Why We Were Born? - Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

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.

~~~~~~ END~~~~~~

No Religion - Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

No Religion


27 January 1967
Suan Usom Foundation, Bangkok


I didn’t come here today to give any formal sermon or lecture, but I have an informal chat among friends. I hope that you al agree to this, so that we can speak and listen to each other without formality and rituals, even if our talk here becomes somewhat different or unusual. Further, I intend to speak only about the most essential matters, important topics which people consider to be profound. Therefore, if you don’t listen carefully you may find it difficult to follow and might misunderstand, especially those of you who haven’t heard the previous talks in this series. (As a matter of fact, it’s also difficult for me, for with each new talk I must maintain a connection with the previous ones.)

The last talk was called “What To Do To Be Void.” This time I intend to talk about “No Religion.” If you find the subject strange or incomprehensible, or if don’t agree, please take the time to think it over. But remember, it isn’t necessary to believe or subscribe to what I say right away.

When we meet together like this, I feel there is something which prevents us from understanding each other and this thing is simply the problem of language itself. You see, there are two kid of language. One is conventional language that ordinary people speak, what I call “people language.”

People language is used by the ordinary people who don’t understand Dhamma very well and by those worldly people who are so sense that they are blind to everything but material things. Then, there is the language which is spoken by those who understand reality (Dhamma), especially those who know and understand reality in the ultimate sense. This is another kind of language. Sometimes, when only a few words or even just a few syllables are uttered, the ordinary listener finds Dhamma language paradoxical, completely opposite t the language he speaks. We call it “Dhamma language.” You always must take care to recognize which language is being spoken.

People who are blind to true reality (Dhamma) can speak only people language, the conventional language of ordinary people. On the other hand, people who have genuinely realized the ultimate truth (Dhamma) can speak either language. They can handle people language quite well and are also comfortable using Dhamma language, especially when speaking among those who know reality, who have already realized the truth (Dhamma). Amongst those with profound understanding, Dhamma language is used almost exclusively; unfortunately, ordinary people can’t understand a word. Dhamma language is understood only by those who are in the know. What is more, in Dhamma language it isn’t even necessary to make a sound. For example, a finger is point or an eyebrow and the ultimate meaning of reality is understood. So, please take interest in these two kinds of language --- people language and Dhamma language.

To illustrate the importance of language, let’s consider the following example. Ordinary, ignorant worldly people are under the impression that there is religion and that religion, and that these religion are different, so different that they’re opposed to each other. Such people speak of “Christianity,” “Islam,” “Buddhism,” “Hinduism,” “Sikhism,” and so on, and consider these religions to be different, separate, and incompatible. These people think and speak according to their personal feelings and thus turn the religions into enemies. Because of this mentality, there come to exist different religions which are hostilely opposed to each other.

Those who have penetrated to the essential nature of religion will regard all religions as being the same. Although they may say there is Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, Islam or whatever, they will also say all religions are inwardly the same. However, those who have penetrated to the highest understanding of Dhamma will feel that the thing called “religion” doesn’t exist after all. There is no Buddhism, there is no Christianity; there is no Islam. How can they be the same or in conflict when they don’t even exist? It just isn’t possible. Thus, the phrase “No religion!” is actually Dhamma language of highest level. Whether it will be understood or not is something else, depending upon the listener, and has nothing to do with the truth or with religion.

I’d like to give a simple example of people language, the language of materialism. “Water” will suffice. People who don’t know much about even the simplest things think that there are many different kinds of water. They view these various kinds of water as if they have nothing in common. They distinguish rain-water, well-water, underground-water, canal-water, swamp-water, gutter-water, sewer-water, toilet-water, urine, diarrhea, and many other kinds of water from each other. Average people will insist that these water are completely different, because such people take external appearances as their criteria.

A person with some knowledge, however, knows that pure water can be found in every kind of water. If we take rain-water and distill it, we will get pure water. If we take river-water and distill it, we will get pure water. If we take canal-water, sewer-water, or toilet-water, and distill it, we will still get pure water. A person with this understanding knows that all those different kinds of water are the same as far as the water component is concerned. As for those elements which make it impure and look different, they aren’t the water itself. They may combine with water, and alter water, but they are never water itself. If we look through the polluting elements, we can see the water that is always the same, for in every case the essential nature of water is the same. However many kinds of water there may seem to be, they are all the same as far as the essential nature of water is concerned. When we look at things from this viewpoint, we can see that all religions are the same. If they appear different it’s because we are making judgments on the basis of external forms.

On an even more intelligent level, we can take that pure water and examine it further. Then, we must conclude that there is no water, only two part hydrogen and one part oxygen. There’s no water left. That substance which we have been calling “water” has disappear, it’s void. The same is true everywhere, no matter where we find the two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen. In the sky, in the ground, or whatever these parts happen to be found, the state of water has disappear and the term “water” is no longer used. For one who has penetrated to this level of truth, there is no such thing as “water.”

In the same way, one who has attained to the ultimate truth sees there’s no thing as “religion.” There is only a certain nature which can be called whatever we like. We can call it “Dhamma,” we can call it “Truth,” we can call it “God,” “Tao,” or whatever, but we shouldn’t particularize that Dhamma or that Truth as Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, Judaism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, or Islam, for we can neither capture nor confine it with labels and concepts. Still, such divisions occur because people haven’t yet realized this nameless truth for themselves. They have only reached the external levels, just as with canal-water, muddy water, and the rest.

The Buddha intended for us to understand and be able to see that there is no “person,” that there is no separate individual, that there are only dhammas or natural phenomena. Therefore, we shouldn’t ling to the belief that there is this religion and that religion. We added the labels “Buddhism,” “Islam,” and “Christianity” ourselves, long after the founders lived. None of the great religious teachers ever gave a personal name to their teachings, like we do today. They just went about teaching us how to live unselfishly.

Please try to understand this correctly. When the final level is reached, when the ultimate is known, not even man exists. There is only nature, only Dhamma. This reality can’t be considered to be any particular thing; it can’t be anything other than Dhamma. It can’t be Thai, Chinese, India, Arab, or European. It can’t be black, brown, yellow, red, or white. It can’t be eastern or western, southern or northern. Nor can it be Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, or anything else. So please try to reach this Dhamma, for then you will have reached the heart of all religions and of all things, and finally come to the complete cessation of suffering.

