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A Good Life Now and Later

AN 8.54, the Dīghajāṇu Sutta — set 2, The Basic Diagnosis and the Path

Reading time: about 7 min · 1,147 words

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Before you read

A householder named Dīghajāṇu tells the Buddha, plainly, what his life is like: a house full of children, nice things, money. He asks for a teaching that will help people like him, in this life and the next.

The Buddha does not tell him to give it all up. He gives him four things for a good life now: work hard and well at whatever you do; protect what you earn; keep company with good people and learn from them; and live within your means, neither extravagantly nor stingily. He adds four drains that empty a household's wealth: chasing women, drinking, gambling, and bad friends.

Then come four things for the life to come: confidence, good conduct, generosity, and discernment. It is one of the most practical texts in the collection for anyone living an ordinary life.

Translation

The Setting

At one time the Buddha was staying among the Koliyans, at a Koliyan town named Kakkarapatta. Then Dīghajāṇu the Koliyan went to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. Seated there, he said to the Buddha:

"Bhante, we are householders who enjoy sensual pleasures. We live at home crowded with children. We enjoy sandalwood from Kāsi, we wear garlands, scents, and makeup, and we accept gold and silver. Bhante, please teach us the Dhamma in a way that will lead to our welfare and happiness in this life, and to our welfare and happiness in the life to come."

Four Things for Welfare in This Life

"Byagghapajja, four things lead to the welfare and happiness in this life of a son of good family. What four? Accomplishment in initiative, accomplishment in protection, good friendship, and balanced living.

And what is accomplishment in initiative? Here, Byagghapajja, whatever work a son of good family earns his living by, whether farming, trade, raising cattle, archery, government service, or some other craft, he is skilled and tireless in it. He has the judgment to see how to go about it, and he is able to do it and to organize it. This is called accomplishment in initiative.

And what is accomplishment in protection? Byagghapajja, a son of good family has wealth gained by initiative and effort, built up by the strength of his arms, earned by the sweat of his brow, lawful and lawfully gained. He keeps it guarded and protected, thinking: 'How can I keep rulers and thieves from taking this wealth, fire from burning it, floods from sweeping it away, and unloved heirs from taking it?' This is called accomplishment in protection.

And what is good friendship? Here, Byagghapajja, in whatever village or town a son of good family lives, he spends time with the householders or their children there, young or old, who are mature in conduct and accomplished in confidence, conduct, generosity, and discernment. He talks and discusses things with them. He learns from the confidence of those accomplished in confidence, from the conduct of those accomplished in conduct, from the generosity of those accomplished in generosity, and from the discernment of those accomplished in discernment. This is called good friendship.

And what is balanced living? Byagghapajja, a son of good family knows what comes in and what goes out, and lives in balance, neither extravagantly nor too frugally, thinking: 'In this way what comes in will exceed what goes out, and what goes out will not exceed what comes in.' Just as someone who weighs things, or their apprentice, holds up a scale and knows, 'It has dipped by this much, or risen by this much,' in the same way a son of good family knows what comes in and what goes out, and lives in balance, neither extravagantly nor too frugally, thinking: 'In this way what comes in will exceed what goes out, and what goes out will not exceed what comes in.'

If a son of good family with a small income lives lavishly, people will say: 'This son of good family eats up his wealth like someone eating figs.' If a son of good family with a large income lives meanly, people will say: 'This son of good family will die like a starving man.' But when a son of good family knows what comes in and what goes out, and lives in balance, neither extravagantly nor too frugally, thinking: 'In this way what comes in will exceed what goes out, and what goes out will not exceed what comes in,' this is called balanced living.

Four Drains and Four Inlets

Wealth gathered in this way has four drains: chasing women, drinking, gambling, and having bad friends, bad companions, and bad associates. Suppose there were a great reservoir with four inlets and four drains. If someone closed the inlets and opened the drains, and the rain did not fall properly, the reservoir could be expected to shrink, not grow. In the same way, wealth gathered in this way has four drains: chasing women, drinking, gambling, and having bad friends, bad companions, and bad associates.

