Further to a request for talks on lust, hatred and delusion, we shall today begin by looking at some distinctions The Buddha makes between the three.
The Buddha says: Lust is a lesser fault and fades away slowly; hatred is a great fault and fades away quickly; delusion is a great fault and fades away slowly.
The Texts explain that greed or lust is a lesser fault in two ways: 1. In the eyes of the world (loka), and 2. In terms of kamma-vipāka. The Texts explain that according to the world there is nothing wrong in, for example, parents giving consent to their children getting married, even though lust is involved. And the Texts explain that if when married one observes the third precept, kāmesu micchācārā veramanī sikkhāpadaŋ samādiyāmi, which means that one is content with one’s partner, then there is for that reason no rebirth in the lower worlds. In other words, there is greedy and lustful conduct that according to the standards of civilized society is acceptable, and that kind of conduct does not lead to serious akusala kamma-vipāka; it does not prevent us from having a good rebirth.
Thus, a man may work very hard because he wants to become rich and have a big house, big car, big business, and be a big shot: so long as he fulfills his ambition in honorable ways, and his general conduct too is honorable, the world does not condemn his greed for wealth and prestige, in fact, the world praises him. The Buddha too explains that honorably earned wealth is the first of the four types of bliss available to a layman, namely the bliss of having. And the bliss of having is, of course, requisite to the second bliss, namely the bliss of giving. Many of The Buddha’s patrons were rich, some of them kings, and all over the world, even today, there are rich people who do good with their wealth, for example, the king of Saudi Arabia.
But greed is only a lesser fault within the limits allowed by civilized society. In societies that are less civilized, or in uncivilized people, greed and lust is very dangerous. This can also happen with the man who works hard in an honorable way. As he gets richer so can he get greedier, and as he gets greedier so can he begin to forget to be civilized. With money comes also power, and then there are further dangers.
Although The Buddha explained that lust is a lesser fault, He also explained that it fades away slowly. The Texts explain that lust is as hard to remove as oily soot, and that lust for particular objects or a certain person may persist throughout life, even through several lives. That is why people can follow each other through many lives: it is because of attachment and clinging. Lust is eradicated only at arahantship.
Hatred, on the other hand, was explained as being a great fault that fades away quickly. It is in the Texts explained as a great fault in the eyes of the world. It causes anger and because of anger we misbehave in body, speech and mind towards other people, such as our parents, brothers and sisters and even monks. In terms of kamma-vipāka, the mind that is consumed with hatred is a sub-human mind, and that is why if we die in anger we will have a sub-human rebirth. And hatred is why we commit the five garuka kammas (weighty kammas):killing father, mother, an arahant, with malice wounding a Buddha or causing a schism in the Sangha. The kamma-vipāka of acts of hatred can be an unhappy rebirth, and the weighty kammas are certain to lead to eons in the hottest of hells.
Usually, however, hatred fades away quickly because it has immediately unpleasant results. The intelligent person who has done something out of hatred will have remorse and know that his hatred does not make him feel happy: hence the universal and very wholesome institution of saying ‘I am sorry’. But very often people do not say: ‘I am sorry’, and ‘Please forgive me’, because of pride. For example, the proud mother or father may expect their children to apologize for being rude to them, but they will never themselves apologize for being rude to their children. Their pride is rooted in the third unwholesome root, delusion.
The Buddha explained that delusion is a great fault and fades away slowly. Delusion is, of course, the most serious of the three, because delusion accounts for acts committed out of lust and greed; delusion accounts for acts committed out of hatred; and delusion accounts for acts committed out of delusion. The Texts explain that acts of delusion are, as in the case of hatred, condemned by the world and lead to unhappy rebirths.
