by Ajahn Chah
The authentic Dharma of the Buddha is not something pointing far away. It teaches self. It teaches about the concept of self, and that things are not really self. All the teachings the Buddha gave were pointing out that “this is not a self, this does not belong to a self, there is no such thing as ourselves or others.” When we contact this, we can’t really read it, we don’t translate the Dharma correctly. We still think, This is me. This is mine. We attach to things and invest them with meaning. When we do this, we can’t disentangle from them; the involvement deepens and the mess gets worse and worse. If we know that there is no self, that body and mind are really not self, as the Buddha taught, when we keep on investigating, we will eventually come to realize the actual condition of selflessness. We will genuinely see that there is no self or other. Pleasure is merely pleasure. Feeling is merely feeling. Memory is merely memory. Thinking is merely thinking. They are all things that are merely themselves. Good is merely good, bad is merely bad. There is no real happiness or real suffering. There are merely existing conditions: merely happy, merely suffering, merely hot, merely cold, merely a being or a person. We should keep looking to see that things are only so much. Only earth, only water, only fire, only air. We should keep on reading these things and investigating this point. Eventually, our perception will change. The tight conviction that there is self and things belonging to self will gradually come undone. When this sense of things is removed, the opposite perception will keep increasing steadily.
When the realization of selflessness comes to full measure, we will be able to relate to the things of this world, to our most cherished possessions and involvements, to friends and relations, wealth, accomplishments and status, just as we do to our clothes. When clothes are new, we wear them; they get dirty and we wash them; after some time, they are worn out and we discard them. There is nothing out of the ordinary there; we are constantly getting rid of the old things and starting to use new garments.
We will have the exact same feeling about our existence in this world. We will not cry or moan over things. We won’t be tormented or burdened by them. They will remain the same as they were before, but our feeling toward and understanding of them will be changed. Our knowledge will be exalted and we will see truth. We will have attained supreme vision and authentic knowledge of the Dharma. The Buddha taught the Dharma that we ought to know and to see, and this Dharma is right here within us, within this body and mind. We have it already; we should come to know and see it.
Whatever we gained by our birth into this human realm, we are going to lose. We have seen people born and seen them die. We see this happening, but don’t really see clearly. When there is a birth, we rejoice over it; when someone dies, we cry for them. It goes on in this way, and there is no end to our foolishness. Seeing birth, we are foolhardy; seeing death, we are foolhardy. There is only this unending foolishness.
Let’s take a look at all this. These things are natural occurrences. They are the Dharma you should know and see. Make up your minds about this, and exert restraint and self-control now while you are amid the things of this life. You shouldn’t have fears of death, rather you should fear the lower realms, be afraid of falling into hell because of doing wrong while you still have life. Some people are alive but don’t know themselves at all. They think, What’s the big deal about what I do now? I can’t know what’s going to happen when I die. They don’t think about the new seeds they are creating for the future. They only see the old fruit. They fixate on present experience, not realizing that if there is fruit, it must have come from a seed, and that within the fruit they have now are the seeds of future fruit. These seeds are just waiting to be planted. Actions born of ignorance continue the chain in this way, but when they are eating the fruit, they don’t think about all the implications.
Whatever we are experiencing as part of our lives now, one day we will be parted from it. So don’t just pass the time. Practice spiritual cultivation. Take this parting, this separation and loss, as your object of contemplation right now, until you are clever and skilled in it, until you can see that it is ordinary and natural. When there is anxiety and regret over it, recognize the limits of this anxiety and regret, knowing what they are according to the truth. If you can consider things in this way, wisdom will arise.
