The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
9th November, 2022
Question: I want to ask about hiri ottappa.
Than Ajahn: Hiri ottappa are two words. Hiri means to be shameful of your immoral conduct.
Ottapa means to be fearful of the result of your immoral conduct. If you have these two, then you will not do any bad karma because you are shameful of yourself if you steal, you lie or you cheat. If you have no shame, then you can do those things, but if you have shame, then you don't want to do those things. So you have to establish a certain sense of shamefulness in yourself. ‘I'm ashamed of myself for stealing somebody's money.’ You shouldn’t think, ‘Oh I'm clever. I can steal somebody's money.’ Because you lose your integrity when you commit bad karma. You lose your good quality, your goodness. So you should be shameful of your immoral conduct.
You also have to be afraid of the consequence because when you die, you might not be reborn as a human right away. You might have to be reborn as an animal or go to hell first before you can come back as a human. So these are the qualities that will help to prevent you from conducting any immoral act or bad karma. Hiri and otappa will help you keep the five precepts.
Student: Shameful and fear are not good emotions, but in this case, they are good emotions.
Than Ajahn: Yes. It's like a knife. You can use it to protect yourself, or you can use it to hurt yourself. It depends on how you use it. If you are ashamed of yourself acting immorally, then you won’t do any immoral acts, right? If you know the consequence of doing immoral act can cause you to be born as an animal, and you have a choice not to be reborn as an animal, would you rather not take that choice of doing immoral act so you won’t be reborn as an animal? If you know that doing bad karma will be the cause of your bad rebirth, to reborn in the lower realm of existence, then you won’t do any bad kamma.
To be born in the four lower realms of existence are the consequences of your bad karma or your immoral act. If you don't do any immoral act, then you won't take birth in those four lower realms of existence, lower forms of existence. But you cannot see this, so you have to rely on the teaching of the Seer like the Buddha who have the wisdom in their eyes to be able to penetrate, to see the truth of the mind, to see what happens to the mind after death. Until you become a Sotāpanna, then you can see it by yourself, you can see the consequence of doing bad karma by yourself. Then you will never do any bad karma from that point on.
Student: When you said ‘You see it,’ does it mean you see the mind?
Than Ajahn: You see the mind. You see the consequence that happen right away when the mind commits immoral act. The mind catches fire, the mind is being consumed by fire, by fear, and by hatred.
Question: So this is how a Sotāpanna sees it, hence he won't commit bad kamma anymore.
Than Ajahn: That's right. It's like when your head was hit by something, you wouldn’t want to get hit by it again, right? When you’re walking and you hit something because you didn’t see the thing that block your path, then the next time when you walk pass it again, you make sure that you won’t hit it again, right? Because you’ve seen it before that there's something blocking your path, so every time when you come to that point, you will look up first before you move on.
The same way with a Sotāpanna. He sees what happens to his mind whenever he commits any bad karma, he sees dukkha. Dukkha arises in his mind when he performs any bad karma.
Student: Okay, it’s in his mind. He doesn't care about the body anymore, but it’s in his mind.
Than Ajahn: In his mind, even though the body has yet to receive the consequence of his bad action, even though he can get away from stealing for instance. When nobody catches him for his bad action, his mind has already paid for the consequence of the action. The mind starts to feel bad, get worried, and afraid that he might get caught.
Question: If we are not the noble disciples and don't see the consequence of bad kamma, and hence, we keep hitting the rock onto our head, is it because we just don't feel the pain or we just don't see where the rock is?
Than Ajahn: You don't have enough mindfulness to see the anxiety and suffering. You know that you’re not happy but you don't know what caused it for you not to be happy, what caused you to have anxiety and worry, namely the dukkha. Dukkha arises from your bad action, your bad karma. And your craving or your defilements also can cause dukkha. They usually go together. Craving or defilements usually will initiate bad karma. Not always, but usually.
Even with good karma, when you have defilements or craving, your mind will start to feel agitated. When you want something and you're not getting it, you might be a little bit anxious, worried whether you will get it or not. Once you get it, you also become worried and anxious whether you will lose it or not. So all noble disciples see this in their mind all the time, so they try to get rid of the cause of their dukkha. And they discover that dukkha arises from the ten fetters.
“Dhamma in English, May 31, 2022.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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