The purpose of this Dhamma talk (desanā) is to outline a method of practising the Dhamma so that those who wish may train their hearts (citta) to become skilled in this method. But to start things off on the right footing, while you listen to this Dhamma talk, you should listen to it from your hearts in the way that I have told you in the past, for this is an especially suitable occasion for all of you to learn how to train your hearts—and to take a rest from the troublesome work of your cittas as well. The citta does work here, there and everywhere without ever resting. In one’s job or wherever else one may be working, one often has time for a rest. Despite such a rest, the citta goes on working automatically and continuously goes round and about oneself without ever stopping, and thus, one cannot at the same time find happiness of heart. So this occasion is an opportunity for you to train your hearts so as to make them rest and attain calm from time to time. As well, this occasion is also a good opportunity by virtue of the fact that we have been born into the right conditions—a rare and difficult thing to attain.
As the Lord Buddha once said: Kicco Manussapaṭilābho (Hard is it to attain the good fortune of a human life)
No other beings have the right opening and fortunate circumstances to attain the human state to understand this Dhamma talk as a human being can. Nevertheless, we are human beings and we now have the right conditions to do so. Thus, to understand this Dhamma talk is easy for us. But for beings who are unfortunately not human, understanding this Dhamma talk is very hard for them. Therefore, when we get a chance to hear a Dhamma talk such as this, we should not waste it. Training the heart to attain happiness is the way that all the Buddhas of the past have proclaimed as being the right and true one. If our hearts never have time to rest and attain calm, they are fundamentally not different from the hearts of animals. But when our hearts rest, relax and receive training, we shall be able to see the faults of thinking and imagining—the faults of a turbulent heart. We will thus come to see the value of a calm heart. If we can attain a state of calm, we will have reached the first stage of Dhamma which will lead us steadily onwards—in other words—we will have a firmly established faith (saddhā) in the principles of kamma. In listening to a talk on Dhamma, there is no need to go out and fix your attention on anything external, such as upon the person who is delivering the talk.
Instead, you ought to fix your attention on your own heart while the talk is being delivered; for when one sets one’s heart in a good and healthy state, controlling the heart with mindfulness and simply letting a state of clear awareness remain with it, the subject of the Dhamma talk—which will reveal much or little, deep or shallow, or gross or subtle—is bound to enter and touch the heart which has been established in this good state. The Dhamma talk will then lull and soothe one’s heart so that it can attain a state of calm, and then, while one listens on, aspects of it will drop into one’s heart and enter one’s memory. These aspects of the Dhamma talk then become part of oneself and they will lead one to put them into practice in the future. But what particularly matters most is the calm heart one attains while listening to Dhamma—this calm heart is very important.
Regarding this word ‘calm’, some of you may not know what it means. Calm and distraction are a pair of opposites. Distraction and turbulence arise from the thinking and creative activity of the heart—a heart which is active in creating thoughts connected with the past or future and with good or evil. All such creativity is the work that is done by the citta. When the heart stops doing such work, it drops into a state of rest and dwells in this state where it becomes calm without any activities of creative thought going on. When one’s heart is in this state while one is listening to a Dhamma talk, one’s cognizance dwells on nothing but the Dhamma talk. This is what is meant by ‘one’s heart attaining calm’. Having attained such a state of calm, one’s heart becomes fresh, cool and strong; and thus, when one’s heart is strong, one will be able to increase the energy and well-being of one’s physical body, for the physical body belongs to the heart.
For the above reasons, the ‘Dhamma medicine’ is necessary both internally and externally. Internally refers to the heart, which takes the remedy, which is the ‘Dhamma medicine’, and having done so it will come to understand the workings of cause and effect. One will also know a state of calm and happiness within one’s own citta; and in one’s heart one will increasingly come to see the suffering (dukkha) which exists in one’s life. Externally refers to one’s own physical body which will then attain happiness and ease. This is what is meant by saying that “the Dhamma medicine is the remedy for one’s heart”—and it is also the remedy for one’s own elements (dhātu) and khandhas which, when one has taken the remedy, will have constant bodily happiness and ease. At the beginning of this talk it was said that, all of us have a good opportunity, for we are human beings. We have also had the opportunity to meet the genuine and true Buddha Sāsana. Other kinds of beings do not have the opportunity to know what results arise from the doing of good and evil, nor how suffering and happiness come about.