When the Texts say that greed and lust bridled by the third precept is accepted by society, and that acts of hatred and delusion are condemned by society, they are referring to the civilized societies of the Ganges valley in ancient India. When we read the ancient Pāli Texts, we notice that the people in those societies, whoever they were, kings and queens, ministers, headmen, Brahmins, farmers, fathers and mothers, housewives, even prostitutes, executioners and bandits, they knew what was kusala and what was akusala. That is why we read about prostitutes who offered food to monks, and who ordained as nuns; bandits who offered food to monks and who ordained as monks; Brahmins who went to argue with The Buddha and then touched their proud head to the ground and took refuge in Him; and even King Ajjātasatu, who had killed his own father, King Pasenadi, one of The Buddha’s chief patrons, he went to see The Buddha, and became a chief patron like his father. In the civilized societies of ancient India, people did evil things just as people do it today, but they knew it was evil. They had the wise men as their lodestars, and they would seek out the wise men, ask them questions, listen and reflect. That is the difference between a civilized and uncivilized society. How can a society call itself civilized if it has no wise men or women, or if it does, but does not listen to them?
The world can only condemn acts of delusion if the world can discriminate between kusala and akusala: that is, if the world possesses some degree of right view (sammā ditthi). Four of the factors that constitute right view are namely
1. To know what is akusala,
2. To know the root of akusala,
3. To know what is kusala, and
4. To know the root of kusala.
If the world has no idea about or respect for these things, if it has too much wrong view (micchā ditthi), it may instead of condemning acts of akusala praise them. When our delusion is aggravated by wrong view, we do wrong, thinking it is right. That is infinitely more dangerous to us and our fellow human beings than when our delusion is not aggravated by wrong view, and we do wrong, knowing it is wrong. If, for example, the world we live in views alcohol as a good thing, people will deludedly praise us for serving champagne at our children’s weddings. And in such a world, liquor is viewed as stylish and sophisticated, indeed, in some parts of the world it is considered indispensable to good and normal living. If the world we live in regards tax evasion as not being theft, then people will not condemn the man whose wealth depends on deception, but ask for his advice. If the world we live in views the embryo or foetus in the womb as something other than human life, then doctors and social workers will out of what they think is compassion advise some mothers to have an abortion, and the electorate will for the same reason have made such a practice legal and acceptable.
Wrong view is always associated with greed and lust. Wrong view feeds on sensuality, and the Texts say it is the most reprehensible of all akusala mind states.2 Why? Because how is one to better oneself if one thinks that the wrong is right and the right is wrong? It is like taking poison, thinking it is medicine: indeed, insisting that it is medicine. Knowing poison to be poison is right view, and when there is right view the drinking of alcohol is not praised or admired, or considered stylish and ‘cool’. Wise people know that alcohol leads to muddle-mindedness, which leads to akusala kamma. That is why abstinence is the fifth precept. If we are drunk, it is much more likely that we will kill or harm other beings, that we will steal, commit adultery etc. and tell lies. The person who drinks will even deny that he drinks.
Even among thieves there used to be a certain element of right view, in that they had a ‘code of thieves’. They considered it unacceptable, for example, to steal from children or to use threats or violence. Why? Because, although they were thieves, they knew theft was wrong. When caught, they would not call in the psychologist and sociologist to say that they were the innocent victims of past circumstances. They would go to gaol, serve their sentence, and when released would either give up theft, or be extra careful not to get caught again. In so far as they committed acts of theft, thieves in the past were deluded, but insofar as they knew it was wrong, they were not deluded, did not have wrong view. This means that there is akusala kamma and kusala kamma: one with wrong view and one without. Let us then look at the time when The Buddha explained this to the actor Tālaputa. Tālaputa was the director of a famous troupe of actors. He told The Buddha that in the acting profession there was the ancient view that an actor is reborn among the laughing devas.
Tālaputa asked The Buddha what he had to say about that view. The Buddha told him not to ask. But Tālaputa insisted, and when he asked a third time, The Buddha said: In the theatre or at a festival, beings who are not yet free from lust, who are bound by the bondage of lust, are entertained by an actor with things of a lustful nature (rajanīyā), which excite them even more strongly to lust (rāga). Here, The Buddha is analysing the actor’s craft. In this case, the actor excites his audiences with lust.
