|
It's important that we
discuss the steps of the practice in training the mind,
for the mind has all sorts of deceptions by which it
fools itself. If you aren't skillful in investigating
and seeing through them, they are very difficult to
overcome even if you're continually mindful to keep
watch over the mind. You have to make an effort to focus
on contemplating these things at all times. Mindfulness
on its own won't be able to give rise to any real
knowledge. At best, it can give you only a little
protection against the effects of sensory contact. If
you don't make a focused contemplation, the mind won't
be able to give rise to any knowledge within itself at
all.
This is why you have to
train yourself to be constantly aware all around. When
you come to know anything for what it really is, there's
nothing but letting go, letting go. On the beginning
level, this means the mind won't give rise to any unwise
or unprofitable thoughts. It will simply stop to watch,
stop to know within itself at all times. If there's
anything you have to think about, keep your thoughts on
the themes of inconstancy, stress, and not-self. You
have to keep the mind thinking and labeling solely in
reference to these sorts of themes, for if your thinking
and labeling are right, you'll come to see things
rightly. If you go the opposite way, you'll have to
think wrongly and label things wrongly, and that means
you'll have to see things wrongly as well. This is what
keeps the mind completely hidden from itself.
Now, when thoughts or
labels arise in the mind, then if you focus on watching
them closely you'll see that they're sensations --
sensations of arising and disbanding, changeable,
unreliable, and illusory. If you don't make an effort to
keep a focused watch on them, you'll fall for the
deceptions of thought-formation. In other words, the
mind gives rise to memories of the past and fashions
issues dealing with the past, but if you're aware of
what's going on in time, you'll see that they're all
illusory. There's no real truth to them at all. Even the
meanings the mind gives to good and bad sensory contacts
at the moment they occur: If you carefully observe and
contemplate, you'll see that they're all deceptive.
There's no real truth to them. But ignorance and
delusion latch onto them all, and this drives the mind
around in circles. In other words, it doesn't know
what's what -- how these things arise, persist, and
disband -- so it latches onto them and gets itself
deceived on many, many levels. If you don't stop to
focus and watch, there's no way you can see through
these things at all.
But if the mind keeps
its balance or stops to watch and know within itself, it
can come to realize these things for what they are. When
it realizes them, it can let them go automatically
without being attached to anything. This is the
knowledge that comes with true mindfulness and
discernment: It knows and lets go. It doesn't cling. No
matter what appears -- good or bad, pleasure or pain --
when the mind knows, it doesn't cling. When it
doesn't cling, there's no stress or suffering. You
have to keep hammering away at this point: When it
doesn't cling, the mind can stay at normalcy. Empty.
Undisturbed. Quiet and still. But if it doesn't read
itself in this way, doesn't know itself in this way, it
will fall for the deceits of defilement and craving. It
will fashion up all sorts of complex and complicated
things that it itself will have a hard time seeing
through, for they'll have their ways of playing up to
the mind to keep it attached to them, all of which is
simply a matter of the mind's falling for the deceits of
the defilements and cravings within itself. The fact
that it isn't acquainted with itself -- doesn't know how
mental states arise and disband and take on objects --
means that it loses itself in its many, many
attachments.
There's nothing as hard
to keep watch of as the mind, because it's so accustomed to wrong views and wrong opinions. This is
what keeps it hidden from itself. But thanks to the
teachings of the Buddha, we can gain knowledge into the
mind, or into consciousness with its many layers and
intricacies that, when you look into it deeply, you'll
find to be empty -- empty of any meaning in and of
itself.
This is an emptiness
that can appear clearly within consciousness. Even
though it's hidden and profound, we can see into it by
looking inward in a way that's quiet and still. The mind
stops to watch, to know within itself. As for sensory
contacts -- sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and that
sort of thing -- it isn't interested, because it's
intent on looking into consciousness pure and simple, to
see what arises in there and how it generates issues.
Sensations, thoughts, labels for pleasure and pain and
so forth, are all natural phenomena that change as soon
as they're sensed -- and they're very refined. If you
view them as being about this or that matter, you won't
be able to know them for what they are. The more
intricate the meanings you give them, the more lost you
become -- lost in the whorls of the cycle of rebirth.
The cycle of rebirth and
the processes of thought-formation are one and the same
thing. As a
result, we whirl around and around, lost in many, many
levels of thought-formation, not just one. The knowledge
that would read the heart can't break through to know,
for it whirls around and around in these very same
thought-formations, giving them meanings in terms of
this or that, and then latching onto them. If it labels
them as good, it latches onto them as good. If it labels
them as bad, it latches onto them as bad. This is why
the mind stays entirely in the whorls of the cycle of
rebirth, the cycle of thought-formation.
For this reason, to see
these things clearly requires the effort to stop and
watch, to stop and know in an appropriate way, in
a way that's just right. At the same time, you have to
use your powers of observation. That's what will
enable you to read your own consciousness in a special
way. Otherwise, if you latch onto the issues of thoughts
and labels, they'll keep you spinning around. So you
have to stop and watch, stop and know clearly by
focusing down -- focusing down on the consciousness
in charge. That way your knowledge will become
skillful.
