..續本文上一頁at dirt, like an earthworm. If you complain about poverty, if you become mired in feeling how unfortunate you are, the earthworm will ask, “Don”t feel too sorry for yourself. Don”t you still have arms and legs and bones

　　 I don”t have those things, yet I don”t feel poor.” The earthworm will shame us like this.

　　One day a hog farmer came to see me. He was complaining, “Oh man, this year it”s really too much! The price of feed is up. The price of pork is down. I”m losing my shirt!”

　　I listened to his laments, then I said, “Don”t feel too sorry for yourself, Sir. If you were a pig, then you”d have good reason to feel sorry for yourself. When the price of pork is high, the pigs are slaughtered. When the price of pork is low, the pigs are still slaughtered. The pigs really have something to complain about. The people shouldn”t be complaining. Think about this seriously, please.”

　　He was only worried about the prices he was getting. The pigs have a lot more to worry about, but we don”t consider that. We”re not being killed, so we can still try to find a way to get by.

　　I really believe that if you listen to the Dharma, contemplating it and understanding it, you can make an end of your suffering. You know what is right to do, what you need to do, what you need to use and spend. You can live your life according to sila and Dharma, applying wisdom to worldly matters. But most of us are far from that. We don”t have morality or Dharma in our lives, so our lives are filled with discord and friction. There is discord between husbands and wives, discord between children and parents. Children don”t listen to their parents, just because of lack of Dharma in the family. People aren”t interested in hearing the Dharma and learning anything, so instead of developing good sense and skillfulness, they remain mired in ignorance, and the result is lives of suffering.

　　The Buddha taught Dharma and set out the way of practice. He wasn”t trying to make our lives difficult. He wanted us to improve, to become better and more skillful. It”s just that we don”t listen. This is pretty bad. It”s like a little child who doesn”t want to take a bath in the middle of winter because it”s too cold. He starts to stink so much that the parents can”t even sleep at night, so they grab hold of him and give him a bath. That makes him mad, and he cries and curses his father and mother.

　　The parents and the child see the situation differently. For the child, it”s too uncomfortable to take a bath in the winter. For the parents, the child”s smell is unbearable. The two views can”t be reconciled. The Buddha didn”t simply want to leave us as we are. He wanted us to be diligent and work hard in ways that are good and beneficial and to be enthusiastic about the right path. Instead of being lazy, we have to make efforts. His teaching is not something that will make us foolish or useless. He teaches us how to develop and apply wisdom to whatever we are doing, working, farming, raising a family, managing our finances, being aware of all aspects of these things. If we live in the world, we have to pay attention and know the ways of the world. Otherwise we end up in dire straits.

　　We live in a place where the Buddha and his Dharma are familiar to us. But then we get the idea that all we need to do is go hear teachings and then take it easy, living our lives as before. That is badly mistaken. How would the Buddha have attained any knowledge like that

　　 There would never have been a Buddha.

　　He taught about the various kinds of wealth: the wealth of human life, the wealth of the heaven realm, the wealth of Nirvana. Those with Dharma, even though they are living in the world, are not poor. Even though they may be poor, they don”t suffer over it. When we live according to Dharma, we feel no dis…

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