The Buddha said, in the theatre or at a festival, and we can today say, ‘In the theatre, at a festival, on film in a cinema, on videos and CDs and on TV.’ Just as actors and actresses in ancient India made a living by exciting their audiences with lust, so do actors and actresses today make a living that way: it is called ‘entertainment’, includes pop singers etc. and is a multi-billion and multinational industry. The excitement of lust is indispensable also in the fashion and advertising industry. All these industries excite their audiences with lust for material things such as the actor and model’s material bodies, their clothes, their hairdo etc. But excited is also lust for their feelings and other mental states. The modern soap opera, for example, focuses on only the emotional goings-ons of the characters: that is why people all over the world become addicted to soap operas. But lust is not the only mind state that actors excite in their audience. In the next part of His analysis the Buddha said: In the theatre or at a festival, beings who are not yet free from hatred, who are bound by the bondage of hatred, are entertained by an actor with things of a hateful nature (dosanīyā), which excite them even more strongly to hatred.
The excitement of hatred is high priority in the modern entertainment industry. Cinema audiences pay hard-earned money to delight in fear loathing, dislike etc. excited in them by scenes of explicit and gratuitous graphic violence, of people on the screen who are frightened, screaming, crying, running, getting wounded and killed because of fires, floods, earthquakes, drought and famine, war, dinosaurs, spiders, snakes, sharks, cannibals, bandits, lunatics etc. The more fear excited in the audience, the better the ratings, and it is not uncommon now for children to have nightmares because of a film they have seen.
But lust and hatred are not the only mind states that actors excite in their audiences. Closing His analysis of the actor’s craft, The Buddha says: In the theatre or at a festival, beings who are not yet free from delusion, who are bound by the bondage of delusion, are entertained by an actor with things of a delusive nature (dosanīyā), which excite them even more strongly to delusion.
Delusion is also excited in the case of lust and hatred, of course, but there are elements in entertainment that are purely delusive, such as fantastical, imaginary things. A very large proportion of modern entertainment is far removed from reality: fantastical, futuristic worlds with technological time-travel and visits to other universes, and fantastical beings like Superman, Batman, superhuman masters of martial arts.
Fantastical entertainment by imaginary non-human actors is colossal, that is, in the fantasy worlds of the animated cartoons industry. Here, the professionals work on the drawing board. The fantastical characters of Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry etc. have proliferated into thousands of cartoon characters that pervade every aspect of modern life and inhabit the minds of modern citizens, particularly modern children. Go into the room of a child in one of the sensually developed countries and be overwhelmed by the volume of commercially produced delusion that is such a child’s world: toys, pictures, music, videos, games, even clothes and food. The results of this culture exist already in the form of children, youths
and former children and youths who have become mentally disturbed: who have lost touch with reality.
The advertising industry uses fantastical beings to make their customers believe the sales products have a friendly little self. Computer programs are made to look as if the computer has a self, with beings inside who help us, communicate with us, and have feelings; processed food is sold in packages with little beings on, who also communicate with us, and the multinational fast-food restaurants all have fantastical beings that welcome the customers and make them feel at home. Grown-up people decorate their homes, their cars and even their clothes with such toys, because they are ‘cute’. But, every time we look at a ‘cute’ toy, watch a cartoon or smile at the being in the computer, the mind is darkened by delusion.
This massive development is global; helps keep people’s mind intoxicated with fantasy far removed from reality, and is considered one of the many blessings of science and technology. Fantasy is by modern child-psychologists considered paramount to a happy child. As we can see, the only difference between modern entertainment and the entertainment in ancient India is volume, depth and sophistication. But the elements of entertainment, and the effect they have on people’s minds remain unchanged. People who are involved in entertainment are excited by lust, hatred and delusion, and excite lust, hatred and delusion in their audiences. What is the kamma vipāka? It depends. The Buddha said to Tālaputa: Thus, being intoxicated and careless himself, having made others intoxicated and careless, with the break-up of the
body, after death, he [the actor] is reborn in the ‘Hell of Laughter’. And remember, The Buddha is not speculating here, He is talking about what He has seen for Himself.
Here, The Buddha is talking about the actor who is intoxicated with the delight of entertainment, and who for that reason is careless in his conduct of body, speech and mind. For that, he is reborn in the ‘Hell of Laughter’. But this is not all. The kamma performed by the actor can be aggravated by wrong view. The Buddha says: But should he [the actor] hold such a view as this: ‘If an actor, in the theatre or at a festival, entertains and amuses people by counterfeiting the truth, then with the break-up of the body, after death, he is reborn among the laughing devas’, that is a wrong view on his part.
