The Four Satipatthanas (Part 1)

For the Lord Buddha and the sāvakas, the Dhamma is most important. They weren’t interested in building temples and monasteries, but were solely interested in their Dhamma practices. After they became enlightened, they were only interested in propagating the Dhamma teaching to the world, like Ven. Ajahn Mun, for example. Did he build any monasteries? All he ever did was to develop his citta to his utmost ability. After he became enlightened, he then tirelessly taught the Dhamma. You should take him as your role model. People all over Thailand and abroad have great esteem for him. After you’ve attained enlightenment, your ability to teach the world the Dhamma will be immeasurable. Think about it! This will only happen after the Dhamma becomes established inside the heart. The heart is, therefore, of paramount importance. After enlightenment, it will have extraordinary powers. Has there ever been a temple or a shrine that can teach the world the Dhamma and make people good? Have you ever seen any shrine capable of doing this?

I’m not speaking in contempt. I’m just saying this based on facts and common sense. I’m not saying that shrines should not be built. In places where it is appropriate, I wouldn’t object at all. But in places where it’s not suitable, like in forest monasteries, then it shouldn’t be built because it will only hurt those places. This monastery, for example, is the place for the development of the heart. After you’ve achieved this goal, imagine the benefits you’ll give the world. I’ve carefully considered this point. Therefore, all of you who come here from the various parts of the country and the world, please be earnest and take this to heart. I always have compassion for you. That’s why I have never let go of my responsibilities in teaching you. Although I may not always have the time to teach the laity, I always find the time to teach you. After you become enlightened you can then help the world by propagating the Dhamma, which will happen naturally.

When you have the treasure of the Dhamma, then you can share it. But to share something you don’t have is pure delusion. To teach the Dhamma when you haven’t yet become enlightened is counterproductive. You’ll do more harm than good. The Lord Buddha and the sāvakas didn’t do it this way. They became enlightened first before they taught the Dhamma. If they hadn’t yet realized the Dhamma, what could they teach? There’s no truth in empty wind, no substance with which to attract people’s attention, and no basis for others to depend on. But when we have established the Dhamma within our hearts, our teachings will become very invaluable. This is the benefit of developing the citta. So please become more determined—be serious and earnest in your practice. Don’t speculate about the magga, phala and Nibbāna to be in various places other than in the body and the citta, for they are found right in these two places which make up the five khandhas. Take this to heart.

When the forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile objects contact the heart they will entrap it with love and hate. It’s therefore imperative to investigate them with paññā until the heart has understood their true nature and let go of them and retreated inward. Paññā will constantly feed the heart with the right information to prevent the heart from being confused, anxious or worried. When it’s time to develop samādhi, it’ll be easily achieved. The heart will be cool and calm. You must solve your problems with paññā when it’s appropriate to do so. Don’t be idle. Paññā is extremely important, whilst sati is the workhorse that directs your practice and keeps you mindful and attentive, and enables paññā to investigate at its fullest. When you’ve seen the results of your investigations with paññā, you’ll become encouraged to intensify your investigation further. This is similar to a businessman who has made a profit: he will be encouraged to work harder. But if he keeps losing, then he’ll become discouraged and lazy. It is the same way with the development of the heart. When you’ve gained some results and progressed, you’ll be encouraged to intensify your efforts.

Don’t remain idle like a tree stump, lacking appreciation for the Dhamma. Don’t get involved with worldly matters because they are all devised by the kilesas to oppress, depress and delude the citta, causing it to be totally ignorant of the truth and Dhamma. When you walk or sit in meditation you only do it with your body, not with your citta because it’s involved with worldly matters, with the forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile objects, with the past, and with the future, which cause it to be restless and agitated. How then can you profit from your practice? When you’re not profiting but losing you’ll become discouraged and lazy. This laziness is created by you and it’s you who has to pay for it with dukkha that devours your hearts in every form of existence. This is the fruit of laziness, so you must see its harm. You must use your satipaññā to devise a way to overcome your laziness. This is the way of a wise man. Developing yourself is much more important than developing anything else. Whether it is hard or easy, it’s not beyond your abilities.

The Lord Buddha taught the 84,000 Dhamma discourses to suit our temperaments and abilities. They can be summarized into three categories namely, sīla, samādhi and paññā. So they aren’t really that many, and involve just the body and the citta. Why can’t you develop them? When you do walking meditation or caṅkama, you should have continuous mindfulness. It is the same way when you do sitting meditation or samādhi. You’re your own master when you practice diligently. You mustn’t think that mastering yourself is a thorn, and doing what you like is a good thing, for this is the kilesas whispering to your heart to lead you astray. If you see practicing diligently as your adversary and see the kilesas as your friends then you might as well be dead because you’ll repeatedly be born and die, again and again.

Therefore, you must really be earnest. Really commit yourself. The practice environment in this monastery is fairly suitable, though not quite like that in the time of the Lord Buddha when they were mainly forests and mountains. But there are quite enough forested areas here. I am trying my best to help you in all respects because I really consider your welfare. I can tell people who come to this monastery, regardless of their social status, not to disturb your practices. I’m not afraid of anybody. I’m only afraid of contradicting the Dhamma. I have more respect for the Dhamma than for anyone else. When it’s time to speak the truth, I will do so. I can tell them not to disturb you, because you’re meditating. ‘Don’t bother them!’ I will tell them. ‘They’re practicing. If they see you coming they’ll have to move somewhere else. You’ll disturb them.’ I will also tell them when it is the proper time to see you. If they’re disappointed or dismayed, that’s not my concern, because speaking the truth should be the norm. There is nothing wrong with that. If it’s wrong, it’s because they’re thinking wrongly. They don’t know that it’s essential to have privacy during practice.

