The Dhammic Life Which Is Still a Secret
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives 01317
“Buddhism is only concerned with the quenching of dukkha, and all other concerns and questions not directly related to that are ultimately unimportant. However it seems that humanity is spread out along a long road of evolution, and it is only those who naturally occupy a position towards the end of that road, namely near to Nibbāna and the realization of not-self, who are naturally, spiritually, and intellectually mature enough to be able to accept, benefit from, and understand such a refined pure practice and philosophy as Buddhism. Meaning that all those others further back along the road who are not so spiritually and intellectually mature – who make up the vast bulk of humanity – are not capable of accepting such a refined religion. And it could be said that its very refinement may be the thing that prevents spiritual growth and progress on a simpler level. Therefore can it be said that Buddhism, especially Theravāda Buddhism, is a religion that appeals and is directed towards a select minority, and it may explain why even though Buddhism is the most advanced evolved knowledge of mankind, it remains confined to a small section of the world?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
Much of what you say is true. The reality which is called ‘Nibbāna’ is not understood easily or without effort and practice. This is very true. In fact when the Buddha first awakened to dependent origination, to Nibbāna, he thought it was so difficult and profound that it wasn’t worth trying to teach. Later he decided that there would be some people who were capable of understanding what he had discovered. So he decided to teach and then the discourses of the Buddha were recorded and passed on. Of course these are very difficult for many people to understand, and we have to admit that there are still people who are rather stupid, who cannot understand these things. So there are various ways that have been developed to help these people. However at this point let’s be very careful about ourselves. If we say that these things are difficult to understand, we don’t mean that they are impossible to understand. If they were impossible to understand then there would be no Buddhism. Although difficult, they can be understood. So each of us here should not use their difficulty as an excuse to say that ‘I can’t understand them, this is too difficult, this is beyond me.’ People who take that attitude are truly stupid, are too stupid to understand the teachings. The approach of someone who is wiser and more intelligent is to do what is necessary to make oneself capable of understanding these things. Rather than denying the possibility of understanding, instead to listen carefully, to reflect deeply, to practice, and to put forth effort in order to be able to understand these things. It’s not possible to understand them all at once. If you’re waiting to be zapped by a magic wand, then you’ll be very disappointed. But if you invest some time and effort, you’ll get your money’s worth. By making yourself capable you’ll come to the point where you can understand these things more and more. This is something important to understand – to take a wise approach to the difficulty of these matters instead of a stupid approach.
Buddhism, in addition to trying to preserve very profound insights into the true nature of things, has developed techniques and practices for people of weaker commitment and intelligence. If you study these you’ll see that some of these later inventions or creations of various teachers still have the same purpose. For example there’s a common practice for people in Thailand who are called ‘asim,’ the old Chinese grandmothers who like to hang around the Chinese temples. And a common practice for them is to chant the words ‘Amitābha, Amitāyu.’ They’re told that if they chant these words eighty thousand times that when they die a special carriage will wait on the roof of their house to take them to Nibbāna. Now at first those who have an understanding of the original teachings of Buddhism will consider this to be rather stupid and superstitious, but if one looks more closely one can see what the teacher who thought up this method was trying to do. The purpose was to get these people to say ‘Amitābha, Amitāyu’ eighty thousand times with the understanding that eventually anybody but a real fool would start to wonder, ‘well what do these words mean?’ The word amitābha means ‘infinite light, boundless light, immeasurable light,’ and amitāyu means ‘infinite life, boundless life, immeasurable life.’ Immeasurable life is that which is eternal, which is a synonym for Nibbāna. The same is true for boundless, immeasurable light. So while chanting this eighty thousand times one has the possibility to start to wonder, well what does this mean? This can then be the spark for the beginning of an understanding of what Nibbāna and Buddhism are really about. Some of these Mahāyāna practices may at first seem rather foolish or superstitious, but if we look closely until we see the original intention, then we will see that they too are designed to lead people toward an understanding of the highest Dhamma. But people who are on a certain level can’t get there directly, so there are some things available to help them to get to a place or a level where they can understand. It’s true that the highest Dhamma teachings are very difficult to understand, but they are not impossible to understand, and we all ought to put some time and effort into getting ourselves ready so that we can understand them. There’s no need to automatically consider oneself to be incapable and therefore to give ourselves no chance of realizing the best thing there is to realize in life.