Wealth gathered in this way has four inlets: not chasing women, not drinking, not gambling, and having good friends, good companions, and good associates. Suppose there were a great reservoir with four inlets and four drains. If someone opened the inlets and closed the drains, and the rain fell properly, the reservoir could be expected to grow, not shrink. In the same way, wealth gathered in this way has four inlets: not chasing women, not drinking, not gambling, and having good friends, good companions, and good associates.

Byagghapajja, these are the four things that lead to the welfare and happiness in this life of a son of good family.

Four Things for Welfare in the Life to Come

Byagghapajja, four things lead to the welfare and happiness in the life to come of a son of good family. What four? Accomplishment in confidence, accomplishment in conduct, accomplishment in generosity, and accomplishment in discernment.

And what is accomplishment in confidence? Byagghapajja, a son of good family has confidence. He places confidence in the awakening of the Tathāgata: 'So indeed is the Buddha — an arahant, perfectly and fully awakened, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, well-departed, knower of the world, unsurpassed guide for those to be tamed, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed.' This is called accomplishment in confidence.

And what is accomplishment in conduct? Byagghapajja, a son of good family refrains from taking life, from taking what is not given, from sexual misconduct, from false speech, and from intoxicants that lead to heedlessness. This is called accomplishment in conduct.

And what is accomplishment in generosity? Byagghapajja, a son of good family lives at home with a heart free from the stain of stinginess. He is openhanded, glad to let go, responsive when asked, and glad to give and share. This is called accomplishment in generosity.

And what is accomplishment in discernment? Byagghapajja, a son of good family discerns. He has the discernment that leads to arising and passing away — noble, penetrating, rightly leading to the wearing away of dissatisfaction. This is called accomplishment in discernment.

Byagghapajja, these are the four things that lead to the welfare and happiness in the life to come of a son of good family.

Verses

Getting up to do his work, heedful and capable, he lives in balance and guards what he has gathered.

With confidence, accomplished in conduct, openhanded, free of stinginess, he keeps clearing the path to well-being in the life to come.

These eight things of a householder with confidence were proclaimed by the one truly named as bringing happiness in both worlds:

welfare in this life and happiness in the life to come. This is how, for householders, generosity and benefit grow."

The fourth discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (13)
arahant
Someone who has completed the path and has nothing further to do. Left untranslated; "saint" and "perfected one" both mislead.
awakening
Coming fully awake to how things are. Sometimes translated "enlightenment," a word this project avoids as needlessly mystical.
Bhante
A respectful way of addressing a senior monastic, roughly "venerable sir." Left untranslated because English has no natural equivalent.
conduct
This project's rendering of "sīla", often translated "morality" or "virtue". It means how a person actually behaves. The rest of the practice grows from it; it is not a set of rules to obey.
Dhamma
The Buddha's teaching taken as a whole -- both what he taught and the way things actually are, which the teaching describes.
dissatisfaction
This translation's rendering of "dukkha," the Buddhist term for the unsatisfying, unstable quality of ordinary experience. Often translated "suffering," but that can sound more dramatic than the everyday sense of things not quite being right.
heart
This project's rendering of "citta": the feeling side of mind. It takes on moods, wants, leans, and reacts. Practice can gladden, steady, train, and release it. Some call it the "heart-mind" or "feeling mind". Here "heart" does not mean only emotion, or the physical organ.
heedful
Living with heedfulness: awake to what you are doing and keeping up the effort.
heedlessness
The opposite of heedfulness: drifting, letting things slide, not noticing what the mind is doing.
sensual pleasures
Enjoyable sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches, when you chase and consume them as sources of satisfaction.
Tathāgata
A title for the Buddha, traditionally left untranslated. It means roughly "the one who has arrived at things as they truly are."
wearing away
The gradual using-up of something until it runs out completely. The texts use it especially for what has to run out before release.
world
A word whose scope shifts with the teaching. It can mean the lived world we build through the senses and the mind, or the wider physical cosmos. The surrounding passage shows which sense it has.
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