They do not understand, nor do they have a chance to try and correct those things which are evil, nor to practise and develop in themselves those things which are virtuous, graceful and good. But we have the good fortune to have become human beings, and thus we have the opportunity to know good and evil, merit and demerit, and many other things which are worthy and unworthy. For this reason we say that the human state is one of excellent good fortune. Initially this state arises from doing work. In other words, working to do and train oneself in those things which are virtuous, graceful and good; and also from trying to amend the evil which one has done when delusion has been strong in one’s citta. Trying to do those things which are good so that they arise and grow within oneself by way of one’s own bodily actions, speech and mind may be counted as the first of one’s “good fortunes”. As one is also a human being in this life, one receives the benefits of a human being accordingly.
The second of one’s “good fortunes” comes about when those things which are good are accumulated and become habitual tendencies of one’s citta, so that one continues to go on acting in this way in the future, thus causing one to remain cool and happy due to virtue. If in the present one does not try to train oneself, and to arouse and practise these things so that they develop within oneself, one will waste the good fortune of this life and the opportunity for the future. Thus it is said: “Manussapaṭilābho” The human state is one of good fortune— and initially this means being born as a human being. As to the second kind of good fortune, it is very important and is a thing which all of us should practise so that it arises and grows in each one of us. For if people who have attained the human state, as in fact a vast number have, persist in doing bad and demeritorious things, they will fall from the human state in the future, or they will become what is called “Manussa tiracchāno”—human animals—who cannot be replete with Sīla and Dhamma.
Therefore, “the human state is one of good fortune” may be taken to mean that it is good fortune to attain the state of a good human being, a state with Sīla and Dhamma, in which good and evil and what is beneficial and harmful are all known. So that eventually one becomes able to get rid of the obstructing defilements, both in the world and in Dhamma. Obstructing defilements in the world, are those faults in one’s action or behaviour which are such that one’s actions of body, speech and mind lead to an increase of trouble both for oneself and others, and this is so whether one understands what one is doing or not. One should avoid and keep far away from doing such a thing so that this becomes a habit, and one becomes accustomed to avoiding evil and doing only what is good. Life will then become smooth and harmonious, which means that one overcomes the first group of obstructing defilements. Obstructing defilements in Dhamma, means the āsavas and the kilesas which tie down and oppress the heart and mind, and the person who avoids and keeps far from doing evil steadily brings about their destruction.
Such people are not often met with, for they include such as the Lord Buddha and the Sāvakas, who are rare and worthy of the highest respect and reverence. But even apart from them, the person who practises in this way will steadily gain in virtue and goodness. Therefore all of us should practise these things so that we may become people of the type who are rare. Thus, we come to the second quotation: “Kiccaṁ maccāna jīvitaṁ” (Hard is the life of mortal beings) One has managed to overcome the obstructing difficulties of falling and death in the past, so that one has reached one’s present human state; and this is one kind of “good fortune” of one’s life (jīvita) and heart.
Here, it should be understood that one’s life and heart are not form (rūpa), nor one’s body, nor one’s possessions (vatthu), but they are just one’s breath going in and out.2 We normally think in terms of the body of a person, or in terms of being young or old, but this way of thinking is not really true, for the important thing is that there is just breathing going on. If the breath goes in and does not go out, a person dies. If the breath goes out and does not go in, a person dies. A person dies and is separated from those who are living. We see it everywhere. Animals die and animals live. People die and people live. Just go for a walk through the market place and you will see the graveyard of animals; some living and some dead, scattered around the place; and those that are living are there just so that they shall die.
