Whatever you will teach, it
won't be outside of sīla, samādhi andpaññā,
or, to use another standard classification, generosity, morality and meditation.
Folks here are already
pretty complicated. You have to look at the people you are teaching and
understand them. Here, they are complicated. So you have to give them something
they can relate to. Just to say, ''Let go, let go!'' won't be right. Put that
aside for the time being. It's like talking to older people in Thailand. If you
try to speak bluntly, they will resent it. If I do that, it's OK - if they hear
it from me, it pleases them - but otherwise they would get angry.
You can be able to speak
well but still not be skillful. Right, Sumedho? It's like that, isn't it?
Ajahn Sumedho: It is. They
(some of the other monks) speak the truth, but they don't do it skillfully, and
the lay people don't want to listen. They don't have the skillful means.
Ajahn Chah: Right. They
don't have a ''technique.'' They don't have the technique in speaking. Like
construction - I can build things, but I don't have a technique for
construction, to make things beautiful and long-lasting. I can speak, anyone
can speak, but it's necessary to have the skillful means to know what is
appropriate. Then saying even one word can be of benefit. Otherwise, you can
cause trouble with your words.
For example, people here
have learned a lot of things. Don't go extolling your way: ''My way is right!
Your way is wrong!'' Don't do that. And don't merely try to be profound,
either. You can lead people to madness by that. Just say, ''Don't discard other
ways you may have learned. But for the time being, please put them aside and
focus on what we are practising right now.'' Such as mindfulness of breathing.
That's something you can all teach. Teach to focus on the breath going in and
out. Just keep teaching in the same way, and let people get an understanding of
this. When you become skilled at teaching one thing, your ability to teach will
develop of its own, and you will be able to teach other things. Coming to know
one thing well, people can then know many things. It happens of its own. But if
you try to teach them many things, they don't get a real understanding of any
one thing. If you point out one thing clearly, then they can know many things
clearly.
Like those Christians who
came today. They just said one thing. They said one thing that was full of
meaning. ''One day we will meet again in the place of ultimate truth.'' Just
this one statement was enough. Those were the words of a wise person. No matter
what kind of Dhamma we learn, if we don't realize the ultimate truth (paramatthadhamma)
in our hearts, we won't reach satisfaction.
For example, Sumedho might
teach me. I have to take that knowledge and try to put it into practice. When
Sumedho is teaching me, I understand, but it isn't a real or deep
understanding, because I haven't yet practised. When I do actually practise and
realize the fruit of practising, then I will get to the point and know the real
meaning of it. Then I can say I know Sumedho. I will see Sumedho in that place.
That place is Sumedho. Because he teaches that, that is Sumedho.
When I teach about the
Buddha, it's like that also. I say the Buddha is that place. The Buddha is not
in the teachings. When people hear this they will be startled. ''Didn't the
Buddha teach those things?'' Yes, he did.... This is talking about ultimate
truth. People don't understand it yet.
What I gave those people to
think about was, this apple is something that you can see with your eyes. The
flavour of the apple isn't something you can know by looking at it. But you do
see the apple. I felt that was as much as they were able to listen to. You
can't see the flavour, but it's there. When will you know it? When you pick up
the apple and eat it.
The Dhamma we teach is like
the apple. People hear it, but they don't really know the flavour of ''the
apple.'' When they practice, then it can be known. The flavour of the apple
can't be known by the eyes, and the truth of the Dhamma can't be known by the
ears. There is knowledge, true, but it doesn't really reach the actuality. One
has to put it into practice. Then wisdom arises and one recognizes the ultimate
truth directly. One sees the Buddha there. This is the profound Dhamma. So I
compared it to an apple in this way for them; I offered it to that group of
Christians to hear and think about.
That kind of talk was a
little ''salty2.'' Salty is good. Sweet is good, sour
is good. Many different ways of teaching are good. Well, if you've got
something to say, any of you, please feel free to say it. Soon we won't have a
chance to discuss things.... Sumedho's probably run out of things to say.
AS: I'm fed up explaining
things to people
AC: Don't do that. You
can't be fed up.
AS: Yes, I'll cut that off.
AC: The head teacher can't
do that. There are a lot of people trying to reach Nibbāna, so they are
depending on you.
