Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammāsambuddhassa Visaṅkhāra gataṁ cittaṁ taṅhānaṁ khayamajjhagāti — Dhammapada : 154 “My citta has attained beyond sankhāras; I have attained the end of taṅhā”
We have been ordained in the Buddha Sāsanā, and whatever race or lineage we come from, we should realise that we have entered that known as the Sākya lineage, which is the lineage of the Ksatriya. For the Lord Buddha came from the Sākya lineage and renounced the state of royalty with all its wealth, and even his partner in developing the perfections—in other words his wife and son, who were like his own heart. He was able to give them up for the aim of Anuttara Sammāsambodhiñāṇa. The story of the Lord Buddha, from the time when he first left home, until he attained the state of “the Buddha”, was a story of obstacles and difficulties that he met at every step on the path along which he went, and which he overcame every time.
The path along which all the Buddhas have travelled is difficult and hard and a person who does not have the true diligence and effort will not be able to escape from the snares of Māra. All of us who are followers of the Lord Buddha must examine and see the way which the Lord Buddha went and we must have a firm intention in our hearts to tread in the footsteps of the Lord. The words “Supaṭipanno, Ujupaṭipanno, Ñāyapaṭipanno, Sāmicipaṭipanno Bhagavato Sāvakasangho“ are nothing but signposts set up by the Lord for all the Sāvakas to follow, so that the title of “Sāvakasangho“ may be appropriate to them, for it means that they are the true Sāvakas of the Lord Buddha.
The word “Sāvaka” means “one who listens”—who “listens” with his eyes, his ears and with the thoughts of his mind. From day to day he is not idle in his thoughts, which search out the reasons for things so that he may take care of himself and be self-controlled for the purpose of going on to become one who has purity of sīla and who has samādhi in order to attain a state of calm which steadily becomes more and more unshakeable so as to have paññā which searches for knowledge and skill to embellish himself.
Apart from this one cannot call anyone a Sāvaka of the Lord. Now, at this time, all of us here have given up working for our livelihood since we were ordained into the Buddha Sāsanā. The daily activities of a householder which lay people must do have been given up entirely by us in all its respects and we have no part in the worry and bother of such activities. Instead the duty of each one of us is to practise to become: Supaṭipanno—one who practises what is good by way of body, speech and mind. Ujupaṭipanno—one who is going directly towards enlightenment by way of body, speech and mind. Ñāyapaṭipanno—one who aims for enlightenment which is ñāyadhamma (Dhamma that should be known) all the time. Sāmicipaṭipanno—one who is always seemly in the way he does things with his body, speech and mind in all respects.
He never gives occasion for being blamed that his ways are at fault in the principles of Dhamma and Vinaya that would cause him to deviate from the state of a Sāvaka of the Lord. Within these four articles of Dhamma are the qualities of all the Sāvakas who made up their minds to behave and practise what was good. If they had deviated from these four, even though they had shaved their heads and eyebrows and put on yellow robes they would not have seemed to be any different from lay people.
Within these four articles of Dhamma are the qualities of all the Sāvakas who made up their minds to behave and practise what was good. If they had deviated from these four, even though they had shaved their heads and eyebrows and put on yellow robes they would not have seemed to be any different from lay people. If one always has sati to guard and look after one’s heart so that the changes and fluctuations of it are known, both when it goes in the wrong way and in the right way, it may be said that one is doing the practice of diligent effort.
This is what the practice of diligent effort means, whereas standing, walking, sitting and lying down are merely the normal postures which we must change from time to time. They are remedial states which preserve our bodies enabling them to last their life span—or (one may say), in order to have comfort and ease in our bodies and minds. But as to whether one can say that one’s heart is doing the practice of diligent effort it depends on sati and paññā for these are what matter. Sati is recollection—in other words, always knowing oneself. Paññā is the careful watching or scrutinising and examining of whatever comes and makes contact and enters from outside, or watching and examining the fluctuations of one’s heart which is changing and vacillating all the time, so that one constantly has a present awareness.
