I
hope that by now you have a much better idea of how the law of kamma works. To
understand the law of kamma, it means that you know and you can put your
destiny into your own hands. You certainly don’t leave it to someone else like
a supernatural being or something else such as stars or genes to condition your
destiny for you. This is supposed to be a piece of very good news to all
humankind because it can give you hope and the courage to develop and improve yourself.
It
is true that you cannot undo what you have done wrong in the past but the very
good news is that from now on you can certainly decorate your own future
exactly in the way that you want it to be. Whichever rebirth you want to go to,
you just have to make the cause or create your kamma or action accordingly. I
have told you in chapter 12 exactly what kinds of deeds will send you to what
realm in samsara. If you are still happy to travel a bit longer in samsara,
there are six different ways that you can go. I summarise them shortly as
follows:
1) Being often angry, violating the moral
precepts of killing, stealing, committing adultery, making false and malicious
speech and having ill will, etc., you are building a house in hell.
2) Being often greedy from small things to
big things, wanting to possess other people’s belongings or properties, being
jealous when others can do better than you, you are building a house in the
hungry ghost world or peta realm.
3) Being ignorant, lazy and not
enthusiastic in searching for right knowledge, you are building a house in the
animal world.
4) Regularly observing the five moral
precepts, you are building a house in the human world.
5) Regularly doing greater meritorious
deeds by bodily action, verbal action and mental action; doing, talking and
thinking good both in front of and behind people, you are building a house in
the Deva world or heaven.
6) Regularly doing meditation until
attaining a high level of consciousness or jhana, you are building a house in
the Brahma world.
There
is no need for me to say what realms you should and should not go to. Being
born as a human means you have the choice to build your future house in the way
that you want to. Every new intention or volition you make from this moment
onwards, whether it is a wholesome or unwholesome wish, is a new kamma which
will give result or vipaka in the future. Every new kamma can be compared to
each piece of material such as wood, brick, cement, sand and so on, that you
gradually send forward to build your future house from the foundation upward
right to the roof. The more kamma you do, both wholesome and unwholesome, the
more material you have sent forward and the quicker you can complete building
your future house. By the time your death consciousness leaves this physical
shell, your future house is already waiting for you. Habitual or regular kamma
gives long term results.
Nevertheless,
whether it is a good or bad house you are building for your future life, you
are still very much building houses. In other words, you are still travelling
round and round the endless samsara. If this is what you really want to do, I
have no objection whatsoever. The choice is entirely yours. I do believe that
the concept of entering Nirvana is certainly not everybody’s choice. In fact,
the Buddha said this himself. He said that those who had reached the island of
Nirvana were very few indeed, the rest were willing to run around samsara. Even
so, I think that going to the upper realms in samsara is still not an easy task
to do at all especially in our modern society where people are so prepared to
bow their heads to temptations. So, even though you want to choose to go to
heaven, you must still do your best to achieve that goal. I can only wish
everyone the best of luck.
As
for this chapter, I am going to focus on building no houses, which is the main
focus point of this book and all of my work. You therefore have to know the
best type of kamma that people can ever achieve and end samsara. But before you
can appreciate this piece of good news, you must at least be convinced about
the cycle of rebirth and have fear of travelling endlessly around samsara. Only
then will you look forward to hearing more about the best type of kamma.
Indeed
vipassana or the four foundations of awareness is the best kamma which results
in building no more houses in samsara. I have already talked about the four
foundations of awareness in A Handful of Leaves, so you do have some idea what
vipassana is all about. I will also take you into the process of vipassana
practice in the second part of this book.
In this chapter, I just want to focus on the theoretical side of how the
four foundations of awareness can take you out of samsara.
I
have just talked about dependent origination in the previous chapter. I am sure
that you are still familiar with all the Pali words and terms I used. Dependent
origination is the 12 links that cause suffering in life and the root cause of
suffering is ignorance. This is what the Buddha found out on the night of his
ultimate enlightenment. He can therefore take away the ignorance and replace it
with knowledge or wisdom. The wisdom subsequently destroys sankhara or the
building team – the mental or karmic formations. The rest of the links then
collapse accordingly like dominoes and this is called dependent cessation.
Therefore,
in the reverse from dependent origination, the Buddha states the dependent
cessation as the following:
1
/2) Through the total fading away
and cessation of ignorance, sankhara or karmic (mental) formations cease.
3) Through the cessation of sankhara or
karmic formations, consciousness ceases.
4) Through the cessation of consciousness,
body and mind cease.
This
thus links accordingly to
12) Through the cessation of birth,
disease, decay and death, also sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair
cease.
Through
dependent cessation, we learn that where there is no ignorance, there is no
building team (sankhara), thus there is no house or no birth and finally there
is no suffering. On the night of his ultimate enlightenment, the Buddha
joyfully exclaimed to himself:
Seeking
but not finding the House Builder,
I
travelled through the round of countless births (samsara):
O
painful is birth ever & again.
House
Builder, you have now been seen;
You
shall not build the house again.
Your
rafters have been broken down;
Your
ridge pole is demolished too.
My
mind has now attained the unformed Nirvana,
And
reached the end of every kind of craving.
Once
the Buddha sees dependent cessation or the collapsing of the 12 links that
cause suffering to all sentient beings, he knows exactly what to do to stop the
building team (sankhara) from building houses for beings. When he started
teaching, he initially told people about the Four Noble Truths – suffering, the
cause of suffering, the end of suffering and the noble eightfold path which is
the way to end suffering. After that first sermon at the Deer Park in Benares, the
Buddha still kept on working out a way that could be more precise for people to
follow. If the Buddha was writing a life map for us, he was trying his best to
draw the most detailed map so that we would not get lost. In practice,
dependent cessation has to happen on the mind level while we are very much
alive as of this very moment. Therefore, the outcome of this life map is aimed
for us to work on our mind level from this moment onward too.
That
life map is indeed vipassana practice or the four foundations of awareness.
This is the practice that can make dependent cessation happen on the mind level
from this moment onwards. This unique practice has been known as the priceless
jewel that crowns Buddhism to this day. This gem is undoubtedly due to the most
ingenious ability of our inspiring Buddha. Because of this most detailed life
map, people in our modern world can still follow the well indicated signposts
that the Buddha carefully worked out for us over two thousand five hundred
years ago. The Buddha said that as long as there are people who practice
vipassana, this world will never be empty of Pra Arahants or the worthy ones.
Indeed, vipassana practice has been kept alive to this very moment due to the
passing down of the hard work of all the enlightened ones in the past since the
Buddha’s time. I am just one person along the line of over two thousands years
of history who is trying her best to keep this practice alive for as long as it
takes so that humanity can always have this ultimate refuge to go to.
Therefore,
your understanding of this practice is of immense importance. You may be yet
another person who can pass on this priceless gem to your children and their
children to come. I can challenge you to think of the best thing in the world
that you can do and make you really happy both physically and mentally.
Whatever that best thing of yours is, I want you to know that it is nothing
compared to vipassana or the four foundations of awareness. I have to use
strong words so that you can see things in perspective and put all your
confidence in this practice.
Now
you know about vipassana practice in relation to dependent cessation which
finally ends rebirth. I am still talking about ending the rebirth but this time
from yet another angle in which I will involve the term kamma or action. This
is because of the kamma and the vipaka (result of kamma) that feed the cycle of
rebirth to go on and on indefinitely. Therefore, theoretically speaking, if you
do no kamma, there won’t be any result and there won’t be any rebirth.
Some
of you may have heard the term ‘non-action’ before from somewhere, especially
those who are familiar with Krishnamurti’s work. Although I was inspired so
much during my student years by his work, Krishnamurti did not explain clearly
enough what exactly non-action is. What precisely does one have to do by
non-action? Zen Buddhism also often uses the term non-action. Does it mean you
sleep or sit still all day and do nothing at all or what? Without clear
guidelines, non-action can be interpreted wrongly and abused. I said before
that mad leaders have used this concept to motivate and encourage people to
kill. So, I would like to make it very clear to you what non-action really
means.
Non-action
doesn’t mean that you sit still or sleep all day and do nothing at all. Even
sitting still or sleeping all day and night as in a coma and there are no
activities involved whatsoever, they are still not called non-action. If you
are still ignorant about the enlightenment of the Buddha, such non-activity
still indicates actions and therefore you are still performing a type of deed
or kamma. You may sit still all day and do nothing but as long as your illusive
mind is still doing the thinking and your thoughts may involve anger, vengeance
and greed, you are still very much performing kamma which will definitely give
result and generate more rebirth. Mental action is a serious type of kamma that
gives results. Most leaders of all professions both good and bad are very
likely to sit still and do the thinking instead of performing the physical
action themselves. The result of those thoughts will be carried out and then
turned into action which can be both very positive and negative. Whilst the
positive results bring joy and happiness, negative results can bring endless
pain and suffering to a great number of people. The Buddha said that fighting
between two persons cannot be worse than the result of the thoughts produced by
an illusive mind. We have witnessed enough horrific events in the history of
humankind which were the results of those who appeared to sit still and do
nothing physically. So, sitting still and doing nothing physically is
definitely not non-action.
