Being Dharma Read online

  His first sermon cut directly through the misconceptions and mistaken practices of ordinary beings. Being immersed in the pursuit of pleasure, comfort, and happiness, in the pride that seeks to elevate and extol oneself, is not the path that one who has gone forth from the world should walk. The state of dissatisfaction and suffering, of negativity, aversion, and anger, is self-mortification. It brings about no benefit at all.

  These two paths are not the way a seeker of liberation should walk. They refer to the extremes of elation and depression, indulgence and suppression. The one who walks the path is our own awareness, which should not follow these extreme reactions of mind. The mind should not be left to follow what it supposes to be good or bad because that becomes the cause of joy or sorrow. If it becomes happy over something there is then attachment to what is perceived as good, and that is the extreme of indulgence. If there is something that is perceived as being bad, that is grasped with aversion, invested with negative significance. This is the mind following the two extremes, pleasure on one side, pain on the other, which the Buddha summarized as sensual indulgence and self-mortification.

  These two paths are not the way of a samana (a tranquil being). They are the ways of worldly people. All worldly beings are constantly in search of happiness and pleasure. They are habituated to the extreme reactions of attraction and aversion to things and are always being bounced back and forth between the two as they undergo ceaseless change and keep on trading places. This is the way of the world. If there is happiness, there will be suffering. There is suffering, and then there is happiness, and then there is suffering again. These are things that will always be uncertain and unstable. Thus they are the dharma of those who are mired in the world, those who are not at peace. Those who are at peace do not go this way. But they do see and know about these things. They see pleasure and happiness, but not accepting them as real, they don’t get attached to or stuck in them. They are aware of whatever aversion there may be to things, but they do not take that as a path either.

  These are people who see the path. Those who are tranquil understand the way that is not tranquil while still remaining at peace. The way of seeking happiness with its resultant depression and elation over things is recognized as a mistaken path. The wise also experience such phenomena but do not expect to find any ultimate meaning in them, so they let go of such reactions. The ones who are at peace are unshaken by these things, by happiness and suffering. When there is no more meaning seen in things, one naturally lets go of happiness and suffering, in accord with their nature. When happiness and suffering are known for what they are, they become invalid phenomena. They have no meaning in the mind of the awakened being. There is mere recognition of them, that happiness or suffering are appearing, like hot or cold appearing; it is not that there is no recognition or awareness.

  So it is said that the arahant is one far from the mental afflictions. Actually, he or she does not go anywhere far away. She doesn’t flee from the afflictions, and the afflictions do not flee from her. It’s like a lotus leaf in the water. The lotus leaf exists in the water and lives nourished by the water. The water is in contact with the lotus, but cannot penetrate or submerge it.

  The afflictions are the water. The mind of the practitioner is the lotus leaf. They contact each other—the lotus doesn’t need to avoid the water—but they remain separate. The mind of the yogin is like this. It does not flee or escape to anywhere. When good comes, it is aware; when bad comes, it is aware. When there is happiness or suffering, like or dislike, the mind is aware; it is aware of everything that occurs. But it merely recognizes these states. They cannot penetrate the mind. This means there is no grasping and no attachment to things.

  In Dharma language, it is spoken of as equanimity, keeping the mind balanced and neutral. In ordinary speech, we call it recognition, being informed or notified of what is going on. There is no involvement or taking sides. Just as when we meet someone and he tells us about something, we merely take note of what he has to say. We don’t necessarily believe anything, we merely take note.

  This kind of attitude must be maintained continuously, because these things exist in this world. The Buddha was enlightened in the world. He taught in the world. He examined the facts of the world; if he had not examined and come to understand the world, when he met with the world, he would not have been able to transcend it. After his enlightenment, the world was still there as before. For example, there was still praise. There was still criticism. There were still material gain, rank, happiness, and suffering. If none of these things existed, there would be no basis for enlightenment, because they are the very opposite of enlightenment. When the Buddha was enlightened, he awakened to the truth of these worldly dharmas that deceive and obscure the minds of human beings. Gain and loss, rank and disrepute, happiness and suffering, praise and blame belong to the world. If the minds of people follow after these things and fall under their sway, that is called worldliness. These eight dharmas destroy the Eightfold Path. Whenever they increase, the path vanishes. When they occupy and fill the heart, there will be no opportunity for walking the path that makes an end of suffering; there is only the world flooding the heart and keeping it in a state of turmoil, anxiety, and distress.

  Thus we are taught to develop the path, which is wisdom. The path can be summarized as developing morality to the utmost, developing samadhi to the utmost, and developing wisdom to the utmost. These are the tools and faculties for destroying the fiction that is called the world, the path for destroying the worldliness dwelling in the hearts of deluded beings. Whenever attachment to happiness and suffering, to gain and loss, is present in the mind, the world is there; the mind is the world. A worldly being has been born—born of craving. If craving is extinguished, the world is extinguished, because this blind craving is the source of the world.

