5th Issue (September, 2007)

Significance of Vyagghapajja-Sutta (AN)

By Wong Weng Hon

Introduction

The Vyagghapajja-sutta (A.N) of the Theravāda tradition  is the Gotama Buddha discourse on the Conditions of Welfare expounded for the material or financial  and spiritual development of the lay Buddhists. The Exalted One admonishes the lay Buddhist adherents or devotees to preserve a balanced development between material dimension and the spiritual dimension to construct personal ethical ideal so as to help realize the social ideal. As long as a lay Buddhist amasses and expands his or her material or finiancial wealth ethically or righteously through Right Livelihood (Sammā Ajīva)1 , the Moral Law of Action and Reaction (Kamma-Vipāka Dhamma) will reward the ethical or righteous individual correspondingly.2 Master Gotama Buddha also categorically reminds every individual to be heedful or vigilant not to permit the emotions of greed (lobha) or greed (dosa)3 to assail one’s mind in the process of acquisition and accumulation of material or financial wealth. The retributive justice of the Law of Moral Accountability will also impose corresponding punishment or penalty on each and every evil action committed.4

Four-fold Value System

Gotama Buddha promulgates that four-fold value system which incorporate the Buddhist mundane and supra-mundane  Right View (Sammā diṭṭhi), the first item of the Noble Eight Fold Path (Ariya- Aṭṭhangika Magga).5 They are to guide the material or financial development of an individual  to construct personal harmony and wellbeing as well as for contributing in the construction of social harmony and welfare for his or her own  family, his or her work place  and the society in which he or she is dwelling. The collective wholesome kammas  of the members of a particular human society, in turn, construct the sum  total of the harmony, peace and prosperity of the human society. In the Vyagghapajja-sutta (AN), Gotama Buddha expounded the four-fold value  system  enumerated as follows:

1. Confidence (Saddhā)
2. Virtue        (Sīla)
3.Liberality    (Cāga/Dāna)
4. Wisdom    (Paññā)

A genuine Buddhist ought to develop pure faith or strong conviction or confidence in Master Gotama Buddha in the sense that the master is a great saint or perfect master who had gained supreme enlightenment and developed great compassion and wisdom to liberate all sentient beings from suffering or anguish (dukkha). The Exalted One was not only the liberated instructor, teacher and tamer of the human beings but also of the heavenly beings (devas).  A lay Buddhist ought to restrain himself or herself from committing evils or unwholesome kammas by not transgressing the five moral injunctions6 of Gotama Buddha (Five Precepts; Pañcasīlas). The  Five Precepts are refraining from destruction of lives, refraining from taking what is not given or thefts, refraining from improper sexual relations, refraining from untruthfulness and refraining from self-intoxications. In addition to these moral restraints, a lay Buddhist is expected to complement these five moral restraints with the corresponding wholesome actions or virtues. These corresponding virtues are lovingkindness (mettā) and compassion (karuṇā), generous giving (dāna), propriety, truthfulness, and heedfulness or vigilance. Liberality in Buddhism or any other religions is selfless performance of charity in the sense of non-expectation of any future reward for doing good. The wisdom refers to the discernment of the true nature of the contigent phenomena of the multiplicity7 of the empirical world. The appearances of the multiplicity are mere cosmic illusions as they are merely the diversifying differentiations of the conventional Truth (sammuti sacca) erroneously, mentally constructed entities due to human ignorance (Avijjā)8 and resultant perversion (vipariyāsa)9 . The Noble Eight Fold Path of Right Understanding or View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Actions, Right Livelihood, Right Efforts, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration is the Path recommended by Gotama Buddha to develop wisdom. This wisdom is the development of an individual  ethical ideal in order to construct social ideal for the human society.

Significance

When the four-fold value system recommended by Gotama Buddha are implemented in social intercourses or transactions, tensions, conflicts, ill- will, hatred, frictions, unnecessary disputations, quarrels, fights and so forth are reduced. The implementation of this four-fold value system will definitely help construct social harmony in human society. Harmonious environment is more conducive to promote and preserve unity, tranquility, goodwill, and peace. Human productivity and resultant material or economic wealth or affluence  ensue from harmonious environment. Only a balance or an equilibrium between material or physical development and spiritual development  can create an ideal citizen to create an ideal society. Spirituality not only does not collide with secularity or conventionality but in fact it harmonizes and even enhances the quality of secular or mundane life. Physical wealth supported by the wisdom of spirituality can produce more lasting bliss or can even create a heaven or pure land on Earth. Happiness in the present life will lead to happiness in the future life.

Conclusion

The Vyagghapajja-sutta (A.N) was a discourse delivered by Gotamma Buddha  in ancient India about 2,000 years ago. The discourse was a response to an entreatment of an householder to invite the Blessed One to instruct the lay devotees or householders on how to acquire and expand material or financial wealth and to safeguard wealth amassed righteously by one’s own sweats or efforts. What Gotama Buddha had admonished the ancient Indian Buddhists can still be universally applied in our modern society by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists today. A great saint like Gotama Buddha expounds universal values or truths which are eternal and are of universal application to construct success in the present life as well as for success in the future life. That, master Gotama Buddha preaches that one should earn wealth like bees which collect nectars from flowers to flowers without harming them, is a profound spiritual message to mankind. The core of this discourse is established on the Buddhist universal principle of promoting self-benefits without damaging the benefits of others. Gotama Buddha always advise us that before one acts, one should considers the possible effects or consequences thus: Before one acts, one ought to  consider whether the action will be harmful to oneself or others. If it is damaging to oneself, others or both, such an action should be abandoned. Conversely, it is beneficial to oneself and others, it ought to be committed.10.