Such techniques are not used in Theravāda Buddhism, which merely encourages people to think and reflect deeply about dukkha, and then to think and reflect into the causes of dukkha, to investigate where dukkha comes from, and see that all dukkha comes from ego, so that without ego there is no dukkha, then to investigate further that this ego merely comes from being stupid about desire. Because of our ignorance, we attach to desire as there being someone who desires, and so the ego is born out of this stupidity about desire. And then investigating, ‘Well, why does one desire?’ Desire happens merely because of ignorance about feelings. Not understanding how feelings are merely natural occurrences, one takes them to be real and important and creates desire out of that. And not understanding how feelings merely come from contact – because the sense organs are always there ready to experience the world, and the world is full of things to be contacted – it’s just natural that contact will occur. We have these kinds of nervous systems in this kind of world and so contact is natural. Contact happens, and due to contact there are feelings (vedanā). Because feelings are not understood there arises desire, and through even more ignorance the desire is attached to as being someone who desires, and then ego is born, and due to this ego there is selfishness. This is the approach of Theravāda Buddhism – to explore dukkha and its causes in this way. This is a very scientific approach, it’s systematic, it’s rational, it can be investigated, recreated, and proven by each of us for ourselves. This is an approach that is appropriate for our times, for the era when science is highly developed. It’s not necessary for us to go to some of the old techniques like those for the old Chinese grandmothers. We are able to use this scientific approach of investigating dependent origination – how dukkha arises due to ego, which arises due to attachment through the desirer, which arises because of desire, which comes from ignorance about feelings which arise naturally due to contact. Exploring dependent origination is the scientific approach favored by Theravāda Buddhism.
Since the Buddha’s time many people have tried to find all kinds of ways to get free of self, and there’s now a great variety of techniques and approaches available. For example in Tibetan Buddhism they’ve got tantra, often called ‘Tantric Buddhism.’ They borrowed many techniques from Hinduism and incorporated them into their own form of Buddhism. One large aspect of tantra involves sex. Instead of avoiding sex, they engage in sex totally in order to achieve the highest forms of sexual experience. Many people misunderstand this and just use it as an indulgence or an excuse to get obsessed with sex. But the purpose – the way it’s supposed to work – is that through experiencing the highest aspects of sexuality and sexual experience, one sees how deceitful, how elusive it all is, that these experiences and the pleasures that come from them, no matter how powerful or special, deceive the mind. They trick the mind into attachment. So the purpose is one will recognize that and transcend the sexuality and sex, and then realize liberation from self. If you understand what is supposed to happen, it’s a way to get free of the self, but we don’t recommend that you use this approach because it’s very tricky and the vast majority of people just get stuck in sex, they get ensnared and trapped in it. Although many people want to think they’re able to do it, most of them get stuck, so we are not recommending this approach. We’re just trying to illustrate the principle that since the Buddhist times many many forms of practice have been developed to get free of self. We, however, recommend that which has always been the central pillar or principle of Buddhism and at the core of all these newer practices and techniques – to investigate the reality of dependent origination, to study dependent origination till one sees that the self is just something that originates dependent on other things, and so the self isn’t really a self. This is the original way and still the best, safest approach for getting free of self. And when the mind is free of all feelings and thoughts and concepts about self, then there is no way that any dukkha can happen.
So don’t forget that if it will free us from self, then that’s what we’re looking for. If it will free us from self, that’s what Buddhism is all about. Never forget that the essence of Buddhism is to get free of all thoughts, illusions concerning self, and then one will be free of all dukkha. But some of the approaches, for example these tantric techniques that use sex, or other methods which involve inflicting pain on the body, are very dangerous. One can get lost in them as well as doing other kinds of harm to oneself and others. One must be very careful. You can use whichever approach that you think will work, but understand what working means, that it will get us free of self. We recommend living correctly. The safest approach has always been to learn how to live correctly in body, our physical actions, in speech – what we say and think – and in mind, which can be summarized simply as living the Noble Eightfold Path. When one lives in the way that’s described as the Noble Eightfold Path, then there is no room for self to arise, so there is no chance of dukkha. This is the safest approach and the one we recommend to all of you – to live in the way which is called ‘right living’ or the ‘Noble Eightfold Path.’
To put this in terms that are most appropriate for people who live in such an age of science as this, we can summarize this correct way of living as to not attach to positive and negative. When things make contact – when sights, sounds, smells, etc. make contact – don’t regard them as being positive or negative. If you don’t regard them as positive and negative, you won’t attach to them, and then this won’t be the cause of ego, selfishness, and dukkha.
To put in words that a child can understand, we can say the positive pulls us in and the negative pushes us out. The positive pulls in, the negative pushes out. So don’t let anything pull you in or push you out, and then you will be free.
From the retreat “The Dhammic Life Which Is Still a Secret,” 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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