The dead animals have gone from the live ones, but they are all together in the same place. When people die they may be buried or cremated and that place is called a graveyard. But truly speaking everywhere is a graveyard. Even the place where we are now sitting; for if beings are born then in time they will die and wherever they die is a “graveyard”. There is nothing strange in this for the whole earth is a graveyard, and there is nowhere that is not a graveyard of beings who die. The living and the dead dwell together all the time, and if the dead are cremated in a Wat (monastery) as here in Bangkok, we say that they came to their “end” in the Wat; for it is not possible to cremate them in the forest where it is customary for the country people to cremate the dead in a place which truly is a graveyard. In a Wat however, cremation is not given the name of “graveyard”, but is just called “Meru”3 and Meru just means the graveyard for cremation.
If one contemplates these conditions, all of which are created or formed things (Sankhāra Dhamma); and how the dead have departed from the living, it gives good reason why one should not rest and take it easy in one’s life and heart, for those who are still living are, as far as we are concerned here, only living so that they shall also come to death. It tells one to do, to arouse and to develop one’s bodily actions, speech and heart in those ways which will be of benefit to one’s heart and fundamental nature. Therefore one ought not to rest and take it easy in life. It was said above that virtue means “happiness”. This happiness can arise in various ways by way of body and mind, and this is a thing which we all desire and yearn for. As for suffering, if anyone experiences only the smallest amount, they do not want it; and this is so even with animals. But it is beyond one’s power to get rid of suffering completely.
When one has thought about and seen the way of life and death, and how the living and the dead part from one another, one should not be indifferent to that which is within one’s body—which is one’s life and heart—because it stays there only while one is breathing. There is no instrument, like a thermometer, which can measure it and tell that this person has so many more years to live and that person having reached such an age will die after so many more years. Nor can one say that because this person has a healthy body or is still young that he ought not to die for a long time. It cannot be reckoned in this way, for it depends on the breath, and whenever breathing stops, death takes place. When dead, even if the body is kept at home and is not immediately cremated, the dead person is called a “departed one” and has changed into a ghostly thing.4 Even if it was a child or grandchild, a relative, father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, as soon as the life and citta leave the body, he or she changes immediately into the ghost of that person. It makes one awed and afraid that such a thing should come from a person when this body comes to its end. Because of this, we who are living in “fire”, which means that we are living in an environment with all sorts of things round us which can bring about the destruction of this body, will try and search for the means and method to get out of this “fire”, so that it cannot destroy us and so that we can live for a long time.
When a person is not indifferent to these things and has contemplated and thought about life and death, which are insubstantial and fleeting, he will not want them. When he has also grasped and seen the nature of death, of old age, dissolution, destruction and these changing conditions as above, it will become an image (nimitta) rooted in his heart, always reminding his heart and mind. In this way he will be able to train himself to gain benefit from these fleeting and insubstantial things.
For nobody wants death; as was taught by the Lord Buddha when he said: “Jātipi dukkhā, jarāpi dukkhā, maraṇampi dukkhaṁ…etc.” (Birth is suffering, old age is suffering, death is suffering…etc.). This was the initial thing that the Lord Buddha taught in his teaching of the Four Noble Truths (Ariya Sacca)—and knowing this, who would want life and death? Why then did the Lord Buddha teach in this way? He taught in this way because he did not want death to come to you. In other words, contemplating death will lead you to not being careless and heedless. It will lead you to develop virtue and goodness, which will be of real value to yourself, and to strive with urgency while you are still alive. For when one’s life and citta have gone, one’s opportunity has gone—and how can one then do these things? One may do more or less training, but when one’s heart has come to the end and one dies, it is all bound to stop. Then one gradually experiences the results which come from the actions (kamma) which one has done in the past, and these results are greater or smaller in accordance with the strength of the actions which gave rise to them.
This is the reason for the second quotation: “Kicchaṁ maccāna jīvitaṁ” (Hard is the life of mortal beings). For this life is a rare thing and hard to attain, which means that it is rare to find a person whose life and citta are always virtuous, graceful and good. One should not be lazy and indifferent; and from day to day the least that one can do is to develop reverence and to go through some of the Buddhist chants. Or one can repeat the words “Buddho”, “Dhammo”, “Sangho”, or fix one’s attention on one’s breathing when one lies down before going to sleep, for these are ways of practising Dhamma which enter into one’s citta, so that when one goes to sleep one will not have indecent dreams. Or if one should chance to die in one’s sleep, it will lead one to a fortunate state (Sugato). In other words, one will go to a good state by virtue of “Buddho”, “Dhammo”, “Sangho”. These are forms of Dhamma which are good and which superintend one’s heart, leading it into good states. Training one’s citta has results and benefits of the kind described above—and this brings us to the end of this section and leads on to the third line of the verse.
