..续本文上一页kers. They also became arahats.

　　Thus, when sixty people had become arahats, he declared to them the well-known historic exhortation:

　　Caratha, bhikkhave, cārikaṃ

　　Bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya—

　　Go your ways, O monks!

　　for the welfare of many, for the benefit of many, out of compassion for the world.

　　(Vinaya Piṭaka, Mahāvagga 32, Mārakathā)

　　He declared, “Let not two go in the same direction”. Two bhikkhus should not travel together. They should go separately to different places so that more and more people can learn and benefit from Dhamma. He exhorted them to: “Teach the Dhamma that is beneficial in the beginning, beneficial in the middle and beneficial in the end; absolutely complete and totally pure”.

　　If one practises only sīla (morality), the starting point of this pure path of Dhamma, one becomes happy in this life and gets pine happiness after death. If one practises samādhi (concentration of mind), the middle part of Dhamma, one enjoys the bliss of absorption and after death gets brahmic happiness. And if one gets rid of all the kammas (conditionings) through the practice of paññā (penetrating wisdom)—the final part of the Path—then one experiences the infinite happiness of nibbāna and after death attains the eternal, steadfast and deathless state. In this manner, the Noble Eightfold Path is absolutely complete; there is no need to add anything to it. It is absolutely pure; it contains no impurity that needs to be removed.

　　These sixty arahats, with compassionate hearts, helped many others throughout their lives. They had only one aim: bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya—the benefit and happiness of many.

　　In the remaining forty-five years of his life, the Buddha trained thousands of arahats to guide others; and he himself travelled to many places to distribute the nectar of Dhamma. His entire life was spent in distributing happiness. This Samaṇa tradition continued to teach Vipassana, which liberated innumerable people for centuries after the Buddha.

　　These unfortunate comments—that the Buddha”s motive in leaving home was not to help others; that he should have sought the ultimate truth while remaining at home—how will they be viewed by those people of the neighbouring countries of India who know the facts about benevolent Vipassana and by those who know the words of the Buddha and know that he worked day and night for the good, benefit and happiness of many

　　 We are making a laughing stock of ourselves in front of our neighbours who know the truth about the Buddha. Let us not repeat these mistakes.

　　The Buddha has also been criticized for leaving behind his young wife and new-born child and his tearful parents. The critics forget that Siddhattha, after attaining enlightenment, helped them to gain the infinite happiness of liberation. If he had remained at home, he would have been able to give them only the lesser happiness of worldly comforts and companionship. Instead, his entire family attained full liberation. For centuries, serious Vipassana meditators have known through personal experience that this happiness of liberation from defilements is far superior to worldly happiness.

《For the Happiness and Welfare of Many》全文阅读结束。