America's Buddhist burial mound at Sedona

Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; photographers Pete/Karevil, Glen Carlin

Vajrayana Buddhist prayer flags flying over Boudhanath, Nepal (Pete/Karnevil/flickr)

 

Wisdom and Compassion

The dome at the base of Boudhanath Stupa ("Enlightenment Reliquary," a UNESCO World Heritage Site) outside Kathmandu, Nepal represents the entire world. When a person awakens (represented by the opening of the eyes of wisdom and compassion) from the illusory bonds of the world, that person has reached the state of enlightenment. Complete liberation (nirvana) awaits and is already visible when this is accomplished.

America needs a great Buddhist stupa!
Xochitl, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Sedona's Buddhist Stupa, Sedona, Arizona (Glen_Carlin/flickr.com/collage)

 

Flags over Sedona Stupa (Glen Carlin)

We have one! We have other smaller ones, too. Every Buddhist temple in America wants its own old-world reliquary, a white mound to entomb spiritual treasures.

Pagodas, dagabas, chortans, mandala-mounds, and so on all house priceless reliquary objects -- either minute amounts of the historical Buddha's funerary ashes or relics (strange physical byproducts of enlightenment manifesting as beautiful glass-like beads and other formations that survive or are produced during cremation) or the remains of arhats, honored teachers, and world rulers (chakravartins).

Then there's the great Tibetan stupa at SMC in Colorado, too (shambhalamountain.org)

• 

  Small side-chortan in Sedona

  Wait a minute. How in the world could there be so many of the Buddha's cremation ashes to supply all the world's stupas? It's ludicrous; it's like all that wood the Medieval Christians sold as authentic bits of Christ's own Roman cross. The answer is very simple. If we begin with one cup of actual cremation remains, then we can divide that, but as with any precious powder, it is watered down with a neutral substance: one part relic ashes with one million parts neutral ashes = 1,000,001 parts authentic Buddha ashes. Stranger still, "relics" multiply, so they are not limited to what was available the first day. Moreover, not only the Buddha's remains are used but those of many arhats. There are still arhats, still funeral pyres, cremation remains, and so long as the Dharma is practiced even by one person, there is a chance for more.

Amazing Anasazi (Hopi) ruins at Tuzigoot, Clarkdale, Arizona (americansouthwest.net)

 

Wooden Buddha (Glen Carlin)

City councils are very reluctant to approve of such building requests. There is a campaign to bring one to Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara.
 
But one already exists, built by Tibetan Buddhists in northern California. Across the USA there are small ones and plans, or at least dreams, for more.

Buddha profile (Glen Carlin)

However, there is at least one great one already: It is in our spiritual center where Native Americans recognized vortices of power and energy, Sedona, Arizona.

Wisdom Quarterly visited with Xochitl and Dr. Rei Rei to visit the Anasazi sites and this amazing hidden gem hidden on the west side of the American Southwest's most beautiful town.

To visit, choose the cooler months. Sedona is amazing year round, with winter snows the blanket the red rocks. It is one of the most picturesque landscapes in the world, a lower extension of the once Buddhist Grand Canyon. (How could the Grand Canyon ever have been Buddhist? It was).

• VIDEO: Native Buddhist artifacts, Grand Canyon
• Were the Anasazi [Native Americans] Buddhists?
• Buddhist cave temples found in Grand Canyon
• AUDIO: Ancient Egyptians in the Grand Canyon 
• Grand Canyon's secret underground Buddhist temple?  
• Native American Buddhism and Tibet 

Hovering above the massive stupa is a gorgeous wooden Buddha carving surrounded by many American offerings: trinkets, flowers, incense, glass beads, Native American jewelry, coins, notes, flags...adding to the splendor of the U.S. Southwest (Glen_Carlin/flickr.com).

Sedona, Arizona is "the most beautiful place on earth" (visitsedona.com)

Climate Chaos: Landslides kill in Nepal and L.A.