Although we call ourselves “Buddhist” and profess Buddhism, we haven’t yet realized the truth of Buddhism, for we are acquainted with only a tiny aspect of our own Buddhism. Although we be monks, nuns, novices, lay devotees, or whatever, we are aware of only the bark, the outer covering which makes us think our religion is different from the other religions. Because we have failed to understand and haven’t yet realized our own truth, we look down upon other religions and praise only your own. We think of ourselves as a special group and others as outsiders or foreigners. We believe that they are wrong and only we are right, that we are special and have special calling, and that only we have the truth and the way to salvation. We have many of these blind beliefs. Such ideas and beliefs show that we are still ignorant, very foolish indeed, just like little babies who know only their own beliefs. Tell a small child to take a bath and to wash with soap to get all the dirt off; the little child will scrub only her belly. She doesn’t know to wash all over. She will never think of washing behind her ears or between her toes or anywhere like that. She merely scrubs polishes her tummy vigorously.

In this same way as the child, most of the adherents of Buddhism know only a few things, such as how to take and how to get. Even while doing good, supporting the temples and monks, and observing the percepts, their only objective is to get something, they even want to get more in return than gave. When they make offerings, some people except back ten times what they gave, some a hundred times, some a thousand, and some even more. In this case, it would be more accurate to say that people know nothing at all, for they are acquainted only with how to get and how to take. That isn’t Buddhism at all. It’s the religion of getting and taking. If ever they can’t get or can’t take something, they are frustrated and they suffer. Real Buddhism is how to get without getting and take without taking so that there is no frustration and no suffering at all.

This must be spoken about very often in order to acquaint everyone with the heart of Buddhism: Non-Attachment. Buddhism is about not trying to seize or grasp anything, to not cling or attach to anything, not even the religion itself, until finally realizing that there is no Buddhism after all. That means. If we speak directly, that there is no Buddha, no Dhamma, ad no Sangha! However, if we speak in this way, nobody will understand; they will be shocked and frightened.

Those who understand, see that the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha are the same thing, that is, just Dhamma or just Nature itself. The compulsion to seize and hang onto things as persons and individuals, as this and that, doesn’t exist in them. Everything is non-personal, that is, is Dhamma or Nature in its pure state or whatever we wish to call it. But we dare not think like this. We are afraid to think that there is no religion, that there is no Buddha, Dhamma, or Sangha. Even if people were taught or forced to think in this way, they still wouldn’t be able to understand. In fact, they would have a totally distorted understanding of what they thought and would react in the opposite way to what was intended.

For this reason, after the passing away of the Buddha, there appeared many new system of religious practice. The teaching we recognized into descending levels, with lower, more accessible aspects, so that even of someone wished to make offerings in order to gain heavy benefits in return, equal to dozens, hundreds, or thousands of times their “merits,” it could be done. This was preliminary arrangement so that the rewards for good deeds would be a bait to attract people and keep them from going astray. As a starting point, people were encouraged to hang on the good and its rewards as much as possible. If they continued to do so, they would eventually discover that it was unnecessary to cling or be attached to goodness. They would to see that any such attachment is unsatisfying and painful. Thus, they would gradually disentangle themselves from the habit of attachment. This is how Dhamma leads through successively higher levels and is why the practice of Dhamma in its earliest stage is based on “gaining merits” to let people get something they really like at the start.

The next step on the path of Dhamma is to voluntarily choose to live a pain and simple life, a pure life, in which one isn’t led astray or intoxicated by anything. On this level, there is still a sense of the “I” who is enjoying this mode of happiness, but it’s a better, more developed “I.”

The next highest level of Dhamma is not let any traces of “I” remain at all. It’s finished. The mind no longer has the feeling of being “I,” of being self, and there is no way that suffering of dissatisfaction can happen, since there is no “I” top suffer. Suffering can’t occur because this egolessness is the highest happiness, if we speack in people language. If we speak in Dhamma language, however, there is nothing to say. There is nothing to get, nothing to have, nothing to be --- no happiness, no suffering, nothing at all. We call this “voidness.” Everything still exists, but it’s free and void of any feeling of being “I” or “mine.” For this reason we say “voidness.”

To see that everything is void is to see things as being neither an aspect of oneself nor in anyway possessed by oneself. The words “void” and “voidness” in the common language of ignorant people mean that nothing exists, but in the language of the Buddha, the Awakened One, the words “void” and “voidness” mean everything exists, but without attachment to any of it in terms of “I” or “mine.” That there isn’t clinging or attachment to things as being “I” and “mine” is voidness of I and voidness of mine. When the words “void” and “voidness” are used in this way, it’s the voidness of Dhamma language. To use “void” in the sense that nothing actually exists is the language of worldly people who are trapped in their senses, is the language of materialism, is the language of householders who know nothing but their homes. Here, “voidness” has given us another example of the difference between people language and Dhamma language.

We should always keep in mind this truth about language and discriminate whether the words we hear, read, and use are people language or Dhamma language. For example, the Buddha said, “Kill your father and kill your mother, then you shall attain Nibbana.” “Kill your father and mother, be an ungrateful child, then you shall attain Nibbana.” The Buddha didn’t mean that we should take this literally and kill our flesh and blood parents. Instead, he meant that ignorance is a kind of father and craving is a kind of mother. The two give birth to ego-consciousness and subsequently all forms of selfness and sin. There’s no reason to feel any gratitude toward them; destroy them immediately and Nibbana is realized.

To speak in this fashion is use the Dhamma language which the ordinary person is unable to understand. He must study and inquire, think and reflect, until finally he understands. But the Noble ones, those who have realized Dhamma already, will understand immediately, though only a few words are spoken and without any explanation or advice. Just one word is enough for them to understand, without further explanation, because they know Dhamma language thoroughly.

The words “birth” and “death” require the same discrimination regarding language. In people language, the word “birth” means to be born from a mother’s womb. In Dhamma language, however, the world “birth” means some form of attachment is born. This kind of birth happens every time we allow the arising of a thought or feeling which involves grasping and clinging to something as “I” or “mine,” such as, “I am,” “I have,” “I think,” and “I do.” This is the birth of the “I” or the ego.