Ultimately, you'll see
that there's nothing at all -- just the arising and
disbanding occurring every moment in emptiness. If
there's no attachment, there are no issues. There's
simply the natural phenomenon of arising and disbanding.
But because we don't see things simply as natural
phenomena, we see them as being true and latch onto them
as our self, good, bad, and all sorts of other
complicated things. This keeps us spinning around
without knowing how to find a way out, what to let go of
-- we don't know. When we don't know, we're like a
person who wanders into a jungle and doesn't know the
way out, doesn't know what to do...
Actually what we have to
let go of lies right smack in front of us: where the
mind fashions things and gives them meanings so that it
doesn't know the characteristics of arising and
disbanding, pure and simple. If you can simply keep
watching and knowing, without any need for meanings,
thoughts, imaginings -- simply watching the process of
these things in and of itself -- there won't be any
issues. There's just the phenomenon of the present:
arising, persisting, disbanding, arising, persisting,
disbanding... There's no special trick to this, but you
have to stop and watch, stop and know within yourself
every moment. Don't let your awareness stream away
from awareness to outside preoccupations. Gather it in
so it can know itself clearly -- that there's nothing in
there worth latching onto. It's all a bunch of deceits.
To know just this much
is very useful for seeing the truth inside yourself.
You'll see that consciousness is empty of any self. When
you look at physical phenomena, you'll see them as
elements, as empty of any self. You'll see mental
phenomena as empty of any self, as elements of
consciousness -- and that if there's no attachment, no
latching on, there's no suffering or stress...
So even if there's
thinking going on in the mind, simply watch it, simply
let it go, and its cycling will slow down. Fewer and
fewer thought-formations will occur. Even if the mind
doesn't stop completely, it will form fewer and fewer
thoughts. You'll be able to stop to watch, stop to know
more and more. And this way, you'll come to see the
tricks and deceits of thought-formation, mental labels,
pleasure and pain, and so on. You'll be able to know
that there's really nothing inside -- that the reason
you were deluded into latching onto things was because
of ignorance, and that you made yourself suffer right
there in that very ignorance...
So you have to focus
down on one point, one thing. Focusing on many things
won't do. Keep mindfulness in place: stopping, knowing,
seeing. Don't let it run out after thoughts and labels.
But knowing in this way requires that you make the
effort to stay focused -- focused on seeing clearly, not
just on making the mind still. Focus on seeing clearly.
Look on in for the sake of seeing clearly... and
contemplate how to let go. The mind will become empty in
line with its nature in a way that you'll know
exclusively within.
What can we do to see
the aggregates -- this mass of suffering and stress --
clearly in a way that we can cut attachment for them out
of the mind? Why is it that people studying to be
doctors can know everything in the body -- intestines,
liver, kidneys, and all -- down to the details, and yet
don't develop any dispassion or disenchantment for it --
why? Why is it that undertakers can spend their time
with countless corpses and yet not gain any insight at
all? This shows that this sort of insight is hard to
attain. If there's no mindfulness and discernment to see
things clearly for what they are, knowledge is simply a
passing fancy. It doesn't sink in. The mind keeps
latching onto its attachments.
But if the mind can gain
true insight to the point where it can relinquish its
attachments, it can gain the paths and fruitions leading
to nibbana. This shows that there's a difference
in the knowing. It's not that we have to know all the
details like modern-day surgeons. All we have to know is
that the body is composed of the four physical elements
plus the elements of space and consciousness. If we
really know just this much, we've reached the paths
and their fruitions, while those who know all the
details to the point where they can perform surgery
don't reach any transcendent attainments at all...
So let's analyze the
body into its elements so as to know them thoroughly. If
we do, then when there are changes in the body and mind
there won't be too much clinging. If we don't, our
attachments will be fixed and strong and will lead to
further states of being and birth in the future.
Now that we have the
opportunity, we should contemplate the body and take it
apart for a good look so as to get down to the details.
Take the five basic meditation objects -- hair of the
head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin -- and look
at them carefully, one at a time. You don't have to take
on all five, you know. Focus on the hair of the head to
see that it belongs to the earth element, to see that
its roots are soaked in blood and lymph under the skin.
It's unattractive in terms of its color, its smell, and
where it dwells. If you analyze and contemplate these
things, you won't be deluded into regarding them as
your hair, your nails, your teeth, your skin.
All of these parts are
composed of the earth element mixed in with water, wind,
and fire. If they were purely earth they wouldn't last,
because every part of the body has to be composed of all
four elements for it to be a body. And then there's a
mental phenomenon, the mind, in charge. These are things
that follow in line with nature in every way -- the
arising, changing, and disbanding of physical and mental
phenomena -- but we latch onto them, seeing the body as
ours, the mental phenomena as us: It's all us and ours.
