When we have wisdom or we have someone who teaches and guides us and it gives rise to wisdom,
Then we may be able to escape the suffering we experience.
We may also be able to see the Dhamma,
To attain to Dhamma.
Or when we have wealth or possessions lost.
Like there was a rich man in the city of Savatthi.
He had 40 crores of wealth.
If in this era,
It would probably be many tens of billions of dollars.
But in that era,
Maybe being a billionaire,
So extremely wealthy.
But due to the workings of merit and karma,
The gold that he had turned into charcoal.
How could that happen?
This is a matter of karma,
A matter of the merit of the person who does it and how they will receive this merit.
If his wealth stayed all gold,
Then the rich man would be happy and would not think about anything else.
He had a son,
So then he would find a daughter of another rich man to marry his son.
Then his wealth of billions may grow into many billions.
But it didn't turn out like that.
His money,
The gold,
All turned into charcoal.
Just imagine having a billion dollars,
And in just a moment,
It's all gone.
It vanished before his eyes and turned into charcoal.
It's similar to what happens today.
Some people might have many millions invested in the stock market.
Then suddenly,
The market crashes.
Currencies lose value,
And everything is wiped out.
Could you cope with that?
Everything you have is gone.
The wealthy man in the story experienced the same thing.
He lost everything.
He couldn't eat,
Couldn't sleep,
And likely he fell into depression.
He became extremely thin and frail.
But fortunately he still had a good friend,
A wise and noble companion.
This is the value of associating with wise people.
When a friend is in distress,
They come to visit and support you.
So the friend came and asked the cause of his suffering.
The wealthy man told him,
All my gold,
Worth billions,
Has turned into charcoal.
This friend,
Being intelligent and discerning,
Figured that there must be a cause behind it all.
Using his wisdom he devised a strategy.
Take that charcoal,
He said,
And set up a stall at the roadside market.
Like selling any regular goods.
Display the charcoal as if it's for sale.
If someone comes and says,
What are you bringing to sell?
Others are selling cloth,
Oil,
Honey,
Sugar cane.
But you bring charcoal to sell.
Then just let it go and let them be.
But if someone comes and says,
There are many people selling things,
But you are strange.
You're bringing gold to sell.
If someone says this,
Then you should go ask for that woman to be your daughter-in-law,
And then give all the wealth to her.
Then you should live dependent on her.
And here the man did this,
And something amazing happened.
There was a woman who was very beautiful,
Who had Barami spiritual accumulations.
But her body was rather thin,
So she was called Kisa Gotomi.
She happened to walk by to do errands in that market,
And she saw this rich man.
She must have known of him as he was a wealthy man in the city of Sawati.
So she was surprised and asked,
People are selling cloth and oil,
But why are you bringing gold to sell?
And the rich man asked,
Where is their gold,
Young lady?
She replied,
Right here in front of where you're sitting,
This is gold.
And she scooped it up with both hands to show the rich man.
As soon as she scooped it up,
What the rich man had seen as charcoal,
That charcoal immediately turned into gold.
Oh,
The rich man now understood.
He asked for where she lived and what family she was from.
Then he went to ask for her to marry his son.
And this is called an auspicious marriage.
He gave all his wealth,
Billions,
To this woman.
Then all the wealth that had turned into charcoal became gold again.
Enlightened Arahant Bhikkhuni,
Kisa Gotami.
Even though she hadn't yet become an Arahant at that point,
But her Barami,
Her spiritual perfections,
Had already ripened to that level of Arahantship.
She had accumulated immense merit through generosity and good deeds.
So the gold that had turned to charcoal,
When she picked it up,
It turned back into gold.
To put it in modern terms,
It's like when people say,
Everything they touch turns to gold.
Some people may start with failing businesses,
But if they have strong merit,
Whatever they take up,
Any profession or venture,
It becomes successful and profitable.
They have merit and spiritual power that we can witness in this life.
A person with merit and spiritual accumulations,
They may enter,
Trade,
Do business and prosper.
Or even if they simply pick up something dropped on the ground,
The wealth seems to come to them effortlessly.