For example, think like a criminal and one is instantly born as a criminal. A few moments later those thoughts disappear, one thinks like a normal human being again and is born as human being once more. If a few moments later one has foolish thoughts, right then one is born as fool. If one then thinks in an increasingly foolish and dull manner, one will be born as an animal immediately. Whenever an attachment is felt intensely --- when it burns inside one with the heat of fire --- one is born as a demon in hell. Whenever one is so hungry and thirsty that one could never be satiated, one is born as an insatiably hungry ghost. When one is overly cautious and timid without reason, one is born a cowardly titan. Thus, in a single day one can born any number of times in many different forms, since a birth takes place each and every time there arises any form of attachment to the idea of being something. Each conception of “I am,” or “I will” is simultaneously a birth. This is the meaning of “birth” in Dhamma language. Therefore, whenever one encounters the word “birth,” one must be very careful to understand its meaning in each particular context.

“Birth is suffering.” These words mean that the egoistic kind of birth described above always painful and ugly. That is to say, if we allow “I” to be born in any manner, suffering occurs immediately. If we live simply and directly in the awareness of “not-being-I,” it’s like remaining unborn and never experiencing suffering. Although physical birth has happened long ago, there is no further spiritual birth of the egoistic “I.”

On the other hand, whenever an egoistic thought or feeling arise, there is suffering at once and the suffering always fits the particular kind of “I” that is being born. If “I” is human, it suffers like a human. If “I” is an angel, it suffers angelically. If “I” is demonic, it suffers hellishly. The manner of the grasping and clinging can change repeatedly, even being born as beasts, hungry ghost, and cowardly titans. In one day, there may be many births, many dozens of births, and every one of them is unsatisfactory, frustrating, and painful. To destroy this kind of birth is Nibbana.

Concerning death, there’s no need to speak about what happens after the people language version. Why talk about what happens one we’re in the coffin? Instead, please deal with this most urgent issue of ego-birth, that is, don’t get born and there will be no suffering. Without the feeling of being born, there is no person anymore and all the problems disappear with it. That is all. When there isn’t this continual being born, there is no longer a “somebody” to have problems. It’s as simple as that. The time remaining in life is no longer an issue once we know how to experience the fact that this “I” will never be born again. This can be called “non-birth.” You may call it “death” if you prefer.

So you see, between people language and Dhamma language the words “birth” and “death have opposite meanings. The same situation exists in the scriptures of other religions, especially those of Christianity. As a result, the Christianity don’t understand their own Bible, just as we Buddhists don’t understand the Tapitaka (Buddhist scriptures). Thus, whenever members of the two meet, they end up arguing until they are blue in the face. Therefore, let us develop some understanding concerning this matter of people language and Dhamma language.

We have discussed the word “birth” in Buddhist context, now let us consider a word form the Christianity scriptures, such as “life.” Matthew sys that Jesus Christ “surrendered his life as ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). Elsewhere, Jesus said, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Matt. (19:17). These two statements show that the word “life” has more than one meaning. In the first statement, “”life” is used in its people language sense. Jesus allowed them to kill the life of his body, which the ordinary meaning of “life.” “Life in the second passage is the same word “life,” but it now refers to a life that can never be killed. It’s a life which never know death. By this we see that even the simple word “life” can have two very different meanings.

The word “die” provides another example. In other language, “to die” means that the bodily functions have stopped, which is the kind of death we can see with our eyes. However, “die” in the language used by God has quite a different meaning, such as when he spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden telling them not to eat the fruit of a certain tree, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Gen2:17). Eventually, Adam and Eve ate that fruit, but we know that they didn’t die in the ordinary sense, the kind that puts people into coffins. That is, their bodies didn’t die. Instead, they died in another way, in the Dhamma language sense, which is a spiritual death much more cruel than being buried in a coffin. This fate worse than death was the appearance of enormous sin in their minds, that is, they began to think in dualistic terms – good and evil, male and female, naked and clothed, husband and wife, and so on. The pairs of opposites proliferated making the pain very heavy, so much so that their minds were flooded by a suffering so severe that it’s impossible to describe. All this has been passed down through the years an inherited by everyone living in the present era.

The consequences have been so disastrous that the Christianity give the name “Original Sin” to the appearance of dualistic thinking. Original Sin first happened with that primordial couple and then was passed on to all their descendants down to this very day. This is what God meant by the word “death”; whenever we partake of this fruit of dualism (from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”) we must die right then and there. This is the meaning of “death” in Christianity language.

“Death” has the same meaning in the language of the Buddha. Why is this so? Because both religions are pointing to the same truth concerning attachment and dualism. Whenever dualistic thoughts arise there is bound to be suffering, which is death. Death means the end of everything good, the end of happiness, the end of peace, the end of everything worthwhile. This is the meaning of “death” in Dhamma language. Most of us die this way many times each day.

It’s called “death” because it makes heart heavy. It always creates a feeling of frustration and depression to some degree, not to mention worry, restlessness, and anxiety. The more intelligent and clever a person is, the more often one dies and the more profound the deaths. The clever person’s deaths are much more special and creative than those of an ignorant person.

We must know how to avoid death in order to be in accord with the teachings of the Buddha and Jesus (along with the other prophets). The objective of Buddhism is the same as of Christianity: don’t let this original sin overpower you; don let dualistic attachment dominate your heart or your mind. Refuse to let it dominate the mind ever again.

We must always be aware of the true nature of Dhamma, that in reality there is no duality of any sort --- no gain, no loss, no happiness, no suffering, no good, no evil, no merit, no sin, no male, no female. There is absolutely nothing at all that can be separated and polarized into opposites. Rather than buy into them, we ought to transcend.

The dualistic pairs are the basis of all attachment, so don’t fall for their tricks. Don’t attach to any of them. Try to understand that these things can never be seized and held onto because they are impermanent, lack any real substance, and are non-self. Try to go about your business with a mind that is unattached. Work with a mind that clings to nothing and is free from all form of attachment. This is call “working with a void mind.”

We should perform every kind f task with a viod mind, no matter whether it’s at the office or at home. Even rest and recreation should be done with a void mind, a mind that always remains unattached and free because it’s above all dualities. If we work with a busy mind, a mind that its restless and always grasping and cling to one thing or idea after another, a mind that is over-burdened with attachments, then there is suffering and we inevitably be born in a lowly state. The lower realms spoken of by traditional Buddhists happen right then and there; birth as a demon in hell, as a beast, as hungry ghost, or as cowardly titan takes place at that very moment. This is the most serious problem facing humanity, it’s the most original sin, and it’s death in Dhamma language. Therefore, we should live, work, and play without attachments.

There is a short verse of mine which I’d to discuss.