“Kicchaṁ Saddhammasavaṇaṁ” (It is hard to hear the good Dhamma) This means that to listen to a Dhamma talk is a hard thing. It is hard for people in this age who do not want to listen. The Dhamma which was taught by the Lord Buddha has been proclaimed for more than 2505 years, and in all its 84,000 parts (Dhammakkhandhā) it is not to be found wanting in the ways of sīla, samādhi and paññā, for it is the “Svākkhāta Dhamma” (Well Taught Dhamma) which the Lord Buddha taught well. Why then do they say that it is difficult in this age? In those ages when there is no Buddha, no Dhamma and nobody who can explain, it is truly difficult and remains so throughout that age; but this is not the case nowadays. It is just difficult for those who have no opportunity or no interest. The world takes hold of the hearts of people, submerges them and inundates them so that they have no time to listen; or in other words to reflect upon the way that cause and effect works upon decrepitude and death, upon old age, and upon the pain and suffering which is within their bodies and hearts; for all this is called “Dhamma Talk”.
They have no opportunity to listen to a talk given by a bhikkhu, nor to reflect upon their own bodies, their existence and how they continue to fare all the time. Throughout the body there is no part which is not subject to old age, pain and death and to final breaking up and disintegration. Its nature (sabhāva) changes in every part and organ throughout. This is the Dhamma which is difficult to listen to. Difficult because the hearts of people are under the influence of the kilesas, taṇhā and āsavas, which are entangled and bound tightly round their hearts, dragging them into places where they ought not to go. If they oppose these things by the way of Dhamma their resistance meets with difficulty and trouble. This then is a way in which it is difficult for people to listen to Dhamma nowadays. In this present age however, because it is an era in which the teaching of the Buddha is still extant, one should try to oppose the tendencies of one’s heart and look into, examine and contemplate the nature of existence and life; not externally, for this would be difficult to do, but by contemplating and looking into oneself.
The Ariya Sacca (Noble Truths) will then well up and fill one’s body and heart, and they will display their nature throughout the day and night and in all four postures, whether standing, walking, sitting or lying down. Then there will be just the Ariya Sacca alone, and these Ariya Sacca are the whole of the Dhamma taught by the Lord Buddha. All the Buddhas who have appeared in the past and who will appear in the future say that “They are Buddha”, a world teacher. All the arahants who have arisen say that they are the disciples (Sāvaka) of the Lord Buddha and that the Buddhas and Sāvakas are the refuge (saraṇa) of us all. All the Buddhas and Sāvakas contemplated these four Ariya Sacca Dhammas, which are to be found throughout oneself, until they knew and saw themselves truly, as they were in their own nature (Sabhāva Dhamma).
Prior to this, such things as birth, old age and death, which were the basic things that their contemplations dwelt on, were considered as enemies. But afterwards they changed into friends and they changed into symbols of normality, because they saw the truth that all these things are impersonal natural conditions (Sabhāva Dhamma) and there is no fault or blame to be found in any of them, for this is just their nature. As long as one continues to go the round of saṁsāra, there continues to be birth, old age, sickness and death. It is bound to be this way because these are the fruits of the round of saṁsāra. What does “going the round of saṁsāra” mean? However one searches one can find no clue to it except by looking into one’s own heart, which alone is the substance of the wheel of saṁsāra. Thus one may say that one’s own heart is the wheel of saṁsāra. Greed, hate and delusion (lobha, dosa and moha) are the basic things in saṁsāra, but from where do they come? There is no greed, anger, delusion, love or hate in a dead person, nor is there any envy and jealousy left to make him persecute others.
