1.🌷 *Moha*🌷

1.🌷 *Moha*🌷

Moha is avijjā (ignorance). You don't know what is happening inside; you don't know the real cause of lobha and dosa; you are ignorant. 

How will you come out of this ignorance?

You have to strike at the root of the problem and come out of misery by working on sensations. 

So long as you are not aware of sensations, you are fighting with outside objects, "This is ugly." and "This is not ugly." You are working on the surface.

The discovery of paṭiccasamuppāda (Chain of Conditioned Arising) made him an Enlightened One. This was not known to anyone before the Buddha. There are three important links in the paṭiccasamuppāda. 

One is saṇkhāra paccayā viññāṇa (with the base of reaction, consciousness arises). Because of your old stock of saṇkhārā, you get a new life-paṭisandhi viññāṇa. 

Another important link is bhava paccayā jāti (with the base of the process of becoming, birth arises). This life turns into the next life. 

The third important link is vedanā paccayā taṇhā. (with the base of sensation, craving arises).

We cannot change saṇkhāra paccayā viññāṇa. It is already past. We are here with this nāma and rūpa (mind and body), with these saḷāyatanas. We cannot change that. We have to be careful about the future. Bhava paccayā jāti-more and more becoming, more and more births. 

We don't know when death will come. 

That is why the Buddha gave us this wonderful path. Remain in the present moment. You are the master of your present moment. You are the master of your future. 

Attā hi attano nātho, attā hi attano gati. 

(You are your own master, you make your own future.)

If you are the master of your present moment, the future will automatically be all right. You need not worry. Remain in the present moment. Don't generate craving and aversion towards sensations. If there is ignorance-avijjā-you are not aware of vedanā. Then you keep reacting with craving or aversion. 

The Buddha wanted us to remain aware of the vedanā of the present moment without reacting, to maintain equanimity. The old habit pattern was to keep on reacting to the vedanā with craving and aversion, that is, to keep on multiplying misery. This was the old habit pattern. 

🌷 The Buddha gave us this wonderful technique. You are in the present moment, and whatever the sensation, you are aware of it.Paññā means the reality of the present moment-arising and passing; arising and passing, anicca, impermanent. Then you are withvijjā; there is no avijjā. Thus, you have changed the path. 

Previously, you were on the path of misery because you were generating lobha-dosa in response to sensations-you were generating misery, life after life. Now you have changed. No lobha, no dosa. You are equanimous. You have changed your direction.

🌷 Vedanā is like the junction of a road or a railway. From this junction, it is either dukkhasamudayagāminī-paṭipadā (path leading to the arising of suffering) or dukkhanirodhagāminī-paṭipadā (path leading to the cessation of suffering). 

It is for you to decide. The Buddha does not want you to accept his words blindly. The Buddha never wanted anybody to follow him blindly. No blind faith. You must experience the truth for yourself, and if you find that it is good for you, then you accept it. Then not only accept it, but also walk on the path. 

That is why it makes no difference whether people coming to a ten-day course are from this sect or that sect. They experience the truth for themselves-sensations are there: if they react to them, they are miserable; if they don't react, they are happy.

Again, one must be careful not to condemn anybody who does not practice this way. Though they don't feel vedanā, if they at least understand that they must not generate lobha and dosa at the intellectual level, their intellect is becoming purer. However, those who are practicing according to Buddha's teaching should understand that if we miss vedanā, if we are working only at the intellectual level, then we are purifying our mind only at the surface level.

🌷 Siddhattha Gotama was not satisfied with this surface purification. He wanted to purify the mind in its totality-total purification. That requires purification at the root level of the mind-the deepest part of the mind, which is always in contact with bodily sensations. Where there is vedanā, reaction starts. If you forget vedanā, then lobha and dosa continue without your even knowing about it. He was very clear that the mind must be purified in its totality. His teaching is so clear: 

sabba pāpassa akaraṇaṃ

Don't commit any sinful or unwholesome action. 

Kusalassa upasampadā-samadhi that is kusalacittassa ekaggatta-concentration of the wholesome mind. 

But one can have ekaggatta, that is one-pointedness, even with an akusala object. A pickpocket needs concentration to pick pockets. Even to perform unwholesome actions, one has to keep the mind concentrated. But that is not sammā-samādhi. You are clear that you are not going to harm anybody and your mind is concentrated-kusalassa upasampadā. 

But Buddha says that that is not sufficient. Something more is needed. Then he says, 

sacittapariyodapanaṃ

The mind has to be purified in its totality. 

Pari means "in totality." And that is possible only if you work with vedanā and purify at that level. Then the whole mind gets purified. Otherwise, Buddha says, anusaya kilesa (latent impurities) will remain. 

These sleeping volcanoes of all the impurities that you have accumulated in the past will erupt at any time and make you miserable.

The Buddha found out this technique of working with vedanā to enable one to eradicate all anusaya. His words are so clear, "Eradicate your rāgānusaya when you have pleasant sensations." That means that whenever you have pleasant sensations, that is the time to eradicate your rāga. The old habit is that when there is a pleasant sensation, you generate rāga. If your rāgānusayais there, you keep on multiplying it. 

Similarly, he says to eradicate all your dosānusaya, that is, paṭighānusaya, whenever you have unpleasant sensations. The old habit was to generate paṭigha (aversion) towards unpleasant sensations. Now you are equanimous and don't generate dosa. This is how paṭighānusaya is eradicated. 

🌷 At the time of Buddha and before him, there were teachers who taught that one should come out of rāga and dosa, but they did not know how to come out of the anusaya. Buddha says that you can come out of rāga with the help of pleasant sensations, and from dosa with the help of unpleasant sensations.

Otherwise you are not following the Buddha's advice.

We should not condemn people who don't work with sensations. If you have understood Buddha properly, then work exactly as Buddha wanted you to work.

2 June 2023