The Power of Goodness

　　by

　　Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo

　　(Phra Suddhidhammaransi Gambhiramedhacariya)

　　Wat Asokaram, October 4, 1960

　　Translated from the Thai by

　　Thanissaro Bhikkhu

　　The goodness we”ve been developing here: don”t forget it. It”s bound to bear fruit. Don”t underestimate it, thinking that the little things we”ve been doing here won”t bear much fruit. Don”t underestimate it at all.

　　There are examples from the time of the Buddha. Some of the monks and novices, after ordaining, weren”t able to cut through their defilements. They were only able to thin them out a bit, so they got discouraged and disrobed. After disrobing they had to find a livelihood: sometimes in ways that were honest, sometimes in ways that were not. Those who got involved in dishonest ways were caught by the civil authorities and imprisoned.

　　One example was a student of Sariputta. He ordained to develop his goodness, but when he didn”t get the results he had hoped for he disrobed and became a thief. After a while he was caught and sentenced to death. Before he was to be executed, the civil authorities decided to torture him for seven days as an example to the general public so as to discourage other people from breaking the law. The king ordered his officials to sharpen some wood and iron spears to a super-fine point, to plant them in rows, and then to have the thief sit and lie on the spear points so that they would skewer his body, causing him to be bathed in blood and to experience excruciating pain. They would do this three times a day — morning, noon, and evening — calling the people of the city to come and see an example of how thieves have to suffer.

　　The plan was to have the thief tortured like this for seven days and then to behead him, but the thief still had some good karma left over from the time he had studied with Sariputta. Sariputta had taught him to follow some of the ascetic practices and to meditate, and he had been able to develop his mind to the level of the first jhana. But the first jhana wasn”t enough to withstand his defilements and cravings, which is why he had disrobed.

　　It so happened that on the sixth day, Sariputta, through his great compassion — after all, there were times when he, in the Buddha”s stead, had helped teach the populace to practice the Dhamma — used the powers of his meditation to check up on his students who were still ordained, as well as those who had disrobed to return to the lay life, to see where they were and how they were doing. Because of the goodness that the thief had developed with Sariputta, a light appeared to Sariputta in which he saw that his student was being tortured and was scheduled to be beheaded the next day. On seeing this, Sariputta contemplated the student”s reserves of goodness, seeing that he still had some potential, but that it had all withered. Even so, some of the goodness he had developed was still buried there inside him. Even though defilements had enwrapped his heart, there was still some goodness there.

　　On realizing this, Sariputta went on his almsround in the early morning to the area where his student was being tortured. His student was lying on his bed of spears as Sariputta came near. The place was thronged with people running around in excitement, some of them excited about seeing Sariputta, some of them excited about seeing the thief being tortured. It so happened that the crowd parted briefly, enough for Sariputta”s student to see the edge of his teacher”s robe. Sariputta spread thoughts of good will, which the student could feel and which served as a guarantee of his presence, but that was as close as he could get.

　　On seeing Sariputta the student felt overjoyed, thinking, "Tomorrow I”m going to have to take my leave of my teacher — I”m going to be executed." At…

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