Whenever there is happiness or suffering, wisdom can arise at that moment. If we know happiness and suffering for what they really are, we know the Dharma. If we know the Dharma, we know the world clearly; if we know the world clearly, we know the Dharma. But for most of us, if something is displeasing, we don’t really want to know about it. We get caught up in the aversion to it. If we dislike someone, we don’t want to look at his face or get anywhere near him; just to see his house or even his dog can make us angry! This is the mark of a foolish, unskillful person; this is not the way of a wise person. If we like someone, then of course we want to be close to him. We make every effort to be with him, taking delight in his company. This is foolishness also. They are actually the same, like the palm and back of the hand. When we turn the hand up and see the palm, the back of the hand is hidden from sight. When we turn it over, the palm is not seen. Pleasure hides pain, and pain hides pleasure from our sight. Wrong covers up right, right covers wrong. Just looking at one side, our knowledge is not complete.
Let’s do things completely while we still have life. Keep on looking, separating truth from falsehood, noting how things really are, getting to the end of it, and reaching peace. Eventually we will be able to cut through and let go completely.
We have not yet left this world, so we should be careful. We should contemplate a lot, make copious charitable offerings, recite the scriptures a lot, cultivate a lot—cultivate reflection on impermanence, on unsatisfactoriness, and on selflessness. Even if the mind does not want to listen, we should keep on breaking things down like this and come to know in the present. This can most definitely be done. We can realize knowledge that transcends the world. Even while we are living in this world, our view can be above the world. To put the Buddha’s teaching in a nutshell, the point is to transform our view. It is possible to change it; it only requires looking at things and then it happens. We don’t need to look up at the sky or down at the earth. The Dharma we need to see and to know is right here within us, every moment of every day.
This is what the Buddha taught about. He did not teach about gods and demons and nagas (water deities), protective deities, jealous demigods, nature spirits, and the like. He taught the things we should know and see, truths we certainly should be able to realize. The truth can be seen in the hair, nails, skin, and teeth. Previously they flourished; now they are diminished. The hair thins and becomes gray. Will you say it is something you can’t see? Really, we don’t want to see, because we feel this shouldn’t be happening. But the Buddha called these “divine messengers,” or devadhuta (literally, the excellent bearers of news). Here they are, telling you, “Your hair has turned gray now. Your eyesight has become weak. Your back is bent. . . .” They are the excellent teachers of impermanence, showing you the transitory nature of life and leading you to dispassion. You certainly should be able to see with a little investigation.
If we really take an interest in all of this and contemplate seriously, we can gain genuine knowledge. If this were something that could not be done, the Buddha wouldn’t have bothered to talk about it. Normally we speak in terms of self—talking about me and mine, you and yours—but it is possible for the mind to remain uninterrupted in the realization of selflessness. How many tens and hundreds of thousands of the Buddha’s followers have come to realization over the centuries? If we are really keen on looking at things, we can come to know. The Dharma is like that.
So the Buddha said you should take the Dharma as your foundation, your basis. Living and practicing in the world, will you take yourself, your ideas, desires, and opinions as a basis? Taking yourself as the standard, you become self-absorbed. Taking someone else as your standard, you are merely infatuated wit
h that person. Being enthralled with yourself or with another is not the way of Dharma. Dharma doesn’t incline to any individual or follow personalities. It follows the truth. It does not simply accord with the likes and dislikes of people; such habitual reactions have nothing to do with the truth.
If we really consider all of this and investigate thoroughly, we will enter the correct path. Why is it that we have suffering? Because of lack of knowledge, not knowing where things begin and end, not understanding the causes; this is ignorance. When there is this ignorance, various desires arise and, driven by them, we create the causes of suffering. Then the result must be suffering. When we gather firewood and put a match to it, then expect not to have any heat, what are our chances? We are creating a fire, aren’t we? This is origination itself.
If you understand these things, morality will be born within you. Dharma will be born. So prepare yourselves well. The Buddha advised us to prepare ourselves. You needn’t have too many concerns or anxieties. Just look within. Look at the place without desires, the place without danger. The Buddha taught: “Nibbana paccayo hotu (Let it be a cause for nirvana).” Being a cause for the realization of nirvana means looking at the place where things are empty, where things are done with, where they reach their end and are exhausted. Look at the place where there are no more causes, where there is no more self or other, me or mine. This looking becomes a cause or condition, a condition for attaining nirvana. Then practicing generosity becomes a cause for realizing nirvana. Practicing morality becomes a cause for realizing nirvana. Listening to the teachings becomes a cause for realizing nirvana. Thus we can dedicate all our Dharma activities to become causes for nirvana. But if we are not looking toward nirvana, if instead we are looking at self and other and grasping without end, this does not become a cause for nirvana.
