Inner Strength - Access to Insight

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61In the same way, those of us who are adrift in the ocean of life have to:1) caulk our boat so that it’s nice and tight,2) stock our boat with enough provisions, and3) learn how to distill fresh water from salt water.The “boat” here stands for our body. It’s not a big boat. If it were larger thanthis, we human beings would have lots of hardships. The body is a fathom long,a cubit wide, and a span thick. This is a boat that we have to caulk so that it’s niceand tight. Caulking the boat here stands for restraint of the senses: restrainingthe eye—being careful not to give rise to bad kamma because of the eye, notletting barnacles build up on it; restraining the ear—don’t let anything evil comein by way of the ear, for anything evil is like a barnacle. The same holds truewith our nose, tongue, body, and mind: We shouldn’t take an interest inanything evil or bad, for things of that sort are like barnacles or insects that willbore into the wood of our boat and destroy it.This is why we’re taught to practice restraint over our eyes, ears, nose,tongue, body, and mind. We abstain from doing whatever shouldn’t be done. Wehave to protect ourselves and practice restraint, considering things thoroughlybefore we act. If we let barnacles develop all over our body, this boat of ours—this Body Ship—will wear out and sink into the ocean.As for the mind, we have to be careful that defilements don’t arise in theheart. We have to exercise restraint like this at all times, continually caulking oursix sense media, caulking our eyes with the right sights, our ears with the rightsounds, our nose with the right smells, our tongue with the right flavors, ourbody with the right tactile sensations, and our mind with the Dhamma.Caulking the eye means that if we see a lack anywhere that will give us achance to develop merit and skillfulness—whether it’s inside the monastery orout—we shouldn’t be indifferent to it. We should fill up the lack as we can, stepby step. This is called caulking the eye.Caulking the ear means that when we hear people say anything—regardlessof whether they have the intention of telling or teaching us—when their voicescome scraping into our ears, we should tell ourselves that the sound is a chancefor us to develop our goodness. In that way the sound will be useful to us. Nomatter what kind of person is speaking—child or adult; monk, novice, or nun;tall, short, black, white, whatever: We should choose to pay attention only to thethings that will be of use to us. This is called using sounds as pitch for caulkingfor the ears.When we encounter smells passing by our nose, we should search only forsmells that will make us cheerful, that will give rise to skillful mental states as away of caulking our nose. This is what will bring happiness and peace to themind.Caulking the body stands for the way we sit here quietly listening to theDhamma without moving around or making any disturbance. It also stands forsitting in meditation, sitting and chanting, performing a candle circumambulationceremony, using the body to bow down to the Buddha. All of these things countas caulking for the body.
As for caulking the mind, that stands for dhamma-osatha: the medicine of theDhamma. We caulk the mind by the way we think. If, when we think ofsomething, the mind sours, we shouldn’t think about that thing. Whether it’s amatter of the world or of the Dhamma, if thinking about it gives rise to anger ordelusion in the mind, we shouldn’t pay it any attention. We should think insteadof the good we’ve done in the past. For instance, we can think of the good thingswe did together in the celebration of the year 2500 B.E. Even though we’veparted ways since then, we’ve come back together to do skillful and meritoriousthings once more. This is a caulking for the mind. In addition to that, we fosteranother form of goodness, called developing concentration. Developingconcentration is a way of caulking the mind so that it doesn’t develop any gaps,leaks, or holes.All of this is called caulking our boat—the boat of the body. In P›li, this iscalled indrıya-saªvara-sıla, the principles of restraint over the sense faculties. Weexercise restraint over our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, so that ourboat will float on the ocean without sinking. This is called caulking our boat.What do we do next? We have to stock our boat with provisions. Once we’reborn in the world, our wellbeing depends on the requisites of life. We’ve eatenfood, worn clothing, lived in shelter, and used medicine to treat the body. That’swhy we’ve been able to find as much comfort as we have. When we considerthis fact, we have to turn