Anything other than these cannot be called the practice of diligent effort. Who is there to uphold the sāsanā of the Lord Buddha except we who have been ordained and are in the lead of all others—there is no one else in the world who is able to do so, for if the monks are unable to attain magga, phala and Nibbāna by means of the way of practice, and if they only have discouragement and laziness the sāsanā will just collapse. There is nobody else who is able to uphold it. In particular it is a most important thing for we who are ordained and who practise what those in the world call kammaṭṭhāna, to be constantly aware of ourselves.
Otherwise we will be worthless people devoid of value in all actions and wasting the gifts (four paccaya) which the lay people give us every day and which they have always obtained with effort, for each time they make gifts to us it involves no little difficulty and hardship for them. Let us always realise that at present we are ordained monks and followers of the Tathāgata. The Tathāgata was one who had courage and resoluteness in all kind of events whether facing good or evil. He had perseverance and diligence and he put up with difficulties and hardships of all kinds that he met with. He was not lazy, not one who wakes late in the morning, or one who was selfish, for he was thinking of attaining freedom from dukkha all the time.
These are the basic things for becoming a Buddha—who is the possessor of the principles of Dhamma. If we are to become “those who know”, who are skilled and who follow in the track of the Lord, we must also be upholders of laziness, thinking only of our stomachs, of carelessness and slovenliness, of getting up late in the morning and thinking only of ourselves, for these are not principles of Dhamma which are useful in getting free from dukkha. All of us ought to know that this is so. Concerning investigating—any one of us who fixes his attention on something or who is accustomed to contemplate something must be determined to contemplate so that the aspect of Dhamma that he is contemplating or fixing his attention upon shall be seen clearly.
He must not be without any basis, nor “drift with the wind”, unable to find an “anchor post” to hold and restrain him. Wherever sati is established, Dhamma is sure to arise there, but if one has no sati then Dhamma will never arise, for sati is the important thing in the practice of diligent effort. It should always be realised that to let the heart relax and become calm by itself alone is impossible, and none of us would ever see any results from this even if we went on doing it for the rest of our lives, for the usual state of the heart is to have “wrappings” which cover it up all the time. These “wrappings”, the Lord called kilesas—and they do not come from anywhere else apart from just one’s own heart.
As to the training and subjugation of the heart which are done in order to attained calm or the ending of conceit and stubbornness in regard to all these things (kilesas), it must be dependent on a person who has the diligence and energy to make the constant effort to watch his heart. If anything tends in the direction of what is bad or wrong he must force himself to give it up until he is able to do so more and more easily—until he is eventually able to give it up entirely with nothing of it remaining. When he is able to give them up entirely, such troublesome things will then no longer be able to harass and bother his heart. Getting free from obstacles and hindrances is normally bound to involve some forcible opposition to them.
The Lord Buddha, the Sāvakas or any of the famous Ācariya all forcibly opposed the obstacles and hindrances with which they were faced. Dukkha we know to be one of the Ariya Sacca. If we have not examined dukkha and seen it, where will we go to escape from it? Samudaya—is the field of the origination of dukkha—and where does it originate? In the imaginative thinking of the heart (mind). Generally speaking, if one has not had any training this imaginative thinking of the heart is bound to imagine things which tend in the direction of what is bad or wrong all the time—in that direction which accumulates the kilesas so that they are maintained or increased within the heart.
Therefore the method of “fixing” the heart (citta) which is called bhāvanā is the way to cure all things which are oppressors weighing down one’s heart, so that step by step they are steadily got rid of. While the heart has not yet attained calm it will not see the value of the sāsanā, and even we ourselves will appear to have no value at all. But after we have trained and subdued our hearts and attained a state of calm we will certainly see that the Dhamma has a value and that the sāsanā is a precious and excellent thing—and even in ourselves, we will feel that we are beginning to be people of increasing worth. Therefore contemplating the heart is very important, and our set task of extracting and getting rid of these things (kilesas) which we have accumulated is a more important task than any other. And the practice of diligent effort is equally important—diligent effort in trying until we see the reasons (causes and effects) behind those things which are tangled up with our hearts, observing and precisely defining them to make them quite clear.
