Why We Were Born???
WHY WE WERE BORN?
First of all, is this question a significant one for the average man? I think we can take it that this question is one that everyone is interested in and puzzles over. There may, however, be some who will raise an objection.
“The Buddha taught the non-existence of the ‘the being’, ‘the individual’, ‘the self’, ‘you’ and ‘me’. He taught that there is no self to be born. So the problem “Why we were born?’ does not arise!”
This sort of objection is valid only at the very highest mental level, for someone who himself knows Freedom. But for the ordinary man who does not yet know Freedom, it is not a valid objection since it is not relevant, not to the point. A person who does not as yet know Dhamma thoroughly is bound to feel himself involved in the process of birth and to have a great many problem and questions. He has no idea for what purpose he has been born.
It is only an arahant, one who has gone all the way in Buddha-Dhamma, who will really realize that there is no birth, and no being” or “person” or “self” to be born. For and arahant the question “Why was I born?” does not arise. But for anyone who has not yet attained the stage of arahantship, even though he may be at one of the lower stage of insight such as Stream entry, and in whom the idea of “self” and “of self” does still arise, the question “Why was I born?” very definitely does exist.
So we are putting the question “Why was I born?” and we are taking it that this question is a relevant one for anyone who is not as yet an arahant.
Now let us have a look at the different ideas that naturally come up in the minds of different people in answer to this question “Why were we born?”
If we ask a child for what purpose he was born, he will simply say that he was in order to be able to play and have fun and games. A teenage boy or girl is bound to answer that he or she was born for the sake of good looks, dating, and flirting. And an adult, parent, householder, will probably say he was born to earn a living, to save up money for his retirement and his children. These are the kinds of answers we are bound to get.
REBIRTH AFTER DEATH
A person who has become old and feeble, is more than likely to have the foolish idea that he was born in order to die and born again, and again, over and over. Very few people consider that, having been born, we shall simply die and that will be the end of it. Right from early childhood we have been trained and conditioned to this idea of another world, another birth to come after death, with the result that it has become well and truly fixed in our minds. In any culture having its origins in India the majority of people, Buddhists, Hindus, and others, adhere to this doctrine of rebirth after death. So people who are too old and senile to be able to think for themselves are bound to answer that they were born to die and be reborn.
Generally these are the kinds of answers we get. If we go into it rather more detail, we shall find some people saying they were born to eat, because they happen to have a weakness for food. And there are bound to be some, those who are permanent salves to alcohol and value nothing more highly, who will say they were born to drink. Others were born to gamble and would part with their own skin before they would give up their vicious habit. And there are all sorts of other things, some of them utterly trivial, in which people become so wrapped up that come to regard them as the best of all things. Some people, usually the so-called well educated ones, set a lot of value on prestige. They are very concerned about making a name for themselves. Such people were born for the sake of name and fame.
Some people consider they were born for the sake f eating, some for the sake of sensuality, and some for the sake of name and fame.
BORN EATERS
The first of these, eating, is a necessity. But people carry it so far they become infatuated with taste and addicted to eating. At the present time there is evidence of a general increase of interest in food. The rate of increase of newspaper advertisements promoting the art of eating would lead one to conclude that a few people are obsessed with eating and worship food. These born eaters from the first group.
SENSUALITY
The second group comprises those who were born for sensuality, for every kind of pleasure and delight obtainable by way of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. Most people when they have satisfied themselves with eating go off in search of sense pleasures. Their subjection to the power of sensuality may be such that they can rightly be described as slaves to it. Ultimately all the kinds of infatuation we have mentioned so far can be included under sensuality. Even ideas in the mind, the sixth of the senses, can be a source of delight amounting to infatuation. It can be said that such people live for the sake of sensuality, for the sake of visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and mental things serving as objects of desire. They constitute the second group.
NAME & FAME
The third group consists of those born for the sake of name and fame. They have been conditioned to worship prestige, to the extent that they would sacrifice their very lives for it. Name and fame, whether the means employed for attaining it bring benefit to others or only to the individual concerned, can still be of considerable worth, and in terms of worldly values is not something to be considered. But in terms of absolute values, to go so far as to become a slave to name and fame is a tragedy. It by no means puts an end to the unsatisfactory condition (dukkha).
OBSESSION
So eating, sensuality, and prestige all lead to various kind of obsession.
Among poorer people, we hear more than anything else of the need to earn a living in order to get the necessities of life. For the poor man nothing is so important or necessary as earning a living. This then is his major concern, and it can be said that he was born to earn a living. He is all the time ploughing his fields, or attending to his business, or whatever it may be, so that this becomes his one and only concern, and he can never have enough of it. In other words he really feels he was born to earn a living, and has never regarded anything as more important than this. The reason for this that he has never moved among spiritually advance people, never heard Dhamma from them. It is fairly certain that he has moved only among his fellow worldings and heard only the talk of worldings. This is something well worth thinking about. Such a person considers his way of life thoroughly right and proper and worthwhile; but in reality it is only half right, or even less. The magnitude of such a man’s obsession with material things shows that he lives to get much more than just enough to eat.
Nor what each one of us has to concern himself with, and examine, and come to understand clearly is why we were born to earn a living and stay alive. When w have come to understand properly for what ultimate purpose we are here in this life, we realize that this business of earning a living is something quite incidental. It is subsidiary to another big and important purpose, the real purpose for which we were born. Do we earn a living simply in order to stay alive and go on endlessly accumulating more and more wealth and property? Or do we do it in order to achieve some higher purpose?
For most people this endless accumulation of wealth and property does seem to be the purpose of earning a living. Few people stop short at earning just enough to satisfy their basic wants, to deed themselves and family, to provide the necessities for a happy life free from misery. For most people no amount of wealth and property is enough. Most people don’t know where to stop, and have so much they don’t know what to do with it. There are plenty like these in the world.
DELUDED SINNER
In terms of religion this kid of behaviours is considered, either explicitly or implicitly, to be sinful. In Christianity the accumulation of more wealth than necessary is explicitly stated to be a sin. Other religions say much the same. A person who goes on endlessly accumulating and hoarding wealth and property, who has become in some way or other infatuated and obsession by it, is regarded as deluded and a sinner. He is not as much of a sinner as someone who kills, but he is a sinner nevertheless. This then is how we ought to see it. We ought not to live just in order to go on endlessly accumulating wealth and property. We ought to regard it as simply a means to an end. We ought to acquire wealth to provide for our basic wants, in order that we can, the, go in search of something else, something better than wealth. And that something is what we shall discuss later on.
SENSUALITY
Now the man who lives for the sake of sensuality ought to give a thought on an old saying: “Seeking pleasure in eating, sleeping, and sex, and avoiding danger --- all these man and beast have in common. What sets man apart I Dhamma. Without Dhamma man is no different from the beasts.”
This is an old saying dating back to pre-Buddhist times, and no doubt also current at the time of Buddha. In any case it certainly accords with Buddhist principles. Human beings normally feel the same way as lower animals towards eating, sleeping, and sex, and danger in the form of disease, pain, and enemies. The lower animals can handle these things just as well as human beings. Preoccupation with these things, which any animal has access to, indicates a none too high level of intelligence. And because those objects of sensuality have such an influence over the mind, it is difficult for any ordinary being to recognize them for what they are and break free from them.
To live for sensuality by way of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and minds will never lead to Liberation. The average run of people are far removed from the top level, the highest stage attainable in human birth. Having become obsession with sense of objects, they go stuck half-way along the road, mid-way towards the goal. They are not to be taken as a model. If this sensuality were really as precious as they seem to think it is, they together with their animal counterparts ought to be rated the highest of beings.
At this point we ought to mention that even celestial being dwelling in the “heaven of sensuality” (kamavacara-devata) are in no way especially well-off. They, too, are subject to suffering and anxiety. They, too, are impure, constantly defiles by their inappropriate bodily, vocal, and mental actions. Devatas of this type, whenever they succeed in elevating themselves, leave their heaven of sensuality and go off in search of Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. Sensuality, even in its highest form, is not by any means the highest things for man, and no man should maintain that this was the purpose for which he was born.
PRESTIGE
Now we come to prestige. For a man to think he was born for the sake of name and fame is tragedy. A glance at this thing known as prestige shows it to be thoroughly in substantial. I depends on other people’s having a high regard for one; and it may well be that, though no-one realizes it, this high is quite unfounded. When the majority of people are deluded slow-witted, undiscerning, lacking any knowledge of Dhamma, the things for which they have regard and to which they give prestige are bound to be pretty ordinary and average things, in keeping with their ordinary and average of values. In their eyes the things advocated and taught by spiritually advanced people will hardly rate very high. In fact we, invariably, find that the more concerned people are with name and fame, the more worldly are the things they rate highly. The person who deserves to be rated highest is the one who is able to renounce worldly values and promote the happiness of mankind; but in practice we find all the prestige going to the people responsible for adding to the world’s confusion and distress. This is an example of prestige in the eye of the worlding, the man stuck here in the world.
To say that we were born to gain prestige is as ridiculous as to say we were born to pursue sensuality or to eat. All these views are equally pitiful. They differ only in degree of sophistication. In short then, there is no doubt whatsoever that neither eating, nor sensuality, nor prestige in the highest thing, the objective for what a Buddhist ought to aim.
PATH TO PEACE
Now let us have a look at saying of Buddha which I believe may help us to answer the question of why we were born.
Sankhara parama dukkha,
Nibbanam paramam sukham.
Etam natva yathabhutam
Santimaggam va bruhayeti.
Compounding is utter misery,
Nirvana is highest bliss.
Really knowing this truth
One is on the Path to Peace.
To understand the first line of this quotation, we have first of all to understand properly the world “sankhara.” This word has several meanings. It can refer rather to the physical, the body, or as in the present case to the mental, the mind. Literally “sankhara” means simply “compound” [both noun and verb], that is, the function we refer to as “compounding” [and the compound that results therefrom].
