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Der Projektleiter möchte dem Ehrwürdigen Ajahn Puriso, dem Übersetzer, der großzügiger weise nicht nur den Text für dieser Ausgabe überabeitet hat, sondern auch am Endkorrekturlesen teigenommen hat danken.
Dieses Büch kam durch die Hilfe vieler ergebener Leute zum Entstehen. Khun Vanee Lamsam, zusammen mit ihrem Bruder Khun Parl Na Pombejra, sammelten Spenden um die Kosten für die Publizierung zu unterstützen. Khun Thanu Malakul Na Ayudhaya stellte uns die zarte und wunderschöne Malerei für den Buchumschlag bei. Khun Panya Vijinthanasarn half mit der Buchumschlagsgestalltung und den Illustrationen. Khun Chutima Thanapura half mit dem ersten Korrekturlesen. Khun Pansak Panpak-deeddisakul stellte und unschätzbare Fotographien von Luang Por Chah (Phra Bodhinyana Thera) zur Verfügung. Khun Karoon Hansachainand half mit dem Einfügen der Kunstwerke und überwachte die Arbeiten durch die Druckabwicklung. Mögen die großzügigen Handlungen den zuvor genannten Personen zur Erfahrung des erhabenen Segens, Nibbana, helfen.
Die meisten Religionen sind eine Angelegenheit des Glaubens und orientieren sich an der Vorstellung einer Schöpferfigur. Der Buddhismus dagegen orientiert sich am menschlichen Geist und setzt keinen blinden Glauben voraus, sondern baut auf das, was wir wirklich wissen. Buddhas Lehre ist eine Anleitung zum Training des Geistes, die darauf abzielt, uns von unseren mannigfaltigen Irrtümern zu befreien, damit wir Frieden finden. Die Religion, die sich aus dieser Lehre entwickelt hat, ist im Laufe der Zeit hauptsächlich zu einem sinnentfremdeten Ritualbuddhismus geworden. Doch es gelingt immer einigen Menschen, das Dhamma zu verwirklichen, indem sie den "Weg" in die Freiheit gehen, den Buddha uns zeigte. Diese erleuchteten Individuen sind die weisen Lehrer, die uns aus ihrer eigenen Erfahrung heraus, das Dhamma verständlich machen können, und uns den "Weg" zeigen, den wir selbst zu gehen haben.
Der viel geliebte und hochverehrte Ajahn Chah (Phra Bodhinyana Thera) war solch ein erleuchteter Lehrer. Seine genaue und detaillierte Einweisung in den "Weg" der buddhistischen Praxis macht deutlich, worum es im Buddhismus geht. Bei dieser Zusammenstellung einiger Dhamma-Vorträge Ajahn Chahs handelt es sich um Tonbandaufzeichnungen, die später von Ajahn Puriso, einem australischen Schüler, ins englische übersetzt und niedergeschrieben wurden.
Der ehrwürdige Ajahn hielt seine Dhamma-Vorträge stets in einer leichtverständlichen Umgangssprache. Er war bestrebt, seinen Zuhörern das Dhamma so klar wie möglich darzustellen und sie nicht durch einen Überfluss an Information zu verwirren. Das Ziel des Übersetzers war es, die Vorträge Ajahn Chahs so originalgetreu wie möglich zu übertragen. Verschiedentlich benutzte der ehrwürdige Ajahn Begriffe aus dem "Pali", der Sprache, die zu Buddha-Gautamas Zeiten gesprochen wurde. Zum Teil wurden diese Pali-Begriffe beibehalten und in Kursivschrift gesetzt. Diese originalen Pali-Begriffe werden durch Fußnoten erläutert oder im Verlauf der Vorträge erklärt. Dem Leser, der sich bereits mit der buddhistischen Terminologie auskennt, werden diese Begriffe bekannt sein.
Die erste Auflage, "A Taste of Freedom", erschien 1980. Die Übersetzung ins Deutsche wurde 1995 von Klaus-Peter Seidel ausgeführt.
Mögen die weisen Worte des ehrwürdigen Ajahn Chah ein "Wegweiser" für alle diejenigen sein, die nach dem "Weg" suchen, ebenso wie auch für diejenigen, die sich bereits auf dem "Weg" befinden.
Die Vorträge die in diesem Buch übersetzt sind, wurden alle von alten Kassettenrekorderaufnahmen Ajahn Chahs, manche in Thailändisch und manche im Nord-Östlichen Dialekt gesprochen entnommen und die meisten Aufnahmen wurden mit ärmlicher Ausrüstung und unter allem anderen als guten Bedingungen gemacht. Das führte zu einigen Schwierigkeiten in der Übersetztungsarbeit, welche mit abschnittsweisen Übernahmen von sehr unklaren Passagen einherging und manchmal die Nachfrage bei Zuhörern erforderte, die mehr bekannt mit diesen Sprachen sind. Wie auch immer waren da unweigerlich Änderungen im Ablauf der Erstellung des Buches erforderlich. Abgesehen von der gegebenen Schierigkeit durch die magelnde Klarheit der Aufnahmen, waren auch Umarbeitungen aufgrund der Übernahme von gesprochenem Wort in ein geschriebenes Medium erforderlich. Für dieses übernimmt der Übersetzer seine vollste Verantwortung
Paliwörter wurden an manchen Stellen so belassen wie sie waren und an anderen Stellen übersetzt. Das Kriterium hierfür war die Lesbarkeit. Die Paliwörter, die man als kurz genug und für Leser, die bereits Erfahrung mit buddhistischen Ausdrücken haben, bekannt genug erschienen, wurden unübersetzt gelassen. Dieses sollte keine Schwierigkeit darstellen, so sie generell von Ajahn Chah im Verlauf der Reden erklärt werden. Längere Wörter, oder Wörter von denen anzunehmen ist, daß den durchschnittlichen Leser unbekannt sind, wurden übersetzt. Von jenen gibt es zwei, die im Speziellen erwähnenswert sind. Diese sind Kamasukhallikanuyogo und Attakilamathanuyogo, welche jeweil als Hingabe zu Vergnügen und Hingabe zu Schmerz übersetzt wurden. Diese Worte kommen in nicht weniger als fünf der Lehrreden in diesem Buch vor und auch wenn der Übersetzter mit diesen hier versorgt, sind dies nicht üblich aber passen wie auch immer in die Form der Nutzung wie sie von Ajahn Chah erfolget.
Der Ehrwürdige Ajahn Chah gab seine Reden stets in einfacher und alltäglicher Sprache. Seine Ausrichtung war das Dhamma zu erklären und nicht die Zuhörer durch überinformation zu verwirren. Dem entsprechend wurden die Übersetzung gleicher maßen in einfachem Englisch gestaltet. Das Ziel war es Ajahn Chahs Lehren in beidem, Geist und Schrift, zu präsentieren.
In dieser dritten Druckausgabe von Ein Geschmack von Freiheit, wurden zahlreiche Korrekturen an plump Ausgedrückten Passagen vorgenommen, von denen nun hoffentlich weniger vorhanden sind, als in der ersten Ausgabe. Für solche Missverständnisse muß der Übersetzer ebenfalls die verantwortung übernehmen und hofft, das die Leser die literarischen Unzulänglichkeiten ertagen kann um den gesamten Nutzen aus den hier gegeben Lehren ziehen zu können.
Der Übersetzer
Tatsächlich ist nichts wirklich verkehrt mit dem Geist. Er ist von sich aus völlig rein und in Frieden. Wenn er jedoch nicht in Frieden ist, kommt das daher, dass er Stimmungen und Launen folgt. Der Geist an sich ist unabhängig von allem. Er kann entweder unbewegt und in Frieden sein oder bewegt, wenn Stimmungen ihn trügen. Der ungeschulte Geist ist dumm. Sinneseindrücke verleiten ihn, und er verliert sich in Zufriedenheit und Sorgen. Doch der Geist ist mit diesen Dingen nicht identisch; Zufriedenheit oder Sorgen sind nicht der Geist selbst, sondern nur Stimmungen, die erscheinen und uns täuschen. Der ungeschulte Geist folgt diesen Dingen, und wir identifizieren uns dann mit dem Unglücklichsein oder der Zufriedenheit.
Tatsächlich ist unser Geist von Natur aus bereits unbewegt und in Frieden... Wirklich in Frieden, wie ein Blatt, das still am Baum hängt, wenn kein Wind weht. Kommt der Wind, bewegen sich die Blätter. So wie die Bewegung der Blätter durch den Wind entsteht, wird die Bewegung des Geistes durch die Sinneseindrücke hervorgerufen, denen er folgt. Wenn er ihnen nicht folgt, ist er unbeweglich. Wird aber die wahre Natur der Sinneseindrücke erkannt, bleiben wir unbewegt.
Unsere Praxis besteht einfach darin, den ursprünglichen Geist zu sehen. Das heißt, wir müssen den Geist schulen, die Sinneseindrücke zu verstehen und sich nicht in ihnen zu verlieren. Den Geist zur Ruhe zu bringen, ist das Ziel all der komplizierten Übung, die sich die praktizierenden Buddhisten auferlegen.
Um den Geist zur Ruhe zu bringen, müssen wir das richtige Gleichgewicht finden. Wenn wir versuchen, ihn zu sehr zu zwingen, verfehlen wir das Ziel; doch wenn wir es nicht genug versuchen, kommt er auch nicht zur Ruhe. Das richtige Gleichgewicht ist sehr wichtig.
Normalerweise ist der Geist nicht ruhig. Er ist immer in Bewegung, und es fehlt ihm an Kraft. Den Geist zu stärken oder den Körper zu stärken, ist nicht das gleiche. Um den Körper zu kräftigen, müssen wir ihn bewegen und trainieren. Aber den Geist zu stärken, bedeutet, ihn zu beruhigen und nicht dauernd an dieses oder jenes zu denken. Den meisten von uns geht es so, dass der Geist niemals wirklich in Frieden war und noch nie die Kraft des samadhi, [1] hatte. Wenn wir in Meditation sitzen, richten wir den Geist in einem ganz bestimmten Bereich ein: Wir verharren mit dem in uns, das weiß.
Zwingen wir den Atem, entweder zu lang oder zu kurz zu sein, sind wir nicht ausgeglichen, und der Geist wird nicht ruhig. Wenn wir zum Beispiel eine Nähmaschine benutzen, die mit einem Fußpedal angetrieben wird, üben wir zuerst, um den richtigen Rhythmus zu erlangen, ehe wir überhaupt etwas nähen. Sich auf den Atem zu konzentrieren ist ähnlich. Wir beobachten ihn nur, und kümmern uns nicht darum, wie lang oder kurz, kräftig oder schwach er ist. Wir nehmen einfach zur Kenntnis, wie er ist, und lassen ihn so sein.
Wenn der Atem ausgeglichen ist, nehmen wir ihn als unser Meditationsobjekt. Beim Einatmen ist der Anfang des Atems an der Nasenspitze, die Mitte des Atems in der Brust und das Ende des Atems im Bauch. Das ist der Weg des Atems. Wenn wir ausatmen, ist der Anfang des Atems im Bauch, die Mitte in der Brust und das Ende an der Nasenspitze. Wir nehmen den Weg des Atems zur Kenntnis, um den Geist zu festigen, das heißt, damit die geistigen Aktivitäten zur Ruhe kommen und sich gleichzeitig Achtsamkeit und Bewusstheit etablieren können.
Nachdem wir mit der Kenntnisnahme der drei Punkte auf dem Weg des Atems wohl vertraut sind, können wir diese loslassen und nur noch das Ein- und Ausatmen betrachten, wobei wir uns auf die Stelle konzentrieren, wo der Atem ein- und ausgeht (die Nasenlöcher, die Nasenspitze oder die Oberlippe). Jetzt Folgen wir dem Atem nicht mehr, sondern richten unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf die Nasenlöcher und beobachten, wie er einkehrt und wieder heraustritt, einkehrt und wieder austritt... Es ist nicht nötig, an irgend etwas Bestimmtes zu denken. Wir konzentrieren uns mit fortwährender Achtsamkeit im Moment nur auf diese einfache Aufgabe. Weiter gibt es nichts zu tun, als ein- und auszuatmen.
Bald wird der Geist ruhiger und der Atem immer feiner. Geist und Körper werden leicht. Das ist der richtige Zustand für die Arbeit der Meditation.
Je länger wir sitzen und meditieren, um so feiner und subtiler wird der Geist. Doch wir sollten uns in jedem Moment des jeweiligen Zustandes des Geistes bewusst sein. Geistige Aktivitäten sind vorhanden, obwohl der Geist sich im Zustand der Ruhe befindet. Die geistige Aktivität, die den Geist zum Objekt der Meditation (das Ein- und Ausatmen) führt, nennen wir Vitakka. Wenn unsere Achtsamkeit nicht sehr stark ist, dann ist auch nicht viel Vitakka vorhanden. Zu Vitakka gesellt sich Vicara, die Aktivität des Geistes, die den Geist beim Meditationsobjekt verbleiben lässt. Verschiedene schwache geistige Eindrücke können von Zeit zu Zeit auftreten, aber wichtig ist unsere geistesgegenwärtige Bewusstheit. Was immer auch vorkommt, wir sind uns dessen bewusst, aber lassen uns dadurch von unserem Meditationsobjekt nicht ablenken. Während die Konzentration sich vertieft, sind wir uns fortwährend des Zustandes unserer Meditation bewusst und wissen, ob der Geist fest und sicher in Konzentration etabliert ist oder nicht. Achtsamkeit und Konzentration müssen gleichzeitig vorhanden sein.
