Our present birth is to
be thought of as resembling a journey along a road. It
is necessary then to have a good look and discover which
is the right and which the wrong way to walk this road.
If we just follow the crowd, we may well go astray and
miss the true destination. This is not the kind of
walking we have in mind when we speak of "walking the
Path." By "walking the Path" we mean progress towards
nirvana, towards freedom from the unsatisfactory
condition.
If this
comparison of our present birth to a journey along a
road is still unclear, the matter must be thought over
deeply, discussed, and studied thoroughly. In this study
and practice, we can find help and guidance in the
teachings of the Buddha, the one who succeeded in
walking the Path right to the end. Unfortunately
however, most people take no interest in the Buddha's
teaching as a guide to the Path and how to walk it.
Now here is an
important point to consider: this person who is to walk
the Path -just which particular person is it? Or if it
is a number of people, how many? Taking the broad
outlook we can see that it is really the whole of
humanity, mankind in general. Think about it. As long as
noone exists who knows the Path and how to walk it, most
people are sure to stray from the Path. But slowly and
by degrees the right way is found, little by little the
Path is re-discovered, until the time comes when there
arises a fully enlightened being, a buddha, someone who
manages to walk the perfectly right Path. In other words
walking the Path is a long-term project which mankind is
engaged in collectively, until such time as some
exceptional individual happens to increase so much in
insight that he manages to walk it right to the end.
Let us put this
another way. Most people live no longer than one hundred
years at the most. Walking the Path more or less
clumsily, they cover only a short distance before they
die. No single person gets very far -and who is to carry
on where he leaves off? The answer is posterity.
Succeeding generations, benefiting from the insight
gained by their predecessors, inherit the task of
carrying on the journey. Children and grandchildren
carry on where their elders have left off, making
steadily more progress until the time comes when one of
them manages to complete the journey.
Looked at in
this way, even the having of children, the propagation
of the species, has as its objective continual progress
along the Path, and ultimately arrival at the end. But
do people at the present time really have this objective
in view when they have children? People go on producing
more and more dark-eyed little infants - but are they
thinking of these new individuals as heirs to the task
of carrying on along the Path? If not, then their
motivation must be on some lower level, the level of
animals like dogs and cats. People give birth to
offspring, which they then love so dearly they would
willingly lay down their life for them. But animals do
this too. The attachment to offspring dominating the
mind of a parent operates in precisely the same way in
animals as in man.
But let us examine why an animal has such an
attachment to its offspring, such a strong desire to
protect them. Just what is the purpose of it? We can
safely assume that it is not a result of rational
thinking on the part of the animal. Attachment to
offspring and desire to protect them are naturally
present in animals. And why has Nature equipped animals
with this kind of instinct? In order to guard against
the extinction of the species. And for what purpose
should the extinction of an animal species be averted?
Ultimately in order to make possible further evolution,
further steady progress towards the highest stage
possible for a reproducing species. Thus we see Nature
working to save each species of living things from
extinction, thereby ensuring continued evolution up to
the highest point. This is Nature's purpose. Animals in
general are subject to this law, whether they realize it
or not. It can be said, then, that for the lower animals
too, birth is a journey. It is a nonstop journey of
progress until the top is reached, until there evolves
Man. And after that further progress is possible to the
stage of Fully Enlightened Man.
Now, for what
purpose does present-day man produce offspring? Possibly
there do exist people who genuinely believe they are
producing children in order that the human species may
be perpetuated and Nirvana ultimately attained, in other
words, in order that there may be continual progress
along the Path. But obviously the great majority do not
think like this. They love their children. They feed and
care for them and make all sons of sacrifices on account
of their blind love. Everyone wants his own children to
be the best and the most beautiful. Noone is concerned
about the propagation of the species for the sake of
continuing the journey. Noone looks on his children in
terms of humanity's collective progress towards the
goal. Everyone thinks in terms of individual benefit, in
terms of "me" and "mine." It is only "my child" that
matters. It is only he whose condition and progress are
of any concern. This kind of thinking conforms with the
laws of Nature, but conflicts with all the principles of
Dharma. As a result, children are bound to bring their
parents misery and tears. This narrow thinking does
nothing to help humanity towards nirvana.
