I cannot count the number of times I have seen people setting themselves up to fail and crash in spiritual life. It is not a matter of mere laziness, but of a corrupted and corrupting heart. The mind of him who is slow in doing meritorious actions delights in evil. Just before she left for the convent, an unsuccessfully aspiring boyfriend said to her: “I am sorry you did not find someone worthy of your love.” “Oh, but I have!” she replied. Saint Teresa resisted her machinations and today is listed among the saints of Christ. The aunt of Saint Teresa of the Andes waged a virtual war against her becoming a nun, so imagine her amazement when her mother told her: “You aunt very much wanted to be a nun when she was your age.” But instead she had become a shallow, greedy worldling, caring for none but herself. Often these are really “foxes without tails” as in the old fable, embittered at the thought of someone not messing up their life the way they have theirs. They can sense when a person is striving to move higher in life and consciousness, and keep insisting to them: “You can be too religious.” “You can have too much discipline.” You can do too much, you know.” “You can go too far if you aren’t careful.” “God could not expect for you to….” “God doesn’t care about….” And always said with the implication that you are a fanatic and a fool, or they are afraid that you may become one. Of course there are those who preach the gospel of spiritual laxity. For the undisciplined mind is sure to pursue evil. For that reason we must always be in charge of our mind, restraining it from wandering into the dark corners and getting into trouble. No matter how well regulated our outer life may be, there is evil lurking around every corner of the subconscious mind in the form of negative samskaras and vasanas. Rather, they slide into the downward spiral through laxity and lack of vigilance. Very few seekers fail because they suddenly turn and pursue ignorance and evil. Spiritual life is urgent it is a sprinting toward the Goal before “the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4), the night of sickness, old age, and death as well as the morass of moral turpitude into which even the best aspirant can fall if he is neglectful. Spiritual life is not moseying along the Path, all mellowed out and somnolent.
Narada Thera: “Make haste in doing good check your mind from evil for the mind of him who is slow in doing meritorious actions delights in evil.” When one is slack in doing good the mind delights in evil (Dhammapada 116). First he is going to speak of laxity as personal evil, as the path downward away from the light.īe urgent in good hold your thoughts off evil.
It is as important to know how to deal with evil as to cultivate the good, as Buddha reveals to us. These next thirteen verses are entitled “Evil” in the Dhammapada text.
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