A Lifetime Endeavour (Part 2)

The Lord Buddha had to give about 84,000 different discourses to suit the needs of thousands of his devotees, who are like patients afflicted with different kinds of diseases. Is it practical for a doctor to use only one kind of medicine to treat all of his patients? Of course not. He must have many kinds of medicines to treat his patients. It’s the same with the Lord Buddha, who couldn’t give just one discourse to all of his devotees. The important point is never to speculate about the citta, but to know it from your practice. In order to be firm and stable, you have to be firm in your development of samādhi and mindfulness. Your diligent effort is crucial for achieving your samādhi, or mental stability, which is vital for the investigation for insight or vipassanā. With a calm citta, your investigation with paññā will be easy because the citta won’t be distracted with cravings. Samādhi is the citta’s nourishment that will keep it calm, cool and contented. When you investigate, your satipaññā will perform at full capacity and you’ll become enlightened. You can take my words for it because I’ve already experienced it myself.

There’re many levels of paññā, but you shouldn’t speculate about them. Paññā will become skilful, quick, alert, sharp and penetrating if it’s being continually developed. You must develop paññā to eradicate the kilesas if you want to achieve the goal of your going forth. You mustn’t be unmindful when you do sitting or walking meditation. If you do, you’ll unknowingly prostrate yourself to the kilesas. All of your thoughts will be manipulated by the kilesas. Instead of eliminating the kilesas, you’ll accumulate more of them. So you must never surrender because you’re a fighter. You have to be serious and earnest in your practice. There’s nothing more important than the activities of the citta. It’s here where you’ll have to focus your observation.

The two mental components that are constantly active are saṅkhāra or mental concoctions, and saññā or memory. Saññā is much more subtle than saṅkhāra because it doesn’t have to concoct; it just recollects. It’s similar to water that permeates through the ground. Saññā will subtly recall information and mental images. Both saññā and saṅkhāra are anicca, dukkha and anattā. If you don’t know their true nature and what they are up to, they’ll be used by the kilesas to deceive you.

You have to be resolute and earnest with your practice. I would really love to see you experience samādhi and paññā because they are what you’ve devoted your effort for. The experiences that you’ve heard from your teachers and fellow practitioners are not your own yet. They are like merchandise in the market that you haven’t yet bought because you haven’t got any money. All that you can do is look at them. It’s the same with the Lord Buddha’s experiences like samādhi, paññā, magga, phala and Nibbāna that you can only admire. Although you might have studied the scriptures a lot, and you’re very proud of it, just what have you achieved? All that you’ve accomplished was to commit the scriptural knowledge into your memory without a single kilesa being eliminated from your heart. If you don’t practice, you’ll never experience samādhi, paññā, magga, phala and Nibbāna which you’ve memorized. Please understand this and get into your practice. If you develop paññā, you’ll get paññā.

You mustn’t let other tasks distract you from your practice because 99% of them are kilesas. When you’re not serious and earnest with your practice, then it’ll be 99% kilesas. If the kilesas have 99 weapons, and Dhamma has only one weapon, you won’t be able to fight them. So you must develop lots of Dhamma weapons by practicing seriously and earnestly. When you investigate the body, you shouldn’t investigate perfunctorily, but investigate for true knowledge and insight. How many times you’ve investigated doesn’t matter. You have to compel the citta to keep on investigating and not allow it to do anything else until you’ve achieved your goal. This is the way to make the kilesas surrender. When you fight them by putting your life at stake in your investigation for the truth, the kilesas will have to give up because your satipaññā is more powerful than the kilesas. You’ll see this very clearly. How can the kilesas be stronger than the satipaññā taught by the Lord Buddha?

