A graphic representation of a lotus with text describing the pleasant results of telling the truth and the unpleasant results of telling lies. Taken from the text of the Majjima Nikaya no 61 - Advice to Rāhula at Ambalaṭṭhika. Four similes: a practitioner who tells a lie ... 1. Tosses one’s recluseship (of a samañña) away (like a little bit of water in a dipper) 2. Turns one’s recluseship upside down (like a water dipper) 3. Makes one’s recluseship empty and hollow (like an empty water dipper) 4. There is no evil that one would not do if one is not ashamed to tell a deliberate lie (like a charging war elephant) Truthful actions of body, speech and mind result in - PLEASANT Self, Others, or Both WHOLESOME Pleasant Stay mentally refreshed Untruthful actions of body, speech and mind result in AFFLICTS Self, Others, or Both UNWHOLESOME Painful Confess if painful Therefore recluses & brahmins purified bodily, verbal or mental actions in the past by repeatedly reflecting thus. They will do so in the future and in the present! Link to printable PDF - https://zenfluenced.life/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Sutta-61-Graphic.pdf

I made for a sutra study group that I was part of before the pandemic. The Buddha’s teaching on lying given to his son Rahula. An appropriate reminder these days.
Majjima Nikaya 61.
Alt text has link to a PDF on my website.
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