Once, Lord B uddha expounded a Jataka (one of His past existences) to a great company of members of the Sangha. In the Jataka, the would-be-Buddha was a skylark. He made his nest under a clod of earth in a ploughed field. One day, it left his nest and went around the field in search of food. At the time, an eagle in the sky awaiting its prey swooped down and caught the skylark and flew off. The skylark in the feet of the eagle murmured, “How foolish I am! I failed to respect my parents’ warning that I should search food only in the land of my possession, and I should not go far away from my place. I am unfortunate today. Had I remained in the auspicious land where I was born, the eagle could not have swooped me.”

Hearing the murmour, the eagle said, “Hey, skylark, don’t talk big. I wonder where your parents’ auspicious land is.” “It is the land full of clods of earth” the skylark replied. Being proud of its great strength, the eagle proclaimed, “All right, you can go now. I’m sure you can’t escape from me even though you are in the land you rely on” and released it.
Getting onto the clod of earth, the skylark bravely challenged, “Oh, eagle, come on, I dare you now.”

Stretching its two wings, the eagle swooped down at a great speed toward the challenger. When the eagle was very close to it, the skylark quickly got under the earth clod. Losing control of the speed, the eagle ran into the earth clod in its chest to death.

The Buddha continued to say, “Oh, monks, even an animal can meet its tragic end if it frequents a place of other’s habitat. Without doubt, it can’t face any alien dangers if it remains in its traditional place.

“Monks, you, therefore, should not frequent the habitat of others. If so, any kinds of defilement will not have any chance to deceive and trap you.

“Monks, the places you should not frequent are five kinds of sensual pleasure: sense of visible object, sense of sound, sense of smell, sense of taste and sense of touch.

“Monks, reside in your traditional places. If so, any kinds of defilement will have no chance to deceive and trap you.

“Monks, the traditional places where you should always reside are four kinds of meditation: body, sensation, mind and thought.

The above-mentioned facts are prescribed in Maha Vagga Samyutta Pali, Satipatthana Samyutta Pali, and 550 Duka Nipat Santavavag Sakunaggho Jataka and that means monks should always have mindfulness.

I started to learn the Buddhist scriptures at my old age. As for me, treatises translated from Pali works by learned persons such as Patakat, Maha Buddhavamsa and 550 Buddha past existences are like repositories of religious knowledge.

I have planned to spend the rest of my life beneficially. So, I neither listen to BBC, VOA and RFA nor watch TV.

However much periods have elapsed and there have been many changes in the worldly affairs, the Teachings of the Buddha remain unchanged. So, it is called “Theravada Buddha Sasana”.

Everyone, regardless of race and religious faith, who have ever studied the Teachings of the Buddha as they really are can’t help praising His Omniscience.

So, Nehru was once proud of the Buddha, praising Him as the good son of India. Poet Edward Arnold praised Him as the Light of Asia. Indeed, when the Buddha was alive, various scholars compared the Buddha to the Sun that gives light to the whole world.

The purpose of this article is to enable all members of the Sangha to realize what the Buddha expounded that the said skylark’s attitude is key to success.

The Buddha showed such a great magnitude of compassion toward members of the Sangha who trusted and took refuge in Him that He urged His monk disciples to reside in secluded places. It was very objective that the Buddha gave a sermon that every monk should always reside in the monastery of mindfulness.

A cowhand herds cattle so that the cattle do not go anywhere else. In like manner, members of the Sangha should control their mind through mindfulness so that their mind does not go to any places full of passion.

Considering “Suppatippanna”, one of the Nine Supreme Attributes of members of Religious Order, who always reside in the monastery of mindfulness, the government and the people with generosity offer Rattha Pinda or four kinds of requisites to about 500,000 members of the Sangha residing in Myanmar.

If members of the Sangha had always resided in the monastery of mindfulness and they had not staged protest marches, demanding release of political prisoners, the nation would not have seen any chaos.

In other words, if they had followed Directives No 81, 83, 85, 65 and 93 prescribed by members of the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee that appeared in 25-9-2007 issues of Myanma Alin and Kyemon newspapers, the government would not have used force to prevent protests.

I would like to exhort all my counterparts to refrain from being too friendly with lay persons and to always reside in the monastery of mindfulness in safety so as to have the auspicious land like the skylark.