Do work of all kinds with a mind that is void
And to the voidness surrender all of the fruits;
Eat the food of voidness as the holy ones do,
You’ll have died to yourself from the very start.

Some people are unable to understand this verse and they keep saying that the author is crazy. Nonetheless, it isn’t so difficult to explain.

That we should do every kind of work with a void mind is a warning that the busy and agitated mind which jumps into things with attachment always becomes dark and clouded with delusion, is full of worries and fears, and becomes gloomy and insecure. If people insist of keeping this up, before long they are sure to suffer a nervous breakdown or some other kind of illness. If they let these mental diseases and related physical aliment accumulate, they end up confines to a sick bed. Even though they may be intelligent, talented, and sophisticated people who do important work and earn a great deal of money, they will still end up being confined to bed with nervous breakdowns, ulcers, and other disorders caused by insecurity and anxiety. All of these illnesses begin with attaching and clinging to such things as fame and money, profit and loss, happiness and unhappiness, and praise and blame.

So, don’t get involved with these things. Get free of all such attachments and the mind will be void. The mind will be brilliantly intelligent, as clear and sharp as possible. Then, do your work with just such a void mind as this. All your needs will be satisfied without the least bit of frustration or suffering. Sometimes, it will even seem to be a Dhammic sort f fun. Best of all, working like this is kind of Dhamma practice which free us from the false distinction between practicing Dhamma at the temple and working at home. Such a dichotomy is rather foolish; it’s what happens when people think only in people language.

According to Dhamma language, we must practice Dhamma in this body and mind at the same time that we do our work with this same body and mind. Both work and Dhamma practice are done in the same place or the same thing. The practice of Dhamma is there in the work; the work in itself is Dhamma practice. In other words, to do work of any kind without grasping or clinging is a way to practice Dhamma. Wherever and whenever we practice non-attachment – there and then is Dhamma practice.

Accordingly, whether we are engaged in training the mind to be unattached and calm, or whether we are working to earn a lining I some occupation or another, if w do so with a void mind that form no attachments, right there is the practice of Dhamma. It doesn’t matter if we are in an office, a factory, a cave, or whatever. To work like this without getting involved in attachments, obsessions, an ego is what is meant by “Do work of all kinds work a mind that is void.”

The result of working this way is that we enjoy ourselves while working, and that the work is done well because our minds are very clear and sharp then, and there are no worries about things like money. The things we need are acquired in the usual ways and all this without the attachment forged by grasping and straining.

This brings us to the second line of the verse which is “And to the voidness surrender all of the fruits.” When our work bears fruits in the form of money, fame, influence, status, and so forth, we must give it all to voidness. Don’t be so stupid as to cling to these things as “belonging to me” --- “my money,” “my success,” “my talent,” or “my” anything. This is what is meant by not attaching to the results of our work.

Most of us blindly cling to our successes and so our experiences of success increase our selfish desires and defilements (kilesa). Let ourselves be careless for only a moment and we will fall into pain immediately due to the weight of attachments and anxieties. In truth, this kind of mental or spiritual pain is always happening. Before long, if we aren’t careful, the pain manifests itself physically in the body as well. Some people have nervous breakdowns or go insane, while others develop one of the numerous varieties of numerous so prevalent in the world today, even though they may be famous, knowledge, and wealthy. All this pain results from the fact that people the world over have misunderstood, abused, and ignored their own religions.

We shouldn’t think that the teaching of non-attachment is found only in Buddhism. In fact, it can be found in every religion, although many people don notice because it’s expressed in Dhamma language. Its meaning is profound, difficult to see, and usually misunderstood.

Please forgive me, I don’t mean to be insulting, but I feel that many religious people don’t yet understand their own religion. For instance, in the Christian Bible, St. Paul advises us to “Let those who have wives lives as though they had none, and those who rejoice as though there were no rejoicing, and those that buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it” (Cor. 7:29-31). This passage is found in New Testament of the Christian Bible; anyone can look it up. It should be understood in the same way as our basic Buddhist theme of non-attachment. That is, if you have a wife, don’t attach to having her; if you have a husband, don’t cling to having him. If you have painful or sorrowful experience, don’t cling to them as “I” or “mine” and it will be as if they never happened. That is, don’t be sad about them. Don’t attach to joy, goods, and worldly dealings, either.

Unfortunately, the fact is that most people --- whatever their religion --- are dominated by these things. They let themselves suffering intolerably over such matters until finally they go insane or commit suicide. But those of us who follow St. Paul’s advice can go on as if nothing had happened. That kind of suffering doesn’t happen to us, we remain fine. We buy things without taking anything home, which means we never get attached to what we buy and take home. We bought it, we brought it home, but it’s like we didn’t buy anything, because we don’t give birth to the thought that we posses something.

This is how to buy and lives as thought having no goods, but if you discuss this passage with some Christians, you will find that they don’t understand it all. Even some of the clergy, the teachers of their religions, couldn’t explain to me correctly how to practice in accordance with St. Paul’s instructions. Their explanations were vague and obscure. They beta around the bush and didn’t give any practical interpretation of the passage. In fact, this passage has the same meaning as “Do work of all kinds with a mind that is void and to the voidness surrender all of the fruits,” which, of course, many Buddhist don’t understand either.

The third line of the verse is “Eat the food of voidness as the holy ones do.” Here, some people might ask, “Then, what to eat?” if everything is void or given away to the voidness, what will there be to eat? The answer is to eat food that belongs to voidness, the same way that the Noble Ones do. We work with z void mind and turn all the rewards over to voidness. Voidness then stockpiles it all and preserves it safely. When it’s time to eat, we can eat from the stock of voidness, too.

If you earn a million dollars from your work and store it in a safe or the bank, offer it to voidness and don’t think “it’s mine, it belongs to me!” When you spend the money, do so with the same void mind. Simply use the money to buy some food to eat, or whatever we need to consume. This is what is meant by “Eat the food of voidness as the holy ones do.”

In this line, “holy ones” means those who understand deeply and have no attachments. We ourselves ought to eat in the same way that these liberated ones eat. The Buddha ate food and all the enlightened disciples ate food. So, we aren’t saying that a Buddha doesn’t have to eat food anymore, but from whomever he gets his food, it’s always the food of the voidness, for it’s received and eaten without any feelings of possession or attachment. And yet, a Buddha always has more than enough to eat. This is the meaning of “Eat the food of voidness as the holy ones do.”