When we deal with others and they talk about self, about me and mine, about what is ours, we immediately agree with this viewpoint. We immediately think, Yeah, that’s right! But it’s not right. Even if the mind is saying, Right, right! we have to exert control over it. It’s like a child who is afraid of ghosts. Maybe the parents are afraid, too. But it won’t do for the parents to talk about it; if they do, the child will feel she has no protection or security. “No, of course Daddy is not afraid. Don’t worry, Mommy is here. There are no ghosts. There’s nothing to worry about.” Well, the father might really be afraid. But if he starts talking about it, they will all get so worked up about ghosts they’ll jump up and run out of the house—father, mother, and child—and end up homeless!
This isn’t being clever. You have to look at things clearly and learn how to deal with them. Even when you feel that deluded appearances are real, you have to tell yourself they are not. Go against it. Teach yourself inwardly. When the mind is experiencing the world in terms of self, saying, It’s true, you have to be able to tell it, “It’s not true.” You should be floating on the water, not submerged by the floodwaters of worldly habit. The water is flooding our hearts; if we run after things, do we ever look at what is going on? Will there be anyone watching the house?
Nibbana paccayo hotu—one need not aim at anything or wish for anything at all. Just aim for nirvana. All manner of positive results, merit and virtue in the worldly way, will naturally come as well. Don’t end up like someone with a stick and a basket struggling to get mangoes off a tree: if the stick isn’t the right length, the mangoes remain out of reach, or they will be knocked haphazardly to the ground where they get bruised and end up rotting. Making merits and skillful karma, hoping it will cause you to attain some better state, you don’t need to be wishing for a lot of things; just aim directly for nirvana. Wanting virtue, wanting tranquility, wanting all sorts of results, you just end up in the same old place. It’s not necessary to desire these things—you should only wish for the place of cessation.
Throughout all our becoming and birth we are so terribly anxious about so many matters. When there is separation, when there is death, we cry and lament. I can only think how utterly foolish this is. What are we crying about? Where do we think people are going, anyhow? If they are still bound up in becoming and birth, they are not really going away. When children grow up and move to the big city, they still think of their parents. They won’t be missing others’ parents. When they return, they will go to their parents’ home, not someone else’s. And when they go away again, they will still think about their home here in Ubon. Will they be homesick for some other place? What do you think?
So when the breath ends and we die, no matter through how many lifetimes, if the causes for becoming and birth still exist, the consciousness is likely to try and take birth in a place it is familiar with. I think we are overly fearful about all of this. So please don’t go crying about it too much. Think about this. It is said, “Karma drives beings into their various births.” They don’t go very far. They cycle back and forth through the round of births, just changing appearance, appearing with a different face next time, but we don’t recognize this. We’re just coming and going, going and returning in the round of samsara, really just remaining where we are. Like a mango that is shaken off the tree and falls to the ground with a thud: it is not going anywhere. So the Buddha said, “Nibbana paccayo hotu.” Let your only aim be nirvana. Strive hard to accomplish this; don’t end up like the mango falling to the ground, going nowhere.
If you can transform your sense of things like this, you will know great peace. Please make this effort to change, and come to see and know. These are things you should see and know. If you do see and know, then what else do you need to do? Morality will come to be. Dharma will come to be.