To
understand how non-action works, it is important to know about white sin first.
Bad action is straightforward, it is sinful; it casts a black shadow. Good
action can be complicated at times. It doesn’t always cast a white shadow or
good result. Sometimes people can do good deeds and they cling to the result of
that deed. Consequently they feel proud of themselves and incline to think that
they are better than others because they have done lots of good deeds. This
kind of feeling is not healthy and is called white sin. If they cannot work it
out for themselves and no one else tells them so, they will end up building
themselves a bigger ego and keep on licking that ego. Doing good deeds is good
in itself, don’t get me wrong, but letting that good action come back to
strengthen your ego is no good. Good action can be a very good source that
casts white sin or a white shadow which is very difficult to detect and
demolish. You need to have someone who has more wisdom than yourself to tell
you this. If not, you can cling to your white sin for as long as it takes. Thai
people have a saying “cover gold leaf behind the Buddha image” which means
doing good deeds without boasting to anyone about it. Doing good deeds without
feeling proud and claiming any merit or credit for it is even better. This kind
of action is not easy to carry out but you must do it if you want to get out of
samsara. The practice that can help you to let go of your white sin is
non-action or vipassana.
According
to the law of kamma, non-action actually means the action that leaves no
after-effect or vipaka. If we compare the vipaka or result of kamma to a shadow
and let’s suppose that this shadow has both black and white colour, non-action
is the type of kamma that leaves no black shadow nor white shadow. In other word,
non-action is the type of action that leaves no shadow whatsoever. This type of
kamma can be carried out by just one means only. That is through the vipassana
practice or the four foundations of awareness. No other type of action can
apply to it whatsoever.
What
non-action really is, it means that you must initially engage yourself in the
practice of the four foundations of awareness. You can learn this practice from
any Buddhist temple or any institution where a vipassana course is available.
As for me, I use Tai Chi as a distinctive means to introduce the four
foundations of awareness to my students. Let’s suppose you are doing Tai Chi
with me, you then are in fact full of movements as well as being active. As
long as you follow the guidelines I tell you in class, that is being aware
either of your breath or your walking or your Tai Chi movement, you are indeed
performing the non-action that yields no result either black or white. When the
still mind or calm nature manifests itself, all the thoughts have subsided and
there is no wish of any sort in the mind. Your action at the time when your
mind is completely still is indeed called non-action. Such movement is pure and
innocent because it isn’t being tinted by any intentional thoughts or volition.
Such innocent movement is called non-action. In other words, as long as you can
be aware of your immediate moment and your mind is completely still, you create
no deed or perform non-action and those actions give no result.
When
there is no result of kamma or vipaka, it means that you send no material for
the building team (sankhara) to build houses in different states in samsara.
You can say that you begin to stop feeding the cycle of rebirth. If you keep on
with the practice, your cycle of rebirth will be cut shorter and shorter.
Finally, there is no house in samsara waiting for you, then you can go to
Nirvana instead. To find out what Nirvana really is, please go back to read A
Handful of Leaves. I have explained it very clearly there. Grasp that state of ultimate
reality and ask no more questions. You will go to Nirvana for certain.
The
four foundations of awareness or vipassana is the only type of action which
will gradually end the cycle of rebirth for yourself and therefore, you are no
longer subjected to rebirth. Instead, you have the ultimate freedom.
Now,
you can understand why I praise vipassana practice so immensely that I have to
devote the second part of this book to talking about this practice alone. In
fact, not only me, all devout Buddhists know about vipassana and realise how
important it is to pursue this matchless gem. As for now, I just want you to be
clear how non-action, vipassana practice and the ending of the cycle of rebirth
relate to one another.
You
can see that only Buddhism can literally offer humanity this best option of
kamma which ends samsara. It may sound very arrogant of me to say this and not
surprisingly I may have offended all other religious believers. Please
understand that I am not being condescending and making myself far superior to
others. I am not your enemy either, I have brought myself forward to be a good
friend (Kalayanamita) to all the human race regardless of your race and belief.
In being a good friend to you all, I must state the true facts, no more and no
less. Of course, speaking the truth does offend people at times and it is
impossible to please everyone. This is a fact of life which I must gamble on if
I truly want to help people. Would you rather not know the truth at all? Please
ask yourself before you get angry with me. The truth is that there is no
religion in the world that can offer people vipassana practice. Where there is
no vipassana, there is no eternity and no end to rebirth.
The
best action other religions can offer to humankind is helping people to go to
heaven but not to get out of samsara. The best Christian, the best Hindu, the
best Jew, the best Muslim and so on can only go to reunite with their God in
heaven but they cannot get out of samsara. Indeed, there is a great deal of
difference between going to heaven and getting out of samsara as you must know
by now. That’s why I have to interpret the term ‘God’ in the way that I have
been doing all along so that believers in God can benefit from this essential
practice too. Please read A Handful of Leaves carefully and you will know my
intention. I am not asking anyone to abandon their religion. Not at all, on the
contrary, your faith is the best thing that has happened in your life. All
established religions are the best things that have happened in the world. All
religious traditions are equally good and special. Only religious traditions
can make hundreds of millions of people say “Merry Christmas” or worship God
simultaneously five times a day or turn a whole nation into vegetarians. Only
religions have the natural right to tell people to do good and not to do bad.
Only religious culture can do it, not political culture. What I am trying to
say is for you to keep your faith and your religion as they are. But apply this
Buddhist practice into it somehow so that everyone can practice it in the
comfort of his and her own religious culture. This is the only way that people
of all races and beliefs can be truly united and live together in peace. Once
this practice is adopted, the common ground that we can all share is nothing
more than our inner peace or the complete stillness of the mind which is indeed
a universal feeling.
Without
this wisdom, there is no way that we can reduce any trouble in the world. My
thought merely aims at reducing the unnecessary trouble in the world and is not
about imposing a trouble free world which is rather different. I never think
that this world can be trouble free anyway because being troublesome is the
nature of the world. This job is not small at all, surely you must know that.
It is far too huge for me just to talk about it alone like this, not to mention
about anything else. Indeed, it requires immense courage for anyone just to
stand up and say “I do agree with you, Supawan. What can I do to help you?” I
can’t help thinking at times that I must be absolutely crazy in persisting on a
no-win situation. Who is going to listen to a woman like me? But this is the
whole point, I have no wish to beat anyone or win any battle whatsoever. Even writing
this book, I only aim at one person who can truly understand and go for it; it
is enough to make me very happy. That’s why I just say what I must say. The
choice is entirely yours. I have done my duty. That is the best I can do.
Let’s
suppose that you have decided to give it a go and want to practice vipassana,
or you may already have done so for some time, and you want to know what you
can anticipate from now on. From the moment you wish to adopt vipassana into
your life, you should realise that you initially have to find a treasure map
and once you have finally found the hidden treasure, you will be immensely rich
and wealthy. This wealth does not necessarily have anything to do with material
value. This hidden treasure is your very own and private enlightenment. Then,
you will put in all your effort and patiently follow the path shown on the map.
The four foundations of awareness are the exact life map that you will be
following. As the practice is proceeding, your mind will develop gradually.
This is the beginning of undoing the spell cast on you and returning you from
being a tiger back to being a human again. The tiger will slowly be transformed
back to being a human bit by bit.
Whether
you like it or not, you will anticipate reaching the different levels of
holiness as you are proceeding with the vipassana practice. Please do not be
fooled by the word ‘holiness’ and begin to feel special and create for yourself
the white sin. If you feel so, it is a very bad start indeed. Holiness in this
sense actually has the same meaning as simplicity which I have talked about it
in an earlier chapter of this book. Please refer back to it and make yourself
simple always. Provided that you have a good vipassana teacher and make steady
effort, you will progress and you will finally get to the hidden treasure or
the enlightenment. That is your own enlightenment which is about discovering
the deepest secret of life being barred by just one single strand of hair.
The
more you follow the life map by practising vipassana, the simpler and the more
innocent you become. That simplicity and innocence are indeed the holiness in
itself. The more holy you are, the simpler you become and the more you do not
feel the holiness. This is the only kind of religious practice that can protect
oneself safe and sound from all dangers all the way through to eternity.
