The reason Nagarjuna encourages the king to ordain is not because the king is weak-minded. Nor is he directing the king to neglect his duties or escape from his responsibilities. Rather, sentient beings’ minds are filled with afflictions and to prevent them from harming each other, the king would have to inflict harm on them, thus creating a lot of nonvirtuous karma. Instead of being entangled in that samsaric web, it would be better for the king to become a monastic. That way he would create less destructive karma and it would send a strong message to his subjects that living according to the Dharma is more important than the power, glory, and wealth of kingship.
This completes the commentary on part IV of the Precious Garland, “Royal Policy: Instructions on the Practices of a Monarch.”
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34.This does not contradict verses 347–48, where it says that while pleasure is the decrease of suffering, pain is not the decrease of pleasure. Those verses clarified the nature of pleasure — it isn’t actual pleasure because it is simply the decrease of suffering. Verse 362 indicates that because we mistakenly think a state of less suffering is inherently existent pleasure, we then think pain newly arises when that supposed pleasure decreases. In fact, there was first a small unpleasant feeling that we called pleasure, followed by a stronger unpleasant feeling that we called pain.
35.While we use the expression “take birth in cyclic existence” for arya bodhisattvas, in fact many of them have mental bodies caused by the latencies of ignorance and unpolluted karma, and take rebirth due to their compassion and strong aspirations to benefit sentient beings. While they appear like ordinary beings who experience birth, aging, sickness, and death, they do not experience suffering, and their motivations are always altruistic.
36.Giving our body is a supreme act of generosity. We are usually faced with much easier practices; for example, forgoing a meal in order to share our food with others. The bodhisattva precepts stipulate that only arya bodhisattvas are allowed to give their bodies completely such that they give up their life. Bodhisattvas on the paths of accumulation and preparation are not permitted to do this, because continuing to practice with their present precious human lives is more beneficial for sentient beings in the long term. This is because ordinary bodhisattvas have not yet realized emptiness directly and so are not capable of controlling their next rebirth. Some may not yet be immune to lower rebirths. However, they can donate a kidney to someone who needs a transplant.
V. Practices of a Bodhisattva
12. Abandoning Afflictions and Cultivating Goodness
To be fit to engage in the bodhisattva practices, we need to reduce our afflictions and misguided behavior as much as possible. This is easier to do when we have the support of precepts and live with others who are diligently practicing the path to awakening. For these reasons, it is helpful to become a monastic. Monastics have more time and freedom to study and practice the Dharma, and their simple lifestyle is conducive to maintaining ethical conduct.
ELIMINATING FAULTS
401.Thereupon, as a monastic you should first become serious about your training,
focusing on the pratimoksha along with the Vinaya,
and also on becoming learned
and determining the meaning [of what you study].
402.Then you should eliminate those faults
that are cited in the Kshudravastuka.
Assiduously learn to recognize them,
widely known to be fifty-seven in number.
After becoming a monastic, you should be serious about your training, paying special attention to ethical conduct. Vinaya, the monastic code, delineates the prohibitive precepts — the actions monastics are to abandon — and the prescriptive precepts — the activities they are to do. The Pratimoksha Sutra, which fully ordained monastics recite every fortnight during a ceremony to purify and restore their precepts, contains the list of prohibitive precepts. The Skandhaka section of the Vinaya describes the prescriptive precepts. You should learn these, reflect on them deeply, and put them into practice. Doing this will establish a sound basis for your Dharma practice.
For lay followers, taking the five lay precepts brings similar benefit. Whether we are monastics or lay followers, involvement in destructive physical and verbal actions impedes our cultivation of bodhichitta, engagement in the bodhisattva deeds, and fulfillment of the two collections. To stop physical and verbal negativities, we must tame our mind, for without the impetus of the mind’s motivation, the body and speech do not act.
For this reason, Nagarjuna now points out fifty-seven defects in attitude and behavior that we need to diminish as much as possible and eventually forsake altogether. While you read about these fifty-seven faults in the ensuing verses, examine your mind and behavior and make many examples of when and how these faults manifest in you. Then contemplate the various antidotes to them so that when they arise, you can apply them and thus prevent these faults from taking control of your mind.
Abhidharma texts such as the Treasury of Knowledge by Vasubandhu and the Compendium of Knowledge by Asanga present the afflictive mental states in different ways. The Precious Garland was composed before either of these, and Nagarjuna relied on the enumeration of auxiliary afflictions (Skt. upaklesa) in the Kshudravastuka, an Abhidharma text that preceded Vasubandhu’s and Asanga’s treatises. In some cases, the names of the afflictions and their definitions are the same in all these texts, in other cases they are not. Do not get confused by different presentations. Rather, apply what these texts teach to your mind. With mindfulness, maintain awareness of your precepts and values; with introspective awareness, monitor which of these mental states arise in your mind. Swiftly apply Dharma antidotes when needed with a conscientiousness that cherishes ethical conduct.
