Dhaniya seminar - 1980 convention, Padmaloka Tape one, side one S: All right! We're going to be spending the next three mornings on the Dhaniya Sutta, and, as you no doubt can see, this 'Dhaniya' Sutta comes from the Sutta Nipata, which is a quite early collection of discourses and teachings, mainly in verse. So, as usual, we are going to go through the text verse by verse, and discuss each verse quite exhaustively, and even allow ourselves to digress a little into areas which are connected with, or, as it were, grow out of, what we are studying in the verse itself. So maybe Suvajri can start reading the first verse. Suvajri: (clears throat) How do you pronounce his name? S: Dhaniya. Dhaniya. Suvajri: 'I've boiled my broth, I've drawn the milk', Thus spake the herdsman Dhaniya, 'I dwell with mates beside Mahi, Roofed is my hut, the fire burns bright So if thou wish, rain, deva, rain!' Shall I stop there? S: Mm. So Dhaniya is speaking. Dhaniya is described as a herdsman. (pause) He's described as 'gopa' in the text, which means 'one who possesses' or 'one who owns cows'. And it is quite important to understand this, because in the Buddha's day, and for quite a few centuries earlier, wealth was reckoned in terms or the number of cows that you owned. And this is all a semi-pastoral economy, you could say. For instance, if you read the Upanishads, the Hindu scriptures which pre-date the Buddha - many of them pre-date - in some of these Upanishads you find the Brahmins demanding as a reward, a thousand cows for answering a certain question or performing a certain sacrifice - so they wouldn't say 'a thousand guineas; or 'a thousand dollars', they would say 'a thousand cows', because wealth was reckoned in terms or cows. So a wealthy [2] person was one who possessed lots of cows; so if you had lots of cows you were wealthy. So Dhaniya represents this sort of person. He's quite well off, and living with his companions beside the river Mahi; the day's work is done; the rice has been boiled. [For the sake of the rhyme, as you will see later on, the translation that we are using reads - 'I've boiled my broth', but actually it is ' ' which is, 'I've boiled my rice'.] So 'I've boiled my rice, I've drawn the milk' - that is to say, the meal for the evening is ready; the day's work is done; because what is the main work of the cowherd? It's to milk the cows. They're usually milked twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. So the food has been cooked; the food is ready; the day's work is done, 'thus spake the herdsman, Dhaniya; 'I dwell with my mates - with my companions - beside the river Mahi. Roofed is my hut - there's a good, strong, a secure, tight roof, the fire is burning brightly, even if it rains, I don't care! - 'So if thou wish, rain, deva, rain!' The deva is the rain, because in the Indian idiom, just as we say, 'It rains', in Pali they say, 'The deva rains', 'the god rains'. It's not to be taken too literally. So what is the sort of picture here? The picture that is drawn, is one of, so to speak, worldly complacency. He's all right! Everything is going well for him. He's got food; he's got wealth in fact; he's got his companions; he's living securely, snugly, on the banks of the river Mahi; his roof is well thatched; his fire is burning bright; he doesn't care if it rains! What does that suggest? He's not caring if it rains? What does it suggest about him? What does he think? What does he think his position is? Udaya: He feels secure. S: He feels secure. His position, he thinks, is one of complete security. He's got nothing to worry about. You could say he's the sort of Indian 'Everyman'. He thinks he's got [3] everything. He's got nothing to worry about. He can keep out the rain, so to speak. He is secure from disturbances. He secures himself from everything unpleasant and difficult - 'the rain' can't come in it's much more than the rain, it's any outside interference; he's quite secure; he's quite safe, against all those things, and obviously, this is the state of mind of the average, ordinary, successful person. He's in a sort of shell, as it were, and he thinks that within that shell he's quite safe, quite secure. So, in this opening verse you get this sort of vivid picture of this sort of person. In a way, there is nothing wrong with