Dhamma by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

Dhamma by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu 

Whatever actions that you think about afterwards 

And it brings you happiness and joy to remember

That is merit

Whatever actions you think about afterwards

That brings you unhappiness and sorrow

That’s unwholesome kamma

An undisturbed and calm mind brings about true happiness.

Buddhism is more focused on mental suffering than physical suffering

All conditioned phenomena are dukkha (unsatisfactory).  

What on the surface seems like happiness is dukkha as well. 

For example, we get a lot of happiness from having cute pets around. 

That also means they will bring us a lot of sorrow when they die. 

So living in this world

It depends on how we live in a manner that brings more happiness than suffering.

What is the difference between merit and unwholesome kamma?

Whatever has been done, if you feel comfortable reflecting on it, that’s merit

Whatever that you did, if you feel uneasy afterwards, that’s unwholesome action.

And from now on, if you want to make sure that there is more happiness than suffering in your life

Then you should make more merit, that is, to make your heart pure, calm and comfortable. 

Dhamma by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu 

Wat Suan Mokkh Phalaram, Surat Thani

5th December, 2022

“Can you explain your own experience of ‘not-me’? Or is it an inference you have deduced from your experience of ‘not mine’?” ~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

“Can you explain your own experience of ‘not-me’? Or is it an inference you have deduced from your experience of ‘not mine’?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

After we have practiced ānāpānasati well enough, we have the experience that all things are impermanent, have the inherent quality of dukkha, and are not-self. We see that every time there is the experience or feeling of self, that dukkha bites us. Seeing this, we live carefully, mindfully, not giving any opportunity for this feeling or experience of self to happen, so that it can’t bite us. But even if sometimes we slip, are a little careless, or make a mistake, we’re still smarter than we were before and so there is less dukkha to bite this self which is not-self.

Whenever we are careless and think or experience self, then life bites. Life is changed into a situation of biting and life bites its owner. Remember the different symptoms of life biting its owner that we mentioned earlier. Sometimes love bites, sometimes anger bites, sometimes hatred bites, sometimes fear bites, sometimes worry bites, sometimes worrying about the future or longing after the past bites, jealousy bites, envy bites, possessiveness bites. When some negative experience happens, we don’t want it to happen, we want to get rid of it, and that aversion bites. Positive experience happens, we want it, we desire it, and that wanting and desire bites. If we understand this then there is a technique, a principle, or a method to not let the self arise when we make contact with positive and negative experiences. Then these positive and negative experiences don’t bite and life doesn’t bite its owner. There’s a way to do this if we are careful.

(From the retreat “Why the Monkeys Washed out Their Ears,” 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.

❖ “In terms of the wheel, of paṭiccasamuppāda (dependent origination), where does it break in terms of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness?” ❖ ~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

❖ “In terms of the wheel, of paṭiccasamuppāda (dependent origination), where does it break in terms of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness?” ❖
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

If there is genuine vedanānupassanā, contemplation of the vedanā, then we’ll be able to manage or master paṭiccasamuppāda right from the start. From the beginning of the senses functioning, and then contact, and vedanā arising with vedanānupassanā, we’ll have it under control from the start. If we really have the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the four satipaṭṭhāna, then dependent origination won’t be a problem for us.

To practice satipaṭṭhāna you need all four, you can’t just practice one, so we need all four. But the aspect of the satipaṭṭhāna that’s most important for human beings is vedanānupassanā, so that we can regulate or manage, we can keep the vedanā from dominating us. Without true contemplation and understanding of vedanā, then we become the slaves of positive and negative feelings. If there’s real vedanānupassanā, contemplation of the vedanā, that’s the crucial element in keeping dependent origination from causing us problems.

With kāyānupassanā, contemplation of the body, you can keep the senses from becoming problems. The senses will be mindful of them and they won’t become any problem for us. They won’t lead to attachment and dukkha.

And then for cittānupassanā, contemplation of the mind, we have even more mastery of the mind, because on an even deeper level, we can keep the vedanā from creating thoughts or perceptions which are trouble for us.

Dhammānupassanā, contemplation of dhammas, is the ability to manage all things which are the basis for attachment, so then we can control or we can manage all attachments. We master all the things that are opportunities for attachment, then attachment can no longer run our lives or take over our minds.

All natural things can be distinguished into two categories, the one are those which have a positive quality or characteristic and those which have a negative quality. If we really got the Foundation of Mindfulness, which is contemplation of dhammas, or dhammānupassanā satipaṭṭhāna, then we can master all these positive and negative qualities so that no dhammas, no things, no natures, will have any power over us.