403.Wrath is severe mental agitation;
rancor comes from constantly having it.
Concealment is hiding one’s negativity.
Hostility is an addiction to negativity.
1.Wrath, which arises from anger, is a strong animosity toward someone coupled with the desire to inflict harm on him. We become angry at someone or something, and when that anger builds up and becomes more intense, it becomes wrath.
2.Rancor is a strong sense of resentment due to habituating yourself to wrath over time. Similar to holding a strong grudge, it torments the mind.
3.Concealment hides our faults and negativities from others so that they won’t think we’ve done the destructive actions we have done. When others point out our misdeeds, we deny them.
4.Hostility is a stubborn liking for bad behavior such that we are not willing to give it up, even if it harms us or the people we care about.
404.Dissimulation is deceptiveness;
pretension, crookedness of mind.
Jealousy is irritation at others’ good qualities.
Miserliness is fear of giving.
5.Dissimulation refers to a way of deceiving others that uses deception to make others think that we want to benefit them when we don’t.
6.Pretension is pretending to have good qualities we don’t have so that others will think well of us.
7.Jealousy is the inability to bear others’ good qualities or opportunities due to our attachment to receiving gifts, service, or respect.
8.Miserliness is stinginess, holding tightly onto our possessions or Dharma knowledge out of fear of giving or sharing them.
405.Non-integrity is not to be ashamed of yourself;
inconsideration of others is not being embarrassed with regard to others.
Haughtiness is the incapacity of honoring others.
Fury is a mental disturbance caused by anger.
9.Non-integrity means to not refrain from bad behavior due to a lack of self-respect. An example is to knowingly transgress our precepts when no one else is around without caring about it or having a sense of self-respect. The great masters remind us that since the buddhas’ knowledge encompasses all phenomena, they are aware of our actions. This prevents us from
recklessly thinking we can do whatever we like as long as no one else knows.
10.Inconsideration of others refers to not refraining from bad behavior because we do not care about the impact it has on others. An example is behaving in a careless, unbecoming, or harmful way in front of others — friends, colleagues, or even our spiritual mentors — and not caring about the effect it has on them or how they view our conduct.
11.Haughtiness is an inflated sense of self that makes us unable to honor or respect those worthy of respect. Based on some small good quality we may have, we get puffed up and don’t want to show respect to those who have genuine good qualities.
12.Fury is an angry mood that wishes to engage in bad behavior. It shows on our face in the form of furrowed brows, flushed complexion, and glaring eyes.
406.Being arrogant is being conceited.
To be heedless is to not apply oneself to virtue.
Pride is of seven kinds;
I will [now] explain each of them.
13.Arrogance is conceit or an inflated sense of self based on our possessions, good health, wealth, youth, social standing, learning, and so forth. It is a source of heedlessness.
14.Heedlessness is negligence and the lack of conscientiousness that wants to act in an unrestrained way without creating virtue or guarding the mind from bad activities.
15.The seven types of pride that follow are counted as one of the fifty-seven auxiliary afflictions.
407.Concerning these, the [first] is called “pride”;
it is where one thinks of oneself
as even inferior to the inferior, equal to the equal,
or greater than or equal to the inferior.
(1) The first of the seven types of pride itself has three branches. The first is thinking we are inferior to the inferior, “I am the worst of the worst.” This is actually an exaggerated sense of self and a perverse pride, because we think we are somehow special because we are the worst. We’re proud of how degenerate and depraved we are. The second branch of pride concerns thinking that we are equal to the equal — this pride enjoys competing with others. The third thinks we are greater than or equal to the inferior. Like the others, this form of pride is based on comparing ourselves to others, but the conclusion is that we are better than or equal to those we consider degenerate, lowly, or inferior people.
408.It is presumptive pride for one to presume
that one is equal to someone who is better.
If one presumes oneself to be
even better than one’s betters,
409.this is pride beyond pridefulness,
thinking oneself to be even loftier than the lofty.
It is excessively bad,
like developing sores on top of one’s boils.
(2) Presumptive pride refers to thinking we are equal to someone who is in fact better than us. For example, someone has a good trait, and we think we’re just as good as she is when in fact we aren’t.
(3) Pride beyond pridefulness is being particularly presumptuous, thinking that we are more excellent than the people who are superior to us. This type of pride is over the top, and for that reason it’s compared to developing sores on top of boils. Having a boil is bad enough but to have sores on top of a boil means we think we’re the best of the best. Nothing good is going to come from this, for it leads to rebirth in an unfortunate realm. Even when someone with pride beyond pridefulness is born as a human being, the person is ugly, stupid, and humiliated by others.
410.The five empty aggregates
are called “the appropriated.”
When one apprehends them as I,
this is called the conceit of thinking “I am.”