Obwohl sich der Geist im Zustand der Ruhe befindet, sind geistige Eindrücke vorhanden. Wenn wir zum Beispiel die erste Stufe der vertieften Konzentration untersuchen, finden wir fünf Faktoren. Zusammen mit Vitakka und Vicara entwickelt sich Piti, Entzücken, das durch die vertiefte Ruhe entsteht, und dann Sukha, Glückseligkeit. Diese vier Faktoren befinden sich gemeinsam im Geist, der in Ruhe verharrt. Zusammen bilden sie einen einzigen Zustand.
Der Fünfte Faktor ist Ekaggata, die absolute Sammlung des Geistes in einem Punkt. Ihr werdet euch vielleicht wundern, wie die absolute Sammlung in einem Punkt vorhanden sein kann, wenn die anderen vier Faktoren auch anwesend sind. Das kommt daher, dass sich diese fünf Faktoren auf der Grundlage der Ruhe vereinigen. Zusammen und vereint sind sie der Zustand des Samadhi. Sie gehören nicht zum alltäglichen gewöhnlichen Zustand des Geistes, es sind die Faktoren der Vertiefung. Diese fünf Faktoren existieren gemeinsam, aber stören die grundlegende Ruhe des Geistes nicht. Vitakka ist vorhanden, aber stört den Geist nicht. Vicara, Piti und Sukha entstehen, aber stören den Geist nicht. Der Geist ist eins geworden mit diesen Faktoren. Das ist die erste Stufe der vertieften Konzentration oder das erste Jhana.
Wir müssen es nicht das erste, zweite, dritte oder vierte Jhana nennen, wir wollen es einfach den Geist im Zustand des Friedens nennen. Wenn der Geist fortschreitend ruhiger wird, hören Vitakka und Vicara auf, und nur Entzücken und Glückseligkeit verbleiben. Warum werden Vitakka und Vicara losgelassen? Weil der Geist immer feiner wird, sind die Tätigkeiten von Vitakka und Vicara zu grob, um zu verbleiben. In dem Moment, wenn Vitakka und Vicara losgelassen werden, können Gefühle von starkem Entzücken auftreten. Aber mit weiterer Vertiefung der Konzentration und der damit verbundenen Vertiefung der Ruhe und Veredelung des Geistes hört auch das Entzücken auf. Nur Glückseligkeit und die absolute Sammlung des Geistes in einem Punkt verbleiben, bis schließlich auch die Glückseligkeit sich auflöst, und der Geist seine größte Veredelung erlangt. Es bleiben nur Gleichmut und die absolute Sammlung des Geistes, alles andere ist losgelassen worden. Der Geist verbleibt unbewegt. Diese unerschütterliche Ruhe ist die Kraft des Friedlichen Geistes.
Diese unerschütterliche Ruhe ist die Kraft des Friedlichen Geistes. Wenn der Geist erst einmal völlig zur Ruhe gekommen ist, kann dieser Zustand eintreten. Wir sollten nicht zu viel darüber nachdenken, denn es passiert von ganz alleine. In diesem Zustand ist der Geist nicht schläfrig. Keines der fünf Hindernisse, sinnliches Begehren, Aversion, Unruhe, Stumpfsinn und Zweifel, ist vorhanden.
Wenn die geistige Kraft noch nicht stark genug entwickelt ist, und unsere Achtsamkeit schwankt, werden gelegentlich geistige Eindrücke auftreten. Der Geist befindet sich zwar im Zustand der Ruhe, aber die Stille wird von Unachtsamkeit unterwandert. Hierbei handelt es sich um keine gewöhnliche Art von Schläfrigkeit oder Geistesabwesenheit. Eindrücke manifestieren sich (vielleicht hören wir ein Geräusch oder sehen einen Hund oder irgend etwas); es ist nicht wirklich klar, aber es ist auch kein Traum. Wenn das geschieht, sind die fünf Faktoren aus dem Gleichgewicht geraten.
Auf dieser Stufe der Ruhe neigt der Geist dazu, uns Streiche zu spielen. Es können mitunter bildliche Eindrücke entstehen, und der Meditierende mag nicht genau wissen, was passiert. "Bin ich eingeschlafen? Ist das ein Traum? Nein, das ist kein Traum!" - das passiert nur auf den mittleren Stufen der Ruhe. Wenn der Geist wirklich in Ruhe und völlig klar ist, besteht kein Zweifel in Bezug auf die verschiedenen Eindrücke oder Einbildungen, die vorhanden sein können, und Fragen wie - "Bin ich etwa eingeschlafen? War ich da eben geistesabwesend? Habe ich da den Faden verloren?" - kommen nicht vor. Wenn Zweifel auftaucht - "Bin ich wach oder träume ich" -, ist der Geist unklar und verliert sich in Stimmungen. Ähnlich wie der Mond, der hinter einer Wolke verschwindet, man kann ihn zwar immer noch sehen, aber die Wolken machen ihn unklar und undeutlich. Nicht wie der Mond, der hinter einer Wolke hervortritt - klar, scharf und hell.
Wenn der Geist fest in geistesgegenwärtiger Bewusstheit etabliert und wirklich in Ruhe ist, gibt es keinen Zweifel in Bezug auf die verschiedenen Phänomene, die wir antreffen. Wir wissen mit Klarheit, wie die Dinge sind, die auftauchen, denn der Geist ist klar und hell. Er ist wahrlich über die Hindernisse hinausgegangen, wenn der Zustand des Samadhi erreicht ist.
Manchen Leuten fällt es jedoch schwer, sich in Samadhi zu vertiefen; es entspricht nicht ihrer Neigung. Diese Leute erreichen zwar eine Art Samadhi, doch es ist nicht stark und gefestigt. Man kann aber auch durch genaue Betrachtung der Dinge die Wahrheit erkennen, und so durch Weisheit zur Ruhe kommen. Auf diese Weise werden Probleme gelöst, und der Geist findet Ruhe. Das nennt man den Gebrauch der weisen Einsicht an Stelle von Samadhi. Um den Geist zur Ruhe zu bringen, ist es nicht unbedingt nötig, sich hinzusetzen und zu meditieren. Wer über Weisheit verfügt, kann sich im gegebenen Moment Fragen, was eigentlich los ist, und seine Probleme mit Hilfe der Weisheit lösen. Vielleicht kann man nicht die höchste Stufe des Samadhi erreichen, aber entwickelt genug Konzentration, um Weisheit zu kultivieren. Es kann durchaus so sein, dass wir uns in unserer Praxis mehr der Weisheit bedienen, um unsere Probleme zu lösen. Wenn wir die Wahrheit erkennen, findet der Geist Ruhe. So wie man seinen Lebensunterhalt mehr auf Reis oder auf Mais aufbauen kann, stützt sich die Praxis entweder mehr auf Weisheit oder auf Samadhi.
Diese beiden Wege sind nicht gleich. Manche Menschen haben Einsicht, aber nicht viel Samadhi. Wenn sie in Meditation sitzen, fällt es ihnen schwer, den Geist zur Ruhe zu bringen. Sie neigen aber dazu, viel über dieses oder jenes nachzudenken, und erkennen die tiefgründige Wahrheit, wenn sie die Glückseligkeit und das Leiden analysieren. Manch einer neigt mehr dazu, als zum Samadhi. Egal ob wir stehen, gehen, sitzen oder liegen, zu jeder Zeit kann die tiefe Einsicht in das Dhamma [3] erfolgen. Durch Einsicht lässt der Geist die Dinge los und kommt zur Ruhe. So wird Frieden durch Erkennen der Wahrheit erreicht.
Andere haben wenig Weisheit, aber ihre Fähigkeit Samadhi zu entwickeln, ist sehr stark. Solche Leute können sehr schnell in die vertiefte Konzentration eintreten. Da sie aber nicht über genügend Weisheit verfügen, können sie ihre geistigen Unreinheiten nicht erfassen; sie kennen sie nicht und können deshalb ihre Probleme nicht lösen.
Egal, welchen Weg wir auch wählen, es ist wichtig, die falschen Vorstellungen zu beseitigen und nur die richtigen Ansichten bestehen zu lassen. Wir müssen die Verwirrung beseitigen und nur den Frieden erhalten. Es gibt die zwei Seiten der Praxis, aber diese beiden Seiten, die Ruhe und die Einsicht, gehören zusammen. Wir dürfen keine der beiden vernachlässigen. Sie müssen zusammen voranschreiten.
Aufzupassen und über die verschiedenen Faktoren zu wachen, die in der Meditation entstehen, ist die Aufgabe von Sati (unsere geistesgegenwärtige Bewusstheit). Hierbei handelt es sich um eine wesentliche Grundvoraussetzung für die Meditation, die wir durch Übung trainieren müssen, Sati ist lebenswichtig. Wenn wir kein Sati haben, sind wir unachtsam und unser Tun und Sagen ist sinnlos. Sati, unsere wachende Geistesgegenwart, führt dazu, dass Selbstgewahrsein und Weisheit entstehen. Wenn es uns an Sati fehlt, sind die Tugenden, die wir entwickelt haben, unvollkommen. Sati sollte zu jeder Zeit über uns wachen. Selbst wenn wir uns nicht mehr im Zustand des Samadhi befinden, sollte Sati immer vorhanden sein.
Was wir auch tun, durch Sati sind wir uns dessen bewusst, und wenn wir Dinge tun, die nicht korrekt sind, entsteht ein heilsames Schamgefühl [4]. So wie dieses Schamgefühl zunimmt, wächst auch unsere gesammelte Bewusstheit und die Unachtsamkeit vermindert sich. Wenn Sati kultiviert wird, sind Selbstgewahrsein und Weisheit in uns gegenwärtig, auch wenn wir nicht in Meditation sitzen.
Sati zu entwickeln, ist äußerst wichtig! Es übersieht all unser Tun, Sagen und Denken. Es ist sehr brauchbar und wertvoll. Wir sollten uns zu jeder Zeit selbst kennen. Uns selbst zu kennen, bedeutet, dass wir richtig von falsch unterscheiden. So wird der "Weg" klar erkenntlich, und im Licht der Weisheit lösen sich die Ursachen für das Schamgefühl auf.
Der Weg der buddhistischen Praxis lässt sich zusammenfassen als Tugend, Sammlung und Weisheit. Fassung und Selbstkontrolle sind Tugend. Die feste Etablierung des Geistes in der Selbstkontrolle ist Sammlung. Völlig überschauendes Wissen innerhalb der Tätigkeit, die wir gerade ausüben, ist Weisheit. Kurz gesagt besteht die Praxis nur aus Tugend, Sammlung und Weisheit. Das ist der "Weg". Es gibt keinen anderen Weg, der zur Freiheit des Geistes führt.
Heute möchte ich euch alle fragen. Seid ihr euch sicher in der Meditation. Ich frage, weil ich befürchte, ihr könntet unsicher sein und Zweifel haben, denn es gibt heutzutage viele Leute, Mönche sowie auch Laien, die Meditation lehren. Nur wenn wir ein klares Verständnis von Meditation haben, sind wir in der Lage, den Geist zur Ruhe zu bringen und beständig zu machen.
"Der achtfache Weg" ist als Tugend, Sammlung und Weisheit zu verstehen. Er sammelt sich ganz einfach in diesen drei Dingen. Unsere Aufgabe besteht darin, den "Weg" in uns entstehen zu lassen.
Wenn wir in Meditation sitzen, schließen wir die Augen, um nichts anderes zu sehen, denn jetzt sind wir dabei, direkt auf den Geist zu schauen. Mit dem Schließen der Augen, richtet sich unsere Aufmerksamkeit nach innen. Wir konzentrieren uns auf den Atem, sammeln unser Empfinden dort und etablieren Achtsamkeit. Wenn die Faktoren des "Weges" im Ausgleich sind, in Harmonie, sehen wir den Atem, die Gefühle und den Geist mit seinen Launen, wie sie wirklich sind. Wir sehen, wie Samadhi und die anderen Faktoren des "Weges" sich in Harmonie vereinigen.
Während wir in Meditation sitzen und dem Atem folgen, stellen wir uns vor, dass wir jetzt alleine sitzen. Es ist niemand da, der neben oder hinter uns oder wo auch immer sitzt; Es ist überhaupt nichts da. Wir entwickeln das Gefühl, allein zu sein, bis der Geist alle äußerlichen Dinge loslässt. Unsere Konzentration richtet sich einzig und allein auf den Atem. Wenn wir daran denken, dass diese Person dort drüben sitzt und jene Person da oder da, richtet sich der Geist nicht nach innen, und wir kommen nicht zur Ruhe. Wir schieben einfach alles zur Seite, bis wir fühlen, dass niemand weiter da ist, bis überhaupt nichts mehr da ist, bis auch der kleinste Anflug von Interesse, an dem was uns umgibt, verschwunden ist.