The translator then asks, “It sounds like you can’t really separate the Four Foundations of Mindfulness – we need to develop all of them together?” And his reply is you need to know which satipaṭṭhāna is appropriate in each circumstance, but ultimately you can’t separate them. 

We develop all of them according to the circumstances. So the main thing is to have satipaṭṭhāna, to have the mind grounded through mindfulness, and then depending on the circumstances, it’s either of the body or feelings or mind or Dhamma. So one is mindful of these things, but exactly what one is mindful of depends on the circumstances in the mind.

Remember one sentence here, “Sati, mindfulness, can master the vedanā.” Sati masters the vedanā. All the different kinds of vedanā that there are – positive and negative and in between – all the various kinds of vedanā are mastered by sati, by mindfulness. If we are mindful, then we can keep these vedanā from becoming trouble.

(From Dhamma Questions and Answers with Buddhadāsa and monks from Wat Pah Nanachat as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)

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“I’m a little more confused now when you talk about getting rid of the self.

“I’m a little more confused now when you talk about getting rid of the self. 

The way I saw it before is, though you rid yourself of the self, you are still a part of this world, and things in the world still affect you. 

As such, it seems that things like war or the destruction of the environment will still affect the aggregates that compose an individual. Though you do not have a self, the first duty to survive is threatened, and these problems must be addressed.” 

~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

Yes, there seems to be some confusion about not self. The thing to understand is that with the body in contact with the world, feelings arise, perceptions and evaluations about those feelings and experiences take place, there’s thinking about all that, and there’s the basic sense consciousness to which we are aware of things – all of these are not self. 

These five natural functions of a human being are all not self. When none of these are taken to be a basis of self – when there’s no ignorant clinging to the body, the feelings, the perceptions, the thinking, and consciousness as being self – then there’s no problem. When there’s no self, there’s no basis on which to set up or build the problem. This is the first thing to understand. This is what Buddhism is about – how to eliminate the foundation for the problem by recognizing that the five khandhas are not self.

Because we understand incorrectly, because we act improperly, we go and take this body and mind to be self. In fact, the body and mind are the five aggregates, are just nature, but through our wrong actions we take them more and more to be self. Then when there’s this self, there is selfishness. When there’s a self, we act selfishly, and this creates all the problems in the world. But when we understand that all of these things are just nature, and stop clinging to any of them as being ‘me’ and ‘mine,’ when we recognize that it’s just nature, it’s not ours, it’s nature’s, then there’s no self and no selfishness. And when there’s no selfishness, there won’t be any war. There’s only war because of our selfishness.

So the fact that the five khandhas are not self is the essence of Buddhism, whether Theravāda Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Vajrayāna Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Thai Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism, or whatever. The heart of every school of Buddhism is that the five khandhas are not self. The five khandhas are void of self and belonging to self. So please investigate these, study, train in them, and then you will understand Buddhism. There’s just this body, and in the body there are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and the sense of touch on the skin. There’s this nervous system, and when it’s stimulated then there is consciousness, and then we feel – there are feelings, positive and negative feelings arising towards experience – and then we perceive or we recognize and evaluate those experiences as being positive and negative, and then we think about how to get the positive things and how to get rid of the negative things. 

There’re these five khandhas, these naturally occurring functions, and they just happen naturally. It’s the nature of these kinds of bodies in this kind of world, and all of them are not self. You ought to study these carefully and deeply, and then you will understand Buddhism. You’ll be able to live with five khandhas but without a self. The more you study them, the more you’ll see that in the five khandhas there is dependent origination, there is the stream of dependent origination. If the five khandhas function with ignorance, then they dependently originate dukkha. But if the five khandhas function with mindfulness and wisdom, they don’t turn into dukkha.

To study this you don’t need books or teachers or anything. You just study it within one’s own body with one’s own mindfulness and intelligence. But because you don’t know how to study it, you have to go looking for books and teachers to explain to you how to study the fact that the five khandhas are not self. If you knew how to study this, you wouldn’t have to come to Thailand, you wouldn’t have to come to Suan Mokkh, you wouldn’t have to go to India, or wherever. If one knows how to study the five khandhas, one doesn’t have to go to any of these places looking for books, teachers, and so on. But because you don’t know how to do this, then you have to come to places like this. So please learn how to learn! Learn how to learn that the five khandhas are not self, and then you won’t have to spend so much time reading books.

