Explanation Of The Seventh Stage Part 3 By Arjanyai At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

One who practises correctly does not cling tightly to things, because all things (Dhamma) have the quality of Non-Self. (Anatta-or non-entity).

As to the abandoning of demerit, there are firstly, demeritorious actions which are in accordance with one's natural tendencies; and, secondly, the types which are in accordance with the conventions accepted by people in the world.
The former includes such actions as killing beings, stealing possessions, wrong sexual conduct, wrong speech and drunkeness. In these it makes no difference whether one thinks these actions to be demeritorious or not, their nature is still demeritorious.

As for the demerit which is in accordance with the conventions accepted by people. For example, when a man leaves home and becomes ordained as a monk, he is forbidden to act against the good Dhamma. When be breaks the prescribed rules, it is demeritorious; but for those who are householders, there is no demerit in breaking these rules.

As for the minor conventions which are held by people, such as those con-nected with digging soil or cutting vegetation, which are thought of as being not-living things. When one who is ordained as a monk does these things, he is then not acting in a graceful and proper manner, and so fails in the ascetic discipline of the Dhamma.

Because of this, the Buddha formulated rules which followed the conventions accepted by people of the world. But, for example, if one had been bitten by a snake, one was permitted to cut plants to obtain the necessary herbal remedy.
If one has acted contrary to the conventional views, then one should, as soon as possible, expiate the fault in order to avoid any feeling of guilt. One who feels guilty of faults and who does not quickly expiate them to obtain purity is likely to have a mind that is depressed and guilty. When he reaches the time just prior to death, he forms Proximate-Kamma with this mental state, and as soon as the group of factors which make up the Citta, depart from the body, they go towards the realms of misfortune.

One should know the story of the monk who picked a leaf from an “Eraka-Tree”, thinking that this action was of little importance. Because of this, he did not confess his fault, and when he came close to the time of his death, the image of this leaf appeared in his mind. Then, although he desired to confess, there was no other bhikkhu present. As soon as his sense-doors died away, his Citta in the state free of the sense doors arose giving rise to his re-Linking-consciousness, in which he grasped at birth as a Dragon-King, his name being Erakapatta. He guarded his morality, and lived for twenty-thousand years; he met the Buddha, but was unable to attain the fruit of the Path (Magga-Phala) in that life, because he still had the body of an animal. Thus he was in a state of misfortune.

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