All this
discussion is intended to bring us back to the
questions: "Why was I born?" and "What ought I to be
doing?" Even if one has children and keeps the species
going, what must one hand on to them so that they may be
fit to encounter the Dharma and become genuine
Dharma-followers: As long as each individual considers
himself a single self sufficient unit, not involved with
the rest, mankind has no means of moving forward towards
the coming into existence of an enlightened being.
All of man's
scientific knowledge is of no use unless it helps him to
progress spiritually. Now, speaking in terms of material
values, it does happen that what evil people achieve and
pass on to evil people following them brings about
progress. If this were not so, the world could never
have attained its present unbelievably high stage of
technological development. It could be maintained that
we were born to work for the material progress of
mankind up to the ultimate. But in material progress
there is no ultimate. Progress, as understood by the
average house-holder, the man of the world, never loads
to any ultimate goal. By contrast, spiritual progress
progress towards the Truth known by an enlightened
being, does have an ultimate goal. On this road it is
possible to go right to the end and attain complete
freedom from the unsatisfactory condition.
Let us pursue the question further. Given that
man was born to walk the Path to nirvana, how exactly
are we to set about this walking? The Buddha has said:
Sabbe sankhara aniccati
Yada pannaya passati
Atha nibbindati dukkhe
Esa maggo visuddhiya.
"When a man sees with insight that all
compounds are transient, he becomes fed up with them as
unsatisfactory. That is the Path to Nirvana, to Purity."
When a man comes to recognize the true nature
of compounds (Sankharas); he becomes fed up with them.
And this disenchantment with compounds is the first step
on the Path leading to Nirvana, to Dharma. The Buddha
said furthermore:
Sabbe sankhara anicca,
Sabbe sankhara dukkha,
Sabbe dhamma anatta,
All compounds are
transient,
All compounds are unsatisfactory,
All things are not selves (anatta).
When one has
seen these three characteristics, one becomes
disenchanted with those unsatisfactory compounds. And
that is the Path to Nirvana -or at least the beginning
of it. The point to note here is that when a person has
come to a proper realization of these characteristics of
compounds, he finds himself naturally repelled by
compounds, that is, by the unsatisfactory condition. All
compounds are thoroughly unsatisfactory. As soon as a
person begins to see compounds as thoroughly
unsatisfactory, he becomes utterly fed-up with
compounds. Compounds are by their very nature
unsatisfactory. The word "compound" automatically
implies unsatisfactoriness. There is no such thing as a
satisfactory compound. When compounding stops, there is
Nirvana, the ideal state.
But the last line of this quotation covers both
compounds and non-compounds. Nothing whatsoever, be it
compound or no compound, is a self that might be grasped
at as being one's own. This is the last word. Compounds
are ever changing; compounds are unsatisfactory; all
things, compounds or not, are such that they may not be
grasped at as selves or as belonging to oneself. Only
when this fact is seen in all clarity has the real Path
begun; only then has one really started moving towards
the overcoming of the unsatisfactory condition, that is,
towards Nirvana.
The word "Path" has several meanings. First of
all and most basically it should be understood as
synonymous with "practice" (Patipatti) or "way of
practice" (patipada). Both of these terms imply stepwise
progress like walking along a path; and they also imply
the path itself which is to be walked. The word "Path"
refers specifically to that which is practised or
walked, but strictly speaking the Path and the walking
of it ought not to be distinguished. The walking, the
walker, and the path walked are not to be recognized as
separate things. In the Pali language one single word
was used for these, or at least one basic root word was
used in slightly different forms which referred
respectively to the one who walks, the path walked, and
the act of walking. All these are in Peli variants of
the one root word. So when we hear of the practice
(Patipatti) or the way of practice (patipada), let us
bear in mind that they refer to walking the Path.