Please study the five khandhas within yourself. There’s this body and its nervous system, and when the nervous system is stimulated, consciousness arises. When consciousness arises, there’s seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and mental experiences. And there’s feeling about these experiences, and then perceptions, conceptions, thinking. This is all happening within the mind. This is all happening within ourselves. So the classroom in which to study this is in our own minds. The lesson is in our own minds.

If one knows how to learn, then one doesn’t have to go reading books, finding teachers, enrolling in universities, and all the other things that are popular these days. The Buddha insisted that the place to learn is in these bodies, these six-foot-long bodies, together with consciousness and experience. But you don’t have to believe the Buddha. 

You can just find it out for yourself and you’ll know for yourself that it’s all happening in here, and so one has to study it in here rather than in books or in lectures or whatever. So learn this inside, learn this within. It’s not necessary to read lots of books.

We call this ‘nature seeing things for itself.’ 

Nature is understanding things itself. There doesn’t have to be a student or a learner or a see-er who understands these things – it’s nature is understanding it all for itself. So there’s the studying, the investigating, the learning, the experiencing. All of this happens naturally. Nature does all this. There’s no self to take the credit.

The word aehng is very important. Aehng can be translated ‘self,’ but it’s just a grammatical form, the reflective when you say ‘myself, yourself.’ It’s that meaning of ‘self’ – ‘oneself.’ 

This is very important that one studies within oneself. One studies by oneself. One studies for the benefit of oneself, for the highest benefit. So this ‘oneself’ is very important. It must be in oneself, by oneself, for oneself.

The first stage is to look, to look within oneself. And if one looks, then one sees, one sees oneself. But if you don’t know how to look, of course you won’t see, but by looking within, one sees. If one can’t look, one doesn’t see. Then after seeing, one understands the thing one sees. So there’s looking, seeing, understanding. The fourth is to investigate and analyze the thing that is seen. And the fifth is to know what should be done, and then finally to do it. When you know what needs to be done then just do it correctly and the problem is over.

So this is the meaning of the word ‘study,’ or ‘seuk saa’ in Thai (the Pāli word is sikkhā) in Buddhism: to look within, with oneself, look within oneself and then see. And by seeing then one comes to understand, and then the thing understood is analyzed, investigated to know what to do about it, and then we do that, and problems are finished. In Buddhism, study has these five stages and they all happen within oneself. So the meaning is that all five of these must be by oneself, through oneself, with oneself. The school, the lesson, and the examination are all within oneself. We teach ourselves, we test ourselves, we even grade ourselves. We examine ourselves, we test ourselves, and we grade or judge ourselves.

All of this is for a single result – the one result of knowing that it’s all anattā, that all these things are not self. If one asks, “What does Buddhism learn?,” Buddhism learns that all things are not self. Without any exception, everything is not self. 

When there’s no atta, no self, then there’s no selfishness. Problems disappear. When there’s no selfishness, there’s no war, there’s no pollution, there’s no crime, or any of all the complicated and terrible problems confronting modern society. 

If there isn’t selfishness, none of these problems would exist.

Even the problem of drug abuse and drug addiction, as well as some of the very nasty diseases which are killing many people, all of these exist solely because of selfishness.

Because people go and do things they shouldn’t be doing, then these problems develop because of the selfishness of people.

You can see that when we have ended our own problems, then we can help others to end their problems. To look in the other direction, which is quite saddening, that the more development there is, the more selfishness. The more progress and civilization there is, the more selfishness. And then with the problems as our societies progress and develop, there’s more and more selfishness. As the selfishness grows and grows, then there are bigger and bigger problems, but we call it ‘development’ and ‘progress’ and ‘civilization.’

The more one learns, the more clever one is. The more we learn, the more clever we become, and the more clever, the more selfish. 

All our learning nowadays is increasing the selfishness because our education is incorrect. 

All it does is engender and support more and more selfishness. 

We need to rearrange, we need to redo the education we’ve got so that it doesn’t just increase selfishness.

Why not study Dhamma? Why not learn about Dhamma? The more one understands Dhamma, then the less selfishness there is. The more one understands Dhamma, one is free of self, and then there’s no basis for selfishness. 

And when there’s no selfishness, the problems are gone like that. The problem is really very small – it’s just this one little thing. 

Because of illusion there is self, and because of self there is selfishness. 

The problem is right there. You can try and make it all complicated with lots of theories, but the real problem is just this one little thing.