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; PasadenaStarNews; Los Angeles Times (World Briefing, 8-4-14); Rob Simone (Coast to Coast, 8-2-14)

They're all dead? So, what, I load this thing then press it against my head? (Jos Martin/flickr)

As a consequence of climate chaos -- brought about by geoengineering, weather modification, and the military-industrial complex's aerosol dispersion/chemtrail programs now extended worldwide -- Nepal and Los Angeles have been flooded by unexpected rain bursts. The downpours, following periods of drought conditions that kill off supportive vegetation that usually holds the ground in place, caused landslides that buried many alive and led to control efforts.

Scores of people lost in landslide

Rural North Nepal, Pangboche Khombu (wiki)

There was no chance of finding any of the more than 150 people believed to have been buried by a massive landslide in northern Nepal, an official said.

Rescuers had recovered only eight bodies since the landslide early Saturday blocked a mountain river, causing the water to form a lake that was threatening to burst and sweep several villages. Rainfall Sunday hampered search attempts.

"We have no chance of fiding any of the missing people alive under this pile of debris," said Yadav Prasad Loirala, who heads the government's Department of Natural Disaster Management. "We have names of 159 people who ar3e believed to be missing and buried, but there could be even more people."

Mt. Baldy (L.A.'s own Everest) hit by flooding

A worker clears the road after a flash flood swept across Valley of the Falls Drive on Sunday in Forest Falls. (Micah Escamilla/PasadenaStarNews.com)

  

Heavy rains in Southern California bring flash floods, mudslides, closures

City News Service, AP, and staff reports (pasadenastarnews.com) Aug. 3, 2014, 10:33 pm

Truck sits in mud after flash flood swept LA

Northern foothills of Los Angeles - A thunderstorm that lasted only about an hour and dropped more than 4 inches of rain Sunday [after sprinkling on Saturday night] from Glendora to Oak Glen and Angeles Crest Highway near Wrightwood.

It caused flash floods, mudslides, evacuations, washed away cars, created massive debris flows that choked roadways, stranded residents and campers, and caused at least four people to be rescued from surging floodwaters, law and fire enforcement agencies said.

 

The storm’s fury did the most damage in the Mt. Baldy area and the community of Forest Falls in San Bernardino County.

 

In the Angeles National Forest, a rock slide covered all lanes of the Angeles Crest Highway at mile marker 66 near Little Jimmy Road west of Wrightwood around 4:15 pm, and a smaller slide was reported a few minutes later on San Gabriel Canyon Road at Crystal Lake Road above Glendora, according to the California Highway Patrol.

 

A slide near the Mt. Baldy Fire Station, reported at 5:18 pm, closed Mt. Baldy Road, the CHP reported.

 

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning through 7:00 pm Sunday in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains.
 

Four to five people and dog became stranded by raging floodwater and were unable to reach their vehicle, Sgt. Rebecca Rodriguez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s San Dimas Station said. They were airlifted to safety by a sheriff’s helicopter about 5:30 pm, she said.

 

An overturned vehicle was found near the intersection of Bear Creek and Mt. Baldy roads, but no one was inside, Rodriguez said.

 

In San Bernardino County, flash flooding washed out parts of Forest’s Falls main road, causing evacuations, and one resident had to be saved by swift water rescuers, authorities said. More

Climate Chaos: Geoengineering and Weather Manipulation
Rob Simone, Dane Wigington, Scott Stevens (coasttocoastam.com)

One Killed, Thousands Stranded Clean up crews are clearing debris, trying to reach those stranded by sudden Southern California storms yesterday.

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Climate engineering, also referred to as geoengineering, is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climatic system.
 
Host Rob Simone welcomed two experts on Saturday night, Dane Wigington and Scott Stevens, for a discussion on how the Earth's weather systems are being deliberately manipulated and used to disrupt the world's climate, rain patterns, snowfall, seasons, ability to grow food, and more.

 
Beyond the damage that tampering with the atmosphere has on the environment, Wigington declares that weather manipulation, conducted by the military-industrial complex (MIC) via clandestine programs such as HAARP and chemtrail spraying, also constitutes an "all out assault on life on Earth."

The weather is being used as a weapon by U.S. MIC (thelivingmoon.com)

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To that end, he contends that the rise in deaths caused by respiratory illnesses as well as the explosion in both autism and Alzheimer's disease coincide with the emergence of chemtrail contamination.
 

