1-10
MAIN CONTENT
1-10
1. A Dhamma welcome
On December 18, 1979, Their Majesties the King and Queen paid a private visit to Luang Pu. After asking about his health and wellbeing, and engaging in a Dhamma conversation, the King posed a question: “In abandoning the defilements, which ones should be abandoned first?”
Luang Pu responded,
“All the defilements arise together at the mind. Focus right at the mind. Whichever defilement arises first, that’s the one to abandon first.”
2. No resistance
Each time, after Their Majesties came to visit Luang Pu and had dealt with the purpose of their visit, on taking their leave the King would say, “We request that you keep your aggregates (khandhas) going for more than one hundred years, to provide the general public with an object of respect. Can you accept our request?” Even though this was simply a polite formality, and the King’s way of giving a blessing to Luang Pu, Luang Pu didn’t dare accept, for he couldn’t resist the nature of fabricated things. So he would respond,
“I’m afraid I can’t accept. It all depends on how fabricated things go of their own accord.”
3. On the four noble truths
A senior monk of the meditation tradition came to pay his respects to Luang Pu on the first day of the Rains Retreat in 1956. After giving him instruction and a number of teachings on profound matters, Luang Pu summarized the four noble truths as follows:
“The mind sent outside…is the origination of suffering.
The result of the mind sent outside…is suffering.
The mind seeing the mind…is the path.
The result of the mind seeing the mind…is the cessation of suffering.”
4. Above & beyond words
A well-read layman was conversing with Luang Pu, saying, “I firmly believe that in our present day and age there are not just a few monks who have practiced to the point of reaching the paths, fruitions, and nibbāna. So why don’t they make their knowledge public, so that those who are interested in the practice will know of the levels of Dhamma they have attained, as a way of giving them encouragement and hope so that they’ll accelerate their efforts to the utmost of their ability?”
Luang Pu answered,
“Those who have awakened don’t talk of what they’ve awakened to, because it lies above and beyond all words.”
5. A warning for heedless monks
“A monk who lives heedlessly simply counts his precepts as they’re found in the textbooks, proud of himself that he has all of 227 precepts.
“But as for the number he’s actually intent on observing, how many are they?”
6. Real, but not for real
It’s normal that when people practicing concentration start getting results, they can have their doubts about what they’ve experienced—for example, when they experience conflicting visions or start seeing parts of their own bodies. Many people came to Luang Pu, asking him to resolve their doubts or to give them advice on how to continue with their practice. And a lot of people would come to say that when meditating they saw hell or heaven or heavenly mansions, or else a Buddha image inside their body. “Was what I saw real?” they would ask.
Luang Pu would respond,
“The vision you saw was real, but what you saw in the vision wasn’t.”
7. Letting go of visions
The questioner might then ask, “You say that all these visions are external, and that I can’t yet put them to any use; if I stay stuck simply on the vision I won’t make any further progress. Is it because I’ve been staying so long with these visions that I can’t avoid them? Every time I sit down to meditate, as soon as the mind gathers together it goes straight to that level. Can you give me some advice on how to let go of visions in an effective way?”
Luang Pu would respond,
“Oh, some of these visions can be lots of fun and really absorbing, you know, but if you stay stuck right there it’s a waste of time. A really simple method for letting go of them is not to look at what you see in the vision, but to look at what’s doing the seeing. Then the things you don’t want to see will disappear on their own.”
8. External things
On December 10, 1981, Luang Pu participated in the annual celebration at Wat Dhammamongkon on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok. A large number of temporarily ordained women from a nearby teachers’ college came to discuss the results of their vipassanā practice, telling him that when their minds settled down they would see a Buddha image in their hearts. Some of them said that they saw the heavenly mansions awaiting them in heaven. Some saw the Culamaṇi Stūpa [a memorial to a relic of the Buddha kept in heaven]. They all seemed very proud of their success in their practice of vipassanā.
Luang Pu said,
“All the things that appeared for you to see are still external. You can’t take them as a substantial refuge at all.”
9. Stopping to know
In March, 1964, a large number of scholarly and meditating monks—the first group of “Dhamma missionaries”—came to pay their respects to Luang Pu and to ask for teachings and advice that they could use in their work of spreading the Dhamma. Luang Pu taught them Dhamma on the ultimate level, both for them to teach others and for them to put into practice themselves so as to reach that level of truth. In conclusion, he gave them a piece of wisdom for them to take and contemplate:
“No matter how much you think, you won’t know.
Only when you stop thinking will you know.
But still, you have to depend on thinking so as to know.”
10. Advancement or destruction
On that occasion, Luang Pu gave an admonition to the Dhamma missionaries, at one point saying,
“When you go out to disseminate and proclaim the Buddha’s teachings, it can either lead to the advancement of the religion or to its destruction. The reason I say this is because the person of each Dhamma missionary is the determining factor. If, when you go, you behave in an appropriate way, keeping in mind the fact that you’re a contemplative, with manners and behavior corresponding with what’s proper for a contemplative, those who see you, if they don’t yet have faith, will give rise to faith. As for those who already have faith, your behavior will increase their faith. But as for the missionaries who behave in the opposite fashion, it will destroy the faith of those who have faith, and will drive those who don’t yet have faith even further away. So I ask that you be consummate both in your knowledge and your behavior. Don’t be heedless or complacent. Whatever you teach people to do, you yourself should also do as an example for them.”