For when the eye sees forms (rūpa) or the ear hears sounds they are bound to give rise to feeling in our hearts, and we should then unravel and look at all such things seeing clearly and fully comprehending them with paññā. When the citta has seen any of these things with paññā it can never again seize and grasp hold of it nor crave for it and the heart will let go of it at once. Here, in “letting go” we must do so with sati and paññā, for without sati and paññā as the agents which guard and cure the heart respectively, it will never attain the ceasing of dukkha. We have been born into this life and the amount of dukkha that we have we know in our heart.
But in particular we know how much we have today—and tomorrow is sure to be similar. Throughout this life we are sure to go on living in this way, and as to the next life we need have no doubt who it will be that suffers. We ought to realise that whoever accumulates or stores away a mass of dukkha or the causes that make for the uprising of dukkha is the one who experiences dukkha today, tomorrow, this life, next life, for this is the one who goes round and round dying and being born in this wheel of saṁsāra and receiving dukkha and subservience for how many aeons we know not. It is a long, long road—so long that nobody is able to reckon how far it is from the beginning.
In other words, from one’s original first birth to the end of the road, which is the freedom of Nibbāna, how far is it? How many miles? Nobody can measure it because this nature is the nature of vaṭṭa (the round of birth, old age, sickness and death) which is whirling oneself around all the time. We cannot measure it in miles or kilometres, but we can analyse it, and we must do so by examining the characteristics (lakkhaṇa) of this vaṭṭa which is whirling oneself around. If any one of us does examine this vaṭṭa which is whirling him around and which has always come into being together with this heart, he will be one who is able to cure and get rid of vaṭṭa—this whirling self—from his heart. And he will reach the sphere of freedom from dukkha which the Lord called Nibbāna—which arises in just this, his own heart. There is a very important principle in this, so let us all set our hearts to contemplate this and examine it carefully—and don’t let us give way to disheartenment and feebleness.
Whenever sati is established in any part, that part will be Dhamma training one’s heart—or Dhamma as the device for curing one’s heart so that it becomes calm and steady. This is also the case with paññā, for when attention is fixed upon and penetrates into any of the sabhāva dhammas one will steadily come to know various skilful ways and tricks from them. Therefore sati and paññā are essential forms of Dhamma in Buddhism. In the practice of diligent effort it may be that one does not see any progress towards a state of calm in one’s heart. This is the case with those who are absentminded. When walking caṅkama in this way, and similarly when sitting, standing and lying down, and they make no special effort with sati and paññā, therefore they cannot attain calm of heart because they release the citta and let it go the way of their various emotional moods. They release it and let it go all the time, never restraining or forcibly restricting it and never making it get into the framework of sati and paññā.
If one forces one’s heart to dwell on any one aspect of Dhamma, or on the parts of the body, taking up any part of parts accordingly, together with sati and tethered by paññā, letting one’s heart wander about throughout the whole of this bodily framework for a short or a long time and depending on one‘s paññā to investigate more or less deep or shallow, gross or subtle, then by investigating in this way, steadily and soon it will lead to calm, to clear, clean, happy state, and to being skilful, clever and wise. What is the cause of this? Someone may have practised for a long time and not seen any increase of knowledge or excellence in his heart. Let all of us fully understand here and now that his sati and paññā have not been established with true determination. He establishes them for one second and then lets them disappear entirely for one hour so that his “income” and “expenditure” do not balance.
Expenditure being more than income he is bound to go bankrupt. For he mainly lets his heart come under the sway of vaṭṭa. If he guards his heart with sati and paññā so that it goes in the direction of getting free from vaṭṭa less than in allowing his heart to go the way of vaṭṭa, his heart will not go towards a state of calm, skillfulness or cleverness. Let all of us understand this now, otherwise there will be more nonsense in the future! By day and by night we do not have to be bothered or worried by anything—take a look at the things which you should be doing, look at your own activities. As to the Teachers (Ācariya) and other friends with whom you associate daily, you must not think that they are a load on your mind of which you have to be afraid, nor towards which you must be aggressive, nor should you be disturbed emotionally by them in any way.
