81-90

September 23, 2021 Dhamma Paññā 268 Views GIFTS HE LEFT BEHIND

MAIN CONTENT

81. Letting go of one thing to get stuck on another
82. A comparison
83. Another comparison
84. Things outside and in
85. Not even the five precepts
86. Never perturbed
87. How the Dhamma protects
88. Only practice can resolve doubt
89. Is that all they want?
90. No fables

81-90

81. Letting go of one thing to get stuck on another

One of Luang Pu’s lay students came to pay his respects and to report proudly on the results he had gained from his practice, saying, “I’m really glad to see you today because I’ve been practicing in line with your advice and have been getting results step by step. When I start meditating, I let go of all external perceptions, and the mind stops its turmoil. It gathers together, grows still, and drops into concentration. All other preoccupations disappear, leaving just happiness, an extreme happiness, cool and refreshed. I can stay there as long as I want.”

Luang Pu smiled and said,

“It’s good that you’re getting results. Speaking of the happiness in concentration, it really is happy. There’s nothing else that can compare. But if you get stuck just on that level, that’s all you get. It doesn’t give rise to the discernment of the noble path that can cut through becoming and birth, craving and attachment. So the next step is to let go of that happiness and contemplate the five aggregates to see them clearly.”

82. A comparison

“The mind of a noble one who has reached the transcendent, even though it may live in the world, surrounded by whatever the surroundings, can’t be pulled by the world into getting perturbed or mixed up with those things at all. In other words, the affairs of the world [gain, loss, status, loss of status, praise, criticism, pleasure, and pain] can’t overwhelm it, can’t pull it back to the level of a run-of-the-mill person’s mind. It can’t be brought under the power of defilement or craving ever again.

“It’s like coconut milk. Once you squeeze it out of the coconut flesh and boil it over high heat until the oil separates, you can’t turn it back into coconut milk again. No matter how much you may mix the oil with other coconut milk, you can’t turn the oil back into coconut milk at all.”

83. Another comparison

“The paths, fruitions, and nibbāna are personal: You can truly see them only for yourself. Those who practice to that level will see them for themselves, will be clear about them for themselves, will totally end all their doubts about the Buddha’s teaching. If you haven’t reached that level, all you can do is keep on guessing. No matter how profoundly someone else may explain them to you, your knowledge about them will be guesswork. Whatever is guesswork will have to be uncertain.

“It’s like the turtle and the fish. The turtle lives in two worlds: the world on land and the world in the water. As for the fish, it lives only in one world, the water. If it were to get on land, it would die.

“One day, when a turtle came down into the water, it told a group of fish about how much fun it was to be on land: The lights and colors were pretty, and there were none of the difficulties that came from being in the water.

“The fish were intrigued, and wanted to see what it was like on land, so they asked the turtle, ‘Is it very deep on land?’

“The turtle answered, ‘What would be deep about it? It’s land.’

“The fish: ‘Are there lots of waves on land?’

“The turtle: ‘What would be wavy about it? It’s land.’

“The fish: ‘Is it murky with mud?’

“The turtle: ‘What would be murky about it? It’s land.’

“Notice the questions asked by the fish. They simply take their experience of water to ask the turtle, and the turtle can do nothing but say no.

“The mind of a run-of-the-mill person guessing about the paths, fruitions, and nibbāna is no different from the fish.”

84. Things outside and in

The evening of April 2, 1981, after Luang Pu had returned from a ceremony in the palace and was resting at the royal monastic dwelling in Wat Bovorn, a high-ranking monk who was also a meditator came to visit and to converse with him about the Dhamma. His first question was this: “They say that a person who was a yakkha in a previous life, on returning to a human birth, can study magical formulae and be very powerful in whatever way he uses them. How true is that?”

Luang Pu sat right up and answered,

“I’ve never been interested in that sort of thing at all. But have you ever meditated to this point: xxxxxxhasituppapāda,XXXXXX the movement of the mind where it smiles on its own, without any intention to smile? It happens only in a noble one’s mind. It doesn’t happen in ordinary people, because it lies beyond the conditions of fabrication—free in and of itself.”

85. Not even the five precepts

Great senior monks tend to have lots of students, both lay and ordained. And among those students are people both good and bad. Especially among the monks: There are lots of good ones, with a few bad ones mixed in. One of the monks close to Luang Pu tended to be a little too casual about taking things without permission. People would report this to Luang Pu, but he tended not to say anything about it.

