THE CONFIDENT ONE

 Through conducting his life impeccably and reaping the most benefit out of birth into this world, a person can attain such confidence in his life that he fears nothing, not even death. This is living victoriously, making a success of life. Such a person is one who has attained the objective of living and leads his life according to the following principles:
A. Steering one's life to its objectives: he conducts his life toward the realization of the three benefits which are the objectives of life known as the three attha:
1. Ditthadhammikattha: the temporal objective or present benefit, the important kinds being:
a) Having good health, a strong body, freedom from disease, pleasant appearance and longevity.
b) Having work and income, wealth derived from honest livelihood; being economically self-reliant.
c) Having good status, having rank, honor, friendship and social acceptance.
d) Having a happy family, making one's family worthy of respect.All of the above should be righteously obtained and used or treated so as to produce rightful benefit and happiness both for oneself and for others.
2. Samparayikattha: the spiritual objective or further benefit that gives value and meaning to life, and which leads to the profound inner happiness, especially:
a) Warmth, deep appreciation and happiness through faith; having an ideal.
b) Pride in having a clean life, in having done only good and virtuous actions.
c) Gratification in a worthwhile life, in having made sacrifices and performed beneficial actions.
d) Courage and confidence in having wisdom to deal with problems and guide one's life.
e) Security and freedom from worry in having performed good kamma, having a guarantee for the future life.3. Paramattha, the highest objective or greatest benefit; having insight into the truth, having penetrated to the nature of life and the world, thereby rendering the mind free, [as a result of which]:
a) One is not shaken or overwhelmed by vicissitudes and changes.
b) One is not disappointed, downhearted or distressed on account of attachment to things.
c) One is secure, calm, clear, cheerful and buoyant at all times.
d) One lives and acts with wisdom, which looks at causes and conditions.These three levels of attha can be attained on three fronts, as follows:

1. Attattha: the objective for oneself or one's own benefit; i.e., the three levels of benefit explained above, which one should establish within oneself, or develop one's life toward.
2. Parattha: the objective for others, or other people's benefit; i.e., the three levels of benefit explained above, which one should help other people successively achieve by inducing and encouraging them to develop their lives.
3. Ubhayattha: the mutual objective or benefit to both parties; i.e., the collective benefit, happiness and virtue of the community or society, including environmental conditions and factors, both concrete, such as forests, rivers and roads, and abstract, such as morality and culture. We should contribute to the creation and conservation of these in order to help both ourselves and others advance to the three levels of objectives mentioned above, at the very least not allowing our own pursuit of benefit to adversely affect the benefit and well-being of the community. For example, in keeping the discipline a monk helps foster the harmony of the monastic community, which is an atmosphere that helps the monks living together all live in comfort and grow in their practice toward attaining the highest benefit (paramattha).
   
   

B. Maintaining inner strengthhe has the strength that arises from the moral qualities or practices that are life's assurances-known as the four powers (bala)-which instill such self-confidence into him that he fears no peril, namely:

1. Panna-bala: the power of wisdom; he is learned; he has proper and clear knowledge and understanding of all matters and tasks he must deal with, and ultimately the true nature of life and the world; he does things with understanding of their reasons and their real nature.
2. Viriya-bala: the power of effort; he always applies himself to his tasks and duties with effort and perseverance; he does not give up, slacken or become discouraged.
3. Anavajja-bala: the power of integrity or the power of purity; his conduct and work are honest, faultless, clean, pure and uncensurable.
4. Sangaha-bala: the power of benefaction; he helps and supports others and makes himself useful to his fellow man; he is a benefactor of the community.

A government official, for example, might bear in mind these four brief injunctions: "Know your work well, perform your duty faultlessly, be honest and do not neglect human relations."

C. Establishing oneself on a firm foundationfrom which to grasp the highest success aspired to without causing self-delusion, creating opportunities for error and blemish or leading to the accumulation of defilements. This can be achieved by practicing according to the principles known as the four inner strongholds (adhitthana):

1. Panna: using wisdom; he lives his life with wisdom and acts with reason; he does not react impulsively or emotionally to the incidents he encounters or get carried away by temptation; he studies things to know them clearly and penetrate to their raison d'etre; he understands things as they really are, ultimately attaining the truth.
2. Sacca: upholding truth; he establishes and maintains himself firmly in the truth that he has clearly known and seen with wisdom. Sacca ranges from being truthful in speech, being true to principles and having integrity in deeds, to [realizing] the highest truth.
3. Caga: fostering relinquishment; he fosters or increases his relinquishment to ever greater heights to prevent or restrain himself from becoming enslaved by any fame, fortune or success, for example, that he may acquire, which keep luring him into attachment, pride and delusion; he can relinquish whatever he has previously been attached to-ranging from material possessions to mental defilements-that is mistaken, false or wrong.
4. Upasama: calming the mind; he knows how to find peace in his mind; he trains to be able to overcome mental defilements and remove the frustration and confusion resulting from them; he makes his mind calm and clear so that it can experience the taste of peace; having known the taste of happiness that arises from the calmed mind, he is not easily infatuated with material possessions, status, or fame.

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