What if I HATE my Dad on Father's Day?

(Lucie Svobodova) Definitely not everyone hates parents from 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos

(MisterQuigley) How poop knife loophole explains Israeli war crimes (malicious compliance)

Singalong, Everyone! Because I'm sure I'm the only one, right?

(Trafalgar) Falsettos' "Everyone Hates His Parents" (lyric video)

My Dad's a "Mad Man" (D.R.I.)

(D.R.I.) Punk rockers deal with "Mad Man" from Dealing With It

"My Old Man's a Fatso"

(Angry Samoans) "My Old Man's a Fatso"

Eventually, Sid (age 29) spoke up for himself.

Prince Siddhartha Gautama (who became the Buddha at 35) had a dad, not Mr. Gautama. (Surnames came from mother Queen Maya Gautama). His father was King Suddhodana, a very proud, caring even doting father, who had to seem like a jerk to young Sid, always giving him everything he wanted but shielding him from seeing the truth about the world at every turn. His motive? Suddhodana had to keep Sid homebound so he could take over the family business when the time came. It didn't matter that that wasn't what Sid wanted: Your future has been decided for you.

Hey, Beavis, we become our Dads, huh huh huh.

In America, we hate our dads, I guess, until we become our dads. Then we hate ourselves and drink beer, wondering, "Did Dad hate himself? And did his dad hate himself? And is this trap sprung on everyone even in the 'richest country in the world'? This is as good as it gets? This is the best?!"

O, Buddha, I think Bart hates Homer. - Warn him

But what kind of karma (deed, action, conduct) is that, and what will be the result? According to the Buddha, our parents provide a massive and tremendous opportunity for merit (good karma). The only people who provide more are the noble ones (those well-behaved people along the stages of enlightenment). But our parents also have a hidden danger for us, massive and tremendous risk of bad karma for their neglect, mistreatment, abuse.

Jewish boy kills parents (Rob Reiner)

(It's strange because the same two people, if disrespected or harmed by others, wouldn't be such weighty karma as if we did it. It would still be bad, but when it's our own father or mother, or people who raised us like a mother or father, it is VERY weighty. It is so weighty that the Buddha pointed out Five Heinous Karmic Crimes, two of which are matricide and parricide).

How WE treat -- feel, think, talk, and do towards them -- matters a great deal. It matters so much that once a boy really wanted to see the Buddha in the flesh, so he traveled a long way and finally met him, and the Buddha asked him, "Why do you need to see me when you have two Buddhas at home?" (This would suggest that anything he might gain from the Buddha, say in terms of the karma of honoring him in person, he could gain from his parents).

• JEWISH WORLD NEWS: Son stabs his mom and dad Rob Reiner to death in their shared home

Mom and Dad really pissed me off.

Ultimately, it becomes what WE do, not what parents do or did. There will be no excuse for our intentional actions towards them -- or anybody, but especially them. That's how special parents are.

If a snarling animal were to come at us and we killed it, that would be the terrible karma of killing. "But," we'll say, "it was going to kill us, or harm us, or it was scaring us by snarling! So that shouldn't be bad karma; I should get a freebie on that one."

Now, think about it for a moment. If even a snarling savage wild crazed rabid animal were coming at us, snarling and looking ready to bite, and we killed it THAT would be bad karma with suffering for us as the result, how much more for a father, mother, or stepparent -- who came at us providing life, food, shelter, assistance, learning, and so much more?

• 

  I slapped this on my Dad's car so he'd know.

  Sure, of course, we don't remember that. We weren't aware and don't now remember when we were infants puking on our dads and moms or parental figures. How we pooped, got sick, were helpless, needed things, got housed, got fed, got cared for, got loved... Sure, we'll say, "Nah, dawg, you don't know my dad [or Mom or whoever]!" And we can tell stories about how bad he was (or they were), how much he drank and yelled and restricted and punished and threatened and spanked or punched or worse. Blah, blah, blah. It's true. It's understandable.
• But it's not going to matter. It is NOT going to make it neutral karma, and it sure isn't good karma. "But, but...but I was ill-equipped to handle it. No one taught me any other way! I blame my dad, stupid jerk, for not teaching me better! HE made me do it! I treat him like he treated me at the worst of times (because I've forgotten the best of times when he was doing so much for me that I don't count or never knew about)."