Vipassana
practitioners who are dealing with the third foundation of awareness, will constantly get rid of all the
dangerous thoughts that may lead them being trapped in spiritual pitfalls or
spiritual danger. Seeing the fourth foundation of awareness, the ultimate
reality, Nirvana or the innocent world allows practitioners to distinguish
between delusion and truth very clearly. Consequently, this is the safety net
that will protect practitioners all the way to Arahantship. Therefore, the
group of thoughts for example “I am the best because I know the deepest secret
of life; I am the spiritual leader of the world and people must respect me"
and so on, which obviously will condition the practitioners to take the wrong
turn, will undoubtedly be annihilated right at that instant on the mind level.
Such groups of thoughts have destroyed so many spiritual leaders who appeared
to set off on the right track. When fame and wealth are too overwhelming, most
spiritual leaders can truly survive only because they have the right knowledge.
If not, they will be destroyed terribly by their own delusion and unfortunately
take a lot of people with them too. We have seen enough of such incidents
especially in the western society where people are hungry for spiritual
knowledge and there are few real teachers available. Only the practice of the
third foundation of awareness can enable the practitioner to wipe out such outrageous
and illusive thoughts. Once they have managed to come out of such illusive
thoughts, they will subsequently be living with the real truth or the fourth
foundation of awareness. And this kind of practice will see them through safe
and sound until they reach Arahantship. Without the practice of the third and
the fourth foundations of awareness, there is no guarantee that the spiritual
leaders will be safe especially those who are surrounded by extreme wealth,
respect and fame. Real holy people would rather walk away unnoticed. Maybe you
can begin to understand the spirit of Lao Tzu. Whoever that person was, it
really doesn’t matter. What really matters is that the person who left the Tao
Te Ching behind for humankind was undoubtedly a real holy person. Such a
secretive characteristic is indeed how the real holy people want to be. I have
no doubt that even nowadays there are holy people out and about both in the
ascetic and lay status but there is no way people would know their real holy
status.
The
four levels of holiness begin from:
1) Sotapanna; the stream-enterer.
Having reached the stage of being a Sotapanna or the stream-enterer, means that
you can thin down the fundamental level of delusion or ignorance. It is still
very much on the thinking level. When you reach this state, you have to be able
to do the following:
a) You have no doubt about the
enlightenment of the Buddha. Your faith in the Buddha’s teaching has to be
extremely firm and well rooted.
b) You have no doubt about the ultimate
goal of life. You must know exactly what the ultimate goal of life is at least
on the thinking level.
c) You have no doubt about the law of
kamma and the cycle of rebirth.
d) You must not be shaken or waver easily
when other people come up and claim that their ideas and approach are better
than the Buddha’s. You must use your wisdom gained from vipassana practice and
work out your own logic and reasons so that you can always regain your
confidence.
e) You must also have some idea of how
exactly you can execute the vipassana practice.
f) The stream-enterer must at least have a
glimpse of what the ‘innocent world’ or ‘innocent perception’ looks like. This
is the beginning of the transformation from being a tiger into being a human
according to the first chapter of A Handful of Leaves.
When
all the above happens, it means that you have begun your non-action practice;
in other words, you do your best not to create more kamma just by following the
vipassana practice. Where there is no kamma, there is no vipaka or no result.
Then, your rebirth will be cut shorter and shorter from now on. The Buddha said
that once you become a Sotapanna or stream-enterer, you will go through samsara
at the very most 7 more lifetimes only, but it can mean only one or two
lifetimes. Better still, if you work hard, you can reach the end of the stream
in this life time depending on your effort. Being a stream-enterer means once
you enter the stream, whether you like it or not, you will naturally float
along the stream until you reach the end or attain Arahantship. In other words,
you have booked yourself a one way ticket to eternity or Nirvana. There is no
turning back.
When
you become a stream-enterer, the good news is that if you die while you are
still a Sotapanna, you will never go to the lower states any more. The gates to
the animal world, the Peta world and the hellish world will close down
completely to you. You will either come back to be a human and resume your
practice or you will go to the Deva or the Brahma worlds depending once again
on your practice and where your death consciousness will take you.
During
the Buddha’s time, the Buddha was around to announce whether one was a
Sotapanna or not. Nowadays, there is no Buddha to tell us. It is very unlikely
for a Sotapanna to know his or her own holy status, not until he or she has
moved further along the path and looked back. That is because a Sotapanna still
has some level of greed and anger in them. They won’t feel at all holy because
they always feel that there are still a lot of problems to sort out inwardly
although their faith in the Buddha is very firm. Their inner battle can still
be quite immense at times. Their minds can still be shaken and erupted. This
stage is just the beginning of fighting in the right battle field and some of
the battles can be quite fierce. It requires a great deal of courage and
patience to fight through the different battles of life which surface in
different forms of events. In fact, this is the stage when all vipassana practitioners
will find a great deal of pain in their minds. The important point is that they
do know how to fight now because they have the right tool to fight their
enemies. When they know how to fight their inner battle, they will gradually
gain the skill and experience. At first, they might be defeated by their
defilements but they will always get up despite the repeated failure. This
great effort will lead them to win the battle in the end. While that fighting
the battle is going on, the vipassana practitioner is also moving up the scale
of holiness. You must understand that there is no clear-cut border to tell you
exactly which level you are. The criteria that the Buddha put down were only a
rough guide to give people some idea. Nevertheless, if you are a real vipassana
practitioner, you don’t really pay much attention to what level of holiness you
might be in. You will only know that as long as your mind is still shaken and
disrupted, your duty has not yet been completed, and you must keep on with the
practice until your mind is completely free.
Visaka,
the noble lady, I told you about previously, was a Sotapanna and she was still
being hit terribly by grief and sorrow by the death of her favourite
grand-daughter. Pra Ananda, the Buddha’s cousin and personal attendant was also
a Sotapanna and he cried before the Buddha passed away. However, not knowing
the real holy status is considered a blessing so that you won’t be complacent.
It is far better just to carry on with the practice all the way to the end before
you can really rest.
2)
Sakadagami; the once-returner is the second level of holiness. When you
reach this state, it means that you are able to shred away a bit more of your
greed and delusion. It is particularly more to do with greed at this level. You
can begin to see the nonsense of all sensual pleasures which relate to material
values. Because of the thinning down of your illusion, your mind begins to peel
off or withdraw from those false values that you used to attach to so much.
Through the perseverance of the practice, you are able to see and dwell in the
innocent world more often. In other words, you’ll be more at peace. Therefore, your faith roots a bit
deeper; you are not shaken so easily by what people say in terms of gain and
loss; you’ll be less jealous of others, you can let go of things a bit easier
than before. You feel more at ease with yourself; your inner peace becomes more
apparent to yourself but maybe not to other people.
Through
vipassana practice, you have done even more non-action which reduces further
rebirth. If you die while you are a Sakadagami, you will only have one more
rebirth and you will continue to improve yourself further in the realm you are
in.
You
may or may not know your holy status. It is still very likely that you may not
know because you still have anger at this level. You are still very much in the
twilight zone between knowing and not knowing. That is because you are right in
the middle of working on the third foundation of awareness. You may suspect and
be doubtful whether you might be holy or not but the vipassana knowledge itself
will destroy that doubt. You end up feeling as normal and simple as you should
be.
3) Anagami; the non-returner is the
third level of holiness. When you reach this level, you will distinctively get
rid of a great deal of anger (dosa) which you could not get rid of at the
second level. However, there is still a lesser degree of anger left which is
called Patigha in Pali. Please notice how refined the Buddha’s guideline is. There
are two Pali words that describe the nature of anger and ill will. Dosa refers
to the rough and explosive feeling of anger. Patigha refers to the lesser
degree of anger, such as agitation, resentment, annoyance, frustration,
irritation and so on. These are the types of feeling that can still boil up in
your mind when there are causes but they can easily be detected and annihilated
by practising the third foundation of awareness. The Buddha made it very clear
that Pra Anagami can get rid of dosa but not patigha.
However,
getting rid of dosa is indeed a big jump. You gain a much wider range of your
mental freedom when you can get rid of your anger. You subsequently are more at
peace with yourself. Your experience of the innocent world or Nirvana is very clear
at this level. You subsequently dwell mostly in your private innocent world or
Nirvana. The majority of your day to day movement is innocent or non-action.
Subsequently, your inner peace is much more distinctive not only to yourself
but to others too. Other people in this case have to be other vipassana
practitioners who may have equal or higher ability to notice it. The
non-practitioners will not have a clue although they may live with a Pra
Anagami. Life still goes on as normal whether you are a monk or a lay person. A
Pra Anagami will not spill a bean of his real holy status because there is
nothing to tell as the holiness is indeed the greater simplicity. Because of
the disappearance of anger, Pra Anagami will definitely know his holy or simple
status. He can nevertheless exercise his wisdom when he needs to in a very
natural way.
Pra
Anagami will not come back to be born as a human or Deva again. If he dies
while he is still a Pra Anagami, he will go to the Brahma world called
Sudhavasa and enter Parinibbana there. Parinibbana is the total extinction of
both body and mind. As you know, the Brahma world is the higher level of
heaven, higher than the world of the Deva or celestial beings. Sudhavasa is
very much like an individual country within the Brahma world whose inhabitants
are only Pra Anagami. They will get on with their practice until they enter
Parinibbana.
