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).
Ajaan Mahã Boowa Ñãnasampanno Translated by Ajaan Paññavaddho