(EA06)-01-True-Dhamma-I

Venerable brothers and sisters in the Dhamma, today the topic is the True Dhamma. Why I chose this topic is because it is very important. If you want to practice the Dhamma, that you investigate properly and practice the real stuff. Because as you know, recently all this publicity about that film Da Vinci Code, it has Not only this book, Da Vinci Code, there are other books also written recently by scholars. It has overturned a lot of beliefs that they had about Christianity, that Holy Mary was a virgin, that Jesus Christ helped this prostitute called Mary Magdalene. When in fact actually now they say that it is his wife. So how is it for 2,000 years they did not realize this? Because they did not take the trouble to investigate. So people believe blindly for 2,000 years and then suddenly now People are saying different things, so it has come as a shock to many people, especially Christians, those beliefs that they had suddenly overturned. So it is the same with Buddhism. If we practice the Dhamma without investigating properly, then after many years you may find that what you believed in actually was groundless, was not true. So nowadays, It is a long time since the Buddha was here, 2,500 over years. So there's a lot of wrong teachings found in the Dhamma. And so we, to investigate what is the real Buddha's teachings, we should go back to the source, to the earliest discourses of the Buddha. In the suttas, the discourses of the Buddha, one of the sayings of the Buddha is, be a lamb unto yourselves, be a refuge unto yourselves with no other refuge. Take the Dhamma as your lamb, take the Dhamma as your refuge with no other refuge. So you should rely on yourself and rely on the Buddha's Dhamma. the true Dharma of the Buddha. Nowadays, a lot of people don't understand. They go around looking for a good teacher, Holy Avalokiteshvara. So sometimes, after following that Holy Avalokiteshvara for many years, you get disappointed, like myself. I followed Holy Avalokiteshvara for nine years, and after nine years, I was totally disappointed. So that's why the Buddha said, depend on yourself and depend on the Dhamma. What is the Dhamma? In another sutra, the Buddha said, A certain monk says that such and such is the Buddha's teaching. His interpretation of the Buddha's teaching is such and such. Then the Buddha said, don't accept it and don't scorn it also, don't reject it also. The Buddha said, compare what he teaches with the suttas. and for the monks also with the Vinaya. And the Buddha said if it agrees with the suttas, then you can accept it as the Buddha's teachings. If it does not agree with the suttas, then the Buddha said reject it. It is not the Buddha's teachings. So I give you some examples. We know that there is this Story about the Buddha. that he cultivated the paramis for many, many lifetimes. It is said to be four asankhaya kapas and 100 maha kapas. One kapa is a world cycle which is supposed to be extremely long, so long the Buddha said that it is very hard to imagine how long it is. Asankhya kapas means uncountable world cycles. And they say for four uncountable world cycles and 100 great world cycles, the Buddha cultivated the Paramis until he perfected the Paramis, then only he could become a Buddha. And then they base this on the Jataka stories. The stories about the Buddha in his past life being born as a deer, or as a rabbit, or as Sankancil, etc. And if we examine these Jataka tales, we find that in these tales it is said that when the Bodhisattva was a deer or a rabbit, etc., he could speak, speak like a human being and act like a human being. Have you ever heard an animal speak? I've never heard an animal speak. So can you believe that an animal can speak? And then some of these stories are so ridiculous. For example, he said when our Bodhisatta was born as a rabbit, he wanted to perfect his parami of giving, generosity. So there was a hunter who came into the forest to hunt. and he hunted the whole day and he couldn't hunt any animal, didn't shoot any animal. So in the evening when he was preparing his dinner, his pot was boiling water, but there's no meat to cook, so he was very hungry. So it is said in the Jataka story that the Bodhisatta asked that Rabbit, he jumped into the boiling water in the pot and sacrificed his life for the hunter to eat. Can you believe? Rabbit, so smart, so good-hearted. If he was so smart and good-hearted, he would not be born as a rabbit, isn't it? And then also like the story about the Bodhisatta in the past life where he saw the tiger so hungry that it had no milk to give the cubs. So the Bodhisatta, from the top of the hill he jumped down, committed suicide so that he could feed the tiger. This type of story sounds very nice, but it goes against logic. How can somebody commit suicide to feed a tiger? Firstly, if you feed the tiger, the tiger is used to eating human meat. Tomorrow, he'll look for another human to eat. But the main point is it goes against the Buddha's teaching. Why? In the Buddha's discourses, the Buddha said a wise person's offering or charity must not harm other living beings and must not harm yourself. So for example, if you want to offer, you want to cook some chicken for a monk, you cannot go to the market and order a live chicken to be slaughtered to feed the monk. If the monk knows that he ordered a live chicken, then he would not eat the meat. It's not allowed. So in the same way, in this story where the Bodhisatta committed suicide to feed the Tiger, it also goes against the Buddha's teachings. If he actually did that, then he would make either his wife suffer a lot, or his parents suffer to know that he committed suicide to feed the tiger. Also, the Vesantara Jataka, where it is said that our Bodhisatta in his past life, he gave away his wife and his two children to a merciless beggar who beat them. So he did this just to perfect his parami of giving. Don't you think that's very selfish? Just because he wants to perfect his parami, he must make his wife suffer, must make his children suffer. Both against logic. If you tell this to a Christian, he'll laugh at you. What a silly Buddhism you are teaching.

