The Ovadapatimokkha (Part 1)

The teaching of all the Buddhas as encapsulated in the Ovādapāṭimokkha can be summarized into three main topics. One, Sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṁ: to avoid doing any kind of evil. Two, Kusalassūpasampadā: to develop wholesome or meritorious actions, which really means the development of wisdom. Kusala means skillfulness, mastery or wisdom. Three, Sacittapariyodapanaṁ: to purify the citta until it becomes bright and pure. Etaṁ buddhāna sāsanaṁ: this is the teaching of all of the Buddhas. These three endeavours form the basis of the Lord Buddha’s teaching. He then elaborated further, Anūpavādo: to abstain from criticising others. Anūpaghāto: to refrain from hurting others. Pātimokkhe ca saṁvaro: to adhere strictly to the monastic discipline. Mattaññutā ca bhattasmiṁ: knowing the right measure of dispensing with the four living requisites, such as eating moderately. The Lord Buddha said that we should know moderation and the right measure, which means knowing what is suitable or appropriate. Pantañca sayanāsanaṁ: to seek and dwell in seclusion and solitude. Adhicitte ca āyogo: to develop the citta until it becomes sublime. Etaṁ buddhāna sāsananti: this is the teaching of all the Buddhas. These are the verses that are recited at the end of the bhikkhus’ fortnightly meeting to review the Pāṭimokkha, the monastic discipline.

You have to be resolute with the Dhamma teaching. Don’t merely skim over it or after having read it and committed it to memory, then claim it as your own possession, because it’s not yet your genuine possession. It’s only a memory of the Dhamma teaching that you have to correctly apply in your practice. It can’t be considered your true possession yet. The Lord Buddha called this pariyatti or theoretical understanding. However much you might have studied, it’s still pariyatti, theoretical study. Paṭipatti is the practice of Dhamma for the removal of the kilesas, and the development of moral excellence. This Dhamma is the magga or path to the cessation of suffering, which fundamentally consists of sīla, samādhi and paññā. You’ve got to do this yourselves. Paṭivedha is the gradual and complete realization of the four noble truths. It’s the result gained from practicing Dhamma. First, you’ve to study either from the scriptures or from your teachers, especially from your upajjhāya or preceptor who taught you at your ordination the five kammaṭṭhānas: kesā, lomā, nakhā, dantā, taco. These five kammaṭṭhānas are considered to be your most important tools for uprooting births and existences, for the destruction of the vaṭṭa saṁsāra, and for the removal of the kilesas and taṇhā from your hearts.

You have to uproot the kilesas, taṇhā and āsavas using these kammaṭṭhānas because they like to hide behind kesā, the hair of the head, lomā, the hair of the body, nakhā, the nails, dantā, the teeth, taco, the skin, aṭṭhi, the bones, and the rest of the thirty two parts of the body.

You have to study them to see their true natures. Then the kilesas won’t be able to hide behind them because paññā will gradually expose them. Wherever you are, you mustn’t lose sight of this undertaking which is highly sophisticated and subtle. It should be done continuously, not periodically like working for the government or seasonally like farming that starts in the morning and finishes in the evening. This is how the world does its work. You mustn’t use this worldly method in your Dhamma practice to develop moral excellence and eliminate the kilesas, taṇhā and āsavas, because it’s ineffective. The world’s undertaking has time frames, schedules, and seasons, for example, the civil servants and factory workers work from nine to five, whilst farming is done seasonally.

But your practice is delicate, comprehensive, intensive and strenuous, but not wearisome. It’s a delicate piece of work because the kilesas are very subtle. For this reason, you have to probe and investigate continually both day and night, sitting, walking, and lying down, except when sleeping, and it must always be foremost in your mind, having sati always directing it. You must practice all the time, using any kammaṭṭhāna of your choice to eradicate the kilesas. For example, you should mindfully investigate the hair of the body, the hair of the head, the nails, the teeth, the skin, the flesh, the bones, or any other parts of the body with your resourceful and versatile paññā probingand analyzing. You mustn’t do it blindly, nor speculate aimlessly. When you haven’t developed any paññā yet, then you must first rely on sati to calm your citta by curbing your thought process using any samādhi method that I have previously explained. This will help consolidate the strength of the citta. After the flows of your thoughts retreat and converge inside the citta, the citta will become strengthened. Normally the citta likes to drift and scatter its thoughts aimlessly. There isn’t a single moment when the citta is free from thinking aimlessly, except when it’s sound asleep. When it’s not, then it will be dreaming instead, which is another way of thinking aimlessly.

If you’re intent on bringing to fruition the complete cessation of suffering in your hearts, then you must strive in developing the magga or the path factors such as sati, samādhi, paññā and viriya. The objects  of your investigation, like kesā, lomā, for instance, are also the magga and can be found everywhere if you just look at them objectively. Without sati, the citta will drift aimlessly and become weakened. It will then definitely gravitate toward the ever-present lures of the kilesas. For this reason it is necessary to use force and discipline to free your citta from the enticements of the kilesas and āsavas, which are like magnets that attract your citta to fall under their spells and influence, that drive you to be born, to die, to suffer, and to become deluded. The kilesas and āsavas are the main culprits. You mustn’t think that it is anything else. You must therefore summon all of your efforts to develop your sati until it becomes sampajañña or continuous mindfulness. Being always mindful of and attentive to what you’re doing, and doing it purposefully is sati, or the correct way of practice. This is right exertion, and it is also the magga.

