Inner Strength - Access to Insight

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97that have built their homes in our eyeballs. Unawareness blocks our ears: theconsciousnesses of all the animals that have come and built their homes filling upour earholes. Unawareness blocks our nose: the consciousnesses of all theanimals that have come and built their homes in our nostrils. It blocks ourtongue: the consciousnesses of all the animals that have come and built theirhomes and cities in our tongue. It blocks our body: the consciousnesses of all theanimals that have come and built their homes in every pore. As for our ownsingle consciousness, it’s no match for them. This is why the effort of ourmeditation is so limp and lax: We don’t understand what these things are doingto us. They close off our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind so that wecan’t see our way out. As a result, the qualities we’re trying to develop just don’tgrow.Now, when we can wipe out the homes of unawareness, that’s when we’llunderstand what’s going on:aneka-j›ti saªs›raª sandh›vissaª anibbisaªgaha-k›rakaª gavesanto….Through the round of many birthsI wandered without rest,seeking the builder of the house….When we contemplate to the point where we understand these things, we’llcome to see the endless affairs of all the living beings that have taken upresidence in our home. Aneka-j›ti saªs›raª…. They’ve come to quarrel andsquabble and create a lot of trouble. They like to pull our mind into all kinds ofharm.When we contemplate so as to see things in this way, disenchantment arises.Cakkhusmiª-pi nibbindati. We feel disenchantment for the eye. RÒpesu-pinibbindati. Disenchantment for forms. Cakkhu-viññ›˚e-pi nibbindati.Disenchantment for consciousness. We really get tired of it. It’s a genuinenuisance to the heart. Nibbindaª virajjati, vir›g› vimuccati. We spit them out. Theeye spits out forms. It spits out consciousness. It spits them out, because it’s hadenough.Sotasmiª-pi nibbindati. We feel disenchantment for the ear. Saddesu-pinibbindati. Disenchantment for sounds. Sota-viññ›˚e-pi nibbindati.Disenchantment for consciousness. Vir›g› vimuccati. We spit them all out. Whenthe eye spits out form, forms don’t get stuck in the eye, so the eye can penetrateand see for miles. When sounds get spit out, our ears can penetrate. We can hearwhat the devas are chatting about. When the nose spits out aromas, the entireworld smells sweet. Our goodness, when we let go of it, smells sweet in everydirection. The tongue spits out flavors, it doesn’t swallow them; it spits outconsciousness. The body spits out tactile sensations. Heat doesn’t get stuck in theheart. Cold doesn’t get stuck in the heart. Hard, soft, whatever, in the body,doesn’t get stuck, doesn’t seep in. Everything gets spit out, all the way to mentalconsciousness. The mind lets go of its goodness. It doesn’t hold onto the view orconceit that its goodness belongs to it. It spits out evil, unskillful states, so thatevil can’t leak in to get it soaked. It spits out all the various things it knows, such
98as, “That’s the consciousness of living beings with bodies…. That’s theconsciousness of living beings without bodies…. That’s really my consciousness.”All of this gets spit out. That’s what’s called viññ›˚asmiª-pi nibbindati:Disenchantment with consciousness, disenchantment for mental objects.Vir›g› vimuccati. Everything gets spit out; nothing gets swallowed, so nothinggets stuck in the throat. The eye doesn’t swallow forms, the ear doesn’t swallowsounds, the nose doesn’t swallow smells, the tongue doesn’t swallow flavors, thebody doesn’t swallow tactile sensations, the mind doesn’t swallow ideas.Vimuccati: Release. There’s no more turmoil or entanglement. That’s whenyou’re said to be in the presence of nibb›na. Vimuttasmiª vimuttamiti ñ›˚aª hoti,khı˚› j›ti, vusitaª brahma-cariyaª—“In release, there is the knowledge, ‘Released.’Birth is ended, the holy life has been fulfilled.” When we can practice in this waywe’ll know clearly what’s the consciousness of animals, what’s ourconsciousness, and we can let go of them all. That’s when we’ll know that we’vegained release from all three sorts of consciousness.The consciousness of living beings with bodies isn’t our consciousness. Theconsciousness of living beings without bodies isn’t our consciousness. Ourconsciousness, which is aware of these things, isn’t us. These things get let go, inline with their nature. That’s when we can be said to know the five aggregatesand all six sense media. We gain release from the world and can open our eyes.Our eyes will be able to see far, as when we slide away the walls on our homeand can see for hundreds of yards. When our eyes aren’t stuck on forms, we cangain clairvoyant powers and see far. When our ears aren’t stuck on sounds, wecan hear distant sounds. When our nose isn’t stuck on smells, we can sniff thesmell of the devas, instead of irritating our nose with the smell of human beings.When flavors don’t get stuck on the tongue, we can taste heavenly medicine andfood. When the mind isn’t stuck on tactile sensations, we can live in comfort.Wherever we sit, we can be at our ease: at ease when it’s cold, at ease when it’shot, at ease in a soft seat, at ease in a hard seat. Even if the sun burns us up, wecan be at our ease. The body can fall apart, and we can be at our ease. This iscalled spitting out tactile sensations. As for the heart, it spits out ideas. It’s a heartreleased: released from the five aggregates, released from the three sorts ofconsciousness. They can’t ever fool it again. The heart is released from stress andsuffering, and will reach the highest, most ultimate happiness: nibb›na.Here I’ve been talking on the topic of consciousness. Take it to heart and trainyourself to give rise to knowledge within. That’s when you can be said to knowthe worlds. The consciousnesses that have bodies inhabit the worlds ofsensuality, from the levels of hell on up to heaven. The consciousnesses with nobodies inhabit the world of the formless Brahm›s. Our own consciousness iswhat will take us to nibb›na.When you know these three kinds of consciousness you can be said to bevijj›-cara˚a-sampanno: consummate in knowledge and conduct. Sugato: You’ll gowell and come well and wherever you stay, you’ll stay well. All the beings of theworld can then get some relief. In what way? We hand everything over to them.Any animals who want to eat away in our body can go ahead and do so. We’re
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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
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11sunk in worldly matters, are stil
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13not their owner will have you thr
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for instance, can’t jump up to cl
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say, or what our teachers tell us.
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21II. Inner SkillThe ABC’s of the
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persons running: They’ll have a h
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26warm the fires of digestion, just
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Stick with whichever way of breathi
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30Observe & EvaluateJuly 24, 1956In
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32the point where it flows evenly w
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air inside seems still, and yet the
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36self-sufficient, the body is self
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38When these five strengths appear
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40This is called knowing the moment
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Once you can focus comfortably on t
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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 and 62: We depend on our minds that are swi
Page 63 and 64: As for caulking the mind, that stan
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: why we keep losing out to them. We
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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