Following this definition, then, compounding is utter misery, thoroughly unsatisfactory 9dukkha). But it is not being stated that compounding is in itself misery, a cause of human distress and suffering. The word “compounding” implies no rest, just continual leading to continual “rebirth”. And the things responsible for this compounding are the mental defilements (kelisa). These are the compounders. With the arising of ignorance, stupidity, infatuation, the root cause of the other defilements greed and hatred, compounding takes place. They are responsible for the compounding function of the mind, causing it to grasp at and cling to one thing after another, endlessly, without let-up. The word “compounding” as used here refers to grasping and clinging with attachments (upadana). If there is no attachment, if contamination by attachment does not take place, then the term “compounding” is not applicable.
CRAVING & ATTACHMENT
Sankhara parama dukkha --- All compounding is thoroughly unsatisfactory. The means that involvement which has reached the point of craving and attachment is nothing but misery. Without this kind of compounding there is freedom from the misery of the unsatisfactory condition. It is this very compounding that constitutes the unsatisfactory condition. It is this very compounding that is referred to as the Wheel of Samsara, that cyclic process with its three aspects: defilements, action based on those defilements, and results of the action. The defilements, producing satisfaction with the results of our actions. (or karma), prompt us to further action --- and so the cycle of defilements, action, and fruit goes on endless. It is this process that is called compounding; an it is this endless repeated process of compounding that is referred to in the statement that all compounding is thoroughly unsatisfactory.
NIRVANA
Now the second line: Nibbanam paramam sukham. This has become a household maxim. It refers to nirvana (nirvana), the precise opposite of the compounded condition, in other words, freedom from sankharas. At any time when compounding cease, there is nirvana. Complete and final freedom from compounds is momentary nirvana, just a trial sample of the real nirvana. Anyone who has some to know fully true nature of compounding will have no trouble in understanding by inference the opposite condition of freedom from compounding. The word “nirvana”, or “coolness”, or “freedom from distress”. All these meanings are consistent with the idea of stopping, of not compounding. Compounding is nothing but constant worry, trouble, distress, misery. “Nirvana” implies the antithesis of “sankhara”, that is, freedom from this process of compounding.
Now the nest part of the quotation: “Really knowing this truth one is on the Path to Peace.” This means that the realization of this truth leads on to seek the path leading to peace or nirvana. Nirvana is sometimes called peace (santi), that is, stillness, coolness. They are equivalent term. So this realization prompts us to do everything possible to move in the direction of peace or nirvana.
From this we can gather that the Buddha wished us to know about the unsatisfactory condition (dukkha), to know about freedom from the unsatisfactory condition, and to setout on the path leading to this freedom from the unsatisfactory condition, in other words to nirvana. If a person has no idea of the possibility of nirvana, and does not realize that nirvana, being the absolute cessation of the unsatisfactory condition, is something to be valued above all else, then he will have no wish for nirvana, and will never set out the path towards it. As soon as a person recognizes this present condition as thoroughly unsatisfactory, and loses all wish for anything but the very opposite condition, he will start taking an interest in nirvana and will set out on the path towards it. What he has to do is to have a good look at this own mind and subject it to a deep and detailed scrutiny, to discover whether or not it is in the compounded condition.
IGNORANCE & DELUSION
When a person under the influence of defilements performs some action (karma), especially when he performs some action considered evil, such as drinking, killing, adultery, stealing, or the like, then he is compounding. Compounding is based on ignorance, delusion, stupidity. It goes on until it produces feeling of pleasure and satisfaction in the mind of the doer. When he experiences the unsatisfactory of his actions, he attempts to deal with it by further action --- which only makes worse. The result is that compounding goes on more than ever --- until the time comes when he recognizes this as an unsatisfactory state of affairs and determines to put a stop to it. He then has a look around for something that is not unsatisfactory, and so is able to get free from his evil ways.
PHENOMENON OF NATURE
Now let us have a quick look at the man who does good, the sort that abstains from evil acts and performs only acts of the type usually called good. Such a man gets all the fitting results of his so-called good actions. He may get wealth and prestige, and all the things a good man could wish for. But if he were to examine his mental condition, he would realize that he is still subject to worry and anxiety. He experiences the suffering that always goes with wealth and prestige. A man in fame is usually caused distress by that very fame; and the same goes for wealth and children. Whatever one happen to be attached to and find satisfaction in is bound to be cause of distress.
So even good action, action in no way evil, sinful, unwholesome, does not by any means bring freedom from the unsatisfactory condition. Just as an evil man suffers the torment due to an evil-doer, so a good man too is bound to experience his own particular type of suffering. A good man experiences the subtle inconspicuous type of suffering that come whenever one clings to one’s own goodness. So when we examine it as a phenomenon of nature, we find that it is not only the evil man experiencing the fruits of his evil deeds who is whirling around in the cycle of compounding; the good man too, experiencing the fruits of his good deeds, is likewise involved in compounding. Both of them are involved in compounding. There is no end to this process. It goes on and on incessantly. Thought is followed by action, and when the fruits of the action have been got, thinking follows once again. This is the wheel of samsara, the cycle of wandering on. Samsara is simply this cycle of compounding.
TRUTH --- The Dhamma
As soon as a person has managed to comprehend this process, he is bound to start taking an interest in the opposite condition. He comes to realize that money, name and fame, and the like are of no help at all and that what is needed is something better than all these. He then starts looking around for something better and higher, some other way. He continues his search until such time as he meets some spiritually advanced person, sits at his feet, and learns from him the Truth, the Dhamma. In this way he comes to know about that state which is the very opposite of all that he has so far had and been and done. He comes to know about nirvana and the way to attain it. He arrives at the certitude that this is the goal that each and every man ought to attain. He realizes: “This is why I was born!” Anything other than this involvement, entanglement, compounding. This alone is the putting out of the flame, coolness, stillness. His interest in nirvana prompts him to seek the means of attaining it, and he convinced that the treading of this path to nirvana is the purpose for which he was born.
A NATURAL PROCESS
There is one more small question to think over in this connection: “Am I glad I was born? Am I happy about it or not?” Of course no-one ever choice in the matter of birth. I never happens that a person is in a position to decide that he will be born. He simply is born. But no sooner is he born than he comes into contact with sense objects by way of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. He becomes engrossed in these objects, and finds satisfaction in them. This means that he is glad of having been born and wishes to continue existing in order that he may continue experiencing these objects. And when people speak of making a lot of merit in order to have sense objects again after death, at a better, more refined, higher level than at present, this indicates an even greater desire to be born for the sake of these pleasant things.
The important point here is this: A person having been born, enjoys the forms, sounds, odours, tastes, tactile sensation, and mental images which his mind encounters. As a result he grasps at them and clings to them with egoism, and possessiveness. He has been born and he finds satisfaction and delight in having been born. He dreads death because death would mean no more of all these things. The essence of this is that no man is ever born of his own free will, as a result of some decision on his own part; birth just happens as a natural process characterizing all living reproducing things. No sooner is a man born than a liking for this birth arise in him in the manner described. In the completely natural situation, that is, among the lower animals, the desire for birth is very slight and does not pose the great problem it does for man.
A man should question himself and verify two things: “am I glad I was born.” And “am I was born for some purpose.” Now if a man concludes that he is glad of having been born to carry out the highest task possible for a man, then his position is rather paradoxical. If the real goal of life is freedom from rebirth, then, he was born in order not to be reborn, and so ought never to have been born in the first place! Why should he be glad was born and so given the opportunity to walk the path to nirvana? If freedom from birth is such a good thing, why then is there birth in the first place?
These are some of the questions that constitute ignorant, or at least that arise out of ignorant. “Was I born of my own free will or was birth force upon me?” “Having been born, what ought I to be doing?” the average person doesn’t delve so deeply into these questions. Accepting his birth as an accomplished fact, he simply asks himself the immediate question “What to do now?” believing he was born to accumulate wealth, he goes right on accumulating wealth. Or if he believes he was born to eat, or to build up name and fame, then he works towards those ends. He feels that is enough. To get name and fame and materially well off is all the average person wants. For him that is the ideal; and there are not a few people who take this sort of shallow view.
“SUMMUM BONUM”
But we are now in a position to consider this question rather more deeply. We have come to see that no amount of this kind of action or this kind condition is by means satisfactory. There is still something dissatisfying about it. Something is lacking. Na mater how successfully we may pursue these worldly ends we are always left dissatisfied. We are forced to recognize that something more is needed, and in the end we find ourselves drawn to Dhamma. We come to realize that we were born t study this highest and most precious piece of human knowledge and come to understand it, in order to attain freedom, the highest and most precious things accessible to a human being. There is nothing higher than this. This is the summum bonum, the best thing attainable by a human being.
Suppose we accept that we have been born, and that having been born we have a certain task to do, a task so important that carry it through to completion ought to be man’s highest aim. There can be no aim higher than this attainment of complete freedom from the misery of the unsatisfactory condition. And by following the Buddha’s directions this complete freedom can be attained. The Buddhist teaching came into the world in order to inform people about the highest thing attainable by human beings. All the other religions existing prior to Buddhism had had this same objective, to answer the question “Why was I born?” They had all been fully occupied with this same question: “What was that highest good for the sake of which man was born?”
Some of these religions considered sensual satisfaction to be the ultimate, the highest good. Some considered the summum bonum to be the pure non-sensual bliss of the Brahmaloka. Then there was a sect which maintained that man’s purpose in life was to seek bliss in the knowledge that nothing at all exists! There even existed the view that the highest things attainable by man is the death-like condition of complete unconsciousness in which there is no awareness of anything whatsoever! These were the highest doctrines in existence at the time when the Buddha-to-be started his seeking. When he searched and studied in the various Ashramas, the highest teaching he was able to find was this. Being sufficiently wise to see that this was by no means the summum bonum, he set about investigating on his own account. Thus he arrived at the perfect insight which puts a final end to the unsatisfactory condition, and as we say, he attained nirvana.
