nice and the dishes are all washed and everything is just in its place. You calmly go out and confront the serial killer, you know. I mean, imagine that. That's what he does. He just takes care of business and just goes through the day nicely, peacefully, and then he sets out on the road leading toward Angulimala. Cowherds, shepherds and plowmen passing by saw the Buddha walking along the road leading toward Angulimala and they said to him, do not take this road, recluse, on this road is the bandit Angulimala who is murderous, bloody handed, given to blows and violence, merciless to living beings, villages, towns and districts have been laid waste by him. He is constantly murdering people and he wears their fingers as a garland. Men have come along this road in groups of 10, 20, 30, and even 40, but still they have fallen into Angulimala's hands."

[13:21]

When this was said, the Buddha simply continued on in silence. Didn't say a word, you know, don't worry, I can handle it, you know, nothing. He just continued on his way in silence. And this happened. The same thing, exactly the same thing happened for a second time and a third time where he met people who were afraid for his life and he repeated the same thing and again he simply continued on in silence. And there's something in this phrase, you know, he continued on in silence, that gives you the feeling that he's not going along here with a vigilante spirit or stubborn or anything like that. He's just going along peacefully as if he were going walking anywhere. Not as if he's going to do this great thing now and save everybody from this fierce killer.

[14:24]

He's just going along in silence as he usually does. And you'll see the power in a moment of the Buddha's peaceful walking. So, he finally approaches the bandit Angulimala, who sees him coming in the distance. And when he sees him coming, he says, it is wonderful, it is marvelous. How amazing, you know. Here comes this single person confronting me, apparently without any big weapons or not riding a horse or anything like that, but just sort of walking peacefully along. People have been coming to get me in groups of ten, 20, 30, and even 40, but they have all fallen into my hands. And now here comes this recluse, this monk, unaccompanied, as if driven by fate. Maybe I should kill him.

[15:25]

Why not? I kill everybody else. You know, who is this guy? The nerve. The nerve. You know, I mean, I'm dangerous. I'm Guli Mala. It takes 50 guys to get rid of me. And here comes this one person coming in my direction. I mean, it's well known that I'm here. It's not like he stumbled along, you know, here by mistake. Everybody knows. Surely along this road, many people have already warned him that I'm here. So he's coming here, you know, I mean, he's got a lot of nerve and I'm going to kill him. That's all. So. The bandit Angulimala set out after the Buddha, who remember is going along in his Buddha pace quite slowly. And the bandit Angulimala, and the text here tells us that the Buddha is now going to perform a feat of supernatural power. And it consists of this, that the bandit Angulimala is walking as fast as he could behind the slowly walking Buddha.

[16:30]

It says here he was walking at his normal pace. But you know, one thing about the Buddha is that the Buddha always walked at his normal pace. In other words, the Buddha was not a person who would hurry or rush. In fact, it's part of monastic deportment for all monastics, but especially for the Buddha, to comport oneself with a sense of peacefulness in measure. So you don't see, or you shouldn't see anyway, monastics rushing around, running, running. They're not allowed to run, actually, in their robes. So the Buddha, particularly, always moved at a measured and slow pace. So he was doing that. And here's the bandit, Angulimala, who we can presume is in pretty good shape and strong and big. He's running as fast as he can behind the Buddha, who's walking quite slowly. But he's not catching up. This is the amazing thing. He's not catching up to the Buddha.

[17:34]

He remains too far away to lay a hand on. Even though he looks and he sees the Buddha is going very slowly and he's running like anything. So he thinks to himself, this is really something. This is amazing. Every time before this, I could catch up even with a swift elephant and grab it. Even a horse, I could outrun and seize it. I could even outrun a chariot and grab it. Before, people came in chariots, you know, and I was able to catch them and bring them down. Even a deer I could outrun. But now, although I'm going as fast as I possibly can, I cannot catch up with this recluse who is walking at his normal, slow pace. So he cannot, as you can imagine, some time is going on and he's getting worn out and amazed by this whole thing. It doesn't make a bit of sense to him.

[18:35]

And finally he yells out, stop, recluse, stop. And the Buddha says to him, I have stopped already, Angulimala. Now you must stop. Then the bandit Angulimala thought, these recluses, sons of the Sakyans, speak truth, assert truth, but though this recluse is still walking, he says, I have stopped. What does he mean? In other words, you know, I understand the The Buddha and his disciples were very familiar in this territory. They had come there quite a lot and everybody knew them. And they knew to expect certain things from them. One of the things that they expected from them was that they would tell the truth. They would never be wisecracking or joking or saying things that weren't so.

