The Living Computer
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C05618
“Ānāpānasati is a complete path to liberation. What is the cause of it seeming to take many years in order to be liberated?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
If we give a quick answer that takes advantage of you, we would say that it’s because of avijjā. The reason why it seems to take so many years is simply because of ignorance. But if we answer more precisely, if we go into it a little further, we could say because nobody cares about sati, nobody is interested in being mindful because they haven’t noticed dukkha. Because nobody pays attention to dukkha, because all of us think that there really isn’t any dukkha, there isn’t much of a problem with dukkha, then we don’t see the need for sati. If we were more aware of dukkha, if we took dukkha seriously, then we would very quickly become mindful, we would start paying attention to everything and our practice would not take so long. But when people don’t take dukkha seriously, then they will continue living life in heedless, careless ways, and the practice will go on forever. It won’t take many years to get liberated – one will never get liberated until one takes dukkha seriously, and so is really willing to train and practice in mindfulness.
Nobody is afraid of dukkha, nobody is embarrassed by dukkha, nobody thinks it’s something really shameful to suffer dukkha, and so we just go on living carelessly, heedlessly. But when one would be honest and take a good look at dukkha, then one sees how terrifying it is, how really shameful it is, and then one will have an appetite for practicing ānāpānasati. Now we don’t have much of an appetite for it – ten minutes, fifteen minutes – and our minds start to wander all over the place. Because we have no appetite, we’re not afraid of dukkha, we’re not ashamed of our own stupidity, and so we don’t have an appetite. But through correct fear and shame about dukkha, then one has an appetite for practice. And when one has this appetite, then it doesn’t take so long. One will maybe make some errors but then one can correct them and make rapid progress. So in short, when there’s a lot of ignorance and not enough vijjā or wisdom then it goes very slowly or maybe it doesn’t go anywhere at all and maybe even gets worse. But when there is more vijjā, more correct knowledge than there is ignorance, then there is rapid progress leading to success. So the thing is to have some mindfulness and some wisdom, to see what needs to be done in order to be afraid of dukkha and ashamed of dukkha, and then things will develop accordingly.
So if you see that this dukkha of your life is like a fire burning your head – you can see that dukkha is like your head being on fire – and you’ve got to do whatever possible to put it out immediately, then your progress, your practice will go well. If you can see that you came here in order to study Dhamma for the sake of quenching dukkha, then things will go well. But if you think that you came here to learn Dhamma in order to hear something strange, to practice philosophy, to think of new ideas, or to write books about Buddhism, or to make yourself happy or comfortable or to feel better or to become famous – if this is why you are studying Dhamma – then it will take a very long long time. So please come to study Dhamma simply for the sake of quenching dukkha. Be interested in Dhamma merely to make an end to dukkha. As for merely making yourself feel better, to forget a few of your problems or to be happy for a little while, if that’s your attitude, then it will take a long long time.
Some people have a lot of academic knowledge about Dhamma, they studied Dhamma for many years in an academic way until they can graduate from university and even be a professor of Buddhist studies, but this alone will not quench dukkha, this won’t solve any problems – although you might be able to get a job out of it – because one has to practice Dhamma. It’s not just enough to rack up or store up a lot of knowledge. One must practice Dhamma.
If one is sick and tired of dukkha, one is afraid of dukkha and ashamed of dukkha so that one seriously studies for the sake of quenching dukkha and practices in order to make an end to dukkha, then one will make steady and rapid progress. It’s like all of you here travelling around the world. Are you travelling around just to see strange new things, to have new experiences, to take lots of photographs, to write home letters and so on? Or are you travelling in order to find the way to end dukkha? If your travels are for the sake of ending dukkha, then you will make progress even while travelling. But if you’re just travelling for fun, for entertainment, to relax, to escape, then it will be a long long time till one can make an end to dukkha. So in short one needs an appetite for Dhamma. The Pāli word for this is chanda. When one has an appetite for Dhamma and for practice, when one has a real appetite, then there will be success.
If we speak in the Buddha’s language, then you’ll understand more easily. When the Buddha spoke about ‘the world,’ he meant the thing that is full of problems and dukkha. All the problems that are dukkha, this is what the Buddha meant by ‘the world.’ So if you travel around this world of the Buddha, if you travel around and around this world, then it won’t be long till you can make an end to dukkha. Even in the more ordinary ways of speaking when people talk about the world, they’re always talking about problems, getting this and getting rid of that. They’re always talking about problems. So this is the world that one needs to travel around. Even if you don’t manage to make it around that world of the imagination, but if you travel around and around in this real world of the dukkha we create out of life, then you will find the way out of it.
There’s another natural fact that should be considered, which is that if these bodies and minds which have been created by Dhamma, if in any case a body or mind is deficient or incomplete, specifically if there is a low IQ, if one is retarded or an idiot, if this is the case one won’t have any potential, one won’t be concerned with dukkha, one won’t be able to be interested in Dhamma, and so it will not be possible to make any progress in the study and practice of Dhamma. But in all of us here there’s not one who is like that. Each of us has sufficient IQ, each of us is healthy enough, complete enough, in order to study and practice Dhamma. So one ought to be interested in this. One already has the ability. The only thing now is to have an appetite for putting that ability into practice, to take seriously the quenching of dukkha.
They have a way of measuring our desire for something. Compare it to someone who is drowning. Imagine that somebody is pushing you under the water so you can’t breathe, so that you’re drowning and cannot breathe. When you are in that state, how strong will be your desire to get out of the water and onto land in order to breathe? How strong will be your desire to breathe? Stop and think about that for a bit. Consider what that kind of desire will be when you’re drowning, the desire to be able to breathe. And now compare that with your desire to end dukkha. None of us has such a desire to end dukkha. We’re just fooling around, just playing games, just entertaining ourselves for a little while, and so we make very slow progress. But anyone whose desire to end dukkha is as strong as the person who’s drowning wants to breathe, then that person will make very rapid progress.
But now all of you are drowning, you’re all drowning in positive and negative. And you like it, you enjoy it, you think it’s really great to be drowning in the positive and negative. And so you have no desire to get out of that, to get free of the dukkha of a life that is dominated by positive and negative. But when one sees how all this positive and negative traps us, traps us into dukkha, then one will want to get free of it. But as long as we’re content with that positive and negative, then we’ll continue drowning. Our life will go nowhere, it will be wasted. So consider this, and see if it isn’t time to get interested in getting free of the positive and negative, to be a little bit embarrassed by all this dukkha.
So please try, please strive, please try to get out from the power of positive and negative. But let us say that if you aren’t interested in this, if you don’t have any desire to get free of the power of positive and negative, then we have to say that you’re weak-minded, even that you’re retarded and that you won’t have the ability to study Buddhism. Buddhism is only about dukkha and the end of dukkha, and if you‘re not interested in this, well then, how will you ever be able to study Buddhism? So we hope that you will try to rise up above the power of positive and negative in order to be free of dukkha. If this is what you’re interested in, if you’re genuinely interested in this, then it won’t take so long.
(From the retreat “The Living Computer,” as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
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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