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[Full title: The Five Enemies (1) Protection from Occupying of King]

The five kinds of enemies can damage or destroy our welfare as taught by the Buddha. Out of five, the Buddha described the King as the first enemy of our welfare. Yet, it, here, is sure that He will refer to the bad king or wicked one. Why did the Buddha point out the king as the first enemy? In the time of the Buddha, most countries are ruled by a king or a queen. They mostly ruled the countries in the system of autocracy. It is said that they are the Lord of the country. Nowadays, there are a few countries that are ruled by the system of monarchy. The powerful kings can occupy or attack other countries anytime. They can occupy the wealth of people by force anytime and anywhere. When they attack or occupy the countries, the wealth of people can be damaged or perished. At that time, it is true that people will lose their wealth without fail. There are many evidences that are concerned with attacking, occupation, invasions, etc. by kings in the world history. So the Buddha preached this discourse referring the loss of wealth by bad kings. It means that people must protect their wealth from bad kings or governments in order not to lose theirs.

Here, it is to be noted that the damaging or loss of wealth is directly concerned with bad or injustice king or government. Sometimes, it is directly concerned with people themselves. For instance, when they commit or violate bad deeds (actions) or crimes such as murder, theft, robbery, rape, etc. they will inevitably be fined or punished or sentenced by the king or government. At that time, their wealth will be decreased or lost. We can say that this way of loss of wealth is indirectly concerned with the king. Yet we should consider that it is mostly concerned with ourselves because it is the people's faults, not king's. It is sure that if the people will commit bad deeds such as crimes, they will be punished or sentenced. It is the duty of the kings or rulers. Whether the loss of wealth is directly concerned with kings or not, it is the duty of people to watch or protect their wealth so as not to lose them.

Well, how can we watch or protect our wealth? There is a raised question about the way to protect wealth. We can find that the Buddha only pointed out us to protect our welfare from the five enemies in brief. He did extensively not point out how to protect them.

Yet we can find some way of how to protect them from enemies in 狈颈诲丑颈办补苍岣峢补 Sutta, Kuddhakap膩tha 笔腻濒颈 as follows:-

"狈颈诲丑颈峁� nidheti puriso, gambh墨re odakantike; kicce samuppanne, 补迟迟丑腻测补 me bhavissati. R膩jato v膩 duruttassa, corato p墨岣穒tassa v膩; I峁嘺ssa v膩 pamokkh膩ya, dubbhikkhe 膩pad膩su v膩; Etad补迟迟丑腻测补 lokasmi峁�, nidhi 苍腻尘补 苍颈诲丑墨测补迟颈."

"A person stashes a fund away, deep underground, at the water line: When a need or duty arises, this will provide for my needs, for my release if I'm denounced by the king, molested by thieves, in case of debt, famine, or accidents. With aims like this in the world a reserve fund is stashed away.鈥�^[1] "But no matter how well it's stored, deep underground, at the water line, it won't all always serve one's need. The fund gets shifted from its place, or one's memory gets confused; or鈥攗nseen鈥攚ater serpents make off with it, spirits steal it, or hateful heirs run off with it. When one's merits ended, it's totally destroyed."^[2]

The Buddha pointed out the way of how to protect wealth by these two verses. According to these discourses, we can find the way to protect wealth of ancient people. They used to keep and hide their wealth deep underground. They protect their wealth in this way. It would be best for them according to the ancient situations. Here we can find the five purposes of the ancient people for protection of their wealth.

(1) Being denounced by king;
(2) Being hurt or robbed by thieves;
(3) In case of debt;
(4) Famine and
(5) Accidents;^[3]

They kept their wealth deep underground to be released or escaped from these five situations. At any case, the main point of their purpose is to be saved. Apart from king and thief, we find other dangers of wealth socalled debt, famine and accidents. Although we cannot say that the rest of three are our enemies, if we take account of them into five enemies, it would become the eight enemies to be protected. As regard to the verse-1, there are four kinds of wealth stated by the commentator in his 碍耻诲诲补办补辫腻迟丑补 础迟迟丑补办补迟丑腻. Nevertheless, we are afraid of increasing many pages in this chapter. So, it will be discussed and criticized in the coming up the chapterthree, 厂补尘补箩颈惫颈迟腻 (the accomplishment of balanced livelihood).

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Kh, Verse-2, P. 9. Pali Text Society, P. 7. Pali Text Society, Tr. P. 7.

[2]:

KhA, P. 184. Pali Text Society, P. 217. Pali Text Society, Tr. P. 217.

[3]:

Kh, Verse-2, P. 9. Pali Text Society, P. 7. KhA, P. 184. Pali Text Society, P. 217. Pali Text Society, Tr. P. 217.