We can do the same. When we give all the rewards of our work to voidness, they don’t disappear. Nothing is lost. Physically, in worldly terms, everything is still there. It’s stored and protected in the usual ways and the law still recognizes that it belongs to us. If someone tries to snatch it away, we can battle to protect our rights in court, but always with the same void mind. That is, we needn’t get angry or upset, we needn’t suffer, we needn’t feel personally involved, we needn’t attach. In fact, with complete non-attachment we will be able to argue our case even better. We needn’t create any problems for ourselves, things won’t become complicated and difficult, and we will be able to protect our rights most effectively.

To pursue this point a little further: even when caught in an argument or involve in a lawsuit we should be restrained and mindful at all times so that the mind is free of attachment. Take care not to be attached or emotionally involved. In other words, first make sure the mind is void, then argue and fight out the case to finish. In this way, we will have the advantage. Our side will debate more cleverly, will argue more skillfully, and will experience a higher level of victory.

Even in case when we are forced to be insulting, use the usual words but do so with a void mind. This may sound funny and hopelessly impractical, but it really is possible. The word “void” includes such strange aspects; they are all implications of working with a void mind, willingly giving all that we get to voidness, and always eating food from the pantry of voidness.

The fourth, final, and most important line of the verse is “You’ll have died o yourself from the very start.” We already have died to ourselves --- that precious inner “me” is gone --- from the very first moment. This means that when we re-examine the past and reflect upon it with clarity, mindfulness, and wisdom, we will know for a fact that there never was a “person” or “individual.” We will see that there are only the basic processes of life (khandha), the sensory media (ayatana), the elements (dhatu), and natural phenonmena (dhammas). Even the things we had previously clung to as existing no longer exist. They died in the moment.

Everything has died at the moment of its birth. There is never was an “I” and there never was a “mine.” In the past, we were stupid enough to lug “I” and “mine” around all the time. Now, however, we know the truth that even in retrospect they never were what we took them to be. They’re not-me, they’re not-mine, the me-ing and my-ing died from very start right up to this moment. They’re finished, even in the future. Don’t ever again fall for any “I” and “mine” in your experiences.

Simply stop thinking in terms of “I” and “mine.” So you see, we needn’t interpret this verse to mean that we must physically kill ourselves. One as to be trapped in one’s ego to understand it in such a way; such an interpretation is too physical, too superficial, and too childish.

This “I,” this ego, is just a mental concept, a product of thought. There’s nothing substantial or permanent upon which it’s based. There’s only an ever-lasting process flowing according to cause and conditions, but ignorance misconstrues this process to be a permanent entity, a “self,” and an “ego.” So don’t let attached thoughts and feelings based on “I” and “mine” arise. All pains and problems will end there and then, so that the body becomes insignificant, no longer a cause of worry. It’s merely a collection of five aggregates (khandha), functioning according to causes and conditions, pure in its own nature. These five aggregates or component processes of life are naturally free of attachment and selfness. As for the inner aspect, those habits of desires and selfishness, try to do without them. Keep striving to prevent them from being born until the defilements and selfishness have no more opportunities to pollute the heart. In this way, we force ourselves to die, that is, we die through the elimination on polluting selfishness and defilements (kilesa).

Just don’t allow any egoistic consciousness, that’s the meaning of “death” in Dhamma language. Without anything masquerading as “I” and “mine,” where can suffering take place? Suffering can only happen to an “I” and its “mine.” So you see, possessing “I” and “mine” is the heart of suffering. Should there be some happiness, as soon as clinging comes in the happiness painful, yet one way to suffer.

Ignorant people are always attaching to something; they don’t know to live without clinging to “I” and “mine.” As a result, even beneficial things are converted into causes of suffering. Happiness is turned into pain; goodness is turned into pain; praise, fame, honour and the like are all turned into forms of suffering. As soon as we try to seize and hang on to them, they all become unsatisfactory, painful, and ugly. Among good and evil, virtue and sin, happiness and unhappiness, gain and loss, and all other dualistic pairs, suffering inevitably happens whenever we attach to either pole pf one pair or another. Clinging to on pole traps us in its opposite partner.

When we are intelligent enough not to cling or be attached to any form of dualism, then we will no longer suffer because of these things. Good and evil, happiness and suffering, virtue and sin, and the rest, will never be painful again. We realize that they are merely natural phenomena, the ordinary stuff of nature. They all naturally void and so there is no suffering inherent in any of them.

These are the consequences of not having an ego, of not having any “I” and “mine” in the mind. Outwardly, we may say “I” and “my” according to social conventions, but don’t let them exist in the mind o heart. As St. Paul said, “Let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those that mourn as though they weren’t mourning… and those who buy as though they had no goods.”

Externally, we should behave the same as others do: eat like they eat, work like they work, and speak like they speak. Speak in their people language: “this is my house, this is mine.” There’s nothing wrong in using these words when necessary, but don’t let the mind fall for them. Leave such words outside, don’t let them into the mind, don’t believe them. We ought always to train ourselves this way, that is, “mouth is one and mind another.” The mouth says one thing, but the heart knows otherwise.

Actually, this phrase is usually an insult used to condemn liars and conmen, not something to be encouraged. In the end, however, it can be turned around and applied to a person who really practices Dhamma, that is, whose external behavior conforms with worldly conventions but whose internal reality is another story. While the external expressions actually take place, they don’t manifest in the mind. We call this, “mouth is one and mind another” or “external and internal do not correspond.” A behavior that we used to condemn and try to abandon because of its dishonesty and crookedness becomes the most noble and excellent form of speech. Sometimes Dhamma language seems rather strange!

To be honest in both mouth and mind, that is, speech and thought, is people language, not Dhamma language. Ordinary people demand that our words honestly reflect our thoughts, but when it comes to the Dhamma language of the Buddha, we practice in the manner called “mouth is one and mind another.” In other words, the outside appears one way, while the inside is the opposite. Outwardly, in our speech and actions, we may possess all the things that others possess, but in the mind we possess nothing. Inwardly, we are broke and bankrupt, without a penny to our names. So please remember this saying --- “mouth is one and mind another” --- in its Dhamma language meaning of course, not in the people language understanding. Please give it some thought.