Once, when he wanted something that this monk had taken, he asked another monk to go ask after it, but the first monk denied having taken it. The second monk came back to inform Luang Pu of the first monk’s denial. Luang Pu didn’t complain, but simply said this:

“Some monks are so intent on observing the 227 precepts that they forget to observe the five.”

86. Never perturbed

It was after 10 p.m., and I saw that Luang Pu was sitting and resting, so I went to inform him, “Luang Pu, Ajaan Khao has died.”

Instead of asking when or how, Luang Pu said,

“Ah, yes. Ajaan Khao is finally done with the burden of hauling his saṅkhāras around. I visited him four years ago and saw all the difficulties his physical saṅkhāras were giving him. He had to have other people looking after him all the time. As for me, I have no bad karma with regard to the body. But as for bad karma associated with the body, even noble ones—no matter what the level of their attainment—still have to contend with these things until they’re finally released from them and no longer involved with them. The normal state of the mind is that it has to live with things of this sort. But as for the mind that’s well-trained, when these things arise it can immediately let them go and maintain its peace, without worries, without attachments, free from the burden of having to be involved with them. That’s all there is.”

87. How the Dhamma protects

The great fire in Surin resulted in lot of suffering: a huge destruction of property and a great sense of loss. Some folks even went out of their minds. People came in a stream to see Luang Pu and to bemoan the good they had done in the past, saying, “We’ve been making merit at the temple and practicing the Dhamma since the time of our grandparents. Why didn’t that merit help us? Why didn’t the Dhamma protect us? The fire totally destroyed our homes.” Many of these people stopped coming to the monastery to make merit because the Dhamma didn’t help protect their homes from burning down.

Luang Pu said,

“The Dhamma doesn’t help people in that way at all. The fire simply acted in line with its function. What this means is that destruction, loss, disintegration, separation have always been with us in this world. As for those who practice the Dhamma, who have the Dhamma in their hearts, when they meet with these things they understand how to place the mind in such a way that it doesn’t suffer. That’s how the Dhamma helps. It’s not the case that it helps by preventing aging or death or hunger or fire. That’s not the case at all.”

88. Only practice can resolve doubt

When people asked Luang Pu about death and rebirth, or about past and future lives, he was never interested in answering. Or if some people argued that they didn’t believe that heaven or hell really existed, he never tried to reason with them or to cite evidence to defeat their arguments. Instead, he’d give them this piece of advice:

“People who practice the Dhamma don’t have to give any thought to past or future lives, or to heaven or hell. All they have to do is be firm and intent on practicing correctly in line with the principles of virtue, concentration, and discernment. If there really are 16 levels of heaven as they say in the texts, people who practice well are sure to rise to those levels. Or if heaven and nibbāna don’t exist, people who practice well don’t lack for benefits here and now. They’re sure to be happy, as human beings on a high level.

qqqqqq“Listening to what other people say, looking things up in the texts, can’t resolve your doubts. You have to put effort into the practice to give rise to clear insight knowledge. That’s when doubt will be totally resolved on its own.” QQQQQQ

89. Is that all they want?

Even though people would come in groups to hear Luang Pu’s opinion about rebirth, claiming that this person or that was able to remember many past lives, seeing what they had been in the past or who their mothers or relatives in past lives had been, Luang Pu would say,

“I’ve never been interested in this sort of knowledge. Even just threshold concentration can give rise to it. Everything comes from the mind. Whatever you want to know or see, the mind will grant you the knowledge or vision—and quickly at that. If you’re satisfied with just this level of knowledge, the good result is that you’ll fear being reborn on a low level. That way you’ll set your mind on doing good, being generous, observing the precepts, and not harming one another. You’ll be able to smile, confident in the results of your merit.

“But as for eliminating defilement to destroy ignorance, craving, and attachment in order to reach total release from suffering, that’s something else entirely.”

90. No fables

In all the long time I lived close to Luang Pu, there were never any fables or entertaining tales in his teachings—no Jātaka tales or stories of the present. All his teachings were noble truths, pure and simple, on the ultimate or impersonal level. Or else they were a few carefully chosen comments, as if he were trying to be frugal in his words. Even when he gave instructions on religious ceremonies or on how to make donations or basic morality, he taught in a very detached way. For the most part, he’d say,

“Ceremonies and merit-making activities can be regarded as skillful means, but from a meditator’s point of view they lead to only a small amount of skill, that’s all.”

Dhamma Paññā

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