Gifts of Goodness

Tonight we’re making merit for the Queen Mother, who passed away seven days ago.

We’re offering her the merit of our meditation, which means you want to meditate well. Think of this as a gift you’re offering to her. And when you offer a gift, of course you want it to be something good—nicely wrapped on the outside, with something of value on the inside.

So sit up straight, hands in your lap, eyes closed. Try to make your mind one with the breath, because the mind, when it’s one, is of high value. It’s not like the things of the world, where the greater number you have, the more value you have. Here you have greater value when the mind is one, because the more it follows around its many different thoughts, it’s lowering itself. Its value is less.

You could compare it to durian in the market. If there’s only one durian in the whole market, it’s going to have a really high price. If there are lots of durians, sometimes they have no price at all. They get thrown away. So make your mind one.

As part of your motivation, you want to think about the goodness of the Queen Mother. She supported her husband, King Rama IX in his many activities to help the nation. There are pictures of her going out into the jungle with him, crossing over streams, walking down trails that were really difficult—not your usual queen, but, of course, he was not your usual king. And in addition to his many projects that she supported, she had projects of her own to help people.

One that was especially of note was that they would send doctors and dentists out to the very poor parts of the country. If someone could be treated within one day or so, then they’d get treatment. If their illnesses were more serious, they would be brought into Bangkok. She set up a dormitory so that those who had to go to hospital would then have a place to rest and recover after they came out of the hospital, before they had to go home.

And before they were sent home, she sent people over to ask them about their manual skills: skills in weaving, skills in other artisan activities. If she found people who were really skilled in this way, she would have them trained in the royal versions of those skills.

For instance, if you were good at weaving vines, they had courses in weaving silver thread and gold thread, making things not only for the palace, but also to sell. She set up a series of stores for the things these people made.

She also thought of ways of using traditional skills to make items that were more stylish, more up-to-date. She herself would advertise these things by wearing them and using them in public. There’s a certain vine down in the southern part of Thailand that’s very tough. It’s used to make baskets that last for a long time. Her people taught the craftspeople of the South to use the vine to make pocketbooks, purses, with gold clasps, which then she herself would use. That set a style that became very popular. In that way, the people on the countryside had new sources of income.

So she wasn’t an ordinary queen. She supported the king in his many activities and she endured a lot of hardships in helping him.

Think about that as you meditate and dedicate it to her.

Of my favorite stories of the queen, several have to do with the Ajaan Suwat. After Ajaan Funn passed away, the queen noticed Ajaan Suwat. He was dealing with the people in the palace first with regard to the funeral for Ajaan Funn and then with regard to the construction of a museum in honor of Ajaan Funn. She and the king would sometimes stay in the palace built for them in the northeast. Every now and then she would show up unannounced at Ajaan Suwat’s monastery. He barely had time to spread out a mat for her.

So when he was establishing a monastery here in the States, first with Wat Phu, she was the official sponsor of the Kaṭhina that raised a lot of the money that helped build Wat Phu. When she learned that he had come here, she had the Thai ambassador come and check out to make sure that this was true. He showed up one day. Soon after that, she volunteered that she would sponsor Kaṭhina here. It was our very first Kaṭhina. Then just a few days ago, she was the formal sponsor for this year’s Kaṭhina as well.

But one of my favorite stories has more to do with one of Ajaan Fuang’s students. He was an Air Force general. Now, the admirals in the Navy and the generals in the Air Force and the Army used to take turns in being the king’s personal bodyguard for shifts of a couple of hours each. This was the king’s way of getting to know the different high-ranking members of the armed forces.

There was one period in the 50s when the tiles on the roof of Wat Bovorn were taken down and replaced with new tiles. The king commented that because those old tiles had been chanted under for over a hundred years, they would be good material to make amulets. So they were ground down and made into amulets, one style for the king and one for the queen. Many of these were made, and the king and the queen would hand them out.

And Chote, one of Ajaan Fuang’s students, who was an Air Force general—at that point, he wasn’t yet one of Ajaan Fuang’s students—wanted one of the queen’s amulets for his wife. So when it was his turn to be bodyguard, he looked for an opportunity to talk to the queen, but there was no opportunity.

The next general came along when it was time to change the guard, so Chote asked him if he could stay on again for the next two or three hours to see if he could have an opportunity to talk to the queen. So he did, but still no opportunity. Then the next general came along. By this time, it was getting into the evening. So Chote asked him if he could take his place as well, hoping that he would have some opportunity to talk to the queen that evening.

Well, it turned out that the king wanted to go out and drive around Bangkok in his sports car, and the queen went along. Chote found himself in the back seat. The car had two doors. He had pretty much given up hope. By the time he got out of the back seat, the king and the queen would have left the car, walked to the elevator that would take them up to the quarters in the palace. Then he would have no chance to talk to her. So he had given up hope.

Well, they got to the palace. But instead of going straight to the elevator, the queen dawdled around at the porch. She must have sensed that something was up. So she looked at the flowers near the porch. Chote saw his chance. He approached her, got down on his knees and asked her, “Please, could I have one of your amulets for his wife?” The queen took one look at him, she took one look at the king, and she said, “Don’t you pity him?” She reached into her pocketbook, pulled out an amulet and gave it to Chote.

So she sensed that something was going on and she responded well.

When people have done good things and then pass away, you want to think of their goodness and offer some of your goodness to them, both as a gift to them personally and as a sign that goodness still lives on in the world. This is something we have to think about now as the world seems to be falling apart.

You look all around the world, and people seem to be just looking out for their own individual selfish interests. So it’s good to think of a king and a queen who worked for the good of their country, sacrificed a lot, went through a lot of hardships. Then offer your goodness to them. You, of course, benefit. The world benefits. This is one of the good things about the practice of the Buddha’s teachings: Everybody benefits.

If you look for happiness in gain, status, praise, and physical pleasures, that search for happiness leads to divisions—because if you gain, other people have to lose. If you gain status, other people have to lose. That creates divisions in society.

But if you look for happiness in terms of generosity, virtue, and meditation, nobody loses. Everybody gains. You gain in the goodness of generosity. Your mind becomes more expansive and you have a sense of wealth, in that you have more than enough to share. The mind feels wealthy, knowing that whatever you’ve given up, you can work to replace it and then share more of that as well. So as you gain, the people benefit from your generosity gain as well.

The same with virtue: When you develop the perfection of virtue, that becomes your protection. Other people are protected from any greed, aversion and delusion you might want to act on.

Then, of course, with meditation, as you focus directly on your intentions, you clean up your mind. You’re a better person to be around. And you’re a better person to be.

So think of goodness as something that has no boundaries. That’s what makes this human life worthwhile.

This is the other part of reflection when someone has passed away. Even someone of a very high rank is subject to aging, illness and death. When they leave this life, they have to leave all that behind—all the benefits of a high rank. All they have at that point is the goodness they’ve done. This is true for all of us.

We see pictures of the Queen. When she was young, she was very pretty. As she got older, she started looking older. And now she’s dead. So beauty, wealth, and status don’t protect you against aging, illness, and death. What protects you from suffering from these things is the goodness you do.

So be inspired by the goodness of people in the past and do some goodness that’s appropriate for you. And be happy to share it. The more you share, the more you gain.

There’s an image—it’s not in the Canon, but it’s a nice image—of lighting a candle. You can use your lit candle to light other people’s candles. The flame of your candle isn’t depleted, and everybody gets a brighter world as a result. Think of goodness as the light that lights everybody’s world—and inspires them to be good as well.

That’s when human life is worth living.