[19:37]

So here he is walking along, right? The Buddha is walking along at his normal pace. And he's saying, I have stopped. So now there's two marvelous things. One is, how come I can't catch up to him when I'm going at full speed and he's walking slowly? And how come he's saying that he stopped when he clearly is not stopping but he's still walking? What does he mean by this? So he said, I'm going to ask him. So he does. And naturally he does so in rhymed Pali verse. I mean, what self-respecting serial murderer wouldn't? So, he recites the following poem. While you are walking, reckless, you tell me you have stopped. But now, when I have stopped, because he stopped chasing him, it was futile.

[20:38]

When I have stopped, you say I have not stopped. I ask you now, O Recluse, about the meaning. How is it that you have stopped and I have not?" So then the Buddha spontaneously writes the next stanza of this poem in saying, Angulimala, I have stopped forever. I abstain from violence toward living beings, but you have no restraint toward things that live. That is why I have stopped and you have not." Now this is a little bit deeper statement than it seems. The Buddha is not only saying here, I believe, that he doesn't kill people, which he doesn't, but then again, neither do I, that I know of, and neither do you. actually, you know, a tremendous spiritual accomplishment to restrain from being a murderer. It's not that big a thing, you know, most of us, actually the vast majority of human beings, practice in that way.

[21:45]

He's saying that on a deep, deep, deep level, he has stopped the arising of those even subtle and indistinguishable impulses in the human heart that when not checked and dealt with, eventually will lead to real violence. So not only does he not kill people, but he has totally stopped the arising of any impulses toward aggression, selfishness, and so forth, in his heart, as probably the rest of us have not. Even though we don't kill people, we have all sorts of impulses of selfishness and aggression and so forth inside of us. So even though he's walking along, and Angulimala has stopped, in fact, on a truer level, the Buddha has stopped, even as he's moving.

[22:48]

And Angulimala has not at all stopped, even though he has physically stopped. Oh, at long last, this recluse, a venerated sage, has come to this great forest for my sake. Having heard your stanza, teaching me the Dhamma, I indeed renounce evil forever." So that was pretty easy. It shouldn't be so easy for the rest of us. Apparently, and this kind of thing, you see this throughout the sutras, and maybe, you know, it was even really true. Maybe it was even really true that the power we can only imagine in our mind's eye or in our heart's eye, encountering a person that would be so so much, have such a good heart, and such a powerfully good heart, that just being in their presence would inspire us to change our lives.

[23:56]

Such a thing maybe is possible. Maybe that's possible that you would just encounter a person, in a real human encounter with that person, suddenly see your life in a totally different perspective, and actually, on that occasion, be sincerely willing to change your life completely. Well, this is what happens to Angulimala. In hearing this teaching from the Buddha, and see, of course, it's not only the Buddha's words, but it's also this sort of miraculous act of the Buddha not being able to be caught by Angulimala, that turns his heart around utterly and completely, and he says, I now understand, the spell has been broken, under which I've been living all this time in my delusion and confusion, and I now see that I also must make the effort to stop as you have done." So saying, he took his sword and weapons and flung them into a gaping chasm's pit.

[25:01]

The bandit worshipped the sublime one's feet. In other words, he prostrated himself. And then, and there, he said, I want to be ordained, I want to be a monastic, right here and now. Again, this is not unusual. In the sutras it happens many times, exactly like this. And the ordination ceremony is in the next stanza. Now we have a very elaborate ordination ceremony. You know, in Zen we have one, and in Theravada Buddhism there's a fairly elaborate ceremony, but this is the ceremony. The enlightened one, the sage of great compassion, the teacher of the world with all its gods, addressed him with these words, And that was how he came to be a bhikkhu. So right then and there, and it doesn't say so here, but in many of the sutras it actually says, and with the Buddha's words, come bhikkhu, all his hair flew off his head. It says, you know, all his hair flew off his head instantaneously and, you know, robes appeared upon his body and his swirly clothes sort of dissolved into smoke.

[26:08]

So presumably that happened and he actually becomes a bhikkhu right then and there. He actually takes, in this moment, constitutes his taking the vows to live the holy life, as they call it, and joining the Buddha's company. Now, I think this is a beautiful thing, you know, about the Buddhas. In a way, the Buddha converts Angulimala by the power of his walking in awareness. Actually, that's what it is. He's walking just with awareness and he does this. And I remember, one time I saw on television an unbelievable documentary about Nelson Mandela. And I couldn't believe this, but this was, had this on a documentary that that Nelson Mandela was in prison for many, many, many years, as you know, and while he was in prison, he actually got

[27:19]

A lot of the younger prisoners who were, many people came into prison, part of the African National Congress, his political party, came into prison, you know, after him. Many of the young Turks, kind of the more militant ones, who felt that they were following his path and got arrested. And when they got to jail, They got really mad at Mandela because their idea was that we will resist and defy the authorities every inch of the way while we're in jail. And they would do that. Hunger strikes and all kinds of things. Mandela did nothing like that. And they'd get mad at him for refusing to cooperate with their various schemes. The only thing that he did, and he did this unfailingly every single day that he was in prison, according to this documentary, He complied with all things that were being asked of him by the authorities. He never resisted anything. But everything that he did, he did at his own pace. He did everything with a dignified and measured pace.

