English
" It was said by the Blessed One, "These two people are rare in the world, which two? He who does a prior service, and he who is grateful and acknowledges the service done." Moreover, even in the time of Vidhura and Mahosadha Jataka, they properly employed those who carried out their words for the sake of prosperity in this world and the next. By undertaking blameless activities, knowing the right time, acting appropriately, being unsluggish, being endowed with energetic effort, and being free from addictions, activities such as agriculture, cattle-rearing, and trade, which are free from unskillful qualities such as not knowing the right time, acting inappropriately, not doing, doing sluggishly, etc., when skillfully applied by oneself, one's children, spouse, or servants, are the cause for gaining wealth, grain, and possessions in this very life. It was said by the Blessed One: One who acts appropriately, is responsible, and energetic, finds wealth; One who sleeps during the day, and is vigilant at night; And is always intoxicated with negligence, cannot maintain a household. "It is too cold, it is too hot, it is too late in the evening"; Thus abandoning one's work, the affairs of men decline. "But he who does not mind the cold or the heat; And values grass as nothing; He does not fail in the duties of good men, and does not fall away from happiness." As one gathers wealth, like another carrying it away; Wealth accumulates, like an anthill growing. Good people with such qualities are extremely rare in the world. By their absence, bad people, foolish people, even when not sought, are... Like those fools, serving themselves, among others, they sink in the suffering of samsara, they give no rise to becoming. Just as Pūraṇa Kassapa and the other six teachers, Devadatta, Kokālika, Modakatissa, Khaṇḍadeviyāputta, Samuddadatta, Ciñcamāṇavikā, and others, in the past, gained long suffering. These and other such foolish beings, like a house set ablaze by an ember, destroy themselves and their followers by their own wrong grasp. Just as, through Devadatta, King Ajātasattu, Kokālika, and other individuals were reborn in the lower realms. If King Ajātasattu had not killed his father at the time of hearing the Sāmaññaphala Sutta, he would have become a Sotāpanna. Because he killed his father, without attaining the path and its fruit, he will be cooked in a copper pot for sixty thousand years and then be released, and in the future, he will become a Paccekabuddha. Kokālika also, not showing respect to Sāriputta and Moggallāna, in the great hell, in the counting of the lotus, in the hellish region, in the Paduma hell…pe… "Indeed, a certain monk said, 'Kokālika the monk has arisen in hell, having harbored malice towards Sāriputta and Moggallāna.'" There, a certain monk, unnamed and unknown, having asked the question, "Is the lifespan long, venerable sir, in the Paduma hell?" was sitting down. He said thus, "Long indeed, monk, is the lifespan in hell, it is not easy to calculate, 'so many years,' or 'so many hundreds of years,' or 'so many thousands of years,' or 'so many hundreds of thousands of years.'" "But is it possible, venerable sir, to make a comparison?" "It is possible, monk," the Blessed One said. "Just as, monk, there is a Kosalan sesame seed container holding twenty khāris of sesame seeds, and a man would remove one sesame seed at the end of every hundred years, every thousand years, that Kosalan sesame seed container holding twenty khāris of sesame seeds would be more quickly exhausted and depleted by this method, than one Abbuda hell." Just as, monk… Twenty times an ikkhu is an abbuda niraya, thus is one nirabbuda niraya, and so on. Twenty khāris: in the Magadha measure, four patthas make one pattha in the Kosala country. By that measure, four patthas are an āḷhaka. Four āḷhakas are a doṇa. Four doṇas are a mānikā. Four mānikās are a khārī. By that khārī, twenty khāris are a tilavāha. Tilavāha means a sesame cart. Abbuda niraya: there is no separate hell called abbuda; it is only in Avīci that a place for ripening by the abbuda count is called "abbuda niraya." This method applies to nirabbuda and the others as well. There, the calculation of years should be understood thus, as it is said: "A hundred hundred thousands make a koṭi; a hundred thousand koṭis are called a pakoṭi. A hundred hundred thousand pakoṭis are called a koṭipakoṭi. A hundred hundred thousand koṭipakoṭis are a nahuta. A hundred hundred thousand nahutas are a ninnahuta. A hundred hundred thousand ninnahutas are one abbuda. Then, twenty times that is a nirabbuda. This method applies everywhere, and this calculation is difficult for the uninitiated," it is said. It is not easy to count, but some say that these names are obtained by the variety of lamentations there and by the variety of actions done. Others say they are due to causes of burning, according to the commentary and the Netti. Just as