Once the blessed one asked Ven. Arhath Maha Kassapa Thero to advice other bhikkus, and share the noble Dhamma words with them. Then Ven. Maha Kassapa the great Arhath said, it is difficult to advise or share the noble Dhamma current bhikkus, as they refuse to take advice, they refuse to listen to noble words, they are impatient and do not accept instruction respectfully. So, these days it’s hard to admonish and they should expect a decline, not growth, in skillful qualities. By saying that Ven. Kassapa shared the above mentioned simile with the blessed one!
You can read the full sutta in here >>
So, my dear Dhamma friends this unfortunate situation is still the same. Those who are dedicate honestly, follow the path of liberation successfully. But more of the them are behaving exactly the same way as when. Kassapa thero explained.
So, my dear Dhamma friends, look inside… look within… look among which kind you are at the moment.
If you have faith, you know you can expect the growth in skillful qualities. If you are honest & faithful in what you are doing you listen to others no matter what, and that pure listening causing you to realize what you were not realized before and dig deep into what you already knew. Faith is the seed my friends, faith is the beginning and faith is everything. Without faith, there will be no chance for wisdom. Without faith you won’t seek for the noble ones… without faith there is no drive for the search of noble words… without faith there is no seek for a noble path… without faith there is no drive for a noble achievement. Therefor my friends, faith is the seed which brings the humongous tree of wisdom. So, check within how faith grows within. Check whether you have the quality of listening to anyone by respecting their view. If your faith is powerful enough, you can listen to anyone openly. If your faith is strong, you respect every being, if your faith is strong, your heart is filled with gratitude and you respect the rules & virtue. This noble faith makes you grow with the skillful quality. Because you are listening is clear and not spoiled with your agitated mind & its opinions.
This listening is the key to open your door of wisdom. You start to realize what is skillful and what is not. What is sin and what are not. What to be shameful and what are not be. The more faith grows the more wisdom grows. These are attached to each other. None of them are surviving without each other. There is NO WISDOM without FAITH and there is NO FAITH without WISDOM. You can understand this link through listening to the noble words only. The more you aware about the unknown… the more you understand about the reality you won’t be lazy anymore for this search. The seed of faith growing as a beautiful tree with all the nourishments its required.
The more you have faith the more you have wisdom… you earn the sense of shame, you know what is wrong doing and you feel shame & afraid to do, you won’t be lazy anymore to develop your skills in the noble path… you are no more angry or hateful… you feel only the growth not the decline.
So, there shouldn’t be any excuse by saying that “We are lay people, we are not bhikkus… we can’t dedicate that much… also we are bhikkus therefor we know everything, as lay people you can't dedicate enough to achieve the best... etc” The noble path is not only for those who wear robs. What you wear or where you stay is not the key factors to develop the skillful and achieve the noble achievements. This sutta explanations itself is a good example of that. Even if you are bhikku or nun if you have those qualities of disrespects, no faith, no wisdom, no shame of wrongdoing, no fear of doing sin, anger, hateful, not respecting to the noble words you are not counted as a true disciple of the noble path. Even if you believe that you are a noble one, yet still have these qualities of decline you are deceiving yourself only.
So, my dear Dhamma friends, it’s only the pure dedication what matters. No matter what you wear, what you do, where you stay or what religion you follows. You just have to listen to what you aren't yet listened. If you believe that you listened enough and no need to listen to anything else, that moment onward you are close to the skillful path and reality. You are developing the path of decline.
So, there are lots which we all are still unaware of. Making assumptions from the little we know is the worst mistake we do in our life. And the worst case is that we are not even aware of that we are making assumptions only not knowing the truth. So, let’s dedicate to know what is still unknown to us my dear friend. Let’s break through the illusion of truth to see the real truth. Let’s not deceive by the fact we collect through assumptions. Coz the assumptions my friends are the mother of all messed ups! Have a blessed time with the noble words!