[28:23]

He would never hurry. Whenever they wanted to hurry, he would never hurry. He did everything in a self-possessed way. just step by step by step, no resistance, but also never being cowed or dominated, always self-possessed. And it's said that by the time he left prison, the entire prison, including the guards and everybody else, had fallen into his pace and the entire prison was going as Mandela had gone. At the beginning he was completely off kilter but he kept with it and eventually the entire... and that's why in fact it was his jailors who would set up these secret meetings between him and the government And his jailers became his emissaries and his assistants in his efforts. Because everybody, the whole thing, it took a long time, but eventually everybody did.

[29:31]

And that's an incredible story. And I believe it. I believe it. It's very much like the story of the Buddha here. There's also the famous story of Thich Nhat Hanh. Maybe some of you went to the lecture. I told this story at his lecture in Berkeley some weeks ago. he was at a big peace rally in New York, and you know, a million people, a long time ago, and you know, in the time when the people were protesting the dangerous nuclear, the proliferation of nuclear weapons between the US and the Soviets, there were a lot of people who were involved in those protests. It became, I don't know, maybe some of you remember, a huge national issue, and millions of people were involved, and there was a big peace rally in New York, an anti-nuclear rally, that had, could have been a million people, marching down 5th Avenue or whatever it was. And you know, this thing moves along at its pace, right? Everybody's going, and Thich Nhat Hanh is going in Thich Nhat Hanh pace.

[30:35]

And pissing everybody off, and people are yelling and screaming, but eventually, everybody, at least everybody behind him, was actually going at that pace. It was quite extraordinary. Apparently it was a huge sort of miraculous kind of event. Anyway, so don't underestimate the power of your own mindful walking and of your own feeling of stopping inside in the midst of your activity. I mean, I think that's a real possibility and in this case quite a miraculous one. So here, now here, that you can imagine, I mean, the Buddha is now going to walk back home with this new bhikkhu, who somebody's going to realize is a serial killer, right? You'd think that he would have thought twice about this, but no, he

[31:39]

seems to feel that this is perfectly reasonable thing. He seems to have full confidence that Angulimala is actually now, has literally become, in some literal way, a different person. Because this is the idea, when you become a bhikkhu, when you take monastic vows, you actually become another person. There are long discussions about this in the Abhidharmakosha, which says, well, now what part of you is changed? You look the same, more or less, you shave your hair off maybe, but in what sense? There are long discussions about subtle substances inside the body that are reversed or flipped around by the power of the ordination ceremony. and so forth. It's kind of fascinating discussions of this, other people denying that there's any such thing and then so forth and so on. Anyway, the Buddha is convinced, I think, and really believes that Angulimala is now no longer the Angulimala that he was a moment before, but he has now become another person.

[32:47]

So, now he has a new attendant, Angulimala. So back he goes with his new attendant, Wandering by stages, he eventually arrives at Savati, and there he lived at Savati in Jada's Grove and Adipindika's Park. I guess that the astonishing, the transformation was so astonishing that nobody would have recognized. All of his hair fell off, he doesn't have all his clothes anymore. You know, sort of thing like, gee, I didn't recognize you without your sword, you know. That's probably what it was, that people apparently didn't recognize him. At least not at first. But, eventually, the word got out, and great crowds of people were gathering at the gates of King Pasenadi's inner palace, crying out, Sire, the bandit Angulimala is in your realm, he is murderous, bloody-handed, etc., etc. Now, I don't think at this point they realize, you know, what has happened to Angulimala, they just know he's in the realm, and he's terrifying everybody, and terrorizing everybody, and they want him out.

[33:56]

So the king sets out, being a good king, that's what a king does, right? Is protect everybody. That's how they get to be kings. They have a lot of good soldiers and they protect everybody. Because, you know, I mean, I suppose nowadays we do or don't think that the police are protecting us, you know, actively looking out for us. But even if there's not a policeman around in sight, you know, one is not that worried. But I guess in ancient times, life seemed dangerous and there were plenty of bandits around. Angulimala wasn't the only one. So one was always looking to put oneself subject to some powerful ruler who had an army. And that was the point. You could rush to them and say, there's a bandit in the neighborhood, you know, get rid of him. And they wouldn't need to have a trial or lawyers or any of that. They would just go and send the cavalry and that would be it. So he sends the cavalry out.

