When I hear various Brothers striving to put the Master's teaching into rules and lists and categories, I think back to what he said:
`What is Dhamma you alone can judge. Of whatsoever teachings you shall be conscious that they conduce to peace and not to passion, to detachment and not to bondage, to wishing for little and not wishing for much, to solitude and not to love of society, to exercise of earnest striving and not to slothe, to contentment and not to complaining, truly, you may then bear in mind that this is the Dhamma, this is the teaching of Truth-Finders of all ages.'
The Buddha once rebuked his most devoted disciple for wanting to introduce rules to govern the order.. saying:
`Ah! Kassapa, you are ever fond of the making of rules. But the mind of man is ever facile to evade rules unless the heart be willing to keep them, and then no rules need to be imposed, for a man will make them for himself.
`In the early days there were fewer precepts and a greater proportion of the Brothers and Sisters attained to sainthood. As people cease to live the true teaching, rules and precepts are made. But no rules orprecepts
can shape the lives of men and women. They are counterfeit teaching. It is only when men and women are reverent towards the Dhamma, and seek to mould their lives in accordance with it, that the true teaching can live and flourish.'
The Master said: `It is a dangerous thing to measure the measure of a man. Only an All-Enlightened-One can do that. It is not by outward actions that a man can be judged, but only by the inward heart, and only an All-Enlightened-One can know that. Two godly people, both restrained in their living, listen to the Dhamma word. One of them understands and applies it. The other is not affected by it. The first is carried forward by the stream of Dhamma; the other is not. But who save an All-Enlightened-One can know this? In outward actions they are the same. Or there may be two others in both of whom wrath and pride are conquered, but in both of whom greed sometimes surges up. The one who understands the Dhamma with his inner being, is carried forward; the other is not. People judge from outer actions; they cannot know the inner heart. He who measures the measure of a man, digs a pit for himself, and it shall be to his hurt for many a long day. One might even acquire the virtues of the other, but his way is not that of the other. It is in his own way that a man must tread and he may not be measured against another man.'
The Master told them the basis of wise and stable government.
`As long as you hold full and frequent meetings and meet together in concord, just as long as yoy may be expected to prosper and not decline. As long as you do not seek to overturn what has been beforetime appointed, but conform to the Holy Laws and customs, and have respect and reverence for the sages, so long may you be expected to prosper and not decline.