The wrong view is not a question of believing that one will be reborn in such-and-such aplace; it is a question of believing that it is kusala to entertain people by counterfeiting the truth, exciting lust, hatred and delusion in them, and making them intoxicated and negligent of good conduct in body, speech and mind: it is, in other words, to not know how harmful such activities are to oneself and the world. That is why The Buddha closed his analysis by saying to Tālaputa: For a person with wrong view, I say, there is one of two destinations: either hell or the animal realm. At these words, Tālaputa burst into tears, and The Buddha said: ‘I told you not to ask.’ But Tālaputa’s answer was: ‘I am not crying, Venerable Sir, because of what the Blessed One said to me, but because I have been tricked, cheated and deceived for a long time by those actors of old in the lineage of teachers . . . .’
Why had Tālaputa been tricked, cheated and deceived? Because his lodestar had been the wrong view brought down through the lineage of actors. He had allowed his livelihood to be guided by a lodestar that would lead him to hell or the animal kingdom. Some of the prominent lodestars in the modern age are film stars, pop stars and other stars in the entertainment industry. Actors, who on screen kill, steal, commit adultery, tell lies and drink alcohol, become rich and famous, win prizes, and are praised, admired, emulated and even interviewed in newspapers, magazines and on TV. They are in the modern world viewed as ‘cool’. Not only can one buy a T-shirt with a picture of one’s favourite film star, indeed one can wear the T-shirts in public. Film stars and pop stars generate fan clubs and even cults, especially among children, but also among youths who attend university and among adults who hold a job, have children, vote at the elections and can stand for election.
The news, which might educate us about the realities of saŋsāra, tends also towards entertainment. For the global networks, the news is not so much a question of education as a question of the latest sensational images to excite lust, hatred and delusion in the viewers, with the enumeration of bald facts as legitimacy: in-depth analyses do not excite. And scenes from wars and natural and unnatural disasters are fitted in between advertisements for the latest flashy car, the latest trendy beer, the latest junk-food, and the latest fantastical film. The viewers’ minds remain gripped by delusion. The goings-ons on TV account for a very large proportion of modern social intercourse, even in the family, and the minds and lives of modern children are practically ruled by the media: the television is the modern universal altar that cuts across the creeds. Sitting in front of the box with images and sounds that excite lust, hatred and above all delusion is considered a good and normal way to make use of one’s rebirth as a human being. Indeed, a society where most people do not spend many mindless hours every day in front of the box is viewed as ‘backward’, ‘underdeveloped’, ‘primitive’, ‘uncivilized’ and poor: a ‘third world’ country.
But one of the first things that happen to people who have done some serious meditation is that they stop enjoying such entertainment. Why? Because once one has meditated the arising of lustful, hateful and delusory mind states becomes as clear as an inkblot on white paper. The meditator acquires the ability to see the akusala elements that are entertainment, and see how the mind becomes drugged with excitement and delusion.
And Tālaputa? What happened to him? Well, the very fact that he had been reborn in one of the civilized societies of ancient India, at a time when a Buddha was there; that he sought out The Buddha and asked him a question; that he listened with respect and attention; and that he understood the truth of The Buddha’s analysis to such an extent that he burst into tears, tells us that his pāramīs were ripe. And indeed, Tālaputa took The Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha as his new lodestar: he requested ordination, received ordination, and after a number of years of hard work, and much struggle, Tālaputa became one of the arahants. There are in the Pāli Texts, fifty-five verses that are Tālaputa’s, wherein he describes his struggles and subsequent success. I shall close this talk by quoting the thirty-fifth verse. This is Tālaputa the arahant speaking:
Tanhā, avijjā ca, piyāpiyañca;
Subhāni rūpāni, sukhā ca vedanā;
Manāpiyā, kāmagunā ca vantā.
Vante ahaŋ āvamituŋ na ussahe.
Craving, unknowing, the liked and the disliked;
Delighting in forms and pleasing feelings too;
Dear pleasures of the senses: all have been vomited.
Never to that vomit can I make myself return.
(Tag.XIX, v. 35 (Forest Meditations, by Bhikkhu Khantipalo: BPS)
May we all choose the right lodestar, and be led to vomit, and led to never return to the vomit of, lust, hatred and delusion.