When you transform your view, you will realize it’s like watching leaves fall from the trees. When they get old and dry, they fall. When the spring comes, they begin to appear again. Would anyone cry when leaves fall or laugh when they grow? If you did, you would be insane, wouldn’t you? If you can see things in this way, you will be OK. You will know it is just the natural order of things. It doesn’t matter how many births you undergo, it will always be like this. When you study Dharma, gaining clear knowledge and undergoing a change of worldview in this way, you will realize peace and be free of bewilderment about the phenomena of this life.
Listening to the Dharma should resolve your doubts. It should clarify your view of things and alter your way of living. When doubts are resolved, suffering can end. You stop creating desires and mental afflictions. Then, whatever you experience, if something is displeasing to you, you won’t suffer over it because you understand its changeable nature. If something is pleasing to you, you won’t get carried away and become intoxicated by it because you know the appropriate way to let go of things. You maintain a balanced perspective because you understand impermanence and know how to resolve things according to Dharma. You know that good and bad conditions are always changing. Knowing internal phenomena, you understand external phenomena. Not attached to the external, you are not attached to the internal. Observing within yourself or outside yourself, it is all completely the same.
When we know the truth of things and don’t get caught up in happiness and suffering over them, we don’t need to apply forbearance because Dharma is already present; our experience is Dharma. Whatever occurs is Dharma, and the one who is aware of it knows according to truth. There has been a process of learning Dharma and seeing Dharma, and now things are appearing as Dharma. When experience is Dharma, we can stop. There is peace. There is no need to apply any Dharma, because everything is Dharma. External and internal phenomena are Dharma. The one who is aware is Dharma. Conditions are Dharma. This knowledge is Dharma. There is oneness, liberation. This nature is not born. This nature does not age or decay. This nature does not die. This nature is not happy or sorrowful. It is not big or small, high or low, black or white, light or heavy. There is nothing to compare it to, no way to illustrate it. No conventions of speech can approach it. So it is said that nirvana has no form, no color or caste. All these are matters of convention, the
relative reality of appearance. Beyond all these things, there is no convention that can apply to it or touch it. So when the Buddha talked about the plane of transcendence, he said, “The wise will realize it individually for themselves.” It cannot be proclaimed or shown to others; there is only the giving of skillful means. Those who attain it will make an end of things. To use the ordinary conventions of speech and concepts will not suffice; all convention ends here.
In this way, we can dwell in a natural state, which is peace and tranquility. If we are criticized, we remain undisturbed. If we are praised, we are undisturbed. We let things be; we are not influenced by others. This is freedom. Knowing the two extremes for what they are and not stopping at either side, we can experience well-being. This is genuine happiness and peace, transcending all things of the world. We transcend all good and evil and are above cause and effect, beyond birth and death. Born into this world, we can transcend the world—this is the aim of the Buddha’s teaching. He did not aim for people to suffer. He desired people to attain peace, to know the truth of things and realize wisdom. This is Dharma. There is no need to be in confusion or have doubts about it. Wherever we are, the same laws apply.
So while we are still living, we should train the mind to be even in regard to things. We should be able to share wealth and possessions. When the time comes, we should give a portion to those in need, just as if we were giving things to our own children. Sharing things like this, we will feel happy. If we can give away our wealth, then whenever our breath may stop, there will be no attachment or anxiety because everything is finished with. The Buddha said to “die before you die,” to be finished with things before they are finished. Then you can be at ease. Let things break before they are broken, let them end before they are ended. This is the Buddha’s intention in teaching the Dharma. Even if you listen to teachings for a hundred or a thousand eons, if you do not understand these points, you won’t be able to undo your suffering and you will not find peace. You will not see the Dharma. But understanding these things according to the Buddha’s intention and being able to resolve things is called seeing the Dharma. This view can make an end of suffering. It can relieve all heat and distress. Whoever strives sincerely and is diligent in practice, who can endure, who trains and develops to the full measure—such people will attain peace and cessation. Wherever they stay, they will have no suffering. Whether they are young or old, they will be free of suffering. Whatever their situation, whatever work they have to perform, they will have no suffering, because their minds have reached the place where suffering is exhausted, where there is peace.