You're destroying my world (Clarke)

On a broader level, Wigington suggests that natural disasters, such as hurricanes, typhoons, and earthquakes, are being created by programs like HAARP as a way of allowing the United States to gain a foothold in foreign territories under the cover of "humanitarian" relief. But this is actually covert war. He points to Buddhist Thailand refusing to let the U.S. build an airbase in their country in 2011 then subsequently being afflicted/attacked with record flooding shortly thereafter. (The same happened with much worse consequences for Buddhist Japan, which was threatened then hit with quakes, a tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

In addition, Wigington theorizes that Middle East nations are subjected to intense droughts as a means of destabilizing unfriendly-to-the-West regimes the U.S./MIC wishes to topple. "This whole situation is such a tangled web of corruption and insanity," he laments, noting that those who control the weather are using their power and knowledge to benefit financially from the hardships they create.

Joining the program in the second half , meteorologist Scott Stevens talked about the origins of secret weather modification and the agenda behind it. According to Stevens, the desire to control the weather arose in the Soviet Union at the advent of the Cold War as the Russians were desperate to gain a military advantage over the U.S. This experimenting with geoengineering, Stevens explains, culminated in the mid-1970's where the U.S. experienced bizarre weather conditions such as snow in Miami.
 
Based on Stevens' research, the U.S. Army revealed this secret weather war to Pres. Reagan in 1984, which resulted in the creation of the U.S.'s Strategic Defense Initiative as well as America's entering the dirty game of geoengineering.
 

Shuttle shoot down using weather

Stevens also claims that the disasters that befell the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles were not  accidents. What were they instead? "They were shoot downs," spawned from the ongoing international battle for control of the environment. Stevens alleges that, at the time of the Challenger launch, there were Soviet ships off the coast of Cape Canaveral that insisted on being in the area for reasons that remain unknown.
 
However, he added, "72 seconds later, they blew the O-ring, and we lost the shuttle." Regarding the Columbia re-entry explosion, he cites an explosive photograph taken by an amateur astronomer that shows a "right-angled, corkscrew lightning strike" that intercepted the path of the shuttle and caused it to disintegrate. Listen 

• geoengineeringwatch.org 
• weatherwars.info

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Entheogenic use of Cannabis and Yoga

Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly (Wikipedia edits)

Sadhus: India's Mystic Holy Men (Dolf Hartsuiker). Reviewed at hermitary.com.

An entheogen ("generating the divine within") refers to substances or practices used in a spiritual, religious, shamanic, or sacred context, whether natural or human made, to expand consciousness. Checking out is abuse, but tuning in may be searching (WQ).

.

What, man? I'm cool. I can maintain.

Cannabis (street name Mary Jane) has been used in an entheogenic ("generating the divine within") context in India since the Vedic period dating back to approximately 1500 BCE but perhaps as far back as 2000 BCE.
 

WARNING: Avoid intoxicants (in accord with fifth precept, see below). Wisdom Quarterly advocates only the healing use of plants and exercise, not their abuse. Hemp is a miracle; weed is not. Not high-THC, but high-CBD content, is medicinal.
 

There are several references in Greek mythology to a powerful drug that eliminated anguish and sorrow. Herodotus wrote about early ceremonial practices by the Scythians [some argue that the Buddha's family, the Shakyans, were in fact the Scythians], thought to have occurred from the 5th to 2nd century BCE.

• AUDIO: Medical Marijuana: CBD not THC
• Cannabis CAN cure: What is CBD?

Spiritual endeavors are not about partying.

Itinerant Hindu sadhus (revered full-time spiritual seekers) have used it in India for centuries (Edward Bloomquist. Marijuana: The Second Trip. California: Glencoe, 1971). And many yogis look like it, which is not to their credit or benefit, with their dreadlocks (jata), droopy countenances, and failure at spiritual attainments.