This
fact about where a Pra Anagami is going after his death also indicates how
precise the Buddha’s knowledge is concerning the different realms of the cycle
of rebirth. There are a great deal of details in them. It is recorded that a
Pra Anagami played the role of letting the people know about the arrival of the
Buddha Gotama. It is believed that the book called Mahapurisalakkhana, which
tells people the thirty-two marks of The Great Man was taught by a Pra Anagami
who came down from the Sudhavasa Brahma world. A concerned Pra Anagami who had
reached his holiness from the reign of the previous Buddha looked down to earth
from the Brahma world and could see that people on earth did not have enough
wisdom to recognise the arrival of the new Buddha Gotama because the world was
void from the real wisdom for such a long time. It was quite crucial that
people on earth must have some clue that a Buddha was about to be born. He then
came down to earth, India more precisely, the place where the Buddha Gotama
would be coming to be born. He disguised himself as a Brahma and began to teach
the Buddha-mantra which contained a section of Mahapurisalakkhana (the 32 marks
of The Great Man) including many other minute details of one who will be The
Great Man. This is the knowledge which tells the physical marks of The Great
Man, for example, the patterns on the palms of the hands and feet, the number
of the teeth (the Buddha had 40 teeth and not 36 like the rest of us), the
length of the tongue (the Buddha’s tongue could touch his nose), the length of
the hands and so on. The one who will be born as a Buddha must have all of the
32 marks on the physical body. Many Brahmas had learnt this Buddha-mantra
including Kondanna who was the youngest of the five wise men who came to the
naming ceremony when the young price Siddhartha was born. After a good
examination, the four sages agreed that the baby prince would grow up to be
either a great king of kings if he chose to rule, or if he however chose a
religious life, he would be the Wisest or the Buddha. However, the young
Kondanna gave the baby prince an even more thorough examination. This was
because he had learnt the Buddha-mantra so very thoroughly, he could see not
just the 32 physical marks but the much more minute details. Consequently, he
could confirm with a more definite conclusion that the baby prince could not be
anything else but a Buddha. He then waited for the enlightenment of the prince.
Kondanna was one of the five ascetics who looked after the Buddha-to-be when he
went through the six years of self-mortification. He was also the first one who
could understand the Buddha’s first sermon of The Four Noble Truths and became
the first monk who made the Buddhist order became complete because there were
now all three triple gems. By then, he was quite old himself. So, this was the
role of a Pra Anagami.
4) Arahant; the worthy one is the
fourth and the highest level of holiness. When you reach this stage, the
distinctive sense of self due to delusion that normal ignorant people have will
be completely wiped out. Once the sense of self has gone, greed, anger and
delusion which are the extension of self will be all dismantled too; the house
is completely demolished. Therefore, all defilements big and small are
completely eradicated. This is the state of the ultimate simplicity. You have
reached the state of the absolute normality or ultimate enlightenment.
Nevertheless, your physical self is still very much alive. What is actually
dead is indeed the building team or sankhara. The building team is totally
destroyed on your mind level. All your actions from that moment onward are
non-actions or some mere innocent movements.
A
Pra Arahant has reached the end of the stream and therefore there is no longer
any task to be done. Theoretically speaking, Pra Arahants do not have to
practise vipassana like the rest of us. The four foundations of awareness are
merely a map leading us to a remote island. Once you have found the island, you
don’t need the map anymore.
However,
the Buddha still recommended his worthy disciples to do mindfulness with
breathing for the sake of greater awareness and the feeling good of the body
and mind. I think this can be compared to taking some vitamin supplements or
tonic to give your body a bit of a boost when your body is a bit run down.
Although Pra Arahants’ minds are totally free and detached, it doesn’t mean
that they stop living a day to day life. Of course, life still goes on as
normal and some of them may have to do administrative work as well as teaching.
They still have to use their thoughts but once they finish the task, they can
just switch off easily which is the ability that normal ignorant people do not
have. Pra Arahants during the Buddha’s time were quite busy because the Buddha
relied on them to propagate the doctrince. Pra Sariputta, the Buddha’s right
hand disciple and a Pra Arahant, had his own school and he had to lead the
teaching. Consequently, even Pra Arahants can still be subjected to mental and
physical tiredness when they overwork. This mental tiredness doesn’t mean
attachment or anything like that. It is the natural cause and effect of this
body and mind. If you overwork, and you are tired, then a dose of mindfulness
with breathing can easily bring back strength and freshen up body and mind. I
am quite sure that this is one of the reason why the Buddha still encouraged
his Arahant disciples to practise mindfulness with breathing.
There
might be another reason too. The not fully enlightened ones are inclined to
think that once a person has reached Arahantship, his mind is permanently free
and there is no going back. I thought so too until I came across some vinaya or
monkhood discipline which I read from the Tripitaka for People.[1]
I have been trying to find that particular page to back up this argument but to
no avail yet. It was quite some time ago when I read about it. What I can
remember is that monks would be punished when they had done something against
the vinaya by some minor offenses. However, the punishment was exempted for
monks who cross the vinaya whilst being Pra Arahants but later on lost the state
of Arahantship. I am quite sure that it was in this context because I was quite
intrigued by it and read it over several times.
It
looks to me that even a Pra Arahant can lose his ultimate holy status. I think
it is especially the case when a Pra Arahant has to live within a community of
monks and people and has to do administrative and teaching work or in other
words, lives in an environment where there are many perceptions. If I compare
the mind to a magnet and feeling to another magnet, the two magnets always draw
towards each other and cause the attachment between the mind and the feeling.
The practice of the four foundations of awareness is trying to destroy the
power of magnet on the mind so that it has less ability to draw the feeling
towards it. The more the practice goes, the less power the magnet has left on
the mind. Therefore, that well-trained mind can ward off or detach the feelings
that come towards the mind because the magnetic field has less and less power.
When the mind reaches Arahantship, the magnetic field is completely destroyed
and totally free from the feeling. However, this is the state of a mind which
is still subject to the law of impermanence. A fresh Pra Arahant still has to
learn to get used to the whole new range of experience of a totally free mind.
I am sure that the Buddha knew this fact very well and he also knew that if
that new experience is not nurtured carefully for another while longer, that
fully enlightened person can still lose that ultimate status. The magnetic
field can still come back especially when one has to live in an environment
where there are many perceptions such as living in a community. If this is the
case, it does make a lot of sense why the Buddha still encouraged his Arahant
disciples to keep up with mindfulness with breathing. This must be the process
of nurturing the freshly new Pra Arahant who has just gained the new experience
until he becomes a veteran himself. And it also corresponds to that exemption
from the punishment as I said above. The difference is that even though the
magnetic field comes back for a while, it won’t come back in a full blown
situation as an untrained mind or with full power, it is more like a matter of
traces of feeling left and it is only temporary. Once the practice of
mindfulness with breathing returns, that state of mind will soon lose the
magnetic field again until it becomes permanently lost. I must try to find that
page in the Tripitaka which talked about that vinaya again. In the meantime, I
must admit I am talking from the top of my head since I have no research team
with me.
What
is so definite about Buddhism and the Buddhist practice is that there is a
clear cut boundary especially when it comes down to the quality of the worthy
one or Pra Arahant. The Buddha was confident enough to guarantee for his worthy
disciples. This is extremely extraordinary. During the Buddha’s time, there
were some eminent teachers from other schools who criticised the Buddha’s
disciples about being weak in their dhamma practice. The Buddha bravely
proclaimed that his fully enlightened disciples were absolutely trustworthy.
They had rooted deeply into the dhamma as if a metal pole had been deeply
sunken into the ground and nothing could shake it or move it. His Arahant
disciples would not be wavered by any temptations whatsoever. The Buddha could
guarantee the behaviour of his Arahant disciples. He said that there were nine
things which his Arahant disciples would definitely not cross over. They are as
follows:
1) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
deliberately kill a life.
2) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
steal.
3) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
have sexual intercourse.
4) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
deliberately lie.
5) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
indulge in sensual pleasures.
6) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
be prejudiced because of love.
7) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
be prejudiced because of hate.
8) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
be prejudiced because of delusion.
9) It is impossible for a Pra Arahant to
be prejudiced because of fear.
Not
to mention the non-Buddhist, even some Buddhists like to relate the quality of
Arahantship to the ability to perform acts of magical power, such as reading
people’s minds, travelling to heaven and hell, having magical ears and eyes and
performing all kinds of magic. That is not the case at all. In fact, those who
can perform acts of magical power do not necessary have to attain Arahantship.
