The Dhamma Water (Part 3)

As far as samādhi and paññā are concerned, you must not wait for them. Whenever it is appropriate to use paññā you must use it. Paññā kills the kilesas. Samādhi subdues them. They work together in subduing and destroying the kilesas. Paññā is terribly important. When you are investigating with paññā, and it suddenly strays into speculative thoughts and away from the truth, then you must first get back into samādhi to subdue the restless kilesas. You should use a meditation object that suits you to calm your heart. If you use the in-and-out breath as your meditation object, then you should be solely mindful of your in-and-out breath, and ignore everything else. Don’t let anything distract you from your concentration. The heart likes to think a lot. The chief culprits here are the kilesas that push saṅkhāra to think, and saññā to speculate. They are a lot more restless than monkeys, making the heart behave like a monkey. For example, when you investigate the body with paññā, but you can’t see the asubha or loathsomeness of the body, or aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, and anattā of the body, then it’s because the kilesas have taken over.

The heart is now hungry for other thoughts. So you must immediately curb it by using samādhi. Be earnest, really commit yourselves! After the heart has gained calm, then you should investigate again. You must astutely direct your investigation if you want it to be fruitful. Then you are really investigating with paññā. This is only possible when the heart is calm. You must always observe your investigation. When you practice mental development, you cannot avoid observing — you have to observe. You cannot rely solely on the techniques taught by your teacher. You have to also devise your own techniques. Otherwise you will not gain any wisdom. Any time when it is suitable to investigate, then you must investigate. You can investigate the aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, and anattā of the body, or you can investigate the loathsomeness of the body, or any other way you like that accords with the truth and causes dispassion of the body to arise. They are the truth, but when the heart’s view goes contrary to the Dhamma, then it is not willing to accept this truth.

What is your body like? Where does it come from? You must dig into it and differentiate it to see its true nature. You say that it is ‘I’ or ‘You’ or ‘They’ or ‘Them’, or that it is people, or an animal. Where does this body get its form? You must dig into its origins, which are the four elements of earth, water, air and fire. The body is mostly composed with the earth element, namely the hair of the head, the hair of the body, the nails, the teeth, the skin, the sinews, and the bones, and so forth. You can see them clearly with your own eyes. They are the earth element. Saliva, for instance, is the water element. The air element is the air that we breathe in. The fire element is the heat that digests your food. These are the four elements. But when the heart takes possession of this body, it then erroneously perceives it to be ‘I’ or ‘They’, or people or animals. This body is ‘I’ and it is ‘mine’. The eyes, the arms, the legs and all the other body parts are all mine. Your heart generates these perceptions automatically. The same with animals. They don’t have to be told because it’s nature’s way.

The kilesas are one aspect of nature. They do not need to be taught. These four elements combine to become the body and then become possessed by the heart. How long will they remain combined? From the time of conception, maybe ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years or more. From time immemorial you have been deceived by the kilesas to think that the body is I, is a human being, is an animal, is you, or is me, although it is just the formation of the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire. But the kilesas deceive you to think otherwise. When the body dies, where does it go? Do you still call it a human being or an animal? The earth element will return to earth, the water element will return to water, the air element will return to air, and the fire element will return to fire. They all return to their respective element. Can you still call this body a human being or an animal? Of course not! They are just elements, and truly so. But when they combine to form the body, why do you then give them a different name, although they are still the elements? You must investigate the truth with paññā. It is only the heart that can make this body move around. This body is just the elements. When it dies, it just returns to the elements.

But you keep calling it I or mine from the day of your birth to the present. You have been deceived by the kilesas! Do you still want to be deceived by them? You will be deceived by them until you die if you don’t see its true nature. If your paññā cannot catch up with the kilesas, then you will always think in terms of I and mine, and of animals and human beings. Even after the body has gone back to its respective elements, the upādāna or attachment to this view will always remain embedded within your heart. When it takes up a new body it will consider the body to be I and mine again. This will go on forever without ever coming to an end. This is the way to investigate with paññā. In order to clearly see the truth, you must investigate again and again until it is permanently impressed within your heart. Your attachment will disappear naturally when you have really seen the truth. You can’t force the attachment to disappear. Only paññā can do this. When paññā has seen the truth, then the attachment will disappear.

Whichever part of the truth you’ve seen, then that part will be free. That is why you are taught to investigate, because once you have investigated and come to understand the truth, then you will let go of them, because they are all fake they are not the truth. You are defying the truth, and are constantly living with false truth in all of your postures, standing, sitting, walking, and lying down, both day and night. You don’t know this, so you must investigate. Speaking about paṭikkūla, or the filthiness of the body, it is full of excrement. This excrement comes out through the hair of the head, the nails, the teeth, or the pores of the body. They are all over the body. There is nothing there that you can call pretty or beautiful. This body is merely wrapped with a very thin skin membrane. Is it really impossible for sati and paññā to penetrate this thin membrane if you really want to? What is the purpose of satipaññā? It is for digging out the truth, especially that of the five khandhas or aggregates.

You cannot eat paññā. It’s only used for the investigation of the various parts of the body that the master of deception has taken hold of. When you have seen it clearly, then the upādāna or attachment will vanish. This upādāna is much heavier than a solid mountain. When you have seen clearly, you will let go of your attachment, and the heart will become loftier. It will continue to elevate until it finally arrives at the state of freedom or purity. Be earnest. Really commit yourselves to your practice. You have to have standards and goals. Don’t be lackadaisical. Don’t see other places as more important than the place where you’ll find the truth. This should be your main criteria. Wherever you are, you should think of this criteria. It’s your battleground. It’s where the kilesas are found.