This exertion is completely different from all other exertions. If you truly intend to be free from dukkha, you’ll not be concerned with the time. If your determination is full to the brim, you’ll always be exerting, enduring and persevering. No matter how difficult it gets, you’ll not waver, but will always be tough and resolute. This is due to the unyielding strength of your resolve, acting like a magnet that galvanizes your diligent efforts and energy. You’ll become stronger and more resolute. You mustn’t be fond of or engage in worldly activities that you’ve already experienced from the first day of your birth. You should by now lose all interest and curiosity. If you still enjoy them, you’ll still cling to them. As far as practitioners are concerned, the world is the kilesas. The kilesas are sammati that ceaselessly oppress the heart, and never stop to rest like other workers.

To develop the Dhamma you must therefore rely on the continuous application of your diligent efforts. You have to strive and exert yourselves to the utmost. Chanda, one of the factors of the iddhipāda or the key to success, is crucial to your accomplishments. With the iddhipāda you can achieve any objective. By definition chanda means to delight in the exertion for freedom from suffering. Viriya means to strive relentlessly in all postures of exertion. You must constantly watch your thoughts to see which direction they are heading. They almost always head in the kilesas’ direction. If there is sati, then the kilesas will retreat. But if you don’t have any mindfulness, then the kilesas will attack you. Citta here means being attentive. This is the citta of the iddhipāda. You mustn’t let yourselves and mindfulness be far away from your exertion, for this will lead you to your objective, which is freedom from dukkha. You’ve to tirelessly attend to your exertion because it’s part of your practice. Vimaṃsā means paññā, which is an indispensable tool for the destruction of the kilesas, and for making the heart sublime, magnificent, courageous, bright, skilful and discerning.

The citta must always be possessed with satipaññā to supervise it, because the citta itself can’t tell good from bad, right from wrong. It has to rely on satipaññā to tell it, and to keep it safe and secure. If it’s not protected by satipaññā, then it will definitely follow the kilesas. If you don’t have any satipaññā, then you must be insane, because satipaññā is extremely vital to your sanity and tells you what’s right or wrong, good or bad. A deranged person usually wanders aimlessly along the streets, pays no heed to what is right and wrong, and drifts following his whims and fancies because he doesn’t have any satipaññā to supervise his actions, and to tell him whether they are right or wrong. He isn’t rational because he doesn’t have any satipaññā. If you’re totally devoid of satipaññā, then you’re crazy because your heart merely knows, but it can’t tell right from wrong.

Your actions will be directed by the all-pervasive and powerful kilesas whether you’re sitting, standing or lying down, and wherever you go. It doesn’t bother you how filthy you may be because you can’t tell the difference between filthiness and cleanliness. You can’t distinguish, you merely know, but you don’t know good from bad, cleanliness from filthiness, right from wrong, and what’s proper from what’s not proper, like sitting in the middle of the intersection and causing a traffic snarl. Your heart is completely under the influence of the kilesas. You don’t have any satipaññā to help you discriminate between things. If you have enough satipaññā like normal people do, then you’re not crazy, but this normal level of satipaññā is not enough to eliminate the kilesas, taṇhā and āsavas, as you would like to. You have to rely on a higher level of satipaññā that is developed by your Dhamma practice. Then you’ll be able to destroy the kilesas, and establish calm.

To keep the citta concentrated on your meditation subject and not drift away to other thoughts, you must always have sati directing it. The citta will then attain calm. It’ll only gain calm with sati. When it’s time to investigate, you must do it with the resourceful and ingenious paññā. For example, investigating your own body and other people’s bodies, and then comparing them. This is the correct way of developing the magga. Then you’ll always see the noble truths because they’re everywhere, especially the truths of dukkha and samudaya that pile over the hearts of every sentient being. Are dukkha and samudaya worth desiring? Samudaya is the creator of dukkha. How can you find any happiness from them? For this reason, you have to counter them with another noble truth, which is hostile to them and is the weapon to destroy them. This noble truth is the magga, the application of diligent effort and strenuous exertion.

You have to investigate with paññā so that you can see clearly the noble truths. What is there in your body? You have to investigate according to the truth, and must not contradict the Dhamma teaching. If you do, you’ll be under the influence of the kilesas. You have to examine the top, the middle, the bottom, and each side. The top is the head, and the bottom is the feet. Look into this heap of noble truth which is your body or the rūpa-khandha. You must also look inside. What is there inside this body? There are pieces of bones connected together by the sinews, wrapped by the skin and cushioned in between by the flesh. Externally, it is covered by a very thin sheet of skin, and that’s all there is to it. However, you can’t see this yet because you’re so deluded. You should be very ashamed of your kilesas, taṇhā and āsavas. You shouldn’t really be deluded with this thin layer of skin, but you are, because the power of the kilesas far exceeds the Dhamma that is needed to defeat them.

(Ajahn Maha Boowa “Forest Desanas”)