• The goal of the Eightfold Path of Yoga, according to Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, is the stilling of the mind, the vrittis. What does this have to do with Buddhism? Patanjali's whole system of exposition and language (hybrid Sanskrit) would not have been possible without Buddhism:

Patanjali's "eightfold path" of yoga

The factors of the Path to enlightenment

Vyasa's Yogabhashya, the commentary to the Yoga Sutras, and Vacaspati Misra's subcommentary state directly that the samadhi techniques [right concentration] are directly borrowed from Buddhism's meditative absorptions [the Noble Eightfold Path defines samma samadhi as the first four jhanas], with the addition of the mystical and divine interpretations of mental absorption.¹
 

Even if you get blissed out, remember to breathe! Maty Ezraty teaching (lansingyoga.com)

 
According to David Gordon White, the language of the Yoga Sutras is often closer to "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, the Sanskrit of the early Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, than to the classical Sanskrit of other Hindu scriptures.² According to Karel Werner,

Patanjali's [yoga] system is unthinkable without Buddhism. As far as its terminology goes there is much in the Yoga Sutras that reminds us of Buddhist formulations from the Pāli Canon and even more so from the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma and from Sautrāntika."³

Uma's dad Robert (nymag.com)

American Buddhist and Dalai Lama translator Prof. Robert Thurman writes that Patañjali was influenced by the success of the Buddhist monastic system to formulate his own matrix for the version of thought he considered [Vedic] orthodox.⁴

However, it is also to be noted that the Yoga Sutras, especially the fourth segment of the Kaivalya Pada, contains several polemical verses critical of [some] Buddhism, particularly the [philosophy of the] Vijñānavāda (Yogacara, "Yoga Practice") school of Vasubandhu.⁵

 
Ancient and modern India and Nepal

Sick hippies, intellectuals, and sell outs

The earliest known reports regarding the sacred status of cannabis in India and Nepal come from the Atharva Veda estimated to have been written sometime around 2000-1400 BC,⁶ which mentions cannabis as one of the "five sacred plants."⁷

 

There are three types of cannabis used in India and Nepal. The first, bhang, consists of the leaves and plant tops of the cannabis plant. It is usually consumed as an infusion in beverage form and varies in strength according to how much cannabis is used in the preparation.

The second, ganja, consisting of the leaves and the plant tops, is smoked.

The third, called charas or hashish, consists of the resinous buds and/or extracted resin from the leaves of the plant. Typically, bhang is the most commonly used form of cannabis in religious festivals.
 

Maybe it's called "pot" because it makes couch potato's pot bellies crave potato chips or called "dope" because... well, it isn't making Bud any wiser. If beer is "liquid ignorance," dope may be its gaseous form. Moreover, CBD is more useful than THC.

• “After years of [pot] growers aiming to boost THC percentages in their crops, many growers have switched to focusing on producing CBD-rich strains because of the increasing demand by medical users” - WQ (ProjectCBD.com)
  

Marijuana in modern Hinduism

Aghori yogi ritually drinking sacred bhang from human skull cup with Shiva behind.

 
During the Indian and Nepalese (particularly in the Terai and Hilly regions) festival of Holi, people consume bhang, which contains cannabis flowers.^8,9

According to one description, when the amrita ("elixir of life") was produced from the churning of the ocean by the devas and the asuras, Shiva created cannabis from his own body to purify the elixir (leading to cannabis' epithet, angaja, or "body-born").

Yogi dozing off on nails (petermalakoff.com)

Another account suggests that the cannabis plant sprang up when a drop of the elixir dropped on the ground. Therefore, cannabis is used by would be Hindu sages due to its association with the mythical elixir and Shiva. Wise drinking of bhang, according to religious rites, is believed to cleanse karma, unite one with Shiva, and avoid the miseries of hell in future lives. [It may well have the opposite effect depending on what one does, the karma one engages in, while intoxicated.]

 

It is also believed to have medicinal benefits. In contrast, foolish drinking of bhang without rites, which is considered bad karma.¹⁰ Although cannabis was regarded as illegal and designated a Schedule 1 drug (no redeeming value), many Nepalese people consume it during festivals (like Shivaratri), which the government tolerates to some extent, and also for personal and recreational purposes.

Buddhism and pot

I'm totally into Buddhism, yoga, veg food. I just use this as like medicine, man. - Yeah, right!

.

In Buddhism, the Fifth Precept is to "abstain from wines, liquors, and intoxicants that occasion heedlessness."

How this applies to cannabis is variously interpreted. Cannabis and some other psychoactive plants are specifically prescribed in the Tibetan Mahākāla Tantra for medicinal purposes.

