As one teaches others
so should one do oneself.
Well-tamed, on may tame others,
oneself to tame is hard.
Explanation: If you are keen to discipline others in the same way, you must yourself behave in that manner. It is the best disciplined person, who will disciplined others best. The most difficult to be disciplined is one’s own self indeed.
The Story of Venerable Padhanikatissa (Verse 159)
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse, with reference to Venerable Padhanikatissa.
Venerable Padhanikatissa, after taking a meditation topic from the Buddha, left for the forest with a large number of other monks. There, he told the monks to be ever mindful and diligent in their meditation practice. After thus exhorting others he himself would lie down and go to sleep. The young monks did as they were told. They practiced meditation during the first watch of the night and when they were about to go to bed, Padhanikatissa would get up and tell them to go back to their practice. When they returned after meditation practice during the second and third watches also he would say the same thing to them.
As he was always acting in this way, the young monks never had peace of mind, and so they could not concentrate on meditation practice or even on recitation of the texts. One day, they decided to investigate if their teacher was truly zealous and vigilant as he posed himself to be. When they found out that their teacher Padhanikatissa only exhorted others but was himself sleeping most of the time, they remarked, “We are ruined, our teacher knows only how to scold us, but he himself is just wasting time, doing nothing.” By this time, as the monks were not getting enough rest, they were tired and worn out. As a result, none of the monks made any progress in their meditation practice.
Having completed residence, they went back to the Buddha. The Buddha, after exchanging the usual friendly greetings with them, asked them, “Monks, did you observe heedfulness? Did you perform your meditations faithfully?” Then the monks told him the whole story.
The Buddha said, “Monks, if a man is to admonish others, he must first subdue himself; for if, under these circumstances, he admonishes others, being well subdued himself, he can subdue others.”