If we look at another kind of truth, or another truth, the world is developing with selfishness. The world is developing true selfishness. The employers are selfish, the employees are selfish. We used to say the communists were selfish and the capitalists were selfish, but there aren’t so many communists anymore, but the capitalists are still selfish.

In our universities the professors are selfish and the students are selfish. 

Now the doctors are selfish, the teachers are selfish, the judges are selfish. And then what about in congress where they’re supposedly serving the country? Can you tell us there’s no selfishness in the congress or the administration, which is always acting in the interests of the people? 

Of course it’s even worse in congress and in the administration – the selfishness is even more rampant.

And so the war that is happening today is happening solely because of selfishness. If it wasn’t for selfishness there wouldn’t be a war. And it requires the selfishness of both sides. 

It’s not that one side is selfish and the other isn’t; it’s that both sides are selfish. It takes two selfish sides to make a war.

One’s selfishness might be too good. 

If they curse us, we don’t curse back. 

If they hit us, we don’t hit back. If they attack us, we don’t attack back. But that might be too good. So it’s about time that we have peace by being unselfish. It’s about time that we had some peace in this world.

We’ve been talking for more than two hours. We ask to call it quits at this point. Thank you for being good listeners. So walk back to wherever you’re staying without a ‘walker.’ 

Wherever you’re walking, walk back without a ‘walker.’ Do everything without a ‘doer,’ and then there will be peace, at least a little peace in this world. And then you’ll see for yourself whether this is correct, and you won’t have to believe anyone. We ask your permission to end today’s meeting.

(From Dhamma Questions & Answers with students from Puget University, State of Washington, USA 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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Where can we quench suffering? ~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

 Q44.

Where can we quench suffering?
~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

We don’t quench suffering in a monastery, in the forest, at home, or on a mountain. We have to quench suffering right in the cause of suffering itself. We must investigate and find out how suffering arises in us each day and from what roots it originates. Then we cut off that particular root. Yesterday’s suffering has already been and gone. It can’t come back, it is over and done with. The suffering that arises today, right now, is the problem. Suffering that may arise tomorrow isn’t yet a problem; it hasn’t happened yet. Rather, the suffering arising and happening right now must be dealt with quickly. Where, then, is it to be quenched? It must be quenched at its root. We must study life until we realize that, as the Buddha said, suffering arises simply from grasping and clinging.

That birth, aging, and death are suffering is usually proclaimed eloquently, but ambiguously. 

However, birth isn’t suffering, aging isn’t suffering, and death isn’t suffering where there’s no attachment to ‘my birth,’ ‘my aging,’ and ‘my death.’ At the moment, we are grasping at birth, aging, pain, and death as ‘ours.’ If we don’t cling, they aren’t suffering, they are only concoctions changing (saṅkhāra). 

Conditioned things change in a certain way and we call it ‘birth’; conditioned things change in a different way and we call it ‘aging’; conditioned things change in another way and we call it ‘death’; but we fail to see them as just concoctions changing. We see them as particular realities happening and, what is more, we consider them ‘my birth,’ ‘my aging,’ and ‘my death.’ This is a multilayered delusion because ‘I’ is a delusion to start with; so seeing a bodily change as ‘my birth’ or ‘my aging’ is yet further delusion. We fail to see that these are simply bodily changes. As soon as we see them as only changing conditions, birth, aging, and death disappear, and ‘I’ disappears with them. There’s no longer any ‘I’ and such changing conditions aren’t suffering.

The Buddha said, ‘Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, and death is suffering,’ yet the majority of people, almost all in fact, misunderstand him. They point to the condition of birth, the condition of aging, and the condition of death as being suffering itself. Some can’t explain it at all. Some, hesitant and uncertain, explain it vaguely and ambiguously, evasively hemming and hawing. This is because they forget that the Buddha concluded his description with ‘In summary, the five clinging-together-aggregates are suffering.’* 

The aggregates are body and mind operating together as a person. If there is grasping at anything as being ‘I’ or ‘mine,’ the five aggregates are suffering immediately. Those five aggregates are the burden, the suffering, the fire and brimstone. All the suffering is in the five clinging-together-aggregates.