Lasst den Atem seinen natürlichen Lauf gehen, zwingt ihn nicht, lang oder kurz zu sein. Sitzt einfach nur da und beobachtet, wie er ein- und ausgeht. Wenn der Geist die äußerlichen Dinge loslässt, stören Geräusche von Motoren oder andere äußere Unannehmlichkeiten, die normalerweise als Störquellen empfunden werden, nicht mehr. Ob Bilder oder Geräusche, überhaupt nichts kann uns stören, denn unsere Aufmerksamkeit hat sich völlig auf den Atem konzentriert.
Wenn wir verwirrt und durcheinander sind und uns nicht auf den Atem konzentrieren können, atmen wir so tief wie möglich ein. Dann atmen wir aus, bis der Atem den Körper ganz verlassen hat. Wir wiederholen das dreimal und richten dann unsere Achtsamkeit erneut auf die Beobachtung des Atems. Jetzt wird der Geist zur Ruhe kommen.
Es ist ganz natürlich für den Geist, eine Weile ruhig und dann wieder unruhig und verwirrt zu sein. Wenn das passiert, konzentrieren wir uns, atmen tief durch und richten dann unsere Achtsamkeit erneut voll auf den Atem. So setzen wir die Meditation fort. Wenn wir uns des öfteren bewusst werden, dass der Geist aus seiner konzentrierten Ruhe abgelenkt wird, fällt es uns schließlich immer leichter, das zu erkennen, und die äußerlichen Erscheinungen werden losgelassen. Sie können nun den Geist nicht mehr erreichen. Sati ist fest etabliert. So wie der Geist immer Feiner wird, wird auch der Atem immer feiner. Ebenso werden die Gefühle immer feiner, und Körper und Geist werden leicht. Unsere Aufmerksamkeit ist einzig und allein nach innen gerichtet. Wir sehen das Ein- und Ausatmen mit voller Klarheit, genauso wie sämtliche Eindrücke mit voller Klarheit gesehen werden. Wir erleben, wie sich Tugend, Sammlung und Weisheit vereinigen. Das ist "der Weg in Harmonie". Harmonie beschreibt den Geist, frei von Verwirrung. Man sagt dazu auch Samadhi.
Wenn wir den Atem für längere Zeit mit gesammelter Achtsamkeit beobachten, wird er immer feiner. Das Bewusstsein des Atems wird zunehmend schwächer, bis nur noch klare Bewusstheit an sich verbleibt. Der Atem kann so fein werden, dass er verschwindet! Vielleicht sitzen wir da, ohne dass da überhaupt Atem ist. Tatsächlich ist er vorhanden, aber es erscheint uns, als ob die Atmung stillsteht. Das passiert, wenn der Geist seinen subtilsten Zustand erreicht und nur noch reine Bewusstheit vorhanden ist. Der Geist ist über den Atem hinausgegangen und das Wissen, dass der Atem verschwunden ist, tritt ein. Doch was nehmen wir jetzt als unser Meditationsobjekt? Wir machen dieses Wissen, das Bewusstsein, dass da kein Atem ist, zu unserem Meditationsobjekt.
Unerwartete Phänomene können an diesem Punkt auftauchen; einige von uns haben diese Erfahrungen, andere nicht. Wenn solche Zustände auftreten, ist es wichtig, dass wir standhaft sind. Manche Menschen stellen fest, dass der Atem verschwunden ist, und haben Angst, sie könnten sterben. In dieser Situation sollten wir die Dinge einfach nur so sehen, wie sie sind. Wir stellen fest, dass da kein Atem ist, und nehmen das als Objekt unserer Aufmerksamkeit. Das ist die beständigste und sicherste Form von Samadhi. Es besteht einzig und allein ein fester, unbeweglicher Zustand des Geistes. Vielleicht wird der Körper so leicht, dass es uns erscheint, als wäre überhaupt kein Körper mehr da. Wir fühlen uns, als ob wir im leeren unendlichen Raum sitzen; alles scheint leer zu sein. Obwohl das ungewöhnlich erscheint, müssen wir verstehen, dass es keinen Grund zur Beunruhigung oder Besorgnis gibt und unerschrocken den Geist fest etablieren.
Ist der Geist erst einmal gesammelt und wird nicht mehr durch irgendwelche Sinneseindrücke abgelenkt, können wir in diesem Zustand beliebig lange verweilen. Schmerzhafte Gefühle, die uns stören, sind nicht mehr vorhanden. Wenn diese Stufe des Samadhi erreicht wird, können wir wieder herauskommen, wann immer wir wollen, aber wenn wir aus Samadhi wieder herausgehen, dann fühlen wir uns gut und verlassen es nicht, weil wir es langweilig finden oder müde sind. Wir verlassen Samadhi, weil wir im Moment genug haben. Wir fühlen uns wohl und unbeschwert.
Wenn wir diese Art von Samadhi entwickeln und etwa eine halbe bis eine Stunde sitzen, ist der Geist für einige Tage völlig ruhig und abgeklärt. Der ruhige und abgeklärte Geist ist rein. Was immer uns begegnet, wird untersucht und mit Weisheit verstanden. Das ist die Frucht des Samadhi.
Tugend, Sammlung und Weisheit haben unterschiedliche Aufgaben, doch sie greifen ineinander über und bilden einen Kreis. Das erkennen wir, wenn der Geist in Frieden ist. Im Zustand der Ruhe ist der Geist auf Grund von Weisheit und der Energie der Sammlung beherrscht. Zunehmende Sammlung verfeinert und veredelt den Geist, was dazu führt, dass die Tugend verstärkt wird. Wenn Tugend stärker wird, nimmt wiederum die Sammlung zu. Fest etablierte und zunehmende Sammlung bedingt auch die verstärkte Entfaltung von Weisheit. Durch diese Wechselbeziehung helfen und unterstützen Tugend, Sammlung und Weisheit einander. Am Ende wird der "Weg" zu einer Einheit und Funktioniert zu jeder Zeit. Wir sollten die Kraft des "Weges" kultivieren, denn diese Kraft führt zu Einsicht und Weisheit.
Samadhi ist schon eine sehr nützliche Sache, aber wenn es dem Meditierenden an Weisheit fehlt, kann es auch schädlich sein. Zusammen mit Weisheit, führt Samadhi zu Einsicht und ist deshalb sehr nützlich.
Die Gefahr für den Meditierenden liegt in der Vertiefung, Samadhi-Jhana, dem Samadhi der vertieften anhaltenden Ruhe. Dieses Samadhi bringt den totalen Frieden, und durch Frieden entsteht Glückseligkeit. Wenn Glückseligkeit entsteht, kommt leicht das Anhaften daran zustande. Der Meditierende will nichts anderes betrachten oder untersuchen, es geht ihm nur um das angenehme Gefühl des Friedens im Samadhi. Nach langer Übung der Meditation ist man sehr erfahren, und es ist einfach, Samadhi zu erreichen. Sobald man sich auf das Meditationsobjekt konzentriert, wird der Geist ruhig, und man will die vertiefte Ruhe nicht mehr verlassen, um irgend etwas zu untersuchen. Man bleibt an der Glückseligkeit hängen, und darin besteht die Gefahr für den Meditierenden.
Wir müssen Upacara Samadhi anwenden. Das heißt, wir treten in die Ruhe ein, und wenn der Geist sich in einem angemessenen, gefestigten Zustand der Ruhe befindet, kommen wir heraus und betrachten unsere äußerlichen Aktivitäten. [5] Mit ruhigem Geist die Außenwelt zu betrachten, lässt Weisheit entstehen. Das ist schwer zu verstehen, denn es handelt sich hierbei nicht um gewöhnliches Denken oder sich etwas vorzustellen. Wenn Denken vorhanden ist, mögen wir annehmen, dass der Geist sich nicht im Zustand der Ruhe befindet. Tatsächlich aber findet jetzt das Denken innerhalb der Ruhe statt. Die Betrachtung irgendwelcher Phänomene findet zwar statt, doch stört das die Ruhe des Geistes nicht. Das Denken selbst wird jetzt nämlich betrachtet, das bedeutet, wir greifen das Denken auf und untersuchen es. Das ist etwas anderes, als sich ziellosen Gedanken und Vermutungen hinzugeben. Dieser Vorgang spielt sich ab, wenn sich der Geist im Zustand der Ruhe befindet. Wir bezeichnen das als: "Bewusstheit in der Ruhe und Ruhe in der Bewusstheit". Wenn es sich nur um gewöhnliches Denken oder Vermutungen handelt, ist der Geist nicht in Frieden, sondern gestört und verwirrt. Aber ich rede nicht vom gewöhnlichen Geist, sondern von weiser Betrachtung, dem Phänomen der Entfaltung von Weisheit durch die Ruhe des Geistes. Dies nennt man "Besinnen". Weisheit kommt genau hier zur Geburt.
Wir unterscheiden also richtiges und falsches Samadhi. Falsches Samadhi entsteht, wenn der Geist in den Zustand der Ruhe eintritt und überhaupt kein Bewusstsein vorhanden ist. Man könnte stundenlang einfach so dasitzen, aber man weiß nicht, wo man sich befindet oder was passiert. Man weiß überhaupt nichts. Es ist Ruhe vorhanden, aber das ist alles. Wir können das mit einem gut geschliffenen Messer vergleichen, das wir nicht zum Schneiden benutzen. Es handelt sich hierbei um eine verblendete Art von Ruhe, denn es besteht nicht viel Selbstgewahrsein. Der Meditierende denkt, er habe bereits das Ultimative erreicht, und macht sich nicht mehr die Mühe, nach etwas anderem zu schauen. Diese Art von Samadhi kann zu unserem Feind werden. Wenn das Bewusstsein von richtig und Falsch fehlt, kann sich Weisheit nicht entfalten.
Egal, welche Stufe von Ruhe erreicht wird, bei richtigem Samadhi ist immer klare Bewusstheit vorhanden, das heißt, es besteht volle Geistesgegenwart und klares Verständnis. Durch solch ein Samadhi entsteht Weisheit, und man kann sich nicht darin verlieren. Diejenigen, die Buddhismus praktizieren wollen, müssen verstehen, dass es nicht ohne diese Bewusstheit geht. Sie muss immer gegenwärtig sein, dann ist Samadhi ungefährlich.
You may wonder where does the benefit arise, how does the wisdom arise, from samadhi? When right samadhi has been developed, wisdom has the chance to arise at all times. When the eye sees form, the ear hears sound, the nose smells odor, the tongue experiences taste, the body experiences touch or the mind experiences mental impressions — in all postures — the mind stays with full knowledge of the true nature of those sense impressions, it doesn't "pick and choose." In any posture we are fully aware of the birth of happiness and unhappiness. We let go of both of these things, we don't cling. This is called Right Practice, which is present in all postures. These words "all postures" do not refer only to bodily postures, they refer to the mind, which has mindfulness and clear comprehension of the truth at all times. When samadhi has been rightly developed, wisdom arises like this. This is called "insight," knowledge of the truth.
There are two kinds of peace — the coarse and the refined. The peace which comes from samadhi is the coarse type. When the mind is peaceful there is happiness. The mind then takes this happiness to be peace. But happiness and unhappiness are becoming and birth. There is no escape from samsara [6] here because we still cling to them. So happiness is not peace, peace is not happiness.
The other type of peace is that which comes from wisdom. Here we don't confuse peace with happiness; we know the mind which contemplates and knows happiness and unhappiness as peace. The peace which arises from wisdom is not happiness, but is that which sees the truth of both happiness and unhappiness. Clinging to those states does not arise, the mind rises above them. This is the true goal of all Buddhist practice.
The teaching of Buddhism is about giving up evil and practicing good. Then, when evil is given up and goodness is established, we must let go of both good and evil. We have already heard enough about wholesome and unwholesome conditions to understand something about them, so I would like to talk about the Middle Way, that is, the path to escape from both of those things.
All the Dhamma talks and teachings of the Buddha have one aim — to show the way out of suffering to those who have not yet escaped. The teachings are for the purpose of giving us the right understanding. If we don't understand rightly, then we can't arrive at peace.
When the various Buddhas became enlightened and gave their first teachings, they all declared these two extremes — indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain. [7] These two ways are the ways of infatuation, they are the ways between which those who indulge in sense pleasures must fluctuate, never arriving at peace. They are the paths which spin around in samsara.
The Enlightened One observed that all beings are stuck in these two extremes, never seeing the Middle Way of Dhamma, so he pointed them out in order to show the penalty involved in both. Because we are still stuck, because we are still wanting, we live repeatedly under their way. The Buddha declared that these two ways are the ways of intoxication, they are not the way of a meditator, nor the ways to peace. These ways are indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain, or, to put it simply, the way of slackness and the way of tension. If you investigate within, moment by moment, you will see that the tense way is anger, the way of sorrow. Going this way there is only difficulty and distress. Indulgence in Pleasure — if you've escaped from this, it means you've escaped from happiness. These ways, both happiness and unhappiness, are not peaceful states. The Buddha taught to let go of both of them. This is right practice. This is the Middle Way.