How punks D.R.I. see "Karma"

D.R.I. somehow learned about "Karma" and sang about it

LYRICS "Karma": Hey, Punk, with that bottle in your hand/ What makes you so sad? Could life really be that bad?/ Sure, you've got your reasons/ But your alibis are lies/ The story is an old one/ It's been told a million times/ You were glad to be alive/ On life's journey/ You were excited/ But you were not in a hurry/ For years, you walked up and down each road/ You had to try them all/ Looking for your place, I guess/ Where you could rest and feel at home/ Now, tired of walking/ You've started to run/ Passing everything by/ But at least you're having fun/ Good karma, bad karma/ You'll get what you deserve/ There is good and evil/ You've got a lot to learn/ There is love, there is hate/ You can't do as you please/ Wash your face, take a bath/ Your aura's still filthy/ In someone's bathroom, turning blue, puking green/ You're senile, senile at seventeen/ Scars on your brain from drinking beer and smoking weed/ Another acid tab, another shot of speed/ Good karma, bad karma/ You'll get what you deserve/ There is good and evil/ You've got a lot to learn/ There's no lie, only truth/ In reality/ You hate love, you love to hate/ Your soul is so diseased/ You are just a fish in a sea of human beings/ Lost in, caught up in, someone else's dream/ Afraid to laugh 'cause you might drown/ The true mad, sad clown sinking down/ Into the darkness where no one/ Would dare venture to save you

• 

  I don't deserve what happens to me!

  "Karma's a b*tch," that's the saying. What does it mean? It means karma can be. How is "karma" defined in the West? "What comes around goes around." And what does that saying mean? That means what we send upstream will be coming downstream, what we put out comes back, what we throw out there sooner or later lands on our heads. When we put out something in the wind, it will eventually be hitting us right in the face. So if we spit or pee or poop, ooh, that's going to be a "b*tch" all right. But what if we were to waft fragrant flower petals before us, or wondrous incense smoke, or the aroma of savory food? Mmm, that would be pleasing! That would be welcome hitting us in the face. So it is not that "Karma is a B" all the time, just the times when our karma (deeds) are as awful as offal (tripe, eviscerated waste, poop).

(@VladNcl) Russian stood up to abusive father

The real meaning of "6-7"

Karma: Take that, Old Man! - Hah, you Ingrate!

Karma works out its results quite impersonally. Y'know how annoying Christians say, "God is not mocked" (Galatians 6:7)? I think they're really, without realizing it, talking about Karma. We don't really get away with things only we know we did. The truth will out, maybe not in this lifetime, and maybe we'll content ourselves to say, "There can't no other lifetimes because I don't believe in that!" but it won't matter.

(South Park Studios) 6-7 and Revelation by Antichrist Peter Thiel

• 

  Hey, don't c u comin up with a better explanation

  Remember that slightly stoopid fad kids had going not long ago, saying "six seven" to everything for no apparent reason? (Thanks, South Park!) Wisdom Quarterly wonders if it wasn't some semi-conscious allusion to Galatians 6:7. It's not like anybody reads the Bible nowadays, and no one consciously remembers. But it gets shoved down our threats and into our heads, so who knows if it didn't sneak in so that when everyone heard "six seven," it did have this meaning: "Do not be deceived. Karma cannot be mocked. We reap (harvest) what we sow (plant)."

F Dad who never cared 'bout me

But, y'know, like, what if you do hate him? It's understandable to be very mad at an American parent, fathers and mothers -- and those super jerks the stepparents, who didn't even give birth to a kid and have to suffer the same things and worse from the troubled kids they adopt. It's not all for nothing, parents. It's no accident we adopt. It's no accident we were born into this society that taught and trained us this way, so that's not going to work as an excuse to get us off the karmic hook. Who would ask us, Yama King of the Dead? Jehovah/Yahweh/Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge? Karma does not work through "court" proceedings. It just does its thing. Without knowing it, we are carrying around the seeds of it right now so that wherever we go, there we are. And wherever we go, karma is already there. Karma is the builder, the creator, the producer of our states and traits, our vipaka and phala (karmic resultants and fruits).

