This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

The Greatest Good Fortune: An Exploration of the Mangala Sutta

Welcome to this evening's Sati Center program on the exploration of the Mangala Sutta. The Sati Center invited me to offer this session, and I'm very happy to do so. I really enjoy sharing the richness of the Buddhist teachings with others. I also like trying to convey how these ancient texts can inform our practice and life in today's world.

We'll be looking at the Mangala Sutta, which is Sutta 2.4 in a text called the Sutta Nipāta^[1]. We're going to look at it in a variety of ways and from a variety of angles. I encourage you to just follow along and allow the class to paint a picture that might have a little more detail than you might have gotten just reading the text on your own.

We will begin and also end with touching into the oral tradition that's behind this text. The teachings of the Pali Canon were originally preserved as oral teachings and were only written down much later. Even when they were written down, the oral tradition continued, and that continues to this day. For that reason, it's actually important to hear the suttas spoken. That's how we're going to begin. Let me put the words of this sutta up onto the screen for you. Just settle back; it's a fairly short sutta and I will read it.

"This is what I have heard. At one time, the Blessed One was staying at Sāvatthī in the Jeta Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery. On that occasion, as the night was coming to an end, a certain god of great beauty approached the Blessed One while illuminating the whole Jeta Grove. After bowing to the Blessed One, they stood to one side and spoke a verse.

"Many gods and humans desiring well-being are seekers of good fortune. Please tell me the greatest good fortune."

"Not to associate with fools, but to associate with the wise and to honor those worthy of honor. This is the greatest good fortune.

"To live in a suitable place, having previously done good karma, and to apply oneself in the right way. This is the greatest good fortune.

"To be educated and to have a vocation, to be well trained in one's chosen field, and to speak words that are well spoken. This is the greatest good fortune.

"To support one's mother and father, to cherish one's partner and children, and to have a job without stress. This is the greatest good fortune.

"Generosity and an upright life, kindness toward one's relatives, and the doing of blameless deeds, this is the greatest good fortune.

"To refrain from what is unwholesome, to abstain from all intoxicants, and to be steadfast in good qualities, this is the greatest good fortune.

"Respect and humility, contentment and gratitude, and the timely hearing of Dharma, this is the greatest good fortune.

"Being patient and easy to correct, the seeing of monks and nuns, and timely discussion on Dharma, this is the greatest good fortune.

"Asceticism and the spiritual life, insight into the noble truths, and the seeing for oneself of Nirvana, this is the greatest good fortune.

"A mind that remains unshaken by the ups and downs of the world, sorrowless, stainless, and safe, this is the greatest good fortune.

"Having performed these things, nowhere can they be conquered. They are secure wherever they go. This is their greatest good fortune."

Exploration of the Mangala Sutta

Let's talk now about what's going on in this sutta and walk through how it unfolds. The setting is that a deva comes to the grove where the Buddha is meditating and says that both devas and human beings are seekers of good fortune. Essentially, people want a good life. We want things to go well in our lives.

And so, they ask the Buddha, "What is the greatest good fortune?" Some translations ask, "What is the highest blessing?" That word is mangala^[2]. It means something auspicious, something that both arises out of goodness and portends goodness in the future.

Many of the teachings in the Sutta Nipāta are considered by scholars to be fairly old and close to the original. These earlier suttas seem to come from a time when the teachings weren't quite as systematized as they were later. There weren't so many lists of "eight this" and "six that." We don't see a specific list or an analytical way of approaching the teachings here.

And yet, the sutta does have a structure and a logic to it. In particular, we will see that all the components of the Noble Eightfold Path are present.

Let's have a look at the beginning. It talks about basic choices regarding who we associate with: are we going to associate with the wise or with fools? It says that we should associate with the wise and honor those worthy of honor. We would have a sense for ourselves of what is worthy in the world. And then it says that we would direct ourselves rightly, or "apply oneself in the right way." There's a sense that our lives are about doing something good, worthy, meaningful, and valuable. We have here the seeds of wisdom. The first part, about associating with the right people, is Right View. Many texts talk about the foundational value of spiritual friends on the path, associating with the wise and having kalyāṇa-mitta^[3]. Directing ourselves rightly is Right Intention. We have these initial forms of wisdom that launch us onto the path.

