මහාමේඝ 2563 නිකිණි (2019 අගෝස්තු) මස කලාපය

f.!;u nqÿrcqkaf.a ioyï idu ikafoaYh /f.k''' 21
WWW.MAHAMEGHA.LK
Ascend the Path of a Disciple
n this life, rarely can we succeed in our
endeavors without skill and effort. Without
skill, i.e. an ability to perform a task well,
our effort won't be of much use. And without
effort, even if we possess the skill, we waste our
potential and yield to complacency and laziness;
we fail to develop our skills further or reap the
most benefit from them.
When we set goals for ourselves in life,
we often envision a path of progress toward
achieving those goals. The loftier the goal,
the steeper and longer the path of progress,
yet greater is the reward. No matter what our
worldly goals in life may be—education, social
status, wealth, family, career, etc.—as disciples
of the Buddha we should not forget our goals in
practicing the Dhamma, and the looming danger
that death and rebirth entail if we fail in our
endeavors. Having gained the most opportune
moment, that is birth as a human possessing the
faculty of wisdom together with the rare chance
to hear the Dhamma proclaimed by a Buddha,
we must be heedful in making a concerted effort
toward achieving our goals in this Gautama
Buddha's Dispensation.
Just what should our goals be in the
Dispensation? How should we set them? The
Buddha's Teachings can be understood
as leading to three types of benefit, in
order of increasing happiness:
practicing the Dhamma leads
to
(1) happiness in this life,
(2) a fortunate rebirth
in heavenly realms of
greater happiness,
pleasure, and glory than the human world, and
(3) the supreme bliss of Nibbāna, the summum
bonum of the Dhamma, the end of suffering. In
order to develop toward these goals, we should
cultivate both our skill in practicing the Dhamma
and our effort in doing so. Remember, effort in
practicing the Dhamma is the constant effort
we put in to abandoning the unwholesome and
developing the wholesome.
One way by which the Buddha describes how
a noble disciple develops in the Dispensation
is the Five Powers of a Trainee (sekha bala).
A trainee is a practitioner who follows the
Noble Eightfold Path but has not yet become
an Arahant. Arahants are known as “Asekha”
meaning, ones who have completed the training.
The Buddha explains the Five Powers of a Trainee
thus:
“Monks, there are these five powers of a
trainee. What five? The power of confidence
(saddhā), the power of moral shame (hiri), the
power of moral dread (ottappa), the power
of energy (viriya), and the power of wisdom
(paññā).”
AN 5.1 – Sekhabala Saṃkhitta Sutta
These five powers of a trainee aid in the
gradual development of the path; they assist
a noble disciple in training in the path toward
Nibbāna. The power of confidence is to have
confidence in the Enlightenment of the Buddha
and his nine incomparable, world-transcending
qualities: “The Blessed One is an Arahant,
perfectly self-enlightened, accomplished in true
knowledge and conduct, traveler of the Noble
Eightfold Path, knower of the world, unsurpassed
trainer of persons to be tamed, teacher of
devas and humans, the Enlightened One, the
Blessed One.” The power of moral shame is to
be ashamed of misconduct by body, speech,
and mind and of acquiring unwholesome
qualities. The power of moral dread is similar,
that is, to dread misconduct by body, speech,
and mind, and to dread acquiring unwholesome
qualities. Further, the power of energy is the
effort to abandon the unwholesome and
develop the wholesome. The crown jewel of
the five powers of a trainee is wisdom, which
the Buddha describes as the “wisdom that
discerns arising and passing away, which is
noble and penetrative and leads to the complete
destruction of suffering.” This refers to a deep
insight into the principle of cause and effect, e.g.
the insight into the impermanence of the five
aggregates of clinging, the impermanence of
the six sense bases, Dependent Origination, etc.
It is this insight that leads to the eradication of
ignorance (avijjā) and irreversible destruction of
defilements.
With a bit of reflection, we can understand
these five powers of a trainee in practice. Even
if we haven’t yet attained any fruits of the path,
we can still base ourselves in these five powers.
If we have confidence in the Buddha, naturally
we would want to develop the wholesome
and abandon the unwholesome, with the
understanding that the former leads to our longterm
happiness while the latter begets suffering
in the grand scheme of things. Out of confidence
in the Buddha we begin to gradually understand
the biggest and the most dangerous problem in
our lives—that we are trapped in a potentially
endless cycle of birth and death, victims of
suffering and our own kamma. To gain such
a perspective, and to understand deeply the
ramifications of unwholesome actions by body,
speech, and mind, we no longer act for our own
detriment—we have developed the qualities of
moral shame (hiri) and moral dread (ottappa).
Moral shame and moral dread thus support
virtue, since they protect us from entering
upon the unwholesome. The Buddha explains
that actually all five of the powers of a trainee
function in this way as barriers against the
unwholesome:
“Monks, there is no entering
upon the unwholesome so long as
confidence, moral shame, moral dread,
energy, and wisdom are securely
settled in cultivating wholesome qualities. But
when confidence, moral shame, moral dread,
energy, and wisdom have disappeared and
lack of confidence, moral shame, moral dread,
energy, and wisdom obsesses one, then there is
the entering upon the unwholesome.”
AN 5.6 (condensed) – Akusala Samāpatti Sutta
As we discussed earlier, a concerted effort
is necessary in practicing the Dhamma. Why?
Because it is no easy matter to develop
wholesome qualities. For a long time in saṃsāra
we have cultivated the unwholesome and
thus are our minds habituated. To develop
the wholesome is to go “against the stream”
(paṭisotaṃ)—against the stream of the
materialism and antinomianism of modern,
globalized society, against the stream of our
desires and defilements of mind.
Gradually, with the support of these five
powers of a trainee, the Dhamma practitioner
develops the Noble Eightfold Path within
themselves, progressing successively to higher
stages of realization. We are not necessarily out
for quick progress, rather, with much patience,
if we can develop gradually by practicing the
right path over a long period—that is valuable.
However fast we might travel down the wrong
path, we will never succeed in reaching our
destination. Traversing the right path, however
slowly, always means progress: step-by-step one
day we will reach our goal.
By a Venerable Thero of
Mahamevnawa Meditation Monastery