Everything they touch becomes wealth,
Millions or billions,
And it does happen.
Why?
Because of the spiritual perfections they have accumulated.
Without such spiritual perfections,
They wouldn't be supported like that.
There would be no one to help them like that.
Now after Kisa Gotomi got married,
Was she truly happy?
She had many billions in wealth and had succeeded in life,
Thinking,
Now I can be finally at ease.
She married the son of a wealthy man,
She was in love,
And gave birth to a son.
But due to karmic consequences,
She had to face suffering and separation.
But if she could turn this situation around,
It would be a blessing for her.
But initially,
It was not so.
She was living with her husband and already had one child who was old enough to walk.
Then death came.
Her child passed away.
Oh,
The suffering.
How great was the suffering flooding her heart.
But her samadhi,
Meditative concentration,
Had to be very strong and fearless.
The concentration of someone who is to attain arahantship must be very firm.
When emotions arise,
It must be stronger than others.
She suffered greatly.
And endured much hardship.
She refused to cremate her son's body.
He had to come back to life.
She was determined that her son must recover,
To not die.
She had that strength of mind and willpower,
So she tried hard to find someone to provide treatment.
This time a layman saw that she was suffering greatly and thought he probably could not heal her.
So he advised her,
I don't know how to heal your child,
But the Buddha,
The ascetic Gautama,
Is now staying at Jetavana monastery.
He knows the medicine to heal your child.
Oh,
Her courage was fully restored.
My child will recover.
She had hope.
You People who have hope no longer suffer from depression.
Those without hope may develop depression or even bipolar disorder.
So she hurried to pay respects to the Buddha.
The Buddha was the Satta Deva Manussanang.
He is the teacher and instructor of both the deities and human beings.
If the Buddha taught the Dhamma then that all beings are born and must die,
That no one can escape death,
This woman,
Kisa Gotami,
Probably would not listen.
Why?
Because she wanted her child to come back to life.
The Buddha then had to use a skillful method and said,
Go and find mustard seeds from a house where no one has ever died before.
I will use them to prepare medicine.
It must be from a house where no one has died at all,
And that house must have been there for a hundred years.
Now she had the courage,
And she carried her child and went from house to house,
From this house to that house,
Day after day,
For many days.
Oh,
There was no house where no one had died.
Every house that had stood for 100 years had experienced death.
Some had mothers who recently died,
Fathers who died,
Children who died.
Gradually she began to gain awareness.
Little by little,
That death happens to everyone.
Finally,
She left her child in the forest and returned to the Buddha,
Because she could not find mustard seeds from any house that was a hundred years old without anyone dying.
At this point,
She began to feel some relief.
From the dark sky,
It was becoming brighter.
She started to see the light.
The dawn was about to break.
Then the Buddha taught that death is natural and inseparable from all living beings born into this world.
It is called Matsuraja,
The Lord of Death.
The Lord of Death drags all beings down into the ocean.
All beings,
Large and small,
Must go down to the great ocean and die.
No one can escape.
This time,
After hearing the Buddha's teaching,
Her mind became clear,
Like the sun beginning to shine.
She attained the stage of enlightenment of stream-entry,
Sotapanna.
Because wherever she went,
Death was everywhere.
No one can escape death.
She accepted the truth that all life must die.
She attained stream-entry.
Wisdom arose.
From the great suffering she experienced,
She gained the happiness from seeing the Dhamma.
She saw clearly that life was meaningless.
Having wealth worth hundreds of millions and everything is complete.
Yet life must end in death.
Just like her child who died.
And she too must die.
What use is it to preserve hundreds of millions of wealth when we must be separated from it?
It is not true happiness.
This time she requested to ordain.
After ordaining,
She became a senior nun and cleaned the ordination hall.
Sometimes she saw the flame of a lamp flickering brightly and then dimming alternately.
This is meditation practice.
This nun used the lamp flame as the object of her meditation.
Lamp's flame.
It arises and passes away.
Arises and passes.
Speaking of Nibbana,
It is not like that.
It does not arise nor cease.