Sometimes teaching comes
easily. Sometimes you don't know what to say. You are at a loss for words, and
nothing comes out. Or is it that you just don't want to talk? It's a good
training for you.
AS: People around here are
pretty good. They aren't violent and mean-spirited or troublesome. The
Christian priests don't dislike us. The kinds of questions people ask are about
things like God. They want to know what God is, what Nibbāna is. Some people
believe that Buddhism teaches nihilism and wants to destroy the world.
AC: It means their
understanding is not complete or mature. They are afraid everything will be
finished, that the world will come to an end. They conceive of Dhamma as
something empty and nihilistic, so they are disheartened. Their way only leads
to tears.
Have you seen what it's
like when people are afraid of ''emptiness''? Householders try to gather
possessions and watch over them, like rats. Does this protect them from the
emptiness of existence? They still end up on the funeral pyre, everything lost
to them. But while they are alive they are trying to hold on to things, every
day afraid they will be lost, trying to avoid emptiness. Do they suffer this
way? Of course, they really do suffer. It's not understanding the real
insubstantiality and emptiness of things; not understanding this, people are
not happy.
Because people don't look
at themselves, they don't really know what's going on in life. How do you stop
this delusion? People believe, ''This is me. This is mine.'' If you tell them
about non-self, that nothing is me or mine, they are ready to argue the point
until the day they die.
Even the Buddha, after he
attained knowledge, felt weary when he considered this. When he was first
enlightened, he thought that it would be extremely troublesome to explain the
way to others. But then he realized that such an attitude was not correct.
If we don't teach such
people, who will we teach? This is my question, which I used to ask myself at
those times I got fed up and didn't want to teach anymore: who should we teach,
if we don't teach the deluded? There's really nowhere else to go. When we get
fed up and want to run away from disciples to live alone, we are deluded.
AC: That's good. But it's
not really correct, being a Pacceka
Buddha, if you simply want to run away from things.
AS: Just living naturally,
in a simple environment, then we could naturally be Pacceka Buddhas. But these days it's not
possible. The environment we live in doesn't allow that to happen. We have to
live as monks.
AC: Sometimes you have to
live in a situation like you have here first, with some disturbance.... To
explain it in a simple way, sometimes you will be an omniscient (sabbaññū)
Buddha; sometimes you will be a Pacceka. It
depends on conditions.
Talking about these kinds
of beings is talking about the mind. It's not that one is born a Pacceka. This is what's called ''explanation by personification of states
of mind'' (puggalādhitthāna). Being aPacceka, one abides
indifferently and doesn't teach. Not much benefit comes from that. But when
someone is able to teach others, then they are manifesting as an omniscient
Buddha.
These are only metaphors.
Don't be anything! Don't be
anything at all! Being a Buddha is a burden. Being a Pacceka is a
burden. Just don't desire to be. ''I am the monk Sumedho,'' ''I am the monk
Ānando''... That way is suffering, believing that you really exist thus.
''Sumedho'' is merely a convention. Do you understand?
If you believe you really
exist, that brings suffering. If there is Sumedho, then when someone criticizes
you, Sumedho gets angry. Ānando gets angry. That's what happens if you hold
these things as real. Ānando and Sumedho get involved and are ready to fight.
If there is no Ānando or no Sumedho, then there's no one there - no one to
answer the telephone. Ring ring - nobody picks it up. You don't become
anything. No one is being anything, and there is no suffering.
If we believe ourselves to
be something or someone, then every time the phone rings, we pick it up and get
involved. How can we free ourselves of this? We have to look at it clearly and
develop wisdom, so that there is no Ānando or no Sumedho to pick up the
telephone. If you are Ānando or Sumedho and you answer the telephone, you will
get yourself involved in suffering. So don't be Sumedho. Don't be Ānando. Just
recognize that these names are on the level of convention.
If someone calls you good,
don't be that. Don't think, ''I am good.'' If someone says you are bad, don't
think, ''I'm bad.'' Don't try to be anything. Know what is taking place. But
then don't attach to the knowledge either.
People can't do this. They
don't understand what it's all about. When they hear about this, they are
confused and they don't know what to do. I've given the analogy before about
upstairs and downstairs. When you go down from upstairs, you are downstairs,
and you see the downstairs. When you go upstairs again, you see the upstairs.