Even though people had been talking about nirvana long before the time of the Buddha, the meaning of the word used by him differs from the meanings it had for those sects. Mere words cannot be relied on; it is the meanings that count. When we say we were born in order to attain nirvana, we mean nirvana as that word was used by the Buddha. We don’t mean the nirvana of other sects, such as abundance of sensual pleasures, or the highest stage of mental concentration. When we say nirvana is our goal, we must have in mind nirvana as understood in the Buddha’s teaching. And in the Buddha’s teaching nirvana is generally to be taken as the opposite of the compounded condition. This is expressed in the Pali saying we have already quoted:
SANKHARA PARAMA DUKKHA, NIBBANAM PARANAM SUKHAM.
Nirvana is simply freedom from sankharas compounds. We must understand then that we were born in order to attain freedom from compounding. Some people may laugh at this statement that our objective in life is to attain “freedom from compounding.” Compounding, this spinning on in the wheel of samsara, is unsatisfactory. Freedom from compounding consists in having such a degree of insight that this vicious circle is cut through and got rid completely. When there is freedom form compounding, there is no more spinning on, no more wheel of samsara. Our purpose in life is to bring to a standstill the cycle of samsara to put a complete end to the unsatisfactory condition. This complete freedom from unsatisfactoriness is called nirvana.
Now, nirvana is not something occult and mysterious. It is not some sort of miracle, something supernatural. Furthermore, nirvana is not something to be attained only after death. This is a point that must be understood. Nirvana is attained at any moment that the mind becomes free from compounding. Freedom from compounding, at any moment, is nirvana. Permanent cessation of compounding is full nirvana; temporary cessation is not just a momentary nirvana, which is the kind we have been discussing. The experiencing of temporary nirvana serves as an incentive to go further, to head for permanent nirvana, the full nirvana that makes a man an arahant. This state arises with the knowledge that sankharas, that is compound and compounding, are misery, while nirvana, freedom from compounding, is peace, bliss. Every man’s purpose in life ought t be tread the path to full nirvana.
So the answer to the question “Why were we born?” in provided by this saying:
Compounding is utter misery, Nirvana is highest bliss.
WALKING THE PATH
Our present birth is to be thought of as resembling a journey along a road. It is necessary then to have a good look and discover which is the right and which the wrong way to walk this road. If we just follow the crowd, we may well go astray and miss the true destination. This is not the kind of walking we have in mind when we speak of “walking the Path.” By “walking the Path” we mean progress towards nirvana, towards from the unsatisfactory condition.
If this comparison of our present birth to a journey along a road is still unclear, the matter must be thought over deeply, discussed, and studied thoroughly. In this study and practice, we can find help and guidance in the teachings of the Buddha, the one who succeeded in walking the Path right to the end. Unfortunately, however, most people take into no interest in the Buddha’s teaching as a guide to the Path and how to walk it.
Now here is an important point to consider: This person who is to walk the Path --- just which particular person it? Or if it is a number of people, how many? Taking the broad outlook we can see that it is really the whole of humanity, mankind in general. Think about it. As long as no-one exist who knows the Path and how to walk it, most people are sure to stray from the Path. But slowly and by degrees the right way is found, little by little the Path is re-discovered, until the time comes when there arises a fully enlightenment being, a Buddha, someone who manages to walk the perfectly right Path. In other words, walking the Path is a long-term project which mankind is engaged in collectively until such time as some exceptional individual happens to increase so much in insight that he manages to walk it right to the end.
Posterity
Let us put this another way. Most people live no longer than one hundred years at the most. Walking the Path more or less clumsily, they cover only a short distance before they die. No single person gets very far --- and who is to carry on where the leaves off? The answer is posterity. Succeeding generations, benefiting from the insight gained by their predecessors, inherit the task of carrying on the journey. Children and grand0-children carry on where their elder have left off, making steadily more progress until the time come when one of them manages to complete the journey.
Nature’s Purpose
Looked at in this way, even the having of children, the propagation of the species, has as its objective continual progress along the Path, and ultimately arrival at the end. But do people at the present time really have this objective in view when they have children? People go on producing more and more darkeyed little infants --- but are they thinking of these new individual as heirs to the task o carrying on along the Path? If not, then their motivation must be on some lower level, the level of animal like dogs and cats. People give birth to offspring, which they then love so dearly they would willingly lay down their life for them. But animals do this too. The attachment to offspring dominating the mind of parent operates in precisely the same way in animals as in man.
But let us examine why an animal has such an attachment to its offspring, such a strong desire to protect them. Just what is the purpose of it? We can safely assume that it is not a result of rational thinking on the part of the animal. Attachment to offspring and desire to protect them are naturally present in animals. And why has Nature equipped animals with this kind of instinct? In order to guard against the extinction of the species. And for what purpose should the extinction of animal species be averted? Ultimately in order to make possible further evolution, further steady towards the highest stage possible for a reproducing species. Thus we see Nature working to save each species of living things from extinction, thereby ensuring continued evolution up to the highest point. This is Nature’s purpose. Animals, in general, are subject to this law, whether they realize it or not. It can be said, then, that for the lower animals too, birth is journey. It is a non-stop journey of progress until the top is reached, until there evolves Man. And after that further progress is possible to the stage of Fully Enlightened Man.
Perpetuation of the human species
Now, for what purpose does present-day man produce offspring? Possibly there do exist people who genuinely believe they are producing children in order that the human species may be perpetuated and nirvana ultimately attained. In other words, in order there that may be continual progress along the Path. But obviously, the great majority do not think like this. They love their children. They feed and care for them and make all sorts of sacrifices on account of their blind love. Everyone wants his own children to be the best and the most beautiful. No-one is concerned about the propagation of the species for the sake of continuing the journey. No-one looks on his children in terms of humanity collective progress towards the goal. Everyone thinks in terms of individual benefit, in terms of “me” and “mine.” It is only “my child” that, matters. It is only he whose condition and progress are of any concern. This kind of thinking conforms with the laws of Nature, but conflicts with all the principles of Dhamma. As a result, children are bound to bring their parents misery and tears. This narrow thinking does nothing to help humanity towards nirvana.
All this discussion is intended to bring us back to the questions: “Why was I born?” and “What ought I to be doing?” Even if one has children and keeps the species going, what must one had on to them so that they may be fit to encounter the Dhamma and become genuine Dhamma-followers? As long as each individual considers himself a sing self-sufficient unit, not involved with the rest, mankind has no means of moving towards the coming into existence of an enlightened being.
Material Values --- Spiritual Progress
All of man’s scientific knowledge is of no use unless it helps him to progress spiritually. Now, speaking in terms of material value, it does happen that what evil people achieve and pass on to evil people following them brings about progress. If this were not so, the world could never have attained its present, unbelievably, high stage of technological development. It could be maintained that we were born to work for the material progress of mankind up to the ultimate. But in material progress is no ultimate. Progress, as understood by the average householder, the man of the world, never leads to any ultimate goal. By contrast, spiritual progress, progress towards the Truth known by an enlightened being, does have an ultimate goal. On this road, it is possible to go right to the end and attain complete freedom from the unsatisfactory condition.
First step to Nirvana
Let us pursue the question further. Given that man was born to walk to the Path to nirvana, how exactly are we to set about this walking? The Buddha has said:
Sabbe sankhara aniccati
Yada pannaya passati
Atha nibbindati dikkhe
Esa maggo visuddhiya.
“When a man sees with insight that all compounds are transient, he becomes fed up with them as unsatisfactory. That is the Path to Nirvana, to Purity.”
When a man comes to recognize the true nature of compounds (sankharas), he becomes fed up with them. And this disenchantment with compounds is the first step on the Path leading to Nirvana, to Dhamma. The Buddha said furthermore:
Sabbe sankhara anicca,
Sabbe sankhara dukkha,
Sabbe Dhamma anatta.
All compounds are transient,
All compounds are unsatisfactory,
All things are not selves (anatta).
When one has seen these three characteristics, one becomes disenchanted with those unsatisfactory compounds. And that is the Path to nirvana --- or at least the beginning of it. The point to note here is that when a person has come to a proper realization of these characteristic of compounds, he find himself naturally repelled by compounds, that is, by the unsatisfactory condition. All compounds are thoroughly unsatisfactory. As soon as a person begins to see compounds as thoroughly unsatisfactory, he becomes utterly fed-up with compounds. Compounds are by their very nature unsatisfactory. The word “compound” automatically implies unsatisfactoriness. There is no such thing as satisfactory compound. When compounding stops, there is nirvana, the ideal state.
But the last line of this quotation covers both compounds and non-compounds. Nothing, whatsoever, be it compound or no compound, is a self that may be grasped at as being one’s own. This is the last word. Compounds ate ever changing; compounds are unsatisfactory; all things, compounds or not, are such that they may not be grasped at as selves or as belonging to oneself. Only when this fact I seer in all clarity has the real Path begun; only then has one really started moving towards the overcoming of the unsatisfactory condition, that is towards nirvana.
Walking along a Path
The word “Path” has several meaning. First of all and most basically it should be understood as synonymous with “practice” (Patipatti) or “way of practice” (patipada). Both of these terms imply stepwise progress like walking along a path; and they also imply the path itself which is to be walked. The word “Path” refers specially to that which is practice or walked, but strictly speaking the path and the walking of it ought not to be distinguishes. The walking, the walker, and the path walked are not to be recognized as separate things. In the Pali language, one single word was used for these, or at lease one basic root word was used in slightly different form which referred respectively to the one who walks, the path walked, and the act of walking. All these are in Pali variants of the one root word. So when we hear of the practice (Patipatti) or the way of practice (patipada), let us bear in mind that they refer to walking Path.
One and the same path
And there are numerous other terms all referring to this same Path. A person who, not having studied the matter very closely, come across such a large number of equivalent terms may well jump to the conclusion that they refer to several different things. In reality they all refer to this one Path. For instance the Task (kammapatha) is simply the Path to be walked; the ten Skillful Actions (kusalakammapatha) are also simply the Path; Morality, Concentration, and Insight (sila-samadhi-panna) are the Path; the Noble Eightfold Path (ariya atthangika magga) is, once again, the Path; and even to see all compounds as transient and unsatisfactory, and all things as not selves --- this too is the Path. Anyone who has been thinking of these various names as all denoting different things would do well to correct this misunderstanding. All these different names denote one and the same Path at from different points of view for purposes of instruction.