The text goes on and names various wholesome actions, such as "speaking words that are well spoken." There's Right Speech. It names having a vocation and being talented at what one does; there's Right Livelihood. We have actions that are beneficial: supporting one's family, and having a job without stress. Generosity and an upright life refer to upholding the precepts, which is Right Action. So, we have speech, action, and livelihood. There is a sense of contributing to the community, having a place for oneself within family and community, taking responsibility, and establishing an ethical framework for one's life. Essentially, we have the idea of understanding oneself as part of a larger picture. These represent the sīla^[4] steps on the path—ethical conduct. All three of them are there if you look; they are just not spelled out as a list.

Then we get to the paragraph that starts, "To refrain from what is unwholesome, to abstain from all intoxicants, and to be steadfast in good qualities." We start to see a switch toward qualities. It is not so much about actions in the world, but qualities of oneself or one's mind. The development of respect and humility are internal qualities. With our material lives now in order, we switch over to the spiritual direction that unfolds naturally out of having good ethics and a sound material life. We move more deeply into the samādhi^[5] steps of the path: effort, mindfulness, and concentration.

We also see the timely hearing and discussing of the Dharma. That's actually an important shift. It's good to have a good life, a good job, and to support one's family, but if we never hear the Dharma—particularly the noble truths about the potential end of unsatisfactoriness in our lives—we may not get inspired to do the cultivation necessary for awakening. Hearing the teachings about the end of suffering is important.

Then it moves even more deeply into the development of the mind. Patience, being easy to correct—we are into some kind of path at this point. Discussing the Dharma and making the path our own. The beginning of real paññā^[6], real wisdom, is to be able to talk about the Dharma, to engage in it, to have a path that we feel we are on, and to talk about that with others, either with teachers or with spiritual friends.

Next, we get to asceticism and the spiritual life, insight into the noble truths, and seeing Nirvana for oneself. We are lay people, of course; we have not ordained as monastics. But for us, this could point toward attending a meditation retreat where we temporarily take on a very simplified life that is entirely focused on practice because everything else is taken care of for us. Now it's completely about spiritual development. We've transitioned from material life, to mental development and the creation of good karma, and then into spiritual development and the cultivation of deeper wisdom.

The next stanza says, "A mind that remains unshaken by the ups and downs of the world, sorrowless, stainless, and safe." That is a description of the mind of the arahant^[7]. These are common words used to describe people who are completely free. It's also interesting to note that the language in that paragraph shifts to being only about the mind: "A mind that remains unshaken." It doesn't say a "person" anymore. It has shifted only to the mind, which is normal for the arahant.

What's really interesting is that it doesn't end there. Apparently, seeing Nirvana is not the last step of the path. After awakening, we go back to the world of people. It's not just the loftiness of a mind achieving Nirvana, but going around in the world secure and in well-being. My interpretation is that we come down from the mountain, and then there is just living freely, being in our community, and being an example of freedom in the world.

We can see that the Mangala Sutta includes every step of the eightfold path. It begins with an initial amount of wisdom from which we get ourselves into a good worldly situation (sīla). Then it talks about developing the mind (samādhi). Finally, it culminates with the emergence of liberating wisdom into awakening. It shows how the components build on and reinforce each other to create a very fortunate life—a life that is a blessing not just for that person, but for the people around them, too. We could say that the Noble Eightfold Path is the greatest good fortune that exists in the world.

A Contemplative Guide for Modern Life

What is really meant by this word mangala? The translations are "blessing" or "good fortune." At a surface level, that sounds like things we might want to be grateful for, or perhaps things mysteriously granted to us by forces beyond, or by good luck. However, if we remember that it was a god who asked the Buddha about this, we know that in the Indian system, the gods are learners of the Dharma just like humans. They're not granting us things from their godhood. We also know from Dharma teachings that the path is less about luck than it is about creating certain conditions.

The things named in the sutta are indeed things to be grateful for when they appear in our lives. But a more refined idea is to consider that they are things that support and foster the path to freedom. They are not just things to be enjoyed; they are things to be developed. They are things that we take some responsibility for.

Mainstream society does not always encourage us in the directions stated in this sutta. Society doesn't necessarily encourage us to be honest or to do our work patiently and carefully. People are regularly rewarded for cutting corners, sometimes even for lying, and certainly self-aggrandizement can be very rewarding. This sutta suggests that real wealth and real blessings come from ethics and mental development, which is not a broadly popular idea. Yet, when we are engaged with the eightfold path, it's easy to understand the message of this sutta. The path is nourishing and onward-leading in ways that seeking wealth, power, or pleasure are not. It encourages us to have faith and confidence in something deeper.