The Other F Word: Punk Doc

So what's a person to do? What action (karma) would produce merit? One should ask, "Hey, if I hate my Dad and am going to get into a world of karmic consequences for ignoring or mistreating him, what should I do?" That would be a great question to ask the Buddha, the Awakened One. If one is lucky enough to seek guidance from the Buddha, the Dharma, or the [Noble = Enlightened] Sangha, that will be a very good question. And here's what they would say:

Cultivate metta. Cultivate all four of the Divine Abidings. It will be for YOUR good for a long, long time. Seeing as how we've been cultivating terrible qualities -- whether we learned them from our parents or not -- this would be a great way to go against the stream that pull us down. We could RISE ABOVE (all the BS and family problems we were born into) and go up!

Black Flag with punker Henry Rollins: "Rise Above"

There's a better way to respond to life?

The lotus bud figured this out long ago. Ever notice where the most beautiful and fragrant lotus flowers grow? That's right -- in the mud and mire, the filth and pollution. They love it, accept it, transform it into the most beautiful things. Come to think of it, all the best tasting food grows on dirt, mud, soil, and fertilizer. Fertilizer?! That's made of dung 💩🐽🤭, isn't it?

Who Ordered This...Dung?

So Western Theravada monk Ajahn Brahm wrote that book making this point: If a dump truck pulls up in front of your house and drops a massive load, what should you do? B*tch and complain, tell everybody how unfair it is that this happened to you, take revenge, start throwing it at everyone like a monkey in a zoo would?

Or might it be a better idea to take it around back to the garden, dig it into the ground, and get the most beautiful flowers and vegetables and fruits from its transformation? Bury it. Let it do good. You'll be thanking that dump truck driver in the end, if you follow this enlightened advice.

When I was a kid, I had a cousin of around the same age. My Dad was a drunk, his father was a religious nut. We'd come home from school and call each other. During those phone calls, I would tell him the latest insanity my dad displayed, and he would tell me what his pops (my uncle) was up to. Before long, it became a contest. "Hah, my dad's a bigger a-hole than your dad!"

Homer, your son says you're a bad father to him.

"Oh yeah, well, let me tell you what he was up to today." And we would flabbergast each other with the ghastly things those fathers of ours had done. Sometimes he won, but most of the time, no one could touch my dad for sheer awfulness, depravity, drunkenness, and vulgarity, to say nothing of the threats, punishments, and always having me be in some kind of trouble or restriction. I fought back. My cousin was smarter and kept his head down, "Yes, Dad," that way he avoided trouble. We eventually called it a draw and my belief that if only he didn't drink, my dad would be all right. His dad never drank and was this much of an a-hole? Hah! What's a growing boy to do? I did what, it seems, few other boys do.

I didn't drink, and I didn't believe in my parents' religion. No way, what hypocrisy! The whole idea of a "father" in the sky was enough for me to say, "F the Patriarchy!" Very punk rock, very crossover, very thrash, very heavy metal, very extreme and alternative. But what's a boy to do, having given up that cultural inheritance? Look for a new, a better one, something I chose rather than was born into (on account of karma).

I eventually loved my dad. I always loved him. I didn't think I didn't love him. I just hated him on top of that. So I stopped that extra layer, stopped ruminating on all the negative things he did. Why/how? I learned Buddhism and Eightfold Yoga.

Buddha Yoga (Wm. Bodri)

I rejected Western materialism and sought answers in the East, where I always suspected they were, just like so many before me, from Siddhartha to Jews of all eras like Jesus, who was more likely an Essene, Gnostic, Buddhist monk at Hemis Gompa in Ladakh, a student of Vedic Brahmanism, and not much of a "Jew," as the Ashkenazi of today would have the West believe).

There's more we can do to love our dads and moms (or at least not hate them) than the Four Divine Abidings. That's why it's invaluable (so valuable that a price cannot be put on it) to have learned and practiced "meditation." What is this English word we call "meditation"? It is cultivation (like dung in the garden or farm), self-improvement, development (bhavana), literally "bringing into being" what we want, like to not be so mad, angry, resentful, and ingrateful.

If we cultivate the opposite of these four, what would we be like? We could be sane, here and now under these circumstance; we could be more loving, joyful, and grateful -- FULL of gratitude not only for our parents, such as they were, but for all the other people who sort of "parented" us when our parents weren't always up to the task: teachers, family, friends, acquaintances, pure strangers, enemies even. There's a very beautiful saying in Hinduism that really helped me when I reflected on it to not be resentful of the harm people do us, with or without knowing how much harm they're doing:

The sandalwood tree sprinkles perfume on the axe that lays it low.