Now suppose these five aggregates are in the condition known as ‘aging.’ If mind doesn’t grasp at and cling to them as ‘aging,’ or as ‘my aging,’ there will not be suffering. Seeing body as empty, feelings as empty, perceptions as empty, activities as empty, and cognition as empty – seeing the whole flowing and swirling conditioning of everything as empty – there’s no path for suffering. Such are pure pañcakkhandha, aggregates freed from grasping. These are what we presume to call the five aggregates of an arahant. Actually, arahants can’t be described as being the owners of any aggregates, but we look on those aggregates as being the receptacle of the virtues of arahantship. That type of mind can’t grasp at the aggregates in any way as being ‘mine.’ Still, we speak of them conventionally as the pure pañcakkhandha of arahants.

Once again, where is suffering quenched? We quench suffering at the root of suffering, namely, grasping and clinging to things. Suffering due to attachment to wealth must be quenched there in that attachment. 

Suffering due to grasping and clinging to the illusions of power, prestige, honor, and fame must be quenched there in that grasping and clinging. Then wealth, power, and prestige will not be in themselves suffering. So find out where it arises and quench it there. 

In the words of the old-time Dhamma experts, ‘whichever way it goes up, bring it down that same way.’

(*) Saṃkhittena pañcupādānakkhandhā dukkhā.

(From “Buddha-Dhamma for Inquiring Minds”)

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Buddha-Dhamma for Students (title of original translation) was composed of two talks given by Ajahn Buddhadāsa in January 1966 to students at Thammasat University, Bangkok. It was translated from the Thai by Rod Bucknell, and revised in 2018p

What is meant by the four woeful realms? ~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu

What is meant by the four woeful realms?
~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu 

The first of the woeful realms is hell. Hell (naraka) is anxiety (in Thai, literally, ‘a hot, agitated heart’). 

Whenever we experience anxiety as if our hearts are being burnt and scorched, we immediately are reborn as hell creatures. This is a spontaneous rebirth, occurring mentally, or emotionally. While biologically human, shaped and dressed as we are here, we fall into the niraya hell as soon as we plunge into the hot agitation of anxiety. Whether worry about fear of punishment, anxiety about possible loss of prestige or fame, anxiety of any sort – that is hell.

Rebirth in the realm of beasts is foolishness. We are born into this realm whenever we are inexcusably foolish about something we ought to know. Examples of such foolishness are being confused about whether Dhamma and Nibbāna are beneficial and desirable, not daring to have contact with or get close to Buddhism, and credulous in believing that showing interest in Dhamma or Buddhism would make us old-fashioned and odd. That is how children see it, and their parents, too. They hold each other back and keep themselves far away from Dhamma. 

Whatever the form of foolishness, it amounts to rebirth as a beast. As soon as confusion arises and overwhelms us, we become beasts. We become beasts by spontaneous rebirth, by mental rebirth. This is the second woeful realm.

The third woeful realm is the peta, ghosts that are chronically hungry because their desires continually outrun their satisfaction. This is a chronic mental hunger that people suffer from, rather than hunger for bodily food. For instance, one wants to get a thousand baht.* Then just before getting the thousand baht, one suddenly wants to get ten thousand baht. Just before getting the ten thousand baht, it jumps to a hundred thousand baht. No sooner is one in reach of the hundred thousand baht, one wants a million baht, then a hundred million. Chasing but never catching, running but never reaching, petas have all the symptoms of chronic hunger. 

Such people resemble hungry ghosts in having stomachs as big as mountains and mouths as small as needles’ eyes. The intake is never sufficient for the hunger, creating rebirth as peta constantly.

The direct opposite of peta are people who, on getting ten satang**, are content with getting just the ten satang, or on getting twenty satang are content with twenty. But don’t get the idea that being easily satisfied means they fall into decline and stop looking for what’s needed. 

Intelligence tells us what has to be done, and we go about doing it the right way. In this way, we are filled to satisfaction every time we undertake something. We enjoy the seeking and then are satisfied. This is how to live without being peta, that is, without being chronically hungry. 

Pursuing things with craving constitutes being peta. Undertaking things intelligently isn’t craving and can’t be peta; in such cases, we are simply doing our duties.

A wise wish such as the wish to quench suffering isn’t craving. Don’t go telling people the wrong thing, spreading the word that all wants are craving or greed. To be craving or greed it must be a desire stemming from foolishness. The wish to attain Nibbāna is a craving, if pursued with foolishness, infatuation, and pride. Going for popular lessons in insight meditation without knowing what it is all about involves ignorance, craving, and greed that leads to suffering because it is full of grasping and clinging. 

However, if you wish to realize Nibbāna, after clearly and intelligently under- standing suffering and the means for its quenching, and in this frame of mind steadily and earnestly learn insight meditation in a proper way, that desire for Nibbāna isn’t craving or suffering. So wanting isn’t necessarily always craving. 

