Do you know where it will end? Or will you just keep on studying
like this? ...Or is there an end to it? ... That's okay but it's the external
study, not the internal study. For the internal study you have to study these
eyes, these ears, this nose, this tongue, this body and this mind. This is the
real study. The study of books is just the external study, it's really hard to
get it finished.
When the eye sees form what sort of thing happens? When ear, nose
and tongue experience sounds, smells and tastes, what takes place? When the
body and mind come into contact with touches and mental states, what reactions
take place ? Are there still greed, aversion and delusion there? Do we get lost
in forms, sounds, smells, tastes, textures and moods? This is the internal
study. It has a point of completion.
If we study but don't practise we won't get any results. It's like
a man who raises cows. In the morning he takes the cow out to pasture, in the
evening he brings it back to its pen - but he never drinks the cow's milk.
Study is alright, but don't let it be like this. You should raise the cow and
drink its milk too. You must study and practise as well to get the best
results.
Here, I'll explain it further. It's like a man who raises
chickens, but doesn't collect the eggs. All he gets is the chicken dung! This
is what I tell the people who raise chickens back home. Watch out you don't
become like that! This means we study the scriptures but we don't know how to
let go of defilements, we don't know how to 'push' greed, aversion and delusion
from our mind. Study without practice, without this 'giving up', brings no
results. This is why I compare it to someone who raises chickens but doesn't
collect the eggs, he just collects the dung. It's the same thing.
Because of this, the Buddha wanted us to study the scriptures, and
then to give up evil actions through body, speech and mind; to develop goodness
in our deeds, speech and thoughts. The real worth of mankind will come to
fruition through our deeds, speech and thoughts. If we only talk, without
acting accordingly, it's not yet complete. Or if we do good deeds but the mind
is still not good, this is still not complete. The Buddha taught to develop
goodness in body, speech and mind; to develop fine deeds, fine speech and fine
thoughts. This is the treasure of mankind. The study and the practice must both
be good.
The eightfold path of the Buddha, the path of practice, has eight
factors. These eight factors are nothing other than this very body: two eyes,
two ears, two nostrils, one tongue and one body. This is the path. And the mind
is the one who follows the path. Therefore both the study and the practice
exist in our body, speech and mind.
Have you ever seen scriptures which teach about anything other
than the body, the speech and the mind? The scriptures only teach about this,
nothing else. Defilements are born right here. If you know them, they die right
here. So you should understand that the practice and the study both exist right
here. If we study just this much we can know everything. It's like our speech:
to speak one word of truth is better than a lifetime of wrong speech. Do you
understand? One who studies and doesn't practise is like a ladle in a soup pot.
It's in the pot every day but it doesn't know the flavour of the soup. If you
don't practice, even if you study till the day you die, you'll never know the
taste of freedom!
Footnotes
Taken from a talk given in
England to a Western Dhamma student in 1977
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