In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [89]
18. “But here, student, some man or woman visits an ascetic or a brahmin and asks: ‘Venerable sir, what is wholesome?… What kind of action will lead to my welfare and happiness for a long time?’ Because of performing and undertaking such action … he is reborn in a good destination.… But if instead he comes back to the human state, then wherever he is reborn he is wise. This is the way, student, that leads to wisdom, namely, one visits an ascetic or brahmin and asks such questions.
19. “Thus, student, the way that leads to short life makes people short-lived, the way that leads to long life makes people long-lived; the way that leads to sickliness makes people sickly, the way that leads to health makes people healthy; the way that leads to ugliness makes people ugly, the way that leads to beauty makes people beautiful; the way that leads to being uninfluential makes people uninfluential, the way that leads to being influential makes people influential; the way that leads to poverty makes people poor, the way that leads to wealth makes people wealthy; the way that leads to low birth makes people low born, the way that leads to high birth makes people high born; the way that leads to stupidity makes people stupid, the way that leads to wisdom makes people wise.
20. “Beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions; they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. It is action that distinguishes beings as inferior and superior.”
21. When this was said, the brahmin student Subha, Todeyya’s son, said to the Blessed One: “Magnificent, Master Gotama! Magnificent, Master Gotama!… [as in preceding text] … Let Master Gotama accept me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge from today until life’s end.”
(MN 135: Cūḷakammavibhaṅga Sutta; III 202–6)
2. MERIT: THE KEY TO GOOD FORTUNE
(1) Meritorious Deeds
“Monks, do not fear meritorious deeds. This is an expression denoting happiness, what is desirable, wished for, dear, and agreeable, that is, meritorious deeds. For I know full well, monks, that for a long time I experienced desirable, wished for, dear, and agreeable results from often performing meritorious deeds.
“Having cultivated for seven years a mind of loving-kindness, for seven eons of contraction and expansion I did not return to this world. Whenever the eon contracted I reached the plane of streaming radiance, and when the eon expanded I arose in an empty divine mansion. And there I was Brahmā, the great Brahmā, the unvanquished victor, the all-seeing, the all-powerful. Thirty-six times I was Sakka, ruler of the devas. And many hundreds of times I was a wheel-turning monarch, righteous, a king of righteousness, conqueror of the four regions of the earth, maintaining stability in the land, in possession of the seven treasures. What need is there to speak of mere local kingship?
“It occurred to me, monks, to wonder: ‘Of what kind of deed of mine is this the fruit? Of what deed’s ripening am I now of such great accomplishment and power?’ And then it occurred to me: ‘It is the fruit of three kinds of deeds of mine, the ripening of three kinds of deeds that I am now of such great accomplishment and power: deeds of giving, of self-mastery, and of refraining.’”
(It 22; 14–15)
(2) Three Bases of Merit
“There are, O monks, three ways of making merit. What three? There are ways of making merit by giving, by moral discipline, and by the development of meditation.
“There is a person who has practiced the making of merit by giving only to a limited degree; and, likewise to a limited degree, he has practiced the making