It depends on where it has its origin. If desire stems from ignorance and defilements, the symptoms will be similar to those of chronic hunger – that chasing without ever catching. We speak of this chronically hungry condition as ‘spontaneous rebirth as a hungry ghost’ (peta).

The last woeful realm is the asuras (cowardly titans). First, to explain the word asura: sura means ‘brave, courageous,’ and a means ‘not,’ thus, asura means ‘not brave’ or ‘cowardly.’ 

Understand this as whenever we are spontaneously reborn as asuras. Being afraid of harmless little lizards, millipedes, or earthworms is unjustified fear and a form of suffering. To be afraid unnecessarily, without a good cause, or from thinking about something too much, is rebirth as asura. We may fear death, but our fear is made a hundred or a thousand times greater by our own exaggeration. Fear torments people all the time. Afraid of falling into hell, we become asuras instead. Our fears of falling into the four woeful realms mean rebirth as asuras every day, day after day, month after month, year in and year out. If we act rightly and don’t fall into the woeful realms these days, months, and years, we can be sure of not falling into any woeful realms as depicted on temple walls, after death.

This interpretation of the painful apāya realms agrees in meaning and purpose with what the Buddha taught. There’s no reason to be foolish about them. Confused beliefs regarding them should be recognized as superstition. The most pitiable thing about Buddhists is the inaccurate way we interpret the Buddha’s teachings and the foolish ways we put them into practice. 

Please take this example of superstitious understanding of apāya and apply this approach to other beliefs.*** There is no need to go looking for superstition in other places. In the commentaries there are references to people imitating the behavior of cows and dogs, which were practices current in India at the time of the Buddha, though they don’t exist today. Still, there are plenty of modern behaviors that are just as foolish and much more undesirable. So give up all superstitions, both old-fashioned and modern, and enter the stream of Nibbāna. 

Give up belief in a permanent ego-entity, give up doubt, and give up superstition in order to enter the stream of Nibbāna and open the Dhamma-Eye – the eye that sees Dhamma and is free of delusion and ignorance.

Bear in mind that we common worldlings always have a certain measure of ignorance and delusion in the forms of ego-belief, doubt, and superstition. We must raise our levels beyond these three kinds of foolishness in order to enter the stream of Nibbāna. From that point on there is an inclining flow, a convenient sloping downward towards Nibbāna, like a large stone rolling down a mountainside. If you are to become acquainted with Nibbāna and the stream of Nibbāna, if you are to practice towards realizing Nibbāna, you must understand that these three kinds of delusion and foolishness must be abandoned before one can give up sensual desire and ill-will, which are fetters of a higher and more subtle order. 

Simply giving up these three forms of ignorance constitutes entering the stream of Nibbāna. To completely give up self- centeredness, doubt in pinpointing one’s life objective, and ingrained superstitious behavior is to enter the stream of Nibbāna. You can see that this kind of giving up is universally valuable and applicable to everyone in the world. These three forms of ignorance are undesirable. As soon as we are able to abandon them, we wake up to the ariyan level. Prior to this, we were foolish, deluded people, lowly worldlings, not at all noble. When we have improved and progressed to the highest level of worldlings, we must advance still further, reaching the stage where there’s nowhere to go except to enter the stream of Nibbāna by becoming sotāpanna. From there, we naturally incline, progress, and flow on to Nibbāna itself.

The practice leading away from grasping, self-centered- ness, and delusion is to investigate and see everything as unworthy of being grasped at or clung to. Such practice slices through doubt, hesitancy, foolishness, and self-centeredness. Therefore, we ought to get interested in non-clinging starting right this very minute, on the level most appropriate for us. If you fail in an examination there’s no need to weep. Simply determine to start again and do your best. If you pass an examination, don’t get carried away. Realize that this is just the normal way of things. 

Then there will have arisen some understanding of non-grasping and non-clinging.

When you are sitting for an examination, just forget about yourself. Listen carefully! When starting to write an answer, just forget about being yourself. Forget about the ‘me’ who is being tested and who will pass or fail. Think only of taking the exam. You may think beforehand about how to pass the examination successfully, but as soon as you start to write – forget all that. 

Leave only concentration that will pierce the questions and discover the answers. Mind free of any ‘me’ and ‘mine,’ empty of passing and failing, is immediately agile and clean. It remembers instantly and thinks keenly. Sitting for an examination with proper concentration produces good results. This is how to apply mind free of clinging (cit-waang), that is, Buddha’s non-grasping and non-clinging, when sitting for examinations. In this way, you will be good.