But if you are wrong in any way he (the Teacher) must point it out, always guiding you in the right way and telling you what is wrong. You must always set yourself to see and follow just what he teaches, but you must not think that he upsets your emotions. Emotions are the most important things, so take a look at the activities of your heart which is at all times the basis of your emotional state. Otherwise you will not be able to go towards a state of calm and you will lose day by day, and the days add up and become months and the months add up and become many years.
Our lives are getting shorter day by day and the valuable results which we ought to get from the life of virtue are only a little—which is not appropriate for us who are sons of the Tathāgata and have come into the circle of the sāsanā. The principles of truth are there in the body and the citta and we set up sati and paññā to penetrate into the basis of the body and the citta. Why should we not be able to know them? The body and the citta are dhammas which are genuine or we may say that they are dhammas which have always deserved the attention of sati and paññā from of old. The Lord Buddha investigated and examined every part of the body as being entirely dukkha, anicca and anattā, which was the reason why he was skilled knowing all things clearly with paññā.
The body of the Lord Buddha and our own bodies are not fundamentally different from each other. Sati and paññā of the Lord Buddha are skillfulness in the same way as with ourselves and it is only in so far as their breadth and depth are concerned that there is a difference. Why is it that the Lord Buddha was able to bring sati and paññā to research within the body and to know clearly and see truly into all the sabhāva dhammas? With all of us here the sabhāva dhammas, which means the body and citta, exist here and now entire and complete. Then why is it that we do not see any results in ourselves?
As for dukkha, whether of the body or of the citta, it announces its presence at every moment so that one who has sati and paññā is bound to be in a constant state of “trembling” with the dukkha which comes and makes contact amidst the citta with dukkha and with sati and paññā, all of which are together there in the same state. Then why is one unable to know these things which are there and which are also not hidden or secret in any way whatsoever? When dukkha comes from any organ in any part of the body, it cannot remain hidden from the citta, the one that receives it and knows it. In a similar way, dukkha which arises within the citta itself also cannot remain hidden from the citta that receives and knows it.
If one has sati (ready) waiting to attend to and examine all aspects of this dukkha and to make it clear and plain, and if one meditates with paññā to see clearly why this dukkha arose, how it arose, whether this dukkha is oneself or whether oneself has this dukkha, or whether one or another part of this body are dukkha, or whether the whole body is dukkha, or who is the deluded one who goes along with this dukkha, then using paññā, in this way how is it that one should not be able to attain the skill and wisdom which comes from one’s heart or from one’s paññā? the reason is just because of “drifting” of the citta which is thus not being set up firmly and unshakably.
One has a fear of dukkha and so one is not able to know and understand dukkha clearly, nor can on reach and grasp sukha to be the wealth of one’s heart. Dukkha may be much or little, it may come to stay or die away and disappear, but let us understand that dukkha is just dukkha. Knowing these things to be dukkha and investigating and seeing them truly in accordance with the true nature of dukkha: just this is the way of the heart with paññā. One practises with diligent effort for how many days, months or years and one still sees no results—as though dukkha, which truly exists, went out and hid in a remote cave or abyss and has not been dwelling within one’s own body and citta at all. There are fish in the water and there is wealth in the earth, but that one does not catch the fish nor get the wealth to make it one’s own is due to oneself.
As to the wealth in Buddhism which is based on the wealth of sīla, the wealth of samādhi, the wealth of paññā, the wealth of vimutti, the wealth of vimuttiñāṇadassana, these forms of wealth depend upon the practice of each individual and whether he is able more often to practise strenuously than non-strenuously. The results which he should thus receive will differ in accordance with the strength of weakness of the causes which he does and makes. We who have been ordained in the sāsanā, who are followers of the Tathāgata with the full status of what is known as “sons of the Sākya”, should more than any others be those who possess the wealth of lokuttara in progressively increasing stages. In the Dhamma which he taught the Lord said that these (stages) were: Sotāpatti-magga, Sotapatti-phala; Sakādāgāmī-magga, Sakādāgāmī-phala; Anāgāmīmagga, Anāgāmī-phala; and Arahatta-magga, Arahatta-phala and all this wealth is included in the wealth of vimuttiñāṇadassana—which is the wealth of Nibbāna.
