It's of great importance
that we practise the Dhamma. If we don't practise, then all our knowledge is
only superficial knowledge, just the outer shell of it. It's as if we have some
sort of fruit but we haven't eaten it yet. Even though we have that fruit in
our hand we get no benefit from it. Only through the actual eating of the fruit
will we really know its taste.
The Buddha didn't praise
those who merely believe others, he praised the person who knows within
himself. Just as with that fruit, if we have tasted it already, we don't have
to ask anyone else if it's sweet or sour. Our problems are over. Why are they
over? Because we see according to the truth. One who has realized the Dhamma is
like one who has realized the sweetness or sourness of the fruit. All doubts
are ended right here.
When we talk about Dhamma,
although we may say a lot, it can usually be brought down to four things. They
are simply to know suffering, to know the cause of suffering, to know the end
of suffering and to know the path of practice leading to the end of suffering.
This is all there is. All
that we have experienced on the path of practice so far comes down to these
four things. When we know these things, our problems are over.
Where are these four things
born? They are born just within the body and the mind, nowhere else. So why is
the teaching of the Buddha so detailed and extensive? This is so in order to
explain these things in a more refined way, to help us to see them.
When Siddhattha Gotama was
born into the world, before he saw the Dhamma, he was an ordinary person just
like us. When he knew what he had to know, that is the truth of suffering, the
cause, the end and the way leading to the end of suffering, he realized the
Dhamma and became a perfectly Enlightened Buddha.
When we realize the Dhamma,
wherever we sit we know Dhamma, wherever we are we hear the Buddha's teaching.
When we understand Dhamma, the Buddha is within our mind, the Dhamma is within
our mind, and the practice leading to wisdom is within our own mind. Having the
Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha within our mind means that whether our
actions are good or bad, we know clearly for ourselves their true nature.
That is how the Buddha
discarded worldly opinions, praise and criticism. When people praised or
criticized him he just accepted it for what it was. These two things are simply
worldly conditions so he wasn't shaken by them. Why not? Because he knew suffering.
He knew that if he believed in that praise or criticism they would cause him to
suffer.
When suffering arises it
agitates us, we feel ill at ease. What is the cause of that suffering? It's
because we don't know the truth, this is the cause. When the cause is present,
then suffering arises. Once arisen we don't know how to stop it. The more we
try to stop it, the more it comes on. We say, ''Don't criticize me,'' or
''Don't blame me''. Trying to stop it like this, suffering really comes on, it
won't stop.
So the Buddha taught that
the way leading to the end of suffering is to make the Dhamma arise as a
reality within our own minds. We become those who witness the Dhamma for
themselves. If someone says we are good we don't get lost in it; they say we
are no good and we don't forget ourselves. This way we can be free. 'Good' and
'evil' are just worldly dhammas, they are just states of mind. If we follow
them our mind becomes the world, we just grope in the darkness and don't know
the way out.
If it's like this then we
have not yet mastered ourselves. We try to defeat others, but in doing so we
only defeat ourselves; but if we have mastery over ourselves then we have
mastery over all-over all mental formations, sights, sounds, smells, tastes and
bodily feelings.
Now I'm talking about
externals, they're like that, but the outside is reflected inside also. Some
people only know the outside, they don't know the inside. Like when we say to
'see the body in the body'. Having seen the outer body is not enough, we must know
the body within the body. Then, having investigated the mind, we should know
the mind within the mind.
Why should we investigate
the body? What is this 'body in the body'? When we say to know the mind, what
is this 'mind'? If we don't know the mind then we don't know the things within
the mind. This is to be someone who doesn't know suffering, doesn't know the
cause, doesn't know the end and doesn't know the way leading to the end of
suffering. The things which should help to extinguish suffering don't help,
because we get distracted by the things which aggravate it. It's just as if we
have an itch on our head and we scratch our leg! If it's our head that's itchy
then we're obviously not going to get much relief. In the same way, when
suffering arises we don't know how to handle it, we don't know the practice
leading to the end of suffering.
For instance, take this
body, this body that each of us has brought along to this meeting. If we just
see the form of the body there's no way we can escape suffering. Why not?
Because we still don't see the inside of the body, we only see the outside. We
only see it as something beautiful, something substantial. The Buddha said that
only this is not enough. We see the outside with our eyes; a child can see it,
animals can see it, it's not difficult. The outside of the body is easily seen,
but having seen it we stick to it, we don't know the truth of it. Having seen
it we grab onto it and it bites us!