The space in between you don't see - the middle. It means Nibbāna is not seen.
We see the forms of physical objects, but we don't see the grasping, the
grasping at upstairs and downstairs. Becoming and birth; becoming and birth.
Continual becoming. The place without becoming is empty. When we try to teach
people about the place that is empty, they just say, ''There's nothing there.''
They don't understand. It's difficult - real practice is required for this to
be understood.
We have been relying on
becoming, on self-grasping, since the day of our birth. When someone talks
about non-self, it's too strange; we can't change our perceptions so easily. So
it's necessary to make the mind see this through practice, and then we can
believe it: ''Oh! It's true!''
When people are thinking,
''This is mine! This is mine!'' they feel happy. But when the thing that is
''mine'' is lost, then they will cry over it. This is the path for suffering to
come about. We can observe this. If there is no ''mine'' or ''me,'' then we can
make use of things while we are living, without attachment to them as being
ours. If they are lost or broken, that is simply natural; we don't see them as
ours, or as anyone's, and we don't conceive of self or other.
This isn't just talking
about a mad person; this is someone who is diligent. Such a person really knows
what is useful, in so many different ways. But when others look at him and try
to figure him out, they will see someone who is crazy.
When Sumedho looks at lay
people, he will see them as ignorant, like little children. When lay people
consider Sumedho, they will think he is someone who's lost it. You don't have
any interest in the things they live for. To put it another way, an arahant and an
insane person are similar. Think about it. When people look at anarahant,
they will think he is crazy. If you curse him, he doesn't care. Whatever you
say to him, he doesn't react - like a crazy person. But crazy and having
awareness. A truly insane person may not get angry when he is cursed, but
that's because he doesn't know what's going on. Someone observing the arahant and the
mad person might see them as the same. But the lowest is mad, the very highest
is arahant. Highest
and lowest are similar, if you look at their external manifestation. But their
inner awareness, their sense of things, is very different.
Think about this. When
someone says something that ought to make you angry and you just let it go,
people might think you're crazy. So when you teach others about these things,
they don't understand very easily. It has to be internalized for them to really
understand.
For example, in this
country, people love beauty. If you just say, ''No, these things aren't really
beautiful,'' they don't want to listen. ''Ageing'' - they're not pleased.
''Death'' - they don't want to hear about it. It means they aren't ready to
understand. If they won't believe you, don't fault them for that. It's like
you're trying to barter with them, to give them something new to replace what
they have, but they don't see any value in the thing you are offering. If what
you have is obviously of the highest value, of course they will accept it. But
now why don't they believe you? Your wisdom isn't sufficient. So don't get
angry with them: ''What's wrong with you? You're out of your mind!'' Don't do
that. You have to teach yourself first, establish the truth of the Dhamma in
yourself and develop the proper way to present it to others, and then they will
accept it.
Sometimes the Ajahn teaches
the disciples, but the disciples don't believe what he says. That might make
you upset, but instead of getting upset, it's better to search out the reason
for their not believing: the thing you are offering has little value to them.
If you offer something of more value than what they have, of course they will
want it.
When you're about to get
angry at your disciples, you should think like this, and then you can stop your
anger. It's really not much fun to be angry.
In order to get his
disciples to realize the Dhamma, the Buddha taught a single path, but with
varying characteristics. He didn't use only one form of teaching or present the
Dhamma in the same way for everyone. But he taught for the single purpose of
transcending suffering. All the meditations he taught were for this one
purpose.
The people of Europe
already have a lot in their lives. If you try to lay something big and
complicated on them, it might be too much. So what should you do? Any
suggestions?
If anyone has something to
talk about, now is the time. We won't have this chance again.... Or if you
don't have anything to discuss, if you've exhausted your doubts, I guess you
can be PaccekaBuddhas.
In the future, some of you
will be Dhamma teachers. You will teach others. When you teach others you are
also teaching yourselves... do any of you agree with this? When you teach
others, you also teach yourself. Your own skillfulness and wisdom increase.
Your contemplation increases. For example, you teach someone for the first
time, and then you start to wonder why it's like that, what the meaning is. So
you start thinking like this and then you will want to contemplate to find out
what it really means. Teaching them, you are also teaching yourself in this
way. If you have mindfulness, if you are practicing meditation, it will be like
this. Don't think that you are only teaching others. Have the idea that you are
also teaching yourself. Then there is no loss.
