Part One:

　　Inner Wealth

　　The Last Sermon

　　"On February 19, 1956, Khun Nai Thawngmuan Siasakun invited Phra Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo to deliver a sermon for Khun Thao Satyanurak in Nekkhamma House, Wat Boromnivas. This sermon — which Khun Thao Satya listened to quietly, with her hands folded in respect as she lay on her sickbed — was the last sermon she ever heard. When it was over, I approached her and said, ”If you die, I”d like to jot down this sermon and have it printed to distribute at your funeral.” She smiled with her eyes, nodded slightly to show her approval, and asked, ”Can you remember it all

　　” ”Not all of it, ” I answered, ”but at least some of it.” So she reviewed a few of the points for me. She seemed delighted and moved by the taste of the Dhamma all the while she spoke. Thus I have written out this summary of what I can remember of the sermon:"

　　namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa.

　　ayudo balado dhiro”ti.

　　Now I will discuss a point from the Buddha”s teachings for you to listen to briefly as a means of fostering strength of body and strength of mind. All of us live in dependence on strength of body and strength of mind. Without these two things, life couldn”t last.

　　Strength of body, no matter how much we may foster it with the four necessities and with worldly wealth, can”t help but waste away and vanish by its very nature. It can”t escape from aging, illness, and death. And for strength of body to exist, it needs help from strength of mind. But strength of mind doesn”t need to depend on the four necessities or worldly wealth; and it doesn”t need to depend on strength of body at all. It can get along solely on ”Noble Wealth.” So strength of mind is more important than strength of body.

　　People who don”t have enough strength of their own have to start out by hoping to depend on others until they reach the point where they can stand on their own. In depending on others, we have to be careful in choosing a good mainstay, in line with the Pali phrase, asevana ca balanam, panditanañca sevana: We have to choose good people to associate with. If we associate with wise people and sages, they”ll teach us to be good. If we associate with fools, we”ll suffer for it.

　　So searching for a mainstay of this sort doesn”t rank as being really good, because it”s like shooting a bird: We might hit it on the wing or on the tail. If we really want to be right on target, we have to depend on another sort of mainstay: atta hi attano natho, we have to depend on ourselves. This sort of mainstay the Lord Buddha praised as being the highest because it will teach us to have a sense of our own good and bad actions — ”kammassako”mhi” — and we won”t need to go pinning our hopes on other people any more.

　　To create this sort of mainstay, we have to develop five qualities — conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment — which are called bala, or strengths, that will help give us the strength of mind to stride toward the good. All five of these qualities can be gathered under the headings of virtue, concentration, and discernment. Conviction comes under virtue; persistence, mindfulness and concentration come under concentration; and discernment is discernment.

　　To have conviction is tantamount to having wealth. Virtue is like a white cloth that enwraps the body and makes it beautiful, just as the petals of a lotus enwrap the scent of its pollen. Virtue is the act of abandoning that cuts away evil and corruption from our deeds so that our deeds will be honest and upright. This is virtue, but it”s not the ultimate good. When our body has virtue, our mind needs rectitude to go with it.

　　Persistence means diligence, determination, perseverance, being audacious and unrelenting in what we do, so as to be strong in p…

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