THE INTELLIGENT HEART
“When you watch your heart and really examine it, you’ll find that all problems lie with the heart. This is why the Buddha gave so much importance to the heart. If there were no heart, there would be no problems.
Nothing on its own has any issues.
The heart is what gives meaning to this or that, grasps at this or grasps at that, likes this or likes that, doesn’t like this or doesn’t like that. It goes around stirring up all kinds of trouble...
...The Lord Buddha was the only one who was able to see all the way through this problem, which was why he was able to solve it and get past it.
He didn’t lay blame on anyone else; he didn’t complain about anything. He boiled everything down clearly to the fact that the mind gets involved with things because it doesn’t know the truth in line with the way it really is.
When it doesn’t know and yet gets involved, suffering is bound to result—and it’s something that really exists.
The cause of suffering is something that really exists. It’s always there in the world, with every living being who’s born.
When the Buddha clearly saw suffering and the cause that gives rise to suffering, he looked for a way to solve the problem. He realized that it had to be solved at the cause: the mind that’s deluded. So he developed intelligence in the area of the heart and mind, to see if the things the heart and mind are infatuated with are really worth that infatuation. Exactly how wonderful are they really? This heart and mind that likes things: The Buddha saw right through it...
...All the problems in the world, from that past into the present, come from the fact that the heart isn’t intelligent.
It hasn’t gotten down to the nature of the truth. That’s why it falls for its fabrications that arise, stay for a moment, and then keep changing into something else. We run after fabrications, glad when they arise.
And then when they disappear, we go looking for more—because we like them. We’re attached to them because we satisfy ourselves with them, thinking that they give us enough happiness—but then we’re always hungry, craving for more.
We’ve never had enough. When will we be able to stop if we keep on running after our desires and gratifications? What real satisfaction have we gained from these objects when they keep falling away and ending?
What doesn’t fall away, what doesn’t end, is the truth—the truth of objects and of things that aren’t objects. The truth is always our guarantee...”
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Excerpt from:
The Intelligent Heart
FIVE DHAMMA TALKS
Phra Ajaan Suwat Suvaco
translated from the Thai by
Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
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You can read the talk here:
https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/IntelligentHeart/Section0003.html
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