Being Dharma

by Ajahn Chah

  I studied with him like this for three nights. Then I took my leave, went down the mountain, and practiced as he had advised. For many days, I meditated and looked into this, contemplating many different things. It was very good. It led me to believe that it is possible for people to practice on their own, but that way can be very slow. Without someone to point out the way to deal with the mind, the path can become circuitous. It is generally like this for people. When they get stuck, they’re stuck deep.

  In matters of the mind, if we go to extremes, it leads to madness. Problems of the mind are not so easy to resolve. There was an abbot in this area who had a novice ordained with him. He didn’t know what was happening—he wasn’t a meditator—but his novice practiced meditation.

  After a few months of practicing, this novice started talking a lot. He would give Dharma talks on many subjects. It was certainly interesting. He’d never studied the texts, but he could speak about these things. It seemed quite marvelous. The abbot listened to him, and it all sounded correct. So he started thinking this could be an arahant.

  The novice was able to explain all facets of the Dharma correctly, speaking in an extremely elaborate and skillful way. His ajahn didn’t have experience in meditation and couldn’t really understand these explanations, so he became convinced that his novice had realized deep wisdom. He thought the novice had overcome the defilements and so was able to teach like this.

  Then one day, they found the novice’s body hanging from a tree. He had actually been insane, and finally he had killed himself. Then the ajahn was able to realize the novice had been mad, not an arahant. This is what it can be like when a meditator doesn’t know how to practice properly and hasn’t been shown the way to deal with problems and obstacles.

  What happens is a weariness with life. One sees no point in living and doesn’t wish to go on. But it is weariness in the way of emotional affliction, not in the way of wisdom. One sees no meaning in being alive and feels it would be better to die.

  Things like this happen because people believe their own thinking. Trusting your mind can even lead you to take your own life. When it falls into wrong ways, it can be very wrong.

  The way I see it—this is just my opinion—you shouldn’t be interested in magical powers at all. When the mind becomes tranquil, contemplate the physical body. Place the attention here for an appropriate time. Develop insight rather than looking for miraculous occurrences. Enter the correct path and practice insight meditation to develop the wisdom that sees arising and passing away. This will be helpful to you.

  Some people don’t think like that. They want to practice tranquility meditation to the very limit. They want their practice of morality and meditative concentration to reach the limit. Where this limit might be, or where it can be finished, they don’t really have any idea. The fact is, a wise person needn’t be too forceful about anything. What is important is to uproot conventional reality, the seeming appearance of things, to make an end of them and be liberated. Liberation is transcendence and voiding of conventional reality, the apparent. In the apparent, things are determined as really existing and having certain characteristics, being a certain way. When you do away with these suppositions, you attain transcendence and are liberated from all these phenomena. This is knowing your own mind. It’s really not necessary to get too infatuated with anything. This is enough.

  But this can become a vexing problem. Practice gets very difficult for some people because they get caught up in their thinking. They go overboard and deviate from the path, thinking they are going to do a lot, practice really hard to get some great result. Just what “doing a lot” means, or what “great” is, they are unclear about.

  QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

  STUDENT: As to what you were saying about investigating sankhara after the mind has reached an appropriate level of tranquility, we have heard this mentioned many times, such as in the instructions for meditating on the thirty-two parts of the body. By employing concepts and recollection to investigate like this, is one able to come to genuine insight?

  AJAHN CHAH: You do need to use the concepts at first. Actually, the truth can never be reached by thinking and perceiving. Any kind of concept, negative or positive, will not make an end of things. But it’s the only way to instruct people. We are talking for the children to understand, to show them that they must do this and this and this. When you get to the end, there will be nothing left. You don’t want to be following any mental formations. If you believe that your conceptions are wisdom, then you are constantly led around by them. They are merely sankhara, conditioned phenomena. And the knowing is not a self and also should be let go. Consciousness is merely consciousness, not a being, a person, an individual, or a self. Put it down! Let it be finished with.

  S: How much tranquility should one develop?

  AC: Enough to be able to contemplate things, to have the mindfulness to make this investigation.

  S: So this means remaining in the present, not thinking of the past or the future?

  AC: You can think of past and future, but don’t get caught up taking any of it as real. The mind has to think of all kinds of things, but don’t believe it. Understand what thoughts are and that they’re only thoughts. The point is not to get caught by thinking and follow after it.

  If you follow your thinking, you will always have issues and problems. It’s better to end this kind of involvement with appearances. Mind is merely mind. It is not a being, an individual, a person, or a self. This is called awareness of the mind. It is not yours. Pleasure is merely pleasure; pain is merely pain. When you see things in this way, there are no doubts.

  What is called investigating or contemplating uses the faculty of thought to look at things, but eventually it comes to see something beyond thought, because as you practice, you learn not to fixate on or believe in these perceptions. Thoughts and feelings are merely thoughts and feelings.