Thank you.
(Talks by Ekacco Bhikkhu)
The Buddha says: Lust is a lesser fault and fades away slowly; hatred is a great fault and fades away quickly; delusion is a great fault and fades away slowly.
The Texts explain that greed or lust is a lesser fault in two ways: 1. In the eyes of the world (loka), and 2. In terms of kamma-vipāka. The Texts explain that according to the world there is nothing wrong in, for example, parents giving consent to their children getting married, even though lust is involved. And the Texts explain that if when married one observes the third precept, kāmesu micchācārā veramanī sikkhāpadaŋ samādiyāmi, which means that one is content with one’s partner, then there is for that reason no rebirth in the lower worlds. In other words, there is greedy and lustful conduct that according to the standards of civilized society is acceptable, and that kind of conduct does not lead to serious akusala kamma-vipāka; it does not prevent us from having a good rebirth.
Thus, a man may work very hard because he wants to become rich and have a big house, big car, big business, and be a big shot: so long as he fulfills his ambition in honorable ways, and his general conduct too is honorable, the world does not condemn his greed for wealth and prestige, in fact, the world praises him. The Buddha too explains that honorably earned wealth is the first of the four types of bliss available to a layman, namely the bliss of having. And the bliss of having is, of course, requisite to the second bliss, namely the bliss of giving. Many of The Buddha’s patrons were rich, some of them kings, and all over the world, even today, there are rich people who do good with their wealth, for example, the king of Saudi Arabia.
But greed is only a lesser fault within the limits allowed by civilized society. In societies that are less civilized, or in uncivilized people, greed and lust is very dangerous. This can also happen with the man who works hard in an honorable way. As he gets richer so can he get greedier, and as he gets greedier so can he begin to forget to be civilized. With money comes also power, and then there are further dangers.
Although The Buddha explained that lust is a lesser fault, He also explained that it fades away slowly. The Texts explain that lust is as hard to remove as oily soot, and that lust for particular objects or a certain person may persist throughout life, even through several lives. That is why people can follow each other through many lives: it is because of attachment and clinging. Lust is eradicated only at arahantship.
Hatred, on the other hand, was explained as being a great fault that fades away quickly. It is in the Texts explained as a great fault in the eyes of the world. It causes anger and because of anger we misbehave in body, speech and mind towards other people, such as our parents, brothers and sisters and even monks. In terms of kamma-vipāka, the mind that is consumed with hatred is a sub-human mind, and that is why if we die in anger we will have a sub-human rebirth. And hatred is why we commit the five garuka kammas (weighty kammas):killing father, mother, an arahant, with malice wounding a Buddha or causing a schism in the Sangha. The kamma-vipāka of acts of hatred can be an unhappy rebirth, and the weighty kammas are certain to lead to eons in the hottest of hells.
Usually, however, hatred fades away quickly because it has immediately unpleasant results. The intelligent person who has done something out of hatred will have remorse and know that his hatred does not make him feel happy: hence the universal and very wholesome institution of saying ‘I am sorry’. But very often people do not say: ‘I am sorry’, and ‘Please forgive me’, because of pride. For example, the proud mother or father may expect their children to apologize for being rude to them, but they will never themselves apologize for being rude to their children. Their pride is rooted in the third unwholesome root, delusion.
The Buddha explained that delusion is a great fault and fades away slowly. Delusion is, of course, the most serious of the three, because delusion accounts for acts committed out of lust and greed; delusion accounts for acts committed out of hatred; and delusion accounts for acts committed out of delusion. The Texts explain that acts of delusion are, as in the case of hatred, condemned by the world and lead to unhappy rebirths.
When the Texts say that greed and lust bridled by the third precept is accepted by society, and that acts of hatred and delusion are condemned by society, they are referring to the civilized societies of the Ganges valley in ancient India. When we read the ancient Pāli Texts, we notice that the people in those societies, whoever they were, kings and queens, ministers, headmen, Brahmins, farmers, fathers and mothers, housewives, even prostitutes, executioners and bandits, they knew what was kusala and what was akusala. That is why we read about prostitutes who offered food to monks, and who ordained as nuns; bandits who offered food to monks and who ordained as monks; Brahmins who went to argue with The Buddha and then touched their proud head to the ground and took refuge in Him; and even King Ajjātasatu, who had killed his own father, King Pasenadi, one of The Buddha’s chief patrons, he went to see The Buddha, and became a chief patron like his father. In the civilized societies of ancient India, people did evil things just as people do it today, but they knew it was evil. They had the wise men as their lodestars, and they would seek out the wise men, ask them questions, listen and reflect. That is the difference between a civilized and uncivilized society. How can a society call itself civilized if it has no wise men or women, or if it does, but does not listen to them?