it; he's not a bad man; he's certainly not an evil man; you could probably say he is a good man, but he is limited, he doesn't see very far. He doesn't know what his situation really is. So this is Dhaniya, and it's interesting also, perhaps, that the picture is drawn by Dhaniya in his own words, which makes it more vivid. As we go through this little sutta, which is, of course, in poetic form, we'll see it is more and more like a ballad, say, like one of the old Scottish ballads, where you get different people speaking, first one and then the other. So he says 'I've boiled my broth, I've drawn the milk' / Thus spake the herdsman Dhaniya, / I dwell with mates beside Mahi, / Roofed is my hut, the fire burns bright:/ So if thou wish, rain, deva, rain)' - 'What have I got to worry about; I'm all right; I'm quite safe and secure and snug; I've got it all worked out! 'So, to Dhaniya, comes the Buddha! Here is this unsuspecting Dhaniya, this complacent, rather nice person, living in this sort of way, unsuspectingly thinking he's got it all sorted out, but along comes the Buddha! The Buddha is sort of wandering from place to place, and presumably he [4] overhears this rather boastful utterance of Dhaniya. Maybe he's standing outside the door, just waiting to knock or to enter. He can't be begging for food, not according to the orthodox Theravada idea, because, presumably, it's the evening time - though it could be; the morning time, I suppose, but it seems more likely that it's the evening time - one can boil rice and milk cows in the morning, but the feeling of the whole thing seems to be more that it's the evening - so, perhaps the Buddha has been walking all day, and perhaps, towards the end of the day it's just getting dark, he sees the homestead on the banks of the river Mahi, so he decides to seek shelter there for the night, so just as he is standing outside the door, he hears Dhaniya speaking in this sort of way. Then what does the Buddha say? Let's hear his verse. Purna: The Master 'I've foiled my wrath, I've fertile mind', Thus spake the master in reply, 'I dwell one night beside Mahi, Open my hut, cooled down my fire: So if thou wish, rain, deva, rain!' S: The first thing to notice is the sort of parallelism. The translator has very cleverly reproduced the words in the original, Dhaniya says, 'I've boiled my, broth', the Master says 'I've foiled my wrath' (laughter). You see? In Pali it's (looking up Pali text) 'for 'I've boiled my rice', and (Pause) - for the Buddha's utterance it's, 'my mood is blessed', which means, I've stilled', or if you like, 'foiled my anger, my resentment.' So, 'I've fertile mind'. (Pause) The Buddha says - 'Thus spake the Master in reply,/ 'I dwell one night beside Mahi,/ Open my hut, cooled down my fire:/ [5] So if thou wish, rain, deva, rain!' - so a completely different attitude! It's as though the Buddha almost opposes what Dhaniya says, or what Dhaniya thinks, not agrees with it. So Dhaniya's emphasis is, as it were, material; material well-being, material security - 'I've boiled my broth, I've drawn the milk.' The Buddha says, 'I've foiled my wrath, I've fertile mind'. It's as though the Buddha is not running down Dhaniya's broth, well, in the morning probably he'll get a share of it, (chuckles) by way of alms; he's got nothing against Dhaniya milking his cows, but there's something further than that, there is a stage further which is the psychological and spiritual beyond the material, beyond the economic. Not that the material and economic is decried, they have their place, they're the basis of existence but everyone, so to speak, must go further than that, there is such a thing as cultivation of the; mind. So the Buddha is indicating that. 'I've. Foiled my wrath' Why do you think the Buddha especially mentions wrath here? Do you think there is any reason for that? (Pause) He's speaking to Dhaniya. Now why should he not say, 'I've foiled my greed'? (Let's take it that the compiler is not just looking for a rhyme.) Or why not, 'I've overcome my fear' - why 'wrath'? Megha: Is it because Dhaniya is saying 'Roofed is my hut', so he is keeping out the weather, which could be the wrathful weather? S: Yes, but why that? Anjali: Is it that he is so secure (Pause) potentially wrathful to other people who are going to want to ..