People who seriously practice samatha meditation can easily perform such magic.[2]
Pra Devadatta who made several attempts to kill the Buddha could perform magic
very well. That was how he could convince Prince Ajatasattu to be on his side.
Because the ability to perform magic has nothing to do with the enlightening
wisdom, Pra Devadatta was still very ignorant towards the path to enlightenment
although he had learnt from the Buddha just as other followers had. Being led
by an ignorant teacher like Pra Devadatta, Prince Ajatasattu committed the
worst kamma of all – killing his father King Bimbisara who was a devout
Buddhist and one of the Buddha’s main supporters.
If
you look closely and carefully, the nine items above are the day to day human
conduct that everyone can identify with. They are nothing extraordinary at all.
They are very simple conducts, yet the most difficult actions for ordinary
human beings to observe and follow. Only Pra Arahants can successfully perform
those simple acts. That’s why they have the natural right to be the role model
of human beings. This initially confirms further that ultimate enlightenment is
no more than the absolute normality and simplicity as I have explained all along.
All these requirements can be proven and confirmed here and now and they are
not at all out of touch with our simple way of thinking. Nevertheless, they are
not easy requirements at all, are they? They are not easy not only for us
people nowadays but for people of all times and ages, even during the Buddha’s
time. For the Buddha to come forward and guarantee for his worthy disciples
about those nine behaviours, he had to be so sure about everything he said and
taught. This is not the kind of challenge that any teacher in the world can put
forward. This extreme courage and bravery made the Buddha prominently stand out
and be exceptionally special up till today. Never has there been a teacher in
the world greater than the Buddha so far.
I
have written about this topic in my second book, Can a Caterpillar be
Perfect? which was very useful to my students who have left my class. I had
responses telling me that it did help them to see through certain persons they
were not sure of. The nine simple behaviours above can also be the most
distinctive guidelines for you to judge your meditation teachers. Teachers who
walk the right path should more or less have the above conduct at some degree.
It is a shame that we cannot be so sure about anything nowadays. A lot of
people earn a good living out of the holy path as we all know. Western people
are in great need of spiritual knowledge but there are few good spiritual
teachers available. This gives bad people a chance of exploitation and results
in cult movements which often end in tragedy.
So,
if you decide to follow the life map that the Buddha has carefully worked out
for you, the four levels of holiness are what you can anticipate to achieve
depending mainly on your effort, although you also need to have a good teacher
to start you off. Once you are walking the path, you must be ambitious. The
Buddha told us not to be ambitious in the worldly values but to be extremely
ambitious on the dhamma path. The fact is that if you really became a tiger
because of being under a spell, you could not be happy in just being half man,
half tiger or three quarter of a man with a tiger tail, could you? You have no
choice but to go all the way to the end. That is to free yourself totally from
the spell. So, diligently work your way until you become a Pra Arahant and get
out of samsara for good.
I
remember that I have also promised you to talk about how to avoid tragic death
and maybe a couple more things. No matter what promises I gave you, they are
linked directly to this chapter and the second part of this book. The four
foundations of awareness are the best kamma of all because they are non-action
and therefore create no more vipaka or result. This essential practice will
take care of your future from the moment you take on the practice. Although the
actual practice is not very easy to begin with, your persistence and your
belief in the holy result will keep your spirit and your hope going. As the
practice is proceeding, you will become lighter and lighter at heart (as in
having less weight). Your problems will become less and less. The Buddha made
the comparison that before the practice, the problems that you have to bear are
like dipping a wet finger into sesame seeds; you cannot seem to shake your
problems away easily just as sesame seeds stick on your wet finger. Once you
adopt the vipassana practice, your problems become much less as if you had
dipped a dry finger into sesame seeds, and only a few seeds come up and you can
easily blow them away. This is exactly what you can anticipate. You will become
more at peace and you will gain tremendous confidence which will be balanced
out by your own wisdom gained from vipassana.
You
will also feel safer for some unknown reason at first. This was what happened
to me before and I did not understand why I felt so safe with myself. I had
confidence to go to places on my own without any fear. I can still remember so
vividly the day I moved my few belongings to the cave I stayed in sometimes in
the middle of the tropical forest. Among those few people who helped me carry
the belongings to the cave on the side of the mountain, there was also a monk
from Indonesia, if I remember correctly. I know he was a foreigner because I
had to speak English with him. He kept on shaking his head while we were
climbing up the mountain side and I asked him why he kept on shaking his head.
He asked how on earth I could stay in the cave in the middle of nowhere by
myself and after all I was a woman. He told me that this was no place for a
woman to stay and it was far too dangerous; a tiger could come and eat me up
and no one would know. Although his concern was quite obvious, I could not see
anything else at that point more important than me being alone in the middle of
the forest. I stayed there initially for three months in a roll and thought
that was heaven on earth. It was obvious that I had no fear at all, otherwise I
could not have stayed there for that long.
Now,
the reasons have become clear to me why vipassana practice makes you have no
fear. One of the most obvious reasons is that once you adopt the viapssana
practice, your lifestyle will change so dramatically. You will associate with
the group of people who have similar interests to you. You won’t be doing all
the unfavourable kamma that you might have done before. The Buddha said that to
associate with good people especially a good friend who can guide you to this
holy path is a total blessing in itself. A good friend or kalyanamita is the
beginning of this long journey to enlightenment. Just by doing this, you are
somehow protected by your own good deeds already.
We
all know what to expect in associating with bad people, going to bad places and
dealing with bad activities. You have to watch your back all the time and you
cannot possibly feel safe. Even though you are a reasonably good person and
have no intention to do bad things, simply going near bad places can bring
trouble in the sense of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can
easily get caught up in other people’s bad result of kamma. It is best just to
stay away.
However,
the sense of safety in our modern society doesn’t always connect to associating
with bad people and bad activity all the time. So, the next reason you must
understand is that you may still have some old debts to pay. You don’t know
what you have done in your previous life plus all the bad things that you have
done in this lifetime before you decided to walk this holy path. If they
involved some weighty kamma, you may have to pay sooner or later. So, although
you may walk the path and have no association with anything bad at all, danger
can still come to you somehow. But you can still feel safe and comfortable if
you understand the law of kamma. Remember the racing game I told you about in
the earlier chapter. Doing the greater meritorious deeds is good enough for you
to run away from someone at high speed, but engaging in the vipassana practice
on top of your meritorious deeds is a million times better. You are running
away from your debt collectors at a staggeringly high speed. It is unlikely
that insignificant debt collectors can catch you up unless there was some
really weighty kamma that you must pay off. Even if such unfavourable events
may happen to you, you will definitely have enough bravery to face it. You will
face your misfortune without fear and you will also know that you have one less
debt to pay which is good.
Remember
the story of Pra maha Moggallana who was a Pra Arahant. It was because he had
beaten up his mother in one lifetime, that weighty kamma kept on giving result
after that until his last life despite his holy status. This is what you may
expect to happen. That’s why the Buddhists are taught to share and spread their
loving-kindness and compassion to all the beings whom they might have wronged
in the past and ask them for forgiveness. That is to ask our debtors to give us
the defunct kamma or Ahosikamma. If our debtors acknowledge our loving-kindness,
they may or may not give us defunct kamma. If your debtors agree to give you
defunct kamma or simply say ‘I give you the Ahosikamma’, your kamma will be
defunct and bear no more result. It is because we do not know whom we have
wronged in the past that it has become the Buddhist tradition to share the
loving-kindness and ask for Ahosikamma every time they have done the merits or
tam boon. However, this is also another reason that makes a vipassana
practitioner feel safe.
Vipassana
practitioners who have come a long way along this holy path are quite glad
about paying back their kamma debts. What needs to be paid off, must be paid
off and quickly paid so that one can quickly get out of samsara. This is more
or less the motto of veteran vipassana practitioners.
I
too have paid off one serious debt about five years ago. I ran up stairs with
my slippers on. The last top three steps were slightly bent; I slipped and
dislocated my left shoulder. I had physiotherapy for three months and still could
not lift my left arm well enough. Then, my father died and I went back to
Thailand to attend his funeral. One day, my brother gave me the card of a
Chinese clinic who offered massage and might be able to help me with my arm
problem. I went there alone, the so-called doctor felt my shoulder and said my
bone was not in the proper place. He asked me to place my left arm to my back
in a bending position and out of the blue he pushed my arm so vigorously that I
screamed at the top of my voice. I had never experienced such staggering pain
in my whole life. I don’t want to compare it to the labour pain because it was
different. It was ten times worse than the accident itself and I could not
believe he did that to me. He then left me with a girl who gave me half an hour
of massage on the area. I went home with the feeling of after-shock and spent a
day in bed with fever and terrible flashbacks. I felt a bit better on the next
day and I must admit my arm movement was slightly better too. Because I did not
have much time in Bangkok the male
doctor asked me to go back for more massage two days after. I went back and he
was not there, so his wife who was also a doctor came in to see me. It was only
less than three minutes before the repeated episode of arm breaking happened to
me again. This time, I nearly fainted, the pain was excruciating. After my
scream, my tears were rolling down both sides of my cheeks. I questioned her
treatment of me and I was horrified to find out that she did not know that her
husband had already manipulated my arm just two days before and she was not
supposed to do it again especially not within that length of time. There was no
record whatsoever about the treatment. Only then did I realise that I had been
dealing with someone who was totally unprofessional. I feared for the worst of
what she had done to my shoulder. I went home with more aftershock and suffered
terribly with more flashbacks.