If we don't contemplate to see these things for what
they are, we'll do nothing but cling to them.
This is what meditation
is: seeing things clearly for what they are. It's not a
matter of switching from topic to topic, for that would
simply ensure that you wouldn't know a thing. But our
inner character, under the sway of ignorance and
delusion, doesn't like examining itself repeatedly. It
keeps finding other issues to get in the way, so that we
think constantly about other things. This is why we stay
so ignorant and foolish.
Then why is it that we
can know other things? Because they fall in line with
what craving wants. To see things clearly for what they
are would be to abandon craving, so it finds ways of
keeping things hidden. It keeps changing, bringing in
new things all the time, keeping us fooled all the time,
so that we study and think about nothing but matters
that add to the mind's suffering and stress. That's all
that craving wants. As for the kind of study that would
end the stress and suffering in the mind, it's always
getting in the way.
This is why the mind is
always wanting to shift to new things to know, new
things to fall for. And this is why it's always becoming
attached. So when it doesn't really know itself, you
have to make a real effort to see the truth that the
things within it aren't you or yours. Don't let the mind
stop short of this knowledge: Make this a law within
yourself. If the mind doesn't know the truths of
inconstancy, stress, and not-self within itself, it
won't gain release from suffering. Its knowledge will
simply be worldly knowledge; it will follow a worldly
path. It won't reach the paths and fruition leading to
nibbana.
So this is where the
worldly and the transcendent part ways.
If you comprehend inconstancy, stress, and not-self to
the ultimate degree, that's the transcendent. If you
don't get down to their details, you're still on the
worldly level...
The Buddha has many
teachings, but this is what they all come down to. The
important principles of the practice -- the four
foundations of mindfulness, the four Noble Truths -- all
come down to these characteristics of inconstancy,
stress, and not-selfness. If you try to learn too many
principles, you'll end up not getting any clear
knowledge of the truth as it is. If you focus on
knowing just a little, you'll end up with more true
insight than if you try knowing a lot of things.
It's through wanting to know a lot of things that we end
up deluded. We wander around in our deluded knowledge,
thinking and labeling things, but knowledge that's
focused and specific, when it really knows, is absolute.
It keeps hammering away at one point. There's no need to
know a lot of things, for when you really know one
thing, everything converges right there...
In practicing the Dhamma,
if you don't foster a balance between concentration and
discernment, you'll end up going wild in your thinking.
If there's too much work at discernment, you'll go wild
in your thinking. If there's too much concentration, it
just stays still and undisturbed without coming to any
knowledge either. So you have to keep them in balance.
Stillness has to be paired with discernment. Don't let
there be too much of one or the other. Try to get them
just right. That's when you'll be able to see things
clearly all the way through. Otherwise, you'll stay as
deluded as ever. You may want to gain discernment into
too many things -- and as a result, your thinking goes
wild. The mind goes out of control. Some people keep
wondering why discernment never arises in their
practice, but when it does arise they really go off on a
tangent. Their thinking goes wild, all out of bounds.
So when you practice,
you have to observe in your meditation how you can make
the mind still. Once it does grow still, it tends to get
stuck there. Or it may grow empty, without any knowledge
of anything: quiet, disengaged, at ease for a while, but
without any discernment to accompany it. But if you
can get discernment to accompany your concentration,
that's when you'll really benefit. You'll see things all
the way through and be able to let them go. If you're
too heavy on the side of either discernment or
stillness, you can't let go. The mind may come to know
this or that, but it latches onto its knowledge. Then it
knows still other things and latches onto them, too. Or
else it simply stays perfectly quiet and latches onto
that.
It's not easy to keep
your practice on the Middle Way. If you don't use your
powers of observation, it's especially hard. The mind
will keep falling for things, sometimes right, sometimes
wrong, because it doesn't observe what's going on. This
isn't the path to letting go. It's a path that's stuck,
caught up on things. If you don't know what it's stuck
and caught up on, you'll remain foolish and deluded. So
you have to make an effort at focused contemplation
until you see clearly into inconstancy, stress, and
not-self. This without a doubt is what will stop every
moment of suffering and stress...
The sensations of the
mind are subtle and very volatile. Sometimes passion or
irritation can arise completely independent of sensory
contact, simply in line with the force of our character.
For instance, there are times when the mind is perfectly
normal, and all of a sudden there's irritation -- or the
desire to form thoughts and get engrossed in feelings of
pain, pleasure, or equanimity. We have to contemplate
these three kinds of feeling to see that they're
inconstant and always changing, and to see that they are
all stressful, so that the mind won't go and get
engrossed in them. This business of getting engrossed is
very subtle and hard to detect. It keeps us from knowing
what's what because it's delusion pure and simple. Being
engrossed in feelings of pleasure is something
relatively easy to detect, but being engrossed in
feelings of equanimity: That's hard to notice, because
the mind is at equanimity in an oblivious way. This
oblivious equanimity keeps us from seeing anything
clearly.