Walking the high path
Now what are the Ten Skillful Actions? These are ten kinds of abstinence from sinful bodily, vocal, and mental actions. Taken together they are called the Ten Skillful Actions because anyone who practices in this way is walking the high Path. The Buddha used this particular mode of speaking when teaching ordinary average people. When he wishes to teach on a higher level or in briefer terms, for the benefit of people with a more than average degree of understanding, he spoke in terms of the Noble Eightfold Path --- right understanding, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, tight mindfulness, and right concentration. This Eightfold Path is mode of practice rather above the level appropriate for the average householder. But its objective is just the same. It too aims at the attainment of nirvana, differing from other schemes only in intensity or level.
Proper Insight
Now let us look at the Buddha’s brief statement that whenever transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self (anicca, dukkha, anatta) are perceived with insight; that, is the Path. This is even more clearly a statement designed specifically for people with insight. The Pale says quite clearly: “When transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self perceived with insight, that is the Path.:
Reflection will show that when we have proper insight and understanding of the true characteristic of all compounds, that is, of Nature itself, then at that time our behaviour, bodily, vocal, and mental, will be just as it should be. It will be right behaviour --- but not simply right in terms of the law-books or general morality, or social custom, not just unintelligently right. To put it another way, if a person really perceives transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self, he cannot possibly do wrong thing by way of body, speech or mind, because the power of this understanding acts as governor. If we properly know and understand and perceive the three characteristics, we cannot possibly think wrong thoughts or have wrong aspirations, or say or do the wrong thing. Having clear insight into the true nature of things, we are no longer liable to become obsessed with them. Actions based on true insight are always right actions. Thus morality, concentration, and insight (or the Noble Eightfold Path, or the Ten Skillful Actions, etc.) come into being of their own accord.
Suppose now, that, having reached the peak of insight into transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood, we then descend. And the action we then do at this lower level will be a thoroughly right action. And think it the other way round, if we are working up from the bottom, w have to build a firm foundation or right behaviour, bodily, vocal, and mental, supported by which we may grow in insight day by day. So a man of the world, one who is still an ordinary deluded worlding, must have faith in the efficacy of the Ten Skillful Actions and try his best to practice them. If he does this constantly, he will soon start making progress in insight because this is the right way to walk the Path. Ultimately he will reach the peak, attaining insight into transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. So regardless of whether the Path is viewed from the end towards the beginning, or from the beginning towards the end, it is seen as something that can be done --- provided, of course, the individual concerned is reasonably well equipped as to character, sense faculties, and intelligence. Everyone who has been born in the world and blessed with long life, ought to make it his business to develop insight, little by little, every day, until he reaches the stage where he is able to see the three characteristics of all compounds, to see the endless process of compounding as unsatisfactory, and to perceive escape from unsatisfactoriness in the state of freedom from compounding.
This is sufficient answer to the question why the Buddha taught the Path in several different ways. At the high level he taught the Four Exercises in Mindfulness (satipatthana) as the One Path, the perfect system for the individual walking alone, the one way towards the one and only goal. He taught the Path under the name of Mindfulness, and under many other names which we need not go into here at length.
The True Path
All we wish to do here is to realize that this thing called the Path will have come to be the True Path just as soon as there arises insight into transience, unsatisfactoriness, and nonself. As long as this insight has not yet arises, it is still not the true Path, but only the very beginning of it. So if a person has not yet gained this insight into the three characteristics, he still does not the Path to be walked. Instead he goes off in search of things which are transient, unsatisfactory, and selfless more than ever, and his life become more and more unsatisfactory. But, if a person does come to see that all compounds are transient, unsatisfactory, and selfless, his mind will seek to avoid those compounds. He will seek to transcend them, to get above them, so that they cannot harm him. This is the true Path, the Path that leads away from unsatisfactoriness and towards the overcoming of it.
So it is up to each one of us to develop the true Path based on insight and try to gain understanding of the transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self of compounds, to see them as inherently unsatisfactory, as nothing but unsatisfactory, as the unsatisfactory condition itself, to be avoid at all costs. This seen, behaviour will thenceforth be free of compounding with craving and attachment. Once transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self have been seen, craving and attachment cannot arise. All that is left is the insight. Insight serves to prevent the arising of craving and attachment. So this life can be one with the Path. Life can be in itself a good steady progress; it can be one and the same as walking the Path.
I hope you will all now take a greater interest in these three words “transience, unsatisfactoriness, non-self.” Don’t just go memorizing someone’s explanation of them. See for yourself that things which o on perpetually combining and changing possess these three characteristics. When a person does not realize the true nature of things, he unwittingly takes them as lasting, worth-while, selves belonging to himself. You can imagine the trouble that then results. It’s like taking a thing with certain properties and trying to force it to have different properties. It cannot be done any more than fire cannot forced to be without heat. The result is both comic and tragic.
Primitive Philosophy
So the majority of people believe that having been born into this life, we ought to go after one thing or another, according to our desires, being pleased when we get what we want and upset when we don’t. When people have children they have nothing better to teach them than this primitive philosophy. This is all they have to offer. It is a far cry from the Path taught by the Buddha. Children walk in the same old ruts as their parents, and so it goes on from one generation to the next. There is no progress forwards, no variation or improvement based on knowledge that all things are transient, unsatisfactory, and not selves, and therefore not to be grasped at. If then, our children and we ourselves, too, are to walk the Path easily and quickly, it behoves us to take a special interest in this matter of grasping and non-grasping, to train ourselves in it and teach it to others.
True, we have to live in this world. We have to eat, to make use of various articles, to see and come in contact with all sorts of things. But, it is possible to live with these things without grasping at and clinging to them. We must act intelligently, always mindful of the three characteristics. When our offspring have this insight, when they have come to see that nothing whatsoever can be grasped at and clung to, we can then leave them to look after themselves. They are then able to think, speak, and act correctly of their own accord, in the way that is free from the unsatisfactory condition. It is up to teach and train our children in this matter of grasping and non-grasping so that they may be free from excessive depression and elation. They must develop sufficient intelligence to keep them above the things that would otherwise make them laugh or cry. They must develop in this insight just as they develop physically. This is how to be good parent who hands on to his offspring the job of walking the Path the right and rapid way. This is how it should be, in keeping with the principle that man is born to walk the Path so that the goal may one day be attained.
Devil, Satan, Mara
Now let us have a look at Thailand, and the hundred-odd other country of the world, and see what sort of things people are teaching their children. What sort of things are people doing? What are their desires, the cause of those actions that are producing so much suffering and misery in every part of the world at he present time?
We find that people, far from walking the right Path, are following the Devil, Satan, Mara, whatever one cares to call him, which is bound to be a source of all sorts of misery. This is not at all in keeping with the purpose of birth as a human being, let alone a human being who has encountered the Buddha’s teaching. Even any ordinary human being ought not to behave like this, because the term “human” (in Sanskrit manusya) means something rather special. It implies a high-minded being, a descendant of Manu the wise, something higher than average. To deserve the title of human being, one must walk the true Path. As soon as one wanders from the Path, one ceases to be human in the true sense. If one thinks along lines inconsistent with Truth or Dhamma for even one moment; then, in that moment one has ceased being a true human being and is instead walking the path of Mara, or the Path of the beasts. Our examination has to be done in such detail that we walk the Path all the time, with every breath we take, every minute and every second. We must walk the Path all the time. As soon as we relax, we go astray.
So let us not go lapsing into thought patterns that lead to carelessness or overconfidence, or the idea that this journey is an easy one. There is also a danger of relaxing and simply going downstream, drifting with the current. This is one of the worst dangers. The Buddha taught us to be constantly aware, to walk the Path every single “thought moment.” One moment of unawareness and the mind is off track again. Sometimes it may go so far astray that to return to the Path becomes very difficult and time consuming. Suppose one falls into one of the “woeful states” such as hell. This means that one has done the wrong things, relaxed, and let the mind drop to the low level known as hell, so that it is difficult to return promptly. This wandering from the Path is like walking into a trap, falling into a pit mot ditch. It comes from being careless, not keeping to the Path, not being constantly aware of those three characteristics, transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood. And there is no traveling companion who will help us to keep the straight and narrow. There is no-one to keep an eye on us and see that we don’t wander off the Path. Each of us just a blind man being led by blind men. The lot of us are just fumbling all the time. It is because the great majority of people are forever being careless and wandering off the Path the entire world is in such a pitiful and hopeless condition.
No Joke
Do realize that this business of the Path and the walking of it is no small matter, no joke. On the contrary, it is the most vital matter of all. It is the task for human being. It is a job to be done with all the intelligence and ability a human being can muster. Don’t waver for an instant, not for a split second! In a single instant one may go astray from the Path. If the mind is not on the lookout at every moment, there is a danger of its running off the path and even falling into hell. It behoves each one of us to reflect on the dangers of this kind of lapse, and resolve to maintain clear and unobscured insight into the transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood of every single thing about him. His every action, word, and thought will then be in keeping with that insight. There is no way it can lapse and give rise to some kind of suffering.
Charity, Goodwill, Honesty & Tolerance
This, then, is in brief the way to walk the Path. It is just a brief summary, just the essence of it. It could be dealt with in more detail to cover the numerous different form of practice out of which an individual may choose just the one that best suits his own particular temperament. One can think of it as the Noble Eightfold Path, or the Four Exercise in Mindfulness, or Ten Skillful Actions, or something else, just as one chooses. We may choose to think of it as the Ten Virtues, which a Buddha is said to posses. These virtues are, once again, the Path to be walked from ordinary human status to buddhahood. If we feel ten Virtues are too much for us to aim at, that is all right; and if we feel we could manage all ten but not to the degree possible for a Buddha, that is all right too. These Virtues simply constitute a mode of practice governed by insight into the thoroughly unsatisfactory nature of this worldly condition, this cycle of samsara, these compounds. Our job is to cross over from all this to the other side, nirvana, by means of the kinds of action that sees things as they really are, as transience, unsatisfactory, and not selves. So practice in such a way as to wipe out all grasping and clinging to these transient, unsatisfactory, self-less things. We practice charity, good-will, honesty, tolerance, all the virtues that we realize will give mastery over the lower kind of thought, the kind that is blind to the three characteristics.
