THE SIX PRINCIPLES OF CORDIALITY

SIX PRINCIPALS OF CORDIALITY (SIX MEMORABLE QUALITIES) - To the Laity and the Sanga

An excerpt from the “Kossambiya Sutta”- Majjima Nikaya (Translated by Bhikkhu Nanamoli & Bhikkhu Bodhi)

The back ground to this Sutta is the quarrel at Kosambi, which began with a casual misunderstanding of a mionor disciplinary rule, quickly flared up and divided a large group of the Sanga and laity resident at Kosambi into two hostile factions.

The Blessed one addressed the Bhikkhus thus: “Bhikkhus, there are these six principles of cordiality that create love and respect and conduce to cohesion, to non-dispute, to concord, and to unity. What are the six?”

1. A Bhikkhu maintains bodily acts of loving- kindness both in public and in private towards his companions in the holy life. This is a principal of cordiality that creates love and respect and conduces cohesion, to non-dispute, to concord, and to the unity.

2. A Bhikkhu maintains verbal acts of loving- kindness both in public and in private towards his companions in the holy life. This too is a principal of cordiality that creates love and respect, and conduces to…unity.
3. A Bhikkhu maintains acts of mental acts of loving- kindness both in public and in private towards his companions in the holy life. This is a principal of cordiality that creates love and respect, and conduces cohesion, to non-dispute, to concord, and to the unity.

4. A Bhikkhu uses things in common with his virtuous companions in the holy life; without making reservations, he shares with them any gain of a kind that accords with the Dhamma, including even the mere contents of his bowl. This too is a principal of cordiality that creates love and respect, and conduces………unity.

5. A Bhikkhu dwells both in public and in private possessing in common with his companions in the holy life those virtues that are unbroken, untorn, unblocked, un mottled, liberating, commended by the wise, not misapprehended, and conducive to concentration. This too is a principle of cordiality that creates love and respect, and conduces to….unity.

6. A Bhikkhu dwells both in public and in private possessing in common with his companions in the holy life that view that is noble and emancipating, and leads one who practises in accordance with it to the complete destruction of suffering, this too is a principal of cordiality that creates love and respect, and conduces to cohesion, to non-dispute, to concord, and to unity.

“Of these six principals of cordiality, the chief, the most, the most cohesive, the most unifying is this view the one that is noble and emancipating and which leads the one who practices in accordance with it to the complete destruction of suffering.”