The Parable of the Two-Eyed Man -- By Ven. Gnanarama Ph.D (Principal, Buddhist and Pali College of Singapore)

Once, the Buddha, relating a parable of a potential businessman, showed how the monks should get inspiration from the businessman to derive maximum benefit being a monk. The parable illustrates the Buddha's concern and observation that economic progress rested on wise management of commerce that inspires confidence in customers.

In the early Pali canonical scriptures, particularly in the discourses addressed to laity, there are instructions referring to earning and saving for a better life. Addressing the renowned benefactor of the dispensation, Anathapindika, the Buddha, while explaining the factors of happiness of a layman, lists economic stability as one of them. The fact has been emphasized and reiterated in the famous Sigalovada Sutta in no uncertain terms, with illustrations of how one's conduct contributes to loss of wealth. Earning, investment and saving for a better life here and now is recommended for the laity. In the Vyagghapajja Sutta, achievement in conservation of earnings has been cited as one of the factors conducive to success in lay life.

Besides, success in business has been quoted to encourage the monks in their striving. This shows that Buddhism is not altogether otherworldly as some writers want us to believe. It is multifaceted and also recognizes the fact that individuals are social beings and speaks about the secular well-being of them.

How does a shopkeeper earn wealth and get rich from his enterprise? A shopkeeper should be wise to calculate and know that articles he bought for so much and can be sold for so much and that he could get so much of profit by the transaction. He must be able and energetic in the business of buying and selling. He should be a person inspiring confidence in others. When the rich come to know that that particular shopkeeper is wise, able and energetic to the extent of supporting wife and children, they are convinced of his potentialities as a successful business entrepreneur. Since he inspires confidence in the rich, in order to widen his business further, they will lend him money. Because of the confidence inspired in others by his wise management, energetic and credible behaviour, he is getting richer by increasing his wealth.

In this instance, a parallel from business ethics has been drawn to illustrate how the monks should develop their potentialities by the careful observation of the exemplary shopkeeper in the parable.*1

The Buddha's concern about economic prosperity and ethical conduct of the laity is well illustrated in the parable of the Two-eyed. Here, the Buddha compares and contrasts three persons: the blind (andho), the one-eyed (eka cakkhu) and the two-eyed (dvi cakkhu) with reference to their economic progress and personal conduct.

A certain person is bereft of the eye to acquire wealth not earned, or to devise ways and means to prosper in his earnings. He has not the eye to see states that are good and bad, blameworthy and praiseworthy, mean and exalted and states leading to light and darkness. Since he does not strive for economic progress as well as to adopt good conduct, he is called 'the blind'.?

The One-eyed has the eye to acquire wealth not earned and he devised ways and means to prosper in his earnings. But he does not have the eye to see states that are good and bad, blameworthy and praiseworthy, mean and exalted and states leading to light and darkness. Since he strives only for his economic progress, he is called 'the one-eyed'.

The Two-eyed has both the eyes to acquire wealth not earned and capable of devising ways and means to prosper in his earnings. He has the eye to see states that are good and bad, blameworthy and praiseworthy, mean and exalted and states leading to light and darkness. Since he strives for his economic progress as well as to practice good conduct, he is called 'the two-eyed'?

The parable illustrates that the person, who is lethargic and does not strive for economic progress for a better living and does not practice good conduct, is unlucky in both ways. The One-eyed is a person who earns wealth at the expense of morality. He is fraudulent and amasses wealth by stealing, lying and other immoral means. The Two-eyed is a person who earns wealth by righteous means and he is virtuous. He is prosperous in this world and is rewarded with a good birth in the next life. The discourse winds up with the advice to keep aloof from the Blind and the One-eyed and to keep company with the Two-eyed who with the best of intention, shares his wealth with those who are worthy of sharing.

Buddhism instructs the laity to earn wealth by righteous means and get rich for a better life. In the Janasandha Jataka, out of ten causes of repentance, not earning wealth at the proper period of one's life is given as one of the causes of repentance:

"With the thought 'Alas! I did not earn wealth in my youth' he who has not earned wealth in his youth repents at his old age.?*2

How a person is deprived of material progress due to the folly of both parents and his own is mentioned in the Dhammapada Commentary in relation to the son of a millionaire in Savatthi. The parents being very rich did not think of educating their one and only son in any art or craft, except singing and music. In another rich family in the same city, the one and only child was a daughter to whom they also did not teach anything other than singing and music. When the son and daughter came of age, they got married and later after the death of the wife's parents, the young husband became a multimillionaire. He kept bad company and squandered his wealth on drinking and gambling. Gradually, when the couple became old, they had already been reduced to utter poverty. Ultimately, his palatial house also went on sale, and he and his wife were driven out of the house. The one time multimillionaire and his wife now wandered from place to place and subsisted on what they received from begging at others?doorsteps. One day, the Buddha saw them receiving food from novices at the gate of the dining hall of Jetavana monastery. The Buddha pointed out the couple to Venerable Ananda and said that had he invested his wealth in the first stage of his life instead of squandering it, he could have become the first millionaire in the city. Had they left the household life and been ordained, he could have become an Arahant, the wife a Non-returner. Had he invested in the second stage of his life, he could have become the second millionaire in the city, and had they been ordained, he could have become a

Non-returner, the wife could have become a Once-returner. Had he invested in the last stage of his life, he could have become the third millionaire in the city. If they had been ordained, he could have become a Once-returner, the wife a Stream-winner. The Buddha continued:

"Having not led a noble life and not earned wealth in youth, they keep on brooding in old age just like old herons at a pond without fish and also like worn out bows that are neglected.?*3

The Buddha advises the laity to earn wealth by righteous means, being dutiful, make use of it by sharing. For it is said in the Sanyuttanikaya:

"As cool water in a desolute place

Evaporates without being drunk,

So when a scoundrel acquires wealth

He neither enjoys himself nor gives.

But when the wise man obtains wealth

He enjoys himself and does his duty.

Having supported his kin, free from blame,

That noble man goes to a heavenly state."?*4

*1 Anguttaranikaya, 116.

*2 Aladdha vittam tappati - pubbe asamudanitam Na pubbe dhanamesissam - itipacchanutappati - Janasanadha J.

*3 Dhammapada 155, 156 - Mahadhanasetthissa Vatthu - Dhammapada Atthakatha.

*4 Sanyuttanikaya I, 92.