I once opened a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant. Who knows why, it's not like I ate those cookies or believed in the mass printed fortunes in them, and I found a treasure. This ancient wisdom of the East:

The wise person learns more from the fool

than the fool ever learns from the wise.

• Metta: The Philosophy and Practice of Universal Love

The Other F Word: punk rock doc on the payback of Fatherhood

The Other F Word: Flea and daughter Clara, deleted scene (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

The Other F Word: Punk Rock Documentary

(CLUB LADIEZ) The Other F Word is an American documentary film directed by independent filmmaker Andrea Blaugrund Nevins. It explores the world of aging punk rock musicians as they transition into being parents and try to maintain the contrast between their anti-authoritarian lifestyle/pose with the responsibilities of Fatherhood, the titular "other F word." In addition to interviewing over 20 musicians [1] from across the spectrum of the genre -- including Jim Lindberg of Pennywise, Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, and Fat Mike of NOFX -- the film also includes other emblematic figures of the punk subculture such as professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, in a chronicle of the struggles and rewards that accompany raising children. It was released in the U.S. by Oscilloscope Laboratories in 2011. More

D.R.I: Birth of the Imbeciles

(cphershon) D.R.I: Birth of the Imbeciles (1982)

• Falsettos (Trafalgar/Lucie Svodobova); MisterQuigley; D.R.I./Dirty Rotten Imbeciles; Angry Samoans; Oscilloscope Labs The Other F Word (free on YouTube); Dhr. Seven, Sheldon S., Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Father, Son, and a 'difficult' relationship

Fathers’ Day — The Young Buddhist Editorial

For Father’s Day tell us a story about how a father-figure in your life has taught you a life lesson about Buddhism — whether it was intentional or not as is the case with most “dad” lessons.

Hallie Ewig and her hip hop gangster rap dad

Hallie Ewig (she/her/hers) University of Washington, Class of 2022: “For as long as I can remember, my dad has exclusively listened to hip-hop music. When I was little, instead of listening to pop artists on the car radio, he would play artists like Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., and Wu-Tang Clan from his iPod. I never really understood why he listened to music most parents would find “profane.” One time I asked him, “Dad, why do you listen to songs with bad words in them?”

WARNING: Profane! 2Pac gangsta rap hip hop old skool ft. Eminem, Biggie

He responded by turning up the volume and saying, “Just listen to the lyrics, Mika.” If you really listen to the lyrics, you can see that all of these Black artists are sharing a common theme intertwined with the swear words: systemic racism. My dad has been exposing me to Black oppression before I was even old enough to understand it.

He taught me that it is important to not only listen to others but to do so with compassion, and music is a great place to start. Even though we face our own racism as Asian-Americans, we must be compassionate to the struggles of others so that we can unite to overcome them together. Black men, women, children, members of the LGBTQ+ community, dreams, and futures [all] matter. They have always mattered, and they will forever matter. Thank you, Dad, for everything!” More: The Young Buddhist Editorial

• The Dad - The Son is created using material from the father (Chad Knight) as seen in this #short
• Statue of the son was made from pieces removed from the father to represent what parents do to build the lives of their children : r/MadeMeSmile

The statue of the son (r/MadeMeSmile)

QUESTION: It's Father's Day. How would a Western follower of the Buddha make use of this celebration?

How and why would a "modern" or "Western" follower of the Buddha's Teaching celebrate this day and use it to give gratitude to his or her father as one of his/her first gods and the other three gods?

Maybe readers would like to share also how you fulfill their personal duty to give others inspiration and ideas. This mean not being greedy but instead sharing possible merits you have. (Note: This question is given as a gift of Dhamma and not for commercial purpose or meant for worldly gain.) Source: Buddhism Stack Exchange

The Buddha’s Legacy as a Father

Ven. Rahula, the Buddha, and Ananda

The San Mateo Buddhist Temple warmly welcome all to join the community in person for its Family Dharma Service on Sunday, June 15, 2025. On the occasion of Father’s Day, Rev. Adams will share a Dharma Talk about the legacy that Sakyamuni Buddha left for his son Rahula and how the Buddha’s compassionate care for all beings was like the concern of parents for their only child. The Buddha's Legacy as a Father (June 15) - San Mateo Buddhist Temple

Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Do you love me, Daddy? - More than life itself.