In fact there are no kilesas and taṇhā in a dead person, for these things arise only in the sphere of the heart. With regard to the word “arise” in the previous sentence, it means in one sense, that the sphere of the heart has gone to birth in one of many possible situations which is dependent upon the kamma of the individual concerned. This kamma he formed in his past, and it forces his heart to go to an appropriate birth in that particular situation. When it appears in that situation, the corresponding bodily form will be that of an animal or a human being accordingly. This is called the fruit of the round of saṁsāra; and it demonstrates itself by giving rise to forms (rūpa), to bodies, to women and men, and this is called birth.
When birth has taken place, there is no need to question further about old age, for it is just the shadow or image which comes from the body and birth. There is birth and death, and one has built a house for them. How then can one drive out and dispel trouble and suffering from the house when one has once built it? This, one’s own body is the house, it is the house of dukkha (suffering); and the cause of this house coming into being is the builder (taṇhā), which comes from the delusion of the world. This delusion is the understanding that, time after time, when one has been sick, grown old or died, it is still good to go on with life. It drives one on to continue with existence of this sort, and this is called the round of saṁsāra. This delusion comes from the heart, and when it becomes apparent as birth, old age, sickness and death it is known as the fruit of the wheel of saṁsāra, and it displays itself everywhere. One who is going to raise himself up to get free from all this dukkha must investigate this state of nature (sabhāva) which is to be found everywhere, and see its nature little by little every day, contemplating it all the time—and this is called “listening to Dhamma”.
One may hear the teaching that comes originally from the Lord Buddha by listening to a Dhamma talk given by a bhikkhu, or on the radio. Or one may “listen” and reflect upon the way of causes and effects in one’s own existence, and in the Dhamma which passes in front of one’s eyes and ears and which one may hear as sounds both good and bad, sounds of weeping and laughter, of news that someone has died, is sick, has been buried here, or cremated there. All of it is nothing but the Noble Truths (Ariya Sacca) in the form of Dhamma which comes from the heart, and this is the whole nature of the round of saṁsāra.
After investigating and seeing the nature (sabhāva) of existence in this world in a true and proper way, who would want to come and stay in this cauldron of dukkha which is always “boiling hot”? Who can come into this world and live. When the heart which is full of greed, anger and delusion is to be thoroughly cleansed by means of paññā (wisdom), and is to be trained to come under the power of virtue, gracefulness and goodness, it must start with the practise of dāna (generosity), sīla (moral behaviour), and bhāvanā (meditation) and develop them steadily until they become strong. Then the heart which is the wheel of saṁsāra, full of avijjā, can be cut away and completely freed from avijjā—delusion—the wheel of saṁsāra. It then changes and absolute knowledge arises which will never again be indistinct or vague; and this is called Nibbāna.
One may use the name Nibbāna, or not, as one sees fit, but when one has reached this point one will have knowledge, and this will be a true knowledge concerned with the basis of nature. This knowledge is not special to those who attain Nibbāna, for both people and animals, who have not attained Nibbāna, have knowledge inherently within them which comes from the whole of the past and which is able to know all things. For instance, the experience of a baby at the time of birth, and what it comes to know and learn, such as sweet or salty tastes and the name of these tastes. Nobody has the opportunity to learn all such things; and again, when a baby drinks milk it must know the taste as sweet or sour or however it happens to be. When it wants to eat food because it feels hungry, how does it let us know? When it has had enough food, what does it do to let us know? If we then try to give it more food it does not want it.
All this shows that knowledge in the basis of nature began to display itself to let others know things from the time that one was a young baby, and this same basic function is still there in all of us. For example, one may be given a cake that comes from abroad and which one has never seen or heard of before, but as soon as it comes into contact with one’s tongue, one’s tongue itself will know what it is like and will assess its nature. This is knowledge in the basis of nature; but it is knowledge at the ordinary or common level. Dhamma as taught by the Lord Buddha is also knowledge concerned with the basis of nature, and it is also to be found in each one of us. I ask all of you please, just try and train yourselves to examine, investigate and listen to the Dhamma which is within each of you.