A
friend of mine said one sentence which made me realise what had happened to me.
She said: “God…what you went through was as if someone has ripped apart a
bird’s wing.” Indeed, that was exactly how I felt at that time. It could have
everything to do with when I was a little girl, I killed lots of mosquitoes,
sometimes I put them together and one by one, I ripped their legs off!!!
Whatever my kamma leading to this result was, I have no doubt whatsoever that
such a horrendous experience was about paying back my previous kamma. In fact,
when you can think in the vicinity of paying back your kamma debts, you don’t
feel too bitter about it. You can forgive and move on with your life and make
sure you make no more unfavourable kamma that requires any payment again. In
fact, that horrible incident could have easily led to a libel court case. I
must admit I did think about it for the sake of other people so that they
didn’t make such mistake again but I did not push ahead with it mainly because
I thought about paying back my debt and I did not have time for a court case
anyway. This is something that Buddhists are brought up to think and to do
which can make life a lot easier. I can understand that many people gone
through a great deal of horrible incidents in their lives and find it extremely
difficult to forgive. If you can really see it as a matter of paying back debt
for your own previous kamma, it will help to lift all the pain off your chest
right away. What else can we do? Holding the grudge and anger tend to add more
pain in our hearts and it doesn’t help to ease off the pain at all. This way,
it may sound stupid and have no logic to it but it can save your poor soul
right away. That is really the matter. If you know how to practise vipassana,
you can do it easier.
Finally,
I just want you to know that whatever problems you may face in your life, this
sole practice is the answer. It may sound unreal to you at this moment but I
have proved it for myself. The goodness of this best deed will protect you and
make you feel safe and secure. I have told you in chapter eight of A Handful of
Leaves that all your problems come with your thoughts first. Therefore if you
don’t think about it, you don’t have a problem, do you? How can you not think
about it? The answer is vipassana practice. This is the only practice that
enables you to have less troubled thoughts and consequently you have less
problems. Well, putting your effort into this best kamma is the only deal that
you have to agree on. As I said, nothing comes easy, you have to invest
something before you can get something back. You will soon find out that you
have much more back than what you bargained for. I will leave you a true story
about Yee Gow which can confirm for you that if you don’t think about it, you
don’t have a problem.
This
is a true story which happened during the time when the Japanese invaded China.
There
was a very big and well known temple in Shanghai where people came to worship
the great saint or Bodhisattva called Guan Yin. There were a number of devout
worshippers who lived in this temple permanently; most of them were old people.
Their families would visit them at the temple from time to time. There was an
old lady who was deaf and whom everyone called Yee Gow meaning second aunt. She
had never been married so she did not have any immediate family paying her a
visit like the others. Once in a while, she might have a distant relative come
to see her. Being deaf, she did not have much to do with others but she was
quite happy to spend her day sitting in silence and chanting the name Guan Yin
Pusa in her quarters.
Meal
time in this temple was identified by the sound of a huge gong when all
residents and worshippers would gather around rows of tables and have their
vegetarian meals together. Yee Gow
couldn’t hear the sound of the gong so she had to rely on other members to tell
her. However, it wasn’t every day that Yee Gow joined in with the rest of the
residents at meal time. Sometimes she refused to come out when someone called
for her because she could manage on what she had in her quarters. This went on
for many years without any disruption.
Then,
the Japanese invaded China. Suddenly the bubbling city of Shanghai was taken
over by Japanese soldiers marching with heavy machine guns, tanks, the roaring
sounds of fighter-aircraft and so on. There was fighting, shooting and bombing,
and people were killed. The whole country was thrown into chaos, confusion,
devastation and extreme fear. Those who lived in the big cities like Shanghai
thought that it would be safer if they evacuated into the countryside where
they could escape the heavy bombshells. Families rushed to the temple to fetch
their elder relatives and fled the city. Unfortunately, there was no one who
came for Yee Gow and she was left behind unnoticed in the upheaval of the situation.
That was because the temple was very big and Yee Gow spent most of her time in
her own quarters which were quite a distance from the main entrance of the
temple. Being deaf, she was totally unaware of the commotion, shooting and
bombing which was going on just outside the thick walls of the temple gates.
Through panicking and fear, the temple was quickly deserted, all the daily
events suddenly came to a halt. The main gate was shut and padlocked. Yee Gow
was finally alone in the temple!
She
wasn’t aware of the frightening situation until one day she felt rather hungry
and wondered why no one came to fetch her for a meal. Normally, people who
meditate and chose to lead a monastic life have a tendency to make less fuss.
Yee Gow was like that, she didn’t really mind. Instead, she went into the
little kitchen in her quarters where there was plenty of rice and preserved
food. She cooked herself rice porridge which she had with preserved vegetables.
This was a simple meal that all Chinese vegetarians could be very happy with.
After she had her meal, she would retire into her room, and sit in silence. Her
mind was occupied only by the name Guan Yin Pusa. After a while, she more or
less got used to her routine and in not seeing anyone around. It didn’t bother
her in the slightest because she was contented with her life. In other words,
it was her inner peace or her silent mind that made her feel safe and
sound.
Yee
Gow was left alone for nearly three months. When the political situation calmed
down, people began to return to the city. The temple wardens and the
worshippers came back to the temple. Along the thick wall surrounding the
temple, there were traces of bullets here and there although the main gate
remained shut and padlocked. When the gate was opened, there was no sign of
ruin in the temple area at all. Everything remained intact. The front wing of
the temple where the main shrine room was, and the back wing where the main
kitchen and dining area were situated were joined by a courtyard which was an
open space and was made into a sizable garden with a good variety of trees and
plants. The garden was found in an overgrown state and some plants had died off
because of the lack of care. Right in the middle of a big bush, a bomb which
had never gone off was located. A temple warden quickly informed the
authorities and the bomb was taken care of.
Whilst
a group of worshippers tried to clean up the temple, Yee Gow was spotted while
she was doing her washing by her quarters. She was totally oblivious of what
was happening. Only then, did the people realise that Yee Gow had been left
alone in the temple all this time!!!
“Where
have you all been?” was what Yee Gow tried to say to the first man she bumped
into with a delightful smile on her face.
The
people thought that it was better not to let Yee Gow know anything about the
war and the undetected bomb in the garden only six yards away from her
quarters. The devout worshippers had no doubt that it was indeed the
loving-kindness and compassion of Guan Yin Pusa who had protected the temple
and of course Yee Gow too.
Yee
Gow’s story reminds me of an old monk I knew when I spent my three months of
rainy retreat in a small and remote village called Ban Nong Wee of Payao
province in northern Thailand some twenty two years ago. “Tu Chao” is the
northern dialect word for a monk. In this small temple, there were two Tu Chao,
one in his twenties and the other in his seventies and three young novices or
samanaen in their early and mid teens. They built me a little hut ten yards
from the main sala (building) used as the shrine and for all kinds of temple
activities. They wanted to make sure that I was safe enough and did not want me
to be too far away. Hidden away by a few teak trees was a little kuti (hut for
a monk) where the old Tu Chao lived. Tu Chao spent most of his time on a
rocking chair on the balcony of his kuti. He was deaf in one ear and rather
blind in one eye. His deaf ear and blind eye were on the same side of his face;
I cannot remember which side. There was an old man from the village who paid a
regular visit to the old Tu Chao. It was always the same routine, the old man
talked and Tu Chao listened. Although Tu Chao hardly talked to anyone else, his
face had a distinctiveness of serenity and loving-kindness, his smile was very
warm and welcoming, and he really made people feel comfortable and relaxed just
to be in his presence. No wonder he did not have to talk much. I often looked
at the elderly tu chao every time I walked past his kuti. I didn’t feel like
disturbing him much when I saw him sitting and resting his head so peacefully
in his rocking chair. Nevertheless, I often wondered what level of wisdom this
old Tu Chao could share with me.
One
day, I approached him at the balcony and paid my humble respects to him. He
looked at me with his usual welcoming smile and asked whether I had my meal
which was the very Thai way of greeting. After a brief moment of small talk, I
asked him some serious dhamma questions. I went straight to the point and asked
him whether Nirvana really existed and where it was. He smiled and said softly
“Of
course, Nirvana does exist and it is right here.”