How can we engage with this sutta here in the 21st century? I'd like to suggest that this sutta could be used as a contemplative guide for a lay life aimed toward awakening. If we take the sutta literally, it might sound like a quaint set of ideas from an agrarian society during an idealistic time when there wasn't war, famine, or plague. But with a little bit of mental flexibility, we can see it as very relevant to modern life.

In particular, we can notice how different steps can deepen over time. We don't have to take them just at face value. We might understand them a certain way now, understand them differently a few years from now, and after practicing for thirty years, see yet another meaning in the very same text.

For example, we could start with the literal idea of supporting one's family. We might have children or elderly parents that are in need of material support. But as we practice on the path, we begin to realize that our mindfulness practice is also supporting other people. There's another sutta that talks about two acrobats performing together on a pole. One says, "You be mindful of me and I'll be mindful of you, and that way we'll be safe." The Buddha says, "No, that isn't such a good idea. If each of you is mindful of your own welfare, you will automatically be protecting the other person." Our lives are a lot like balancing on a pole with all of the different relationships and jobs we have to take care of. The suttas are clear that mindfulness for ourselves automatically protects other people because we are not as reactive. We are more equanimous, and so we have more mental space to be compassionate and caring for others. Going back to the Mangala Sutta, support for one's parents, relatives, and children is included when I'm doing my practice. When I get up and sit every morning before I take care of my family, that is part of the support for them.

We also begin to see that the word "family" doesn't have to be literal. We have our relatives by genetics, but what about our Sangha? Maybe that's our chosen family. As we go through life, we have dear Dharma friends that are just as close to us as family. We start broadening what we mean by family, eventually including the human family or the family of all living beings as our hearts get very wide.

We can see that the words in the text can deepen and change over time. It's not a linear progression where we check off "associating with the wise" and move on to stanza number two. These factors mutually reinforce and develop together. After we've developed some patience and heard the Dharma, we may have a deeper relationship with our work and community life. Even the part about seeing freedom near the end—we've all had glimpses of a free moment where we weren't caught up. We might have a moment where, fifty times before, we would have gotten angry, but this one time we didn't. The next moment we're back, but we still had that moment of freedom.

An advantage of these less systematized early teachings is that we get a flexible idea of how Dharma practice shapes a person's life. For a lay contemplative, we can explore how to be in the world but not fully of it. How can we include renunciation and Buddhist wisdom like anicca^[8], dukkha^[9], and anattā^[10] while still participating in society? In a sense, this sutta is about an alignment of our body, speech, and mind—an alignment of sīla, samādhi, and paññā. We could ask ourselves: Which of these dimensions are already robust in my life? Which ones might be a bit neglected? Would there be ways to shore up the parts that aren't so well developed so that the path is more complete?

Q&A

Question: I was just thinking about my foolish family members. I still need to be caring of them even if they're foolish. What does "foolish" mean? It sounds kind of friendly, like having idiosyncrasies, but I think it might mean something deeper or more toxic.

Kim Allen: The word "foolish" there—bāla^[11]—is typically the opposite of wisdom. It means someone who is not conducting their life wisely or who does not understand their life in a wise way. It is meant to have a somewhat gentle sound to it, though people sometimes react to it and ask, "Why does it say that?" But it means that the person is headed for dukkha; there's some misunderstanding there.

That can provide a clue that one of the ways to support such people is to have compassion. We know that the way they're acting, thinking, or speaking will eventually bring about dukkha. There may not be anything we can do about that. We don't need to be their Dharma teacher or always point out the right way—that doesn't always work, as we know. We have to be more creative in finding ways to support them. Sometimes the best support is to internally have a lot of clarity, compassion, and equanimity about being with them, so that we don't stir up anything more. We can look for opportunities to plant seeds of wisdom in their lives, but it can be challenging. Sometimes the fools are our greatest teachers, aren't they?

One other thing I'll say is that we shouldn't understand somebody to be forever unchangeably that way. A person is not always a fool, nor is a person always wise. These are qualities of actions or mind states. We ourselves have our moments of foolishness and our moments of wisdom.

Question: I'm fascinated by the devas and humans being together in this at the beginning. Can you say a little bit more about that? Are they hanging out the same way humans are, or does this make them equals to us?