  That which we are talking about does not arise and does not cease. It abides as it is. Or to put it simply, it is not born and does not die.

  Let’s take this mind. We call it mind in order to have some idea about it, to know its activities. But talking about the real mind—well, what is beyond the mind? Where does the mind come from? When we look at it, we see arising and ceasing. What is arising and ceasing is not actually the mind itself, but some sort of feeling, meaning mental impressions and conceptual activity. The ultimate truth is not something that comes into existence and disappears in that way. But these things that appear and disappear are called mind in the way of designation and convention.

  In the way of conventional reality, we believe in our mental activity as being what it appears to be and call it our mind. But where does this mind come from? Having had the habit of believing in mind for such a long time, we are not very happy right now. Isn’t that so?

  At first we have to see impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness as the nature of the mind. But the truth is that there is really nothing there. It is empty. We see arising and passing away, but actually nothing is arising and passing away. We see the arising and ceasing by relying on perception and conceptualization. But then we take this perception to be wisdom; we grasp the mental activity as wisdom. This is not genuine wisdom. If it is wisdom, everything is finished with. There is no more involvement. We are aware of perceptions and feelings but don’t get involved with them. We realize that following after them is not the path.

  S: How should we practice to reach this point, the true mind?

  AC: First you become aware of this apparent mind, realizing that it is uncertain and impermanent. Seeing that clearly, there is nothing you will want to take hold of, and you will let go. From knowing, you let go, and there is no more cause for conceptualizing over things. Then there will be no doubt.

  The names we give to things are all conventions and designations in the realm of appearances. It is to help people recognize things. Nature just exists as it is. For example, in this building we have the foundati
on and the upper stories. The basis on which things exist is not born and does not die. The things that are born and die are running around upstairs. Sometimes we call it mind, or perception, or conceptualization, or whatever. But to put it simply and directly, there is no form, feeling, perception, or thought. They only exist in the way of designation. The aggregates appear and disappear. They don’t really exist.

  Have you read the story of Sariputta teaching his disciple Punamantani? I read this story when I was a novice, and it has stayed in my mind ever since.

  A monk was going to take up the practice of ascetic wandering, so Sariputta, as his teacher, gave him some instruction. Sariputta asked, “Punamantani, when you are doing your ascetic wandering, what if someone were to ask you, ‘What happens when the enlightened one passes away?’ How would you answer him?”

  The monk answered, “If this question is asked of me, I will answer that form, feeling, perception, conceptualization, and consciousness appear and then cease to be.”

  That is all. That was the correct answer. Sariputta was examining his disciple before letting him go to practice the ascetic ways. He had the correct view: the aggregates, having come into existence, then pass away. This finished the matter.

  When you understand this, you should contemplate it further and develop wisdom to see it very clearly. It is not merely arising and passing away. The result will be recognition of your true mind. You will still experience arising and ceasing, but you won’t be drawn to happiness, and suffering cannot follow you then. Attachment and clinging will be done with.

  S: From what you were saying, it sounds like there is something else outside of the five aggregates. Is it called original mind or . . .?

  AC: It’s not called anything. All of that is finished. Someone may want to call it original something or other, but it is all done with, exhausted. The original things are exhausted.

  S: So it’s not called original mind?

  AC: As a convention, we can say that. If we don’t have any conventions, there is nothing to talk about, no original or old or new or whatever. Anything we speak about, all those designations such as old or new, are just convention. Without convention, there is no way to gain understanding. But you should know the limits of it.

  S: How much samadhi is necessary to reach this kind of understanding?

  AC: Enough to have control of the mind. Without samadhi, what will you be able to do? Without a well-focused mind, you won’t reach this point.

  It should be enough to be able to see, enough for wisdom to arise. I don’t know how to measure how much. What degree of tranquility does the mind need to attain? Let’s say to the degree where you no longer have any doubt. That’s enough. If you ask, I have to answer like this.

  S: Are “the one who knows” and “original mind” the same?

  AC: No, no. The one who knows is something that can change. It is our awareness . . . Everyone has this.

  S: So not everyone has original mind?

  AC: The original mind is in every person. Everyone has the one who knows. But the one who knows is something you can never reach conclusion with. Original mind exists in everyone, but not everyone can see it.

  S: Is the one who knows a self?

  AC: It isn’t—it’s only an awareness arising.

  Questioning like this only leads to endless confusion. You won’t come to clear knowledge just from hearing another’s words. Thinking that if you ask the right questions about all the fine details you can find out the truth is not how it works. It is really something to be realized for yourself. But take the words and investigate what they point to.

  S: You often teach us about meditating on the thirty-two parts of the body when the mind has been calmed. Should we investigate the thirty-two parts according to the formula?