[35:01]

500 men looking for Angolimala. And he went as far as he could on the carriage and then dismounted from the carriage and went forward on foot. to the Blessed One, to the Buddha. After paying homage to the Buddha, he sat down at one side, and the Buddha said to him, what is it, great king? Is King Suniya Bimbisara of Magadha attacking you, or the Licchavis of Vesali, or other hostile kings? In other words, what are you doing here with a 500-person cavalry, you know? Is there a war going on that I don't know about? No, he says, there is no such thing like that, but there is a bandit in my realm, named Angulimala, who is murderous, etc., etc., etc. Murdering people all the time, and having this absolutely hideous finger garland. What am I going to do?

[36:02]

This is going to be a hard job for me. So I guess, I guess the idea is here, and this is even in and of itself quite astonishing, he's going to the Buddha as if he were the Secretary of State or something. Before he goes out looking for Angulimala, the first thing he does is go to the Buddha and say, you know, what do you think? I mean, what's your counsel on the matter here? Do you have any thoughts on how I'm going to catch this murder? It sounds like a tough job. Maybe you have some advice for me or some help that you can offer me. So that just shows you, you know, that the Buddha, that was his position in the culture was that he, in fact, many times in the sutras he's on a first-name basis, so to speak, with various kings and chieftains who are constantly coming to him for advice and there are times when he gives them advice.

[37:08]

Some of the sutras are actually in response to political events of the time. And of course, you can imagine that Buddha is unfailingly preaching caution and peacefulness and care and dialogue and discussion whenever it's possible. Anyway, he says to the king, Great King, suppose you were to see that Angulimala had shaved off his hair and beard put on the yellow robe and gone forth from the home life into homelessness. That he was abstaining from killing living beings, from taking what is not given, and from false speech. That he was refraining from eating at night, ate only in one part of the day, and was celibate, virtuous, of good character. If you were to see him thus, how would you treat him?" So, Actually, when you think about this, this is amazing.

[38:11]

Because, as you see, the king says, I would pay homage to him. We would invite him to be seated. We would respect him, as we respect all monastics. So much faith. In other words, the conduct of the Buddha and his community. And there are many people, not all of whom are under the Buddha's direct control. There are different groups of monastics here and there, traveling around as we have been discussing. But it would appear as if they conducted themselves with so much integrity and peacefulness, that they had gained the respect of everyone. And so that if someone would... And also, people seem to... This reply indicates that the king seemed to feel as if it would be unthinkable. And we would automatically think, yeah, well, Angulimala would shave his head and put on the robe, you know, just to be, you know, for protection.

[39:17]

You know what I mean? He might think, well, 500 troops, I can't beat them all up, so I'll put on this robe and they won't get me. We might think that, you know, because we've seen a lot of movies where people disguise themselves in all these ways to escape the police and everything. But to the king, such a thing would be absolutely unthinkable. Nobody would ever, so much respect would this tradition be held in, that no one would ever think, even a serial killer would never think of putting on this robe. with false pretenses. If somebody put on the robe and followed the way of life, they would be doing so sincerely. There would be no other way of doing it. So if Angulimala were to appear as a monastic, I would have to respect him. I would have no choice but to respect him and honor him. But, he says, such a thing would never happen because Angulimala is a terrible murderer and you know he's an evil person and how could he ever possibly have any virtue and restraint.

[40:24]

Now as this conversation is going on there's Angulimala sitting there, you know, nearby. The king doesn't recognize him but there he is sitting there and so the king says, you know, this right here, this monk sitting over here is the axe murderer, you know, the serial killer that you've been looking for. You're worried about how you're going to capture him with 500 men, well, I'm telling you, he's sitting right here, peacefully, two people away from you. So the king became, you know, freaked out. He said, wow, there's this person that everybody's been telling me about. And the Buddha said, no, no, don't worry. Don't worry. You have nothing to fear from this man. and the king comes down and he goes over to Angulimala, sort of looks him up and down and says, are you really? Is this noble monk really Angulimala?

[41:29]

And he says, yes, great king. Venerable sir, of what family is the noble lord, noble lord meaning the venerable monk, of what family is the venerable monk's father? of what family is his mother. My father is a Gaga, great king. My mother is a Mantani, I guess the names of their clans. And the king says, let the noble Lord Gaga Matani Puta, meaning son of Matani, rest content. I shall provide robes, alms food, resting place and medicinal requisites for the noble Lord Gaga Matani Puta. So, you seem to really be a monk as sanctioned by the Buddha, so I will treat you that way. I'll stop seeing you as a serial killer." And Angulimala says, no, no, I have plenty of robes.