(EA06)-02-True-Dhamma-II

So we have to be very careful. Now is the age of the information explosion, and now we know a lot of things, more than our grandparents used to know. Nowadays, we question a lot of things. Formerly, our grandparents did not question. Formerly, in the olden days, in the religious teachings, you are asked to believe this, believe that, and don't ask questions. Nowadays, people are different. People learn to ask questions, ask everything. And the Buddha also encouraged you to ask. Don't simply believe blindly. So this story about the Buddha cultivating paramis is something that was created much later. If we look at the early discourses of the Buddha, found in the Sutat Pitaka, which consists of about 5,000 discourses of the Buddha, you find this word parami was never uttered by the Buddha. The Buddha didn't know this word parami also. We are smarter than the Buddha, we know the word parami. So, that is one thing. Another thing is this story about our Buddha, where after his wife gave birth to a son, then he decided to renounce. Then in the middle of the night, it is stated, he took a last look at his son and at his wife, then he went away to renounce and become ascetic. But in the Majjhima Nikaya, it is stated that the Buddha, in front of his parents who were crying, and his parents pleaded with him not to renounce the home life and become an ascetic. In spite of his parents crying and pleading with him, in front of them, he cut off his hair and put on the yellow robe, and he went forth. So he was not a coward, hiding in the middle of the night and went away in front of his parents. He told his parents that he is renouncing, he cannot live at home. If you study the suttas clearly, more detail, you will find in the early discourses of the Buddha, this word bodhisattva, the Buddha used only to refer to himself in the last three lifetimes. When he was a disciple of the last Buddha, Kassapa, the previous Buddha, Kassapa, he renounced and became a disciple of the Buddha Kassapa. At that time he had entered the stream because he listened to the Buddha's teachings and he was He understood the Four Noble Truths, so he renounced the home life and became a monk under the Buddha Kassapa. At that time onwards, he was a bodhisattva. The suttas refer to himself as a bodhisattva in that lifetime, and in the next lifetime when he was reborn in the Tusita Heaven, and in the last lifetime when he came down as Siddhartha Gautama. These three lifetimes only. The Buddha referred to himself as a Bodhisatta. So actually a Bodhisatta is a being who is already an Arya and is destined for enlightenment. So from the suttas we find when the Buddha in his previous lifetime practiced under the Buddha Kasapa, he must have attained the first jhāna because when he came back, As Siddhartha Gautama, as a young man, he sat under the jambu tree and attained the first jhana. So if a person can attain the first jhana and practice and listen to the suttas, he would become a sakadagamin, a second fruit attainer. A sakadagamin is called a once-returner. That means he goes to heaven and he comes back to the human existence only one more time and he must enter nirvana. It's like a ripe fruit, it must fall. Whether there's wind or there's no wind, it's overripe, it will fall. So the same with the Sakadagamin. it is time for him to enter Nibbana. So when Sakadagamins come back in the human birth, they will naturally renounce and go forth and practice ascetic practices until they become enlightened. So it is not true that to become a Buddha you make a vow and then you practice the paramis and eventually you perfect your paramis and you become enlightened. On the other hand, what is found in the suttas is that you listen to the discourses of the Buddha and you enter the stream. After you enter the stream, then if you meditate and attain the jhanas, then you abound for enlightenment. In the legends, the stories concerning our Buddha, we find that it is stated that the Buddha met 24 Buddhas who predicted that he will one day become the Buddha Sakyamuni. But actually, in the actual discourses of the Buddha, we find that the Buddha mentioned that when he looked back into the past, he only saw six Buddhas. And these six Buddhas were seen by him over the last, I think, 91 world cycles. 91 world cycles is an extremely long time. So for the Buddha to look back into 91 world cycles, he must have spent the whole night, from 6 o'clock in the evening until 6 o'clock the next morning, looking at the past, looking, looking, looking, looking. and he saw during that time only six Sammasambuddhas. Pacekabuddhas, there are a lot. In fact, of all the Buddhas, we find 99.9% of Buddhas are Pacekabuddhas. They refuse to teach. Very few Buddhas actually want to become a Sammasambuddha. So it was the same with our Sakyamuni Buddha. When he was enlightened, he contemplated the minds of human beings and he found that it was very difficult to convince people to practice the Dhamma. So he decided he was not going to teach the Dhamma, he was going to become a Pacekabuddha. But then this Brahma, I think Sahampatti, came and pleaded with the Buddha, said, although