Your knowledge will then gradually change into knowledge which is full of reason and concerned with yourself, until it reaches the stage where you are able to raise yourself up to the knowledge of nature which is beyond the common level, in the same way as the Lord Buddha and all the Sāvakas.
Thus, we come to the fourth quotation, which is: “Kiccho Buddhānaṁ Uppādo” (Hard is the uprising of the Buddhas) Endeavouring to train oneself to investigate, research and listen to the Dhamma Talk is a thing which is rarely practised by people. But when one does this, one should try to develop it so that it arises easily, until one’s heart becomes absorbed in listening to the Dhamma—Talk all the time, both externally and internally.
“Buddho” which is hard and difficult to meet with (as it says in the above passage in Pāli) will then become manifest in one’s heart. Buddho may be divided into three kinds, as follows: 1. “Buddho”—Means the Buddhas who arise in the world; but they only arise very rarely and only one at a time. In this meaning it is rare and hard to meet with. 2. “Buddho”—Means the arising of the pure (Parisuddhi) nature of all the Sāvakas and this is also rare and hard to meet with. 3. “Buddho”—Meaning the “Buddha” of ordinary beings who are under the influence of the kilesas; and this kind of Buddho is common and is not hard to meet with.
How is this so with the third kind? It is so, because this “Buddha” is always supervised, covered up, oppressed and compelled by the kilesas, taṇhā and āsavas, which will not let it show itself and be free. When the citta or knowledge is of this kind, it is not able to get free and raise itself out of the mud and mire of the kilesas, taṇhā and āsavas. How then can this Buddha nature come to know the truth of all things, which is the way of cause and effect in all Sabhāva Dhammas? When this Buddha nature is going to examine, investigate, clean and correct its state by training all the time in virtue, gracefulness and goodness, it is necessary to start with, that one should be in a suitable social environment with a wise and learned man (a Teacher) who is skilled in the ways of curing one’s self to enable one to get free from one’s obstructing difficulties (upasagga), whether they be internal or external.
These are the necessary conditions to make one love and want virtue, gracefulness and goodness, and then to practise these things in accordance with one’s ability, until one becomes able and skilled at them, or until one’s heart becomes absorbed and satisfied in doing them. Then one reaches the state in which one feels that if one were unable to practise dāna, sīla and mettā for one day, one could not live.
One’s heart will then have attained an amply satisfying state which goes on until it can examine and investigate, or “listen to” Dhamma automatically, all of which takes place within one’s own body and heart, until it becomes quite clear and lucid. “Buddho” the nature which knows, and which is suppressed by the kilesas, will then appear and gradually develop until it attains the utmost knowledge and skill. One will then be able to extract and remove those things which are enemies from one’s own heart entirely so that none remain. Then Buddho, of the type which is rare and hard to find, and which is truly one’s own Buddho, will appear.
When one analyses this: “Buddho” of the Lord Buddha is one kind of Buddho. “Dhammo” of the Lord Buddha is one kind of Dhammo, of which the Lord Buddha is the owner. “Sangho”, as the third of this group, are the Sāvakā (true followers) of the Lord Buddha, and it is his Sangha, or Sāvakā. When one endeavours and tries to strive with diligence, by borrowing capital from the Lord Buddha, which means that one brings the nature of “Buddha” into one’s heart; by borrowing “Dhamma” which is the teaching of the Lord Buddha that points out and tells one the way, which indicates how one should behave and practise, and which, if one follows it, will become one’s own Dhamma; and also by trying to borrow “Sangha” which is the level of practice of the Sāvakā from Supaṭipanno onwards, and to make it the level of one’s own practice—then the result of borrowing capital from the “Buddha”, “Dhamma” and “Sangha” is that they become one’s own property; and in time one finds that one has a reserve fund. One is then able to establish them in oneself and one’s life until the pure Buddha arises in one’s heart as “Buddha Vimutti”, which means the Buddha that can be free from all mundane things. The “Dhamma” which is strange and wonderful arises from the heart in this state of purity, and it truly becomes one’s own Dhamma.