To sum up, then, walking the Path we must begin, develop, and culminate with perfectly clear insight into the three characteristics. This is all there is to it. I hope you will follow this Path taught by the Buddha and gain the benefits of so doing.
The Danger of “I”
The subject we will discuss here is one which I feel every one ought to recognize as pressing, namely the following two statements made by the Buddha:
“Birth is perpetual suffering.”
and
“True happiness consists in eliminating the false idea of “I.”
Mankind’s problems are reduced to the problem of suffering, whether inflicted by another or by oneself by way of mental defilements (kilesa). This is the primary problem for every human being, because no-one wants suffering. In the above statements the Buddha equates suffering with birth: “Birth is perpetual suffering”; and he equates happiness with the complete giving up of the false idea “I”, “myself”, “I am”, “I exist”.
The statement that birth is the cause of suffering is complex, having several level of meaning. The main difficulty lies in the interpretation of the word “birth”. Most of us do no understand what the word “birth” refers to and are likely to take it in the everyday sense of physical birth from a mother’s body. The Buddha taught that birth is perpetual suffering. Is it likely that in saying this he was referring to physical birth? Think it over. If the was referring to physical birth it is unlikely that he would have gone on to say “True happiness consists in eliminating the false idea “I” because this statement clearly indicates that what constitutes the suffering is the false idea “I”, when the idea “I” has been completely eradicated, that is true happiness. So suffering actually consists in the misconception “I”, “I am”, “I have”. The Buddha taught: “Birth is perpetual suffering.” What is meant here by the word “birth”? Clearly “birth” refers to nothing other than the arising of idea “I” (asmimana).
The word “birth” refers to the arising of the mistaken idea “I”, “myself”. It does not refer to physical birth, as generally suppose. The mistaken assumption that this word “birth” refers to physical birth is major obstacle to comprehending the Buddha’s teaching.
Everyday Language, Dhamma Language
It has to be borne in mind that in general a word can have several different meanings according to the context. Two principle cases can be recognized: (1) language referring to physical things, which is spoken by the average person; and (2) language referring to mental things, psychological language, Dhamma language, which is spoken by people who know Dhamma (higher Truth, Buddha’s teaching). The first type may be called “everyday language”, the language spoken by the average person; the second may be called “Dhamma language”, the language spoken by a person who known Dhamma.
The ordinary person speaks as he has learnt to speak, and when he uses the word “birth” he means physical birth, birth from a mother’s body; however in Dhamma language, the language used by a person who know Dhamma, “birth” refers to the arising of the idea “I am”. If at some moment there arises in the mind the false idea “I am”, then at that moment the “I” has been born. When this false idea ceases, there is no longer any “I”, the “I” has momentarily ceased to exist. When the “I” idea again arise in the mind, the “I” has been reborn. This is the meaning of the word “birth” in the Dhamma language. It refers not to physical birth from a mother of flesh and blood but to mental birth from a mental “mother”, namely craving, ignorance, clinging (tanha, avija, upadana). One could think of craving as the mother and ignorance as the father; in any case the result is birth of “I”, the arising of the false idea “I”. The father and mother of the “I” --- delusion are ignorance and craving or clinging. Ignorance, delusion, misunderstanding, give birth to the idea “I”, “me”. And it is this kind of birth that is perpetual suffering. Physical birth is no problem; one born from his mother; a person need nothing more to do with birth. Birth from a mother takes only a few minutes; and no-one ever has to undergo the experience more than once.
Now we hear talk of rebirth, birth again and again, and of the suffering that inevitably goes with it. Just what is this rebirth? What is it that is reborn? The birth referred to a mental event, something taking place in the mind, the non-physical of our make-up. This is “birth” in Dhamma language. “Birth” in everyday language is birth from mother; “birth” in Dhamma language is birth form ignorance, craving, clinging, the arising of the false notion of “I” and “mine”. These are the two meanings of the word “birth”.
This is an important matter, which simply must be understood. Anyone who fails to grasp this point will never succeed in understanding anything of the Buddha’s teaching. So do take a special interest in it. There are these two kinds of language, these two levels of meaning: everyday language, referring to physical thing, and Dhamma language, referring to mental things, and used by people who know. To clarify this point here are some examples.
Consider the word “path”. Usually when we use the word “path” we are referring to a road or a way along which vehicles, men, and animals can move. But the word “path” may also refer to the Noble Eightfold Path, the way of practice taught by the Buddha --- Right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right mindfulness, right concentration --- which lead nirvana. In everyday language “path” refers to a physical road; in Dhamma language it refers to the eightfold way of right practice known as the Noble Eightfold Path. These are the two meaning of the word “path”.
Similarly with the word “nirvana” (nibbana). In everyday language this word refers to the cooling of a hot object. For example, when hot coals become cool, they are said [in Pali or Sanskrit] to have “nirvana’d”; when hot food in a pot or on a plate becomes cool it has “nirvana’d”. This is everyday language. In Dhamma language “nirvana” refers to the kind of coolness that results from eliminating mental defilements. At any time when there is freedom is from mental defilements, at that time there is coolness, momentary nirvana. So “nirvana” or “coolness” has two meanings, according as the speaker is using everyday language or Dhamma language.
Another important word is “emptiness” (sunyata, sunnata). In everyday language, the language of physical things, “emptiness” means total absence of any object; in Dhamma language it means absence of idea “I”, “mine”. When the mind is not grasping or clinging to anything whatsoever as “I” or “mine”, it is in a state of “emptiness”. The word “empty” has these two levels of meaning, one referring to physical things, the other referring to mental things, one in everyday language, the other in Dharma language. Physical emptiness is absence of any object, vacuum. Mental emptiness is the state in which all the objects of the physical world are present as usual, but none of them is being grasped at or clung to as “mine”. Such a mind is said to be “empty”. When the mind has come to see things as not worth wanting, not worth being, not worth grasping at clinging to, it is then empty of wanting, being grasping, clinging. The mind is then an empty or void mind but not in the sense of being void of content. All objects are there as usual and the thinking processes are going on as usual, but they are not going the way of grasping and clinging with the idea of “I” and “mine”. The mind is devoid of grasping and clinging and so is called an empty or void mind. It is stated in the texts: “A mind is said to be empty when it is empty of desire, aversion, and delusion (rage, dosa, moha).” The world is also described as empty, because it is empty of anything that might be identified as “I” or “mine”. It is in this sense that the world is spoken of as empty. “Empty” in Dhamma language does not mean physically empty, devoid of content.
You can see the confusion and misunderstanding that can arise if these words are taken in their usual everyday sense. Unless we understand Dhamma language, we can never understand Dhamma; and the most important piece of Dhamma language to understand is the term “birth”.
The Illusion of “I”
The kind of birth that constitutes a problem for us is mental birth, the birth or arising of the false notion “I”. Once idea “I” has arisen, it inevitably follows the idea “I am such-and-such”. For example, “I am a man”, “I am a living creature”, “I am a good man”, “I am not a good man”, or something else of the sort. And once the idea “I am such-and-such” has arisen, there follows the comparison: “I am better than so-and-o, “I am not as good as so-and-so”, “I am equal to so-and-so”. All these idea are of a type; they are all part of the false notion “I am”, “I exist”. It is to this that the term “birth” refers. So in a single day we may be born many times, many dozen of times. Even in a single hour we may experience many, many births. Whenever there arises the idea “I” and the idea “I am such-and-such”, that is a birth. When no such idea arises, there is no birth, and this freedom from birth is a state of coolness. So this is a principle to be recognized: whenever there arises the idea “I”, “mine”, at that time the cycle o samsara has come into existence in the mind, and there is suffering, burning, spinning on; and whenever there is freedom from defects of those kinds, there is nirvana, nirvana of the type referred to as tadanga-nibbana or vikkhambhana-nibbana.
Tadanga-nibbana is mentioned in the Anguttara-nikaya. It is a state that comes about momentarily when external conditions happen, fortuitiously, to be such that no idea of “I” or “mine” arises. Tadanga-nibbana is momentary cessation of the idea “I”, “mine”, due to favourable external circumstances. At a higher level than this, if we engage in some form of Dharma practice, in particular if we develop concentration, so that the idea of “I”, “mine” cannot arise, the extinction of “I”, “mine” is call vikkhambhana-nibbana. And finally, when we succeed in bringing about the complete elimination of all defilements, that is full nirvana, total nirvana/
Now we shall limit our discussion to the everyday life of the ordinary person. It must be understood that at any time when there exist the idea “I”, “mine”, at that time there exists birth, suffering, the cycle of samsara. The “I” is born, endures for a moment, then, ceases, is born again, endures for a moment, and again ceases --- which is why the process is referred to as the cycle of samsara. It is suffering because of the birth of the “I”. If at any moment conditions happen to be favourable, so that the :I” idea does not arise, then there is peace --- what is called tadanga-nibbana, momentary nirvana, a taste of nirvana, a sample of nirvana, peace, coolness.
The meaning of “nirvana” becomes clearer when we consider how the word is used in the Anguttara-nikaya. In that text we find that hot objects that have become cool are said to have “nirvana’d”. Animals that have been tames, rendered docile and harmless are said to have “nirvana’d”. How can a human being become “cool”? This question is complicated by fact that man’s present knowledge and understanding of life has no been suddenly acquired but has evolved gradually over a long period.