When the kilesas are forceful, your satipaññā or the magga, which is the suitable weapon for defeating the kilesas, must also be equally forceful. When the kilesas are less forceful, then magga will also be equally less forceful. This happens in the early stages of practice, when the citta is restless and agitated. It’s like taming a buffalo which will eventually have to surrender to the tamer. It’s the same with the kilesas, which will eventually have to yield to your satipaññā and diligent effort. It will become weaker, whilst satipaññā becomes stronger. The citta can then establish peace and coolness as its support. There won’t be any restlessness and agitation that are like smoldering fire left inside the heart, like the fire that burns the rice husks. You have to extinguish this fire with your diligent effort. When the citta has attained to calm, it will have coolness as its support. This happened to me. The important thing is not to be idle. You must keep on practicing. When you sit meditating for calm and samādhi or when you investigate with paññā, you have to do it earnestly.

If you’re mindful in your investigation, you’ll gradually discover the ways and techniques of removing your delusion and achieving insight. Investigating with mindfulness is crucial for realizing knowledge and insight. Whatever you do, you should always investigate and analyze. This is the way of developing paññā. In the beginning stages of developing samādhi, it’s very hard. But you mustn’t give up. If you do, you won’t succeed. If you persist, you’ll eventually achieve calm. When you investigate with paññā, you should first investigate the body, your body and other people’s body, to see that they are the living dead. Do you want to live with these living dead? Our bodies are the living dead. Are they beautiful? Are they real? Of course they’re not! When you investigate on asubha (loathsomeness) and paṭikkūla (filthiness), you’ll find that these bodies are loathsome and filthy. When you investigate on death, aniccaṁ, and suffering, dukkhaṁ, you’ll see that these bodies will age, get sick and die. This world is the world of the dead. You’re just waiting for your death, like animals waiting in line to be slaughtered.

Once you’re born, you’re targeted by death. Death has already laid claim on you, whether you’re a man or a woman, young or old. Some will die today, some tomorrow and so on. You have to investigate until you see this truth if you want to develop paññā to impact your heart. You’ve already been branded by death, but you don’t know this, because you’re too preoccupied with your pursuit of happiness. You’re like the cows and buffaloes that have been branded for slaughter. Aniccaṁ, or impermanence, is constantly putting its brand on you. The sound that arises from this branding can be heard across the universe. That’s how loud this branding is if it can be compared to a sound. If you listen, it will break your ears and burst your brain because the effect of aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā can shake the whole world. Every part of your body is continually branded with the mark of dukkhaṁ, aniccaṁ and anattā, even when you’re sleeping. They never stop. They do it when you think: ‘Oh, this food is delicious!’ Do you know this? You have to investigate until you’re truly impressed by this truth.

Aniccaṁ is impermanence. It’s the truth or the law of the vaṭṭacakka, the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. You must investigate until you can see this clearly. You must take control of your heart because it’s your only real possession. Don’t pickle it with the brine of aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā. You must free it from your delusion that makes you cling and crave for the nonessentials that are immersed in the mire of aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā. What good can you find from things immersed in the mire? Even a solid bar of gold, once immersed in the mire will not look good. The heart is much more precious than a bar of gold. When it’s immersed in the mire of greed, hatred and delusion, how can it become precious? You should, therefore, free your heart from the mire of aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā that constantly oppresses your heart. When you’ve seen the truth of anattā, you’ll see that there’re no people, animals, I or they to cling to.

You should earnestly investigate to see the truth clearly inside your heart and should not oppose the Dhamma teaching because it is the truth. The kilesas and Dhamma will always oppose one another. The kilesas will make your views and understanding differ from the Dhamma teaching and will destroy the Dhamma teaching without you being aware of it. When you have clearly seen the truth, your citta will defeat the kilesas. It will be firm and resolute like a warrior. Your exertion will be very intense; your satipaññā will probe relentlessly until you see all the truth. When paññā starts to investigate, it will first probe the entire world to see without any doubt that everything is all made up of the four physical elements of earth, water, wind and fire. When you have seen this truth you’ll let go of them. After that the scope of your investigation will become narrower because the kilesas and your delusions are fewer.