So you have to focus on
seeing feelings simply as feelings and pull the mind out
of its state of being engrossed with equanimity. When
there's a feeling of equanimity as the mind gathers and
settles down, when it's not scattered around, use that
feeling of equanimity in concentration as the basis for
probing in to see inconstancy, stress, and not-self --
for this equanimity in concentration at the fourth level
of absorption (jhana) is the basis for liberating
insight. Simply make sure that you don't get attached to
the absorption.
If you get the mind to
grow still in equanimity without focusing on gaining
insight, it's simply a temporary state of concentration.
So you have to focus on gaining clear insight either
into inconstancy, into stress, or into not-selfness.
That's when you'll be able to uproot your attachments.
If the mind gets into a state of oblivious equanimity,
it's still carrying fuel inside it. Then as soon as
there's sensory contact, it flares up into attachment.
So we have to follow the principles the Buddha laid
down: Focus the mind into a state of absorption and then
focus on gaining clear insight into the three
characteristics. The proper way to practice is not to
let yourself get stuck on this level or that -- and
no matter what insights you may gain, don't go thinking
that you've gained Awakening. Keep looking. Keep
focusing in to see if there are any further changes in
the mind and, when there are, see the stress in those
changes, the not-selfness of those changes. If you can
know in this way, the mind will rise above feeling, no
longer entangled in this level or that level -- all of
which are simply matters of speculation.
The important thing is
that you try to see clearly. Even when the mind is
concocting all sorts of objects in a real turmoil, focus
on seeing all of its objects as illusory. Then stay
still to watch their disbanding. Get so that it's clear
to you that there's really nothing to them. They all
disband. All that remains is the empty mind -- the mind
maintaining its balance in normalcy -- and then focus in
on examining that.
There are many levels to
this process of examining the diseases in the mind, not
just one. Even though you may come up with genuine
insights every now and then, don't just stop there --
and don't get excited about the fact that you've come to
see things you never saw before. Just keep contemplating
the theme of inconstancy in everything, without latching
on, and then you'll come to even more penetrating
insights...
So focus on in until the
mind stops, until it reaches the stage of absorption
called purity of mindfulness and equanimity. See what
pure mindfulness is like. As for the feeling of
equanimity, that's an affair of concentration. It's what
the mindfulness depends on so that it too can reach
equanimity. This is the stage where we gather the
strength of our awareness in order to come in and know
the mind. Get the mind centered, at equanimity, and then
probe in to contemplate. That's when you'll be able to
see...
An important but subtle
point is that even though we practice, we continue to
fall for pleasant feelings, because feelings are
illusory on many levels. We don't realize that they're
changeable and unreliable. Instead of offering pleasure,
they offer us nothing but stress -- yet we're still
addicted to them.
This business of feeling
is thus a very subtle matter. Please try to contemplate
it carefully -- this business of latching onto feelings
of pleasure, pain, or equanimity. You have to
contemplate so as to see it clearly. And you have to
experiment more than you may want to with pain. When
there are feelings of physical pain or mental distress,
the mind will struggle because it doesn't like pain. But
when pain turns to pleasure, the mind likes it and is
content with it, so it keeps on playing with feeling,
even though as we've already said, feeling is
inconstant, stressful, and not really ours. But the mind
doesn't see this. All it sees are feelings of pleasure,
and it wants them.
Try looking into how
feeling gives rise to craving. It's because we want
pleasant feeling that craving whispers -- whispers right
there at the feeling. If you observe carefully, you'll
see that this is very important, for this is where the
paths and fruitions leading to nibbana are
attained, right here at feeling and craving. If we can
extinguish the craving in feeling, that's nibbana...
In the Solasa Pañha,
the Buddha said that defilement is like a wide and deep
flood, but he then went on to summarize the practice to
cross it simply as abandoning craving in every action.
Now, right here at feeling is where we can practice to
abandon craving, for the way we relish the flavor of
feeling has many ramifications. This is where many of us
get deceived, because we don't see feeling as
inconstant. We want it to be constant. We want pleasant
feelings to be constant. As for pain, we don't want it
to be constant, but no matter how much we try to push it
away, we still latch onto it.
This is why we have to
focus on feeling, so that we can abandon craving right
there in the feeling. If you don't focus here, the other
paths you may follow will simply proliferate. So bring
the practice close to home. When the mind changes, or
when it gains a sense of stillness or calm that would
rank as a feeling of pleasure or equanimity, try to see
in what ways the pleasure or equanimity is inconstant,
that it's not you or yours. When you can do this, you'll
stop relishing that particular feeling. You can stop
right there, right where the mind relishes the flavor of
feeling and gives rise to craving. This is why the mind
has to be fully aware of itself -- all around, at all
times -- in its focused contemplation to see feeling as
empty of self...
This business of liking
and disliking feelings is a disease hard to detect,
because our intoxication with feelings is so very
strong. Even with the sensations of peace and emptiness
in the mind, we're still infatuated with feeling.
