Daily Reading ~ August 10

Hoa Vo Uu (Buddha Dharma Education Association)
Venerable Shravasti Dhammika

The Buddha’s Words of Wisdom

On once occasion, the monk Visãkha of the Pancãlas was teaching Dhamma in the assembly hall. As the evening approached, the Lord, rising from solitary meditation, went to the hall and sat down on a seat made ready for him and asked: “Who was teaching Dhamma so well?”

“It was, Lord, the monk Visãkha.”

Then the Lord said to Visãkha: “Well done, Visãkha, well done. Well have you instructed, uplifted, enlightened, and inspired the monks in language polished, distinct, free from roughness, revealing the meaning, comprehensive and unbiased.”

Then the Lord said further:

If he does not speak up, others know him not;
He is just a wise man mixed up with fools.
But if he speaks about and teaches and the Immortal,
Others will know him.

So let him light up the Dhamma,
Let him lift the sage’s banner high.
Sages have illuminating speech as their banner.
Dhamma is the banner of sages.