Most Venerable Bhante Walpola Piyananda's 80th Birthday Celebrating - Collected Essays

Buddha would often pay a visit to where they were staying and supply
whatever they needed.
Two such important events are worth mentioning. One day
the Buddha and Ananda went to a monastery where their monks were
practicing vipassana. They came to an isolated hut where there was
one sick monk suffering from a serious ulcerous skin disease. He was
alone, neglected, lying on a bed with his robe stuck to his body with
blood and pus. The Buddha and Ananda prepared some warm water.
The Buddha sponging warm water on him, slowly removed the robes,
which Ananda then washed. When the robes were dry, the Buddha had
the patient don his robes and lie down on a comfortable bed. Then the
Buddha expounded his teaching to the refreshed monk. At the end of
the discourse, the monk attained arahantship.
On another occasion the Buddha, when seeing a monk lying
helpless, suffering from dysentery, heated some water and tended the
sick monk. Then the Buddha said, “Monks, one who attends to the sick
is one who properly attends to me.”
There are many similar incidents that show the Buddha’s
compassion. Apart from teaching the way to Nibbana, he helped
people in all sorts of ways. Some writers have mistakenly stated that
Buddhism deals only with renouncing the world, but not with the
welfare of the world. On this point, they are entirely wrong, being
misled and also misleading others. The Buddha did not expound the
nature of suffering to everyone. Only to the spiritually mature people
who wanted to attain Nibbana. To others, he gave other instructions
that suited their temperament; to help them become more generous,
compassionate and successful people.
His had an orderly way of teaching, expounding a gradual
self-training (anupubba-patipada). He started with the practice
of generosity. Then continuing with: morality, the merits of these
practices, the vanity of sense pleasures, the advantages of the higher
religious life, and finally the Four Noble Truths. On other occasions he
preached and advised lay people on the value of earning wealth, how to
look after one’s family, how to govern a family as well as a country, the
duties toward one’s family, the duties toward friends, and in general,
the way to offer service to anyone in need.
In brief, the path shown by the Buddha consists of three factors:
sila (character building), samadhi (development of concentration of
mind for peace and tranquility) and panna (development of wisdom).
By building good character, which is the starting point or
first step of the path, one becomes compassionate, virtuous, honest,
righteous, and of service both to himself and others.
By developing concentration using the Buddha’s teachings,
one is easily able to control one’s mind. By avoiding temptation one
invites ease, comfort, tranquility and peace to one’s heart and mind.
By developing insight one acquires wisdom. Utilizing insight
one looks within to gradually root out unwholesome states of mind. By
fulfilling the Noble Eightfold Path one completely eradicates craving
(lobha), hatred (dosa) and ignorance (avijja), the root causes of one’s
suffering.
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The Buddha: The First Psychologist
To paraphrase a common Buddhist saying, “All human beings
are somewhat mentally ill until they are enlightened.” (“Sabbe putujana
ummataka.”) Looking at this statement from a different direction we
might say, “The only cure for mental illness is enlightenment.”
The Buddha’s teachings emphasize the mind more than any
other element or component of the human experience. Mind is truly
the key to everything. The Buddha, characteristically way ahead of
his time, taught so much about the mind and analyzed its functions
so completely, that we can easily give him the title of “World’s First
Psychologist.”
In the second verse of the Dhammapada, the Buddha says:
“Mind precedes all mental states,
mind is their chief;
they are all mind-wrought.
If with a pure mind
a person speaks or acts,
happiness follows a like
never-departing shadow.”
The Buddha spoke countless times about “seeing things
clearly as they are,” which is a necessary requirement for attaining
enlightenment, as well as a necessary factor for achieving a happy,
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