The “Sangha” is the one that upholds the pure and excellent Buddha and Dhamma, or one may say: it is the owner of this excellent Buddha and Dhamma. Then they change and become one’s own “Buddha”, “Dhamma” and “Sangha”. This then is the practice of our religion, the practice which follows the way of the Lord Buddha, the Dhamma which is the teaching of the Lord Buddha, and the Sangha who are the followers (Sāvakā) of the Lord Buddha, which then become one’s own properties.
This is the value of the name which was given in the fourth line of the verse, which is again: “Kicco Buddhānaṁ Uppādo” (Hard is the uprising of the Buddhas) The arising of insight knowledge in every one of “those who know” is a hard and rare thing. If one tries to develop this state so that the “one who knows” arises in one’s heart, one will become “One who has properties of supreme value”. Today this talk on Dhamma has been concerned with the following:
1. Kicco Manussapaṭilābho—in which we talked of the fact that to become a human being is a rare and difficult thing; and that all of us are beings who have been born into the mass of properties which is the human state.
2. Kicchaṁ Maccāna Jīvitaṁ—that we have lived from the beginning of this life up to the present moment and that this is our good merit and fortune.
3. Kicchaṁ Saddhammasavaṇaṁ—that to hear the Dhamma is a rare and difficult thing. All of you here have heard the Dhamma on the occasion of this desanā, and each one of you can train yourselves to examine and investigate the sankhāra dhammas (Formed or created things) both externally and internally, which were said to be the conditions in various ways for hearing the true and genuine Dhamma taught by the Lord Buddha. And in the final section we said:
4. Kiccho Buddhānaṁ Uppādo—that the arising of insight knowledge occurs in one who has purity of heart, which is freedom. Having got free from all the kilesas, āsava and taṇhā, this state will then become one’s own property.
Therefore, I ask all of you who are listening to this Dhamma talk, please to develop the practice of examining and investigating so that both the first three and the fourth of the above sections of Dhamma shall enter you and become “Opanayiko” (leading inward) bringing you results and benefits. Furthermore, the above knowing and seeing for oneself is called “Sandiṭṭhiko” (visibly apparent here and now) and is one meaning of that of that word, which may occur at a low, middle or the highest level. Sandiṭṭhiko begins to become manifest from the time that one starts to strive, endeavour and practise dāna, the maintenance of sīla and the development of bhāvanā.
This is the Dhamma which one comes to know in one’s heart and it gradually develops and increases. One comes to know and see that previously one never used to practise dāna and one had no saddhā (faith) or belief in Buddhism, nor in merit nor kamma. But now one has belief and one knows in one’s heart that one has practised dāna, guarding one’s sīla and the development of bhāvanā. This is “Sandiṭṭhiko” the seeing of oneself by oneself. Furthermore, one trains oneself in bhāvanā, controlling one’s heart and making it dwell in subjection, restraining it with mindfulness, meditating with wisdom and making it remain with awareness on a single object of such a type that calm increases and happiness gradually develops. This is another type of “Sandiṭṭhiko” which appears to oneself.
This continues until one has knowledge and skill and is able to cure one’s heart and free it from all things in one’s surrounding environment. This is the highest form of “Sandiṭṭhiko” that can arise in one’s heart and it comes as a result of the practice of Dhamma. One should let things enter through one’s senses all the time and make them “Opanayiko” (Leading inwards). The sights and sounds which one sees and hears are either good or bad, so let them enter, and by diligently examining and investigating them one will learn from them. One can then attain beneficial results from the things which enter one’s senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. By doing this one will not waste the good state of human life into which one has been born, for this state that one has come to is one of excellent good fortune. Nor will one waste this good state in which one has come across the teaching of Buddhism in this life. Then the word “Buddha” which is the state of purity can become your state and the property of all of you. To conclude this Dhamma-desanā, may the virtues of the Lord Buddha, the whole of the Dhamma and the Sangha come to all of you who are followers of the Buddha so that you may have happiness and well being in your hearts, and may all of you achieve those things which your heart truly wants.
Evaṁ Thus it is.
Ajaan Mahã Boowa Ñãnasampanno Translated by Ajaan Paññavaddho