And there are numerous other terms all
referring to this same Path. A person who, not having
studied the matter very closely, comes across such a
large number of equivalent terms may well jump to the
conclusion that they refer to several different things.
In reality they all refer to this one Path. For instance
the Task (kammapatha) is simply the Path to be walked;
the Ten Skillful Actions (kusalakammapatha) are also
simply the Path; Morality, Concentration, and Insight
(sila-samadhi panna) are the Path; the Noble Eightfold
Path (ariya atthangika magga) is once again the Path;
and even to see all compounds as transient and
unsatisfactory, and all things as not solves -this too
is the Path. Anyone who has been thinking of these
various names as all denoting different things would do
well to correct this misunderstanding. All these
different names denote one and the same Path locked at
from different points of view for purposes of
instruction.
Now what are the Ten Skillful Actions? These
are ten kinds of abstinence from sinful bodily, vocal,
and mental action. Taken together they are called the
Ten Skillful Actions because anyone who practises in
this way is walking the high Path. The Buddha used this
particular mode of speaking when teaching ordinary
average people. When he wished to teach on a higher
level or in briefer terms, for the benefit of people
with a more than average degree of understanding, he
spoke in terms of the Noble Eightfold Path -right
understanding, right aspiration, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right
mindfulness, and right concentration. This Eightfold
Path is a mode of practice rather above the level
appropriate for the average householder. But its
objective is just the same. It too aims at the
attainment of Nirvana, differing from other schemes only
in intensity or level.
Now let us look at the Buddha's brief statement
that whenever transience, unsatisfactoriness, and
non-selfhood (anicca, dukka, anatta) are perceived with
insight, that is the Path. This is even more clearly a
statement designed specifically for people with insight.
The Pali says quite clearly: "When transience,
unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood are perceived with
insight, that is the Path."
Reflection will show that when we have proper
insight and understanding of the true characteristics of
all compounds, that is, of Nature itself, then at that
time our behaviour, bodily, vocal, and mental, will be
just as it should be. It will be right behaviour - but
not simpy right in terms of the law-books or general
morality, or social custom, not just unintelligently
right. To put it another way, if a person really
perceives transience, unsatisfactoriness, and
non-seifhood, he cannot possibly do the wrong thing by
way of body, speech, or mind, because the power of this
understanding acts as a governor, If we properly know
and understand and perceive the three characteristics,
we cannot possibly think wrong thoughts or have wrong
aspirations, or say or do the wrong thing. Having had
clear insight into the true nature of things, we are no
longer liable to become obsessed with them. Actions
based on true insight are always right actions. Thus
morality, conctentration, and insight (or the Noble
Eightfold Path, or the Ten Skillful Actions, etc.) come
into being of their own accord.
Suppose now, that, having reached the peak of
insight into transience, unsatisfactoriness, and
non-selfhood, we then descend. Any action we then do at
this lower level will be a thoroughly right action. And
taking it the other way round, if we are working up from
the bottom, we have to build a firm foundation of right
behaviour, bodily, vocal, and mental, supported by which
we may grow in insight day by day. So a man of the
world, one who is still an ordinary deluded worldling,
must have faith in the efficacy of the Ten Skillful
Actions and try his best to practise them. If he does
this constantly, he will soon start making progress in
insight because this is the nght way to walk the Path.
Ultimately he will reach the peak, attaining insight
into transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood.
So regardless of whether the Path is viewed from the end
towards the beginning, or from the beginning towards the
end, it is seen as something that can be done -provided
of course the individual concerned is reasonably wefl
equipped as to character, sense faculties, and
intelligence. Everyone who has been born in the world
and blessed with long life, ought to make it his
business to develop insight, Iittle by little, every
day, until he reaches the stage where he is able to see
the three characteristics of all compounds, to see the
endless process of compounding as unsatisfactory, and to
perceive escape from unsatisfactoriness in the state of
freedom from compounding.
This is sufficient answer to the question why
the Buddha taught the Path in several different ways. At
the high level he taught the Four Exercises in
Mindfulness (satipatthana) as the One Path, the perfect
system for the individual walking alone, the one way
towards the one and only goal. He taught the Path under
the name of Mindfulness, and under many other names
which we need not go into here at length.