The world can only condemn acts of delusion if the world can discriminate between kusala and akusala: that is, if the world possesses some degree of right view (sammā ditthi). Four of the factors that constitute right view are namely
1. To know what is akusala,
2. To know the root of akusala,
3. To know what is kusala, and
4. To know the root of kusala.
If the world has no idea about or respect for these things, if it has too much wrong view (micchā ditthi), it may instead of condemning acts of akusala praise them. When our delusion is aggravated by wrong view, we do wrong, thinking it is right. That is infinitely more dangerous to us and our fellow human beings than when our delusion is not aggravated by wrong view, and we do wrong, knowing it is wrong. If, for example, the world we live in views alcohol as a good thing, people will deludedly praise us for serving champagne at our children’s weddings. And in such a world, liquor is viewed as stylish and sophisticated, indeed, in some parts of the world it is considered indispensable to good and normal living. If the world we live in regards tax evasion as not being theft, then people will not condemn the man whose wealth depends on deception, but ask for his advice. If the world we live in views the embryo or foetus in the womb as something other than human life, then doctors and social workers will out of what they think is compassion advise some mothers to have an abortion, and the electorate will for the same reason have made such a practice legal and acceptable.
Wrong view is always associated with greed and lust. Wrong view feeds on sensuality, and the Texts say it is the most reprehensible of all akusala mind states.2 Why? Because how is one to better oneself if one thinks that the wrong is right and the right is wrong? It is like taking poison, thinking it is medicine: indeed, insisting that it is medicine. Knowing poison to be poison is right view, and when there is right view the drinking of alcohol is not praised or admired, or considered stylish and ‘cool’. Wise people know that alcohol leads to muddle-mindedness, which leads to akusala kamma. That is why abstinence is the fifth precept. If we are drunk, it is much more likely that we will kill or harm other beings, that we will steal, commit adultery etc. and tell lies. The person who drinks will even deny that he drinks.
Even among thieves there used to be a certain element of right view, in that they had a ‘code of thieves’. They considered it unacceptable, for example, to steal from children or to use threats or violence. Why? Because, although they were thieves, they knew theft was wrong. When caught, they would not call in the psychologist and sociologist to say that they were the innocent victims of past circumstances. They would go to gaol, serve their sentence, and when released would either give up theft, or be extra careful not to get caught again. In so far as they committed acts of theft, thieves in the past were deluded, but insofar as they knew it was wrong, they were not deluded, did not have wrong view. This means that there is akusala kamma and kusala kamma: one with wrong view and one without. Let us then look at the time when The Buddha explained this to the actor Tālaputa. Tālaputa was the director of a famous troupe of actors. He told The Buddha that in the acting profession there was the ancient view that an actor is reborn among the laughing devas.
Tālaputa asked The Buddha what he had to say about that view. The Buddha told him not to ask. But Tālaputa insisted, and when he asked a third time, The Buddha said: In the theatre or at a festival, beings who are not yet free from lust, who are bound by the bondage of lust, are entertained by an actor with things of a lustful nature (rajanīyā), which excite them even more strongly to lust (rāga). Here, The Buddha is analysing the actor’s craft. In this case, the actor excites his audiences with lust.
The Buddha said, in the theatre or at a festival, and we can today say, ‘In the theatre, at a festival, on film in a cinema, on videos and CDs and on TV.’ Just as actors and actresses in ancient India made a living by exciting their audiences with lust, so do actors and actresses today make a living that way: it is called ‘entertainment’, includes pop singers etc. and is a multi-billion and multinational industry. The excitement of lust is indispensable also in the fashion and advertising industry. All these industries excite their audiences with lust for material things such as the actor and model’s material bodies, their clothes, their hairdo etc. But excited is also lust for their feelings and other mental states. The modern soap opera, for example, focuses on only the emotional goings-ons of the characters: that is why people all over the world become addicted to soap operas. But lust is not the only mind state that actors excite in their audience. In the next part of His analysis the Buddha said: In the theatre or at a festival, beings who are not yet free from hatred, who are bound by the bondage of hatred, are entertained by an actor with things of a hateful nature (dosanīyā), which excite them even more strongly to hatred.