it is true that most beings will not want to practice the Dhamma, yet there is a small percentage of beings who are willing to practice the Dhamma, and if you don't teach them the Dhamma, they will not progress. So because of the few, the Buddha came to teach the Dhamma. So we are heirs of the Dhamma. We inherit the teachings of the Buddha through the Arahants. So it is also for people like us that the Buddha taught the Dhamma. So don't think that you don't have these paramis, if you want to call it. We have a lot of paramis. We have a lot of good merit to be able to listen to the true teachings of the Buddha. Only thing is we have to investigate more. Because the Buddha said that to become an Arya, you must get right view. And to attain right view, you have two conditions only. One is to listen to the Dhamma, that means the earliest teachings of the Buddha. And secondly, if you have a yoniso manasikara, a clear mind, which is achieved through, when you listen to the Dhamma, you must pay thorough attention. If you pay thorough attention when you are listening to the Dhamma, then you can understand. And then if you understand the Four Noble Truths, then you have entered the stream. And once you have entered the stream, you are actually a bodhisattva. And at the most, you have seven more lifetimes, seven more existences, and you will never fall into the woeful plains. You'll never become a ghost or an animal or go to hell to suffer. So it is very well worth our time to spend more time to listen to the Buddha's Dharma and try to understand. I believe this Buddhist Society has some of my talks, MP3 talks, four of them in English and four of them in Hokkien, and these comprise almost all of the talks I have given since 1988. So I hope you have the interest to try to get a copy of these CDs and listen.

(EA06)-03-True-Dhamma-III

Now, what other wrong views are found in Buddhism? Another one is about meditation. Nowadays, many people are interested in Vipassana meditation, but they go straight in without investigating properly, because if you investigate properly, you find that Vipassana meditation was created about 30 years ago by Mahasi Sayadaw. Before that, if you look back 50 years ago, nobody heard of vipassana meditation. Just like now you have equan-tao, which claims to be Buddhism. But 50 years ago, nobody heard of equan-tao. So, in the Buddha's discourses, Rebel Ananda was asked, what type of meditation is praised by the Buddha? and Venerable Ananda said, the type of meditation praised by the Buddha is the first jhāna, the second jhāna, the third jhāna, the fourth jhāna. In other words, whatever type of meditation you practice, as long as if the goal is to attain the jhānas, then you are practicing Buddhist meditation. If you are practicing a type of meditation which does not bring you to attain the jhānas, then that is not Buddhist meditation. It is very clear from the suttas. Now a lot of people don't understand why jhānas are so important. To understand why jhanas are important, we must understand the state of Nibbana, which is the goal of the holy life, the goal of the spiritual path. Why do we practice, why do we study the suttas and practice meditation so hard? Because we want to become liberated. We want to become an arahant. What is the name for liberation? It is not attaining wisdom. A lot of people think we practice meditation to attain wisdom. No. The aim of practicing meditation, firstly to attain jhanas, and ultimately to attain liberation. And what is the state of liberation? How do you become liberated? Can anybody tell me? There is another name for an arahant, a liberated person. Another name for an arahant is a kinasava. Kinasava means one who has destroyed the asavas. If you destroy the asavas, you become enlightened. So becoming enlightened is not getting a lot of wisdom. Becoming enlightened is actually a physical happening when you destroy the asavas. And what are asavas? Asavas are uncontrolled mental outflows, basically the flow of consciousness. As long as consciousness flows, this world exists. Why? Because this world is made up of consciousness. This world is only found in the six sense doors. Because you see, because you hear, because you smell, taste, touch and think, then the world comes into existence. Suppose you had no consciousness, is there a world? There is no world. The world is made up of consciousness and the objects of consciousness. When you have consciousness and you have an object, then you are conscious of something, and that something you are conscious of is nama-rupa, mentality and materiality. So you must understand that the world arises because of consciousness. So what is Nibbāna? Nibbāna is the state where consciousness ceases. This is given in the Kevada Sutta, in the Digha Nikaya. The Buddha said the state of Nibbāna is when the sixth consciousness stops. So when the Sixth Consciousness stops, this state, when an arahant passes away, his Sixth Consciousness stops, so he does not take rebirth. That's why in the suttas we find that there were times when the arahant passed away and the Buddha came to see, and then sometimes the Buddha would tell his