Venerable Pandita,

We also read in the "Greater Discourse on the Elephant's
Footprint" (M 28) that if equanimity does not persist in the bhikkhu,
he should arouse a sense of urgency (sa.mvega.m aapajjati). A sense
of urgency to develop right understanding at this very moment.
We are bound to be distressed about an unpleasant experience such as
an insult or a loss of dear people, but when we begin to develop
pa~n~naa we can gradually learn from such an experience. Sometimes,
when there are conditions, we may even be glad and full of confidence
in the Triple Gem, as we also read in this sutta:
< Tassa ce aavuso bhikkhuno eva.m Buddha.m anussarato eva.m Dhamma.m
anussarato eva.m Sa"nga.m anussarato
But if, when a bhikkhu recollects the Enlightened One, the Teaching
and the Community,
upekhaa kusalanissitaa sa.n.thaati, so tena attamano hoti...
equanimity with the beneficial (kusala dhamma) as its support,
becomes established in him, then he is satisfied.>

Chapter I of the Visuddhimagga deals with siila, and passages on the
fourfold purification of siila can also be partly applied by a
layfollower in his own situation. We read in the Visuddhimagga (I,
100, 101), that restraint of the sense faculties should be undertaken
with mindfulness, and <When not undertaken thus, virtue of Patimokkha
restraint is unenduring: it does not last, like a crop not fenced in
with branches...>
Also laypeople can remember that without satipa.t.thaana one is bound
to give in to akusala in thought, speech and action, there will be
impatience and intolerance.
We read in Vis. I, 49-51:
<Proper resort as support: a good friend. Proper resort as guarding.
Proper resort as anchoring:<It is the four foundations of mindfulness
on which the mind is anchored; for this is said by the Blessed
One:'Bhikkhus, what is a bhikkhu's resort, his own native place? It
is these four "foundations of mindfulness" (S.V, 148).>
These are like an anchor both for monks and laypeople.

The following text of the Diigha Nikaaya, Mahaaparibbaanasutta (80)
shows clearly the impact of aniccaa sa~n~naa and anattaa sa~n~naa on
siila, good morality as to thought, speech and action. This
encouraging text that refers to the Order of monks is also beneficial
for laypeople:

<So long as the brethren shall exercise themselves in the realization
of the ideas of the impermanency of all phenomena, bodily and mental,
the absence [in them of any abiding principle] of any "soul", of
corruption, of the danger of wrong thoughts, of the necessity of
getting rid of them, of purity of heart, of Nibbaana- so long may the
brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper.>

**********
With respect,

Nina.



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