The wealth in the sāsanā dwells in the sphere of the svākkhāta-dhamma, which the Lord Buddha rightly proclaims, and which is the niyyānika-dhamma—able to lead beings who have the intention to follow the way of the Lord so as to be able to steadily get rid of dukkha. If those who are ordained and who are known as people who practise are still not able to make themselves suited to this Dhamma then it is hard to know who can become accomplished in the Dhamma of the Lord. Because an ordained samaṇa is one who is close to the Lord both as regards being someone who has little to worry about in the way of affairs and business and as regards his modes of practice which are his means for going onward so that he is able to do and to follow the pattern of the way the Lord went.
But in particular, those who also dwell in the forest which is always quiet and secluded have the best chance of all to put forward diligent effort for attaining the wealth of sīla, samādhi, paññā, vimutti and vimuttiñāṇadassana, for arousing them and developing them stage by stage from the grossest stages right up to the most subtle. For Sīla and Dhamma of all stages are developed for the state of spotless purity, the degree of which depends on the stage of development, and generally speaking this is likely to depend on living in a quiet place away from the crowds, both of lay people and those who are ordained in the Sangha.
We can see this from the Lord Buddha and the way he brought up the Sāvakas, for it is evident that he saw danger in mixing with people and affairs that give rise to worry, these being enemies of the dhammas of a samaṇa—which is a life of wellbeing directed in the way of the Dhamma of the Lord and his Sāvakas. At the same time the Lord saw the value in quietness and he spoke very highly of it, and so in all their activities the Lord and the Ariya Sāvakas were complete in the practice of diligent effort in quiet places—for Dhamma likes to arise in quiet places. If it is still not quiet both externally and within one’s heart, Dhamma will not arise. But when both these forms of quietness have appeared within a person, Dhamma will also begin to appear within him.
In other words, sīla will start to become pure, samādhi will begin to appear in his heart and develop in the stages of samādhi, and paññā will begin to rise up and move as soon as samādhi starts to appear and it will develop in the stages of paññā step by step, all of which depends only on how the person who is doing the practice hurries after what his heart desires without letting any obstacles whatsoever obstruct him. And this is because he is away from those things which irritate and disturb him and which make his citta lean towards anxiety and worry from the emotionally disturbing objects which come into contact with him.
Summarising the above, Dhamma likes to arise in quiet places and at quiet times. Even those who uphold Dhamma such as the Lord Buddha himself like to live in quiet places all the time—with the except in of those occasions when he went to perform his function as the “Buddha” just to favour those who were fit to be taught (ñeyya). When he saw that it was appropriate he would then make allowances for the benefit of those who were able to receive teaching from the Lord, But once he had finished doing such “Buddha work” he stopped immediately and did not carry on and on like ordinary people everywhere.
All of us whom people in the world call by the name kammaṭṭhāna or “those who practice” ought to think somewhat about ourselves and how we are. If we want Buddha, which is purity and skillfulness, to rule over our hearts we must modify and correct our hearts, out bodies and our speech to accord with the way that the Lord led us. Then we will become Sāvakas who have purity in our hearts— we need not doubt this.
But if a liking for the affairs of the “obscene Dhamma” possesses the heart of anyone he will think, wrongly, that Dhamma likes to arise in the middle of the marketplace, at the crossroads, or where there are crowds of people—such as in the music hall, the theatre, the cinema, the radio and television—and that concern with these things will make the world praise him and say that he is the first and best kammaṭṭhāna! This is because he is blind to any other way and he has no disquietude and fear. For even if they got a lot of bones to hang around his neck as a necklace he would think of it as though it were a wreath of laurels.
This is the “obscene Dhamma” which like to arise with thoughts and understanding which are equally obscene. But even if he makes no external display that is loathsome, it still makes enough of a display in his own heart (mind) which is an equally loathsome thing. Please let us all understand this, and correct our own actions of body, speech and heart to accord with the principles of the Dhamma of the Lord, then meditating on the Dhamma of sorrow in birth, old age, pain and death, endeavour to get rid of the kilesas, taṅhā and avijjā which are out enemies. You must not be careless and disinterested in your activities, but you must encourage and train your sati and paññā, for these are like a ready sword which must be made capable of fighting against the kilesas, taṅhā and āsavas—which are the enemies that tyrannise and compel your hearts at every moment, so that one day you will be able to dispel and finish with this enemy for good.