disciples, he said, you look at the distance, there's a black cloud, flying here, flying there, and then they looked and they saw. And the Buddha said, that is Mara. Mara is trying to find the consciousness of this Arahant, where this Arahant has taken rebirth. But the Buddha said, he cannot find the consciousness of the Arahant, because the Arahant's consciousness has ceased. That's why there is no more rebirth. So this state of Nibbana where the consciousness ceases, it can also be experienced in this lifetime. And this experience of Nibbana in this lifetime is called Nirodha Samapatti, cessation, actually cessation of perception and feeling. When perception and feeling ceases, consciousness also ceases. So this state, cessation of perception and feeling, can be attained by some arahants with very strong samadhi. And when they enter this state called nirodha-samapatti, cessation, they can remain in this state for a maximum of seven days. And it is stated in the suttas that One of the disciples of a previous Buddha, he was in the forest and he entered this state of nirodha-samapatti. And then the villagers went into the forest either to look for food or to look for dry wood. And they saw this arahant in this state of nirodha-samapatti, cessation of perception and feeling. So when they came up to him, they found that his breathing had stopped and his heart also had stopped beating. So they thought he must be dead. So they piled a lot of wood on top of him and set the wood on fire. And then the next day, they were surprised to see this monk come to the village begging for food. So at first they thought it was his ghost and then they realized that he was alive. So you see this state of Nirodha Samapatti is such a special state that when a person enters this state, nothing can destroy him. So this state is a very high state of concentration where very few people can attain. If you are not an arahant and you attain this state, Then when you come out of it, you either become an arahant or an anagamin. It's such an advanced state. Now to attain that state of nirodha-samapatti or nibbana, you have to pass through the jhanas. And there are eight jhanas. Four rupa jhanas and four arupa jhanas. And these jhanas are states where sometimes it's translated as meditative absorption, where you are so absorbed inside your mind that you are not aware of the world. So to attain this state of jhāna, you have to withdraw from the world. Before you can enter this state of jhāna, you slowly go into your mind. As you go into your mind, the world recedes from you. You are not aware of hearing, of seeing, of smelling, taste and touch. And then when you go into that first jhāna, the mind still has some thinking, but the Buddha says only skillful thoughts, skillful intentions. So the kind of thoughts is not ordinary thoughts. It's not about thinking about your home or thinking about your work. You might think, oh, I must remember to remember all these steps I took to come to this state so that I can repeat it again. So that is the first jhāna. But when a person enters the second jhāna, it is an even more deeper state of samādhi, where the mind is so absorbed that thoughts cannot arise at all. That's why the state of jhāna is called the state of the āryan silence. Normally, our mind is always chatting, we are always talking to ourself in the mind, and we are not doing anything. Very interesting that the mind will keep talking to you. But all that thinking is the source of dukkha. Sometimes people say a nasty word to you, and you keep thinking about it, you get more and more angry. Sometimes at night you cannot go to sleep. But to get rid of this mental suffering, if you enter that state of second jhāna, it's so blissful, there's no thoughts to disturb you. So these states of jhāna also are states of great bliss and happiness, piti and sukha. That's why in the suttas the Buddha said, if a person constantly absorbs himself in the second jhāna, then he's reborn in the second jhāna plane, and the state there is so happy and blissful, like every day he's saying sukha, sukha, sukha, like a person high on drugs. And in the third jhāna, the Buddha said, it's so blissful that he cannot even utter a word. So, the Buddha said, Nibbānaṁ paramaṁ sukhaṁ, the highest bliss is Nibbāna. So since Nibbāna is the state of great bliss, the highest bliss, To enter the state of Nibbana, you must go in that direction. If you are experiencing bliss and happiness, you are on the right road. So that's why jhāna is so important. If you practice a type of meditation where you cannot attain jhāna, then you are still in the world of the six senses. You have not taken off from the world of the six senses. Your rocket has not lifted off the ground. How can you arrive at the moon? So jhanas are these states where you're already lifted off from the world. You're on your way to the moon. That's nibbana. So maybe I can stop for a while and see whether I've got you all thinking to ask some questions. Don't be shy to ask, you know. The Buddha said, we must investigate more. Don't simply listen to what I say and believe everything. You can cross-examine me like a lawyer.