These words, "the Middle Way," do not refer to our body and speech, they refer to the mind. When a mental impression which we don't like arises, it affects the mind and there is confusion. When the mind is confused, when it's "shaken up," this is not the right way. When a mental impression arises which we like, the mind goes to indulgence in pleasure — that's not the way either.
We people don't want suffering, we want happiness. But in fact happiness is just a refined form of suffering. Suffering itself is the coarse form. You can compare them to a snake. The head of the snake is unhappiness, the tail of the snake is happiness. The head of the snake is really dangerous, it has the poisonous fangs. If you touch it, the snake will bite straight away. But never mind the head, even if you go and hold onto the tail, it will turn around and bite you just the same, because both the head and the tail belong to the one snake.
In the same way, both happiness and unhappiness, or pleasure and sadness, arise from the same parent — wanting. So when you're happy the mind isn't peaceful. It really isn't! For instance, when we get the things we like, such as wealth, prestige, praise or happiness, we become pleased as a result. But the mind still harbors some uneasiness because we're afraid of losing it. That very fear isn't a peaceful state. Later on we may actually lose that thing and then we really suffer. Thus, if you aren't aware, even if you're happy, suffering is imminent. It's just the same as grabbing the snake's tail — if you don't let go it will bite. So whether it's the snake's tail or its head, that is, wholesome or unwholesome conditions, they're all just characteristics of the Wheel of Existence, of endless change.
The Buddha established morality, concentration and wisdom as the path to peace, the way to enlightenment. But in truth these things are not the essence of Buddhism. They are merely the path. The Buddha called them "Magga," which means "path." The essence of Buddhism is peace, and that peace arises from truly knowing the nature of all things. If we investigate closely, we can see that peace is neither happiness nor unhappiness. Neither of these is the truth.
The human mind, the mind which the Buddha exhorted us to know and investigate, is something we can only know by its activity. The true "original mind" has nothing to measure it by, there's nothing you can know it by. In its natural state it is unshaken, unmoving. When happiness arises all that happens is that this mind is getting lost in a mental impression, there is movement. When the mind moves like this, clinging and attachment to those things come into being.
The Buddha has already laid down the path of practice fully, but we have not yet practiced, or if we have, we've practiced only in speech. Our minds and our speech are not yet in harmony, we just indulge in empty talk. But the basis of Buddhism is not something that can be talked about or guessed at. The real basis of Buddhism is full knowledge of the truth of reality. If one knows this truth then no teaching is necessary. If one doesn't know, even if he listens to the teaching, he doesn't really hear. This is why the Buddha said, "The Enlightened One only points the way." He can't do the practice for you, because the truth is something you cannot put into words or give away.
All the teachings are merely similes and comparisons, means to help the mind see the truth. If we haven't seen the truth we must suffer. For example, we commonly say "sankharas" [8] when referring to the body. Anybody can say it, but in fact we have problems simply because we don't know the truth of these sankharas, and thus cling to them. Because we don't know the truth of the body, we suffer.
Here is an example. Suppose one morning you're walking to work and a man yells abuse and insults at you from across the street. As soon as you hear this abuse your mind changes from its usual state. You don't feel so good, you feel angry and hurt. That man walks around abusing you night and day. When you hear the abuse, you get angry, and even when you return home you're still angry because you feel vindictive, you want to get even.
A few days later another man comes to your house and calls out, "Hey! That man who abused you the other day, he's mad, he's crazy! Has been for years! He abuses everybody like that. Nobody takes any notice of anything he says." As soon as you hear this you are suddenly relieved. That anger and hurt that you've pent up within you all these days melts away completely. Why? Because you know the truth of the matter now. Before, you didn't know, you thought that man was normal, so you were angry at him. Understanding like that caused you to suffer. As soon as you find out the truth, everything changes: "Oh, he's mad! That explains everything!" When you understand this you feel fine, because you know for yourself. Having known, then you can let go. If you don't know the truth you cling right there. When you thought that man who abused you was normal you could have killed him. But when you find out the truth, that he's mad, you feel much better. This is knowledge of the truth.
Someone who sees the Dhamma has a similar experience. When attachment, aversion and delusion disappear, they disappear in the same way. As long as we don't know these things we think, "What can I do? I have so much greed and aversion." This is not clear knowledge. It's just the same as when we thought the madman was sane. When we finally see that he was mad all along we're relieved of worry. No-one could show you this. Only when the mind sees for itself can it uproot and relinquish attachment.
It's the same with this body which we call sankharas. Although the Buddha has already explained that it's not substantial or a real being as such, we still don't agree, we stubbornly cling to it. If the body could talk, it would be telling us all day long, "You're not my owner, you know." Actually it's telling us all the time, but it's Dhamma language, so we're unable to understand it. For instance, the sense organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue and body are continually changing, but I've never seen them ask permission from us even once! Like when we have a headache or a stomachache — the body never asks permission first, it just goes right ahead, following its natural course. This shows that the body doesn't allow anyone to be its owner, it doesn't have an owner. The Buddha described it as an empty thing.
We don't understand the Dhamma and so we don't understand these sankharas; we take them to be ourselves, as belonging to us or belonging to others. This gives rise to clinging. When clinging arises, "becoming" follows on. Once becoming arises, then there is birth. Once there is birth, then old age, sickness, death... the whole mass of suffering arises. This is the Paticcasamuppada. [9] We say ignorance gives rise to volitional activities, they give rise to consciousness and so on. All these things are simply events in mind. When we come into contact with something we don't like, if we don't have mindfulness, ignorance is there. Suffering arises straight away. But the mind passes through these changes so rapidly that we can't keep up with them. It's the same as when you fall from a tree. Before you know it — "Thud!" — you've hit the ground. Actually you've passed many branches and twigs on the way but you couldn't count them, you couldn't remember them as you passed them. You just fall, and then "Thud!"
The Paticcasamuppada is the same as this. If we divide it up as it is in the scriptures, we say ignorance gives rise to volitional activities, volitional activities give rise to consciousness, consciousness gives rise to mind and matter, mind and matter give rise to the six sense bases, the sense bases give rise to sense contact, contact gives rise to feeling, feeling gives rise to wanting, wanting gives rise to clinging, clinging gives rise to becoming, becoming gives rise to birth, birth gives rise to old age, sickness, death, and all forms of sorrow. But in truth, when you come into contact with something you don't like, there's immediate suffering! That feeling of suffering is actually the result of the whole chain of the Paticcasamuppada. This is why the Buddha exhorted his disciples to investigate and know fully their own minds.
When people are born into the world they are without names - once born, we name them. This is convention. We give people names for the sake of convenience, to call each other by. The scriptures are the same. We separate everything up with labels to make studying the reality convenient. In the same way, all things are simply sankharas. Their original nature is merely that of things born of conditions. The Buddha said that they are impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self. They are unstable. We don't understand this firmly, our understanding is not straight, and so we have wrong view. This wrong view is that the sankharas are ourselves, we are the sankharas, or that happiness and unhappiness are ourselves, we are happiness and unhappiness. Seeing like this is not full, clear knowledge of the true nature of things. The truth is that we can't force all these things to follow our desires, they follow the way of nature.
A simple comparison is this: suppose you go and sit in the middle of a freeway with the cars and trucks charging down at you. You can't get angry at the cars, shouting, "Don't drive over here! Don't drive over here!" It's a freeway, you can't tell them that! So what can you do? You get off the road! The road is the place where cars run, if you don't want the cars to be there, you suffer.
It's the same with sankharas. We say they disturb us, like when we sit in meditation and hear a sound. We think, "Oh, that sound's bothering me." If we understand that the sound bothers us then we suffer accordingly. If we investigate a little deeper, we will see that it's we who go out and disturb the sound! The sound is simply sound. If we understand like this then there's nothing more to it, we leave it be. We see that the sound is one thing, we are another. One who understands that the sound comes to disturb him is one who doesn't see himself. He really doesn't! Once you see yourself, then you're at ease. The sound is just sound, why should you go and grab it? You see that actually it was you who went out and disturbed the sound. This is real knowledge of the truth. You see both sides, so you have peace. If you see only one side, there is suffering. Once you see both sides, then you follow the Middle Way. This is the right practice of the mind. This is what we call "straightening out our understanding."
In the same way, the nature of all sankharas is impermanence and death, but we want to grab them, we carry them about and covet them. We want them to be true. We want to find truth within the things that aren't true! Whenever someone sees like this and clings to the sankharas as being himself, he suffers. The Buddha wanted us to consider this.
The practice of Dhamma is not dependent on being a monk, a novice, or a layman; it depends on straightening out your understanding. If our understanding is correct, we arrive at peace. Whether you are ordained or not it's the same, every person has the chance to practice Dhamma, to contemplate it. We all contemplate the same thing. If you attain peace, it's all the same peace; it's the same Path, with the same methods.
Therefore the Buddha didn't discriminate between laymen and monks, he taught all people to practice to know the truth of the sankharas. When we know this truth, we let them go. If we know the truth there will be no more becoming or birth. How is there no more birth? There is no way for birth to take place because we fully know the truth of sankharas. If we fully know the truth, then there is peace. Having or not having, it's all the same. Gain and loss are one. The Buddha taught us to know this. This is peace; peace from happiness, unhappiness, gladness and sorrow.
We must see that there is no reason to be born. Born in what way? Born into gladness: When we get something we like we are glad over it. If there is no clinging to that gladness there is no birth; if there is clinging, this is called "birth." So if we get something, we aren't born (into gladness). If we lose, then we aren't born (into sorrow). This is the birthless and the deathless. Birth and death are both founded in clinging to and cherishing the sankharas.
So the Buddha said. "There is no more becoming for me, finished is the holy life, this is my last birth." There! He knew the birthless and the deathless! This is what the Buddha constantly exhorted his disciples to know. This is the right practice. If you don't reach it, if you don't reach the Middle Way, then you won't transcend suffering.
It's of great importance that we practice the Dhamma. If we don't practice, 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 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 Dhamma of the Buddha so broad and expansive? 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. It was thus that the Buddha discarded worldly opinions, he discarded 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 one who witnesses the Dhamma for himself. If someone says we are good we don't get lost in it; they say we are no 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. 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 see many things inside to surprise us, 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, unsatisfactoriness 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 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 odor, let it go... just leave it at the nose! When the 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 practice 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. Feeling [10] 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 samadhi, 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. Why is this so? 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, [11] 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 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. When we practice like this wisdom can arise. We consider and investigate at all times, in all postures. When a mental impression arises that we like to know it as such, we don't hold it to be anything substantial. It's just 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, just 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 the other.
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 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 and dying should really be diligent in his practice. One may say 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 samadhi itself. At some places they say, "Now we are going to sit in samadhi, 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 regretful. 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 practice like that.
So 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 practicing and seeing for yourselves. Whatever's wrong, throw it out. If it's right then take it and use it. But actually we practice in order to let go 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 he Dhamma is the place where there's nothing — nothing at all.
Some of us start to practice, and even after a year or two, still don't know what's what. We are still unsure of the practice. When we're still unsure, we don't see that everything around us is purely Dhamma, and so we turn to teachings from the Ajahns. But actually, when we know our own mind, when there is sati to look closely at the mind, there is wisdom. All times and all places become occasions for us to hear the Dhamma.
We can learn Dhamma from nature, from trees for example. A tree is born due to causes and it grows following the course of nature. Right here the tree is teaching us Dhamma, but we don't understand this. In due course, it grows until it buds, flowers and fruit appear. All we see is the appearance of the flowers and fruit; we're unable to bring this within and contemplate it. Thus we don't know that the tree is teaching us Dhamma. The fruit appears and we merely eat it without investigating: sweet, sour or salty, it's the nature of the fruit. And this Dhamma, the teaching of the fruit. Following on, the leaves grow old. They wither, die and then fall from the tree. All we see is that the leaves have fallen down. We step on them, we sweep them up, that's all. We don't investigate thoroughly, so we don't know that nature is teaching us. Later on the new leaves sprout, and we merely see that, without taking it further. We don't bring these things into our minds to contemplate.
If we can bring all this inwards and investigate it, we will see that the birth of a tree and our own birth are no different. This body of ours is born and exists dependent on conditions, on the elements of earth, water, wind and fire. It has its food, it grows and grows. Every part of the body changes and flows according to its nature. It's no different from the tree; hair, nails, teeth and skin — all change. If we know the things of nature, then we will know ourselves.
People are born. In the end they die. Having died they are born again. Nails, teeth and skin are constantly dying and re-growing. If we understand the practice then we can see that a tree is no different from ourselves. If we understand the teaching of the Ajahns, then we realize that the outside and the inside are comparable. Things which have consciousness and those without consciousness do not differ. They are the same. And if we understand this sameness, then when we see the nature of a tree, for example, we will know that it's no different from our own five khandhas [12] — body, feeling, memory, thinking and consciousness. If we have this understanding then we understand Dhamma. If we understand Dhamma we understand the five khandhas, how they constantly shift and change, never stopping.
