by Ajahn Chah
Take the body as an illustration. It is born of causes and conditions. When it is born it has a certain power, a law, to exist in a certain way, and doesn’t listen to anyone. We were born, we were little, and we grew to adulthood and got older, our bodies changing according to their nature. They grow and age, no matter what anyone says, thinks, or wants. It doesn’t do any good to cry and moan, to ask it to stop for even a day. In the beginning it is born according to causes, it develops by conditions, and in the end it will break up, not depending on anyone’s wishes or orders. This is the nature of life, existing by this unchanging law. So the Buddha taught us to look at this point; this is extremely important. Skin, teeth, hair, and the rest, what will you see there? Constant change. Having arisen, they seek their own end and go on decaying on their own. Having arisen, they do not depend on the power of beings, but on the power of the causes and conditions that brought them into existence. Having arisen, they decay in the same way. They don’t need to ask permission or agreement of any of us to help them grow, age, wither, and die. This happens on its own. We don’t have authority over them. This is form, the body, changing according to its own nature, dissolving in the end. This is sabhava dharma, or “natural conditions.” In any direction or place, there will never come a day when we can argue with it or tell it, “Hey, listen to me. Pay attention to my cries. Don’t get old. Do as I say.” Nature is like this. It is part of the Dharma that the Buddha taught. We are not these things, nor are we their owners.
If our awareness of these truths is not clear, if instead we are deluded about nature, it is called the dharma of delusion. Then we see these things as self, as ours, and in terms of self and others. This is ignorance, and when there is ignorance, mental formations arise. We struggle with things. We want to control, to get this or avoid that, and fall prey to like and dislike. “This is something I like, please let me have more of it. That is something I can’t stand, please don’t let it come to me. This should be like this, that should be like that.” Such thinking comes from delusion. You become like someone who tries to seize another’s house and field, taking what is not really yours. The desires just keep on appearing in great heaps, and you won’t even know where they came from or what they are leading you to do.
Teaching and listening to Dharma, that this is such and that is such, are not really Dharma. They are words to point something out so that you can enter and see. Speaking to help people see the truth is skillful means, or ways of teaching, the dharma of study. When it is only speech without actually seeing, when you merely want to learn the words to be able to repeat them, no benefit comes. When you apply the words and see that this is the way things are, the unchanging constant law arising according to causes and conditions without a self or essence, this is actually what the Buddha was teaching about. If you don’t yet see, there is suffering. If you do see, you won’t long for anything. There will be no more tears or laughter over things.
We have been crying and laughing without end since we were little children; we have been insane, without rest. Always trying to get something that is not ours, always in contention, desiring something we can never really get, we are always living in a state of dissatisfaction and suffering. If you listen in order to make the mind Dharma and practice so that you see Dharma, you will finish with the problems of this life. It can end here. Understand that things do not exist for you to be able to season, modify, or improve them. They are just unalterable nature, the way they are, arising and passing away. When you have studied and practiced Dharma, you understand that the Buddha did not teach to fix things but to see according to truth. If you want to change things, that is not Dharma, that is not truth; it is just the habit of someone who wants to create and manipulate. If you do not see the truth of the way things are, there is no path to practice, and you are outside of the noble truths of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path.
Since the very beginning of the Buddha’s dispensation, for those who hear and practice there has not been any requirement to adjust or modify things, only to know and surrender. Wisdom is that which knows according to the truth of sankhara, or “conditioned phenomena.” However sankhara are, that is what we need to know. Sankhara have their nature to arise and pass away. Any other view of things is impure dharma, the teaching of ignorance embedded in the heart. There will be no cessation, the wheel turning endlessly: no solution, no end, no way to stop.
It’s like insects crawling on the rim of a water barrel. They are always moving, but they aren’t going anywhere, only traveling around and around the rim. The thoughts of ordinary benighted beings are the same. There is no finish or resolution; they just remain in the same old place. We may think we are headed far away, but we are only going around in circles, always coming back to the same place. We don’t see this cycle in the heart because there is no wisdom to see. We rely on delusion as our wisdom, and real wisdom is nowhere to be found. This ignorance becomes the manager, there is no standard to practice by, and things get out of hand. This is not Dharma. In Dharma we want to see, according to the Buddha’s words. This means seeing that there is no solution, nothing to change or adjust, because Dharma is always complete as it is. So we give up trying to control.
We can’t increase or decrease things. We tend to think that things aren’t right, that they are too big or too small. Why are they too big or too small? Because of our perception. Such is merely the deluded desire of uninstructed people, and it is as foolish and tiring as someone boxing and wrestling with a tree. So the Buddha advised us to see according to Dharma.
Whatever we may perceive has its existence according to nature and merely that. If we have awareness that knows according to Dharma, then no matter what things arise, there is no unhappy result. Whatever may happen to the body will not affect us. We will see that there is no profit from compounded phenomena, and we will remain unshakable in our own place, all things pacified. The Buddha said to investigate this body and the other foundations of mindfulness. There is nothing to solve or undo; we just need to know according to the truth.