Another common teaching concerns humanity. The Buddha taught us not to boast or show off and Jesus Christ emphasized this point even more. There are many pages in the Bible concerning this subject. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us to do our religious practices --- such as praying, giving charity, and fasting --- in secret so as to not let others see (Matt. 5-7, especially 6). If it’s something we want others to see, that means we want to how off, which is attachment. If we apply his teaching to our Buddhist practices, such as when we keep the special precepts on the observance days (uposatha), we shouldn’t dress up or powder and perfume ourselves. Don’t let anyone know we are keeping the special precepts, just keep them strictly. Jesus stresses this point in many ways, both in this sermon and elsewhere. When offering prayers to God, fasting, or practicing austerities, don’t let others see. If we wish to give alms or make a donation to charity, do so secretly; don’t let others know who the giver is. Jesus teaches us to do everything without anyone knowing. In other words, his aim is to teach non-attachment. This kind of practice destroy selfishness and overcomes sin.

Buddhist should be able to understand this principle of giving without letting anyone know; giving in this way will destroy the giver’s self-centeredness much more than public giving. As you know, we like to say, “sticking gold on the image’s back.” This saying can be interpreted in two ways. As understood by foolish people, this should never be done, because sticking gold leaf on the back of an image won’t gain anyone honour, reputation, or other benefits. On the other hand, wise people take the words “sticking gold on the image’s back” to mean something good, because one doesn’t receive any recognition, praise, status, or honor from the act. One hasn’t traded the goodness of the act for any worldly benefits. Thus, one makes more merit than if one were to stick the gold on the front of the image.

Here we see that the teachings of Christianity and Buddhism are the same; they have the same meaning, namely, to destroy attachment. We should do all religious duties and practices without others knowing. In the end, it’s like they don’t exist any more and we don’t exist either. There’s no good, no evil, no virtue, no sin, no happiness, no suffering, and finally, not even any religion. This is the highest level of religion.

Now, let us consider the fact that non-attachment, the highest Dhamma, is something wonderful, priceless, and extraordinary. It’s the heart of every religion. It’s the essence of Dhamma. If there is a God, it can only be found right here is non-attachment.

Non-attachment, the highest Dhamma, is wonderful precisely because anyone seeking it need not invest anything. No money, gold, or jewels are needed, not even a single penny. According to people language, nothing can be obtained without an investment. If they listen to people language, those who wish to gain merit, goodness, or whatever must pay in money, silver, and gold, or invest their labor. If they listen to Dhamma language, however, the reality is quite different. The Buddha said that Nibbana is given free of charge. Nibbana --- the coolness and peace experiences when there’s no attachment --- doesn’t cost a penny. This means that we can practice for the sake of Nibbana without spending any money along the way. Jesus said what amounts to the same things. He invited us to drink water of life which there is no charge. He said this at least three times. Further, he called us to enter eternal life, which means to reach the state where we are one with God and therefore will never die again.

“Let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price” (Rev.22:17). This call of Jesus is identical to what is taught in Buddhism. The Buddha said that Noble Path of Liberation, the Liberating Results, and Nibbana are free of charge, no monetary investment is required. We live according to the Noble Eightfold Path, which means we gives up this, give up that, and keep giving up things until everything is surrendered. Give up everything and take nothing back. Don’t receive any payment and we won’t have to pay anything: we will realize what is called “the Noble Path, the Liberating Results, and Nibbana.” We can taste the flavor of Nibbana without paying a penny.

We spend a lot of money trying to buy Nibbana, but the money just gets in the way. It’s like investing money in order to win a palace in heaving; the two have nothing to do with each other. In fact, they are incompatible. If we want to give charity, it should be solely for the sake of others. Nibbana is our first concern and requires no money.

Why do we make donations then? Not for ourselves, of course, but to help our fellow human beings so that they may also reach that which requires no financial investment. So, we contribute money to build temples and schools, we develop methods of teaching, and we publish books in order to help our fellow human beings to travel on the right path, to travel toward that which is obtain without payment --- Nibanna. Those of us who intend to earn merit with their gold and silver should please think in this way.

If those who intend to invest their money for so-called spiritual rewards don’t reconsider, they will incur losses rather than make profits. Not only will they fail to make a profit, they won’t even be able to recover their investment. And when there is no profit and no breaking even, there is only loss. To act that way goes contrary to the words of Buddha who said, “It’s free.” Jesus also said that it’s free.

Jesus added further that what “you received without pay, give without pay” (Matt. 10:8). It seems that the Buddha never said quite the same thing, but we can say, from the implications of his teaching, that he could easily have spoken these words. If something is obtained for free, we ought to pass it on for free, too. Don’t be unwilling or reluctant. Don’t go taking advantage of people by claiming favors or hinting that they’ll benefit by helping one in such-and such a way or implying that student owe a debt of gratitude to their teachers. All of that is inappropriate. When we get something for free, we must give it away for free. Therefore, as the loftiest of all things, the Dhamma of each religion is something to be obtained for free. Once we have got it, we are obligated to pass it on to our fellow human beings for free, also. Don’t try to wheedle any benefits out of it in return.

When we make contributions to religious causes, they are for a particular purpose, which has no bearing on our realizing Nibanna. Such contributions are meant to be instrumental in helping people who don’t yet see the way to be able to fin it and eventually arrive at that which is given away for free to everyone. In the end, they also will obtain that precious thing which is obtained for free, without any obstacles.

If we look carefully, we will see the pinnacle, the most excellent of things, which we get for free, is called “Nibbana” (as well as by many other names). Jesus called it “Life.” This state in which we currently exist is death. Because everyone is dying, they don’t reach God, they don’t reach the ultimate. Yet, if we follow the teachings of Jesus we are born again at once. After dying for so long, we need to be reborn. When we are born anew, we are born into eternal life, which is true life. The Buddha spoke in the same fashion. He said that we don’t realize that this existence is like being dead, that it’s suffering. We must make the required knowledge, we must awaken into a new world, newly born. Then there will be no more suffering. To understand this is a fundamental principle.

Up until this realization, we were dead, that this, full of “I” and “mine.” Always living under the burden of ego and egoism is death. Because of “I” and “mine,” we died over and over again. Now we are reborn into eternal life, the life of Nibbana, the deathless life, the immortality in which all “I” and “mine” end. The word reborn” here comes to mean a life without ego, free of “I” and “mine. This is the true life which can never die. The five aggregates (khandha), the basic processes of life, are now pure, the body and mind are free of attachment and selfishness. Prior to this, the aggregates, the body-mind process, were continually being grasped at and clung to by means of “I” and “my” and were always stained by these corrupt attachments. That continuous “I” and “mine” was death.