So we should investigate
the body within the body. Whatever's in the body, go ahead and look at it. If
we just see the outside it's not clear. We see hair, nails and so on and they
are just pretty things which entice us, so the Buddha taught to see the inside
of the body, to see the body within the body. What is in the body? Look closely
within! We will find many surprises inside, because even though they are within
us, we've never seen them. Wherever we walk we carry them with us, sitting in a
car we carry them with us, but we still don't know them at all!
It's as if we visit some
relatives at their house and they give us a present. We take it and put it in
our bag and then leave without opening it to see what is inside. When at last
we open it - full of poisonous snakes! Our body is like this. If we just see
the shell of it we say it's fine and beautiful. We forget ourselves. We forget
impermanence, suffering and not-self. If we look within this body it's really
repulsive.
If we look according to
reality, without trying to sugar things over, we'll see that it's really pitiful
and wearisome. Dispassion will arise. This feeling of 'disinterest' is not that
we feel aversion for the world or anything; it's simply our mind clearing up,
our mind letting go. We see things as not substantial or dependable, but that
all things are naturally established just as they are. However we want them to
be, they just go their own way regardless. Whether we laugh or cry, they simply
are the way they are. Things which are unstable are unstable; things which are
not beautiful are not beautiful.
So the Buddha said that
when we experience sights, sounds, tastes, smells, bodily feelings or mental
states, we should release them. When the ear hears sounds, let them go. When
the nose smells an odour, let it go...just leave it at the nose! When bodily feelings
arise, let go of the like or dislike that follow, let them go back to their
birth-place. The same for mental states. All these things, just let them go
their way. This is knowing. Whether it's happiness or unhappiness, it's all the
same. This is called meditation.
Meditation means to make
the mind peaceful in order to let wisdom arise. This requires that we practise
with body and mind in order to see and know the sense impressions of form,
sound, taste, smell, touch and mental formations. To put it shortly, it's just
a matter of happiness and unhappiness. Happiness is pleasant feeling in the
mind, unhappiness is just unpleasant feeling. The Buddha taught to separate
this happiness and unhappiness from the mind. The mind is that which knows.
Feeling2 is the
characteristic of happiness or unhappiness, like or dislike. When the mind
indulges in these things we say that it clings to or takes that happiness and
unhappiness to be worthy of holding. That clinging is an action of mind, that
happiness or unhappiness is feeling.
When we say the Buddha told
us to separate the mind from the feeling, he didn't literally mean to throw
them to different places. He meant that the mind must know happiness and know
unhappiness. When sitting in samādhi, for
example, and peace fills the mind, then happiness comes but it doesn't reach
us, unhappiness comes but doesn't reach us. This is to separate the feeling
from the mind. We can compare it to oil and water in a bottle. They don't
combine. Even if you try to mix them, the oil remains oil and the water remains
water, because they are of different density.
The natural state of the
mind is neither happiness nor unhappiness. When feeling enters the mind then
happiness or unhappiness is born. If we have mindfulness then we know pleasant
feeling as pleasant feeling. The mind which knows will not pick it up.
Happiness is there but it's 'outside' the mind, not buried within the mind. The
mind simply knows it clearly.
If we separate unhappiness
from the mind, does that mean there is no suffering, that we don't experience
it? Yes, we experience it, but we know mind as mind, feeling as feeling. We
don't cling to that feeling or carry it around. The Buddha separated these
things through knowledge. Did he have suffering? He knew the state of suffering
but he didn't cling to it, so we say that he cut suffering off. And there was
happiness too, but he knew that happiness, if it's not known, is like a poison.
He didn't hold it to be himself. Happiness was there through knowledge, but it
didn't exist in his mind. Thus we say that he separated happiness and
unhappiness from his mind.
When we say that the Buddha
and the Enlightened Ones killed defilements, it's not that they really killed
them. If they had killed all defilements then we probably wouldn't have any!
They didn't kill defilements; when they knew them for what they are, they let
them go. Someone who's stupid will grab them, but the Enlightened Ones knew the
defilements in their own minds as a poison, so they swept them out. They swept
out the things which caused them to suffer, they didn't kill them. One who
doesn't know this will see some things, such as happiness, as good, and then
grab them, but the Buddha just knew them and simply brushed them away.
But when feeling arises for
us we indulge in it, that is, the mind carries that happiness and unhappiness
around. In fact they are two different things. The activities of mind, pleasant
feeling, unpleasant feeling and so on, are mental impressions, they are the
world. If the mind knows this it can equally do work involving happiness or
unhappiness. Why? Because it knows the truth of these things. Someone who
doesn't know them sees them as having different value, but one who knows sees
them as equal. If you cling to happiness it will be the birth-place of
unhappiness later on, because happiness is unstable, it changes all the time.