The body experiences birth, aging, and death. There is nothing stable in it. Know that this reality is Dharma. It is the truth, and there is nothing to change, destroy, or solve. When you get to this point there is nothing more to say. There is no more burden to carry. If you know according to truth, there is no heedlessness about what you are doing, wherever you may be. You just see things as they are, conditions arising and passing away. Then what will you seek? What will you get upset and cry about? What do you want to toil and suffer over? What do you want to have or be? When will you say things are big or small, long or short? In the end, what will you say about nature? There is this cycle of existence, and that is all. When you see this profound truth, you will be at peace, free, without sorrow, in conflict with no one.
Seeing natural conditions arising and changing is called studying Dharma. Having learned about this, you should then train in it. The person who still has cravings does not see. If you have anger and get upset with people, it is because you haven’t penetrated the Dharma. You are still fooled by things and have no freedom. Learning counteracts this. Then there will be an end to problems. There are problems only because there is the belief that there is me and mine. When you believe things this way, when thoughts of me and mine arise, countless problems will come to you endlessly. Selfishness and all kinds of troubles appear.
When a traveler arrives at a hotel, he negotiates a price for a room and informs the staff of how long he will be staying. But as he gets comfortable there, he may begin to feel like the hotel is his home, and after a while he forgets about moving on. When the management tells him that he must give up the room, he refuses to leave. “This is where I live! Why should I leave?” There is some misunderstanding, and it leads to strife.
When we start to identify with our bodies and minds and think of this life as ours, then we are similar to the traveler who doesn’t want to leave the hotel. We have a wrong idea about this tempo
rary stopping place, and we find ourselves always in struggle and conflict. Children of the same parents end up fighting, people in the same village cannot get along, citizens of the same country are at odds with each other, all because of this attachment to what they think is a self and things belonging to the self.
So the Buddha said to come back and look at the body. That is one Dharma to study. There is nothing we should undo or change. We say, “One who sees sankhara and is purged of attachment has happiness.” Mind is sankhara. Body is sankhara. Sankhara are not us or ours. Thus, those who see sankhara are at peace. They see the mind and body not as self, but only as sankhara.
If something arises into existence, it is just sankhara. There is no being or person, no one who is happy or suffering. It is only sankhara. It is purged of happiness or suffering. There is nobody who is affected. If you see sankhara like this, you see Dharma. Nobody is any sort of entity, not a person, an individual, or a being. There is no one who is elated or miserable, no one who gets angry or attached, no one who dies. Things arise. Sankhara are like that. Seeing Dharma is like that. Whatever arises in the minds of yogins, they will know the Dharma to that extent. If your view is like this, it is called merit. All merits come together here, at the point of peace.
If we try to adjust or change Dharma because of a lack of clear vision, there will be suffering. Take the breath, for example. It is continuously flowing in and out without break. The body depends on it for life. It is nourishment; like food, it enters the body and supports it. The air goes in and out so the sankhara can survive. In and not out, or out and not in—there is trouble. But having been born, we don’t want to get old. We don’t want to die. Being together, we don’t wish to part. Having things, we don’t want to lose them. But it can’t turn out as we wish, because this is just the way things are.
All dharmas arise from causes and conditions. When the causes and conditions exist, the result occurs accordingly. Who has created this? It is just the law of nature. When it breaks up, that is also nature. This law is called Dharma.
Formal teaching to explain this is simply a matter of skillful language and speech. It is not genuine Dharma itself, but only the path to train people and point out the way to understand truth. Still, we think that we have Dharma, we understand Dharma, we are Dharma. Well, if this were really the case, we would not have craving, anger, or delusion. If we did know, see, and embody Dharma, we wouldn’t have these things. So we are the slaves of the afflictions without any surcease. If we really see, these things just evaporate from us. The profound Dharma is like this. That is one matter.
Then there is the dharma of practicing a code of conduct, people living together with restraint and consideration. This too is Dharma, living together without quarrel or strife. It is called siladharma, or “the way of virtuous behavior.” It is the Dharma that the populace at large needs to practice for happiness. But this happiness is just attained as the beginning of suffering.
It’s a little better than people who have no knowledge or morality. But still, we make this happiness and keeping it leads to suffering. This alone does not get us beyond, but it is still better than not having it. Making the causes and conditions for going beyond is another matter.
So when you listen to the Dharma, don’t think that’s all there is to do. Take it to heart and practice. Make it the cause and condition for attainment of nirvana, the deathless, the cessation of suffering and true peace.
We who are Buddhists need to study this, learn it little by little, and put it into practice through meditation. Even if desire, negativity, and foolishness are in our hearts, let us know them. When they arise, we know them and we know Dharma. Know that they are our enemies. “Oh, when will they be removed?” Remove them step by step through consistent practice—not through consistent sleep. Practice sila and Dharma. There will still be some grasping attachment remaining, but you will know you have it. Even if you are suffering, don’t let it get too great, but have a boundary and be aware of it. When you are tending cows and buffaloes, they may get into the field, so you have to control them. They may eat some grain, but don’t let them eat a lot. They will only eat a little because you are on the job. If you sleep through the day, they will probably polish off your crop. So you can’t be heedless.