Some who can’t let go always feel anxious about failing. They become so nervous that they can’t call to mind what they have learned. They can’t write accurate and orderly answers. Consequently, they fail thoroughly. Others are carried away by the idea that ‘I’m brilliant, I’m certain to pass.’ Such students carried away by this sort of grasping and clinging are also bound to do poorly, because they lack cit-waang. On the other hand, anyone with cit-waang has no ‘me’ or ‘mine’ involved and doesn’t become panicky or over-confident. There is only concentration, which is a natural power. Entirely forgetting about self, they comfortably pass. 

This is an elementary, most basic example of the beneficial effects of non-attachment and of cit-waang.

A foolish person, upon hearing the word suññatā mentioned in temple lecture halls, understands it as a material vacuum, nothingness or something meaning- less.’ Such materialistic emptiness is how certain groups understand it. The suññatā of the Buddha means absence of anything that we should grasp at and cling to as being an abiding entity, essence, or self, although physically anything can be there in its entirety. If we cling, there is dukkha; if we don’t cling, there is freedom from dukkha. The world is described as empty because there’s nothing whatsoever that we can get away with grasping. So we must cope with this empty world with mind that doesn’t cling. If we need something, we go after it with mind free from grasping, so that our objective is achieved without becoming a source of suffering.

Misunderstanding the word ‘empty,’ just this one single word, is enormous superstition (sīlabbata-parāmāsa) that stops people cold and constitutes a major obstacle to them finding the stream of Nibbāna. 

Instead, let’s understand the word ‘empty,’ and all other words used by the Buddha, properly and completely. He described the world as empty because there’s nothing in it that can be taken as a self or ego. He answered Mogharāja’s question by saying, ‘Always regard the world as something empty. Look always on this world with all that it contains as empty.’**** Viewing it as empty, mind is automatically free of grasping and clinging. Lust, hatred, and delusion cannot occur. Seeing like this is the meaning of arahant. If not successful yet, keep on trying. Although still an ordinary person, one will suffer less. No suffering arises as long as there is cit-waang. Whenever one gets carried away and lapses, there is suffering again. If we keep good watch, empty-free increasingly often and lastingly, we penetrate to the core of Buddhism by entering the stream of Nibbāna.

(*) In the 1960s, 20 baht equaled 1 US dollar.

(**) 100 satang equal 1 baht.

(***) The same can be said for modern beliefs imported from the West.

(****) Sn 5.16, Mogharāja Sutta.

(From “Buddha-Dhamma for Inquiring Minds”)

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Buddha-Dhamma for Students (title of original translation) was composed of two talks given by Ajahn Buddhadāsa in January 1966

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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To listen to this teaching on Soundcloud:

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

For all English retreat talks by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu:

https://soundcloud.com/buddhadasa/

For more information and free ebooks, visit Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation:

https://www.suanmokkh.org/

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Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C01317

Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu

Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu

❖ “Buddhism relies on the law of nature. In nature, survival of the fittest is a very basic concept. Actually this is a concept in human thinking – it’s not a concept in nature itself – it’s just a human theory. 

‘Working for the sake of duty’ seems to be close to the concepts of socialism or communism, and experience seems to show that, like nature, man performs best under some degree of competition. Why then does Buddhism promote the concept of living and working only for the sake of duty?” ❖

~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

The survival of the fittest is an inherent principle or law of nature, it isn’t something that human beings invented or thought up. It’s just a fact of nature that there is survival of the fittest. And to do duty for duty’s sake, this is the meaning of ‘the fittest.’ To be most fit for survival, one most do duty for duty’s sake – that is to do duty correctly in line with the law of nature. When one acts and lives in line with the law of nature, then one is fit, one is supremely fit for survival. To do duty merely for one’s own sake, for some personal advantage or benefit, this is not in line with the law of nature, and so the selfish being is not fit for survival. But it’s only by doing duty just for the sake of Dhamma – for duty according to the law of nature – that one is fit for survival. So it’s correct to say ‘survival of the fittest,’ and fitness here is solely a matter of doing duty for the sake of duty itself.

So there’s no need to argue with nature. Don’t bother arguing with nature, otherwise you’ll just have a lot of headaches and dukkha. But if one can do duty for the sake of duty and in line with the law of nature, then we will have the full support of nature and things will go much more easily, and there will be survival.