Kim Allen: The deva in this sutta is playing the role of asking the question of the Buddha. There's a little bit of the cosmology and mythology of the Buddhist world being shown here. Devas and humans occupy the planes where it's possible to learn and practice the Dharma. Devas, although they're called gods, are just beings in the heavenly realms, which are not permanent anymore than the human realm is.

A lot of the devas are not awake. You're not necessarily wise to get up there; you go there through good karma. People who have done good actions, acts of generosity, kept the precepts, or cultivated stages of concentration can be reborn in the deva realms. But without penetrating insight into the Four Noble Truths, the person is still not awake. They will live out their life there and then move on.

We could also think of them psychologically. The deva represents our higher self, the part of us that wonders, "How can I have a good life? The world is amazing, beautiful, terrible, and tragic. Where is the path through all of this?" It is an elevated question to ask, so it's put in the mouth of a deva.

They live a lot longer and their lives are more pleasant. They have an easier time of it in terms of the five senses and don't have as much physical dukkha as we do. But here's the real kicker: the human realm is considered better for practice than the deva realm precisely because it's a little harder. We have just the right combination of pleasure and pain to be motivated to practice. The devas have a more refined, easier time, so they're not as motivated. It's harder for them to understand impermanence and dukkha. It's actually considered the most auspicious birth to be born as a human.

Question: The second to last line says, "They are secure wherever they go." That's very lovely.

Kim Allen: People who are free have found the real safety. That's an echo back to the beginning. When the deva asks the Buddha the question, some translations point out that what devas and humans seek is security or safety. When we get to the very last stanza where it says they are secure wherever they go, it's saying that the highest security is to be free. It's not a blessing you can get through creating a good material life; it is insight into the Four Noble Truths and full awakening. That is really the only way in this changing world to be completely safe.

Question: I was looking for and wondering about the lack of reference to meditation, mindfulness, or concentration. Is it implied somewhere, or is it just not considered one of the blessings?

Kim Allen: You're right, it's not named specifically, but we could put it in something like the hearing and discussion of the Dharma. More explicitly, we have asceticism and the spiritual life. The Pali word translated as asceticism is tapo^[12], which literally means "burning." It has to do with the process of purification that one goes through, partially through doing meditation practices, to purify the mind at a deeper level than we can through bodily action and good karma. So mindfulness and concentration, like jhāna^[13], are not literally named, but I insert them into those later steps where the mind eventually realizes the Four Noble Truths, which is usually done through meditative practice.

Guided Meditation

At this point, let's settle in and do a short meditation together as yet another way to connect with these teachings. Find a posture where you'll be able to sit. If you need to move or shift slightly, it's fine to do that. If it's comfortable to do so, you can close your eyes.

Connect in with your body, feeling the body in the sitting posture or the lying down posture. Feel into the heart area and the belly area, helping to lower our tension down into the body in case it's up in the head. Soften the shoulders, letting them drop away from the ears. Soften down through the belly. Release any bracing in the arms or the legs. Feel the straightness of the spine. We have a straight core of the body, and then we soften around it—upright and relaxed.

In this sitting, we'll do a recollection of some of the blessings in our life. This is not quite the same as gratitude. Recollection of blessings means bringing to mind these qualities, maybe even feeling them in the body, and then knowing them as good—meaning onward leading for the path.

This evening we've all gotten to hear the Dharma. Know for yourself the goodness of that. Every one of us is at this moment healthy enough to sit for this teaching and hear it. That's a great blessing to have that level of health. Everyone here has enough material resources to have access to a computer and the mental ability to use it. Know the goodness of that.

Every one of us has done some degree—quite a bit actually—of ethical conduct in our life. It hasn't been perfect, but it's been quite good. Know the goodness of our hearts, the goodness of our intentions. We all have the ability to meditate, which is quite rare in this world.

Just breathe through the body, feeling the energy of whatever goodness you can recollect about your life and your path. Breathe it through every cell in the body.

Truly, we have an abundance of material, mental, and spiritual blessings. It feels good to do that kind of recollection. Other suttas say that this kind of reflection is wholesome. It's not at all selfish. Doing a recollection like this helps us have what's called "delight in the Dharma." It is said to be one of the factors that leads to samādhi, to concentration. It is perfectly fine to be fully aware of the goodness in our lives.