For anyone who has sati and paññā present within him in all his activities at all times will surely become the owner of the best kind of wealth—which is magga, phala and Nibbāna—in this lifetime. Today I wish to emphasise once again that in your Dhamma practice the most important dhammas of all are sati coupled with paññā, and they cannot be dispensed with for even a moment. Because sati and paññā are the instruments of Dhamma which make for wakefulness and awareness in the practice of diligent effort. So that any moment when an emotionally disturbing object arises in one’s heart or comes from external things, sati and paññā do their duty with regard to such disturbing objects which associate with oneself. Then instead of these disturbing objects that touch one’s heart being enemies, they can become things of value by virtue of the power of sati and paññā to know them, what they are up to, and why.
The establishing of sati starts to be necessary from the day that one begins training in bhāvanā. Whichever parikamma-dhamma one uses—such as “Buddho”— one must establish sati to remain in close association with this form of Dhamma as though it were truly a matter of life and death. Without wasting any time, the result will then soon appear as a state of calm arising and becoming fully evident. Generally, those who practise and who let time waste away without getting the valuable results in their hearts which they should get, do so because they are careless and lackadaisical and they do not make haste to take up the full measure of the practice of diligent effort with sati and paññā while their age in vassa (rainy seasons) is still small. They let their hearts go out to follow the way of the world until they lack awareness of what they should be doing, and they behave in the manner of people who sell things before they have bought them, which is wrong both in the customary way of doing things in the world and in Dhamma, and before they become aware of it it’s already too late.
The right way to do business is to start by buying at the right price, then one can sell at a higher price sufficient to make a profit which covers the cost of living and gives capital for further investment. People who prosper act in this kind of way. As for the way of Dhamma, before the Lord became the “world teacher” we are told that he made efforts, training himself and practising austerities, sometimes even going so far as to become completely unconscious. Nobody has ever heard that any of the Sāvakas, or anyone else, was able to equal the Lord in this—and he went on doing it for six years without slackening his efforts, and nobody knew whether the Lord would live or die when he went through such sufferings and hardships. Up to the day of his enlightenment, the practice of diligent effort was never done in fits and starts by the Lord. Thus it was that he made gains for himself and became fulfilled first of all, and afterwards he performed the functions of the “Lord Buddha”.
When the Sāvakas had heard the Dhamma from the Lord, they set themselves to the practice of diligent effort and sought for a quiet place to get rid of the kilesas and āsavas from their hearts, without having any worldly ambitions at all. They were people who at every breath they took saw dread in birth and death occurring over and over again. This was because of the strong practice of diligent effort that arose from the heart which saw dread in dukkha until this dread had become strong enough to support and induce sati and paññā to work all the time in the body and citta in all activities without slackening. Then they were able to extract and remove the kilesas and āsavas from their hearts by means of samucchedaphāna—overcoming by destroying—and they attained Nibbāna while still living at that moment.
Thus it was that the Sāvakas made gains for themselves and became fulfilled first of all, and afterwards they began to do things to benefit the world in whatever ways were appropriate, and to be a help in easing the Buddha’s duty. This is how the Lord Buddha—the Sāvakas—did things, not by way of selling before buying, for if he had done things in this way he could never in truth have been the teacher of the world. Also if the Sāvakas had not followed the way that the Lord Buddha went there could not have been any who attained the state of Arahant Sāvaka to call forth the respect and pūja of the world and to cause the world to believe and rely on the third refuge (saraṇa).
But as regards helping each other in moderate (modest) ways, between the world and Dhamma it is correct action (sāmīci-kamma) in the world and there is no harm in it all, unless it becomes immoderate (immodest) and both sides forget their duties or the work they should be doing. But in what way should all of us do things for it to be correct action in Dhamma which progresses to higher and higher levels, so that it will be of value to ourselves and to the world in appropriate ways? To begin with we must set up a firm determination, now! For in a short time it will be too late. If we are going to claim Buddhaṁ, Dhammaṁ, Sanghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi so that it truly reaches our hearts, we should make haste to follow the Lord Buddha by way of practice and then train our hearts to keep within the framework of sati and paññā. Do not give way and let the kilesas and āsavas drag your heart away even against your will and with your full knowledge that they are doing so.