So whether standing, walking, sitting or lying we should have sati to watch over and look after the mind. When we see external things it's like seeing internals. When we see internals it's the same as seeing externals. If we understand this then we can hear the teaching of the Buddha. If we understand this, then we can say that Buddha-nature, the 'One who knows', has been established. It knows the external. It knows the internal. It understands all things which arise. Understanding like this, then sitting at the foot of a tree we hear the Buddha's teaching. Standing, walking, sitting or lying, we hear the Buddha's teaching. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking, we hear the Buddha's teaching. The Buddha is just this 'One who knows' within this very mind. It knows the Dhamma, it investigates the Dhamma. It's not that the Buddha-nature, the 'one who knows', arises. The mind becomes illumined.
If we establish the Buddha within our mind then we see everything, we contemplate everything, as no different from ourselves. We see various animals, trees, mountains and vines as no different from ourselves. We see poor people and rich people — they're no different! They all have the same characteristics. One who understands like this is content wherever he is. He listens to the Buddha's teaching at all times. If we don't understand this, then even if we spend all our time listening to teachings from the various Ajahns, we still won't understand their meaning.
The Buddha said that enlightenment of the Dhamma is just knowing Nature, [13] the reality which is all around us, the Nature which is right here! If we don't understand this Nature we experience disappointment and joy, we get lost in moods, giving rise to sorrow and regret. Getting lost in mental objects is getting lost in Nature. When we get lost in Nature then we don't know Dhamma. The Enlightened One merely pointed out this Nature.
Having arisen, all things change and die. Things we make, such as plates, bowls and dishes, all have the same characteristic. A bowl is molded into being due to a cause, man's impulse to create, and as we use it, it gets old, breaks up and disappears. Trees, mountains and vines are the same, right up to animals and people.
When Añña Kondañña, the first disciple, heard the Buddha's teaching for the first time, the realization he had was nothing very complicated. He simply saw that whatever thing is born, that thing must change and grow old as a natural condition and eventually it must die. Añña Kondañña had never thought of this before, or if he had it wasn't thoroughly clear, so he hadn't yet let go, he still clung to the khandhas. As he sat mindfully listening to the Buddha's discourse, Buddha-nature arose in him. He received a sort of Dhamma "transmission," which was the knowledge that all conditioned things are impermanent. Any thing which is born must have aging and death as a natural result.
This feeling was different from anything he'd ever known before. He truly realized his mind, and so "Buddha" arose within him. At that time the Buddha declared that Añña Kondañña had received the Eye of Dhamma.
What is it that this Eye of Dhamma sees? This Eye sees that whatever is born has aging and death as a natural result. "Whatever is born" means everything! Whether material or immaterial, it all comes under this "whatever is born." It refers to all of Nature. Like this body for instance — it's born and then proceeds to extinction. When it's small it "dies" from smallness to youth. After a while it "dies" from youth and becomes middle-aged. Then it goes on to "die" from middle-age and reach old-age, finally reaching the end. Trees, mountains and vines all have this characteristic.
So the vision or understanding of the 'One who knows' clearly entered the mind of Añña Kondañña as he sat there. This knowledge of "whatever is born" became deeply embedded in his mind, enabling him to uproot attachment to the body. This attachment was sakkayaditthi. This means that he didn't take the body to be a self or a being, or in terms of "he" or "me." He didn't cling to it. He saw it clearly, thus uprooting sakkayaditthi.
And the vicikiccha (doubt) was destroyed. Having uprooted attachment to the body he didn't doubt his realization. Silabbata paramasa [14] was also uprooted. His practice became firm and straight. Even if his body was in pain or fever he didn't grasp it, he didn't doubt. He didn't doubt, because he had uprooted clinging. This grasping of the body is called silabbata paramasa. When one uproots the view of the body being the self, grasping and doubt are finished with. If just this view of the body as the self arises within the mind then grasping and doubt begin right there.
So as the Buddha expounded the Dhamma, Añña Kondañña opened the Eye of Dhamma. This Eye is just the "One who knows clearly." It sees things differently. It sees this very nature. Seeing Nature clearly, clinging is uprooted and the 'One who knows' is born. Previously he knew but he still had clinging. You could say that he knew the Dhamma but he still hadn't seen it, or he had seen the Dhamma but still wasn't one with it.
At this time the Buddha said, "Kondañña knows." What did he know? He just knew Nature! Usually we get lost in Nature, as with this body of ours. Earth, water, fire and wind come together to make this body. It's an aspect of Nature, a material object we can see with the eye. It exists depending on food, growing and changing until finally it reaches extinction.
Coming inwards, that which watches over the body is consciousness — just this 'One who knows', this single awareness. If it receives through the ear it's called hearing; through the nose it's called smelling; through the tongue, tasting; through the body, touching; and through the mind, thinking. This consciousness is just one but when it functions at different places we call it different things. Through the eye we call it one thing, through the ear we call it another. But whether it functions at the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind it's just one awareness. Following the scriptures we call it the six consciousness, but in reality there is only one consciousness arising at these six different bases. There are six "doors" but a single awareness, which is this very mind.
This mind is capable of knowing the truth of Nature. If the mind still has obstructions, then we say it knows through ignorance. It knows wrongly and it sees wrongly. Knowing wrongly and seeing wrongly, or knowing and seeing rightly, it's just a single awareness. We say wrong view and right view but it's just one thing. Right and wrong both arise from this one place. When there is wrong knowledge we say that Ignorance conceals the truth. When there is wrong knowledge then there is wrong view, wrong intention, wrong action, wrong livelihood — everything is wrong! And on the other hand the path of right practice is born in this same place. When there is right then the wrong disappears.
The Buddha practiced enduring many hardships and torturing himself with fasting and so on, but he investigated deeply into his mind until finally he uprooted ignorance. All the Buddhas were enlightened in mind, because the body knows nothing. You can let it eat or not, it doesn't matter, it can die at any time. The Buddhas all practiced with the mind. They were enlightened in mind.
The Buddha, having contemplated his mind, gave up the two extremes of practice — indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain — and in his first discourse expounded the Middle Way between these two. But we hear his teaching and it grates against our desires. We're infatuated with pleasure and comfort, infatuated with happiness, thinking we are good, we are fine — this is indulgence in pleasure. It's not the right path. Dissatisfaction, displeasure, dislike and anger — this is indulgence in pain. These are the extreme ways which one on the path of practice should avoid.
These "ways" are simply the happiness and unhappiness which arise. The "one on the path" is this very mind, the 'One who knows'. If a good mood arises we cling to it as good, this is indulgence in pleasure. If an unpleasant mood arises we cling to it through dislike- this is indulgence in pain. These are the wrong paths, they aren't the ways of a meditator. They're the ways of the worldly, those who look for fun and happiness and shun unpleasantness and suffering.
The wise know the wrong paths but they relinquish them, they give them up. They are unmoved by pleasure and displeasure, happiness and unhappiness. These things arise but those who know don't cling to them, they let them go according to their nature. This is right view. When one knows this fully there is liberation. Happiness and unhappiness have no meaning for an Enlightened One.
The Buddha said that the Enlightened Ones were far from defilements. This doesn't mean that they ran away from defilements, they didn't run away anywhere. Defilements were there. He compared it to a lotus leaf in a pond of water. The leaf and the water exist together, they are in contact, but the leaf doesn't become damp. The water is like defilements and the lotus leaf is the Enlightened Mind.
The mind of one who practices is the same; it doesn't run away anywhere, it stays right there. Good, evil, happiness, and unhappiness, right and wrong arise, and he knows them all. The meditator simply knows them, they don't enter his mind. That is, he has no clinging. He is simply the experiencer. To say he simply experiences is our common language. In the language of Dhamma we say he lets his mind follow the Middle Way.
These activities of happiness, unhappiness and so on are constantly arising because they are characteristics of the world. The Buddha was enlightened in the world, he contemplated the world. If he hadn't contemplated the world, if he hadn't seen the world, he couldn't have risen above it. The Buddha's Enlightenment was simply enlightenment of this very world. The world was still there: gain and loss, praise and criticism, fame and disrepute, happiness and unhappiness were still there. If there weren't these things there would be nothing to become enlightened to! What he knew was just the world, that which surrounds the hearts of people. If people follow these things, seeking praise and fame, gain and happiness, and trying to avoid their opposites, they sink under the weight of the world.
Gain and loss, praise and criticism, fame and disrepute, happiness and unhappiness — this is the world. The person who is lost in the world has no path of escape, the world overwhelms him. This world follows the Law of Dhamma so we call it worldly dhamma. He who lives within the worldly dhamma is called a worldly being. He lives surrounded by confusion.
Therefore the Buddha taught us to develop the path. We can divide it up into morality, concentration and wisdom — develop them to completion! This is the path of practice which destroys the world. Where is this world? It is just in the minds of beings infatuated with it! The action of clinging to praise, gain, fame, happiness and unhappiness is called "world." when it is there in the mind, then the world arises, the worldly being is born. The world is born because of desire. Desire is the birthplace of all worlds. To put an end to desire is to put an end to the world.
Our practice of morality, concentration and wisdom is otherwise called the Eightfold Path. This Eightfold Path and the eight worldly dhammas are a pair. How is it that they are a pair? If we speak according to the scriptures, we say that gain and loss, praise and criticism, fame and disrepute, happiness and unhappiness are the eight worldly dhammas. Right view, Right Intention, Rechte Rede, Rechte Handlung, Rechter Lebensunterhalt, Rechte Anstrengung, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, this is the Eightfold Path. These two eightfold ways exist in the same place. The eight worldly dhammas are right here in this very mind, with the 'One who knows' but this 'One who knows' has obstructions, so it knows wrongly and thus becomes the world. It's just this one 'One who knows', no other! The Buddha-nature has not yet arisen in this mind, it has not yet extracted itself from the world. The mind like this is the world.
When we practice the path, when we train our body and speech, it's all done in that very same mind. It's the same place so they see each other; the path sees the world. If we practice with this mind of ours we encounter this clinging to praise, fame, pleasure and happiness, we see the attachment to the world.
The Buddha said, "You should know the world. It dazzles like a king's royal carriage. Fools are entranced, but the wise are not deceived." It's not that he wanted us to go all over the world looking at everything, studying everything about it. He simply wanted us to watch this mind which is attached to it. When the Buddha told us to look at the world he didn't want us to get stuck in it, he wanted us to investigate it, because the world is born just in this mind. sitting in the shade of a tree you can look at the world. When there is desire the world comes into being right there. Wanting is the birth place of the world. To extinguish wanting is to extinguish the world.
When we sit in meditation we want the mind to become peaceful, but it's not peaceful. Why is this? We don't want to think but we think. It's like a person who goes to sit on an ant's nest: the ants just keep on biting him. When the mind is the world then even sitting still with our eyes closed, all we see is the world. Pleasure, sorrow, anxiety, confusion — it all arises. Why is this? It's because we still haven't realized Dhamma. If the mind is like this the meditator can't endure the worldly dhammas, he doesn't investigate. It's just the same as if he were sitting on an ants' nest. The ants are going to bite because he's right on their home! So what should he do? He should look for some poison or use fire to drive them out.
But most Dhamma practitioners don't see it like that. If they feel content they just follow contentment, feeling discontent they just follow that. Following the worldly dhammas the mind becomes the world. Sometimes we may think, "Oh, I can't do it, it's beyond me...", so we don't even try! This is because the mind is full of defilements, the worldly dhammas prevent the path from arising. We can't endure in the development of morality, concentration and wisdom. It's just like that man sitting on the ants' nest. He can't do anything, the ants are biting and crawling all over him, he's immersed in confusion and agitation. He can't rid his sitting place of the danger, so he just sits there, suffering.
So it is with our practice. The worldly dhammas exist in the minds of worldly beings. When those beings wish to find peace the worldly dhammas arise right there. When the mind is ignorant there is only darkness. When knowledge arises the mind is illumined, because ignorance and knowledge are born in the same place. When ignorance has arisen, knowledge can't enter, because the mind has accepted ignorance. When knowledge has arisen, ignorance cannot stay.
So the Buddha exhorted his disciples to practice with the mind, because the world is born in this mind, the eight worldly dhammas are there. The Eightfold Path, that is, investigation through calm and insight meditation, our diligent effort and the wisdom we develop, all these things loosen the grip of the world. Attachment, aversion and delusion become lighter, and being lighter, we know them as such. If we experience fame, material gain, praise, happiness or suffering we're aware of it. We must know these things before we can transcend the world, because the world is within us.
When we're free of these things it's just like leaving a house. When we enter a house what sort of feeling do we have? We feel that we've come through the door and entered the house. When we leave the house we feel that we've left it, we come into the bright sunlight, it's not dark like it was inside. The action of the mind entering the worldly dhammas is like entering the house. The mind which has destroyed the worldly dhammas is like one who has left the house.
