Simply This Moment - Buddhist Meditation and Theravada ...

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dispassion or fading away, which leads to nirodha, cessation, the ending of things,which leads to upasama– this is perhaps the most beautiful term in the list – the peaceand tranquillity. This in turn leads to abhiññā, a really deep and profound knowledge,which leads to sambodhi, enlightenment knowledge, which leads to Nibbāna. “If itleads to those seven things;” the Buddha said, “Upāli, Mahāpājapatī Gotamī, you canknow for certain, and be absolutely sure that that is the Dhamma.”That’s the teaching of the Buddha; that’s wisdom. I always check myself to see thatwhether what I teach, what wisdom I think I have, produces the goods. Does it lead tovirāga, the fading away, to cessation, to deep peace, to profound knowledge,Enlightenment, Nibbāna ? If it leads to those things it’s called wisdom. If it doesn’tturn you away from the world, if it just creates more entanglements with the worldand you think that the world is a wonderful thing, then it’s not nibbidā. If you thinkyou can get rid of your attachments and cravings, and then live in this world and havea jolly good time, that’s not nibbidā. Nibbidā is what sees the problem.It’s not that life out there is suffering; it’s ‘me’ experiencing life as suffering. There isalso this dualism of subject and object, and it all comes together as dukkha, suffering,the first noble truth. That’s how the Buddha became the Buddha, by seeing that truth,seeing that there is no little corner of sasāra where he could hang out and have agood time. It’s rotten to the core. That is what the first noble truth means. That truthleads us to nibbidā. It leads to a complete turning away from the world. It does notlead to turning away from part of the world and then cherishing another part but toturning away from the whole world – turning away from the world outside and alsoturning away from the world inside.Once that happens, nibbidā automatically leads us to virāga, the dispassion towardsthe things of the world: you don’t care what people say about you; you don’t care somuch about your body, its health or vigour, about the things that you eat, or whetherthe coffee runs out. What’s the big deal? There is always some tea, there is alwayssome water, there is always something to drink. Seeing this one understands virāga.Wisdom leads to dispassion, it leads to the ending, the cessation of things. There are103
many people in the world who write big books about Buddhism and many write sillybooks about Buddhism. There are also people who write the forewords to those booksand say what wonderful books they are. It’s just silly people supporting each other.None of it seems to lead to virāga and nirodha, to that peacefulness of mind, theupasama. Achieving those peaceful states of mind is a sure sign of wisdom.Real PeaceIf wisdom arises, its whole purpose, its whole job, its whole function, is to alleviatesuffering. It’s just like taking a pill. If it is the right pill, you take it and the ailmentgoes or the pain lessens; that’s how you know if the pill is suitable for the ailment ornot. If it is wisdom and you can spout it around the coffee table, talk to your friendsabout it, write books about it, but if it doesn’t make you peaceful, if it doesn’t liberateyou from suffering, what’s the point of it? In fact it’s not really wisdom at all. It’swhat we call papañca, proliferation. It’s just conceit. This is why the wisdom thatliberates one is the only wisdom that is worthwhile. This is what the Dhamma does toyou once you really become wise. It leads to peace and tranquillity; it takes you tojhānas, to real peace.People sometimes just don’t know what peace is. They think peace is when they canget their own way and do whatever they want in this world. ‘Leave me in peace!’What do they mean by ‘leave me in peace’? Is it so that they can watch theirtelevision, so they can have relationships, and make a lot of money? That’s not peacein the world. Real peace is not the peace outside but the peace inside the mind. It isthe mind that can be tranquil, that can be silent. It is the beautiful peace in the mind.Sometimes we can hear that peace outside, especially in a quiet monastery like this,on an evening when there is no wind, no rain, when words seem to echo in the silence.That’s the beautiful peace that Dhamma leads towards. It’s wonderful to be able toturn to the peace of nature, to the quietness of a monastery such as this.I often turn to the memory of the quietness I experienced in some of the deep caves inwhich I have meditated, because they really meant something to me in my life as amonk. I have been fortunate to go to places in Thailand where there are forestmonasteries up in the hills that have deep caves. I was able to spend hours in those104
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Simply ThisMoment!A COLLECTION OF T
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CONTENTSPage1 Ways and Means into J
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This gives one great insights into
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ūpaloka, even though we are only a
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too much body-awareness. With body-
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and thoughts - apart from the exper
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faculty of the mind to sustain and
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- and this is a natural phenomena -
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involved I stress the word ‘fully
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though he was a Noble disciple pass
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Anyone who claims the experience of
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Sometimes people have so little con
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the shelf and we know how this whol
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The Delusion of Freedom‘That whic
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monk telling me once that his fathe
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say that in the Anupada Sutta (MN 1
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it’s been still for a long time,
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3 DETOXIFYING THE MIND2 nd of Febru
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consciousness - or as I would prefe
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is letting go of the pleasures of t
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never overcome thirst in that way.
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Use the triple practice of sãla, s
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after another, hundreds, thousands
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much fire in their minds. This is w
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4 LOOKING FOR THE SWEET CHILLISeeki
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Listening to fine music. Is this it
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Page 56 and 57: We have a story in Buddhism of the
Page 58 and 59: This is real contentment! This is r
Page 60 and 61: Watch this inner conversation going
Page 62 and 63: monastic life does respect the sile
Page 64 and 65: delusion because it has kept us goi
Page 66 and 67: This is the opposite of suffering.