When the polluting desires and attachment are completely there is a new birth in the world of Noble Ones. “Rebirth in the world of the Noble Ones” is a people language expression. In Dhamma language, we speak of “quenching it.” Quench the “I” and the “mine”; quench ego and its selfishness. Then there’s nothing. There remains only supreme voidness, which is Nibbana. So says Dhamma language.

If we speak in people language, as Jesus Christ often did, we say that one is reborn in the world of the Noble Ones and that one lives eternally in the Kingdom of God. That’s people language. When we translate it into Dhamma language, we use the opposite words and speak of “quenching.” One language speaks of “rebirth,” while the other talks about “utter quenching.” Only the words are different. In people language we talk about being reborn; in Dhamma language we talk about quenching completely.

Therefore, let us live a life of total quenching, a life that douses the flames of desire, a life of coolness. When we are burning, we are dying. A person who is hot inside is like demon in hell, an animal, a hungry ghost, or a cowardly titan. Such a person is always dying. His attachment to “I is never quenched. His ego hasn’t been doused; it boils and bubbles inside him with the heat of fire. It has to be cooled down.

To make things easier, we should remember that the word “nibbana” means “to cool down.” In India at the time of the Buddha, “nibbana” was a common everyday word spoken in the house, streets, and markets. When something hot had cooled down, they used the word “nibbana” to describe it. If eaten, they would say “the curry is nibbana, so let’s eat.

We ca see that the word “nibbana” wasn’t originally an exalted religious, but had an ordinary everyday usage in people language --- the cooling down of something hot. For example, if a red-hot charcoal cools down until it can be picked up, we call that “nibbana.” If we apply the term of higher level, such as, to animals, then it refers to animals which are no longer hot. The heat of animals is the wildness and fierceness which is dangerous for human. If a wild elephant or bull is tamed and well-trained so that finally its wildness, rebelliousness, and viciousness disappear and it’s safe for humans, we can say that it’s “nibbana,” meaning it has cooled down.

When we speak of humans, “hot” means a person who is burning and boiling as if in hell or the other netherworlds. That isn’t Nibbana. After we discover the way to apply Dhamma to cool ourselves off, we begin to nibbana, continue to nibbana, nibbana steadily until everything is thoroughly cool, which is the highest level of Nibbana --- absolute coolness.

Even now, we must nibbana to some extent in order to be able to sit here and discuss Dhamma like this. Otherwise, if the flames were flaring up within us now, we wouldn’t be able to remain sitting here. Therefore, we should understand that Nibbana is related to us at all times, with every inhalation and exhalation. If this weren’t so, if we had no connection to Nibbana whatsoever, we would all go out of our minds and die before we knew it. Fortunately, we have some relationship with Nibbana nearly all the time. It may disappear temporarily when lust, hatred, or delusion arise, when the mind is taken over by defilements and selfishness. But when lust, hatred, and delusion aren’t present in our minds, we experience a small degree of Nibbana, a brief taste or free sample of Nibbana. Due to the benefit of these recurring glimpses of Nibbana, we don’t go crazy and don die from overheat. We survive by virtue of Nibbana’s beneficial effects. Therefore, we should thank Nibbana and acknowledge our gratitude to it by acting so as to have more and more Nibbana for long and longer periods of time. Keep calming and cooling things, that is destroy “I” and “mine.” Don’t let go prick up its ears and point its tail. With self-discipline and good manners keep the ego small and out of trouble. Lessen it, shrink it, until at last nothing remains, then you will get the best thing that a human being can possibly get.

Whenever we quarrel due to opinions, pride, vanity, or stubbornness, it shows that we have lost touch with Nibbana. At such moment, we are crazy. If we argue, quarrel, or interfere with others at any time --- no matter whether over an ordinary affair or a religious one --- we are insane. In such moments, we aren’t really human anymore, because we’ve lowered ourselves to the level of arguing and fighting. And so, as was said before, if people remain foolish they will think that there are many different religions which are incompatible and opposed to each other, which are enemies that must compete, fight and destroy each other. These are the most stupid and ignorant of people. They cause and a great deal of trouble.

When religions are regarded as in opposition and conflict, people become enemies as result. Everyone thinks “We are right, they are wrong; they are wrong, we are right,” and so forth, and then there is quarrelling and fighting. Such people are incredibly foolish. What they are quarrelling about is only the outer shell. Everyone should recognize that these are only external forms, they aren’t the inner essence.

When people of intelligent and wisdom get together concerning the essentials of religions, they recognize that religions are all the same. Though outwardly they may seem different, intelligent people know that the inner spirit must be the same in all cases. The inner essence is the same no matter how different the external forms are, just like we saw with the analogy of water. The essential our nature of water is always the same, no matter how putrid or filthy it appears from the outside. It isn’t the water that is dirty, but the other elements that are mixed in with the water that are dirty. We shouldn’t take those other elements. When we take those elements, it means we drink dirty water; it means we swallow the filth, urine, excrement, or whatever, and don’t drink pure water.

Whenever there is a quarrel, whether it’s among lay people, novices, nuns, or monks, it means that the people involved are eating filth, namely, the defilements of “I” and “mine.” This should never happen; it should be given up. Don’t prick your ears and point your tails. Don’t puff yourself with ego and crate these conflicts of pride. That’s letting go too far. Rather, our duty is try to pacify these things and cool them down.

How silly it is the older a person gets, the more full of ego he or she becomes. I beg your pardon for speaking so frankly, but some fats can’t be ignored. Why do people become more egoistic with age? Because the older they get, more accustomed they are to attachment; “I” and “mine” accumulate and pile up inside us as we age. Further, people have sons and daughters, so they puff themselves up with ego and determine to lord it over their children. “My son! How could he do that without my permission!” When they have grandchildren, they become even more puffed up and superior. Thus, elderly people are more obsessed with “I” and “mine” than children are.

If we look back at childhood, we will find that children have very little ego. Immediately after birth, it’s very hard to find much ego in them, while child in the womb has hardly any traces of “I” or “mine” at all. However, as we grow into adulthood and become fathers and mothers, and later grandfathers and grandmothers, “I” and “mine” develop in multitude of forms and personalities. These become deeply rooted in our minds and stick there with such tenacity that they are very difficult to remove. Therefore, old folks should be very careful and alert. They should try to return to being like children again. To be like children is a kind of Dhamma practice which leads to non-attachment and voidness. Otherwise, the older they get, the further away from Buddha and from Nibbana they will end up.