When happiness disappears, unhappiness arises.
The Buddha knew that
because both happiness and unhappiness are unsatisfactory, they have the same
value. When happiness arose he let it go. He had right practice, seeing that
both these things have equal values and drawbacks. They come under the Law of Dhamma,
that is, they are unstable and unsatisfactory. Once born, they die. When he saw
this, right view arose, the right way of practice became clear. No matter what
sort of feeling or thinking arose in his mind, he knew it as simply the
continuous play of happiness and unhappiness. He didn't cling to them.
When the Buddha was newly
enlightened he gave a sermon about indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in
pain. ''Monks! Indulgence in pleasure is the loose way, indulgence in pain is
the tense way.'' These were the two things that disturbed his practice until
the day he was enlightened, because at first he didn't let go of them. When he
knew them, he let them go, and so was able to give his first sermon.
So we say that a meditator
should not walk the way of happiness or unhappiness, rather he should know
them. Knowing the truth of suffering, he will know the cause of suffering, the
end of suffering and the way leading to the end of suffering. And the way out
of suffering is meditation itself. To put it simply, we must be mindful.
Mindfulness is knowing, or
presence of mind. Right now what are we thinking, what are we doing? What do we
have with us right now? We observe like this, we are aware of how we are
living. Practising like this, wisdom can arise. We consider and investigate at
all times, in all postures. When a mental impression arises that we like we
know it as such, we don't hold it to be anything substantial. It's j ust
happiness. When unhappiness arises we know that it's indulgence in pain, it's
not the path of a meditator.
This is what we call
separating the mind from the feeling. If we are clever we don't attach, we
leave things be. We become the 'one who knows'. The mind and feeling are just
like oil and water; they are in the same bottle but they don't mix. Even if we
are sick or in pain, we still know the feeling as feeling, the mind as mind. We
know the painful or comfortable states but we don't identify with them. We stay
only with peace: the peace beyond both comfort and pain.
You should understand it
like this, because if there is no permanent self then there is no refuge. You
must live like this, that is, without happiness and without unhappiness. You
stay only with the knowing, you don't carry things around.
As long as we are still
unenlightened all this may sound strange but it doesn't matter, we just set our
goal in this direction. The mind is the mind. It meets happiness and
unhappiness and we see them as merely that, there's nothing more to it. They
are divided, not mixed. If they are all mixed up then we don't know them. It's
like living in a house; the house and its occupant are related, but separate.
If there is danger in our house we are distressed because we must protect it,
but if the house catches fire we get out of it. If painful feeling arises we
get out of it, j ust like that house. When it's full of fire and we know it, we
come running out of it. They are separate things; the house is one thing, the
occupant is another.
We say that we separate
mind and feeling in this way but in fact they are by nature already separate.
Our realization is simply to know this natural separateness according to
reality. When we say they are not separated it's because we're clinging to them
through ignorance of the truth.
So the Buddha told us to
meditate. This practice of meditation is very important. Merely to know with
the intellect is not enough. The knowledge which arises from practice with a
peaceful mind and the knowledge which comes from study are really far apart.
The knowledge which comes from study is not real knowledge of our mind. The
mind tries to hold onto and keep this knowledge. Why do we try to keep it? Just
to lose it! And then when it's lost we cry.
If we really know, then
there's letting go, leaving things be. We know how things are and don't forget
ourselves. If it happens that we are sick we don't get lost in that. Some
people think, ''This year I was sick the whole time, I couldn't meditate at
all.'' These are the words of a really foolish person. Someone who's sick or
dying should really be diligent in his practice. One may say he doesn't have
time to meditate. He's sick, he's suffering, he doesn't trust his body, and so
he feels that he can't meditate. If we think like this then things are
difficult. The Buddha didn't teach like that. He said that right here is the
place to meditate. When we're sick or almost dying that's when we can really
know and see reality.
Other people say they don't
have the chance to meditate because they're too busy. Sometimes school teachers
come to see me. They say they have many responsibilities so there's no time to
meditate. I ask them, ''When you're teaching do you have time to breathe?''
They answer, ''Yes.'' ''So how can you have time to breathe if the work is so
hectic and confusing? Here you are far from Dhamma.''
Actually this practice is
just about the mind and its feelings. It's not something that you have to run
after or struggle for. Breathing continues while working. Nature takes care of
the natural processes - all we have to do is try to be aware. Just to keep
trying, going inwards to see clearly. Meditation is like this.