  AC: It’s not like that. When the mind is in a state of tranquility, investigation occurs on its own. This is investigation within samadhi. It is not thinking, This is like this, that is like that. That is ordinary mental activity, investigation outside of samadhi. But when the mind is concentrated, there is no thinking; contemplation arises within tranquility. The discursive mind that thinks about things during ordinary activities and tries to specify how things are is coarse. It is coarse, but still compatible with samadhi.

  The important point is to have mindfulness in all situations, mindfulness which is aware of the way things are. Why is it that the Buddha did not have aversion or delusion? It is because he had this kind of awareness. There is no cause for anger coming about. There is no cause for delusion coming about. Where could they come from? There is this awareness ruling your experience. There is nothing more to be done. You have reached an end of doing. You can put it all aside with the mind in full awareness. You don’t need to place your attention on anything, because the mind is doing it on its own; it occurs naturally.

  At this point, you don’t need to practice samadhi because it is already present. Things can still appear as right and wrong, there can still be feelings of like and dislike, but you just keep letting them go. Whatever things like this appear to you, let them go, with the recognition that they are impermanent. You come to know the source of things and reach the place that is called original mind, where nothing is permanent, where nothing is anything at all. That is truth.

  Whatever comes flowing down the stream, when it gets stuck you cut it loose and let it flow away. What is it that comes flowing by? You don’t know, but when it gets stuck, you release it and let it flow on; it is the phenomena of sense objects and mental activity. When phenomena are appearing, you keep on sweeping them out. When nothing appears you remain in equanimity.

  Just saying the words is easy, isn’t it?

  This is similar to the business of morality, meditation, and wisdom. The way it’s usually presented in Buddhism is that you teach about morality in the beginning, with meditative stability in the middle, and wisdom in the end. This is a classification you can remember. But really, with some people, it isn’t necessary to begin by teaching morality. Like Americans. They come to meditate and immediately settle down into pacifying the mind. You don’t need to say anything yet about the usual explanation of sila first, samadhi second, and wisdom third. First, just let them sit to develop a tranquil mind. Then some sensitivity will be born. It’s as if there were a poisonous snake in a basket with a lid on it. Even if someone were to walk right next to it, they wouldn’t be worried because they wouldn’t know it was there. They are not yet aware of the danger.

  Trying to teach morality is like that. You have to be aware of the habits and dispositions of people in different places. For a Westerner, you can just teach tranquil sitting meditation first. Then when the mind is calmed, some change will take place and the person will see things differently. At first, even if there is a poisonous creature about, the person is unconcerned, because she isn’t aware it is there. Sila is like that. It’s not necessary to go through the precepts one by one; morality isn’t just a matter of reciting, “I vow to refrain from taking life. I vow to refrain from stealing”. . . . It’s too slow that way. It doesn’t get to the point. Like a stick of wood. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you pick up the end, the beginning comes along with it, and you can get to the beginning by starting from the end. Or you can start at the beginning and get the end. You can’t insist on telling someone that this is the beginning and that is the end. If people are attracted to samadhi practice, let them develop a peaceful mind through that. Then sensitivity will arise, and they will be able to see things in a new light. Picking up the end, they will get to the beginning, because the beginning and the end are one piece. The changes that come about in the mind through samadhi will enable them to see things, and wisdom will start to permeate the mind. A feeling for what is right and what is wrong will gradually develop.

  These three aspects [sila, samadhi, and wisdom] rotate and develop by turns. Wherever you take up practice, that is fine. The traditional way is to talk about morality, meditation, and wis
dom. It is useful and shouldn’t be discarded, but you can’t cling to it as the only way. Whatever clarifies the mind so it can be aware of the poisonous snake is useful. Then when there is awareness, there is caution. You will get to the same place either way. Someone who will teach others has to use whatever skillful means are appropriate.

  When a child from the city goes to the countryside for the first time, he will see all kinds of things he hasn’t seen before and doesn’t know about. He will see a duck and ask, “Dad, what is that?” He sees a buffalo and cries out, “Mom, look at that big animal!” He carries on like this over everything he sees, until his parents are tired of answering. No matter what they explain, the child keeps on asking because he’s never seen these things before and is fascinated. Finally, they just grunt in reply. The child doesn’t get tired of it though. “What’s this? What’s that thing? What could this animal be?” There’s no end to his curiosity and his questions. But when he grows up he will know all about these things and they won’t be a mystery to him anymore.

  It’s like this in meditation. I used to be this way, too. But when real understanding came, the questions stopped. Through gaining some maturity in practice and inclining the mind toward investigation, one is able to resolve the questions by oneself.

  So you have to observe yourself constantly. Each of you has to look carefully to see how honest you are with yourselves and know when you are deceiving yourselves.