He
then went on to explain by keeping on pointing to somewhere at the end of his
eyes and said ‘My ear is deaf on this side and I cannot see much on this side
of my eye. When I turn my head to this side (the good side of his ear and eye),
the world is very quiet. I cannot see things and hear sounds. This is Nirvana.
Nirvana is right here.”
For
some reason, even though I could not understand much of what Tu Chao said at
the time, I had a distinctive feeling that he was talking about something that
he had first hand experience of. Tu Chao did not use any fancy dhamma words,
nor did he go through any dhamma topic at all, instead, he tried to tell me
that if he leaned the good side of his ear and eye against his rocking chair,
his world was completely quiet because the eye and ear that were exposed to the
world were no good anyway. Then, he brought it to the conclusion that Nirvana
was just right there.
It
has been a good twenty two years since that brief conversation took place. Somehow I always remember it very well.
It is only these recent years when my own practice has developed to a certain
level, that I can understand exactly what that old monk tried to tell me. In
fact, I am quite sure that he must have reached some level of holiness.
In
ancient India after the passing away of the Buddha, there were once two
brothers in their twenties, who agreed to set off for a journey of a lifetime
so that they could learn the dhamma teaching from different teachers and aimed
to settle down with the teacher who could teach them to understand the profound
dhamma. After two months of travelling, they reached a small farm house which
was quite remote from the next village. It was dusk and the two brothers had no
choice but to ask the owner of the farm to let them spend a night there and
they would leave early in the morning. The two brothers were rather surprised
to find out that there was no man there at all. The farm was owned by a middle
age mother and her beautiful daughter in her early twenties who appeared to be
strong and tough and agreed to let them spend a night in the farm house with a
few of their animals.
The
two men got up at the crack of dawn, washed themselves by the well and were
about to leave after they had said thank you to the two women. The daughter had
already been up and was milking the cows. She saw the men and shouted for them
to come to see her.
“If
you two are not in the rush, my mother would like you to stay for breakfast
before you leave. She is preparing the meal right now,” the young woman said to
the men smilingly while still milking the cow.
The
younger brother felt reluctant and was about to refuse but the elder brother
quickly agreed to the kind invitation before he could say anything. He was
annoyed at his elder brother but kept quiet. A while later, the two men sat
together with the two women and they were having breakfast. Not long after,
they engaged in small talk. During the conversation the mother paused briefly,
went into some deep thought, and said:
“Why
don’t you two men stay here and work for me on the farm. My husband died a few
years ago and we had never had a son. Good job that this daughter of mine is
tough and strong. We were thinking of selling the farm and moving into the town
instead but if you can work for us, we won’t have to sell the farm.”
Whilst
the younger brother remained silent which was a way to refuse the woman’s
request, the elder brother asked more questions about the arrangement. To the
younger brother’s horror, the elder brother finally agreed to what the woman
suggested. When they both had a chance to be alone, the younger brother said
angrily to his elder sibling:
“I
just cannot believe you. We have agreed to set off on this journey to find the
ultimate enlightenment and you are willing to give up that holy ambition the
first sign you have the opportunity to be with a beautiful girl and all her
wealth. This is just very convenient, isn’t it? I cannot believe how weak my
brother is and I am very disappointed in you. How can you treasure all these
worldly values more than your own spiritual salvation.”
The
elder brother listened to his brother with an amazingly calm reaction. He did
not answer back nor did he try to explain anything. He remained silent and let
his brother get everything off his chest. Then, it was time to say good bye.
“All
right, it looks like whatever I said cannot change your mind. You have made
your choice to live a family life. Remember how the Buddha said that life is
suffering. I am sure you’ll soon find out. Well, we’ll see when we’ll see, I
suppose. Good luck and good bye, brother.”
The
elder brother also wished his younger sibling to find the best dhamma teacher
and that he could achieve his spiritual goal.
Then,
after twenty years had gone by, the young traveller was now a Buddhist monk and
he had visited many famous meditation schools and learnt from many well known
dhamma teachers. His spiritual knowledge had been widened by meeting people
with his own interests and reciting a great deal of famous sutras. However, he
still had not yet settled down in a particular monastery. For some reason, he still
had a need to search for something better. He then travelled nearer to the
place where his brother and himself had stopped some twenty years before. He
was intrigued to find out how his brother’s family life was, so he decided to
drop in for a visit. It was a great delight to his elder brother to have a
chance to see his young sibling again. The brother invited his brother monk to
a small hut a good fifty yards from the main house and they both sat down for a
chat just like old times. The monk was rather intrigued and his first question
was: “What is this place?”
“Well,
this is where I live.” The brother answered calmly as usual.
The
monk was even more surprised because inside the hut barely had anything but one
small bed enough for one person. He could not wait for further explanation. The
brother knew exactly what was going through the monk’s mind and quickly said:
“Well,
look at you, brother. You look so radiant in your robe. Now, please tell me
first of your adventure. Did you finally find a good teacher who helped you to
understand the profound dhamma?”
Once
that question was raised, the monk could not help to boast about his experience
in meeting many well known dhamma teachers and taking part in reciting the
profound sutras. He was also very keen to recite the sutras to his brother to
show him that he had learnt a great deal during these twenty years. The brother
calmly and carefully listened to what his brother monk told him without any
interruption. After a long talk, the monk asked his brother:
“How
about you, brother. How many children do you have? Or are you already a
grandfather? Now, you tell me about your family life.”
The
elder brother smiled gently and said:
“Well,
it was you who assumed that I was going to marry that young beautiful tough woman
twenty years ago. In fact, when her mother talked about letting us stop and
work here on that morning at the breakfast table, I did not think anything else
more than helping these two women out. Life would be very difficult without a
man to take care of this farm for them. I had never thought about marrying her
but I knew you could not understand anyway so I let you think what you wanted
to think. Once you left the farm, I went back to the house and had a good talk
with the mother and daughter. I told them that I had always wanted to be a monk
once I could find a good teacher. Therefore, I made a deal with them that I
would help them out as long as they would leave me alone to do my own things.
They kept the deal up till today. We have become very good friends. In fact,
the mother passed away about three years ago and now there are only the
daughter and myself here. I never had any intention to marry that beautiful
young girl. That’s why I built myself this little hut here and I have lived
here ever since.”
The
monk gasped with amazement once his brother told him his story up to this
point. He reluctantly asked:
“Brother,
you are telling me that you have been working side by side with that beautiful
woman all these years and you have never wanted to be more than just friends
with her. It is rather difficult for me to believe, I must admit. I tell you
the truth that the reason I left here twenty years ago was because I knew I
wouldn’t be able to resist that pretty young woman. I counted it a blessing that
my passion for enlightenment was stronger. It was also you who decided to stay
behind so, there was no point for both of us to fight for one woman, was there?
But I was so sure that no sooner had I left this farm then you would quickly
agree to marry her.”
“You
know now that you were very wrong. Of course, my passion for enlightenment was
no less than yours. At that time, I just thought to myself that in fact, if I
really wanted to pursue the dhamma practice, there should not be anything to
stop me no matter where I was and what kind of livelihood I led. Maybe with a
bit of determination, I could make it work out both ways. That’s why I thought
I could help this family out as well as carrying on with my dhamma practice,”
the elder brother explained.
“Please
tell me the truth then brother. Did you never have any feelings for that young
enchanting woman all these years? Did you never make any wrong move and give in
to your burning desire?” asked the monk with great curiosity.
“I
wouldn’t have been a human if I did not have moments when I wanted to bow down
to my temptations. We are men after all; our sexual desire is indeed much more
powerful than women’s. In fact, there were countless times when I wanted to
give in to my burning desire and ask her to marry me. That would have made her
mother very happy too, but I always remembered what you had reminded me before
you left. Life is suffering and I should work hard for my own salvation. I bit
my tongue and carried on. Strangely enough, I seem to have survived till these
days.”
The
monk became more and more intrigued of how his brother could manage to carry
out such an extraordinary way of life.
“Now,
you must tell me how exactly you practised your dhamma to make you survive all
these years,” asked the monk.
“Well,
I practised only one thing. I watched my mind. No matter what I was doing
during the day and night, as long as I was awake, I was constantly watching my
mind all the time. Of course, it was more difficult when I had to work side by
side with that exceptionally pretty woman. I had to work extremely hard in my
heart. I often had to come back to this cottage and lick the scars in my heart.
It was very painful but I was so determined to win my inner battle. When I was
really desperate for help, I recited the name Buddha, Buddha, please help me.
