GUIDE TO TIPITAKA

(3) Tika Nipæta Pæ¹i

(a) The fool can be known by three things, by his conduct in deed, word and thought; so also the wise man can be known by three things, by his conduct in deed, word and thought. (para 3)

(b) There are three places a sovereign king should not forget: his birth place, the place where he was crowned as king and the site of battle in which he conquered his enemies. There are three places a bhikkhu should not forget: the place of renunciation, the place where he achieved the knowledge of the Four Noble Truths and the place where he attained Arahatship. (para 12)

(c) He who devotes himself earnestly to his business in the morning, in the daytime and in the evening, will prosper, and grow in wealth; the bhikkhu who devotes himself earnestly to development of concentration in the morning, in the daytime and in the evening will progress and gain advancement in his spiritual work. (para 19)

(d) These three types of persons are found in the world: One with a mind like an open sore; one with a mind like a flash of lightning; one with a mind like a diamond.

One who is irascible and very irritable, displaying anger, hatred and sulkiness; such a one is said to be a person with a mind like an open sore.

One who understands the Four Noble Truths correctly is said to have a mind like a flash of lightning. One who has destroyed the mind-intoxicating defilements and realized the liberation of mind and the liberation by knowledge is said to have a mind like a diamond. (para 25)

(e) There are these three kinds of individuals in the world: One who speaks words reeking with foul smell; one who speaks words of fragrance; and one who speaks words sweet as honey. (para 28)

(f) There are three root causes for the origination of actions (kamma): greed, hatred and ignorance. An action done in greed, hatred and ignorance will ripen wherever the individual is reborn; and wherever the action ripens, there the individual reaps the fruit (vipæka) of that action, be it in this life, in the next life or in future existences. (para 38)

(g) He who prevents another from giving alms hinders and obstructs three persons. He causes obstruction to the meritorious act of the donor; he obstructs the recipient in getting his gift; he undermines and harms his own character. (para 58)

(h) Three dangers from which a mother cannot shield her son nor the son his mother: Old age, disease and death. (para 63)

(i) The well-known sutta, Kesamutti Sutta also known as Kælæma Sutta, appears as the fifth sutta in the Mahævagga of the Tika Nipæta. At Kesamutta, a small town in the Kingdom of Kosala, the Buddha thus exhorted the Kælæmas, the inhabitants of the town: “Do not be led by reports or traditions, or hearsay. Do not be led by the authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by speculative opinion, nor by seeming possibilities, nor because one’s own teacher has said so. O Kælæmas, when you know for yourselves that certain things are wrong, unwholesome, bad, then give them up; when you know for yourselves that certain things are right, wholesome, good, then accept them, follow them.” (para 66)

(j) A bhikkhu devoted to the holy life should pay equal attention to three factors in turn, namely, concentration, energetic effort and equanimity, and not exclusively to one of these factors only. If he gives regular attention to each of them, his mind will become soft, pliant, malleable, lucid and well concentrated, ready to be directed to whatever mental states are realizable by supernormal knowledge. (para 103)

(k) There are three rare persons in the world: a Tathægata who is a perfectly Enlightened One is rare in the world; a person who can expound the Teaching and Discipline as taught by the Buddha is rare in this world; and a person who is grateful and thankful is rare in the world. (para 115)

(1) Whether a Tathægata appears in the world or not, the fact remains as a firm and inevitable condition of existence that all conditioned formations are impermanent, that all conditioned formations are subject to suffering, that all things are devoid of self. (para 137)