[42:29]

And the king says, you know, this is truly amazing. You, O Buddha, have tamed the untameable. You have brought peace to the unpeaceful and led to nirvana those who seemingly could never attain it. Venerable Sir, we ourselves with our armies and so forth could never tame this person and yet the Blessed One has tamed him without force or weapons. Now, sir, we are going away content that this problem is now taken care of and off they go. Buddha says to him, just as he says to everybody as we saw him saying to Nagiya, do what you think it is time for, do whatever you think is right and the king goes off. This idea of taming is often used in the Sutras that

[43:35]

We practice as a question of taming our hearts, taming our minds, taming ourselves. That the heart and the mind is full of unruly passions that result in disastrous messes, right and left, in small and large ways in our lives and in the world at large. And the path of the Buddha is a path of taming. that disorganization, that confusion in ourselves. So, the next day Angulimala goes out for alms and he sees while he's going from house to house a woman giving birth to a deformed child. And when he sees this, his heart is touched and he feels, he sees that, you know, this is a tragedy that I'm seeing in front of me, but how much sentient beings have such things happening to them, how awful it is.

[44:55]

So he goes back to the Buddha and he tells him, you can imagine, you know, what a thing this is, you know, for a person who's killed so many people to be so moved and shocked by this incident. It really troubles him. And he goes back to the Buddha and he says to the Buddha what he's seen. And now the Buddha says something very strange to him. He says, since your heart has been touched by this woman, you should try to help her, you should try to take away this pain. And here's how you can do it. Go back to that woman and say to her, Sister, since I was born, I do not recall that I have ever intentionally deprived a living being of life. By this truth, May you be well and may your infant be well. Now one thing you have to understand about this is that there was an ancient tradition in India, not only Buddhist but all throughout Indian culture, that there was, I forget what they call it, but it was a kind of the power of truth-telling.

[46:17]

That if somebody would stand up and say something that was significant and true, and really true, usually something that had to do with spiritual attainment or something like that. And you would stand up and say this, then by the... and you would say, just like, you know, we say, I'll swear on the Bible this is true. Well, the idea was if you swore this truth, you could use the power of that truth to affect change, to make things happen. So somebody could say, I say such and such and so and so, and I swear by the power of the truth of that statement, that if this is so, may rain fall down on this parched field right now, and then rain would fall down. So that was a kind of a common thing in India, that you could do that. So the Buddha is suggesting that Angulimala do this in relation to this woman, that he go back to her and say to her, I now swear that I have never, since I was born, intentionally hurt a living being, and by the power of the truth of that statement, may your child be whole.

[47:21]

Well, you can imagine how Angulimala would have felt, right? when he heard the Buddha say that. So the Buddha, you know, didn't forget who Angulimala was, right? And I think that he was saying this for a reason. Angulimala had already, you know, truly repented and turned his life around and become a monk, but there was still something in Angulimala's heart that needed cleansing. And the Buddha realized that since his heart was opened by seeing this woman, this was a good, like we were saying last week, a teachable moment. So he said this to Angulimala, and of course Angulimala then felt even more deeply and more personally and more emotionally. So Angulimala says to the Buddha, we don't get the emotion of this, but I think we can imagine how he must have felt.

[48:28]

He said to the Buddha, wouldn't I be telling a lie if I said that? For I have intentionally deprived many living beings of life. In other words, I have to admit to myself and to you and I feel very powerfully that when it really comes down to it, I still am that person. who did those things even though I'm a monk and even though I have changed I still carry that person with me so it would be a lie if I said this. So then the Buddha said, then Angulimala go into Savati and say to that woman, sister, since I was born with a noble birth I do not recall that I have ever intentionally deprived a living being of life By this truth may you be well and may your infant be well." In other words, since I have been reborn in the Dharma and have become another person in the Dharma, since that time I have never intentionally taken another life.

[49:43]

And I think Angulimala hearing this, something in him releases and he really does grieve, over his past actions and really let them go and really recognize that he has truly been reborn into a new life. So he says, yes sir, that's right. And he goes and tells that to the woman and it actually works and the woman and the infant become whole again. Their whatever the birth problems were, the deformity was, it's healed. So now Angulimala has learned something and let something go and also, for the first time, maybe ever in his life, has been able to effect, instead of harm, goodness. And immediately after that, what happens?

[50:48]

And he releases himself with direct knowledge here and now, entered upon and abided in that supreme goal of the holy life, for the sake of which clansmen rightly go forth from the home life into the homelessness. He directly knew, birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived. What had to be done has been done. There is no more coming to any state of being and the venerable Angulimala became one of the arhats. And this is the formula that's often repeated for a person attaining enlightenment, attaining nibbana, becoming now completely free from any clinging inside, from any aggression inside. He becomes an arhat, fully realized. So, that's interesting. After this encounter about the woman and this emotional moment, that's what he needed to become an arhat. Well, what happens immediately after he becomes an arhat?