Our aim in coming to study and practice is for our minds to see Dharma; when our minds see Dharma, we will end suffering. We don’t need to wonder what we are practicing for. We have eyes and ears, legs that are not broken. If we have opened our eyes, we will do what needs to be done, without waiting for or depending on the blind ones. We are able to speak. We are not mute. When we see, we can speak before them. We wake up first, and we get going early in the morning, not waiting for the ones who still sleep.
Why? Because this is a place of danger, it is a place of turmoil and confusion, an imperfect realm full of faults. The Buddha taught that, if you know, you should just go and not wait for the benighted. If your legs can carry you, don’t wait for the ones with broken legs. Why? Escape from the enemy little by little until you are free and clear. It means developing virtue and knowledge. Until the day you get free of evil, you make the causes of goodness little by little, and this becomes the cause that is dedicated to the aim of everyone getting free. Awaken yourself!
Lotuses in the same pond don’t grow at the same pace. While some are blooming, some are still in the water, and others are at the level of the water. You should do what you can according to your abilities. If you wait for the others, you might be eaten by fish and turtles.
When fire is flaring up and threatening to burn down your house, you can’t ignore it and take a rest. You have possessions, and you have to grab them and get out. Desire, anger, and delusion scorch us just like that. Death follows us always, every day without cease. At the very least, we should reduce our becoming and birth in the round of existence. In all our merit-making and other spiritual activities, we recite, “May it be a cause for realizing nirvana.” What should we do to make the causes for nirvana? Meditation is essential. You don’t merely sit here and listen to the words; that doesn’t become a cause. First you listen, then you have to contemplate the meaning. The things you are supposed to give up, give them up. “This guy hasn’t got it yet . . . That one, I’m not sure about the way she practices. . . .” Don’t entertain such thoughts; don’t push it off on someone else. If a tiger is chasing you, you don’t wait for the other person to run—how will you escape the tiger like this? This is a danger to you!
Nirvana is not a place to stay or go to. Or put another way, it is not going and not stopping. It doesn’t have advancing, retreating, or stopping. Understand that. When you enter and see, the fruit will come on its own. See the Dharma, earn your profit, and then even if you haven’t gotten to the end of the path, there will be no more doubting.
This is appropriate for those of us who come to study the Dharma. Outside of the Dharma of our Teacher, there is nothing that can bring us to live in harmony together, to go beyond suffering and unsatisfactory experience, and to realize happiness and tranquility.
Dharma is far superior to anything you can find in the home. The things we have at home generally only bring trouble. It’s not like they are going to cause peace. In the realm of family and possessions, there are only things for worry, concern, and struggle, things that stab us. Dharma has more value than that.
But if we live among these things, we must have Dharma. We can’t do without it. If there is no Dharma to match these things, they are not complete. Don’t be careless. If we really understand and contemplate Dharma, we will see value in it. The things at home will still be there, but if we see Dharma we will stop carrying them. Then there is still the busyness and involvement, but we know what it is all about and won’t take it for something real. Like dealing with a child, who says, “Mom, this happened. Dad, I need that. Hey, look at me.” The parent says, “Yes, sure, OK,” but doesn’t take it too seriously. You answer to make the child feel happy and secure, but you
r mind is not caught up in the story, because you don’t think in that way. So you can remain with your family and worldly responsibilities, doing what you have to do, but you aren’t following the stream of worldliness. You are acting for peace and detachment, not for slavery and involvement. This is called the accomplishment and enjoyment of wealth. Even though you have wealth and possessions, you know them for what they are, know how to use them and live above them.
If you can practice like this, you will come to know that Dharma really does have value. But it is necessary to understand, to contemplate and practice.
If you think things are real there is suffering and there is fear. You are afraid of the different ways things may turn out. Everywhere you look there is fear. Actually you just fear yourself. There is thinking, then fear follows immediately. It deceives you, creating a picture to mislead you. For people who are so fearful, whether they go into a house or a forest, there will immediately be ghosts haunting them. Even when they hear mice running around, they are frightened and think it’s the sound of ghosts. Immediately they are afraid, but it is only consciousness making a picture to deceive.
Or maybe you have some problem at home. Just thinking about it makes you want to cry. People criticize each other. “This one doesn’t care about me, and that one makes trouble for me.” The mind runs away like that. Actually no one is doing anything but you, making the pictures. If you make the pictures, you will get lost and eventually end up crying. If you get very happy, you are making a picture. It gets to the point of laughing or crying, but still it is just you doing it. “This is good; this is really good!” You are just forgetting yourself, lost in your joy and laughter. The mind picks up one thing and you feel fear; something else you may feel is repulsive, so you hate it. Then you love another thing, you become obsessed until you are actually insane and there is no end to your tears flowing. There is no end to it when you react like this, making pictures.