The Lord Buddha taught the Dhamma clearly. His teaching was well taught in every respect, capable of leading the practitioner gradually away from dukkha, eventually achieving the complete freedom from dukkha, without any doubts. So how can you have any doubts? The kilesas do not have a teacher, so how is it that they can become your teacher? The Lord Buddha tirelessly taught us the Dhamma. How then can the Dhamma not prevail over the kilesas? Your practice can conquer the kilesas. The kilesas have no teacher, but you have a teacher who has taught you very well. Why can’t you then beat the kilesas, which have not been to school at all? You have always been on the losing side. This is no good. Normally, in the beginning you have to struggle very hard. This is because the kilesas have always been very powerful. They have always dominated your heart. So when you subdue them, you must use maximum effort, sometimes even putting your life at stake. When it is time to give up your life for the noble truth, then you must do it. Make the results appear and the light shine forth in your heart! When you see the truth that really impresses your heart, then you cannot help but utter “Fantastic! Now I know the truth of dukkha, the truth of samudaya, and the truth of attachment!” They cannot escape from paññā.

Be serious and earnest. Teachers that can really teach the Dhamma are very hard to find nowadays. There are many practicing bhikkhus, but very few of them have discovered or come across the noble truth from their practical experience. And what is the reason? It is degenerate. Although a banknote is merely a piece of paper, it is enough to burn a bhikkhu’s heart. We all know that it is just a piece of paper. If you use it to roll a cigarette, it doesn’t even taste good. But you are deluded by it. The heart will readily grab the fake things because it itself is full of fake things. So when two phony things come together, it is very easy for them to combine, because there is no truth in the heart. But when you have developed your heart through your practice and have, stage by stage, established the noble truth inside your heart, you’ll then discard the fake things and the heart will change from being phony to being genuine. In the beginning, the practice is very hard, but you have to endure it. You have endured dukkha for eons in the past. In this life the dukkha is also pervasive. When the heart constantly builds up worries and anxieties, how can you avoid dukkha? These khandhas are the tool of the kilesas that enable the kilesas to constantly exhibit themselves. As soon as kilesas appear, dukkha also simultaneously appears. So how can you not experience dukkha? If you can’t see the danger of the kilesas, you’ll never see the Dhamma.

I have instructed you to the utmost of my ability and really want you to practice. I don’t want to see zero results. When doing walking or sitting meditation, there is just sleepiness. How then can there be any result? So what are you going to do? Today it is like this. Tomorrow you’ll do the same thing and get the same result. No new result to surprise the heart. You’ll then become discouraged. The teaching that your teacher has given you will be meaningless because the kilesas win. They make no exception for any class of people. They dominate and influence your heart and make you suffer. You have taken up the robe for the purpose of eliminating the kilesas through your own diligent efforts and strenuous exertions. Why can’t you do it? When you have eliminated some of the kilesas, you’ll see the benefits of your efforts. When the heart has calmed down from the restlessness and agitation from your meditation practice, you’ll see how valuable your practice is. You’ll then move forward.

If you keep using satipaññā, it will mature. When you investigate the body and the other khandhas, the truth will gradually appear. Paññā will arise from your investigation. When you have seen the benefits of paññā, you’ll want to investigate more and more until paññā becomes automatic. As the kilesas steadily diminish, your diligent effort will steadily increase until reaching full capacity. Then you’ll always want to go into battle. To fight the kilesas will be your main preoccupation. Your laziness will disappear because it is the productof the kilesas. The more the kilesas diminish, the more intense will be your conviction and efforts. The more the kilesas disappear, the more the Dhamma will appear. When all the kilesas are totally eliminated, you’ll then see that all the dukkha that used to consume your heart have all disappeared. The heart then becomes totally empty. Nothing can disturb or afflict it anymore, because you have totally relinquished your attachment with paññā. When paññā has investigated to the point of clearly seeing the noble truth, it will let go of everything. Then the heart becomes empty, devoid of the kilesas, taṇhā and āsava that used to poison the heart in the past. This emptiness is the absolute Dhamma.

All that is left behind are the khandhas that still remain functional, just like the lizard’s tail that still wriggles and wriggles after it has been cut off the creature’s body. These khandhas will remain functional until death when they finally cease. They are insignificant and don’t know that they are so. For instance, the body doesn’t know that it is a body. Neither do vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra or viññāṇa. They appear and then disappear. Saññā recollects then disappears. Viññāṇa becomes aware of the sensual objects and then disappears, because avijjā, the main culprit, is no longer there to direct them. The khandhas then become the instrument of the Dhamma. Before, they were the instrument of the kilesas. But after the emptiness or absolute Dhamma has appeared in the heart, then the khandhas are used to benefit the world, like the Lord Buddha and the sāvakas who used the five khandhas to teach the Dhamma to the world. When all the kilesas have been eliminated, then all the khandhas will become the instrument of the Dhamma until death following the law of aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā. They are sammati or conventional reality, and must follow the law of sammati. The khandhas are sammati, so are aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā. They must go their natural way.

The one who has attained purity doesn’t have any problems. He is free from worry. Nibbānaṁ paramaṁ sukhaṁ—Nibbāna is the supreme bliss. Where do you find it? When the kilesas have all disappeared from the heart, that’s where you’ll find it. What else are you going to seek? You have always been afflicted with dukkha because of the kilesas. But after the kilesas have all disappeared, where are you going to find any dukkha? And where are you going to look for Nibbāna? If you’re still deluded, you will still seek it. But after you have become enlightened, you won’t look for it any more. Nibbānaṁ paramaṁ sukhaṁ is eternal. The Lord Buddha said that Nibbāna is permanent. When the heart has attained absolute contentment, and has let go of all sammati, it won’t be upset by any problems, because it is totally devoid of them. What problems can there be? Living or dying poses no problem because they are part of nature. This heart has transcended all the problems of the world.

(Ajahn Maha Boowa “Forest Desanas”)