Was Prince Siddhartha loved by his father? The story/allegory of the Buddha's life makes that clear, unless he was a narcissist trying to live through his child, as even many non-narcissists do. King Suddhodana doted on his beloved son, the prince and future chief of the Scythians/Indo-Sakas. He wanted for his son what he wished for himself -- world dominion, the role of "world monarch" (chakravartin). The Brahmin soothsayers said it would be so IF only the boy were pampered and kept from seeing the world as it really was. For the son so loved the world that he came back to save everyone.

A father with a father and wife

Sid married at 16 and had a son at 29. Realizing it was now or never, he set off on a quest.

In this anachronistic, Western-informed fantasy, Samsara (2001), beautiful Yasodhara rips selfish Siddhartha for daring to leave his family to pursue his own fame, glory, and good times.

The Buddha's loving father

It's sad to reflect that most Westerners do not know who the Buddha was, their heads having been filled up with popular misconceptions of a fat happy Budai or Herman Hesse's book Siddhartha (which the careful reader will note is NOT about the Buddha but another guy named Siddhartha) which tangentially touches on the story of the Buddha's life.

Hesse's novel mirrors Everyman's Tale, the Hero's Journey, based on the allegorical story of the Buddha's life in general. Some of the Buddha's life story is not even about this Buddha but previous ones the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) mentioned when teaching about previous supremely enlightened teachers (samma-sam-buddhas) who had arisen in this world.

Buddhist Madonna and Child

We forget that Siddhartha G. was a father because what are we all taught? That's right, that he abandoned the family (renounced the palace) for the easygoing life of a spiritual nomad, a wandering mendicant answering to no one with all the fun and palaver of going East on a spiritual quest. What could be more fun and full of good times? All that yoga and sitting around, no job, talking to other groovy hippies with long hair and beards on the Hippie Highway to Magadha and Bihar.

(Dalai Lama) Mothers are kind, and fathers

are left to be the unpopular tough ones.

The prince leaves his wife, Yasodhara (Bimba Devi), never meets his kid (Rahula or "Bondage"), says "fudge you" to the Ol' Man (King Suddhodana), not even a wave his mother-aunt (his mother, Queen Maya's sister, Pajapati Gotami)...right? Right? Wrong.

Scythian King Suddhodana with his son the Bodhisatta Prince Siddhattha Gotama

.

Thus We Heard (Bhante Piyananda)

Intention (cetana) matters. It is the basis of karma (deeds, actions). What was Prince Siddhartha thinking to drop out like that? (Where was he going to tune in and turn on?) We know from the ancient texts of the Pali canon that his wife knew where he was, how he was, and why he was doing it. So well did she know that she copied him. When he ate only one meal and slept on the ground and wore saffron, she took up these things. We impute to her how we would feel if we had been abandoned after giving birth, and this is completely wrong and misleading. The Los Angeles area monk Ven. Walpola Piyananda understands the matter so well that, together with Stephen Long, he tried to correct all the misconceptions in his book Thus We Heard - Recollections of the Life of The Buddha.

I'm hitting the road on a quest.

Siddhartha's intention, motivation, impulse to leave was to find "salvation" from suffering for everyone -- his father, his mother(s), his wife, his son, his family, his friends, his people, and all living beings, particularly the humans and devas. He didn't go to go forever. He went until he was successful. It took him seven years to do what he had to do (to accomplish what it means to be a "supremely awakened" "Buddha," which is different from an arahant or paccekabuddha). He had to attain full realization (maha bodhi), make known the path to enlightenment, which entailed preaching the Dhamma (Dharma exclusive to buddhas), and establish a Sangha (community) of successful practitioners, disciples capable of memorizing, chanting, and teaching that Dharma.

Mom, where's Dad? - That deadbeat?

As soon as he did that, he came back. How old was his son when he returned to Kapilavatthu (Gandhara, Afghanistan, Saka Land)? His son, Rahula, was 7. His former wife had not remarried even though she could have and was encouraged to. The family had not moved on -- his father having sent many messengers to bring his son back to rule the Sakas/Shakyas/Indo-Scythians and to find news of him. The only thing that had changed was that the son's son was now the prince. Rahula was now being raised to lead. The Buddha didn't think that was much of a legacy to leave his son. Instead, he gave him his grand inheritance worthy of a buddha: He had him ordain as a monastic, stayed by him, and brought him to enlightenment.