So the Dhamma practitioner must become one who witnesses the Dhamma for himself. He knows for himself whether the worldly dhammas have left or not, whether or not the path has been developed. When the path has been well developed it purges the worldly dhammas. It becomes stronger and stronger. Right view grows as wrong view decreases, until finally the path destroys defilements — either that or defilements will destroy the path!
Right view and wrong view, there are only these two ways. Wrong view has its tricks as well, you know, it has its wisdom — but it's wisdom that's misguided. The meditator who begins to develop the path experiences a separation. Eventually it's as if he is two people — one in the world and the other on the path. They divide, they pull apart. Whenever he's investigating there's this separation, and it continues on and on until the mind reaches insight, vipassana.
Or maybe it's vipassanu! [15] Having tried to establish wholesome results in our practice, seeing them, we attach to them. This type of clinging comes from our wanting to get something from the practice. This is vipassanu, the wisdom of defilements (i.e., "defiled wisdom"). Some people develop goodness and cling to it, they develop purity and cling to that, or they develop knowledge and cling to that. The action of clinging to that goodness or knowledge is vipassanu, infiltrating our practice.
So when you develop vipassana, be careful! Watch out for vipassanu, because they're so close that sometimes you can't tell them apart. But with right view we can see them both clearly. If it's vipassanu there will be suffering arising at times as a result. If it's really vipassana there's no suffering. There is peace. Both happiness and unhappiness are silenced. This you can see for yourself.
This practice requires endurance. Some people, when they come to practice, don't want to be bothered by anything, they don't want friction. But there's friction the same as before. We must try to find an end to friction through friction itself! So, if there's friction in your practice, then it's right. If there's no friction it's not right, you just eat and sleep as much as you want. When you want to go anywhere or say anything you just follow your desires. The teaching of the Buddha grates. The supermundane goes against the worldly. Right view opposes wrong view, purity opposes impurity. The teaching grates against our desires.
There's a story in the scriptures about the Buddha, before he was enlightened. At that time, having received a plate of rice, he floated that plate on a stream of water, determining in his mind, "If I am to be enlightened, may this plate float against the current of the water." The plate floated upstream! That plate was the Buddha's right view, or the Buddha-nature that he became awakened to. It didn't follow the desires of ordinary beings. It floated against the flow of his mind, it was contrary in every way.
These days, in the same way, the Buddha's teaching is contrary to our hearts. People want to indulge in greed and hatred but the Buddha won't let them. They want to be deluded but the Buddha destroys delusion. So the mind of the Buddha is contrary to that of worldly beings. The world calls the body beautiful, he says it's not beautiful. They say the body belongs to us, he says not so. They say it's substantial, he says it's not. Right view is above the world. Worldly beings merely follow the flow of the stream.
Continuing on, when the Buddha got up from there, he received eight handfuls of grass from a brahman. The real meaning of this is that the eight handfuls of grass were the right worldly dhammas — gain and loss, praise and criticism, fame and disrepute, happiness and unhappiness. The Buddha, having received this grass, determined to sit on it and enter samadhi. The action of sitting on the grass was itself samadhi, that is, his mind was above the worldly dhammas, subduing the world until it realized the transcendent. The worldly dhammas became like refuse for him, they lost all meaning. He sat over them but they didn't obstruct his mind in any way. The various maras came to try to overcome him, but he just sat there in samadhi, subduing the world, until finally he became enlightened to the Dhamma and completely defeated Mara. [16] That is, he defeated the world. So the practice of developing the path is that which kills defilements.
People these days have little faith. Having practiced a year or two they want to get there, and they want to go fast. They don't consider that the Buddha, our Teacher, had left home a full six years before he became enlightened. This is why we have "freedom from dependence." [17] According to the scriptures, a monk must have at least five rains [18] before he is considered able to live on his own. By this time he has studied and practiced sufficiently, he has adequate knowledge, he has faith, his conduct is good. Someone who practices for five years, I say he's competent. But he must really practice, not just "hang out" in the robes for five years. He must really look after the practice, really do it!
Until you reach five rains you may wonder, "What is this 'freedom from dependence' that the Buddha talked about?" You must really try to practice for five years and then you'll know for yourself the qualities he was referring to. After that time you should be competent, competent in mind, one who is certain. At the very least, after five rains, one should be at the first stage of enlightenment. This is not just five rains in body but five rains in mind as well. That monk has fear of blame, a sense of shame and modesty. He doesn't dare to do wrong either in front of people or behind their backs, in the light or in the dark. Why not? Because he has reached the Buddha, 'The One who knows'. He takes refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha.
To depend truly on the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha we must see the Buddha. What use would it be to take refuge without knowing the Buddha? If we don't yet know the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, our taking refuge in them is just an act of body and speech, the mind still hasn't reached them. Once the mind reaches them we know what the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha are like. Then we can really take refuge in them, because these things arise in our minds. Wherever we are we will have the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha with us.
One who is like this doesn't dare to commit evil acts. This is why we say that one who has reached the first stage of enlightenment will no longer be born in the woeful states. His mind is certain, he has entered the Stream, there is no doubt for him. If he doesn't reach full enlightenment today it will certainly be some time in the future. He may do wrong but not enough to send him to Hell, that is, he doesn't regress to evil bodily and verbal actions, he is incapable of it. So we say that person has entered the Noble Birth. He cannot return. This is something you should see and know for yourselves in this very life.
These days, those of us who still have doubts about the practice hear these things and say, "Oh, how can I do that?" Sometimes we feel happy, sometimes troubled, pleased or displeased. For what reason? Because we don't know Dhamma. What Dhamma? Just the Dhamma of Nature, the reality around us, the body and the mind.
The Buddha said, "Don't cling to the five khandhas, let them go, give them up!" Why can't we let them go? Just because we don't see them or know them fully. We see them as ourselves, we see ourselves in the khandhas. Happiness and suffering, we see as ourselves, we see ourselves in happiness and suffering. We can't separate ourselves from them. When we can't separate them it means we can't see Dhamma, we can't see Nature.
Happiness, unhappiness, pleasure and sadness — none of them is us but we take them to be so. These things come into contact with us and we see a lump of 'atta', or self. Wherever there is self there you will find happiness, unhappiness and everything else. So the Buddha said to destroy this "lump" of self, that is to destroy sakkaya ditthi. When atta (self) is destroyed, anatta (non-self) naturally arises.
We take Nature to be us and ourselves to be Nature, so we don't know Nature truly. If it's good we laugh with it, if it's bad we cry over it. But Nature is simply sankharas. As we say in the chanting, Tesam vupasamo sukho — pacifying the sankharas is real happiness. How do we pacify them? We simply remove clinging and see them as they really are.
So there is truth in this world. Trees, mountains and vines all live according to their own truth, they are born and die following their nature. It's just we people who aren't true! We see it and make a fuss over it, the Nature is impassive, it just is as it is. We laugh, we cry, we kill, but Nature remains in truth, it is truth. No matter how happy or sad we are, this body just follows its own nature. It's born, it grows up and ages, changing and getting older all the time. It follows Nature in this way. Whoever takes the body to be himself and carries it around with him, will suffer.
So Añña Kondañña recognized this "whatever is born" in everything, be it material or immaterial. His view of the world changed. He saw the truth. Having got up from his sitting place he took that truth with him. The activity of birth and death continued but he simply looked on. Happiness and unhappiness were arising and passing away but he merely noted them. His mind was constant. He no longer fell into the woeful states. He didn't get over-pleased or unduly upset about these things. His mind was firmly established in the activity of contemplation.
There! Añña Kondañña had received the Eye of Dhamma. He saw Nature, which we call sankharas, according to truth. Wisdom is that which knows the truth of sankharas. This is the mind which knows and sees Dhamma, which has surrendered.
Until we have seen the Dhamma we must have patience and restraint. We must endure, we must renounce! We must cultivate diligence and endurance. Why must we cultivate diligence? Because we're lazy! Why must we develop endurance? Because we don't endure! That the way it is. But when we are already established in our practice, have finished with laziness, then we don't need to use diligence. If we already know the truth of all mental states, if we don't get happy or unhappy over them, we don't need to exercise endurance, because the mind is already Dhamma. The 'One who knows' has seen the Dhamma, he is the Dhamma.
When the mind is Dhamma, it stops. It has attained peace. There's no longer a need to do anything special, because the mind is Dhamma already. The outside is Dhamma, the inside is Dhamma. The 'One who knows' is Dhamma. The state is Dhamma and that which knows the state is Dhamma. It is one. It is free.
This Nature is not born, it does not age nor sicken. This Nature does not die. This Nature is neither happy nor sad, neither big nor small, heavy nor light; neither short nor long, black nor white. There's nothing you can compare it to. No convention can reach it. This is why we say Nirvana has no color. All colors are merely conventions. The state which is beyond the world is beyond the reach of worldly conventions.
So the Dhamma is that which is beyond the world. It is that which each person should see for himself. It is beyond language. You can't put it into words, you can only talk about ways and means of realizing it. The person who has seen it for himself has finished his work.
The things of this world are merely conventions of our own making. Having established them we get lost in them, and refuse to let go, giving rise to clinging to our personal views and opinions. This clinging never ends, it is samsara, flowing endlessly on. It has no completion. Now, if we know conventional reality then we'll know Liberation. If we clearly know Liberation, then we'll know convention. This is to know the Dhamma. Here there is completion.
Take people, for instance. In reality people don't have any names, we are simply born naked into the world. If we have names, they arise only through convention. I've contemplated this and seen that is you don't know the truth of this convention it can be really harmful. It's simply something we use for convenience. Without it we couldn't communicate, there would be nothing to say, no language.
I've seen the Westerners when they sit in meditation together in the West. When they get up after sitting, men and women together, sometimes they go and touch each other on the head! [19] When I saw this I thought, "Ehh, if we cling to convention it gives rise to defilements right there." If we can let go of convention, give up our opinions, we are at peace.
Like the generals and colonels, men of rank and position, who come to see me. When they come they say, "Oh, please touch my head." [20] If they ask like this there's nothing wrong with it, they're glad to have their heads touched. But if you tapped their heads in the middle of the street it'd be a different story! This is because of clinging. So I feel that letting go is really the way of peace. Touching a head is against our customs, but in reality it is nothing. When they agree to having it touched there's nothing wrong with it, just like touching a cabbage or a potato.
Accepting, giving up, letting go — this is the way of lightness. Wherever you're clinging there's becoming and birth right there. There's danger right there. The Buddha taught about convention and he taught to undo convention in the right way, and so reach Liberation. This is freedom, not to cling to conventions. All things in this world have a conventional reality. Having established them we should not be fooled by them, because getting lost in them really leads to suffering. This point concerning rules and conventions is of utmost importance. One who can get beyond them is beyond suffering.
However, they are a characteristic of our world. Take Mr. Boonmah, for instance; he used to be just one of the crowd but now he's been appointed the District Commissioner. It's just a convention but it's a convention we should respect. It's part of the world of people. If you think, "Oh, before we were friends, we used to work at the tailor's together," and then you go and pat him on the head in public, he'll get angry. It's not right, he'll resent it. So we should follow the conventions in order to avoid giving rise to resentment. It's useful to understand convention, living in the world is just about this. Know the right time and place, know the person.
Why is it wrong to go against conventions? It's wrong because of people! You should be clever, knowing both convention and Liberations. Know the right time for each. If we know how to use rules and conventions comfortably then we are skilled. But if we try to behave according to the higher level of reality in the wrong situation, this is wrong. Where is it wrong? It's wrong with people's defilements, nothing else! People all have defilements. In one situation we behave one way, in another situation we must behave in another way. We should know the ins and outs because we live within conventions. Problems occur because people cling to them. If we suppose something to be, then it is. It's there because we suppose it to be there. But if you look closely, in the absolute sense these things don't really exist.
As I have often said, before we were laymen and now we are monks. We lived within the convention of "layman" and now we live within the convention of "monk." We are monks by convention, not monks through Liberation. In the beginning we establish conventions like this, but if a person merely ordains, this doesn't mean he overcomes defilements. If we take a handful of sand and agree to call it salt, does this make it salt? It is salt, but only in name, not in reality. You couldn't use it to cook with. It's only use is within the realm of that agreement, because there's really no salt there, only sand. It becomes salt only through our supposing it to be so.
This word "Liberation" is itself just a convention, but it refers to that beyond conventions. Having achieved freedom, having reached liberation, we still have to use convention in order to refer to it as liberation. If we didn't have convention we couldn't communicate, so it does have its use.
For example, people have different names but they are all people just the same. If we didn't have names to differentiate between them, and we wanted to call out to somebody standing in a crowd, saying, "Hey, Person! Person!", that would be useless. You couldn't say who would answer you because they're all "person." But if you called, "Hey, John!", then John would come, the others wouldn't answer. Names fulfill just this need. Through them we can communicate, they provide the basis for social behavior.