The excitement of hatred is high priority in the modern entertainment industry. Cinema audiences pay hard-earned money to delight in fear loathing, dislike etc. excited in them by scenes of explicit and gratuitous graphic violence, of people on the screen who are frightened, screaming, crying, running, getting wounded and killed because of fires, floods, earthquakes, drought and famine, war, dinosaurs, spiders, snakes, sharks, cannibals, bandits, lunatics etc. The more fear excited in the audience, the better the ratings, and it is not uncommon now for children to have nightmares because of a film they have seen.
But lust and hatred are not the only mind states that actors excite in their audiences. Closing His analysis of the actor’s craft, The Buddha says: In the theatre or at a festival, beings who are not yet free from delusion, who are bound by the bondage of delusion, are entertained by an actor with things of a delusive nature (dosanīyā), which excite them even more strongly to delusion.
Delusion is also excited in the case of lust and hatred, of course, but there are elements in entertainment that are purely delusive, such as fantastical, imaginary things. A very large proportion of modern entertainment is far removed from reality: fantastical, futuristic worlds with technological time-travel and visits to other universes, and fantastical beings like Superman, Batman, superhuman masters of martial arts.
Fantastical entertainment by imaginary non-human actors is colossal, that is, in the fantasy worlds of the animated cartoons industry. Here, the professionals work on the drawing board. The fantastical characters of Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry etc. have proliferated into thousands of cartoon characters that pervade every aspect of modern life and inhabit the minds of modern citizens, particularly modern children. Go into the room of a child in one of the sensually developed countries and be overwhelmed by the volume of commercially produced delusion that is such a child’s world: toys, pictures, music, videos, games, even clothes and food. The results of this culture exist already in the form of children, youths
and former children and youths who have become mentally disturbed: who have lost touch with reality.
The advertising industry uses fantastical beings to make their customers believe the sales products have a friendly little self. Computer programs are made to look as if the computer has a self, with beings inside who help us, communicate with us, and have feelings; processed food is sold in packages with little beings on, who also communicate with us, and the multinational fast-food restaurants all have fantastical beings that welcome the customers and make them feel at home. Grown-up people decorate their homes, their cars and even their clothes with such toys, because they are ‘cute’. But, every time we look at a ‘cute’ toy, watch a cartoon or smile at the being in the computer, the mind is darkened by delusion.
This massive development is global; helps keep people’s mind intoxicated with fantasy far removed from reality, and is considered one of the many blessings of science and technology. Fantasy is by modern child-psychologists considered paramount to a happy child. As we can see, the only difference between modern entertainment and the entertainment in ancient India is volume, depth and sophistication. But the elements of entertainment, and the effect they have on people’s minds remain unchanged. People who are involved in entertainment are excited by lust, hatred and delusion, and excite lust, hatred and delusion in their audiences. What is the kamma vipāka? It depends. The Buddha said to Tālaputa: Thus, being intoxicated and careless himself, having made others intoxicated and careless, with the break-up of the
body, after death, he [the actor] is reborn in the ‘Hell of Laughter’. And remember, The Buddha is not speculating here, He is talking about what He has seen for Himself.
Here, The Buddha is talking about the actor who is intoxicated with the delight of entertainment, and who for that reason is careless in his conduct of body, speech and mind. For that, he is reborn in the ‘Hell of Laughter’. But this is not all. The kamma performed by the actor can be aggravated by wrong view. The Buddha says: But should he [the actor] hold such a view as this: ‘If an actor, in the theatre or at a festival, entertains and amuses people by counterfeiting the truth, then with the break-up of the body, after death, he is reborn among the laughing devas’, that is a wrong view on his part.