and consider how others are getting along. When wesee that we need these things to get along, we start stocking our boat by givinggifts of alms food and making other donations to provide all four requisites. Thisis called stocking our boat with provisions. Then we put up a mast and unfurl asail. In other words, we invite a monk to get up on the sermon seat and teach theDhamma as a way of inclining the mind in the right direction. The mind will thenzip right along in line with the breeze of the Dhamma. And the body will goright along with it.For example, once we’ve heard the Dhamma we gain a feeling ofcontentment so that we want to hear it again. This is a sign that our boat hascaught wind, and the wind is strong, so we sail right along. This will help ourboat reach the other shore easily. If there’s no sail to help it along, and we stockthe boat with too many things, it may sink. That’s why there’s the custom, whenanyone makes a donation, to have a sermon at the same time as a way ofinclining the mind in the direction of the Dhamma. For our boat to getanywhere, it needs a sail. Then no matter how many or few provisions we haulon board, the boat will head in the direction we want it to. This is the secondthing we need to know.The third thing is the method for distilling salt water so that it can becomefresh. This stands for practicing tranquility meditation and insight meditation. Wegive rise to directed thought and evaluation within the mind. And what is saltwater? Salt water stands for defilement. The defilements of the mind are saltierthan salt. When we try to eat salt—even just a little—we can’t swallow it becausewe find it so salty, but the defilements are even saltier than that. They can crustus over so that we spoil and rot in all sorts of ways. When this is the case, whatcan we do? We have to filter or distill them. Filtering refers to yoniso manasik›ra,62
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Inner Strength&Parting GiftsTalks b
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3InnerStrength
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5they reveal their true meanings on
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have a sense of our own good and ba
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9A Mind of Pure GoldJuly, 1958The m
Page 12 and 13: 11sunk in worldly matters, are stil
Page 14 and 15: 13not their owner will have you thr
Page 16: for instance, can’t jump up to cl
Page 20 and 21: say, or what our teachers tell us.
Page 22 and 23: 21II. Inner SkillThe ABC’s of the
Page 24 and 25: persons running: They’ll have a h
Page 27 and 28: 26warm the fires of digestion, just
Page 29 and 30: Stick with whichever way of breathi
Page 31 and 32: 30Observe & EvaluateJuly 24, 1956In
Page 33 and 34: 32the point where it flows evenly w
Page 35 and 36: air inside seems still, and yet the
Page 37 and 38: 36self-sufficient, the body is self
Page 39 and 40: 38When these five strengths appear
Page 41 and 42: 40This is called knowing the moment
Page 43 and 44: Once you can focus comfortably on t
Page 45 and 46: pervades every thread in the mantle
Page 47 and 48: whose minds are certain and sure, b
Page 49 and 50: people with only partial knowledge
Page 51 and 52: emedy it—keeping at it with our e
Page 53 and 54: 52Dhamma of study and practice with
Page 55 and 56: 54say. They can say ‘stress,’ b
Page 57 and 58: 56PartingGiftsIntroductionOnly in t
Page 59 and 60: as word of this gathering passed by
Page 61: We depend on our minds that are swi
Page 65 and 66: coarse breathing, you know. When it
Page 67 and 68: So, all of you who have gathered to
Page 69 and 70: comes out of ignorance. Goodness co
Page 71 and 72: merit. Now suppose that those thoug
Page 73 and 74: we can use to develop goodness with
Page 75 and 76: All four of these types of defileme
Page 77 and 78: 76KnowledgeOctober 4, 1960Vijj›-c
Page 79 and 80: through not thinking. The first lev
Page 81 and 82: there’s too much evaluation, thou
Page 83 and 84: eally causing stress. These are nob
Page 85 and 86: 84Wherever we go, people will be gl
Page 87 and 88: are the ones made of skin. The inne
Page 89 and 90: 88ConsciousnessesIn all our activit
Page 91 and 92: Buddha tells us not to go joining i
Page 93 and 94: probably our enemies in past lives.
Page 95 and 96: consciousness is so slack and limp
Page 97 and 98: why we keep losing out to them. We
Page 99 and 100: 98as, “That’s the consciousness
Page 101 and 102: 100GlossaryI. TermsThe definitions
Page 103 and 104: 102m›ra: The personification of d
Page 105: 104sabbe satt› sad› hontuaver
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Inner Strength - Access to Insight

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