All we wish to do here is to realize that this
thing called the Path will have come to be the True Path
just as soon as there arises insight into transience,
unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood. As long as this
insight has not yet arisen, it is still not the True
Path, but only the very beginning of it. So if a person
has not yet gained this insight into the three
Characteristics, he still does not know the Path to be
walked. Instead he goes oft in search of things which
are transient, unsatisfactory, and not selves more than
ever, and his life becomes more and more unsatisfactory.
But if a person does come to see that all Compounds are
transient, unsatisfactory, and not selves, his mind will
seek to avoid those compounds. It will seek to transcend
them, to get above them, so that they cannot harm it.
This is the True Path, the Path that leads away from
unsatisfactoriness and towards the overcoming of it.
So it is up to each one of us to develop the
True Path based on insight and try to gain understanding
of the transience, unsafisfactoriness, and non-selfhood
of campounds, to see them as inherently unsatisfactory,
as nothing but unsatisfactory, as the unsatisfactory
condition itself, to be avoided at all costs. This seen,
behaviour will thenceforth be free of compounding with
craving and attachment. Once transience,
unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood have bean seen,
craving and attachment cannot arise. All that is
left is the insight. Insight serves to prevent the
arising of craving and attachment. So this life can be
one with the Path. Life can be in itself a good steady
progress: it can be one and the same as walking the
Path.
I hope you will all now take a greater interest
in these three words "transience, unsatistactoriness,
non-selfhood." Don't go just memorising someone's
explanation of them, See for yourself that things which
go on perpetually combining and changing possess these
three characterstics. When a person does not realize the
true nature of things, he unwillingly takes them as
lasting, worthwhile, selves belonging to himself. You
can imagine the trouble that then results. lt's like
taking a thing with certain properties and trying to
force it to have different properties. It can't be done
any more than fire can be forced to be without heat. The
result is both comic and tragic.
So the majority of people believe that having
been born into this llfe, we ought to go after one thing
or another, according to our desires, being pleased when
we get what we want and upset when we don't. When people
have children they have nothing better to teach them
than this primitive philosophy. This is all they have to
offer. It is a far cry from the Path taught by the
Buddha. Children walk in the same old ruts as their
parents, and so it goes on from one generation to the
next. There is no progress forwards, no variation or
improvement based on knowledge that all things are
transient, unsatisfactory, and not selves, and therefore
not to be grasped at. If then our children, and we
ourselves too, are to walk the Path easily and quickly,
it behoves us to take a special interest in this matter
of grasping and non-grasping, to train ourselves in it
and teach it to others;.
True, we have to live in the world. We have to
eat, to make use of various articles, to see and come in
contact with all sorts of things. But it is possible to
live with these things without grasping at and clinging
to them. We must act intelligently, always mindful of
the three characteristics. When our offspring have this
insight, when they have come to see that nothing
whatsoever can be grasped at and clung to, we can then
leave them to look after themselves. They are then able
to think, speak, and act correctly of their own accord,
in the way that is free from the unsatisfactory
condition. It is up to us to teach and train our
children in this matter of grasping and non-grasping so
that they may be free from excessive depression and
elation. They must develop sufficient intelligence to
keep them above the things that would otherwise make
them laugh or cry. They must develop in this insight
just as they develop physically. This is how to be a
good parent who hands on to his offspring the job of
walking the Path the right and rapid way. This is how it
should be, in keeping with the principle that man is
born to walk the Path so that the goal way one day be
attained.
Now let us have
a look at Thailand, and the hundred-odd other countries
of the world, and see what sorts of things people are
teaching their children. What sorts of things are people
doing? What are their desires, the causes of those
actions that are producing so much suffering and misery
in every part of the world at the present time?