The moral of the story, the denouement?

King Suddhodana goes to greet the Buddha

Son Rahula became Ven. Rahula and enlightened. Wife Yasodhara became a nun (Ven. Rahulamata) and enlightened, the fiercest disputant in all the land able to debate anyone and win. Father King Suddhodana became an Aryan ("noble") disciple, attaining one or more of the stages to enlightenment. Mother Queen (Maha) Pajapati Gotami (Prajapati Gautami) became the world's first Buddhist nun and enlightened.

Many Scythians/Shakyian princes and princesses entered the Monastic Sangha and gained realization -- and the Buddha opened up that possibility to everyone, creating a Noble Sangha that was far larger than the Monastic Sangha we all imagine to be the "disciples" of the Buddha. It may have included 80,000 people, but it certainly included countless millions of devas. The Buddha is popularly known not only as the "Master Physician" but also as the "Teacher of Gods and Men" (of devas and humans).

Does that sound like a hippie on the Hippie Trail gallivanting around India with no job, doing nothing, leaving his wife, abandoning his son, sticking a choice finger in the direction of a loving and overprotective father and doting foster mother? The Buddha didn't forget his biological mother (Maha Maya) or even his previous mother in many lives (a woman the texts simply refer to as Mata along with her husband, Shakyamuni's father in many previous lives).

Now remember, young man, be a good father.

Wouldn't it have been better if he had stayed home, raised his son, tended to the householder life of the palace, been a dutiful son to his father, and made his mother proud? We wouldn't be talking about him now. He would never have become the Buddha, "the Enlightened One," in that life. But people, Westerners in particular, still want to bellyache, gripe, and air their grievances, full of wrong view, putting down the Great Teacher like they know better how a profitable life is lived.

• Monty Python (video); The Young Buddhist Editorial; 2pac gangsta rap mix; Tupac Shakur; Buddhism Stack Exchange; San Mateo Buddhist Temple; Dalai Lama; Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Father Homer reborn. How to treat parents

• What is Father's Day and when is it? (When is it?) In the US, it is celebrated on the third Sunday in June

Siddhartha Gautama, Scythian Shakyamuni

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One [the Buddha] was living near Savatthi at Jetavana in Anathapindika's monastery.

Then in the forenoon, having dressed, he took bowl and [double] robe, and entered the city of Savatthi for alms.

Now at that time the Brahmin Aggika Bharadvaja was at home preparing a fire ceremony to make oblations (burnt offerings) to his God.

The Blessed One came to that Brahmin's residence. And the Brahmin, seeing the Blessed One from afar, yelled at him:

"Stay there, shaveling! Stay there, wretched wandering ascetic! Stay there, outcast!"

When he spoke this way, the Blessed One said to the Brahmin: "Do you know, Brahmin, who an outcast is and what the conditions are that make one an outcast?"

The Buddha was much respected.

"Actually, no, Venerable Gautama, I do not know who an outcast is nor the conditions that make one an outcast. It would be good if Venerable Gautama were to explain the Dhamma to me so that I might know who an outcast is and what the conditions are that make one an outcast."

• [The abusive terms used by the Brahmin and the respectful address that follows need a word of explanation. The Brahmin had just prepared his offering to his God, Great Brahma, when his eyes fell upon the Buddha. To the Brahmin the sight of a wandering ascetic (samana), a shaven-headed recluse, is an unlucky omen. So he burst into angry words. The Buddha, however, was unruffled and spoke to him gently in words with a soft cadence. The Brahmin was apparently ashamed of his unskillful outburst and, repenting of his folly, addressed the Buddha courteously. Commentary: Note the Buddha's emphasis on anger and hatred in his very first stanza.]

"Listen then, Brahmin, and pay attention. I will explain."

"Yes, Venerable Sir," replied the Brahmin.

1. "Whoever is angry, harbors hatred, and is reluctant to speak well of others [discredits the good of others], perverse in views, deceitful — know that person as an outcast.

2. "Whoever in this world kills living beings, once born or twice born,* in whom there is no sympathy for living beings — know that person as an outcast.

• [*Dvijam, birds, are "twice-born" in that they are first born as an egg and then are born again out of their shells when they hatch.]