[51:52]

He's now released and enlightened. Everything goes well from now on, right? No. Just the opposite. Yeah. At same thirty, would you like to take a break? I was thinking that since we're almost at the end, I would just finish to the end, maybe five more minutes, and then we'll take a break. Okay? So instead of everything coming up roses, somebody throws a cloud of earth at him. Somebody throws a stick at him. Someone throws a pot shirt at him. And these things are hurting him. He's bleeding. His bowl is broken. His robe is torn. He comes back to the Buddha. in this condition and the Buddha sees him coming in a distance and says to him, bear it, bear it. You are experiencing here and now the results of deeds because of which you might have been tortured in hell for many years, for many hundreds of years, for many thousands of years, but you're experiencing it now

[53:06]

in a less virulent form. This is nothing compared to what you deserve, in effect. But because of your good deeds and your heart-opening experiences and your awakening, this is all you have to bear. Don't complain about it. Be grateful for this suffering. In other words, his enlightenment does not wipe out his karma. He has to still suffer for it. But because of his practice, the suffering is bearable. So, that's basically the end of the sutra. It's sort of capped off with a verse. Who once did live in negligence and then is negligent no more. He illuminates the world like the moon freed from a cloud. Who checks the evil deeds He did by doing wholesome deeds instead, He illuminates the world like the moon freed from a cloud.

[54:10]

So, let my enemies give ear from time to time and hear the Dhamma of those who preach forbearance. of those who speak as well in praise of kindness and let them follow up that dhamma with kind deeds. So forbearance is important when bad things happen to us, like Angulimala. It's karma that we need to expiate. If we try to escape it and we don't accept it, we may be buying ourselves worse trouble in the future. So we must forbear with what happens and recognize it as a kind of purification. Conduit makers guide the water. Fletchers straighten out the arrow shaft. Carpenters straighten out the timber. But wise people seek to tame themselves. There are some that tame with beatings, some with goads, and some with whips. But I was tamed by such alone who has no rod nor any weapon.

[55:17]

Harmless is the name I bear. That's his new monastic name. Instead of Angulimala, his name is now Harmless. Though I was dangerous in the past, the name I bear today is true. I hurt no living being at all. While I did many deeds that lead to rebirth in the evil realms, yet their result has reached me now. and I've been able to, you know, digest that result and so I can now eat my food free from debt. In other words, I don't have to be nervous anymore. Everything, I can live my life whole without feeling guilt or nervousness because I know that in my suffering I have paid the price and I was lucky that the price was so relatively light. So that's the Angulimala Sutta, and there's much here to think about in terms of karma, the relationship between karma and practice.

[56:23]

Does practice wipe out our karma? Does practice change our karma? Is karma something that we can escape from, and how would we escape from it? The story of Angulimala is quite instructive on many levels, if we think about it. So let's take a couple minutes break, five minutes break, and then we'll come back and for the time remaining we'll discuss. Thank you. It's a wonderful sutra, isn't it? forwarded another email to me from someone who writes to Green Guard staff and they couldn't come send her the email, but they were interested in being on the email.

[57:41]

So she passed that on to me. Yeah. I'll send her that email. Thank you. You know, make plans and goals and recognize at the same time that it's just skillful means. It's just a way of living in the world. It's a way of being with others. So I think that is possible, but it's easy to deceive oneself too and say you're doing that and really you're completely focused on your goals and you're beating up everybody who stands in your way. So it's hard to do, no doubt, but I think it can be done and we have to believe that it can be done.

[58:42]

Otherwise, how can we practice? It's the whole place of the role that volition plays in our lives. Yeah, and especially self-identification with our goals and plans and attachment and violence, you know, and all that's the whole complex of fighting, you know, that always takes place. It seems that that's why goals are, in the Krishnamurti sense, problematic, because they do create aggression and so on, you know, because we attach to them too much. Yeah. So, if you had a goal and it wasn't going to be fulfilled, you would give it up and get another goal. I mean, if you couldn't, you know, you'd do what you could and then, oh, okay, forget that and let's do this then. Yeah. The kernel of this that feels very strong for me is that part about the power of truth-telling.

[59:48]

Yeah. because I also feel that it relates to being fully exposed and receptive and basically out there. And that has an impact and an influence in the same manner of the Buddha walking along or Mandala's pace doing things, and I think that part can be incorporated in everyday life. Yeah, sure. Following a consistent path in that manner. Modeling, you know. Yeah, yeah. No, I agree and I think that even in ordinary life without being a special superpower hero like Buddha is in these sutras, I think one does become, like you say, if one really does act consistently with integrity and truth-telling and all this, you know, people eventually notice and it makes a difference.

[61:03]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's the effort we're all making, isn't it? Because we would like to totally change the world so that it becomes much more full of goodness than it now is. But we realize that doing that aggressively, beating everybody up until they're good, it's not going to work. So the way that we do it is by manifesting goodness, you know, and hoping that it influences those around us in ever-widening spheres. That is the point, I think. Not just, in other words, practicing for our own benefit, but also for others in that way. Yeah? I thought it was interesting how the ex-Mali Gula He had to go through the next step for feeling, through his feelings.