We find that people, far from walking the right
Path, are following the Devil, Satan, Mara, whatever one
cares to call him, which is bound to be a source of all
sorts of misary. This is not at all in keeping with the
purpose of birth as a human being, let alone a human
being who has encountered the Buddha's teaching. Even
any ordinary human being ought not to behave like this,
because the term "human" (in Sanskrit manusya) means
something rather special. It implies a high-minded
being, a descendant of Manu the wise, something higher
than average. To deserve the title of human being, one
must walk the True Path. As soon as one wanders from the
Path, one ceases to be human in the true sense. If one
thinks along lines inconsistent with Truth of Dharma for
even one moment, then in that moment one has ceased
being a true human being and is instead walking the path
of Mara, or the path of the beasts. Our examination has
to be done in such detail that we walk the Path all the
lime, with every breath we take, every minute and every
second. We must walk the Path all the time. As soon as
we relax, we go astray.
So let us not go lapsing into thought patterns
that lead to carelessness or overconfidence, or the idea
that this journey is an easy one. There is also a danger
of relaxing and simply going downstream, drifting with
the current. This is one of the worst dangers. The
Buddha taught us to be constantly aware, to walk the
Path every single "thought moment". One moment of
unawareness and the mind is off the track again.
Sometimes it may go so far astray that to return to the
Path becomes very difficult and time-consuming. Suppose
one falls into one of the "woeful states" such as hell.
This means that one has done the wrong thing, relaxed,
and let the mind drop to the low level known as hell, so
that it is difficult to return promptly. This wandering
from the Path is like walking into a trap, falling into
a pit or ditch. It comes from being careless, not
keeping to the Path, not being constantly aware of those
three characteristics, transience, unsatisfactoriness,
and non-selfhood. And there is no travelling companion
who will help us keep to the straight and narrow. There
is noone to keep an eye on us and see that we don't
wander off the Path. Each of us is just a blind man
being led by blind men. The lot of us are just fumbling
along all the time. It is because the great majority of
people are forever being careless and wandering off the
Path that the entire world is in such a pitiful and
hopeless condition.
Do realize that this business of the Path and
the walking of it is no small matter, no joke. On the
contrary it is the most vital matter of all. It is the
task for a human being. It is a job to be done with all
the intelligence and ability a human being carn muster.
Don't waver for an instant, not for a split second! In a
single instant one may go astray from the Path, If the
mind is not on the lookout at every moment, there is a
danger of its running oft the Path and even falling into
hell. It behoves each one of us to reflect on the
dangers of this kind of lapse, and resolve to maintain
clear and unobscured insight into the transience,
unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood of every single
thing about him. His every action, word, and thought
will then be in keeping with that insight. There is no
way it can lapse and give rise to some kind of
suffering.
This, then, is in brief the way to walk the
Path. It is just a brief summary, just the essence of
it. It could be dealt with in more detail to cover the
numerous different forms of practice out of which an
individual may choose just the one that best suits his
own partIcular temperament. One can think of it as the
Noble Eightfold Path, or the Four Exercises in
Mindfulness, or the Ten SkilIful Actions, or something
else, just as one chooses. We way choose to think of it
as the Ten Virtues, which a Buddha is said to possess.
These Virtues are once again the Path to be walked from
ordinary human status to buddhahood. If we feel ten
Virtues are too much for us to aim at, that is all
right; and it we feel we could manage all ten but not to
the degree possible for a buddha, that is all right too.
These Virtues simply constitute a mode of practice
governed by insight into the thoroughly unsatisfactory
nature of this worldly condition, this cycle of Samsara,
these compounds. Our job is to cross over from all this
to the other side Nirvana, by means of the kind of
action that sees things as they really are, as
transient, unsatisfactory, and not selves. So we
practice in such a way as to wipe out all grasping and
clinging to these transient, unsatisfactory, selfless
things. We practise charity, goodwill, honesty,
tolerance all the virtues that we realize will give
mastery over the lower kinds of thought, the kind that is
blind to the three characteristics.
To sum up then, walking the Path must begin,
develop, and culminate with perfectly clear insight into
the three characteristics. This is all there is to it. I
hope you will follow this Path taught by the Buddha and
gain the benefits of so doing.
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