Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.

Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.

❖ “Can you imagine you are the spectator at the birth of a baby? Wouldn’t you be overwhelmed, excited from this occasion when a completely innocent human being enters into this world without any attachments except his/her very natural necessities? Or would you think of a normal process of life which leads to suffering?” ❖

~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

For us this is just a natural, normal process of life. There’s nothing strange, special, or anything like that about a baby being born. It’s just something that happens naturally.

For someone with Buddhist understanding, this is not yet full birth. Just seeing a child being physically born is not the full meaning of the word ‘birth.’ It’s not until the senses of that child are functioning normally – the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind are functioning to the degree that the child can experience the sensual world – that sense consciousness arises and there’s contact with the world.

Then the contact leads to vedanā (feeling), both positive and negative, and then that leads to desire. It’s only when the senses of the child are functioning to the degree that there is desire – it’s only at that point – that we say the child is completely born.

Please try to remember these six groups of things, these six stages of the mental process: first there’s the inner āyatana (senses), meaning the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Then the outer āyatana – forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mental objects. And then the six kinds of sense consciousness – eye consciousness, ear consciousness, and so on.

Then the six sense-specific types of contact: when the inner sense and the outer sense object and then consciousness – when these three meet and function together – we call that ‘contact.’ Then there arise the six kinds of feelings – feelings based on the eyes, feelings based on the ears, and so on. 

Then lastly the six kinds of desire – desire toward things seen, desire toward things heard, desire toward things smelled, and so on, including desire towards things thought about and remembered.

Please try to remember these six groups of things, because within these six groups or categories there’s a tremendous amount of things that we need to study and investigate. Basically all we need to know can be found in our study of these six groups of things, so please try to remember them.

(From the retreat “Why Dhamma?,” as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)

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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.

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https://soundcloud.com/buddhadasa/19910510-4-dhamma-questions-and-responses

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Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C01317