[62:07]

Yeah. He felt for the woman and the child. Exactly. That was so big and he was, it was an emotional, emotional thing. That's right. That he couldn't handle it, but he had to go into that. Yeah. Really deeply and, and then the Buddha said, go help her. Exactly, yeah. He loved her. Yeah, wasn't that, that, that is a kind of a, You know, you have to think about that part, but... Yeah, he had to do it. I always say Buddhism detached, detached, but he wasn't. No, no, in fact, in fact, it's very clear from the way the story's laid out that that incident and his feeling for that woman and having to go deep within himself to clarify himself so that he could help her, so that he could help her was a necessary thing in order for him to be clear and become an arhat. He had to do it. He had to go through that. Until he did that, he was never, he was going to only be able to go so far in his practice. He had to deeply clarify through his emotion his own former wrongdoing.

[63:11]

In effect, really feel for it and really more deeply and let it go. Yeah. and realization comes through some action of seeing someone do something, and not in sitting. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's true, it's true, yeah. You know, none of the Zen stories ever happen when someone's sitting. All the awakenings happen, you know, other times. Yeah, that's because, you know, awakening always happens when you see the active world to be identical with the world of union, with the world of peace.

[64:12]

So when everything is peaceful, you don't see that, right? In other words, awakening is the transformation of the world, so you have to be encounter with, there has to be an encounter with the world for you to see that. So when we're sitting, we're too peaceful. We haven't done any sitting beforehand, too. Pardon me? Right, you haven't sat beforehand. No, no, no, no. Maybe we don't need to sit. No, we definitely don't need to sit. We definitely don't need to sit. If we think we need to sit, then we're not sitting, right? Yeah. No sitting is totally useless. But, you know, you have to sit a while to kind of realize that. You probably sat afterwards, though. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. Yeah?

[65:13]

This question of forbearance for troubles that you have. Troubles that come to you. And I wasn't sure here what this with the assumption that whenever you have difficulty you're being punished for some kind of action that you did or whether whatever comes, you can, it can be used as a purification. Say something about that process of purification. Yeah, yeah. Well, this is a very fine and important point here because like I have a friend who is having a mastectomy on Monday. And, you know, I'm very thinking of her all the time and was talking to her the other day. I certainly didn't say to her, this has been visited upon you because of past karma. So, you know, you should really receive it in that spirit.

[66:15]

No, I mean, you know, this is, how can I not view this, and I do view it as, you know, a very unfortunate difficulty that has come into her life and, you know, hope that she can bear it in the easiest way possible and that the results of it are as positive as they can be. And certainly, this is not happening to her because of punishment that she was bad in the past, you know. However, from her side, insofar as she can forbear with this that's happening to her and learn from it and deepen her life and her practice from it, that's good for her, right? resisting it, complaining, bemoaning, why did this have to happen to me? Why could it happen to somebody else? I've been good. I don't deserve this. All those thoughts and feelings would not help her to heal from the experience to go through the operation with as much equanimity as possible and to

[67:21]

receive whatever spiritual benefits from the bad experience that she can receive. So from her side, you see what I mean, she needs to look at it in the right way so that it can be, everything can be as good as it can be. But from the side of someone looking at her, it makes no sense to say that or to look at it that way. So that way, and that's a very important point because this, if you think about this, this idea of karma, it certainly could lead you to say things like, well, the poor unfortunates begging on the streets in Calcutta must have been really bad people in past lives who deserve that. So, you know, we don't really, I mean, it would be impossible for us to do anything about them, to help them in any way other than maybe give them a coin, if that, because it's their karma. That's why they're there. They should be there. You know, they deserve it. That's not a good idea.

[68:22]

And that seems to be a clear misunderstanding of the notion of karma. For a person observing that beggar, our karma is to practice loving kindness and proactivity in relation to helping that person the best we can, and not to say it's their karma, it's their fault, it's too bad, you know. Yeah, Charlie? Well, I mean, even if you have the misunderstanding, you still don't know whether that beggar is on their way down or their way up. Maybe they're a pod scum before. Yeah, yeah. Maybe this is an improvement. Yeah. I was just, in the example the two of you were talking about, I was remembering, and I think it was recounted in the Q number, Is this about Trudy Dixon? No. Pardon me? Yeah. Yeah. And I may get this wrong, but it was supposedly that toward the end of her life, she was struggling very hard, and she was at Pasajar, and she was practicing very, very, very, very hard, and had some sort of breakthrough.

[69:41]

And that someone from the Sangha later came up to her and said, And supposedly she said something about this blessed cancer. Yeah, well, people, you do hear people say that, you know, that she's not the only one who... I've heard many, many people say that kind of thing, even if they haven't gone to Zen monasteries and, you know, had some experience of enlightenment. Many people have been transformed in positive ways by serious illnesses and say so, and say, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. Many people say that. But that's for them to say. Right, right. No, I understand. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, no. Right. Right, exactly. Right, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, and this is what any of us would hope.