Satipaññā will now focus on the five khandhas, separating and identifying them. Its goal is to see the rūpa-khandha or body as merely a body, the vedanā-khandha or feelings as merely the three kinds of feelings of sukha (pleasant), dukkha (unpleasant) and neutral, saññā as merely saññā, saṅkhāra as merely saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa as merely viññāṇa. The four mental aggregates or nāma-khandha have a similar nature. When you investigate one of them and see its true nature, you’ll also see the true nature of the other three. Once you’ve clearly seen their true nature, how can you not let go of them? You’ll let go of them because the reason you’ve been clinging to them is simply because you didn’t know their true nature. The goal of your meditation practice is enlightenment, insight into your true nature, and insight into the nature of your delusion that causes you to cling to aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā.

When you have clearly seen the truth of the five khandhas, satipaññā will then probe inside the citta, because there is nothing outside to investigate anymore. The scope of the investigation and the kilesas will converge into the citta where the kilesas will be completely eliminated. When they are completely removed, what is left? Gone is aniccaṁ, gone is dukkhaṁ and gone is anattā. Everything is let go of and left as it is. These three characteristics inherent in all conditioned phenomena—aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā—are the path to Nibbāna. When you’ve arrived at Nibbāna, these three characteristics will lose their usefulness, like when you travel on the road and arrive at your destination, the road that led you to your destination will become superfluous. It’s the same with the citta when it travels on the path of aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā until arriving at its destination; after which those three factors will serve no useful purpose. Your investigation that was spinning like a Dhamma Wheel will stop, because all the kilesas have been destroyed.

This was the endeavor of the Dhamma practitioners during the Lord Buddha’s time. They attained magga, phala and Nibbāna in the forest and on the mountains because they practiced for the elimination of the kilesas. They knew that wealth and status were lures that would lead them to insanity and knew that the kilesas were the ones that enticed them with wealth and status. What can be more precious than the Dhamma? You should fight the kilesas until you become enlightened. You’ll then let go of everything. Wealth and status are kids’ stuff, like children’s toys. After you’ve become enlightened, you’ll relinquish everything because they are all sammati or supposition. Enlightenment is the most satisfying result. It’s the fruits of your uphill struggle from start to finish, and the fruits of training, disciplining, developing, protecting and nourishing yourself with the Dhamma that you should value more than anything else.

You must consider the practice of mental development to be your most important endeavor and must not do other work or activities just to alleviate your annoyance as this will only serve to increase your frustration. When the citta has achieved the ultimate goal, it’ll be blissful and all problems will come to an end. The practice of mental development will also come to an end. It’s not like the worldly undertakings that have no end. You’ll do them until you die and carry with you to your next life all of your worries, confusions and miseries. You’ll never find any lasting happiness, ease and comfort. But if you’ve accomplished the practice of mental development, you’ll lose all your worries. This is anālayo, totally free of worries, because you’ve left all things as they are, even your body; whatever should happen to it, you’ll let it happen. You’ve already learned the nature of your body and know that it’s aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā, just like vedanā, citta and Dhamma.

The Lord Buddha said that you must let go of all Dhammas at the final stage of practice. When you haven’t yet arrived at your destination, don’t let go of the path yet. But after you’ve arrived at your destination, you must let go of the path. You must not cling to it. “All Dhammas” refers here to all the sammati-dhammas or relative truths. When you’ve reached the final stage of practice, you’ll let go of the path. At this stage, the citta will become very subtle and it’ll be totally immersed in the investigation. But when it realizes that all Dhammas are anattā, the citta will completely let go of them. After you’ve passed beyond aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā, what is this state? This isn’t sammati, and you won’t describe it because you know it’s indescribable. This is the ultimate truth. You can’t describe it but you know what it is. You know this is the Great Sage although it doesn’t say it is so.

(Ajahn Maha Boowa “Forest Desanas”)