The Buddha residing in his dwelling knew through his supernatural insight that this nun was standing,
Focusing her meditation on the lamp flame as her meditation object.
The Buddha radiated his aura.
He spread his Barami and appeared before her.
He did not need to go to her physically.
The Buddha spread his Barami and manifested like the image of the Buddha teaching her.
He said,
This is natural,
Kisa Gotami.
All beings are born and pass away like the flame of a lamp.
But upon reaching Nibbana,
It is not that way.
Even a short moment of life for one who sees Nibbana is more excellent than living a hundred years for one who does not see Nibbana.
Seeing Nibbana is to see pure emptiness.
After the Buddha finished his teaching,
She attained Arahantship immediately.
The Bhikkhuni Kisa Gotami was also very strict,
Using her requisites sparingly and frugally.
Her robes were faded and dull in colour.
She was foremost of all the nuns for wearing such humble robes.
And so how could someone,
Once tormented by the suffering of separation from what she loved,
Turn around in just a moment to become a person of wisdom?
Firstly it's about the merit,
Barami and spiritual cultivation one has accumulated in past lives,
Having practiced generosity,
Morality and meditation.
Because of this,
Whatever they touch turned into gold.
Nowadays we can say a person like this can turn whatever they handle into money and gold.
Profitably.
When one has wisdom,
Merit and barami,
It's like that.
So there is the metaphor of being able to turn coal into gold,
Like in the story.
She also met with a wise person who gave her guidance.
One must have perseverance and not give up easily.
If she had given up from the start,
Thinking that death is just death and that the dead should be cremated,
Then she would not have been freed from grief and sorrow.
Though that would have been normal,
She might have even fallen into depression.
But in her case,
It wasn't like that.
She thought,
My child must come back to life.
That is spiritual maturity.
That is the power of parami.
It was a certain level of mental strength and wisdom that led her to receive guidance and eventually meet the Buddha.
If she had not met the Buddha,
She would not have known or seen the Dhamma.
But once she encountered the Buddha and listened to his teaching for the first time,
She attained stream-entry.
Upon hearing the Dhamma a second time,
She attained Arahantship.
It shows that her spiritual faculties were fully developed.
Just like the rising of the sun at dawn,
She saw the light of the Dhamma.
Therefore we must first cultivate and train our minds in this very life.
Practice diligently.
No matter how much suffering we may face,
We should strive to develop the wisdom to accept the truth,
So that we can protect and preserve our minds.
Even if we have not yet reached the stage of realizing or seeing the Dhamma,
Our suffering will gradually lessen.
One day we too may succeed in our practice.
And come to know and see the Dhamma in this way.
So let us all reflect seriously on life.
That it arises,
Stays for a while,
And then passes away.
We must not be careless.
We should understand that life is uncertain.
We may consider ourselves lucky to have reached this age.
Sometimes we read the news about 7 or 8 year old children drowning.
Or babies who pass away even before birth.
The fact that we have lived this long shows that we already have a certain amount of merit.
So do not be heedless.
Strive to learn,
To read and write,
And to rely on yourselves.
Cultivate mindfulness and wisdom,
And pursue what you have set your heart on.
In your studies,
You are determined to learn.
You love and enjoy a particular subject,
Then give it your all.
Don't be discouraged.
Don't waver.
Be determined.
Succeed.
Whether it's in your studies,
In Dhamma practice,
Or in your work and responsibilities,
By having perseverance,
Then success is possible in all of them.
So may you strive to master at least one skill with expertise.
From there,
Wisdom will arise.
And when our spiritual perfections are complete,
We too will come to see and understand,
Just like the Venerable Arahant KUNI KISA GOTUMI So is this related to gender?
Many men,
After all,
Did not attain liberation.
But for her,
Was she a woman?
At that level,
She was neither man nor woman.
She had become a Narahant.
Her mind was empty,
Pure and free,
Completely liberated from the cycle of birth and death.
So may all of you,
Through the merit and spiritual perfections of the Venerable Arahant Bhikkhuni Kisa Gotami,
Be blessed with prosperity and success in your studies,
In your work,
And in your Dhamma practice.
May you grow in blessings.