AS: It looks like people in
the world are becoming more and more equal. Ideas of class and caste are
falling away and changing. Some people who believe in astrology say that in a
few years there will be great natural disasters that will cause a lot of
suffering for the world.... I don't really know if it's true.... But they think
it's something beyond our capabilities to deal with, because our lives are too
far from nature and we depend on machines for our lives of convenience. They
say there will be a lot of changes in nature, such as earthquakes, that nobody
can foresee.
AC: They talk to make
people suffer.
AS: Right. If we don't have
mindfulness, we can really suffer over this.
AC: The Buddha taught about
the present. He didn't advise us to worry about what might happen in two or
three years. In Thailand, people come to me and say, ''Oh, Luang Por, the
communists are coming! What will we do?'' I ask, ''Where are those
communists?'' ''Well, they're coming any day now,'' they say.
We've had communists from
the moment we were born. I don't try to think beyond that. Having the attitude
that there are always obstacles and difficulties in life kills off the
''communists.'' Then we aren't heedless. Talking about what might happen in
four or five years is looking too far away. They say, ''In two or three years
Thailand will be communist!'' I've always felt that the communists have been
around since I was born, and so I've always been contending with them, right up
to the present moment. But people don't understand what I'm talking about.
It's the truth! Astrology
can talk about what's going to happen in two years. But when we talk about the
present, they don't know what to do. Buddhism talks about dealing with things
right now and making yourself well-prepared for whatever might happen. Whatever
might happen in the world, we don't have to be too concerned. We just practise
to develop wisdom in the present and do what we need to do now, not tomorrow.
Wouldn't that be better? We can wait for an earthquake that might come in three
or four years, but actually, things are quaking now. America is really quaking.
People's minds are so wild - that's your quake right there. But folks don't
recognize it.
Big earthquakes only occur
once in a long while, but this earth of our minds is always quaking, every day,
every moment. In my lifetime, I've never experienced a serious earthquake, but
this kind of quake is always happening, shaking us and throwing us all around.
This is where the Buddha wanted us to look.
But maybe that's not what
people want to hear.
Things happen due to
causes. They cease due to causes ceasing. We don't need to be worrying about
astrological predictions. We can just know what is occurring now. Everyone
likes to ask these questions, though. In Thailand, the officials come to me and
say, ''The whole country will be communist! What will we do if that happens?''
''We were born - what do we
do about that? I haven't thought much about this problem. I've always thought,
since the day I was born the ''communists'' have been after me.'' After I reply
like this, they don't have anything to say. It stops them.
People may talk about the
dangers of communists taking over in a few years, but the Buddha taught us to
prepare ourselves right now, to be aware and contemplate the dangers we face
that are inherent in this life. This is the big issue. Don't be heedless!
Relying on astrology to tell you what will happen a couple of years from now
doesn't get to the point. Relying on ''Buddhology,'' you don't have to chew
over the past, you don't worry about the future, but you look at the present.
Causes are arising in the present, so observe them in the present.
People who say those things
are only teaching others to suffer. But if someone talks the way I do, people
will say they are crazy.
In the past, there was
always movement, but it was only a little bit at a time, so it wasn't
noticeable. For example, Sumedho, when you were first born, were you this size?
This is the result of movement and change. Is change good? Of course it is; if
there were no movement or change, you never would have grown up. We don't need
to fear natural transformation.
If you contemplate Dhamma,
I don't know what else you would need to think about. If someone predicts what
will happen in a few years, we can't just wait to see what happens before we do
anything. We can't live like that. Whatever we need to do, we have to do it
now, without waiting for anything in particular to happen.
These days the populace is
in constant motion. The four elements are in motion. Earth, water, fire, and
air are moving. But people don't recognize that the earth is moving. They only
look at the external earth and don't see any movement.
In the future, in this
world, if people are married and stay together more than a year or two, others
will think there's something wrong with them. A few months will be the
standard. Things are in constant motion like this; it's the minds of people
that are moving. You don't need to look to astrology. Look to Buddhology and
you can understand this.