Make haste to have sati, paññā and the practice of diligent effort to go after your citta and forcibly take possession of it away from the kilesas, otherwise all will be lost and there will be nothing left of one’s status as a samaṇa—except only a bald head, and there is nothing unusual in that for anyone can make themselves bald headed at any time. Do not let yourselves become careless or over-confident and think that the kilesas are good things and that their extent is small. The dukkha and torture which is always there pervading beings and sankhāras everywhere so that they can hardly bear it, and their breaking up and dying in masses all over the world—which we are continually seeing right in front of us—is due to the kilesas which are the origin of it all and which drive everything onward in their direction.
You must not think that it comes from any other cause, and therefore you must quickly rouse sati and paññā which are asleep so as to wake them up and go after the citta and snatch it away from the kilesas—let us do this for we can! Then we shall live, sleep, lie down, be contented and relaxed in whatever ways are appropriate for those who are samaṇas—which amongst the various forms of occupation that people have in this world is the one that is “cool” and to which they pay homage and pūja every day.
It has already been stated that when sati and paññā accompany the practice of diligent effort the citta will be able to attain calm and sukha very soon. When the heart has dropped into a state of calm it is bound to urge on the practice of diligent effort with sati in that aspect of one’s own Dhamma, whatever it is that suits one, until one can attain a state of calm every time and on every occasion that one wants. When the citta withdraws, rising up out of the state of calm one must start to investigate by way of paññā, by regarding the parts of the body as being the place for paññā to go wandering around in. One may investigate all the parts of the body, or particular parts depending on what suits one’s character. Think reflectively and look at the parts of the body in terms of the ti-lakkhaṇa taking any or all of them depending on what one finds suitable—but see them clearly by means of paññā, then it will be useful.
Sati is very important. It is very good never to let it slip and be forgotten, for it will be the means of promoting both samādhi and paññā, then it will be useful. Someone who practises and who can endeavour constantly to maintain sati will get on rapidly in all stages of Dhamma. Even in every little action one must make sati to be like an elder brother who looks after one all the time. Then it will be impossible for the citta to gain the upper hand and take charge because the source of power and merit which will enable one’s heart to gain freedom from dukkha in this life is sati. Let us then try and make this ordinary sati change and become mahā-sati and make ordinary paññā change and become mahā-paññā within our own hearts. When sati is strong enough and one directs paññā to investigate, even though one’s kilesas are all thick and immovable as a mountain, they can be penetrated without doubt.
You should understand that all the parts of the “persona” (kāya), divided into the groups rūpa, vedanā, saññā, sankhāra and viññāṇa are like grindstones for sharpening sati and paññā. When sati and paññā are associated with these parts all the time without letting up, you need not doubt that you will come to have sati and paññā which are both sharp and strong. So please, just set up sati and the searching thought of paññā to go down into the aforementioned sabhāva dhammas. Calm of heart from the beginning crude stages developing up to the more subtle refined stages, and the skill and wisdom of paññā from the lowest up to the highest levels will then become clearly manifest within this same heart. The āsavas which have been allowed to accumulate in the heart since a long time ago will then be broken up and demolished without remainder.
Even as darkness which has been in a place for ages is dispelled and disappears, immediately when light comes in. So if you are wearied of birth and death going on endlessly over and over again, you must hurry up and take up the weapons of sati and paññā closely attached to the practice of diligent effort. And do not let up! Then you will see in this heart the fundamental cause that leads to becoming and birth, which leads to their turning into graveyards of beings, and of yourself—which is most repugnant, and most sorrowful! There is no seeing of any faults and wrongs which one has done in the past to equal seeing the faults and wrongs of the citta in which poison is buried—in other words avijjā, the ancestor of birth, always there in oneself since uncountable ages past. Having seen as much as this and quite clearly with paññā, who would knowingly swallow poison? No! He would get rid of it, throw it away and look on it with dread, trembling all over.
