Hoa Vo Uu (Buddha Dharma Education Association)
Venerable Shravasti Dhammika
The Buddha’s Words of Wisdom
Kassapa said to the Lord: “Reverend Gotama, it is hard to be a true recluse; it is hard to be a true Brãhmin.”
“That is what the world says. But if a naked recluse were to practise all kinds of self-torture, and if this was the measure of difficulty, then it would not be true to say: “It is hard to be a true recluse; it is hard to be a true Brahmin”. Because anyone, a householder, his son, even a slave girl who draws water could go naked or pracise self-torture. But there is another type of asceticim because of which it is true to say: “It is hard to be a true recluse; it is hard to be a true Brãhmin”.
When a monk develops a mind without hatred or ill-will, full of love, and by the destruction of the defilements dwells with a mind freed throught insight, then that monk is a true recluse, a true Brãmin.”