The wrong view is not a question of believing that one will be reborn in such-and-such aplace; it is a question of believing that it is kusala to entertain people by counterfeiting the truth, exciting lust, hatred and delusion in them, and making them intoxicated and negligent of good conduct in body, speech and mind: it is, in other words, to not know how harmful such activities are to oneself and the world. That is why The Buddha closed his analysis by saying to Tālaputa: For a person with wrong view, I say, there is one of two destinations: either hell or the animal realm. At these words, Tālaputa burst into tears, and The Buddha said: ‘I told you not to ask.’ But Tālaputa’s answer was: ‘I am not crying, Venerable Sir, because of what the Blessed One said to me, but because I have been tricked, cheated and deceived for a long time by those actors of old in the lineage of teachers . . . .’
Why had Tālaputa been tricked, cheated and deceived? Because his lodestar had been the wrong view brought down through the lineage of actors. He had allowed his livelihood to be guided by a lodestar that would lead him to hell or the animal kingdom. Some of the prominent lodestars in the modern age are film stars, pop stars and other stars in the entertainment industry. Actors, who on screen kill, steal, commit adultery, tell lies and drink alcohol, become rich and famous, win prizes, and are praised, admired, emulated and even interviewed in newspapers, magazines and on TV. They are in the modern world viewed as ‘cool’. Not only can one buy a T-shirt with a picture of one’s favourite film star, indeed one can wear the T-shirts in public. Film stars and pop stars generate fan clubs and even cults, especially among children, but also among youths who attend university and among adults who hold a job, have children, vote at the elections and can stand for election.
The news, which might educate us about the realities of saŋsāra, tends also towards entertainment. For the global networks, the news is not so much a question of education as a question of the latest sensational images to excite lust, hatred and delusion in the viewers, with the enumeration of bald facts as legitimacy: in-depth analyses do not excite. And scenes from wars and natural and unnatural disasters are fitted in between advertisements for the latest flashy car, the latest trendy beer, the latest junk-food, and the latest fantastical film. The viewers’ minds remain gripped by delusion. The goings-ons on TV account for a very large proportion of modern social intercourse, even in the family, and the minds and lives of modern children are practically ruled by the media: the television is the modern universal altar that cuts across the creeds. Sitting in front of the box with images and sounds that excite lust, hatred and above all delusion is considered a good and normal way to make use of one’s rebirth as a human being. Indeed, a society where most people do not spend many mindless hours every day in front of the box is viewed as ‘backward’, ‘underdeveloped’, ‘primitive’, ‘uncivilized’ and poor: a ‘third world’ country.
But one of the first things that happen to people who have done some serious meditation is that they stop enjoying such entertainment. Why? Because once one has meditated the arising of lustful, hateful and delusory mind states becomes as clear as an inkblot on white paper. The meditator acquires the ability to see the akusala elements that are entertainment, and see how the mind becomes drugged with excitement and delusion.
And Tālaputa? What happened to him? Well, the very fact that he had been reborn in one of the civilized societies of ancient India, at a time when a Buddha was there; that he sought out The Buddha and asked him a question; that he listened with respect and attention; and that he understood the truth of The Buddha’s analysis to such an extent that he burst into tears, tells us that his pāramīs were ripe. And indeed, Tālaputa took The Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha as his new lodestar: he requested ordination, received ordination, and after a number of years of hard work, and much struggle, Tālaputa became one of the arahants. There are in the Pāli Texts, fifty-five verses that are Tālaputa’s, wherein he describes his struggles and subsequent success. I shall close this talk by quoting the thirty-fifth verse. This is Tālaputa the arahant speaking:
Tanhā, avijjā ca, piyāpiyañca;
Subhāni rūpāni, sukhā ca vedanā;
Manāpiyā, kāmagunā ca vantā.
Vante ahaŋ āvamituŋ na ussahe.
Craving, unknowing, the liked and the disliked;
Delighting in forms and pleasing feelings too;
Dear pleasures of the senses: all have been vomited.
Never to that vomit can I make myself return.
(Tag.XIX, v. 35 (Forest Meditations, by Bhikkhu Khantipalo: BPS)
May we all choose the right lodestar, and be led to vomit, and led to never return to the vomit of, lust, hatred and delusion.
Thank you.
(Talks by Ekacco Bhikkhu)
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