However, Tantra is an esoteric teaching -- a questionable blending of Hinduism and Buddhism -- not generally accepted by most other forms of either Buddhism or Hinduism.¹¹ More

FOOTNOTES

Meditate for health and to end all suffering.

1. John David, The Yoga System of Patanjali with commentary Yogabhashya attributed to Veda Vyasa and Tattva Vaicharadi by Vacaspati Misra. Harvard Univ. Press, 1914.

2. White 2014, p.10.
3. Karel Werner, The Yogi and the Mystic, Routledge, 1994, p.27.
4. Robert Thurman, "The Central Philosophy of Tibet." Princeton Univ. Press, 1984, p.34.
5. John Nicol Farquhar, An Outline of the Religious Literature of India, p.132. 
6. Courtwright, David (2001). Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. Harvard Univ. Press. p.39.
7. Touw, Mia. "The religious and medicinal uses of Cannabis in China, India and Tibet". J Psychoactive Drugs 13 (1).

8. Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission. Simla, India: Government Central Printing House. 1894. Chapter IX: Social and Religious Customs.

9. "The History of the Intoxicant Use of Marijuana". National Commission of Marijuana and Drug Abuse.

10. "Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report - Appendix".

11. Stablein WG. The Mahākālatantra: A Theory of Ritual Blessings and Tantric Medicine. Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia Univ. 1976. pp.21-2,80,255-6,36,286,5.

America's Amazing "Buddha Girl"

Mother Asokha with Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

The amazing "Buddha Girl" -- Ratanayani -- at nuns' full-ordination ceremony for three Western Theravada Buddhists, Dharma Vijaya Temple, L.A. supported by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wisdom Quarterly, Ruth Denison, Ven. Karunananda Theri, family, friends, Nov. 2012 (WQ)

Bible Belt South: Georgia borders North and South Carolina (aussiefitzy.com)

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Bright Buddha banner (Georgie_girl/flickr)

DHARMA VIJAYA TEMPLE, Los Angeles - Wisdom Quarterly loves and supports "Buddha Boy," Nepal's Ram Bahadur Bomjon (aka Ven. Dharmasangha, formerly Ven. Palden Dorje).

Apsaras (Andreadaddi/flickr)

And late in 2012 we met an equally amazing American "Buddha Girl," the samaneri Ratanayani. She is a Cambodian-American (Theravada Buddhist) child in the U.S. who felt so strongly about ordaining as a nun and making known the Buddha's liberating teaching (Dharma) that she swayed her Georgia town to make accommodations and swayed her reluctant brother (photographed above in Buddhist robes next to her as he holds his breath with arms crossed) to come along with her on this monastic journey.
 
She is a samaneri (a female novice, "little ascetic," probationary "Buddhist nun-in-training"). She intends to become a bhikkhuni (fully ordained Theravada nun) in America's Bible Belt.

Angkor Thom (Ramsch_ursel/flickr)

We spoke to her mother, who told us the details and have been hit and miss about publishing the story without an extended sit down interview with the family.

Buddha Boy, a bodhisattva intent on training in the Ten Perfections to eventually become a supremely enlightened teaching buddha (samma-sam-buddha).

The venerable novice Ratanayani ("Jewel Vehicle") is a Cambodian-American Buddhist, the first "little nun" (samaneri) from Clayton County, Georgia, Southern United States of America.

Her family has many accomplishments to announce. For example, on November 5, 2013 the novice and her brother, Jadetha Samanera, were set to receive the first proclamation from Commissioner Jeff Turner of Clayton County, Georgia. This award was the first ever issued by a commissioner to any Buddhist monastic in Georgia's history.

The award was presented in the town center with reporters from local papers in attendance. We will offer more "Buddha Girl" coverage but first, What is a Buddhist "novice"?

• Going Forth: A Call to Buddhist [Monasticism]
• The 10 Training Precepts of a Buddhist Novice
• Novice Chants (excerpt from The Khuddakapatha)

10 Questions of a Novice

Samanera Pañha, "The Novice's Questions" (Ven. Piyadassi, edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

1. What is one? All beings subsist on nutriment [Footnote 1].
2. What is two? Name and form [2].
3. What is three? The three types of
   feeling (sensations) [3].
4. What is four? The Four Noble Truths [4].
5. What is five? The Five Aggregates of Clinging [5].
6. What is six? The six internal sense bases [6].
7. What is seven? The Seven Factors of Enlightenment [7].
8. What is eight? The Noble Eightfold Path.[8].
9. What is nine? The nine abodes for beings [9].
10. What is ten? Endowed with ten qualities, one is called an arhat (a fully enlightened person) [10].