Dīghavidassa, struck and fallen supine in a great hell with a body sixty yojanas in extent, suffers for a Buddha-interval, and just as five hundred families who shared his views are reborn in association with him and suffer in the great hell. And this was said by the Blessed One: "Just as, monks, fire touching a straw hut or a grass hut burns down gabled houses, well-plastered and sealed, windless, with fastened bolts and closed windows, even so, monks, whatever fears arise, all arise from the fool, not from the wise; whatever troubles arise, not from the wise; whatever obstacles... arise... not from the wise. Thus, monks, the fool is full of fear, the wise is without fear; the fool is full of trouble, the wise is without trouble." The fool is his own enemy, the wise man is his own protector. Moreover, the fool is like a rotten fish; whoever associates with him is like a leaf wrapped in rotten fish, smelling of rot. He becomes contemptible and disgusting. As it was said in the Nārada Jātaka: "If a man wraps a rotten fish In kusa grass, The kusa grass also smells rotten. Such is the association with a fool." And Akatti-paṇḍita, when offered a boon by Sakka, the king of the gods, said: "May I not see a fool, nor hear him, nor live with him; May I not converse or talk with a fool, nor approve of him. What wrong has the fool done to you, tell me, Kassapa, the reason; Why, Kassapa, do you not desire to see a fool? The fool leads to misfortune, he employs one in wrong paths; Bad advice is worse, he gets angry when rightly spoken to; He does not know discipline, it is good not to see him." Thus, all dangers and misfortunes arise only from association with foolish and wicked people, not from associating with the wise. Good men are exceedingly rare. Now, "Rare is birth as a human being, and rare is the arising of a Buddha; Rare is the attainment of a favorable moment, the true Dhamma is exceedingly rare." The order of explanation of this verse has arrived. Therein, "Rare is birth as a human being," even the state of being human is rare. The rarity of being human should be understood by the simile of the one-eyed turtle, etc. It is said that a farmer, after cultivating on the banks of the Ganges for three years without gaining anything, broke his ploughshare in two and threw it into the Ganges. By the current of the Ganges, one part went upwards and one downwards. Thus, the two parts of the ploughshare, carried away in the Ganges, after a long time, one upwards and one downwards, came together and naturally joined. At that moment, a one-eyed turtle, surfacing once after a hundred or a thousand years, at the moment of surfacing, its neck was between the two parts of the ploughshare. This time is rare indeed. Even so, the state of being human is rare indeed. For without attaining the state of being human, one goes to hell. Having wandered in the realms of demons, animals, and ghosts, unable even to lift their heads, one Buddha-interval, two Buddha-intervals, three, four, countless beings ripening in hell, exceeding calculation by one asaṅkhyeya. Likewise, in the realms of demons, animals, and ghosts, with bodies so tiny, like a quarter, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth part of a sesame seed, sitting in a space on the ground just the size of a fingertip, the number of these tiny beings also exceeds calculation. Who indeed could count them, except for those with psychic powers? Blinded by delusion, not knowing the dark or bright fortnight, they pass through hundreds or thousands of Buddhas arising, without hearing the word "Buddha." Thus, even obtaining human existence is rare. Even when human existence is obtained, the time of a Buddha's arising is exceedingly rare. Even in the time of a Buddha's arising, to have right view and the opportunity for wholesome actions, known as the opportune moment, is rare. A teacher of the true Dhamma is also rare. Even then, due to physical defects, hearing the true Dhamma is rare. Thus, the various aspects of the opportune moment, such as human existence, are to be understood as rare. The opportune moment is rare, the opportune moment for wholesome actions is indeed rare. For example, in border regions, in the realms of formless beings, non-percipient beings, animals, ghosts, or hell beings, or even in the central region, with physical defects such as blindness, or even with perfect faculties, but with wrong views, there is no opportune moment for wholesome actions. For the people living in border regions, they delight and revel in the ten courses of unwholesome action, such as killing. They are of fierce nature, and do not know the qualities of the Triple Gem. For formless beings, because they lack external sound, they cannot attain the path of stream-entry, nor can they obtain the sight of the Buddha, etc. In the realms of non-percipient beings, animals, ghosts, and hell beings, even beings who have fulfilled their perfections...