Before time of the Buddha people considered that nirvana lay in sensual delight, because person who get precisely whatever sensual pleasure wishes does experience a certain kind of coolness. Having a shower on a hot day brings a kind of coolness; and going into a quiet place brings another kin, in the form of contentment, freedom from disturbance. So to begin with, people were interested in the kind of nirvana that consisted in an abundance of sensual pleasure. Later, wiser men came to realize that this was not good enough. They saw that sensual pleasure was largely a deception (maya). So sought their coolness in the mental tranquility of concentration (jhana). The jhanas are states of genuine mental coolness and this was the kind of nirvana people were concerned with in the period immediately before the Buddha’s enlightenment. Gurus were teaching that nirvana was identical with the most refined state of mental concentration. The Buddha’s last guru, Udakatapasa Ramaputra, taught him that to attain the jhana of neither perception nor non-perception was to attain complete cessation of suffering. But the Buddha did not accept this teaching; he did not consider this to be genuine nirvana. He went off and delved into the matter on his own account until he realized the nirvana that is the total elimination of every kind of craving and cling. As he himself later taught: “True happiness consists in eradicating the false idea “I”. When defilements have been total eliminates, that is nirvana. If the defilements are only momentarily absent, it is momentary nirvana. Hence the teaching of tadanga-nibbana and vikkhambhana-nibbana already discussed. These terms refer to a condition of freedom from defilements.
Now if we examine ourselves we discover that we are not dominated by defilements all the time. There are moments when we are free from defilements; if this were not the case we should soon be driven mad by defilements and die, and there would not be many people left in the world. It is thanks to these brief periods of freedom from distress-causing defilements that we do not suffer from nervous disorders and go insane or die. Let us give Nature due credit for this and be thankful she made us in such a way that we get sufficient period of respite from defilements each day. There is the time we are asleep, and there are times when the mind is clear, cool, at ease. A person who can manage to do as Nature intended can avoid nervous and psychological disorders; one who cannot is bound to have more and more nervous disorders until he becomes mentally ill or even dies. Let us be thankful for momentary nirvana, the transient type of nirvana that comes when conditions are favourable. For a brief moment there is freedom from craving, conceit, and false view, in particular freedom from the idea of “I” and “mine”. The mind is empty, free, just long enough to have a rest or to sleep, and so it remains healthy.
In days gone by this condition was more common than it is now. Modern man, with his ever-changing knowledge and behaviour, is more subject to disturbance from defilements than man in past ages. Consequently modern man is more prone to nervous and psychological illness --- which is disgrace. The more scientific knowledge he has the more prone he is to insanity! The number of psychiatric parents is increasing so rapidly the hospital cannot cope. There is one simple cause for this: people do not know how to relax mentally. They are too ambitious. They have been taught to be ambitious since they were small children. They acquire nervous complaints right in childhood and by the time they have completed their studies they are already mentally disturbed people. This comes from taking no interest in the Buddha’s teaching that the birth of the idea of “I” and “mine” is the height of suffering.
Now let us go further into the matter of “birth”. No matter what type of existence one is born into, it is nothing but suffering, because the word “birth” refers here to attachment unaccompanied by awareness. This is an important point which must be well understood: if there arise in a person’s mind the idea “I am such-and-such” and he is aware that this idea has arisen, the arising is not birth [as that term is used in Dharma Language]. If on the other hand he deludedly identifies with the idea, that is birth. Hence the Buddha advised continual mindfulness. if we know what we are, know what we have to do it with awareness, there is no suffering, because there is no birth of “I” or “mine”. Whenever delusion, carelessness, and forgetfulness come in, there arise desire and attachment to the false idea “I”, “mine”, “I am so-and-so, I am such-and-such”,… and this is birth.
Birth is Suffering
Birth is suffering; and the kind of suffering depends on the kind of birth. Birth as a mother brings the suffering of mother, birth as a father brings the suffering of a father. If, for example, there arises in a person the illusory idea of being a mother and therefore of wanting this, that, and the other things --- that is the suffering of mother. It is the same for a father. If he identifies with the idea of being a father, wanting this and that grasping and clinging --- that is suffering of father. But if a person has awareness, there is no such confusion and distortion; he simple knows in full clarity what he has to do as a father or as a mother and does it with a steady mind, not clinging to the idea “I am this”, “I am that”. In this way he is free from suffering; and in this condition he is fit to rear his children properly and to their best advantage. Birth as a mother brings the suffering of mother; birth as a father brings suffering of a father; birth as a millionaire brings the suffering of millionaire; birth as a beggar brings the suffering of a beggar. What is meant here can be illustrated by the following contrast,.
Suppose first a millionaire, dominate by delusion, desire, attachment, grasping at the idea “I am a millionaire”. The idea is in itself suffering; and whatever that man says or does is said and under the influence of those defilements and so becomes further suffering. Even after he has gone to bed he dwells on the idea of being a millionaire and so is unable to sleep. So birth as a millionaire brings the suffering of a millionaire. Then suppose a beggar, dwelling on his misfortunes, his poverty, his suffering and difficulties --- that is the suffering of beggar. Now if at any moment either of these two men were to be free of these ideas, in that moment he would be free from suffering; the millionaire would be free from the suffering of a millionaire, the beggar would be free from the suffering of a beggar. Thus it is that one sometimes sees a beggar singing happily, because at that time he is not being born as a beggar, is not identifying himself as a beggar or as in any sort of difficulty. For one moment he has forgotten it, has ceased being born a beggar and instead has been born a singer, a musician,. Suppose a poor ferryman. If he clings to the idea of being poor, and rows his ferryboat with a sense of weariness and self-pity, then he suffers, just as if had fallen straight into hell. But if instead of dwelling on such ideas, he reflects that he is doing what he has to do, that work is the lot of human beings, and does his work with awareness and steadiness of mind, he will find himself singing as he rows his ferryboat.
So do look closely, carefully, and clearly into this question: what is it that is being referred to as birth? If at any moment a millionaire is born “born” as a millionaire, in that moment he experience the suffering of millionaire; if a beggar is born as a beggar, he experiences the suffering of a beggar. If, however, a person does not identify in this way, he is not “born” and so is free from suffering --- whether he is a millionaire, a beggar, a ferryman, or whatever. At the present day we take no interest in this matter. We let ourselves be dominated by delusion, craving, attachment. We experience birth as this, that, or the other, I do not know how many times each day. Every kind of birth without exception is suffering, as the Buddha said. The only way to be free from this suffering is to be free from birth. So one has to take good care, always keeping the mind in a state of awareness and insight, never disturbed and confused by “I” and “mine”. One will then be free from suffering. Whether one is a farmer, a merchant, a soldier, a public servant, or anything else, even a god in heaven, one will be free from suffering.
As soon as there is the idea is the idea “I” there is suffering. Grasp this important principle and you are in a position to understand the essential core of Buddhism, and derive benefit from Buddhism, taking full advantage of having been born a human being and encounter Buddhism. If you do not grasp it, then though you are a Buddhist you will derive no benefit from it; you will be a Buddhist only nominally, only according to the records; you will have to sit and weep like all those other people who are not Buddhist; you will continue to experience suffering like a non-Buddhist. To be genuine Buddhist we have to practice the genuine teaching of the Buddha, in particular the injunction: Do not identify as “I” or “mine”; act with clear awareness and there will be no suffering. You will then be able to do your work well and that work will be pleasure. When the mind is involved in “I” and mine”, all work becomes suffering; one does not feel like doing it; light work becomes heavy work, burdensome in every way. But if the mind is no grasping and clinging to the idea “I”, “mine”, if it is aware, all work, even heavy or dirty work, is enjoyable.
This is a profound hidden truth that has to be understood. The essence of it lies in the single world “birth”. Birth is suffering: once we can give up being “born”, we become free from suffering. If a person experience dozens of births in a day he has to suffer dozens of times a day; if he does not experience birth at all, he has no suffering at all. So the direct practice of Dharma, the kernel of the Buddha’s teaching, consists in keeping close watch on the mind, so that it does no give rise to the condition call cycle of samsara, so that it is always in the state call nirvana. One has to be watchful, guarding the mind at all time so that the state of coolness is constantly there, and leaving no opportunity for arising of samsara. The mind will then become accustomed to the state of nirvana day and night and that state may become permanent and complete. We already have momentary nirvana, the type of nirvana that comes when circumstances are light, the nirvana that is a simple, a foretaste. Preserve it carefully. Leave no opening for samsara, for the idea “I”, “mime”. Do not let the “I” idea come to birth. Keep watch, he aware, develop full insight. Whatever you do, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, do it with awareness. Do not become involved in “I” and “mine”. Then samsara will not be able to arise; the mind will remain in nirvana until it has become fully accustomed to it and unable to relapse --- and that is full or complete nirvana.
Since childhood we have live in a way favourable to the birth of “I” and “mine”, and have become used to the cycle of samsara. This habit is hard to break. It has become part of our makeup, and so is sometimes called a fetter (samyojana) or a latent disposition (anusaya), something that is bound up in our character. Thee terms refer to the habit of giving birth to “I”, “mine”, of producting the sense of “I”, “mine”. In one form it is called greed (lobha); in another form it is called anger (dosa); in another form it is called delusion (moha). Whatever form it takes it is simply the idea “I” “mine”, self-centredness. When the “I” wants to get something, there is greed; when it does not get something, there us anger; when it hesitates and does not know what it wants, there is confusion, involvement in hopes and possibilities. Greed, anger, and delusion of whatever kind are simply forms of the “I” idea, and when they are present in the mind, that is everlasting samsara, total absence of nirvana. A person in this condition does not live long. But Nature helps. As we saw in the beginning, through natural weariness the process sometimes stops of itself, there is sleep or some other form of respite, and one’s condition improves, becomes tolerable and death is averted.
Practice Right Living
The various enlightened beings that have appeared in the world have discovered that it is possible to prolong these periods of nirvana, and have taught the most direct way of practice to this end, namely the Noble Eightfold Path. This is a way of practice intended to prolong the periods of coolness, or nirvana, and to reduce the periods of suffering, or samsara, by preventing as far as possible the birth of “I” and “mine”. It’s so simple it’s hard to believe --- like the Buddha’s statement: “If monks will practice right living, the world will not be empty of arhats (enlightened beings).” One finds it hard to believe. But if one examines it, one must believe it.