FAME: depressed, drunk, sickly Selena (W)

FOOTNOTES: 1. "There are these four nutriments for the establishing of beings who have taken rebirth or for the support of those in search of a plane to be reborn. What are the four? Physical food, gross or subtle; contact as the second, intention [a representative mental formation] the third, and consciousness the fourth" (SN 12.64).

2. Mental and physical phenomena.

3. Pleasant, painful, and neutral (neither pleasant nor painful).

4. Disappointment (suffering), the origination of disappointment, the cessation of disappointment, the path of practice leading to the cessation of disappointment.

5. Form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

6. Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

7. Mindfulness, keen investigation of mental phenomena (dhammas), energy (persistence), rapture (joy), serenity (calm), concentration (collectedness), equanimity (non-bias).

8. Right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

9. Seven stations of consciousness and two spheres. There are beings with diversity of diverse form (body) and diverse perceptions, such as human beings, some devas, and some beings in the lower realms; this is the first station of consciousness. There are beings of diverse form and singular perceptions, such as the devas of Brahma's Retinue generated by the first meditative absorption (jhana); this is the second station of consciousness. There are beings of singularity (not undiversified) form yet diverse perceptions, such as the Radiant Devas; this is the third station of consciousness. There are beings with singular form and singular perceptions, such as the Effulgent Streaming Devas; this is the fourth station of consciousness. There are beings who, with the complete transcending of perceptions of [physical] form, with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance, and not attending to perceptions of diversity, [perceiving] 'Space is boundless' arrive at the base of consciousness of Boundless Space; this is the fifth station of consciousness. There are beings who, with the complete transcending of the base of Boundless Space, [perceiving] 'Consciousness is boundless' arrive at the base Boundless Consciousness; this is the sixth station of consciousness. There are beings who, with the complete transcending of the base Boundless Consciousness [perceiving,] 'There is nothing [or no-thing],' arrive at the base of Nothingness (the Void); this is the seventh station of consciousness. The base of non-percipient beings and, second, the base of Neither-perception-nor non-perception; these are the two spheres (Maha-nidana Suttanta, DN 15).

10. "The right view of one beyond training (asekha), the right intention (non greed, non harming, non wrath) of one beyond training, the right speech of one beyond training, the right action of one beyond training, the right livelihood of one beyond training, the right effort of one beyond training, the right mindfulness of one beyond training, the right concentration of one beyond training, the right wisdom of one beyond training, the right release (liberation) of one beyond training" (AN 10.112). 

But I really love myself! (sutra)

Ashley Wells and Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly

Nepal's other Everest: trekking to the summit of Gokyo Ri and some of the best views in the country. About two hours’ walk north of Namche Bazaar, the largest town in the Khumbu region, the trail forks. Turn right towards Everest Base Camp (Zolashine/Getty/BBC.com)

Royal Sutra

Dhr. Seven (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly (Rājan Sutra from "Inspired Utterances," Udana 5.1)

Buddha on Gokyo Ri peak (Hendrik Terbeck)

Thus have I heard. Once when the Blessed One was residing near Sāvatthī at Jeta's Grove in the millionaire's monastery, King Pasenadi of Kosala and Queen Mallikā went to the upper floor of the palace.

The king turned to the queen and said, "Mallikā, is there anyone dearer to you than yourself?"

 

"No one, great king, no one is dearer to me than myself. Great king, and how is it with you, is there anyone dearer to you than yourself?"

 

"No one, Mallikā, no one is dearer to me than myself," he answered. Then King Pasenadi left to see the Blessed One. When he arrived, he bowed, sat respectfully to one side, and related to him the exchange.

Then realizing the significance of what was being said, the Blessed One exclaimed this verse of uplift:

"Scanning all directions with awareness, one finds no one dearer than oneself. Others, too, are equally dear to themselves. So if one loves oneself, one avoids hurting others."

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