This short talk is for the
benefit of a new disciple who will soon be returning to London. May it serve to
help you understand the teaching that you have studied here at Wat Pah Pong.
Most simply, this is the practice to be free of suffering in the cycle of birth
and death.
In order to do this
practice, remember to regard all the various activities of mind, all those you
like and all those you dislike, in the same way as you would regard a cobra.
The cobra is an extremely poisonous snake, poisonous enough to cause death if
it should bite us. And so, also, it is with our moods; the moods that we like
are poisonous, the moods that we dislike are also poisonous. They prevent our
minds from being free and hinder our understanding of the truth as it was
taught by the Buddha.
Thus is it necessary to try
to maintain our mindfulness throughout the day and night. Whatever you may be
doing, be it standing, sitting, lying down, speaking or whatever, you should do
with mindfulness. When you are able to establish this mindfulness, you'll find
that there will arise clear comprehension associated with it, and these two
conditions will bring about wisdom. Thus mindfulness, clear comprehension and
wisdom will work together, and you'll be like one who is awake both day
and night.
These teachings left us by
the Buddha are not teachings to be just listened to, or simply absorbed on an
intellectual level. They are teachings that through practice can be made to
arise and known in our hearts. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we should have
these teachings. And what we mean by ''to have these teachings'' or ''to have
the truth'', is that, whatever we do or say, we do and say with wisdom. When we
think and contemplate, we do so with wisdom. We say that one who has
mindfulness and clear comprehension combined in this way with wisdom, is one
who is close to the Buddha.
When you leave here, you
should practice bringing everything back to your own mind. Look at your mind
with this mindfulness and clear comprehension and develop this wisdom. With
these three conditions there will arise a ''letting go''. You'll know the
constant arising and passing away of all phenomena.
You should know that that
which is arising and passing away is only the activity of mind. When something
arises, it passes away and is followed by further arising and passing away. In
the Way of Dhamma we call this arising and passing away ''birth and death'';
and this is everything - this is all there is! When suffering has arisen, it
passes away, and, when it has passed away, suffering arises again2. There's just suffering arising and
passing away. When you see this much, you'll be able to know constantly this
arising and passing away; and, when your knowing is constant, you'll see that
this is really all there is. Everything is just birth and death. It's not as if
there is anything which carries on. There's just this arising and passing away
as it is - that's all.
This kind of seeing will
give rise to a tranquil feeling of dispassion towards the world. Such a feeling
arises when we see that actually there is nothing worth wanting; there is only
arising and passing away, a being born followed by a dying. This is when the
mind arrives at ''letting go'', letting everything go according to its own
nature. Things arise and pass away in our mind, and we know. When happiness
arises, we know; when dissatisfaction arises, we know. And this ''knowing
happiness'' means that we don't identify with it as being ours. And likewise
with dissatisfaction and unhappiness, we don't identify with them as being
ours. When we no longer identify with and cling to happiness and suffering, we
are simply left with the natural way of things.
So we say that mental
activity is like the deadly poisonous cobra. If we don't interfere with a
cobra, it simply goes its own way. Even though it may be extremely poisonous,
we are not affected by it; we don't go near it or take hold of it, and it
doesn't bite us. The cobra does what is natural for a cobra to do. That's the
way it is. If you are clever you'll leave it alone. And so you let be that
which is good. You also let be that which is not good - let it be according to
its own nature. Let be your liking and your disliking, the same way as you
don't interfere with the cobra.
So, one who is intelligent
will have this kind of attitude towards the various moods that arise in the
mind. When goodness arises, we let it be good, but we know also. We understand
its nature. And, too, we let be the not-good, we let it be according to its
nature. We don't take hold of it because we don't want anything. We don't want
evil, neither do we want good. We want neither heaviness nor lightness,
happiness nor suffering. When, in this way, our wanting is at an end, peace is
firmly established.
When we have this kind of
peace established in our minds, we can depend on it. This peace, we say, has
arisen out of confusion. Confusion has ended. The Buddha called the attainment
of final enlightenment an ''extinguishing'', in the same way that fire is
extinguished. We extinguish fire at the place at which it appears. Wherever it
is hot, that's where we can make it cool. And so it is with enlightenment.
Nibbāna is found in samsāra3.
Enlightenment and delusion (samsāra) exist in the same place, just as do
hot and cold. It's hot where it was cold and cold where it was hot. When heat
arises, the coolness disappears, and when there is coolness, there's no more
heat. In this way Nibbāna and samsāra are the same.
We are told to put an end
to samsāra, which
means to stop the ever-turning cycle of confusion. This putting an end to
confusion is extinguishing the fire. When external fire is extinguished there
is coolness. When the internal fires of sensual craving, aversion and delusion
are put out, then this is coolness also.
This is the nature of
enlightenment; it's the extinguishing of fire, the cooling of that which was
hot. This is peace. This is the end ofsamsāra, the cycle of birth and
death. When you arrive at enlightenment, this is how it is. It's an ending of
the ever-turning and ever-changing, an ending of greed, aversion and delusion
in our minds. We talk about it in terms of happiness because this is how
worldly people understand the ideal to be, but in reality it has gone beyond.
It is beyond both happiness and suffering. It's perfect peace.
So as you go you should
take this teaching which I have given you and contemplate it carefully. Your
stay here hasn't been easy and I have had little opportunity to give you
instruction, but in this time you have been able to study the real meaning of
our practice. May this practice lead you to happiness; may it help you grow in
truth. May you be freed from the suffering of birth and death.
Footnotes
A brief
talk given as final instruction to an elderly Englishwoman who spent two months
under the guidance of Ajahn Chah at the end of 1978 and beginning of 1979.
Suffering
in this context refers to the implicit unsatisfactoriness of all compounded
existence as distinct from suffering as merely the opposite of happiness.
Samsāra: lit. perpetual wandering, is a name by which is designated the
sea of life ever restlessly heaving up and down, the symbol of this continuous
process of ever again and again being born, growing old, suffering and dying.
Contents: © Wat Nong Pah
Pong, 2007
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