‘To be fit’ or ‘fitness’ is the cause, ‘survival’ is the result. So be careful not to get the order backwards. It can be confusing to speak of ‘survival of the fittest,’ to put the result before the cause. It’s better to put it ‘the fittest survive,’ or ‘the most fit survive.’ There’s first the cause of being fit, to be in line with the law of nature, and then there will be the natural necessary result, which is survival. This is survival through Dhamma.

What’s funny here is that all this discussion about ‘us’ is about something that doesn’t really exist! That which we think is ‘we’ or ‘us’ – it’s just body and mind.

But because this mind is able to think and proliferate, it goes and thinks foolishly, incorrectly, that there is some self, some lasting ‘me,’ some personal center. So it’s because of this ignorance that there is some self that can be attached to, that there is some ‘me’ that we can hang on to. We act selfishly and create all kinds of problems. So when there is nature under the power of ignorance, things go wrong, and when nature goes wrong, then there is selfishness and pain. Nature under the power of ignorance inevitably brings pain, stress, or dukkha. 

But when life is Dhamma, when instead of ignorance there is mindfulness and wisdom, then life just leads to peacefulness; life is peaceful, free and of great benefit. When we can replace the foolish thinking about ‘me, me, me’ with wisdom, then it’s a different kind of life. So there’s nature, but nature can go according to ignorance, or it can go according to wisdom. If instead of taking ego to be ‘me,’ we realize what we call ‘us’ or ‘we’ is just Dhamma, the nature that has been borrowed in order to be ‘us.’ If we understand ‘us’ to just be Dhamma, then with this wisdom we won’t make a mess out of things, we won’t create selfishness and egoism. So the thing is, how to make life Dhamma? How for Dhamma to be life? How to make these one and the same for us so that it’s no longer of nature that goes wrong, a nature that becomes stressful and painful?

Literally the word ‘Dhamma’ means ‘nature’ – nature is Dhamma – but in essence they’re not exactly the same. However in practice on the most profound level, they are again the same. When our way of living, when our behavior, all of our activities are in line with Dhamma, when everything we do is according to the law of nature, then Dhamma and nature are one and the same. To act, to behave in line with the law of nature, this is called ‘Dhamma,’ and when we act and live that way then our nature – the nature that we are – and Dhamma are the same thing. Every atom, every molecule of these bodies, are nature and happen according to the law of nature, they are Dhamma. Every particle of these hearts or minds is nature. When all these natures are correct, then there will be the survival that we have been talking about.

When there is incorrectness in our physical nature, in the body, then the result is illness and disease. When there is incorrectness in our mental or spiritual nature, in the mind, then there is a spiritual illness – that is the defilements such as greed, anger, and delusion. But when there is correctness, when there is Dhamma both physically and mentally, then everything is fine – there are no physical diseases and no mental diseases. When the system, both the mental and physical systems, can work together correctly, then there are no problems. Then the two can function together, you can’t separate them. If you try to separate the mind from the body, the result will be death and then you won’t be able to do anything anymore, they become useless. But when the body and the mind depend upon each other, when they’re integrated through Dhamma with correctness, then we can do everything that we need to do.

We live in the era of science in which scientific understanding has become very precise, developed, and refined. And so when we speak about everything being nature, everything being natural, about Dhamma being nature, then people can understand. In the past before there was adequate understanding of science, people couldn’t understand. They couldn’t understand if you said, ‘Everything is nature.’ They would only understand if you spoke about spirits, if you spoke about angels and devils, and in the end spoke about God. 

What nowadays we call ‘the fittest survive,’ in the old days that meant to be the fit in terms of God or to do the will of God. 

That’s the old superstitious way of speaking. But nowadays when there’s an adequate understanding of nature due to science, we don’t have to speak in such mythological or anthropomorphic ways, we can speak directly in Dhamma language to speak merely of ‘to be fit according to the law of nature,’ and then one will survive. This is Dhamma language without having to use any poetry or metaphors. It’s not the people language where everything has to be expressed in terms of egos and selves, or in anthropomorphic language.

(From the retreat “The Living Computer,” 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.

- - ❖ - -

To listen to this teaching on Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/buddhadasa/19910910-3-dhamma-questions-and-responses-i?in=buddhadasa%2Fsets%2Finternational-retreat-9109

For all English retreat talks by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu:
https://soundcloud.com/buddhadasa/

For more information and free ebooks, visit Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation:
https://www.suanmokkh.org/

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Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C03371