Inner Strength - Access to Insight

If we were to answer on a different level—one that’s more difficult to see, andthat only people of awareness can manage—we’d say that the mind comes fromunawareness. And what does unawareness come from? From fabrications. Andwhat do fabrications come from? From unawareness. It’s like the old question,where does the chicken come from? The egg. And the egg? From the chicken. Ifwe keep asking and answering, we simply go around in circles without evercoming to the end of it. This is how things are on the level of the world.The issues of the mind all boil down to two minds: one that likes to do good,and one that likes to do evil. One mind, but there’s two of it. Sometimes aninclination to do good takes hold of us, and so we want to do good. This is calledbeing possessed by skillfulness. Sometimes an inclination to do evil takes hold ofus, and so we want to do evil. This is called being possessed by unskillfulness. Inthis way, our mind is kept always unsettled and unsure.So the Buddha taught us to develop our awareness in order to know what’sgood and worthwhile, and what’s evil and worthless. If unawareness obscuresour mind, we can’t see anything clearly, just as when haze obscures our eyesight.If our knowledge gets really far up away from the world, we’ll have even lesschance of seeing anything, just as a person who goes up high in an airplane andthen looks down below won’t be able to see houses or other objects as clearly aswhen he’s standing on the ground. The higher he goes, the more everythingbecomes a haze. He won’t be able to see any sign of human life at all. This is whythe Buddha taught us to fill ourselves with as much awareness as possible, sothat our ears and eyes will be bright and clear, unobscured by fog or haze.Awareness, of the sort taught by the Buddha, can arise in three ways:1. Sutamaya-paññ›: This is the awareness in which we study and listen to whatother people say so that we can understand what evil things will lead us in thedirection of suffering and stress, and what good things will lead us in thedirection of wellbeing and ease. Once we know, we can then ask ourselves, ‘Dowe want to go in the direction of suffering?’ If we answer, ‘No, we don’t, becauseit’s a hardship. We’d rather go in the direction of wellbeing,’ we have to set ourhearts on giving rise to goodness. That goodness is then sure to lead us in thedirection of wellbeing. For example, some people are born way out in the sticksand yet they train and educate themselves to the point where they end upimportant and influential. The same holds true with us. If we train and educateourselves, we’re all bound to end up as good people. This is education on theelementary level—our ABC’s—called sutamaya-paññ›.2. Cint›maya-paññ›: Once we’ve learned that certain things are good, weshould try each of them until we see good results arising within us. Don’t gojumping to any fixed conclusions that this or that has to be good or right. Forexample, some things may be correct in terms of the Dhamma you’ve learned,but when you try them out, they may be wrong in terms of other people’sfeelings. So when we’re taught something that seems right, we shouldremember it. When we’re taught something that seems wrong, we shouldremember it. We then take these things and evaluate them on our own until wegive rise to an understanding. Only then can we be called intelligent.In other words, we don’t simply believe what’s in books, what other people18