  The Eightfold Path and the Eight Worldly Dharmas are a pair. These two ways exist in the same place. It’s not as if they are in separate realms. The attachment to happiness, status, praise, and gain exists in the mind with the one who knows; but when there is attachment, the one who knows is obscured so its knowledge is mistaken, and it is dwelling in the world; the world comes to be in the mind. The one who knows has not yet awakened the Buddha nature, so it cannot remove itself from worldliness. When we train the body, speech, and mind in morality, meditation, and wisdom, we soon come to see the worldly dharmas buried in the heart. We will see ourselves clinging to them and how that clinging comes about. If we train and make the mind able, we will thus see the world and its origins. The Buddha said, “O Bhikkhus! Look upon this world as an ornamented and bejeweled royal chariot, by which fools are dazzled and entranced, but which is meaningless to the wise.” To see the world, we don’t have to go traveling all over Thailand and other countries. We need only look at this mind immersed in worldliness. Then sitting under a tree, we can see the world.

  When we determine to practice and develop the path, we try to practice samadhi, to focus and pacify the mind. But the mind does not become focused and peaceful so easily. We don’t want it to think, but it keeps on thinking. Really, the mind of an ordinary person is like someone sitting on a nest of red ants. Sitting so close to them, they are going to bite. When we who have the worldly dharmas filling our hearts start to practice with our worldly minds, the habits of attraction and aversion, elation and depression, distraction and worry all immediately start to surface. This is quite a natural occurrence for those who have not yet attained the Dharma and whose minds are filled with worldliness. We have not yet seen through these habits and are thus not able to resist their power. So it’s just like sitting on an anthill.

  We are sitting right on their home, so of course they will come up and bite us. When they are biting, what should we do? We have to find some way to destroy them: put down poison, cover them with earth, or set fire to the nest so they will flee. This is what practice entails, making an effort to combat what torments us. But practitioners don’t generally think like t
his. Whenever they are feeling good about something, they go along with it. If something makes them unhappy, they are affected by that. When they meet with praise and blame and the rest, they react according to habit and pursue them, never quelling them. When that happens, there is the world.

  People who study a little bit will look at this and say they just can’t do it; it is too hard to let go of these things. That only means they’re afraid to exert the effort. When the mental afflictions occur, the Eight Worldly Dharmas suppress and obscure the Eightfold Path. People can’t endure things, so they cannot maintain morality, and they can’t persevere in meditating to calm the mind. They can’t control themselves and endure in order to contemplate the workings of the mind. It’s just like the guy sitting on the anthill. He is out of his mind with pain and discomfort from the bites, so there is nothing he is able to focus on or accomplish. Unable to remove the source of his misery, he just remains there, trying to endure somehow.

  This is how it is. The worldly dharmas and the Buddha’s path of practice are always going to be antagonistic to each other. When ordinary people try to train the mind and make it tranquil, things that have been residing there will come gushing out. If delusion is allowed to remain in control, the mind is in darkness. But when knowledge is born through perseverance, delusion dissipates and the mind is illumined. Knowledge and delusion occur in the same place. When knowledge is born, delusion cannot stay. When worldliness rules and we cannot find the Eightfold Path, we have to make efforts to practice tranquility and insight meditation. It’s necessary to keep at it until we can see the attachment, aversion, and confusion that come from contact with the Eight Worldly Dharmas starting to decrease. When they become lighter, we are able to recognize them more clearly and start to remove ourselves from the world, which resides within us as these things and our grasping reactions to them.

  One who practices should bear witness as to how much progress is being made on this path. There are only two choices—right view and wrong view—and everything follows from them. The practitioner becomes like two people, meaning the way of the world and the way of Dharma struggle within the mind. The development of the path will gradually and steadily harass and kill off the worldly dharmas, until in the end the wisdom of right view arises and wrong understanding vanishes. The final result is that the path destroys the afflictions.

  The two ways continuously contend with each other all throughout our efforts to practice, and this can continue even when we think we are gaining insight through vipassana (special insight) meditation. It can easily turn into vipassanupakilesa, the “defilement of insight.” What does this mean? When we develop the path, we make efforts to practice virtue and purify the mind. But whatever good results we get, we can become elated over them and attached to them. This elation is just another form of grasping and becomes vipassanu, the “wisdom” of the mental afflictions.

  Some people will develop a little goodness and then become attached to that goodness. When they attain some sort of purity, they become attached to purity. When they attain knowledge, they become attached to knowledge. This clinging to knowledge and purity is vipassanu infecting the practice. So when practicing vipassana and gaining some insight, beware of vipassanu, because they can be very similar, and you can be misled, unaware of what is taking place. The vital point is that when vipassanu occurs, there will eventually be some suffering as its fruit. If it is truly vipassana, there is no suffering. It is genuinely peaceful, purified of happiness and suffering.

  Practice really has to depend on steadfastness and patient endurance. Some people start to practice meditation, and they have ideas and desires as to how they want it to be. They expect the mind to be calm right away. But the old seeds and habits of turmoil are there, so the practitioners will have to experience their ripening. It’s important to make efforts where this distress appears. We might feel we would be fine without such disciplines that cause us to feel bothered and oppressed. We could eat and sleep in comfort and at will. We could talk about whatever we like when we have the urge. We could go here and there as we wish, and following our impulses like this would bring well-being.