Page 68 and 69: ight view. It’s very hard for a h
Page 70 and 71: always be on the wrong path, and on
Page 72 and 73: “Look, if this is causing sufferi
Page 74 and 75: out of control. The monastery goes
Page 76 and 77: the past and the future, and we’r
Page 78 and 79: at all. Who can trust memory? In me
Page 80 and 81: can. Give it full attention every m
Page 82 and 83: in the morning, afternoon or evenin
Page 84 and 85: yourself from all that’s happened
Page 86 and 87: mutti is releasing and anālaya is
Page 88 and 89: instructions without question.It’
Page 90: comes into the mind, then we start
Page 93 and 94: hold in the mind’s eye and I was
Page 95 and 96: of letting go, not stages of attach
Page 97 and 98: Sayutta there is something that imp
Page 99 and 100: pushes you out of sasāra whether y
Page 101 and 102: 7 DHAMMA PRACTICE10 th May 2000I’
Page 103: Adult people look after their own k
Page 107 and 108: What if you make that your goal, an
Page 109 and 110: things really complicated. It’s s
Page 111 and 112: ‘The monks here, or the teacher,
Page 113 and 114: and surrender to the path. Surrende
Page 115 and 116: 8 HUMAN RIGHTS IN BUDDHISMDhammalok
Page 117 and 118: doesn’t really have any meaning o
Page 119 and 120: These things are not freedoms, they
Page 121 and 122: told me in Malaysia and Singapore t
Page 123 and 124: When Jerusalem fell in 70AD, becaus
Page 125 and 126: To question is a right for people.
Page 127 and 128: embarrassed by my fellow Buddhists.
Page 129 and 130: many countries between laws which a
Page 131 and 132: It’s a very narrow truth. The tru
Page 133 and 134: guilty you have to be punished! You
Page 135 and 136: the Zendo - but the more you smile
Page 137 and 138: Having planed off the rough parts,
Page 139 and 140: got the flu and cancelled your appo
Page 141 and 142: I was taught to choose to watch the
Page 143 and 144: From Diversity to UnityMeditation i
Page 145 and 146: usually if someone is dead they wou
Page 147 and 148: There are other cases like that. On
Page 149 and 150: 10 CONDITIONED REALITYDhammaloka Bu
Page 151 and 152: The Buddha very clearly outlined th
Page 153 and 154: even your bare perception is alread
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way, there has to be some other exp
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Seeing Truth and RealityI want part
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talked with one of the people - who
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was able to follow to get into deep
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ideas are not actually the true Nib
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that the air around it is not movin
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and find out what that pain really
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mantras, all words of instructions,
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just observing. Surely the thinking
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without valuing, without weighing o
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so difficult to attain. It is becau
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12 REFLECTIONS THAT ARE CONDUCIVETO
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the mind, and that’s the jhānas.
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need the calm which is developed by
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can try it with virāga.VirāgaPeop
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with all of its difficulties and al
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clinging stops us from experiencing
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the thirteenth giving up the critic
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13 THE OUTFLOWINGS OF THE MIND12 th
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from peace. The will ‘to be’ is
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the future, to fantasies, to the pa
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taught here. Going into the present
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that the core of all this is ‘emp
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14 STARVING THE TIGER TO DEATHOverc
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inappropriate for a monk to be doin
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When a person really understands wh
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getting angry and upset. This way y
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You will find simplicity means that
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use them to make progress in your m
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By developing seclusion from all th
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People in the world say everything
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15 THE LAW OF CONDITIONALITY3 rd Ja
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elate that sort of smell to a very
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When you start to see the will ceas
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up. You see that anger is not the c
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be a
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Once you can see this whole cause a
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whether you like it or not. So you
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anymore than you can break the laws
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is the barrier of the five hindranc
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experiences, resting on them, based
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attention to the sensory world, we
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Instead of having kāmacchanda we h
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distraction of ill-will? Outside, w
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Sloth and TorporSloth and torpor ar
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wherever you want mind, I’m compl
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Wherever there’s thinking, it goe
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17 I KNOW YOU MĀRA25 th August 200
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“Come on, who do you think you ar
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you don’t have a clue, that so ma
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unfolding. In fact, the more you le
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they’ve got into that habit. What
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As the Buddha said in the Indriya S
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about anything because worrying is
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seeing clearly. Sometimes people ge
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There is just so much happiness. Th
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see so much detail. It was always t
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after us, yet there is this loud mu
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When you start to see that, it’s
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this. So if we see where that disco
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mindfulness, you get pīti, more jo
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you can meditate, you can teach, be
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and restlessness cannot survive. Th
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19 PERFECT STILLNESS29 th June 2005
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Have You Come Here to Die?At one re
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At the last retreat I taught in Ipo
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process is about. You also understa
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go of everything. Letting go is wha
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the moment. It doesn’t matter wha
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moving up and down, the nimmitta is
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So, look upon your life as a journe
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Nirodha. Nirodha means cessation, t
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20 THE ENDING OF EVERYTHING7 th Dec
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delusion, to think of things as bei
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samatha and also the word upasama b
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quoting the suttas here; they are t
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I was talking earlier this evening
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opposite is true. The less ‘self
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senses are. Before that it’s just
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The mind creates; this is what it d
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Get into the jhānas, the real jhā
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whatever things come into existence
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2. Dukkha - suffering.3. Anattā -
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Painissagga: “Letting go”, aban
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