Why the Monkeys Washed out Their Ears
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C03766
“You said that desire creates the desirer if there is no right mindfulness. Does this mean that there is already attachment, or is attachment a later development?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
You can see this for yourself quite easily. When there is hunger, then there is the hungry one, the one who hungers. Which comes first, the hunger or the one who is hungry? If you watch carefully instead of just thinking about it, but observe, you’ll see. The desire happens and then there is the desirer. Which one comes first? You ought to be able to see it for yourself. What matters is to not let any of these problems happen, to not let the problem of hunger and the hungry one – desire and the desirer – to happen in the first place. Use the most profound mindfulness, intelligence, and wisdom so that these problems don’t happen to begin with, and then there is no hunger and no one who is hungry. There’s no desire and no desirer, and so there’s no dukkha; there’s no problem. We live without any problems, without any dukkha. In short what this means is to use mindfulness and wisdom to prevent the defilements from happening. If we prevent the defilements then there’s no desire and there’s no hunger, and so what’s the problem?
The real question here is, are we able to sublimate or transform the hunger? Can we transform this hunger into a matter of wisdom? Can we transform it into the hunger for wisdom, the hunger to understand? If we can sublimate or transform desire and hunger into the direction of understanding, the truth, then the problem will end itself. There won’t be any more dukkha, there won’t be any more desire or hunger.
Hunger bites its owner but mindfulness and wisdom don’t bite its owner. So we should transform all hunger into a matter of mindfulness and wisdom so that it won’t bite us anymore, and then our life doesn’t have any more problems.
If we hold onto something or, if you want, to call it ‘attachment,’ but it hasn’t reached to a level of attachment to self, then it’s not a problem. When we use the word ‘attachment’ we’re always speaking of attachment to self or what is called in Pāli attavādupādāna, the upādāna (attachment) that makes us say ‘me,’ ‘mine,’ ‘self’ – the kind of attachment that leads to us talking about self, to the concepts of self. Once there is attachment to self then there is the problem – dukkha is full scale and complete. Before if there’s no attachment to self, there isn’t really dukkha, but still there are natural difficulties and hassles of life, of the vedanā (feelings), and how to respond to things. The essential thing is to have the wisdom to prevent this attachment to self because that’s where it really becomes a problem and dukkha. So our task is to live without this attachment to self. Another way we can speak of this is how can life live with things that are not-self? How can life live with things that are not-self? If we understand this, then we won’t have any trouble with life.
To take life as being self is instinctual, it’s a kind of instinctual understanding that we see life as being self. Even though it’s instinctual, it leads to the problems that we have been talking about. So we must learn to transform this instinctual understanding into wisdom, into genuine intelligence. If we can transform or even sublimate the instinct of self so that it leads to the developed wisdom of not-self, then we can bring about reconciliation between the instincts and wisdom – they need not be in conflict. We can take that instinct of self and self preservation and develop that so it’s no longer just instinctual, but it’s what we call ‘developed knowledge’ so that we achieve the highest benefit for oneself, which is to be free of all dukkha, which only happens through seeing that this self is not-self, it’s not really self. If we can sublimate it or transform it in this way, we won’t have any problems with this instinctual kind of understanding.
It’s like the instincts have a self in order to attach to it, so we must improve or develop the instincts so they don’t need a self to attach to, until there’s no self for the instincts to attach to. In this way the instincts can be developed or transformed into wisdom so that we don’t have any more trouble with life. What we thought was self is seen to be not-self, and then there’s nothing to attach to. And in not attaching to anything, there are no difficulties or hassles in life.
(From the retreat “Why the Monkeys Washed out Their Ears,” as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.
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