It was extremely difficult during the early years but after a while I seemed to
learn something by just watching my mind in this way. I could see a certain
pattern of how the mind would flare up and calm down after a while as long as I
had my awareness. Once I could understand how the mind worked, I faced my next
battle with a little bit more confidence as life was progressing. I also kept
on with my basic meditation skills. Every night before I slept, I would sit in
meditation and be aware of my breathing. This had helped me a great deal in
fighting the battle during the day. I must admit that my inner battle has
calmed down. In fact, it has eased off quite a lot during this past couple of
years. I have more calm moments than upheaval. Well brother, this is what I’ve
been doing all these years.” The
elder brother talked to his brother monk in a very calm and peaceful manner as
if there was nothing extraordinary about it.
The
brother monk then suddenly realised that whilst he was busy travelling and
learning to recite the profound sutras and meeting different famous teachers,
his brother had literally gone through the real life battle and used the dhamma
to fight his way through life. He also realised that what his brother had done
was in fact a million times harder than what he himself had done. He began to
suspect that his brother might have reached some level of holiness. So, he
asked his brother the straightforward question:
“Brother,
has your search for ultimate enlightenment come to an end?”
The
elder brother looked at his younger sibling with kindness and slowly nodded his
head as the answer to his question. The brother monk quickly went down on his
knees, paid great respect to his brother and said:
“I
have finally found the teacher, brother.”
Once
there was a Buddhist scholar who had heard the reputation of an extraordinary
teacher called Ar Meng. He was quite intrigued and wished to learn the dhamma
from him. It was a long journey to find this teacher but the young man thought
it would be worth his while once he had a chance to listen to the supreme
dhamma from him. The man set off on his journey on foot and it took him seven
days before he could get to the nearest town to where Ar Meng was. He began to
ask around and everyone gave him a very similar impression.
“Oh…you
want to see Ar Meng. Oh…good, good, good. You must go and see him.”
It
was dark by the time he knew where to go to find Ar Meng so, he decided to
spend the night in that town and set off early in the morning.
The
enthusiastic scholar was rather excited that his search for a good teacher was
about to end and he was longing to listen to all the profound dhamma words. He
could not sleep well that night, his mind was taken over by the events that he
anticipated happening. He got up at the crack of dawn and set off for the last
three hours' journey to the village by the stream. As he was entering the
village, the local market was busy with shoppers come for their fresh produce.
It wasn’t very packed because it was only a small village. The man began to ask
around for Ar Meng.
“Oh,
you want to see Ar Meng, good, good, good. There…he is over there.”
The
young scholar looked towards the direction the man pointed out for him. What he
expected to see was either a village temple or a little hut at the end of the
wood where the teacher could lead a secluded monastic life as he had
anticipated. Instead he saw an old wooden house situated at one corner of the
market, and there was a small crowd of people gathering at the front of the
house. He quickly walked to that house and asked an old man at the back of the
crowd whether this was Ar Meng’s house. The old man looked at the young scholar
and knew exactly what he was looking for. He shouted loudly over the crowd to
the butcher who was busy serving his customers:
“
Ar Meng…there is someone here wants to see you.”
Ar
Meng stretched his neck and looked over the crowd trying to spot his new guest.
Once he saw the young man, he too shouted over the crowd while he was still
serving his customers:
“You
want to see me. Come, come, come.”
The
young man was rather reluctant to believe that was the Ar Meng he wanted to
see. However, he walked through the crowd to the front and was about to ask a
question. Ar Meng looked at the man’s bewildered face and said:
“Don’t
worry, I am the one. Just sit here on the bench and I will talk to you.”
The
young man did not have a chance to say anything as he had rehearsed once he
first met the teacher. Everything did not turn out as he had anticipated at
all. He bowed his head to Ar Meng who was in his mid fifties, jolly and seemed
to be very busy with his work. The young dhamma enthusiast sat down on the
wooden bench watching Ar Meng, the extraordinary dhamma teacher who turned out
to be a butcher selling meat right in front of his house. There were many
thoughts which came into the clever man’s mind. He was very confused but still
hoped that when Ar Meng had finished with his work, he would engage him in
dhamma talk.
Whilst
Ar Meng was busy serving his customers, there was an old lady's voice shouting
from inside the house:
“Ar
Meng, can you make me a cup of hot tea? And when are you going to make me some
breakfast. I have been up for ages now, you know?”
Ar
Meng smiled broadly to his customers and shouted back: “Yes, mom. I’ll be with
you in a second.” He then asked his customer to wait for a while and
disappeared into the house. He reappeared after a few minutes and continued
serving his customers as well as chatting along with a couple of old men
standing by the side of his meat stall. The subject of conversation was really
nothing more than day to day stuff, like the weather and the events in the
village. When the last customer had gone by mid morning, his mother shouted for
Ar Meng again. Ar Meng disappeared into the house and cooked a meal for his
mother. When he came out, he had two bowls of rice porridge, one in each hand.
He offered one bowl to the young man on the bench.
“Here,
eat this porridge with minced pork and spring onion. I cooked it myself. You
must be very hungry.”
The
young man who was indeed rather hungry ate the rice porridge with relish. Ar
Meng took his bowl and sat on the high stool behind his meat stall and began to
eat his porridge. By then, the small crowd had begun to build up again but they
didn’t really want to buy meat, they came for a chat with Ar Meng who seemed to
be a very good listener to people’s problems.
“Hm…don’t
worry, things will sort themselves out on their own, trust me,” Ar Meng said to
an old lady who told him about her problems in her family while he was still
eating his porridge.
All
day long, Ar Meng either served meat to his customers, or listened and talked
to people, or disappeared into the house and tended to his old mother’s needs.
The young man sat there very patiently and still hoped to have a good dhamma
talk with Ar Meng at the end of the day. By evening, Ar Meng had sold all his
meat. He was still talking to someone while he was cleaning up his meat stall.
When he had finished, he turned to the young man and said:
“You
wait here, I am taking my mother for a bath first.”
Ar
Meng disappeared into the house and emerged again carrying his old mother on
his back. He walked towards the stream which was only twenty yards away where
villagers had their daily bath.
It
was dark before Ar Meng came out of his house and sat by the young scholar on
the wooden bench and said:
“It
sure was a long day, wasn’t it? Now, how do you like it?”
The
young man was not very sure of the question. In fact, he was very confused
about what had been going on all day.
“What
do you mean sir? I don’t quite understand. How do I like what exactly?” the man
asked.
“Well,
you came to see me for dhamma, didn’t you? So, how do you like it?” Ar Meng
explained.
The
young man was even more confused by the answer. It looked like Ar Meng knew
what he wanted but he just could not understand what he meant.
“I
am sorry. I cannot understand what you mean. All day long, I sat here and
watched you serving meat to your customers, chatting to people and disappearing
into the house to tend to your old mother. This is the first time you have
really sat down and talked to me. You haven’t really told me any profound
dhamma yet. So, how do I know I whether I like it or not?” the young man got
things out of his chest.
Ar
Meng slapped loudly on his thigh, burst out with laughter and said:
“I
knew it. You clever people are all the same, looking for profound words of
dhamma. I’ve been talking the profound dhamma with you all day long and you
haven’t even heard a word I said.”
Suddenly,
the young scholar was enlightened.
I
think I have told you all I know about the law of kamma and the cycle of
rebirth. I can only do my best to tell you all these things but of course I
cannot make up your mind for you. I do understand that this whole concept must
be so alien to you and not at all easy to take in. Nevertheless, I still think
that having a belief in the law of kamma is much safer than not to believe.
After all, believing in the law of kamma does not cost you anything at all,
does it? On the contrary, you can
only gain benefit from this belief. If there is really no heaven and hell such
as the Buddha said, doing good deeds will at least bring happiness both to you
and the people you are good to in this lifetime. This is a benefit that you can
see right away and you don’t have to wait till your next life. You are happy
and everyone surrounding you is also happy because of your good deeds. However,
if there are indeed heaven and hell and the different realms of reincarnation
as the Buddha told us, by doing good deeds now, it can only help you to secure
your future life which again is entirely your own benefit. Having known this
piece of good news means that you can decorate your future life exactly the way
you decorate your living room. Do what you must to make sure that your future
home is the way you want it to be. Better still, you also have the choice of
not building a house at all if you think that you are ready for it. I shall
leave it up to you to decide.
Good
luck and have a good life now and ever.
[1] Tripitaka for People written by Sucheep Poonyanupap
[2] Samatha meditation is the skill of training the mind to be
fully focussed without using any wisdom. Once the mind is fully trained in this
manner, it becomes very powerful and can perform all kinds of magic. This type
of meditation cannot lead people to ultimate enlightenment. The samatha
practitioner can still be very much ignorant about the path to enlightenment
and can easily abuse the power one has gained which is extremely dangerous.
However, the power is not permanent, one can easily lose it. This type of
meditation was very popular before the enlightenment of the Buddha. Even nowadays, there are people who are
hooked on this kind of practice. This is one of the side tracks of this holy
path that is not easy to get out of because it is exciting and appealing to
people. One needs to have a good vipassana teacher to lead one out of this
spiritual jungle.