In a similar way, by seeing with paññā the faults and wrongs of the saṁsāric citta which is thoroughly immersed in and permeated with poison one will get rid of it immediately by no longer being able to tolerate the belief that oneself is of this nature. Because there is no calamity to equal that of the citta which is constantly being stabbed in the back by avijjā and which allows avijjā to drive it this way and that, to wander through lives both small and great, being born and dying over and over again. There is nobody who can come and decide to let one go free from dukkha, which is this wheel of the round of saṁsāra, in the way that they can let a prisoner go free from jail. Therefore the Lord Buddha and all the Sāvakas, when they had attained freedom made an exclamation as though in defiance of the wheel of saṁsāra—such as: “The house builder, which is taṅhā, can never again build me a house—which is my body (rūpa-kāya)—because its ‘vital principle’, which is avijjā, I have destroyed.
And now my citta has attained visankhāra, which is Nibbāna”. But as for us, when will we be able to make an exclamation like that of the Lord Buddha? Or will we let the kilesas and taṅhā do the exclaiming, mocking, ridiculing and defying us every day? The body and its parts and sati and paññā exist here as parts of ourselves, and are we not hurt, pained, irritated and made to feel hot by the words of mockery, ridicule and defiance of the kilesas and taṅhā? In dullness we sit or lie down and listen to their words of mockery and ridicule, carried away in a reverie until we forget ourselves. Is this proper and fitting for we who claim that we are disciples of the Tathāgata? How should we overcome our problems, our kilesas and āsavas? We ought to think and wake ourselves up by means of the practice of diligent effort.
For how did the Lord Buddha and the Sāvakas overcome the problems and kilesas that faced them so that they were victorious and able to bring them all to an end? We should hurry to use that method to overcome the kilesas which arise in our hearts until we attain victory like the Lord, and will genuinely deserve to be called disciples of the Tathāgata. Again, sati and paññā are dhammas which we should be able to build up in our hearts, so we ought not to sit or lie down and wait only for a ready-made sati, paññā, magga, phala and Nibbāna, coming to us from the Lord Buddha or the Ācariyas for them to become our own wealth, and if we do not seek to develop the method of searching with reasoned thought and making changes with the use of our own sati and paññā, then whenever they become necessary, which can arise at any time, or when an immediate problem arises, where will we be able to find and grasp them in time?
For we have never prepared for this from the beginning and we are bound to have to submit to the duress of the kilesas, or any of the other circumstances. Furthermore, neither the Lord Buddha nor the Ācariyas ever praised those who were clever only because of what they had learned by heart from things which were ready-made from other people. But they praised the person who had sati and paññā with which he was able to think, search and discover things for himself alone, and who, with the skillfulness of this sati and paññā, looked after himself keeping away from danger. Even though the skilful methods of making sīla pure and of developing samādhi and skill in paññā for the attainment of magga, phala and Nibbāna, were taught by the Lord in moderately deep ways only, yet there are other skilful ways and methods of doing this which are different in special ways and which are up to the skilful ingenuity of each yogavacāra, who being interested in finding the skill to cure himself should more and more think and search for himself.
Although on who practises ought to be able to attain magga, phala and Nibbāna, it should be realised that these do not come by aimlessly drifting, which means without causes and effects, without sati, paññā, saddhā (faith) and the practice of diligent effort as the key, or as the tools for curing himself. In all the Dhamma that has been told here, all of you should realise in your hearts that the Lord Buddha is the Dhamma Master which means that the principles of reason were constantly in him. And he never tended to give way to extraneous pressures and influences, for the Lord stood firm in the principles of Dhamma throughout from the day that he was enlightened to the day that he passed into Nibbāna. Therefore we should see that the essence of those who are ordained monks is the sacrifice of life at every moment of breathing, for the Lord Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, which are the tokens of repayment from the sāsanā will be our individual immeasurable wealth.
Today the wealth of what is precious in Buddhism has been told so that all of you who listen may know that you will get joyfulness of heart in being the owner of that wealth. This is sufficient for the present time, so I will now end.
Ajaan Mahã Boowa Ñãnasampanno Translated by Ajaan Paññavaddho