3. "Whoever destroys and besieges villages and hamlets and becomes notorious as an oppressor — know that person as an outcast.

4. "Be it in village or forest, whoever steals what belongs to others, what is not freely given — know that person as an outcast.

5. "Whoever having actually incurred a debt runs away when pressed to pay it, saying, 'I owe no debt to you' — know that person as an outcast.

6. "Whoever, coveting anything, kills a person going along the road, and grabs whatever that person has — know that person as an outcast.

7. "One who for one's own sake or for the sake of another or for the sake of wealth, utters lies when questioned as a witness — know that person as an outcast.

8. "Whoever by force [rape] or with consent [adultery] associates with the spouses of relatives or friends — know that person as an outcast.

Good karma: Treat parents like buddhas.

9. "Whoever having wealth supports not one's own mother and father who have grown old — know that person as an outcast.

10. "Whoever strikes and annoys by [harsh] speech, mother, father, brother, sister, mother-in-law, or father-in-law — know that person as an outcast.

11. "Whoever, when questioned about what is good, says what is detrimental, and talks in an evasive manner — know that person as an outcast.

12. "Whoever, having committed an unskillful deed, wishes that it may not be discovered by others, and commits harm in secret — know that person as an outcast.

13. "Whoever, having gone to another's house and partaken of choice food, does not honor that host by offering food when receiving a visit — know that person as an outcast.

14. "Whoever deceives a Brahmin priest or wandering ascetic or any other mendicant [alms person] by uttering lies — know that person as an outcast.

15. "Whoever when a Brahmin or wandering ascetic appears during mealtime angers that person by harsh speech and does not offer that person [any alms] — know that person as an outcast.

16. "Whoever in this world, shrouded by ignorance, speaks harsh words (asatam) or falsehood [asantamtipi patho (SnA)] expecting to gain something — know that person as an outcast.

17. "Whoever, debased by pride, exalts oneself and belittles others — know that person as an outcast.

18. "Whoever is given to anger, is miserly, has base desires, and is selfish, deceitful, shameless, and fearless [in doing what is unskillful] — know that person as an outcast.

19. "Whoever reviles the Enlightened One [the Buddha], a disciple of the Buddha, a recluse, or a householder — know that person as an outcast.

20. "Whoever not being an enlightened person, a consummate one, pretends to be one, is a thief in the whole universe — the lowest of outcasts.

21. "Not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a Brahmin. By deed one becomes an outcast, and by deed one becomes a Brahmin.

22. "Know by the example now cited [the fact that by birth one is not an outcast]: There was an outcast's son, Sopaka, who became known as Matanga.

23. "This Matanga attained the highest fame difficult to gain. Many were the warriors (kshatriyas) and Brahmins who went to attend on him.

24. "Mounting the celestial chariot [the Noble Eightfold Path, and driving] along the passion-free high road, [Sopaka, now a monk], reached the Brahma realm having given up sense-desires.

25. "His [lowly] birth did not prevent him from being reborn in the Brahma realm. There are Brahmins born in the family of preceptors, kinsmen of [Vedic] hymns.

26. "They are often seen committing unskillful deeds. In this life itself they are despised, in the next they are reborn in an unfortunate state of existence. High birth does not prevent them from falling into a woeful state or from censure [here and now].

27. "Not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a Brahmin. By deed one becomes an outcast, and by deed one becomes an Brahmin."

Honoring the worthy ones is good karma.

When the Buddha had spoken, the Brahmin Aggika Bharadvaja said to him:

"Excellent, O Venerable Gautama, excellent! O Venerable Gautama, it is just as if a person were to set upright what had been overturned, or were to reveal what had been hidden, or were to point the way to one who had gone astray, or were to hold an oil lamp to the dark so that those with eyes might see things, even so in many ways has Venerable Gautama expounded the Dharma, the Doctrine.

"I go for guidance (sarana) to Venerable Gautama, the Dharma, and the [Arya-] Sangha [the community of those disciples along the stages of enlightenment]. May Venerable Gautama accept me as a lay follower who has gone for guidance from this day onwards so long as life lasts."

• The Simpsons; Ven. Piyadassi Thera (trans.), Vasala Sutra: "The Discourse on Outcasts" (Sn 1.7, PTS Sn 116-142), 1999, edited by Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly, orig. published 6/21/20