The All-Embracing Net of Views

Maurice Walshe, translator ("What the Teaching is Not," Brahmajala Sutra, DN 1)

The Buddha, Hong Kong (Jess Watt/Flickr.com)

Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was traveling between Rajagaha and Nalanda with a large company of monastics. The wanderer Suppiya was also traveling close behind on the same road arguing with his pupil the youth Brahmadatta.

Suppiya was finding fault in all sorts of ways with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha [monastic Order], whereas his pupil Brahmadatta was speaking in various ways in praise of them.

• The commentary explains that Suppiya was a follower of Sanjaya Belatthaputta (DN 2.31 ff.), the former teacher of Sariputra and Mahamoggallana. It is was this defection, in addition to the loss of his gains, that angered Suppiya.

They all stopped for the night at the royal park of Ambalatthika. Suppiya went on abusing the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, while his pupil Brahmadatta defended them.

Early in the morning a number of monastics got up and gathered together in the Round Pavilion saying: "It is wonderful, friends, it is marvellous how the Blessed Lord, the Arahant [fully enlightened one], the supremely-enlightened Teacher knows, sees, and clearly distinguishes the different inclinations of beings! For here is the wanderer Suppiya finding fault in all sorts of ways with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, while his pupil in various ways defends them. And still disputing they follow closely behind the Buddha and his disciples."

Then the Buddha, being aware of what they were discussing, came to the Round Pavilion. Sitting down on the seat specially prepared for him, he asked: "Monastics, what was the subject of your conversation just now which I interrupted?" And they told him.

"Monastics, if anyone should speak in disparagement of me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, you should not be angry, resentful, or upset on that account. If you were to become angry or displeased at such disparagement, that would only be a hindrance to you. For if others disparage me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, and you are angry or displeased, can you recognize whether what they say is right or not?"

"No, venerable sir."

"If others disparage me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, then you must explain what is incorrrect as being incorrect, saying: 'That is incorrect, that is false, that is not our way, that is not found among us.'

"If others praise me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, you should not on that account be pleased, happy, or elated. If you were to become pleased, happy, or elated at such praise, that would only be a hindrance to you. If others praise me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, you should acknowledge the truth of what is true, saying: 'That is correct, that is right, that is our way, that is found among us.'

"It is for elementary, inferior matters of moral practice [which are inferior relative to the achievement of purifying levels of concentration (jhanas, meditative-absorptions), which are inferior to the achievement of liberating insights (wisdom)] that the worldling would praise the Tathagata. [The Buddha is referring to himself with this epithet, which means the Wayfarer, who is "well gone" from suffering as well as "welcome" as a teacher].

"And what are these elementary, inferior matters for which the worldling would praise him?"

The Buddha goes on to list the fulsome virtues or moral practices that brought him to buddhahood: abandoning: the taking of life, beating, lack of compassion; the taking of what is not given; unchastity, false speech, malicious [or divisive] speech, harsh speech, useless chatter, and so on in great detail down to the hurting of plants, wrong forms of livelihood for a spiritual teacher, and debating or belittling others.

"Monastics, it is for such elementary, inferior matters of moral practice that the worldling would praise the Tathagata.

The "Net" of wrong views has become the Internet, even Wisdom Quarterly

"There are other matters, profound, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, excellent, beyond mere thought, subtle, to be experience by the wise, which the Tathagata, having realized them by his own super-knowledge, proclaims, and about which those who would truly praise the Tathagata would rightly speak. And what are these matters?"

This discourse is called the Brahmajala (the "Supreme Net" or the "All-Embracing Net of Views") sutra because it goes on to list and refute 62 kinds of wrong views.

At the end of the sutra, Ananda exclaims: "It is marvellous, venerable sir, it is wonderful. What is the name of this exposition of Dharma?"

The Buddha replies, "Ananda, you may remember this exposition of Dharma as the Net of Advantage [that which is profitable], the Net of Dharma, the Supreme Net, the Net of Views, or as the Incomparable Victory in Battle."