In the simple statement “If monks will practice right living, the world will not be empty of arhats” the expression “right living” has an important and profound meaning. Right meaning implies absence of the idea of “I”, “mine”. We are living day after day, but we are not living rightly, so the idea of “I” and “mine” is born. It pops up numerous times every day, so there is no chance for full nirvana to come in and we do not become arhats. Right living means living in accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thoughts, right speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and right concentration. If we have these eight kinds of perception, we are practicing right living. And if we live rightly in this way, the mental defilements cannot arise, “I” and “mine” cannot be born; they wither away, like an animal deprived of nourishment. Right living deprives the “I” and the “mine” of nourishment, and so prevents them from taking birth. In time they lose their strength and the day finally comes when they dry up completely and disappear for good --- and that is what is called attaining the Fruit of the Path, total nirvana.
The important thing is continuous right understanding and right action, so that the “I” and the “mine” cannot arise, so that there is no birth. When there is no birth of any kind, there is no suffering of any kind, and that is true happiness, as the Buddha said. Once the one has examined this matter and come to realize that birth is always suffering, every time, one takes good cars to avoid birth. It is easy to understand that the birth referred to is something mental, something in the mind, but it is very difficult to master this birth. In a single day or even in a single hour one may experience this kind of birth many times, many dozens of times. Be careful about this problem of birth; it is a problem that faces us here and now. If we can master this kind of birth here and now we will also be able to master the birth that comes after physical death. So let us not concern ourselves with the birth that follows physical death; instead let us concern ourselves seriously with the birth that happen before physical death, the kind of birth that goes on while we are alive, which happens dozens of times every day; let us learn to master it and the problem will be eliminated. If birth can be eliminates here and now, in this life, that will be the end of birth for good and all.
Eight Realms of Existence
Everyone concerns himself with the trivial question in what form he will be reborn after death, wondering into which of the eight realms of existence he will be reborn; as a hell-being, an animal, a preta (hungry ghost), an asura (frightened ghost), a human being, a god of the sensuous heaven ((kamavacara), an embodied brahma, or bodies brahma. Each of these possible forms of rebirth falls under either of the two headings Sugati and Duggati, depending on the nature of the corresponding feelings. Those states that are desirable or satisfying are called Sugati; those that are the opposite are called Duggati. But this is not the doctrine the Buddha taught. He taught: if there is nothing but perpetual suffering; and this is so regardless of the realm into which is born, because “birth” refers to grasping and clinging, as already discusses. No matter what one is born as, it is suffering. The form of the suffering may vary, as in the case of the millionaire and the beggar, but it is suffering nevertheless, suffering as heavy as that of the Duggati realms. And while birth in the Duggati realms brings the sufferings of the Duggati realms, birth in the Sugati realms brings the suffering of the Sugati realms. Birth has to be stopped altogether. Do not wondering what you will be bornas; do not go thinking of being reborn as a human being, or a god, or a brahma. The result will be the suffering of a human being, a god, or a brahma, because even the brahma experience suffering, the suffering of brahmas. If brahmas were free from suffering, there world have been no need of Buddhism. Buddhism came into existence in order to produce aryas, people who have put an end to suffering of every kind, the suffering of human beings, of gods, an of brahmas. This is why the Buddha is referred to as the Teacher of gods and men”: he taught to put an end to suffering for all beings.
Here caution is needed. A person here in this particular life has the possibility of being reborn into any realm of existence in the vast cycle of samsara: into one o the lower worlds or Duggati as hell-being, animal, preta, or asura; into the middle realm as human being; or into one of the higher realms as a god of the sensuous sphere, as an embodied brahma, or at the highest level) as a bodiless brahma. So there are eight possibilities: the four woeful states or lower realms, the human or middle realm, and three heavens or upper realms. Each of these eight forms of birth is suffering in its own particular way. If one identifies with one’s states of birth, one is bound to experience the corresponding kind of suffering --- and every one of us has, in his everyday life, experienced these eight kinds of birth. Let us try to understand what this means. We shall deal first with birth in the woeful states, birth as a hell-being, animal, preta (hungry ghost), or asura (frightened ghost).
The real meaning of “hell” is anxiety (literally “mind-heat”). Anxiety burns one like a fire. If a person is worked up, burning with anxiety, then he is to be recognized as a hell-being. Whether monk, novice, lay follower, house-holder, or whatever, if he is burning with anxiety (“mind-heat”), burning through involvement in “I”, “mine”, then he is in hell.
If at some moment a person is deluded, then at that moment he is a dumb animal. At any time that a person, male or female, monk or layman, or whatever, is deluded, he has taken birth as an animal. The meaning of birth as an animal is delusion.
At any time that “I” and “mine” go the way of mental hunger and thirst, as when a gambler or a person buying lottery tickets suffer a hunger for money, a hunger to win a prize, a mental hunger --- that is birth as a preta (hungry ghosts). Birth as a preta is extreme mental hunger.
If there if fear, timidity, that is birth as an asura (frightened ghost). The word “asura” means “not brave”, an asura is any timid, frightened person.
In a single day we may be born in four of these states. Watch! Notice in what form the “I” and “mine” arise. If they arise in the form of anxiety, one has been born a denizen of hell; if as delusion, as an animal; if as mental hunger, a preta; and if they arise in the form of fear, one has been born an asura. Here is an example to illustrate.
A gambler who makes a blunder and loss everything experience anxiety, as if burnt by fire; he has fallen into hell right there in the gambling-house. Again, when he is so deluded as to think that gambling can solve his problems, he is a dumb animal --- even before he begins playing. When, in the course of playing, he has an uncontrollable mental hunger, then he is a preta. And when he is afraid of being beaten and losing everything, then he is an asura. This single example, the case of a gambler in a gambling-house, shows how one may be born as a hell-being, an animal, a preta, or an asura.
Our grandparents were no fools, otherwise they would not have had the saying: “Heaven is in the heart; hell is in the mind.” Their children and grandchildren apparently are fools because they think one goes to heaven or hell only after dying, after having been put into the coffin. Examine this idea and you will see how foolish it is. So let us be as intelligent as our grandparents, at least to the extent of recognizing that heaven and hell are in the mind.
Think of the example of gambler, who can become a hell-being, an animal, a preta, or an asura. Anxiety can come form wrong doing or as a result of karma. Anxiety is hell. Delusion can sometimes be so bad as to be almost beyond belief. Have a good think about it; examine it and you will see that we are sometimes unbelievably deluded. This delusion leads us into inappropriate or bad action. As for hunger, it is always present: desire for pleasure, desire for fame, and so on. If it reaches the point of being a mental thirst, one becomes a preta. Why be hungry? We have sufficient intelligence to know what we have to do, so let us do it contentedly, without preta-like hunger. Even if we do buy lottery tickets, we do not have to do it with preta-like hunger. We can buy our tickets simply for the fun of it, or we can think of how w are thereby helping provide funds to develop the country. If there is awareness, “I” and “mine” do not arise and one is not hungry, not a preta. But if awareness is lacking, one is hungry, one has become a preta here and now. It is the same with fear. Fear can become a habit. Think about it. To be afraid, as some people are, of even earthworms, lizards, geckoes, and mice is just going to far this is unjustified fear. Then there is fear of ghost, things whole presence cannot even be demonstrated. And something some people are very afraid of is Dharma. They are afraid that practicing Dharma will make life tasteless and dry, that nirvana is simply tasteless and dry. So they fear Dharma and nirvana. Such people are full-fledged asura, right here and now.
Now we move up to the realm of human beings. The term “human being” in this context implies fatigue, exhaustion, shedding sweat, hard work, trading the sweat of one’ brow for food and sensual pleasure. It has nothing to do with anxiety, delusion, or the others; it is the honest exchanging of the sweat of one’s brow for things one wants. This is the meaning of the term “human being”. Do not think of it as of type with the terms “hell-being”, “animal”, “preta”, and “asura”, which refer to something much lower. “Hell” means anxiety, “animal” means delusion. “preta” menas hunger, “asura” means fear. “Human being” means something of a totally different type. It means simply striving, persevering, working to get things one wants honestly and fairly, purchansing them with the sweat of one’s brow. This is what it is to be a human being. In short the meaning of “human being” is fatigue, a condition of habitual fatigue.
Higher than this are the gods of kamavacara (sensual) heaven. These are the gods we hear about who have celestial mansions, attendant angels, and so on. The reference is to a condition of freedom from fatigue, and abundance of every sensual pleasure. Higher again is the state of person who has become bored with sensual pleasure, who has come to see sensual pleasure as something contaminating and wishes to live uncontaminated and pure. This is the heaven of the embodied brahmas (rupabrahma), in which there is involvement in material things. And higher again is the level where one sees the body as impermanent, not worth becoming involved in, and feels it would be better to have no body at all. A person who feels this way is called a bodiless brahma (arupabrahma).
The meanings of these terms are not as in everyday usage. For example the hell depicted in temple murals, with great copper cauldrons, seas of acid, rains of lancers and swords, is a metaphor an illusion in material term of mental states that cannot be depicted. It is a physical illustration of anxiety and worry (mind-heat”). Similarly we have physical representations of delusion, hunger, and fear. Similarly again the human realm” is the condition of fatigue. And the kamavacara heaven is complete sensual satisfaction; when a person has, by means of money, power, good luck, or whatever, attained satisfaction in sensual pleasure, and is free of fatigue, he is god in the sensual realm, called kamavacara. And a bodiless brahma is one who has become tired of this, who has ceased being involved in sensual pleasure and takes delight in pure things, things that do not determinate.
