Nammo Tassa Bhagavato Arahatto Samma Sambudhussa

Dhamma Talk

By the Venerable Amathagawesi

Nammo Tassa Bhagavato Arahatto Samma Sambudhussa

Venerable Bhikkhus, brothers and sisters, I welcome you to Sri Lanka and I wish that your stay here will be beneficial and happy, and that you will fulfill your aspirations. Dhamma is living truth and the truth can only be realized if one lives in the truth. Often, many try to understand the truth by creating concepts. Concepts are mere thoughts. You think only on the matter on which you know, that which you don't know you can't think. Thoughts are only matters which the six sense bases have shown you, your own experiences.

Therefore for one to realize the truth one has to live in the truth. With regard to Buddha's teachings, he clearly says that he only shows the path to those who know and to those who see. Knowledge is certainly essential but one must not be satisfied with knowledge only, one should try to make use of the knowledge to see, to realize, to understand, to live in the Dhamma. When you think of the preaching’s of the Buddha, it is very clear that the path he has shown is in every way reasonable and something an average man can understand and realize, because he has asked you to seek refuge within you and not to seek refuge outside. Why should we seek refuge within us? It is for us to understand who we are. We are aware of many things and in that awareness maybe we are aware of the truth and maybe we are aware of the untruth also. And that of course we have conceived as concepts. But when he says to seek refuge within you, it is to realize something within you. When it comes to the question of getting rid of anything you are used to, that too is within you which you have created within you. And if I summarize the path shown by Buddha for one's realization, it is a path where you are instructed clearly to undo what you have done to you.

What are defilements? They are not qualities of the mind, they are all that you have acquired... as a result of habits, as a result of false beliefs, as a result of accepting what is not true. Those are the things that have created the defilements within you.

It is very clear that the consciousness that you are, having within you, is meant for the performance of six functions, that is: to enable to see by the creation of a thought, to enable you to hear by the creation of a thought, to enable you to smell by the creation of a thought, to enable you to taste by the creation of a thought, to enable you to contact by the creation of a thought and to enable you to use your mind by the creation of a thought. Those are the six functions this consciousness is meant to perform, but you have made use of this consciousness to perform other things, what are they? to think, to re-think, to reflect on things, to go over past memories and go on thinking. Those are all unnecessary things. And Buddha clearly stated in the three Suttas in the Sanyutta Nikáya pertaining to volition that one can get rid of these habits which you have created in the mind. And if you can get rid of this unnecessary thinking, re-thinking, reflecting, and thinking of past incidents, you can attain Nibbána.

There are three Suttas one after the other, first second third Cittanna Suttas in the Sanyutta Nikáya, which clearly indicates the path for one to attain Nibbána. Therefore, it is clear that we are leading this life in this worldly way of being born and dying and again being born, this continuity of existence, as a result of the misuse of the consciousness. We have unnecessarily created thoughts and such creation of thoughts has led to one important creation in us and that is: desire. We refer in books of the thousands of defilements within us but, brothers and sisters, Buddha clearly indicated to you that the cause of suffering is desire. If you can get rid of desire, you can attain to your Liberation. Therefore there is no necessity for us to worry very much about defilements in us.

We have one clear path shown by Buddha to get rid of desire. He has preached this doctrine for over forty years to the inhabitants of North India, clearly indicating a path for their liberation. Many followed that path and many attained. But he preached one discourse only, of all the discourses he preached over those forty years, where he gave the assurance to us that if you follow these instructions which I have given you in this discourse, you will attain Nibbána within seven days or the longest period of seven years. And what is that discourse?

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness. In that too it is clearly stated that your unnecessary creation of thoughts that has led you to this difficulty. If you analyze the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and ask this question: in what manner has it indicated to us to get rid of desire? It is clearly indicated in the Sutta that the creation of unnecessary thoughts that has led to the creation of desire and one should make an effort, mindfully, and with clear understanding, to stop this unnecessary thinking.

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness deals with four subjects: what are they? First foundation of mindfulness deals with the body, the second foundation of mindfulness deals with feelings, the third foundation of mindfulness deals with thoughts and the fourth foundation of mindfulness deals with the development of the mind for the finally attainment of Liberation. Why did he divide this entire path to the liberation of the human being into four such foundations? We refer to a worldling as body and mind. He deals with the body in the first foundation. He deals with two things that the mind can do in the second and third foundation: the mind can create feelings and the mind can also create thoughts. Those are the two functions the consciousness performs. And in these three, the worldling is there, his body and his conduct, everything is dealt with under these three subjects. And with regard to the fourth foundation, Buddha clearly indicates a path how one should get rid of false views, false beliefs, false habits one has created in the mind, for the final attainment. And in all these, he directs you to get rid of desire.

In what way has he indicated to get rid of desire? He says in the first foundation connected with the body, he says that when you create thoughts about your body and the body of others, make a good effort, intelligently understand the situation and mindfully do not permit your consciousness to fall into the two extremes of attachment and aversion.

Mindfully stop the reaction of the mind in creating thoughts of attachment and aversion. These are the two things that promote desire, brothers and sisters. In regard to feelings, feelings that you experience through your sense bases, with effort, with clear understanding and mindfulness, prevent the consciousness from creating thoughts of aversion or attachment because thoughts of aversion or attachment promote desire.