If sitting meditation is hard on your body or if you’re not engaged in any physical activity, then you should do a lot of walking meditation instead. At the same time, you should also develop your mindfulness because your practice depends significantly on it. In your investigation, you should consider your body as well as other people’s bodies, both male and female, to see their true nature, because this is the way of developing satipaññā, mindfulness and wisdom. Magga can be developed by investigating internal and external objects, because samudaya, the cause of dukkha, is created by clinging to both of them. Attachment to forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile objects, which are outside the heart, is a form of samudaya that arises when you become attached to this or that person, this or that thing. You must, therefore, develop satipaññā to eliminate this attachment because satipaññā is the magga, the path to the cessation of dukkha. You can investigate anybody’s body, male or female because they can all be the object of your investigation. You must investigate by using the Dhamma teaching as your guide, for instance, investigating to see the loathsome nature or asubha of the body, to see its filthiness or paṭikūla, to see it as a cemetery, and to see it as aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, and anattā because they are the truth. You can investigate either your body or someone else’s body.

You must always fight the kilesas because they’ve always been your enemy and are inside your hearts. Most of the time it’s the kilesas that have the upper hand and you don’t even know this. How can you not know when you’re knocked out by your opponent? If you do, you’ll be spurred into developing your satipaññā, saddhā and viriya to fight and eventually destroy all the kilesas. This is the way of a fighter. If you fight like mad with all your might, you’ll eventually win. If you don’t fight, you’ll never achieve any result from your sitting or walking meditation, such as calm or insight to encourage you to strive harder. When it’s time to be tough, you must be tough. When it’s time to go easy, you go easy. When the kilesas are aggressive, you must also be equally aggressive. If you should die, so be it! I, myself had been in this situation. I am not speaking without anything to back up what I say. When it’s time to let it all out, I really let it all out. When this happens, I can assure you that you’ll achieve results and destroy the kilesas. You have to investigate using your own devices because each practitioner has a different temperament and abilities. But let me warn you that the kilesas always like to be weak, and the Dhamma always likes to be resolute and strong, and can overcome weakness. Wisdom can overcome ignorance. It is the kilesas that make you ignorant, but the kilesas themselves are not ignorant. In fact they’re very clever. Therefore, you must develop satipaññā to gradually eliminate ignorance from your hearts. The splendor of the heart will then gradually appear.

The treasure of the Dhamma is vital for the world’s well-being, without it the world would be burning hot. Wealth alone can’t make you happy, peaceful and cool. For this reason, the sāsana or the Lord Buddha’s teaching is extremely essential. The sāsana’s critics accuse it of being a narcotic and an addiction. If you’ve never practiced or benefited from the sāsana, you’ll probably not be able to answer their accusations. They criticize the bhikkhus for doing nothing. But they never find fault with the pots and pans for not plowing the rice fields, because they are cooking utensils not ploughs and perform different functions. A battery charger is for charging batteries. The sāsana is for charging your courage and uplifting your spirits. This is the purpose of the sāsana. If a sick person doesn’t seek help from a physician, how can he get well? He can only become a corpse. Think about it! Patients need physicians and medicine. If they think relying on physicians and medicine is harmful or addictive, then they will surely die. It’s the same with people who are afflicted with the kilesas. They are mentally ill. They can’t tell right from wrong, good from bad. They need the sāsana to tell them, and cure them of their illness.

Greed, hate, and delusion are mankind’s deadliest threat. If left unchecked, they will tear the world apart. If you use the sāsana to subdue and eliminate them what harm can this do? How can the sāsana be harmful or addictive when it makes people good and the world peaceful? How can medicine and physicians be harmful and addictive to patients? Narcotic drugs will destroy you, but the sāsana, physicians and medicine won’t. Only the dead don’t have to rely on anything, but the living still do. They have to rely on medical professionals for their physical well-being and the sāsana or the Dhamma teaching for their mental health. Cars need roads to get to their destinations. Patients need physicians and medicine to get well, whether this is an addiction or not is irrelevant. To accuse the sāsana of being a narcotic drug is just dirt that comes out of dirty mouths and dirty minds. Common sense will tell you that when you’re sick, you need physicians and medicine to make you well.

It’s the same with the citta. When it’s still afflicted with the kilesas, taṇhā, and āsava, then it has to rely on the Dhamma teaching to show it how to remove them. When it has finally removed them, it’ll transcend both good and evil and won’t need the Dhamma teaching anymore. It’s like walking up the stairway to this sālā or building. As soon as you reach it, the stairway becomes irrelevant. You don’t cling to the stairway. The sāsana doesn’t teach you to cling. When you’re cured from your illness, you won’t need your doctor and medicine anymore. It’s the same with the citta, when it has fully developed, it will no longer need the sāsana and will let go of it naturally. Right now you must exert yourself to the full. Use your satipaññā to help the citta eliminate the kilesas. It’s the kilesas that are the addiction! But the critics don’t say this. If the Dhamma helps you remove the kilesas, how can it be harmful? It’s the kilesas themselves that are harmful and have been for eons and countless existences. But you don’t know this. It’s very hard to find someone who’s really sick of the kilesas to the point of ditching them. They’ve attached themselves to the heart and are completely hidden from view. Why doesn’t anybody criticize them for doing this? It’s only fair that the kilesas should also be criticized. You should think sensibly and fairly.

(Ajahn Maha Boowa “Forest Desanas”)