Feelings on the crude level -- the violent and stressful
ones that come with defilement -- are easy to detect.
But when the mind grows still -- steady, cool, bright,
and so on -- we're still addicted to feeling. We want
these feelings of pleasure or equanimity. We enjoy them.
Even on the level of firm concentration or meditative
absorption, there's attachment to the feeling...
This is the subtle
magnetic pull of craving, which paints and plasters
things over. This painting and plastering is hard to
detect, because craving is always whispering inside us,
"I want nothing but pleasant feelings." This is very
important, for this virus of craving is what makes us
continue to be reborn...
So explore to see how
craving paints and plasters things, how it causes
desires to form -- the desires to get this or take that
-- and what sort of flavor it has that makes you so
addicted to it, that makes it hard for you to pull away.
You have to contemplate to see how craving fastens the
mind so firmly to feelings that you never weary of
sensuality or of pleasant feelings, no matter what the
level. If you don't contemplate so as to see clearly
that the mind is stuck right here at feeling and
craving, it will keep you from gaining release...
We're stuck on feeling
like a monkey stuck in a tar trap. They take a glob of
tar and put it where a monkey will get its hand stuck in
it and, in trying to pull free, the monkey gets its
other hand, both feet, and finally its mouth stuck, too.
Consider this: Whatever we do, we end up stuck right
here at feeling and craving. We can't separate them out.
We can't wash them off. If we don't grow weary of
craving, we're like the monkey stuck in the glob of tar,
getting ourselves more and more trapped all the time. So
if we're intent on freeing ourselves in the footsteps of
the arahants, we have to focus specifically on feeling
until we can succeed at freeing ourselves from it. Even
with painful feelings, we have to practice -- for if
we're afraid of pain and always try to change it to
pleasure, we'll end up even more ignorant than before.
This is why we have to
be brave in experimenting with pain -- both physical
pain and mental distress. When it arises in full
measure, like a house afire, can we let go of it? We
have to know both sides of feeling. When it's hot and
burning, how can we deal with it? When it's cool and
refreshing, how can we see through it? We have to make
an effort to focus on both sides, contemplating until we
know how to let go. Otherwise, we won't know anything,
for all we want is the cool side, the cooler the
better... and when this is the case, how can we expect
to gain release from the cycle of rebirth?
Nibbana
is the extinguishing of craving, and yet we like to stay
with craving -- so how can we expect to get anywhere at
all? We'll stay right here in the world, right here with
stress and suffering, for craving is a sticky sap. If
there's no craving, there's nothing: no stress, no
rebirth. But we have to watch out for it. It's a sticky
sap, a glob of tar, a dye that's hard to wash out.
So don't let yourself
get carried away with feeling. The crucial part of the
practice lies here...
In making yourself
quiet, you have to be quiet on all fronts -- quiet in
your deeds, quiet in your words, quiet in your mind.
Only then will you be able to contemplate what's going
on inside yourself. If you aren't quiet, you'll become
involved in external affairs and end up having too much
to do and too much to say. This will keep your awareness
or mindfulness from holding steady and firm. You have to
stop doing, saying, or thinking anything that isn't
necessary. That way your mindfulness will be able to
develop continuously. Don't let yourself get involved in
too many outside things.
In training your
mindfulness to be continuous so that it will enable you
to contemplate yourself, you have to be observant: When
there's sensory contact, can the mind stay continuously
undisturbed and at normalcy? Or does it still run out
into liking and disliking? Being observant in this way
will enable you to read yourself, to know yourself. If
mindfulness is firmly established, the mind won't waver.
If it's not yet firm, the mind will waver in the form of
liking and disliking. You have to be wary of even the
slightest wavering. Don't let yourself think that the
slight waverings are unimportant, or else they'll become
habitual.
Being uncomplacent means
that you have to watch out for the details, the little
things, the tiny flaws that arise in the mind. If you
can do this, you'll be able to keep your mind protected
-- better than giving all your attention to the
worthless affairs of the outside world. So really try to
be careful. Don't get entangled in sensory contact. This
is something you have to work at mastering. If you focus
yourself exclusively in the area of the mind like this,
you'll be able to contemplate feelings in all their
details. You'll be able to see them clearly, to let them
go.
So focus your practice
right at feelings of pleasure, pain, and
neither-pleasure-nor-pain. Contemplate how to leave them
alone, simply as feelings, without relishing them --
for if you relish feelings, that's craving. Desires
for this and that will seep in and influence the mind so
that it gets carried away with inner and outer feelings.
This is why you have to be quiet -- quiet in a way that
doesn't let the mind become attached to the flavors of
feelings, quiet in a way that uproots their influence.