In regard to the creation of thoughts, do not allow the consciousness to create more and more thoughts promoting aversion or attachment, prevent that by making use of effort, clear understanding and mindfulness, to prevent that development. And in regard to these three, the entire life of the worldling has been clearly dealt with to purify yourself from desire. Because desire, Buddha has clearly indicated, is a result of thoughts of aversion and attachment.

And in the fourth foundation of mindfulness, he indicates to you how one should develop one's mind to realize the truth and get rid of all false beliefs, habits and false views and ultimately to get rid of this idea of soul by realizing the void.

We have to ask this question: what is this desire which Buddha has so much emphasized on? Is it a quality of the consciousness? No, brothers, it is not a quality of the consciousness.

In the creation of a thought to enable you to see, to enable you to hear, to enable you to smell, to enable you to taste, to enable you to experience a contact, and think, there are the five mental factors which perform their task in providing the necessary information to make that thought you create a complete one. Mental factor contact creates the mental image in you of the object, mental factor feeling enables you to understand the object as something to your liking or disliking, there is no time for you to create any feelings, that idea that impression is only given to you at that time through the mental factor feeling. You know that the object of your vision is something to your liking or not to your liking, of hearing as something to your liking or not to your liking and so on with the other contact sense bases.

Then the third mental factor perception enables you to identify the object with the worldly knowledge you have. Mental factor volition enables you to commit the act of seeing or hearing or smelling or tasting or contacting or thinking.

And mental factor attention helps this process by bringing the object to the mind clearly. So these five mental factors occur in every thought you create in regard to the performance of the activities of the six sense bases. Those are the 6 places thoughts are created. It is in the connection with the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind where thoughts are created. Now that is all that is expected of you to perform with the use of this consciousness!

But we have gone further...in that mental factor feeling we got the impression of the object which has attracted each of the sense bases as something which you like or something which you do not like. And you created thoughts, random thoughts, either of attachment or of aversion. These are the two extremes that the worldling lives in! Constantly feeding the desire...we have got into this habit and this performance is done without any interference on our part.

Whenever we see something, the mental factor feeling gives you the impression of something which you like or do not like. In the natural occurrence as a result of the habit which you have created in your mind, further thoughts of attachment or aversion to the object are also created. These two create the desire in you. Therefore it is clear that this desire is a result of the misuse of the consciousness by us, may I say so, in the way of creating unnecessary thoughts of attachment and aversion.

Buddha's path in one's attainment to one's liberation is in regard to the body, in regard to feelings, in regard to the thoughts and in regard to the development of the consciousness along the path. Be watchful, be mindful, don't permit this consciousness to create unnecessary thoughts of attachment or aversion. Thereby you deprive the desire of its food! We are constantly feeding the desire through our 6 sense bases! Not by an experience we gained through them by a creation of a thought, but by pursuing such experience in the way of creating pleasant sensations or creating aversion to that experience. Buddha clearly indicates this in the Sanyutta Nikáya. He says: "I compare this desire to a lamp. The lamp is kept burning by you supplying the necessary ingredients to the lamp. You may have done this for so many-many years in the past, therefore the lamp is burning. But today, if it needs a oil and change of wick and you do not supply these ingredients, the lamp will get blown out. In the same way, because you are feeding this desire, compared to the lamp, the desire is maintained by you."

You feed the desire and it becomes stronger and stronger in you and isn't that the nature of a habit? A habit is strong as long as you perform the actions in keeping with the habit. But if you oppose that habit, the natural tendency is that the habit will become weaker and weaker and weaker and then you can dispel that habit. Isn't that what Buddha has taught in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, brothers and sisters? That is the clear path he has shown us!

If you analyze it carefully, what he instructed is that, with regard to the body when thoughts are created or with regard to feelings when thoughts are created or with regard to the mind when thoughts are created and with regard to the development of Dhamma, don't permit this consciousness of yours to fall into the two extremes of creating attachment or aversion. Thereby, what are you expected to do to the lamp, this lamp called desire? Not to feed the lamp with the necessary ingredients so that it will be blown out! You keep away from feeding desire, from allowing this consciousness to create random thoughts of attachment and aversion. And naturally, this so-called strong habit which you have created in the mind, this desire, because it is not getting its feed to maintain its strength, it becomes weaker and weaker, and after some time it disappears.

We can take an ordinary example in our day to day life. There is a man who is in the habit of drinking for the last thirty years, he's a drunkard. He wants his sip of liquor in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening and he's used to that. Without that he feels it is difficult to exist. But one day, he decides: "I shall not continue this habit! because I am suffering! And not only am I suffering but I'm making others around me suffer! I'll get rid of this." And he decides: "From today onwards I will not drink!" Maybe he will have to undergo much difficulty physically as a result of not pursuing that habit, but he maintains that position of his for one week, for two weeks, for three weeks, for four weeks, for five weeks... We have seen such cases in our life. People who have given up such practices, you see, as a result of convictions, as a result of resolutions that they have made.

By stopping such practices from becoming committed further, they have got out of such an habitual state of mind. Of course, desire is something worst than that because after all, six openings have fed the desire. What are they? Your eyes, your ears, your nose, your tongue, your body and your mind. There is constant feeding going on without your knowledge as a result of habits which you have created in the mind. Buddha says in his Four Foundations of Mindfulness: be mindful! Make a determined effort and understand intelligently what you are doing and do not permit this mind to fall into the two extremes of attachment and aversion.