If we have that presence of
mind then whatever work we do will be the very tool which enables us to know
right and wrong continually. There's plenty of time to meditate, we just don't
fully understand the practice, that's all. While sleeping we breathe, eating we
breathe, don't we? Why don't we have time to meditate? Wherever we are we
breathe. If we think like this then our life has as much value as our breath,
wherever we are we have time.
All kinds of thinking are
mental conditions, not conditions of body, so we need simply have presence of
mind, then we will know right and wrong at all times. Standing, walking,
sitting and lying, there's plenty of time. We just don't know how to use it
properly. Please consider this.
We cannot run away from
feeling, we must know it. Feeling is just feeling, happiness is just happiness,
unhappiness is just unhappiness. They are simply that. So why should we cling
to them? If the mind is clever, simply to hear this is enough to enable us to
separate feeling from the mind.
If we investigate like this
continuously the mind will find release, but it's not escaping through
ignorance. The mind lets go, but it knows. It doesn't let go through stupidity,
not because it doesn't want things to be the way they are. It lets go because
it knows according to the truth. This is seeing nature, the reality that's all
around us.
When we know this we are
someone who's skilled with the mind, we are skilled with mental impressions.
When we are skilled with mental impressions we are skilled with the world. This
is to be a 'knower of the world.' The Buddha was someone who clearly knew the
world with all its difficulty. He knew the troublesome, and that which was not
troublesome was right there. This world is so confusing, how is it that the
Buddha was able to know it? Here we should understand that the Dhamma taught by
the Buddha is not beyond our ability. In all postures we should have presence
of mind and self awareness - and when it's time to sit meditation we do that.
We sit in meditation to
establish peacefulness and cultivate mental energy. We don't do it in order to
play around at anything special. Insight meditation is sitting in samādhi itself.
At some places they say, ''Now we are going to sit in samādhi, after that we'll do insight meditation.'' Don't divide them like
this! Tranquillity is the base which gives rise to wisdom; wisdom is the fruit
of tranquillity. To say that now we are going to do calm meditation, later
we'll do insight - you can't do that! You can only divide them in speech. Just
like a knife, the blade is on one side, the back of the blade on the other. You
can't divide them. If you pick up one side you get both sides. Tranquillity
gives rise to wisdom like this.
Morality is the father and
mother of Dhamma. In the beginning we must have morality. Morality is peace.
This means that there are no wrong doings in body or speech. When we don't do
wrong then we don't get agitated; when we don't become agitated then peace and
collectedness arise within the mind.
So we say that morality,
concentration and wisdom are the path on which all the Noble Ones have walked
to enlightenment. They are all one. Morality is concentration, concentration is
morality. Concentration is wisdom, wisdom is concentration. It's like a mango.
When it's a flower we call it a flower. When it becomes a fruit we call it a
mango. When it ripens we call it a ripe mango. It's all one mango but it
continually changes. The big mango grows from the small mango, the small mango
becomes a big one. You can call them different fruits or all one. Morality,
concentration and wisdom are related like this. In the end it's all the path
that leads to enlightenment.
The mango, from the moment
it first appears as a flower, simply grows to ripeness. This is enough, we
should see it like this. Whatever others call it, it doesn't matter. Once it's
born it grows to old age, and then where? We should contemplate this.
Some people don't want to
be old. When they get old they become depressed. These people shouldn't eat
ripe mangoes! Why do we want the mangoes to be ripe? If they're not ripe in
time, we ripen them artificially, don't we? But when we become old we are
filled with regret. Some people cry, they're afraid to get old or die. If it's
like this then they shouldn't eat ripe mangoes, better eat just the flowers! If
we can see this then we can see the Dhamma. Everything clears up, we are at
peace. Just determine to practise like that.
Today the Chief Privy
Councillor and his party have come together to hear the Dhamma. You should take
what I've said and contemplate it. If anything is not right, please excuse me.
But for you to know whether it's right or wrong depends on your practising and
seeing for yourselves. Whatever's wrong, throw it out. If it's right then take
it and use it. But actually we practise in order to let go of both right and
wrong. In the end we just throw everything out. If it's right, throw it out;
wrong, throw it out! Usually if it's right we cling to rightness, if it's wrong
we hold it to be wrong, and then arguments follow. But the Dhamma is the place
where there's nothing - nothing at all.
Footnotes
A
condensed version of a talk given to the Chief Privy Councillor of Thailand,
Mr. Sanya Dharmasakti, at Wat Nong Pah Pong, 1978
Feeling
is a translation of the Pāli word 'vedanā', and should be understood in
the sense Ajahn Chah herein describes it: as the mental states of pleasure and
pain.
Contents: © Wat Nong Pah
Pong, 2007
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