Right Here in the Heart (Part 2)

Practice concentration so that the heart can be still. Constrain the heart at that point where you are practicing concentration. The time when you’re constraining the heart and training it to meditate is not the time to let it go wandering as it likes. We call this making an effort, being persistent – making a persistent effort to straighten out the heart and uproot its enemies, until the heart can grow still. The heart grows still because our efforts force it to, not because we let it go wandering as it likes. This is when we see the rewards or the value of our efforts, because the heart has been brought to stillness through our efforts and stays that way through our efforts, step after step. The value of effort becomes more and more apparent, in line with the worth of the heart which appears as the result of that effort.

So. When the time comes to investigate in terms of wisdom, focus on investigating so as to see things clearly. Contemplate everything in the world so as to see it in line with its truth. The world may be infinitely wide, but when the heart is obscured by defilements, we’re caught in the most narrow and confining thing there is. It’s confining right here. Whether you sit or lie down, there’s no comfort at all. Wherever you go there’s no comfort, because the heart is confined. It weighs on itself. So open it up right where it’s confining and give it space to blossom and be bright. It’ll then feel free, calm and at ease.

This is the point where you can investigate discontent and pain, because the mind now has the strength to investigate. It’s ready and willing to investigate because pain is a whetstone for sharpening wisdom. Concentration and wisdom are what we use to slash defilements and mental effluents away. Wisdom is what uproots them, but concentration is what first catches them and ties them down. Concentration stills the heart and gathers it into one so that it doesn’t get scattered around to the point where you can’t even catch hold of it. Once the heart is gathered into one, wisdom opens it up and unravels it to see clearly where its concerns and attachments lie – with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, or with form, feelings, memory, thought, and consciousness. Wisdom takes these things apart to see them in thorough detail, in line with their truth as it actually is.

Wisdom contemplates these things and investigates them, over and over again. These are the points where it travels. These are its whetstones. The more it investigates them, the more it branches out, step by step, understanding things for what they are and letting them go. Letting them go means putting down the burdens that weigh on the heart under the sway of attachment.

What is the mind thinking about? What good does it get from its thoughts? The moment a thought forms, it ceases. A good thought? It forms and ceases. A bad thought? It forms and ceases. Whatever the thought, it forms and ceases. These are called thought-formations. They form. They arise. They cease. Their forming and ceasing happen together. They arise and cease in the same instant. So how can we attach any sense of self to these things – to this arising-ceasing, arising-ceasing?

Investigate pain, which is something we all fear. Everyone fears the word pain, so how can we hold onto it as us or ours? Are you going to persist in holding to this mass of pain as you? To hold to it as your ‘self’ is to hold onto fire to burn the heart. Know pain simply as pain. What knows the pain isn’t the pain. It’s the heart. The heart is what knows all about the pain. When pain arises, the heart knows. When pain remains, the heart knows. When the pain ceases, the heart knows. It knows through its wisdom. Wisdom sees clearly, distinctly, that pain is pain, and what knows is what knows.

Memory. However much we can recognize and give meaning to things, we forget it all. If we want to remember, we have to recognize and give meaning again. The mind establishes a meaning that then ceases in the same instant. Can this be our ‘self’? We recognize the meaning, and then it ceases, arises, ceases, arises and ceases, arises and ceases like everything else. Can this sort of thing be our ‘self’? Can this sort of thing be ours? If it’s us, if it’s ours, then we’re wriggling all the time because of memory and pain. Memory arises and ceases. Pain arises and ceases, arises and ceases, giving us trouble and turmoil without let-up, without stop. This is why we have to investigate so as to see those conditions – the khandhas – that arise and cease all around us, all around the heart.

Consciousness: How long have we been conscious of sights and sounds? Ever since birth. And what lasting worth have we ever gained from these things? As soon as we’re conscious of anything by way of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, or body – Blip! – it ceases in the same instant, the very same instant. So what lasting worth can you get from it? Nothing at all. Can sights be our ‘self’? Can sounds? Can smells, tastes, tactile sensations be our ‘self’? Consciousness – acknowledging whatever makes contact – can this be our ‘self’? It acknowledges – Blip! Blip! Blip! – and immediately ceases. Immediately ceases. Can this be our ‘self’? There’s no way it can be.

How can we hold to this arising and immediate ceasing as our ‘self’? How can we put our trust in these things? They arise and cease, arise and cease. Are we going to persist in holding to this arising and ceasing as our ‘self’? If so, we’re in a turmoil all day long because these things are arising and ceasing all the time! No matter whether they are form or feeling – pleasure, pain or indifference – memory, thought, or consciousness, they’re constantly arising and ceasing, each and every one of them. So how can we grab onto them as us or ours even though we know full well that they arise and cease? This is why we have to use wisdom to investigate them so as to see clearly what they really are and to let them go for what they are.

What knows doesn’t cease. The true heart – what knows – doesn’t cease. It knows whatever ceases, but “that which knows” doesn’t cease. All that ceases is what appears and ceases in line with its own affairs. Form, feelings, memory, thought and consciousness for example – these are all natural conditions that come under the three characteristics.

The three characteristics are impermanence, discontent, and not-self. How can we hold to things of this sort as us or ours? If we investigate into their causes and effects using our mindfulness and wisdom, there is no way we can hold onto them. Only when our defilements are thick, and the heart hasn’t investigated – and doesn’t know what’s what – can we be deluded into becoming attached. Once we’ve investigated so as to see these things for what they really are, the heart lets go of its own accord.