The desire for pleasure
is like a virus deep in our character. What we're doing
here is to make the mind stop taking pleasant feelings
into itself and stop pushing painful feelings away. Our
addiction to taking in pleasant feelings is what makes
us dislike painful feelings and push them away, so don't
let the mind love pleasure and resist pain. Let it be
undisturbed by both. Give it a try. If the mind can let
go of feelings so that it's above pleasure, pain, and
neither-pleasure-nor-pain, that means it's not stuck on
feeling. And then try to observe: How can it stay
unaffected by feelings? This is something you have to
work at mastering in order to release your grasp on
feelings once and for all, so that you won't latch onto
physical pain or mental distress as being you or yours.
If you don't release
your grasp on feeling, you'll stay attached to it, both
in its physical and in its mental forms. If there's the
pleasure of physical ease, you'll be attracted to it. As
for the purely mental feeling of pleasure, that's
something you'll really want, you'll really love. And
then you'll be attracted to the mental perceptions and
labels that accompany the pleasure, the
thought-formations and even the consciousness that
accompany the pleasure. You'll latch onto all of these
things as you or yours.
So analyze physical and
mental pleasure. Take them apart to contemplate how to
let them go. Don't fool yourself into relishing them. As
for pain, don't push it away. Let pain simply be
pain, let pleasure simply be pleasure. Let them
simply fall into the category of feelings. Don't go
thinking that you feel pleasure, that you
feel pain. If you can let go of feeling in this way,
you'll be able to gain release from suffering and stress
because you'll be above and beyond feeling. This
way, when aging, illness, and death come, you won't
latch onto them thinking that you are aging, that
you are ill, that you are dying. You'll be
able to release these things from your grasp.
If you can contemplate
purely in these terms -- that the five aggregates are
inconstant, stressful, and not-self -- you won't enter
into them and latch onto them as "me" or "mine." If you
don't analyze them in this way, you'll be trapped in
dying. Even your bones, skin, flesh, and so forth will
become "mine." This is why we're taught to contemplate
death -- so that we can make ourselves aware that death
doesn't mean that we die. You have to contemplate
until you really know this. Otherwise, you'll stay
trapped right there. You must make yourself sensitive in
a way that sees clearly how your bones, flesh, and skin
are empty of any self. That way you won't latch onto
them. The fact that you still latch onto them shows that
you haven't really seen into their inconstancy, stress,
and not-selfness.
When you see the bones
of animals, they don't have much meaning, but when you
see the bones of people, your perception labels them:
"That's a person's skeleton. That's a person's skull."
If there are a lot of them, they can really scare you.
When you see the picture of a skeleton or of anything
that shows the inconstancy and not-selfness of the body,
and you don't see clear through it, you'll get stuck at
the level of skeleton and bones. Actually, there are no
bones at all. They're empty, nothing but elements. You
have to penetrate into the bones so that they're
elements. Otherwise, you'll get stuck at the level of
skeleton. And since you haven't seen through it, it can
make you distressed and upset. This shows that you
haven't penetrated into the Dhamma. You're stuck at the
outer shell because you haven't analyzed things into
their elements.
When days and nights
pass by, they're not the only things that pass by. The
body constantly decays and falls apart, too. The body
decays bit by bit, but we don't realize it. Only after
it's decayed a lot -- when the hair has gone grey and
the teeth fall out -- do we realize that it's old. This
is knowledge on a crude and really blatant level. But as
for the gradual decaying that goes on quietly inside, we
aren't aware of it.
As a result, we cling to
the body as being us -- every single part of it. Its
eyes are our eyes, the sights they see are the
things we see, the sensation of seeing is
something we sense. We don't see these things as
elements. Actually, the element of vision and the
element of form make contact. The awareness of the
contact is the element of consciousness: the mental
phenomenon that senses sights, sounds, smells, tastes,
tactile sensations, and all. This we don't realize,
which is why we latch onto everything -- eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, body, intellect -- as being us or ours.
Then, when the body decays, we feel that we are
growing old; when it dies and mental phenomena stop, we
feel that we die.
Once you've taken the
elements apart, though, there's nothing. These things
lose their meaning on their own. They're simply
physical and mental elements, without any illness or
death. If you don't penetrate into things this way,
you stay deluded and blind. For instance, when we chant
"jara-dhammamhi" -- I am subject to death --
that's simply to make us mindful and uncomplacent in the
beginning stages of the practice. When you reach the
stage of insight meditation, though, there's none of
that. All assumptions, all conventional truths get
ripped away. They all collapse. When the body is empty
of self, what is there to latch onto? Physical elements,
mental elements, they're already empty of any self. You
have to see this clearly all the way through. Otherwise,
they gather together and form a being, both physical and
mental, and then you latch onto them as being your self.
Once we see the world as
elements, however, there's no death. And once we can see
that there's no death, that's when we'll really know.
If we still see that we die, that shows that we haven't
yet seen the Dhamma. We're still stuck on the outer
shell. And when this is the case, what sort of Dhamma
can we expect to know? You have to penetrate deeper in,
to contemplate, taking things apart.