[70:43]

Not if, but when we are in the same boat that we would be able to appreciate our experience in that way. This is what we hope. And this is what we're working toward, isn't it, in our practice, to be able to have that kind of forbearance and equanimity, so when that happens to us, we too will have that kind of dignity and sense of gratitude and appreciation for what's happening to us and find it to be transforming and life-affirming. Absolutely. I don't remember that incident, but I did read the book. You don't remember it? No, I mean, I read the book. I wasn't at Tassajara then, but I read that book and I didn't remember it from the book. So this purification process when difficulties come is just another form of unique death.

[71:50]

In a way, yeah. And the practice of forbearance, which is one of the six paramitas, Forbearance or patience is one of the six paramitas. It's, I think, highly underrated as a virtue in practice. Because I think it's a very, very important thing to develop in practice, is the practice of forbearance, patience with difficulty. It may be of all the qualities that one wants to develop in spiritual practice the most fundamental of all because it's what keeps you going. You know what I mean? One can have all sorts of wonderful wisdom and generosity and all that, but without forbearance you burn out, you can't go on. And going on and continuing and to deepen your practice is really, really important. And the only thing that you can count on is that there will be difficulties.

[72:53]

So you have to have forbearance to bear them out, bear with them. Yeah? Well, another thing occurs to me that I think was also from Kirk and Cuba, and that was about Suzuki Roshi when he was dying of his cancer. And, you know, in the process, I mean, not at the very last minute, but there was a question raised about whether or not his oncologist was giving him the most up-to-date treatment. And somebody suggested that he go to a specialist at another place, and he chose not to because, I don't, these aren't the right words exactly, I can't remember, but it was something like, you know, he didn't want to kind of dishonor his doctor or And it wasn't like he thought the doctor was wrong and he didn't want to show him up. It was like, kind of the way it seemed to me anyways, he had a relationship with his doctor and he didn't want to somehow dishonor that. And so he just felt it was appropriate.

[73:55]

It seemed like forbearance too. And again, not to say one should do one or the other, but it kind of, I'm just thinking of it now, it's also like not, fighting too hard, or not kind of being too... I don't know what word we were using before. Yeah. Aggressive, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. It's interesting. It's not like you have to do it one way or the other. Yeah. It's like, my Buddha gave me this doctor, so it must be the right doctor. And I'm not going to fool around. Anything else about this? What I'm hearing is, how do we maintain our sense of sacred space? And is that what was going on when Suzuki Roshi said, this is the doctor, this is the space, and I have to honor this space.

[74:56]

Because if you don't have sacred space, then it's... Yeah, right. It's a bigger picture. In other words, the smaller picture is the body is a machine, we have to get the best technician, and by golly, you know, I don't care about anything, I'm just getting that best technician no matter what. And that's part of a picture, that's like you're saying, it's a valid part of a picture, but if that's the only picture, then you're not really seeing a bigger picture that includes within it a healing large enough to take death into account. In the smaller picture, death is not part of the picture. Death is the enemy. And we're looking for a technician who will prevent that from happening. And that picture is just too small for our life. Like I say, it's part of the bigger picture. It's not that we excise that part.

[75:58]

But if that's our only picture, then yeah, we're missing all the dimensions of the experience of having a serious illness that includes facing death and having a heart of loving-kindness in relation to our doctors and caregivers and family members and all that and some calmness and some appreciation. So maybe that's a good way to call that sacred space. It also could be given the example of acknowledgement, acceptance, and lack of denial, where in some cases people keep going on and on and on for something yet another possibility, regardless of whether there's any real efficacy. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah, and then spending huge amounts of money and causing many

[76:58]

usually themselves tremendous amounts of discomfort, you know, because those kind of procedures usually are very painful and difficult and make you agitated in many ways. And then it's a challenge to discern. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's a very difficult thing. No, it's very hard. Like you were saying, you can't say it's this or it's that. It's very difficult and every person is different and every medical situation is very particular and really hard to say. I know I had a friend who was on the ethics committee of a big hospital, you know, and they would have big roundtable discussions debating cases, very complicated issues, and there were no generalized rules that you could apply. You really had to think about each case separately. Well, thank you very much for inviting me to your house.

[78:00]

I've had a really nice time. I really enjoy Coming over here, one of the nice aspects of it is that before the class I go over and visit Mel, which has been nice and hard to get over and see Mel, so that's been very sweet. And I appreciate your attention and interest in these old sutras and also thank you for coming and making a contribution for the class because the Zen Center has been very generous to give me most of the money for that which I need to live. Because this is completely my sole source of support now is teaching and receiving donations. I don't have any other source of support. So, thank you very much for all of that. And I hope to see you next year or some other time when we do this again. We'll take up another subject at that time. Thank you.

[78:57]

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