When the time comes to go into battle – when the time comes to die – take these things as your battlefield. In particular, feelings of pain will stand out more than anything else when things start to break apart. Take pain and the heart as your battlefield. Investigate them so as to see their truth. No matter how great the pain may be, it doesn’t go past death. Pain goes only as far as death. The body and khandhas go only as far as death, but the heart doesn’t go only as far as death. It goes past death, because the heart has never died. It lies above all these things. Pain is pain only as far as death. It doesn’t go past it. No matter what feelings arise, they go only as far as their ceasing, and that’s all. Whether they’re very painful or only a little painful, the heart keeps knowing, knowing at all times.

When there’s mindfulness, the heart keeps knowing each stage of the pains that appear. What knows doesn’t cease, so why should we be worried and concerned about pains, which aren’t us or ours. They’re just conditions that arise. They depend on the heart for their arising, but they aren’t the heart. They depend on the body for their arising, but they aren’t the body. They’re just feelings. Pain, for instance, is something different, something separate from the body and heart. That’s its pure, unadulterated truth.

If we don’t try to go against the truth, the heart can reach peace through its investigation of pain, especially at the last stage which is the break-up of the body. Give it your all! You can see what ceases first and what ceases after because what knows will keep on knowing. Even when everything else has ceased, what knows still won’t cease.

This is our investigation. All it takes is for you to see causes and effects in this way just once, and your courage in the face of these things will spring right into action. When death comes, you’ll immediately take a fighting stance. You’ll take your stance as a warrior going into the battle between the khandhas and the heart. You’ll investigate, using your wisdom. You’ll take mindfulness and wisdom as your weapons in slashing down to the truth. And when you’ve slashed everything down, where will you end up? Right there with the truth.

Use your mindfulness and wisdom to slash down to the truth of everything of every sort. When you reach the truth, everything will be levelled. Everything will be still. Nothing will be left to disturb the heart. If anything is still disturbing the heart, that means you haven’t investigated fully down to its truth. Once you’ve reached the full truth in every way, there’s nothing that can disturb or provoke or incite or jab at the heart at all. There’s nothing but a state of truth penetrating everywhere. This is called being levelled and made still by the truth, which comes through the power of mindfulness and wisdom investigating to see things clearly.

Right here is where the Buddha and his Arahant disciples, all those who have gone beyond suffering and discontent, have gone beyond – right where suffering and discontent exist. And where do they exist? In this body, these khandhas, this heart. When we take things apart, we take them apart right here. When we know, we know right here – right where we were deluded. Wherever we don’t know, mindfulness and wisdom – our tools for slashing our way into the truth – will make us know. There’s nothing to equal mindfulness and wisdom in breaking through to the endpoint of all phenomena, in washing away all defilements and absolutely eliminating them from the heart. They are thus the most up-to-date tools for dealing with defilements and mental effluents of every sort.

So put mindfulness and wisdom to use when you need them, and especially when you’re about to die. There’s no one else who can help you then. Even if your relatives, parents, brothers, sisters, wife, husband, children are all thronging around you, none of them can really help you. Everything depends on you. As the Buddha says: “The self is its own mainstay.” Realize this in full measure! What can you do to be your own mainstay and not your own enemy? If you bring out nothing but weakness, confusion, and lack of wisdom, you’re being your own enemy. If you use mindfulness, discernment, conviction, persistence, and courage in line with the principles taught by the Buddha, investigating down to the causes and effects and the facts of all the conditions of nature, that’s when you’re truly your own mainstay.

So find yourself a mainstay. Where can you find it? “I go to the Buddha for refuge.” This reverberates throughout the heart and nowhere else. “I go to the Dhamma for refuge” reverberates through the heart. “I go to the Sangha for refuge” reverberates through one and the same heart. The heart is their vessel. The Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha are all gathered into this one heart because the heart is the most appropriate vessel for all dhammas. Get so that you see this – and especially so that you see that the whole heart is the Dhamma in full.

So cleanse your heart. If you can make it gain release at that point, so much the better. You won’t know where to ask about the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. You won’t ask – for you’ll have no doubts. You’ll simply look at the knowingness showing its absolute fullness inside you and know that what that is, is what they are. The Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha are all one Dhamma – one single, solid Dhamma.

These are the results of the practice of eliminating our defilements and mental effluents from the very beginning, when the heart had no worth, since it was filled with nothing but the excrement of greed, anger, and delusion. Wash away that excrement by using the principles of the Dhamma. When it’s all gone, the heart will become Dhamma. Once it’s Dhamma, it’s infinitely at ease. Wherever you go, you’re at ease.

“Nibbãna is the ultimate void.” Whatever is annihilated in that void, this is where you’ll know. Whatever is still there, this is also where you’ll know. Who can know this better than one without defilements? – for the Buddha, in saying that nibbãna is the ultimate void, was speaking from his absolute freedom from defilement. He said this from having seen nibbãna. But we haven’t seen it yet. No matter how much we repeat his words, we just stay where we are. Investigate so that you truly see it. The saying “Nibbãna is the ultimate void” will no longer be any problem, because it will be fully clear to the heart what is annihilated and what’s not.

“Nibbãna is the ultimate happiness.” Listen! The ultimate happiness here isn’t a feeling of pleasure or happiness. Instead, it’s the happiness that comes with the absolute purity of the heart, with no arising or ceasing like our feelings of pleasure and pain. This has nothing to do with the three characteristics. The ultimate happiness as a constant feature of the pure heart has absolutely nothing to do with the three characteristics, nothing at all to do with impermanence, discontent, and not-self – it doesn’t change, it always stays just as it is.

The Buddha says nibbãna is constant. What’s constant? The pure heart and nothing else, that’s what’s constant. Get so that you see it, get so that you know.

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