Why the Monkeys Washed out Their Ears
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C00901
“Why do people who understand dukkha or dukkhatā and attā and dependent origination, and know they should apply themselves to the Four Noble Truths and to the Eightfold or Tenfold Path, and yet they don’t? In other words, how does one explain the human tendency of irrationality in terms of dukkha and dependent origination?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
It’s like they’ve got a map – they’ve got the best map in the world – but they refuse to travel, they refuse to walk according to the map. Why this is so they don’t know; this is hard to explain. It seems that there is still bait in the world which is tricking them. There are all kinds of bait that keep them attached to the world – wanting to have fun, wanting to be entertained, wanting to be loved, wanting to own things, wanting pleasure. The deliciousness, the pleasure, the loveliness, the creativity, the excitement of the world is a kind of bait which keeps them stuck in the world, and so they have no interest in walking according to the map. But once they see how this bait just makes them stupid and keeps them wallowing in dukkha, then they begin to practice ānāpānasati. And if they practice seriously and correctly, they can overcome the alluring qualities of all that bait.
All they know is the name of dukkha. They can say the word, the sound, but they don’t know dukkha itself. They don’t really know the reality of dukkha and so they don’t despise and fear dukkha. And if they don’t despise and fear dukkha, they’re not going to put any effort into practice in order to get free of dukkha. But once one knows dukkha itself – the reality of dukkha – then one will despise it, one will be disgusted by it, one will be terribly afraid of it, and then one will practice very seriously to get free of dukkha. Once you really hate and fear it, you won’t mess around and play any more games with it.
You need to recognize that dukkha comes in two forms – there are the positive forms of dukkha and the negative forms of dukkha. You probably only pay much attention to the negative kinds of dukkha. It is easy to hate and fear the negative forms of dukkha, but most people don’t give any attention to the positive forms. People are still infatuated with things, they still want to have fun with things, with the positive forms of dukkha. They even volunteer. People are totally willing to experience the dukkha of positive things because they’re so infatuated and obsessed with these things. The primary example of this is sex. Sex is so very positive for people and so they’re very willing to experience the dukkha of sex because of this positiveness. But once we see that even in the positiveness there is dukkha, there is entrapment, there is slavery, there is stupidity, then one begins to despise and fear even the positive kinds of dukkha. One can begin to get free of those things and no longer be infatuated and obsessed with them. So remember that there are not just the negative forms of dukkha such as physical pain or illness or not getting what you want, but there are the positive forms of dukkha of being obsessed with good health, with getting what you want, and sex.
When a fish is caught on a hook it knows that the hook is painful, it knows the dukkha of being caught on the hook. But we’re not as intelligent as the fish. This hook that we’re caught on, we’re dangling and wiggling from this hook, but we think it’s fun, we think it’s entertaining, exciting, beautiful, wonderful. So we don’t hate or fear the hook. In fact we seek it out and we pay lots of money to get hooked. The fish isn’t like that – it knows that the hook is dukkha. It hates and fears the hook. But we’re not like that. We have no hate or fear for the hook, and so we continue to dangle and wiggle from the hook.
So last of all thank you. Time is up for this morning. We’d like to thank you for coming here with your interest in Dhamma, which gives this place value. Suan Mokkh is only of value and our life is only of value here when people come to study and investigate the Dhamma. So we thank you for making this place and our life worthwhile. That’s all for this morning.
(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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