So you should know both convention and liberation. Conventions have a use, but in reality there really isn't anything there. Even people are non-existent! They are merely groups of elements, born of causal conditions, growing dependent on conditions, existing for a while, or control it. But without conventions we would have nothing to say, we'd have no names, no practice, no work. Rules and conventions are established to give us a language, to make things convenient, and that's all.
Take money, for example. In olden times there weren't any coins or notes, they had no value. People used to barter goods, but those things were difficult to keep, so they created money using coins and notes. Perhaps in the future we'll have a new king decree that we don't have to use paper money, we should use wax, melting it down and pressing it into lumps. We say this is money and use it throughout the country. Let alone wax, it may even happen that they decide to make chicken dung the local currency — all the other things can't be money, just chicken dung! Then people would fight and kill each other over chicken dung! This is the way it is. You could use many examples to illustrate convention. What we use for money is simply a convention that we have set up, it has its use within that convention. Having decreed it to be money, it becomes money. But in reality, what is money? Nobody can say. When there is a popular agreement about something, then a convention comes about to fulfill the need. The world is just this.
This is convention, but to get ordinary people to understand liberation is really difficult. Our money, our house, our family, our children and relatives are simply conventions that we have invented, but really, seen in the light of Dhamma, they don't belong to us. Maybe if we hear this we don't feel so good, but in reality is like that. These things have value only through the established conventions. If we establish that it doesn't have value, then it doesn't have value. This is the way it is, we bring convention into the world to fulfill a need.
Even this body is not really ours, we just suppose it to be so. It's truly just a supposition. If you try to find a real, substantial self within it, you can't. There are merely elements which are born, continue for a while and then die. Everything is like this. There's no real, true substance to it, but it's proper that we use it. It's a tool for your use. If it breaks there is trouble, so even though it must break, you should try your utmost to preserve it. And so we have the four supports [21] which the Buddha taught again and again to contemplate. They are the supports on which a monk depends to continue his practice. As long as you live you must depend on them, but you should understand them. Don't cling to them, giving rise to craving in your mind.
Convention and liberation are related like this continually. Even though we use convention, don't place your trust in it as being the truth. If you cling to it, suffering will arise. The case of right and wrong is a good example. Some people see wrong as being right and right as being wrong, but in the end who really knows what is right and what is wrong? We don't know. Different people establish different conventions about what's right and what's wrong, but the Buddha took suffering as his guide-line. If you want to argue about it there's no end to it. One says, "right," another says, "wrong." One says "wrong," another says "right." In truth we don't really know right and wrong at all! But at a useful, practical level, we can say that right is not to harm oneself and not to harm others. This way fulfills a use.
So, after all, both rules and conventions and liberation are simply dhammas. One is higher than the other, but they go hand in hand. There is no way that we can guarantee that anything is definitely like this or like that, so the Buddha said to just leave it be. Leave it be as uncertain. However much you like it or dislike it, you should understand it as uncertain.
Regardless of time and place, the whole practice of Dhamma comes to completion at the place where there is nothing. It's the place of surrender, of emptiness, of laying down the burden. This is the finish. It's not like the person who says, "Why is the flag fluttering in the wind? I say it's because of the wind." Another person say's it's because of the flag. The other retorts that it's because of the wind. There's no end to this! The same as the old riddle, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" There's no way to reach a conclusion, this is just Nature.
All these things we say are merely conventions, we establish them ourselves. If you know these things with wisdom then you'll know impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self. This is the outlook which leads to enlightenment.
You know, training and teaching people with varying levels of understanding is really difficult. Some people have certain ideas, you tell them something and they don't believe you. You tell them the truth and they say it's not true. "I'm right, you're wrong..." There's no end to this. If you don't let go there will be suffering. I've told you before about the four men who go into the forest. They hear a chicken crowing, "Kak-ka-dehhh!" One of them wonders, "Is that a rooster or a hen?" Three of them say together, "It's a hen," but the other doesn't agree, he insists it's a rooster. "How could a hen crow like that?" he asks. They retort, "Well, it has a mouth, hasn't it?" They argue till the tears fall, really getting upset over it, but in the end they're all wrong. Whether you say a hen or a rooster, they're only names. We establish these conventions, saying a rooster is like this, a hen is like that; a rooster cries like this, a hen cries like that... and this is how we get stuck in the world! Remember this! Actually, if you just say that really there's no hen and no rooster then that's the end of it. In the field of conventional reality one side is right and the other side it wrong, but there will never be complete agreement. Arguing till the tears fall has no use!
The Buddha taught not to cling. How do we practice non-clinging? We practice simply to give up clinging, but this non-clinging is very difficult to understand. It takes keen wisdom to investigate and penetrate this, to really achieve non-clinging. When you think about it, whether people are happy or sad, content or discontent, doesn't depend on their having little or having much — it depends on wisdom. All distress can be transcended only through wisdom, through seeing the truth of things.
So the Buddha exhorted us to investigate, to contemplate. This "contemplation" means simply to try to solve these problems correctly. This is our practice. Like birth, old age, sickness and death — they are the most natural and common of occurrences. The Buddha taught to contemplate birth, old age, sickness and death, but some people don't understand this. "What is there to contemplate?" they say. They're born but they don't know birth, they will die but they don't know death.
A person who investigates these things repeatedly will see. Having seen he will gradually solve his problems. Even if he still has clinging, if he has wisdom and sees that old age, sickness and death are the way of Nature, then he will be able to relieve suffering. We study the Dhamma simply for this — to cure suffering. There isn't really much as the basis of Buddhism, there's just the birth and death of suffering, and this the Buddha called the truth. Birth is suffering, old age is suffering, sickness is suffering and death is suffering. People don't see this suffering as the truth. If we know truth, then we know suffering.
This pride in personal opinions, these arguments, they have no end. In order to put our minds at rest, to find peace, we should contemplate our past, the present, and the things which are in store for us. Like birth, old age, sickness and death. What can we do to avoid being plagued by these? Even though we may still have a little worry, if we investigate till we know according to the truth, all suffering will abate, we will no longer cling to it.
We hear some parts of the teachings and can't really understand them. We think they shouldn't be the way they are, so we don't follow them, but really there is a reason to all the teachings. Maybe it seems that things shouldn't be that way, but they are. At first I didn't even believe in sitting meditation. I couldn't see what use it would be to just sit with your eyes closed. And walking meditation... walk from this tree, turn around and walk back again... "Why bother?" I thought, "What's the use of all that walking?" I thought like that, but actually walking and sitting meditation are of great use.
Some people's tendencies make them prefer walking meditation, others prefer sitting, but you can't do without either of them. In the scriptures they talk about the four postures: standing, walking, sitting and lying. We live with these four postures. We may prefer one to the other, but we must use all four.
They say to make these four postures even, to make the practice even in all postures. At first I couldn't figure out what this meant, to make them even. Maybe it means we sleep for two hours, then stand for two hours, then walk for two hours... maybe that's it? I tried it — couldn't do it, it was impossible! That's not what it meant to make the postures even. "Making the postures even" refers to the mind, to our awareness. That is, to make the mind give rise to wisdom, to illumine the mind. This wisdom of ours must be present in all postures; we must know, or understand, constantly. Standing, walking, sitting or lying, we know all mental states as impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self. Making the postures even in this way can be done, it is possible. Whether like or dislike are present in the mind we don't forget our practice, we are aware.
If we just focus our attention on the mind constantly then we have the gist of the practice. Whether we experience mental states which the world knows as good or bad we don't forget ourselves, we don't get lost in good or bad. We just go straight. Making the postures constant in this way is possible. If we have constancy in our practice and we are praised, then it's simply praise; if we are blamed, then it's just blame. We don't get high or low over it, we stay right here. Why? Because we see the danger in all those things, we see their results. We are constantly aware of the danger in both praise and blame. Normally, if we have a good mood the mind is good also, we see them, as the same thing; if we have a bad mood the mind goes bad as well, we don't like it. This is the way it is, this is uneven practice.
If we have constancy just to the extent of knowing our moods, and knowing we're clinging to them, this is better already. That is, we have awareness, we know what's going on, but we still can't let go. We see ourselves clinging to good and bad, and we know it. We cling to good and know it's still not right practice, but we still can't let go. This is 50% or 70% of the practice already. There still isn't release but we know that if we could let go that would be the way to peace. We keep going like that, seeing the equally harmful consequences of all our likes and dislikes, of praise and blame, continuously. Whatever there is, the mind is constant in this way.
But for worldly people, if they get blamed or criticized they get really upset. If they get praised it cheers them up, they say it's good and get really happy over it. If we know the truth of our various moods, if we know the consequences of clinging to praise and blame, the danger of clinging to anything at all, we will become sensitive to our moods. We will know that clinging to them really causes suffering. We see this suffering, and we see our very clinging as the cause of that suffering. We begin to see the consequences of grabbing and clinging to good and bad, because we've grasped them and seen the result before — no real happiness. So now we look for the way to let go.
Where is this "way to let go"? In Buddhism we say "Don't cling to anything." We never stop hearing about this "don't cling to anything!" This means to hold, but not to cling. Like this flashlight. We think, "What is this?" So we pick it up, "Oh, it's a flashlight," then we put it down again. We hold things in this way. If we didn't hold anything at all, what could we do? We couldn't walk meditation or do anything, so we must hold things first. It's wanting, yes, that's true, but later on it leads to parami (virtue or perfection). Like wanting to come here, for instance... Venerable Jagaro [22] came to Wat Pah Pong. He had to want to come first. If he hadn't felt that he wanted to come he wouldn't have come. For anybody it's the same, they come here because of wanting. But when wanting arises don't cling to it! So you come, and then you go back... What is this? We pick it up, look at it and see, "Oh, it's a flashlight," then we put it down. This is called holding but not clinging, we let go. We know and then we let go. To put it simply we say just this, "Know, then let go." Keep looking and letting go. "This, they say is good; this, they say is not good"... know, and then let go. Good and bad, we know it all, but we let it go. We don't foolishly cling to things, but we "hold" them with wisdom. Practicing in this "posture" can be constant. You must be constant like this. Make the mind know in this way, let wisdom arise. When the mind has wisdom, what else is there to look for?
We should reflect on what we are doing here. For what reason are we living here, what are we working for? In the world they work for this or that reward, but the monks teach something a little deeper than that. Whatever we do, we ask for no return. We work for no rewards. Worldly people work because they want this or that, because they want some gain or other, but the Buddha taught to work just in order to work, we don't ask for anything beyond that. If you do something just to get some return it'll cause suffering. Try it out for yourself! You want to make your mind peaceful so you sit down and try to make it peaceful — you'll suffer! Try it. Our way is more refined. We do, and then let go; do, and then let go.
Look at the brahman who makes a sacrifice: he has some desire in mind, so he makes a sacrifice. Those actions of his won't help him transcend suffering because he's acting on desire. In the beginning we practice with some desire in mind; we practice on and on, but we don't attain our desire. So we practice until we reach a point where we're practicing for no return, we're practicing in order to let go. This is something we must see for ourselves, it's very deep. Maybe we practice because we want to go to Nirvana — right there, you won't get to Nirvana! It's natural to want peace, but it's not really correct. We must practice without wanting anything at all. If we don't want anything at all, what will we get? We don't get anything! Whatever you get is just a cause for suffering, so we practice not getting anything.
Just this is called "making the mind empty." It's empty but there is still doing. This emptiness is something people don't usually understand, but those who reach it see the value of knowing it. It's not the emptiness of not having anything, it's emptiness within the things that are here. Like this flashlight: we should see this flashlight as empty, because of the flashlight there is emptiness. It's not the emptiness where we can't see anything, it's not like that. People who understand like that have got it all wrong. You must understand emptiness within the things are here.
Those who are still practicing because of some gaining idea are like the brahman who makes a sacrifice just to fulfill some wish. Like the people who come to see me to be sprinkled with "holy water." When I ask them, "Why do you want this 'holy water'?" they say, "We want to live happily and comfortably and not get sick." There! They'll never transcend suffering that way. The worldly way is to do things for a reason, to get some return, but in Buddhism we do things without any gaining idea. The world has to understand things in terms of cause and effect, but the Buddha teaches us to go above cause, beyond effect; to go above birth and beyond death; to go above happiness and beyond suffering. Think about it... there's nowhere to stay. We people live in a "home." To leave home and go where there is no home... we don't know how to do it, because we've always lived with becoming, with clinging. If we can't cling we don't know what to do.
So most people don't want to go to Nirvana, there's nothing there; nothing at all. Look at the roof and the floor here. The upper extreme is the roof, that's an "abiding." The lower extreme is the floor, and that's another "abiding." But in the empty space between the floor and the roof there's nowhere stand. One could stand on the roof, or stand on the floor, but not on that empty space. Where there is no abiding, that's where there's emptiness, and, to put it bluntly, we say that Nirvana is this emptiness. People hear this and they back up a bit, they don't want to go. They're afraid they won't see their children or relatives.