In truth, as we grow older we should grow closer to the Buddha. In other words, the more we age the younger we should. The older we get, the more youthful we should become. As we get older we should become more lighthearted, cheerful, bright, and fresh. We should end up dry and lifeless, so that we gradually wither away. Everybody should become increasingly fresh, bright, and light-hearted as they grow older. As we age, we should closer to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, which mean we understand Dhamma more and more. The more successful we are in making the inner flames recede, the cooler we become. As we get cooler, we feel increasingly more refreshed and hearty, we look brighter and more lively. When we have cooled down absolutely, we will absolutely sparkle with brightness and cheer. Therefore, the more ancient we get, the more youthful we should become, and the more cheerful and fresh we should look and feel.

The lively physical activity and fresh complexions of young people is one kind of youth, while the youthfulness of Dhamma language --- of the mind, heart, and spirit --- refers to a spiritual brightness, vigor, and serenity that comes with having more Dhamma. This is the youthfulness of heat subsiding so that coolness can enter and envelop us. Consequently, we feel increasingly refreshed, vibrant, and cheerful. So let all elderly people become fresh and full of life. May we all become more youthful until our age disappears. Just let youthfulness grow inside us and that problem of bickering and quarrelling will no longer exist.

Worse than that quarrelling is the habit of “extolling oneself while putting down others.” Vicious back-biting and name-calling has no place among Buddhist and anyone who does such thing has ceased to be a Buddhist, except, perhaps, in name. Being a Buddhist in name alone doesn’t mean anything and can’t be depended upon. Just declaring oneself to be “Buddhist” because its written on one’s birth certificate or because one signed up at certain temples doesn’t accomplish mush good because they aren’t sincere. We must be genuine Buddhists in the true sense of the world, which means to weaken and reduce “I” and “mine” in order to be cool and thereby be closer to Nibbana. So we needn’t discuss atrocities like disparaging and oppressing others, or extolling oneself while putting down others. These things should never happen.

What to do about those who still engage in such behaviour? I don’t know what class to put them in: First grade? Kindergarten? Nursery school? These are still too high; there should be some lower class or grade for people who behave in such gross ways. In Buddhism, genuine lay followers never do such things. Even those who are at the kindergarten level and have not yet reached into the first grade of primary school know better than to do such things. They know that such behaviour is hot and has nothing to do with Dhamma or Buddhism.

Processing through the upper grades, through the junior and senior classes, there is less egoism until, finally there is no more “I” and “mine.” On the highest level, there’s no self, everything is void of self. There’s no “I,” no “you,” no “we,” no “they,” which means there’s no Buddhism, no Christianity, no Islam, and no religion. How can different religions exist when there’s no “we,” no “they,” no “anybody,” when there is nothing but Dhamma? There is only pure nature itself (suddhidhamma pavattanti), nature is all that exist --- with either active aspects or still aspects, depending on whether something is conditioned and transient or unconditioned and absolute.

So don’t caught up in envy and jealousy, in insults and praises, in harassing and interfering with others, in arguing and fighting, in extolling oneself while putting down others. Such behaviour is worthless. It’s for those who don’t know how to learn on even the lowest level. It’s too low to have a peace in the network of Buddhists.

All of us begin at a point where we’re full of clinging, then steadily reduce the clinging until we don’t cling to anything anymore, until we reach the point where everything is voidness: void of “I” and avoid of “mine.” Understand that in essence everything has been void from the start. Whether physical or mental, look deeply into it’s essential nature and it will turn out to be void. There is no cling there anymore.

Whatever clinging there was has just now happened. Originally, there was no attachment, just as all water originally is pure and clean. It’s pure as nit forms in the clouds, but picks up fine particles of dust as it falls through the sky. Once it falls on the roofs and collects in water jars, it becomes further contaminated. Even more contaminated is the water in wells, streams, ponds, and swamps. Worse is the putrid water found in ditches, swears, and toilets. As examine the external changes, we should recognize that the dirty elements aren’t the water and aren’t essential.

So look deeply into his very body and mind when they’re in their natural state, when they aren’t polluted by any defiled objects. The pure, natural, uncontaminated body-mind is the object of knowledge and study. Examine the “I,” the ego, knowing this, knowing that, this is good, that is bad; see that they’re just dirty stuff. They mix with the mind, contaminate it, and muck it up. Naturally, in themselves, our bodies and minds aren’t dirty, but owing to stupidity and carelessness the newly spawned defilements invade. It’s these impure guest which enter the mind and contaminate it. Why then o we take these late-coming impurities to be “I,” “me,” or “my own true self”? They’re just new arrivals, there’s nothing genuine about them. They’re just dirty, isn’t it silly to take dirt as one’s self? One ends up with a dirty self, a dirty ego – no doubt about it.

The mind which is knowledgeable and wise, which is awakened (Buddha), doesn’t take anything to be self. It doesn’t take dirty things as its “self.” It doesn’t take defilements to be “self.” If it must have a self, the voidness which is free of defilements must be the self. The voidness of defilements doesn’t attach or cling to anything. Even though the mouth say “I am” or “I have,” the mind inside doesn’t feel any attachment. “Mouth is one and mind is another” at all times. I hope that you will all practice in this way.

All I have said today is merely chat among friends. If this were a public lecture or formal sermon, we couldn’t say these things in this way. It might create a big disturbance. However, this has been just an informal talk within our small circle of friends, among those who should be able to understand. I only mentioned these things because I thought the people here are capable of understanding. Indeed, I hope that everyone has listened carefully, has been able to follow, and will think over the issue seriously. Those who see the truth of and agree with these principles should try to live accordingly. Before long we will process to higher level on the path to voidness and freedom from suffering. Then, we can do work of all kinds with a void mind and we can give all of the fruits to voidness. We will be able to eat the food of voidness. And so, we will be able to die completely from the very beginning. That’s the end. That’s the end of being a Buddhist; it’s the end of all religions.

In people language they say, “Don’t waste the opportunity of having been born human and having encountered Buddha-Dhamma.” If we speak in Dhamma language, however, we should have to say, “It’s the end of everything. There is nothing left to be a problem ever again.” Such a life can be called “eternal life,” for there is no more birth, aging, illness, or death.





Are you ready to die before dying?

~~~~~~ END ~~~~~~