You're almost at the end
of your lease in this burning house and yet you continue
latching onto it as your self. It tricks you into
feeling fear and love, and when you fall for it, what
path will you practice? The mind latches onto these
things to fool itself on many, many levels. You can't
see through even these conventions, so you grasp
hold of them as your self, as a woman, a man -- and you
really turn yourself into these things. If you can't
contemplate so as to empty yourself of these conventions
and assumptions, your practice simply circles around in
the same old place, and as a result you can't find any
way out.
So you have to
contemplate down through many levels. It's like using a
cloth to filter things. If you use a coarse weave, you
won't catch much of anything. You have to use a fine
weave to filter down to the deeper levels and penetrate
into the deeper levels by contemplating over and
over again, through level after level. That's why there
are many levels to being mindful and discerning,
filtering on in to the details.
And this is why
examining and becoming fully aware of your own inner
character is so important. The practice of meditation is
nothing but catching sight of self-deceptions, to see
how they infiltrate into the deepest levels and how even
the most blatant levels fool us right before our very
eyes. If you can't catch sight of the deceits and
deceptions of the self, your practice won't lead to
release from suffering. It will simply keep you deluded
into thinking that everything is you and yours.
To practice in line with
the Buddha's teachings is to go against the flow.
Every living being, deep down inside, wants pleasure on
the physical level and then on the higher and more
subtle levels of feeling, such as the types of
concentration that are addicted to feelings of peace and
respite. This is why you have to investigate into
feeling so that you can let go of it and thus snuff out
craving, through being fully aware of feeling as it
actually is -- free from any self -- in line with its
nature: unentangled, uninvolved. This is what snuffs out
the virus of craving so that ultimately it vanishes
without a trace.
There are many layers to
self-deception. The more you practice and investigate
things, the less you feel like claiming to know.
Instead, you'll simply see the harm of your own
many-faceted ignorance and foolishness. Your examination
of the viruses in the mind gets more and more subtle.
Before, you didn't know, so you took your views to be
knowledge -- because you thought you knew. But actually
these things aren't real knowledge. They're the type of
understanding that comes from labels. Still we think
they're knowledge and we think we know. This in
itself is a very intricate self-deception.
So you have to keep
watch on these things, to keep contemplating them.
Sometimes they fool us right before our eyes: That's
when it really gets bad, because we don't know that
we've got ourselves fooled, and instead think we're
people who know. We can deal thoroughly with this or
that topic, but our knowledge is simply the memory of
labels. We think that labels are discernment, or
thought-formations are discernment, or the awareness of
sensory consciousness is discernment, and so we get
these things all mixed up. As a result, we become
enamored with all the bits of knowledge that slip in and
fashion the mind -- which are simply the illusions
within awareness. As for genuine awareness, there's very
little of it, while deceptive awareness has us
surrounded on all sides.
We thus have to
contemplate and investigate so as to see through these
illusions in awareness. This is what will enable us to
read the mind. If your awareness goes out, don't follow
it out. Stop and turn inward instead. Whatever slips in
to fashion the mind, you have to be wise to it. You
can't forbid it, for it's something natural, and you
shouldn't try to close off the mind too much. Simply
keep watch on awareness to see how far it will go, how
true or false it is, how it disbands and then arises
again. You have to watch it over and over again. Simply
watching in this way will enable you to read yourself,
to know cause and effect within yourself, and to
contemplate yourself. This is what will make your
mindfulness and discernment more and more skillful. If
you don't practice in this way, the mind will be dark.
It may get a little empty, a little still, and you'll
decide that's plenty good enough.
But if you look at the
Buddha's teachings, you'll find that no matter what sort
of correct knowledge he gained, he was never willing to
stop there. He always said, "There's more." To begin
with, he developed mindfulness and clear comprehension
in every activity, but then he said, "There's more to
do, further to go." As for us, we're always ready to
brag. We work at developing this or that factor for a
while and then say we already know all about it and
don't have to develop it any further. As a result, the
principles in our awareness go soft because of our
boastfulness and pride.
To open the door so that
you can really see inside yourself isn't easy, but it's
something you can train yourself to do. If you have the
mindfulness enabling you to read yourself and understand
yourself, that cuts through a lot of the issues right
there. Craving will have a hard time forming. In
whatever guise it arises, you'll get to read it, to know
it, to extinguish it, to let it go.
When you get to do these
things, it doesn't mean that you "get" anything, for
actually once the mind is empty, that means it doesn't
gain anything at all. But to put it into words for those
who haven't experienced it: In what ways is emptiness
empty? Does it mean that everything disappears or is
annihilated? Actually, you should know that emptiness
doesn't mean that the mind is annihilated. All that's
annihilated is clinging and attachment. What you have to
do is to see what emptiness is like as it actually
appears and then not latch onto it. The nature of this
emptiness is that it's deathless within you -- this
emptiness of self -- and yet the mind can still
function, know, and read itself. Just don't label it or
latch onto it, that's all.