Reflections and Discussion

(Following a short breakout group session where participants discussed which stanzas stood out to them.)

Participant 1: I liked the next to the last stanza, which is "a mind that remains unshaken." So many of the things that we would like to practice are predicated on having a mind that is not constantly moving.

Kim Allen: That's for sure. We're so much more beneficial to other people when we're not shaking all the time. Then we don't end up saying the wrong things and creating bad karma.

Participant 2: In our group, there was some discussion on the very last stanza about security. I was wondering if you could connect that with the Buddhist teaching on dependent origination. Does self-reliance and security come out of a deeper understanding of dependent origination?

Kim Allen: The deepest security is not to be fooled by anything that arises. We can't be drawn in, we can't be shaken by things that are enticing, and we don't fall into wanting them. When things are difficult or ugly, we don't push them away and hate them. We see everything clearly. That includes understanding dependent origination—non-delusion, essentially. When we see clearly how things are interrelated, we recognize the patterns that lead to dukkha and the patterns that lead to non-dukkha. Then the mind is safe from getting caught in the cycle of dependent origination. That describes how the mind, starting from a place of ignorance, grasps onto sense experience, creates a self, and then suffers. The ultimate security is not to bite the bait and not to fall into that trap.

Participant 2: Does this idea of cause and effect mean that we are active agents who make choices and can create the conditions in our own lives that will generate security?

Kim Allen: The earlier parts of the Mangala Sutta are pointing exactly to that. We don't see blessings as things that just fall from heaven or happen by luck; we are putting conditions in place. Supporting one's family, having a good vocation, acting honestly—we have some choice about these things. When we can discern the right way from the wrong way, we can put energy into the things that will further the path.

I can't completely endorse the language of "active agents" because eventually we see that it wasn't exactly us doing that. But that's a fine way to see it at the beginning. If we act as if we're the ones making these choices, what will unfold is an understanding that goes beyond the need to be an agent. That fuller picture will create itself.

Participant 3: I'm so grateful that you pointed out the connection with the Noble Eightfold Path. I just read it and saw it as a bunch of ideas, but I did not see the pattern. The parts I related to had to do with wanting a stable mind but not having it. I've heard Dharma teachers say that pleasure and happiness are not the same thing, but seeing it myself has been a rude awakening. I see that my mind is always wanting happiness, but it's doing all the wrong things to get it. Having the insight for yourself, which was in one of the lines, has been very important to me.

Kim Allen: The Dharma is so simple, but it's not easy. Making it specific to our lives is very much the point of the path. Your realization is exactly what the deva asks: "We want to be happy. How do we do it?" We don't always pursue happiness in a way that can actually bring it about. This text says, "If you actually want happiness, these are the steps." And it will work out.

Paritta Chanting

I want to end with one more dimension of this sutta. We began and will end with the oral tradition. The Mangala Sutta is a classic sutta that's used today in modern-day Theravada Buddhism as a form of chanting called Paritta^[14] chanting. These are special protective blessings that are done on auspicious occasions or when protection or healing is needed. The Mangala Sutta is one, the Metta Sutta is one, and the Ratana Sutta is another.

Paritta chanting is very common in Theravadan countries in Asia. A group of monks will chant a series of suttas in a particular style where the sound is nearly continuous. They can't breathe, but there's enough of them that when one drops out to take a breath, everybody else is continuing.

The listeners of these chants enter into a protective field created by the sound, which invokes both protection and healing. Functionally, Paritta chanting unifies a community and creates a safe emotional space that acknowledges the sometimes troublesome or difficult aspects of life. I want to give a little quote from Sarah Shaw, who has done some work in this area: "In Paritta texts, guarding, blessing, and the transformation of energies in a clear and awake field of being are felt to effect the restoration of psychological and spiritual health for the individual who needs this help and also for the participants."

[Paritta Chanting in Pali]

Pretty good, huh? You can feel the field that gets created there.

We're at the end of our time. I hope you've enjoyed these different angles of exploring this sutta. There are many different ways to engage with it, and I hope it might be meaningful as it goes on. The world needs contemplatives to be reflecting about their lives and how to bring about these kinds of blessings to create a better world for all of us.

May what we've done this evening be of good fortune and auspicious for us and for everyone that we come in contact with. May all of you find the deep blessings of the spiritual life, all the way from material life, to mental development, to full awakening. May all beings be happy, peaceful, and free. Thank you.