  The teaching of the Buddha talks about resisting, grating against things. The way of transcendence grates against the worldly; right view grates against wrong view; purity grates against impurity. These things are always going to be incompatible. In the scriptures, there’s a fable to illustrate this. Before the Buddha attained enlightenment, when he had accepted and eaten rice porridge from the milkmaid, Sujata, he set the dish on the surface of a southerly flowing river and made the aspiration, “If I am going to become a supremely awakened Buddha, may this dish flow north.” The dish flowed to the north.

  The dish symbolized his right view, the inherent buddhahood of the mind’s basic awareness that does not follow the inclinations of ordinary beings. At that moment, it was able to go against the current of all worldliness in his heart and not be influenced by anything. So now we have his teachings, which go against the flow of our habits. We have impulses of desire and attraction, but he tells us not to crave. We have the impulse to be angry and displeased over things, but he tells us not to be averse. We tend to be deluded about things, and he shows us how to destroy delusion. The teaching is always aimed at uprooting these habits.

  The Buddha’s mind was going entirely against the currents of the world. The things that are normally said to be attractive and beautiful, he did not see as attractive and beautiful. The world said that the body belongs to oneself, but he did not see it as his own. The things that are said to be meaningful and valuable, he did not see as meaningful and valuable. His view was beyond the way of worldly beings, which merely clings to phenomena. This state of awareness arose in him.

  Following that, there is the legend of his receiving eight handfuls of grass from a Brahmin. He made a seat from it and vowed to attain enlightenment there. If the inner meaning of this is explained, the eight handfuls of grass are the Eight Worldly Dharmas. His efforts were to destroy them. This is what a practitioner must do—destroy attachment to gain, status, praise, pleasure, and their opposites.

  The grass was offered to him, and he vowed to sit on it and enter meditative absorption. Sitting on it is a metaphor for suppressing the worldly dharmas. His mind was above them, bent on attaining the transcendental Dharma. The transcendent is that which renders the worldly meaningless, like refuse. To him, gain and the rest were just refuse. He could sit on them, but they did not affect or obstruct him at all.

  Sitting in that place many experiences arose in the mind of the Teacher, until he was able to reach enlightenment and conquer Mara, the Evil One. He conquered the world, nothing else. He taught to develop the path, that which can destroy the worldly dharmas, just as the grass was made into his throne of enlightenment.

  These days, most of us practitioners have little faith and devotion. We come to practice for a year or two and are full of desire for rapid attainment. We don’t think about the Buddha, how he developed the perfections in order to become the Supreme Teacher. After leaving home, he exerted himself to the utmost for six years. Practicing well, really training the mind and developing our qualities, we can gain experience, and then we can appreciate the virtues of the Buddha.

  At the very least, we should realize the first level of awakening. It’s not just a matter of counting the months and years spent in practice. The mind should attain something. We will have modesty, a sense of shame and fear toward wrong actions. This is extremely important. We who train properly will not dare to do wrong, whether it is in front of others or beyond their sight, in the light or in the dark, because we have approached the Buddha, meaning we have given rise to the one who knows within ourselves. We rely on the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha (the Three Jewels) as our refuge.

  If we truly rely on the Buddha for refuge, we must come to see the Buddha. We must see the Dharma and the Sangha. We recite the formula of refuge in the Three Jewels, but still we don’t really know the B
uddha. Are we close to him? Are we far from him? What is the Dharma? What is the Sangha? We request their protection as our refuge, but are we close to them yet? Do we know what they are? We request with body and speech, but our minds have not reached there. Once the mind attains and is able, we will know exactly what the qualities of the Three Jewels are. We will know the Buddha has such and such characteristics, the Dharma is thus, and so on. This will be our experience. We will have this refuge because these things have arisen in our minds. Then wherever we may be, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha are there with us. Thus we will not perform wrong actions.

  So the first ariya (Noble One), Kondanya, was freed from falling into the lower realms. This was something definite. He could only follow the straight path, and there would be no eighth rebirth, because the path had been shown and he had attained certainty. Sooner or later, he was bound to reach the end of the path. There was no way he could ever return to performing wrong actions by way of body or speech. He had gone beyond the sort of turmoil that is actually hell itself. So it is said that the ariya is freed from the lower realms. Even if he or she is mistaken about something, it is nothing strong enough to throw him or her into a lower rebirth. The mind cannot go that way anymore; it cannot return to its old ways. This is called the ariyan birth, and it can happen in this life.

  These are things that can only be known by the individual through direct experience. We all talk about Dharma and are supposedly practicing Dharma, but we don’t really know what Dharma is. Understanding Dharma, seeing Dharma, practicing Dharma—what is it all about? This is really a problem for us. It is nature, the ordinary that is already present, things existing as they are. Why are we now under the sway of happiness and suffering, gladness and dejection? Because we don’t know Dharma, we do not see Dharma.