There are many levels to
emptiness, many types, but if it's this or that type,
then it's not genuine emptiness, for it contains the
intention trying to know what type of emptiness it is,
what features it has. This is something you have to look
into deeply if you really want to know. If it's
superficial emptiness -- the emptiness of the still
mind, free from thought-formations about its objects or
free from the external sense of self -- that's not
genuine emptiness. Genuine emptiness lies deep, not on
the level of mere stillness or concentration. The
emptiness of the void is something very profound.
But because of the
things we've studied and heard, we tend to label the
emptiness of the still mind as the void -- and so we
label things wrongly in that emptiness... Actually it's
just ordinary stillness. We have to look more deeply in.
No matter what you've encountered that you've heard
about before, don't get excited. Don't label it as this
or that level of attainment. Otherwise you'll spoil
everything. You reach the level where you should be able
to keep your awareness steady, but once you label
things, it stops right there -- or else goes all out of
control.
This labeling is
attachment in action. It's something very subtle, very
refined. Whatever appears, it latches on. So you simply
have to let the mind be empty without labeling it as
anything, for the emptiness that lets go of
preoccupations or is free from the influence of
thought-formations is something you have to look
further into. Don't label it as this or that level,
for to measure and compare things in this way blocks
everything -- and in particular, knowledge of how the
mind changes.
So to start out, simply
watch these things, simply be aware. If you get excited,
it ruins everything. Instead of seeing things clear
through, you don't. You stop there and don't go any
further. For this reason, when you train the mind or
contemplate the mind to the point of gaining clear
realizations every now and then, regard them as simply
things to observe.
Once you can read your
mind correctly, you can catch hold of defilements and
kill them off: That's insight meditation. The mind
becomes razor sharp, just as if you have a sharp knife
that can cut anything clear through. Even if defilements
arise again, you can dig them up again, cut them off
again. It's actually a lot of fun, this job of uprooting
the defilements in the mind. There's no other work
nearly as much fun as getting this sense of "I" or self
under your thumb, because you get to see all of its
tricks. It's really fun. Whenever it shows its face in
order to get anything, you just watch it -- to see what
it wants and why it wants it, to see what inflated
claims it makes for itself. This way you can
cross-examine it and get to the facts.
Once you know, there's
nothing to do but let go, to become unentangled and
free. Just think of how good that can be! This practice
of ours is a way of stopping and preventing all kinds of
things inside ourselves. Whenever defilement rises up to
get anything, to grab hold of anything, we don't play
along. We let go. Just this is enough to do away with a
lot of stress and suffering, even though the defilements
feel the heat.
When we oppress the
defilements a lot in this way, it gets them hot and
feverish, you know. But remember, it's the
defilements that get hot and feverish. And remember
that the Buddha told us to put the heat on the
defilements, because if we don't put the heat on them,
they put the heat on us all the time.
So we must be intent on
burning the defilements away, even though they may
complain that we're mistreating them. We close the door
and imprison them. When they can't go anywhere, they're
sure to complain: "I can't take it! I'm not free to go
anywhere at all!" So simply watch them: Where do they
want to go? What do they want to grab hold of? Where?
Watch them carefully, and they'll stop -- stop going,
stop running. It's easy to say no to other things, but
saying no to yourself, saying no to your defilements,
isn't easy at all -- and yet it doesn't lie beyond your
discernment or capabilities to do it. If you have the
mindfulness and discernment to say no to defilement,
it'll stop. Don't think that you can't make it stop. You
can make it stop -- simply that you've been
foolish enough to give in to it so quickly that it's
become second nature.
So we have to stop. Once
we stop, the defilements can stop, too. Wherever they
turn up, we can extinguish them. And when this is the
case, how can we not want to practice? No matter
how stubbornly they want anything, simply watch them.
Get acquainted with them, and they won't stay. They'll
disband. As soon as they disband, you realize exactly
how deceptive they are. Before, you didn't know. As soon
as they urged you to do anything, you went along with
them. But once you're wise to them, they stop. They
disband. Even though you don't disband them, they
disband on their own. And as soon as you see their
disbanding, the path opens wide before you. Everything
opens wide in the heart. You can see that there's a way
you can overcome defilement, you can put an end to
defilement, no matter how much it arises. But you've got
to remember to keep on watching out for it, keep on
letting it go.
Thus I ask that you all
make the effort to keep sharpening your tools at all
times. Once your discernment is sharp on any point, it
can let go of that point and uproot it. If you look
after that state of mind and contemplate how to keep it
going, you'll be able to keep your tools from growing
too easily dull.
And now
that you know the basic principles, I ask that you make
the effort to the utmost of your strength and
mindfulness. May you be brave and resilient, so that
your practice for gaining release from all your
sufferings and stress can reap good results in every
way.
Copyright © Khao Suan
Luang Dhamma Community 1995
For free distribution only.
You may print copies of this work for your personal
use.
You may re-format and redistribute this work for use
on computers and computer networks,
provided that you charge no fees for its
distribution or use.
Otherwise, all rights reserved
|
![[go to toc]](KN004_files/image001.gif){kind=small}