Tranquillity and Insight (Part 2)

Next comes the level of wisdom. This is genuine ‘insight meditation.’ It’s a common expression among people that they’re going to practice insight meditation, or vipassanã. Actually, vipassanã means clear insight that comes from having investigated with wisdom. The word meditation covers both tranquility and insight meditation, but usually we say we’re going to practice vipassanã or insight meditation when we actually mean simply that we’re going to meditate.

Actual insight meditation means to contemplate and investigate. Once the mind becomes quiet and peaceful, it’s bound to develop approaches to use when we make it investigate and analyze the physical properties and khandhas, or the topics of impermanence (anicca), discontent (dukkha) and not-self (anattã). We’ve read in the texts that: “Wherever there is impermanence, there is discontentment. Wherever there is discontentment, there is not-self.” We’ve seen other people grow old, die, and be separated from their loved ones – but we should realize that we too are subject to separation, we too are impermanent, discontented, and not-self just like them. We have to bring these truths inward to ourselves. We grow older day by day, day by day. From the day of our birth we’ve kept growing progressively older and older, changing step by step. This is called impermanence.

Pain and suffering have stuck right with us ever since the day we were born. The moment we came out of the womb, we fell unconscious. We were in shock because the pain was so great. Some infants die in the womb, some die the moment they leave it because they can’t take the great pain. Pain and suffering have been right here with us, from the time we were small up to the present – so where are we going to harbour any doubts about impermanence, discontentment, and not-self? These things are heaped on top of us in full measure at all times.

Impermanence means changing with every moment. Even now, you’ve been sitting here for just a little while and already you’re tired. The body has changed. It’s changed from what it was and has begun to ache.

Not-self. What in the body and the khandhas can you hold to as having any lasting worth? The body is simply an assemblage of the four properties of earth, water, wind, and fire – that’s all. As for the khandhas, there are five. Khandha means group, heap, or assemblage. The first khandha, rýpa, refers to the body. Vedanã refers to feelings of pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain. These are another group or heap. Saññã refers to memory which bestows significance and meaning on things. Sankhãra refers to thought and imagination. Viññãna refers to consciousness arising whenever the eye meets with a visual object, the ear meets with a sound, and so on. Altogether, these things are called the five heaps. So where is there anything of substance in these five heaps to which you can hold to, saying: “This is me?”

This is what insight meditation is – separating things out to find the truth, the truth in our own bodies and minds. But because we’re ignorant and unable to see the truth, we say that “This is me … That’s mine.” When any of these things change, we become sad, upset, and depressed. There are lots of people who become mentally ill because their thinking goes all out of bounds. ‘Mental illness’ here means the mental distress or turmoil we all suffer from, not necessarily the heavy mental illnesses where people lose their senses and go out of their minds.

When we investigate, separating the properties and khandhas with our wisdom in this way, we’ll see that our wisdom can develop techniques and approaches capable of cutting away defilements stage by stage, until they can cut away all defilements connected with the five khandhas.

When we say “That’s me … This is me,” it’s because the mind and the khandhas seem to be one and the same, so we can’t tell them apart. When wisdom has analyzed and investigated them through the power of the knowledge it has developed to a high level of proficiency, it can tell these things apart. It knows: “This is the body … This is feeling … This is memory … This is thought … This is consciousness.” The body is the body, this thing is this thing, that thing is that – but we’re not this or that thing. We can tell them apart and separate them out step by step, until we can separate the heart out from the defilements and effluents (ãsava) that lie buried within it, and there’s nothing at all left in the heart. This is where it’s called truly ‘Buddho’.

The result of practicing meditation, when we reach the final stage, is that the heart becomes truly ‘Buddho’, just like the ‘Buddho’ of the Lord Buddha. This doesn’t mean the same ‘Buddho’ as his. Instead it means that in comparing them, the purity of ours is equal to the purity of his, but that his range as a Buddha is greater than ours as disciples, in line with the greater power of his potential and capabilities, which are issues outside the question of purity.

A person’s capabilities can be known by hearing his teachings. The Buddha’s knowledge has to be in line with his level, while that of the disciples is fully in line with theirs; but as for the question of purity, they are all equals. The Buddha taught: “There is nothing superior to one with no evil.” From the Buddha down to his final Arahant disciple, their purity is equal, with no gradations at all. Right here is where the similarity lies.

This is the result of developing the mind through meditation. We practice it step by step, removing defilements step by step until they are all absolutely gone, leaving nothing but purity. This purity is what experiences the ultimate level of happiness. There is nothing higher than this form of happiness. It’s called the highest transcendent quality, a quality transcending the world.

“Transcending the world” means that it transcends the physical properties, transcends the khandhas, transcends everything. There is nothing superior to this thing that is pure. This is the fruit of meditation. The Buddha attained it before anyone else in the world in those days, and has led the way for all Buddhists who practice in his footsteps, down to those of us practicing right now.

The Buddha taught reasonably, in terms of cause and effect. We should follow in line with the principles he taught, and the effects – the results – are sure to appear accordingly. Where the causes exist, the results have to appear. If people practice correctly and in line with the Dhamma principles he taught, how will they not meet with the results?

The Dhamma is a well-taught Dhamma, not an empty-handed one, so how can those who practice it not reap results? When they say that the paths (magga), fruitions (phala) and nibbãna have disappeared, where have they disappeared? – aside from disappearing from those who aren’t interested in the practice. Even in the time of the Buddha, these things didn’t exist for those who weren’t interested. But they did exist for those who were interested and practiced in line with the principles the Buddha taught.

The same holds true for the present. The middle way is always right in the centre of the truth, right on-target, always appropriate for removing defilements. No matter which defilement, no matter what sort, it can never escape the power of this middle way. This is why this way is a Dhamma absolutely right for removing the defilements of the beings of the world. It’s called the middle way. The middle way now and the middle way of the Buddha’s time – how can they differ? There’s no difference between them at all, because they’re the same well-taught Dhamma. The defilements are the same now as they were then. The middle way, the tool for removing them, is the same now as it was then. When we use it to eliminate the defilements, how can they not fall away? The power of our correct practice in line with the principles of the middle way will have to give the same results now as it gave then.

But the paths, fruitions, and nibbãna don’t exist for those who don’t practice, no matter what the time or era. They exist only for those who practice, and they appear in greater or lesser measure in line with the strength of each individual’s practice. That’s all there is to it.

This is called the well-taught Dhamma, the Dhamma that leads those who practice it away from suffering and discontent, step by step, until they are absolutely released. There is nothing to surpass the Dhamma of the Buddha in completely removing defilements from the heart. This is why we can be confident in our practice.

There is no one in the world who can speak more correctly and accurately than a teacher with no more defilements, a teacher who speaks entirely from the truth. The Buddha never spoke dishonestly or deceptively in the way of the world, for things like deception are an affair of defilements. The Dhamma is something that has to be spoken forthrightly, straightforwardly, in line with the truth. When people practice in line with the truth, how will they not know the truth? They have to know.

This is where the greatness lies. It doesn’t lie anywhere else. So don’t go doubting and groping around like blind people oblivious to the Dhamma, the Buddha’s representative, filling our nation.

In conclusion, I ask that you all take this and think it over. If anything I have said here is too hard-hitting for your ears or hearts, I ask your forgiveness, because today’s Dhamma has been ‘Forest Dhamma’. I hope it will be at least of some use to you all.

(Ajahn Maha Boowa “A Life of Inner Quality”)