Be Aware of The Mind
Let us examine the state of our own mind. Sometimes we are infatuated with sensual pleasure, but when we repeat it over and over, we become fed up with it ad wish to have a rest from it. Sometimes we want to play, or interest ourselves in other material things, and those things fail to satisfy, and we begin thinking of non-physical things such as good fortune, name, and fame. Let us put it more simply. There are people who are infatuated with sensual pleasure and there are others who prefer to amuse themselves with hobbies, such as gardening or keeping tropical fish or pigeons, and become infatuated with them. The mind is liable to change in this way. Now it may happen that a certain person at a certain time come to see that all these things are a source of confusion and not to be compared with mental things --- thoughts and dreams about possible good fortune, about beauty, or about name and fame, non-physical things. These various conditions duffer considerably among themselves; they constitute a series of levels. The point to note is that a single person is liable to experience any of eight kinds of birth. Examine yourselves and see how many different states the mind can go through. On a certain day a certain person may be involves in sensual pleasure for an hour or so. Then he may feel having a break from it by going and playing sport or amusing himself with some hobby. At other times he may feel like having a complete rest, free from al disturbance. Sometime he has to be a “human being”, working for long hours, becoming fatigued. And sometimes he spends a few minutes in hell (anxiety); or in the condition of an animal (delusion), or a preta (hunger), or an asura (fear). So a single person may experience several kinds of birth in a single day; and in week he may experience all eight kinds. He may be born in one the woeful states (hell, animal, preta, asura) in the human realm, or in the heavens of gods and brahmas. But whichever kind of birth it is, it is nothing but suffering; freedom from suffering comes only with freedom from birth. This last statement is difficult to understand; but once you have understood it, you have understood the whole Buddha’s teaching.
The expression “freedom from birth” does not imply that on is not born again after physical death, that after having died and been places in coffin one is not reborn. Please think about this: if in the daily round there is only awareness, preventing the arising of “I” and “mine”, the “self” idea, egoism --- that is freedom birth. When nothing remains but awareness, one is able to do what one has to do and to do it properly. Under these conditions, doing one’s job is fun; to be able to do one’s job properly without any “I” or “mine” is a joy. This is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching. In effect it call on us to live with a mind free from the idea “I”, “mine”. Every religion teaches this; it is based on a law of nature, which can be proved rigorously, scientifically.
Buddhism teaches that one’s thoughts include the idea of self, self-centredness, that is suffering. Christianity teaches the same thing; it teaches us not to think in terms of “I” or mine”, not to misidentify as “I” or “mine”. But most Christians do not understand this teaching, just as most of us Buddhists do not understand the Buddha’s teaching on this matter. It is the same the world over and in every religion: no one understands the real essence of his own religion. We Buddhists do not understand what is meant by “Do not born! Stop being born!” We do no understand it and so we are perplexed, disbelieving it, or even considering it a false teaching. Perhaps we do not go so far as to accuse the Buddha of teaching false doctrine but still that idea is there in our minds; or we may think that any monk expounding this doctrine is misrepresenting the Buddha. This is what happens. So we fail completely to understand the doctrine of anatta (non-self) and sunnata (emptiness), the doctrine that there is no “I” or “mine”. Consequently we experience suffering. We are born frequently; we experience more of samsara than nirvana.
The proof of all this is the fact that the hospitals for nervous and mental disorders are overfilled. This is all the proof needed; we do not have to ask further people simply do not understand the truth about how to prevent mental illness. This is the objective of the Buddha’s teaching. The Buddha’s goal was a life of awareness, continuous awareness, seeing the world as something empty of “I”, “mine”, keeping the mind always free of the idea “I” , “mine”, leaving only the awareness, so that one knows what has to be done, and does it. This is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching; there is no more to it than this.
Be Free of ‘Self’
Now at this point I should like to say something about a Christian teaching which Christians themselves take no interest in. it is a piece in the New Testament, from the book of Corinthians, in which St. Paul sums up the entire teaching of Jesus. It is a short piece of instruction to the Corinthian people: “If you have a wife think as if you have no wife. If you have wealth, think as if you have no wealth. If you are suffering, think as of you were not suffering. If you are happy, think as you were not happy. If you go to buy goods at the market, bring nothing home.”
Here we have the essence of the Buddhist teaching in the Bible: “If you have a wife, think as if you have no wife.” Paul is speaking to the men; he does not mention that a woman who has a husband should think as if she had no husband, but this is understood; the statement is good for both wife and husband. The meaning is: “Do not grasp and cling; do not identify as “mine.” If you have wealth, do not go clinging it, thinking of it as my wealth; in effect, think as if you had no wealth. If suffering arises, then acknowledge it and it will go away. Do not think of it as my suffering. If you have happiness, then do not think of it as my happiness. If you go and buy something at the market, bring nothing home. This means: while we are carrying our purchases home from the market, our mind is not identifying them as “mine”. In this sense we are bringing nothing home. This is a Christian teaching, the essence of Christianity. I once asked a Christian, a high-ranking teacher, how he understood this passage. At first he was speechless, then he said “I’ve never taken any interest in t. “He had never taken any interest whatever in this piece from the Bible because he thought it unimportant. He had taken great interest I the subject of faith and so on, but he had taken no interest in this, the most important subject of all. Every religion worthy of the name aims essentially at teaching freedom from self-centredness. Every religion includes important teaching of freedom from self and from concern with self-in which, however, its adherents take no interest. They are like us Buddhists, who take no interest in the doctrine of sunnata and anatta, the characteristic doctrine of Buddhism.
It can be said, then that, mankind is taking no interest in the thing that is most important to mandkind. People are interested only chattering and eating, self-centred pastimes which increase “I” and mine”. Consequently they are more often hell-beings, animals, pretas and asuras and than human being. And when they are human beings, they are sweating and striving far too much, not knowing how to relax. If they are in one of the heavenly realms, they are experiencing the corresponding kind of suffering-as gods, or brahmas, or whatever. This is because they do not understand. They have fallen under the influence of Mara (Satan): they have been drawn into the way of Mara rather than in to the way of the Buddha.
Mara (Satan) is yet another thing we do not understand properly. In reality “Mara” denotes all the fascinating things that draw the mind and subjugate it. Mara is these things, in particular sexual and other pleasures. Mara’s commander-in-chief entices us into the paranimmitavasavatti heaven, the heaven that abounds in sensual delights, where other off-siders of Mara then wait on us, serving us and attending to our every need. This is what meant by “Mara’s commander-in-chief”. At present we are underlings or victims of Mara because we are desiring these things and are thereby cultivating the “I” and the “mine”. Once “I” and “mine” have arisen, there is no end to it; one has got into the Mara current rather than the Buddha current. This is all there is to Mara. Whenever there exists in the mind the idea “I”, “mine”, then Mara is present, one is an “I”, “mine”, one is a follower of the Buddha. In a single day you may be an underling of Mara for a few hours and a follower of the Buddha for a few hours. Everyone realizes this so there is no need to discuss it here. Everyone can see for himself that in a single day “I” and “mine” may be present for a few hours, and absent for a few hours.
At any moment when “I” and “mine” arise, one is born as this or that, and identifying with it; and that is suffering, every time. We ought to fight shy of this and take steps to prevent its arising. We have to foster and prolong those periods of emptiness and quietness, or nirvana, and in time we shall be free of all ailments, both mental and physical. Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases-all these come from “I”, “mine”. Identification as “I” or “mine” is source of disturbance which prevents our getting sufficient rest. When the mind is confused, the sugar metabolism become abnormal, rising and falling sharply, and the result is some physical illness. Mental illness also results, in the form of mental suffering. In short, the body cannot take the stress and the result is nervous or mental illness, or even death. Though one may escape death, one is sure to experience much suffering and melancholy, as if one had fallen into one of the hells.
This whole question could be treated in much greater detail. For example, we have spoken of hell as equivalent to anxiety, though the more detailed texts recognize eighteen or twenty-eight or more different hell-regions. Ultimately, however, they all involve suffering from heat; there is no hell that is cool. With the pretas it is the same. Several different kinds of pretas are recognized: serpent-pretas, pretas with mouth the size of needle’s eye and bellies the size of a mountain [hence never able to satisfy their hunger], and others. But they all amount to the same thing: hunger. You can interpret all these details how you like, at a great little length as you like, so long as you understand the basic meaning: hell-beings suffer anxiety, animals are deluded, pretas are hungry, asuras are afraid, human being are fatigued, kamavacara gods are infatuated with sensual delights, embodied brahmas are infatuated with pure physical things, and bodiless brahmas are infatuated with pure mental things. These are all forms of “birth”. Without exception, everyone who is “born” is certain to suffer. Try to give up this identifying altogether. “True happiness consists in eliminating the false idea “I”. Maintain awareness and insight; be free of “I” and “mine” and you will be free from suffering. Maintain this condition; when it has become permanent, that is genuine and complete nirvana.
Strive on with Diligence
We already have momentary nirvana. Let us prolong it, reducing suffering, or samsara, as possible. Let us not waste this opportunity, this eighty-year or hundred-year long life into which we have been born. If we do not effect this improvement we may never get anywhere, even if we live a thousand years; but if we do effect this improvement, we may achieve full nirvana in this very life. Whether a person is a child, a teenager, an adult, or an eighty-year old, if he properly understands the meaning of all this, how suffering arises and how it ceases, he will be able to cure all his ailments effectively, to control self-centredness, the “I” and the “mine”; he will automatically become fed up with it, and begin experiencing coolness, happiness, freedom from suffering. This is all there is to it. The Buddha summed it up briefly when he said: Do not grasp at or cling to anything whatsoever, that is, do not cling to it as “I” or “mine”. No matter what it is --- physical object, condition, action, mental object, results of action, or whatsoever --- do not think of it as “I” or :mine”. Think of it as belonging to Nature itself, as part of Nature obeying the laws of Nature, as the property of Nature. Do not take it as I”, “mine”. Anyone who is so bold as to think of it as “I”, “mine, is a thief, appropriating for himself something that properly belongs to Nature. No good can com of thieving; it is bound to lead to the suffering of a thief. Hence of Buddha’s teaching that we should not grasp at or cling to anything as “I” or “mine”. Hence also his statement, so these that is hard to understand and even harder to accept: “if people will practice right living, this world will not be empty arhats”. This statement sums up the whole teaching.
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