''Luang Por, if the communists
come, where will you go?'' Where is there to go? We have been born and we face
aging, sickness, and death; where can we go? We have to stay right here and
deal with these things. If the communists take over, we will stay in Thailand
and deal with that. Won't they have to eat rice, too?4 So why
are you so fearful?
If you keep worrying about
what might happen in the future, there's no end to it. There is only constant
confusion and speculation. Sumedho, do you know what will happen in two or
three years? Will there be a big earthquake? When people come to ask you about
these things, you can tell them they don't need to look so far ahead to things
they can't really know for certain; tell them about the moving and quaking that
is always going on, about the transformation that allowed you to grow to be as
you are now.
The way people think is
that having been born, they don't want to die. Is that correct? It's like
pouring water into a glass but not wanting it to fill up. If you keep pouring
the water, you can't expect it not to be full. But people think like this: they
are born but don't want to die. Is that correct thinking? Consider it. If
people are born but never die, will that bring happiness? If no one who comes
into the world dies, things will be a lot worse. If no one ever dies, we will
probably all end up eating excrement! Where would we all stay? It's like
pouring water into the glass without ceasing yet still not wanting it to be
full. We really ought to think things through. We are born but don't want to
die. If we really don't want to die, we should realize the deathless (amatadhamma),
as the Buddha taught. Do you know what amatadhamma means?
It is the deathless -
though you die, if you have wisdom it is as if you don't die. Not dying, not
being born. That's where things can be finished. Being born and wishing for
happiness and enjoyment without dying is not the correct way at all. But that's
what people want, so there is no end of suffering for them. The practitioner of
Dhamma does not suffer. Well, practitioners such as ordinary monks still
suffer, because they haven't yet fulfilled the path of practice. They haven't
realized amatadhamma, so they
still suffer. They are still subject to death.
Amatadhamma is the deathless. Born of the womb, can we avoid death? Apart from
realizing that there is no real self, there is no way to avoid death. ''I''
don't die; sankhāras undergo transformation, following their nature.
This is hard to see. People
can't think like this. You need to get free of worldliness, like Sumedho did.
You need to leave the big, comfortable home and the world of progress. Like the
Buddha did. If the Buddha had remained in his royal palace, he wouldn't have
become the Buddha. It was by leaving the palace and going to live in forests
that he attained that. The life of pleasure and amusement in the palace was not
the way to enlightenment.
Who is it that tells you
about the astrological predictions?
AS: A lot of people talk
about it, often just like a hobby or a casual interest.
AC: If it really is as they
say, then what should people do? Are they offering any path to follow? From my
point of view, the Buddha taught very clearly. He said that the things we can't
be sure about are many, starting from the time we were born. Astrology may talk
about months or years in the future, but the Buddha points to the moment of
birth. Predicting the future may make people anxious about what could happen,
but the truth is that the uncertainty is always with us, right from birth.
People aren't likely to
believe such talk, are they?
If you (speaking to a
layperson who was present) are afraid, then consider this: suppose that you
were convicted of a crime that calls for capital punishment, and in seven days
you will be executed. What would go through your mind? This is my question for
you. If in seven days you will be executed, what will you do? If you think
about it and take it a step further, you will realize that all of us right now
are sentenced to die, only we don't know when it will happen. It could be
sooner than seven days. Are you aware that you are under this death sentence?
If you were to violate the
law of the land and be sentenced to death, you would certainly be most
distressed. Meditation on death is recollecting that death is going to take us
and that it could be very soon. But you don't think about it, so you feel you
are living comfortably. If you do think about it, it will cause you to have
devotion to the practice of Dhamma. So the Buddha taught us to practice the
recollection of death regularly. Those who don't recollect it live with fear.
They don't know themselves. But if you do recollect and are aware of yourself,
it will lead you to want to practise Dhamma seriously and escape from this
danger.
If you are aware of this
death sentence, you will want to find a solution. Generally, people don't like
to hear such talk. Doesn't that mean they are far from the true Dhamma? The
Buddha urged us to recollect death, but people get upset by such talk. That's
thekamma of
beings. They do have some knowledge of this fact, but the knowledge isn't yet
clear.
Footnotes
To the
Western Sangha newly arrived in England, 1979
Not the
same connotation as in English. Here it means 'hard' or 'direct'.
The
''solitary enlightened ones''
Or: the
communists will still let us eat rice, won't they?
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