(4) The conceit of thinking “I am” is based on grasping the I as truly existent. It misapprehends the five aggregates, believing they truly exist, and then grasps a truly existent person in dependence on them. Based on this misapprehension of the aggregates that are the basis of designation of the person, this conceit proudly thinks, “I am.” In fact, both the aggregates and the person are empty of true existence.
411.To presume that one has attained a result
that one has not attained is to have conceited pride.
The wise know that boasting
about one’s negative deeds is erroneous pride.
(5) Conceited pride leads us to believe we have attained a result on the path that we haven’t. For example, we think, “I’ve realized emptiness,” when we’ve just had an unusual experience in meditation, or we think, “I am a bodhisattva” because one day our meditation on compassion went better than usual.
(6) Erroneous pride refers to boasting about our misdeeds. For example, we succeed in taking revenge on someone who harmed us in the past and feel especially proud of ourselves for accomplishing this. We relish our defiance and are proud of our harmful actions.
412.Deriding oneself, thinking,
“I cannot manage,”
is the pride of inferiority.
Such are the seven forms of pride, in brief.
(7) The pride of inferiority makes us feel overwhelmed and leads us to think, “I’m unable to cope with this.” It also arouses depression, which thinks we are useless and no one cares about us. Holding such a wrong view of ourselves makes us demoralized, causes self-pity, and discourages us from engaging in virtue.
In brief in this verse could mean that this is a summary of what is explained in the Abhidharma Sutra or that it’s the summary of many other different types of pride.
413.Hypocrisy is to restrain the senses
for the sake of acquisition and respect.
Flattery is to utter primarily pleasant phrases
for the sake of acquisition and respect.
16.Nagarjuna now returns to the remaining fifty-seven afflictions, where the next five consist of the five wrong livelihoods. Hypocrisy refers to restraining our senses so that we look like an excellent Dharma practitioner in order to receive offerings, service, or respect from others.
17.Flattery is saying nice things to people with the intention that they will give us offerings or respect. This is very different from the virtuous practice of praising others’ good qualities.
414.Hinting is praising others’ possessions
so that one might obtain them.
Harassment is openly deriding others
in order to acquire something from them.
415.The desire to acquire things through what has been acquired
is to praise what has already been acquired.
Carping is constantly remarking
on the mistakes that others have made.
18.Hinting is praising others’ possessions in the hopes of obtaining them.
19.Harassment is criticizing others — for example, accusing someone of being stingy or playing favorite in order to get something for ourselves. It is a form of coercion that puts someone in such an uncomfortable position that he will give us what we want.
20.Insinuation is the desire to acquire things by praising what we have received before with the hope that the person will give it to us again. This is the last of the five wrong livelihoods, which apply especially to monastics.
21.Carping or nagging is constantly talking about others’ mistakes, reminding them of their errors, and discussing them with others as well.
416.Stupefaction is the state of being overwhelmed
that comes from not thinking clearly or from illness.
Boredom is the attachment of the lazy
when they are deprived of what they need to support themselves.
417.Discrimination of differences is an attitude
obscured by attachment, aversion, and confusion.
The failure to examine one’s mind
is what is called inattention.
22.Stupefaction refers to being irritated, unable to think clearly, and feeling overwhelmed. It may come from illness or dissatisfaction.
23.Boredom is another kind of stupefaction. It arises due to dissatisfact
ion, laziness, and not having what you need. It can be caused by a lazy person’s attachment to his inferior possessions.
24.Discrimination of differences is, for example, discriminating between self and others, between what I want and don’t want, or between friend and enemy. Such discriminations are caused by attachment, aversion, and confusion.
25.Inattention is the opposite of introspective awareness. It does not monitor what is going on in our mind and is unaware if the mind is virtuous or nonvirtuous, or if it is under the influence of attachment, anger, or ignorance.
418.Not treating spiritual mentors in the manner of the Blessed One
is the loss of respect that occurs
due to being lazy about concordant activities.
It is agreed that this makes one a negative person.
419.Longing is a lesser mental obscuration
that comes from desirous attachment.
Obsession comes from lusting for something;
it is an extreme mental obscuration.
26.Loss of respect occurs when, out of laziness, we don’t show respect for those who are worthy of respect — such as our spiritual mentors. This behavior is contradictory to what the Buddha prescribed.
27.Becoming a negative person refers to a spiritual teacher who is supposed to be teaching the Dharma but instead teaches an incorrect doctrine. Such a person is to be avoided.
28.Desirous attachment may be great, middling, or small. Longing arises from the smaller kind of desirous attachment. For example, when we think something is beautiful, longing for it will ensnarl us in sense objects and thus cause us to be entangled in cyclic existence. As we’ll see in the next several auxiliary afflictions, there are many different kinds of attachment that differ in terms of strength or in terms of the object they desire.
Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness Page 37