This is why, when we bless the laypeople, we say "May you have long life, beauty, happiness and strength." This makes them really happy, "Sadhu!" [23] they all say. They like these things. If you start talking about emptiness they don't want it, they're attached to abiding. But have you ever seen a very old person with a beautiful complexion? Have you ever seen an old person with a lot of strength, or a lot of happiness?... No... But we say, "Long life, beauty, happiness and strength" and they're all really pleased, every single one says "Sadhu!" This is like the brahman who makes oblations to achieve some wish. In our practice we don't "make oblations," we don't practice in order to get some return. We don't want anything. If we still want something then there is still something there. Just make the mind peaceful and have done with it! But if I talk like this you may not be very comfortable, because you want to be "born" again.
So all you lay practitioners should get close to the monks and see their practice. To be close to the monks means to be close to the Buddha, to be close to his Dhamma. The Buddha said, "Ananda, practice a lot, develop your practice! Whoever sees the Dhamma sees me, and whoever sees me sees the Dhamma." Where is the Buddha? We may think the Buddha has been and gone, but the Buddha is the Dhamma, the Truth. Some people like to say, "Oh, if I was born in the time the Buddha I would go to Nirvana." Here, stupid people talk like this. The Buddha is still here. The Buddha is truth. Regardless of whoever is born or dies, the truth is still here. The truth never departs from the world, it's there all the time. Whether a Buddha is born or not, whether someone knows it or not, the truth is still there. So we should get close to the Buddha, we should come within and find the Dhamma. When we reach the Dhamma we will reach the Buddha; seeing the Dhamma we will see the Buddha and all doubts will dissolve.
To put it simply, it's like Teacher Choo. [24] At first he wasn't a teacher, he was just Mr. Choo. When he studied and passed the necessary grades he became a teacher, and became known as Teacher Choo. How did he become a teacher? Through studying the required things, thus allowing Mr. Choo to become Teacher Choo. When Teacher Choo dies, the study to become a teacher still remains, and whoever studies it will become a teacher. That course of study to become a teacher doesn't disappear anywhere, just like the Truth, the knowing of which enabled the Buddha to become the Buddha. So the Buddha is still here. Whoever practices and sees the Dhamma sees the Buddha. These days people have got it all wrong, they don't know where the Buddha is. They say, "If I was born in the time of the Buddha I would have become a disciple of his and become enlightened." That's just foolishness. You should understand this.
Don't go thinking that at the end of the rains retreat you'll disrobe. Don't think like that! In an instant an evil thought can arise in the mind, you could kill somebody. In the same way, it only takes a split-second for good to flash into the mind, and you're there already. Don't think that you have to ordain for a long time to be able to meditate. Where the right practice lies is in the instant we make kamma. In a flash an evil thought arises... before you know it you've committed some really heavy kamma. And in the same way, all the disciples of the Buddha practiced for a long time, but the time they attained enlightenment was merely one thought moment. So don't be heedless, even in minor things. Try hard, try to get close to the monks, contemplate things and then you'll know about monks. Well, that's enough, huh? It must be getting late now, some people are getting sleepy. The Buddha said not to teach Dhamma to sleepy people.
The practice of Dhamma goes against our habits, the truth goes against our desires, so there is difficulty in the practice. Some things which we understand as wrong may be right, while the things we take to be right may be wrong. Why is this? Because our minds are in darkness, we don't clearly see the Truth. We don't really know anything and so are fooled by people's lies. They point out what is right as being wrong and we believe it; that which is wrong, they say is right, and we believe that. This is because we are not yet our own masters. Our moods lie to us constantly. We shouldn't take this mind and its opinions as our guide, because it doesn't know the truth.
Some people don't want to listen to others at all, but this is not the way of a man of wisdom. A wise man listens to everything. One who listens to Dhamma must listen just the same, whether he likes it or not, and not blindly believe or disbelieve. He must stay at the half-way mark, the middle point, and not be heedless. He just listens and then contemplates, giving rise to the right results accordingly.
A wise man should contemplate and see the cause and effect for himself before he believes what he hears. Even if the teacher speaks the truth, don't just believe it, because you don't yet know the truth of it for yourself.
It's the same for all of us, including myself. I've practiced before you, I've seen many lies before. For instance, "This practice is really difficult, really hard." Why is the practice difficult? It's just because we think wrongly, we have wrong view.
Previously I lived together with other monks, but I didn't feel right. I ran away to the forests and mountains, fleeing the crowd, the monks and novices. I thought that they weren't like me, they didn't practice as hard as I did. They were sloppy. That person was like this, this person was like that. This was something that really put me in turmoil, it was the cause for my continually running away. But whether I lived alone or with others I still had no peace. On my own I wasn't content, in a large group I wasn't content. I thought this discontent was due to my companions, due to my moods, due to my living place, the food, the weather, due to this and that. I was constantly searching for something to suit my mind.
As a dhutanga [25] monk, I went traveling, but things still weren't right. So I contemplated, "What can I do to make things right? What can I do?" Living with a lot of people I was dissatisfied, with few people I was dissatisfied. For what reason? I just couldn't see it. Why was I dissatisfied? Because I had wrong view, just that; because I still clung to the wrong Dhamma. Wherever I went I was discontent, thinking, "Here is no good, there is no good..." on and on like that. I blamed others. I blamed the weather, heat and cold, I blamed everything! Just like a mad dog. It bites whatever it meets, because it's mad. When the mind is like this our practice is never settled. Today we feel good, tomorrow no good. It's like that all the time. We don't attain contentment or peace.
The Buddha once saw a jackal, a wild dog, run out of the forest where he was staying. It stood still for a while, then it ran into the underbrush, and them out again. Then it ran into a tree hollow, then out again. Then it went into a cave, only to run out again. One minute it stood, the next it ran, then it lay down, then it jumped up... That jackal had mange. When it stood the mange would eat into its skin, so it would run. Running it was still uncomfortable, so it would lie down. Then it would jump up again, running into the underbrush, the tree hollow, never staying still.
The Buddha said, "Monks, did you see that jackal this afternoon? Standing it suffered, running it suffered, sitting it suffered, lying down it suffered. In the underbrush, a tree hollow or a cave, it suffered. It blamed standing for its discomfort, it blamed sitting, it blamed running and lying down; it blamed the tree, the underbrush and the cave. In fact the problem was with none of those things. That jackal had mange. The problem was with the mange."
We monks are just the same as that jackal. Our discontent is due to wrong view. Because we don't exercise sense restraint we blame our suffering on externals. Whether we live at Wat Pah Pong, in America or in London we aren't satisfied. Going to live at Bung Wai or any of the other branch monasteries we're still not satisfied. Why not? Because we still have wrong view within us, just that! Wherever we go we aren't content.
But just as that dog, if the mange is cured, is content wherever it goes, so it is for us. I reflect on this often, and I teach you this often, because it's very important. If we know the truth of our various moods we arrive at contentment. Whether it's hot or cold we are satisfied, with many people or with few people we are satisfied. Contentment doesn't depend on how many people we are with, it comes only from right view. If we have right view then wherever we stay we are content.
But most of us have wrong view. It's just like a maggot! A maggot's living place is filthy, its food is filthy... but they suit the maggot. If you take a stick and brush it away from its lump of dung, it'll struggle to crawl back into it. It's the same when the Ajahn teaches us to see rightly. We resist, it makes us feel uneasy. We run back to our "lump of dung" because that's where we feel at home. We're all like this. If we don't see the harmful consequences of all our wrong views then we can't leave them, the practice is difficult. So we should listen. There's nothing else to the practice.
If we have right view wherever we go we are content. I have practiced and seen this already. These days there are many monks, novices and laypeople coming to see me. If I still didn't know, if I still had wrong view, I'd be dead by now! The right abiding place for monks, the place of coolness, is just right view itself. We shouldn't look for anything else.
So even though you may be unhappy it doesn't matter, that unhappiness is uncertain. Is that unhappiness your "self"? Is there any substance to it? Is it real? I don't see it as being real at all. Unhappiness is merely a flash of feeling which appears and then is gone. Happiness is the same. Is there a consistency to happiness? Is it truly an entity? It's simply a feeling that flashes suddenly and is gone. There! It's born and then it dies. Love just flashes up for a moment and then disappears. Where is the consistency in love, or hate, or resentment? In truth there is no substantial entity there, they are merely impressions which flare up in the mind and then die. They deceive us constantly, we find no certainty anywhere. Just as the Buddha said, when unhappiness arises it stays for a while, then disappears. When unhappiness disappears, happiness arises and lingers for a while and then dies. When happiness disappears, unhappiness arises again... on and on like this.
In the end we can say only this — apart from the birth, the life and the death of suffering, there is nothing. There is just this. But we who are ignorant run and grab it constantly. We never see the truth of it, that there's simply this continual change. If we understand this then we don't need to think very much, but we have much wisdom. If we don't know it, then we will have more thinking than wisdom — and maybe no wisdom at all! It's not until we truly see the harmful results of our actions that we can give them up. Likewise, it's not until we see the real benefits of practice that we can follow it, and begin working to make the mind "good."
If we cut a log of wood and throw it into the river, and that log doesn't sink or rot, or run aground on either of the banks of the river, that log will definitely reach the sea. Our practice is comparable to this. If you practice according to the path laid down by the Buddha, following it straightly, you will transcend two things. What two things? Just those two extremes that the Buddha said were not the path of a true meditator — indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain. These are the two banks of the river. One of the banks of that river is hate, the other is love. Or you can say that one bank is happiness, the other unhappiness. The "log" is this mind. As it "flows down the river" it will experience happiness and unhappiness. If the mind doesn't cling to that happiness or unhappiness it will reach the "ocean" of Nirvana. You should see that there is nothing other than happiness and unhappiness arising and disappearing. If you don't "run aground" on these things then you are on the path of a true meditator.
This is the teaching of the Buddha. Happiness, unhappiness, love and hate are simply established in Nature according to the constant law of nature. The wise person doesn't follow or encourage them, he doesn't cling to them. This is the mind which lets go of indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain. It is the right practice. Just as that log of wood will eventually flow to the sea, so will the mind which doesn't attach to these two extremes inevitably attain peace.
...Do you know where it will end? Or will you just keep on learning 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 things 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 practice we won't get any results. It's like a person who raises cows. In the morning he takes the cow out to eat grass, 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 it's milk too. You must study and practice as well to get the best results.
Here, I'll explain it further. It's like a person who raises chickens, but he doesn't get the eggs. All he gets is the chicken dung! This is what I tell 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. But if we only talk well, 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 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 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 practice is like a ladle of soup pot. It's in the pot every day but it doesn't know the flavor of the soup. If you don't practice, even if you study till the day you die, you won't know the taste of Freedom!
Ehrwürdige Ajahn Chah (Pra Bhodinyana Thera) was born into a typical farming family in Bahn Gor village, in the province of Ubol Rachathani, N.E. Thailand, in 1917. He lived the first part of his life as any other youngster in rural Thailand, and, following the custom, took ordination as a novice in the local village Wat for a number of years, where he learned to read and write, in addition to some basic Buddhist teachings. After a number of years he returned to the lay life to help his parents, but, feeling an attraction to the monastic life, at the age of twenty he again entered a Wat, this time for higher ordination as a bhikkhu, or Buddhist monk.
He spent the first few years of his bhikkhu life studying scriptures and learning Pali, but the death of his father awakened him to the transience of life and instilled in him a desire to find the real essence of the Buddha's teaching. He began to travel to other monasteries, studying the monastic discipline in detail and spending a very brief but significant time with Venerable Ajahn Mun, the most outstanding meditation Master of the ascetic, forest-dwelling tradition. Following his time with Venerable Ajahn Mun, he spent a number of years traveling around Thailand, spending his time in forests and charnel grounds, ideal places for developing meditation practice.
At length he came within the vicinity of the village of his birth, and when word got around that he was in the area, he was invited to set up a monastery at the Pa Pong forest, a place at that time reputed to be the habitat of wild animals and ghosts. Ehrwürdige Ajahn Chah's impeccable approach to meditation, or Dhamma practice, and his simple, direct style of teaching, with the emphasis on practical application and a balanced attitude, began to attract a large following of monks and laypeople.
In 1966 the first westerner came to stay at Wat Pa Pong, Venerable Sumedho Bhikkhu. From that time on, the number of foreign people who came to Ajahn Chah began to steadily increase, until in 1975, the first branch monastery for western and other non-Thai nationals, Wat Pa Nanachat, was set up with Venerable Ajahn Sumedho as the abbot.
In 1976 Ehrwürdige Ajahn Chah was invited to England together with Ajahn Sumedho, the outcome of which was eventually the establishment of the first branch monastery of Wat Pa Pong outside of Thailand. Since then, further branch monasteries have been established in England, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Italy.
In 1980 Ehrwürdige Ajahn Chah began to feel more acutely the symptoms of dizziness and memory lapse which he had been feeling for some years. This led to an operation in 1981, which, however, failed to reverse the onset of the paralysis which eventually rendered him completely bedridden and unable to speak. However this did not stop the growth of monks and laypeople who came to practice at his monastery, for whom the teachings of Ajahn Chah are a constant guide and inspiration.
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