(EA06)-04-Questions-and-Answers-01

Bhante, good evening. I've got a question here. When we learn about metta meditation, we will first start to go to the state of one-pointedness. Thereon, we go to concentrate on the breathing through the nose. In-out, we concentrate on the breathing, breathing out. Then from there, we are told to go down to vipassana, the rising and falling. So can you please explain a little bit on that? Explain what? Whether this is the correct method of meditation. From metta to anapanasati, the concentration on the breathing, then to vipassana. As I mentioned just now, the aim of meditation should be to attain the jhanas. If you practice and you're not aiming for jhanas, that means you're not aiming to live off the ground, so you can never go towards Nibbana. It's alright to practice any way you want, but if you're aiming for Nibbana, then you must live off from the six senses, you must go away from your six senses. But since I have six senses, I must not be working. Then in other words, how do we go, that means, if you want to go to the state of jhāna, so what are the proper ways to go to the state of jhāna? Okay, actually jhāna and satipatthana is connected, but nowadays people say that jhāna is one meditation, satipatthana is different, it is vipassana meditation. It's totally not in accordance with the suttas. In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha explained how to practice Satipatthana. Satipatthana to me should be translated as an intense state of recollection. Today I brought some books about meditation which explains about mindfulness, recollection, and concentration. In other words, Sampajanya, Sati, and Samadhi. So coming back to Satipatthana, the Buddha said to understand how to practice Satipatthana, the Buddha gave a simile or a parable. The Buddha said, suppose the most beautiful girl of the country came out, and then all the men saw and they clapped their hands and shouted, the most beautiful girl of the country. And then more people came out when they heard that. And then they clapped and they shouted and they asked this beautiful girl to sing and dance. So this beautiful girl started to sing and dance and more people came out to see. Then the Buddha said, an ordinary man came along, one who wanted to live, not to die, one who wanted happiness, not suffering. Then the Buddha said the soldiers caught him, caught him and made him carry a bowl of oil filled to the brim with oil, filled to the top with oil. And the soldier walked behind him with an upraised sword and told him, you better be careful. If you spill even one drop of the oil, I'll chop off your head. So he has to carry the oil and walk very slowly and he has to look at the oil. Does he dare to look at the pretty girl there? Dare not, isn't it? Does he dare to look left or look right? Dare not, isn't it? Because his life depends on this bowl. So he has to carry the bowl with all his attention on the bowl and nowhere else. He just keeps walking, walking, looking at the bowl, paying attention to nothing else. That is the way to practice satipatthana, according to the Buddha. That is why in another sutta, in the Satipatthana-samyutta, the Buddha said, a skillful monk, one who practices satipatthana in the right way, eventually he will attain jhāna, one-pointedness of mind. But if another monk has no kung fu, there's no skill, he practices satipatthana, he can never attain one-pointedness of mind, cannot attain jhāna. So like this guy is carrying the bowl, he's looking at the pretty girl and looking left and looking right, he's not practicing satipatthana correctly, so he cannot get one-pointedness of mind. So that is the way to practice meditation. Whatever you are contemplating on, for example, if you are contemplating on your breath, you just pay attention to your breath. Any sound comes, you just ignore it. Any sensation comes, you ignore it. Any thought comes, you just ignore it. You just focus on your breath all the time until your mind becomes one-pointed. So the breath is just one of the methods. Another one that the Buddha used to teach his disciples was like meditating on a flame, like a candle flame. Light a candle flame, open your eyes, look at the flame and close your eyes. Try to imagine the flame. and then open your eyes again, and then close your eyes, try to imagine the flame. You keep looking, looking, looking until one day, even when your eyes close, you can see the flame. And then you keep looking at that flame, and then slowly it changes, and then you concentrate on it. Then you enter jhāna. Those monks who practice this meditation on the flame, then they can bring up the flame of the fire, when they are in samadhi. So some of them when they pass away, they conjure up the flame and the flame will just burn their whole body, burn their body to ashes. Then they enter nirvana. That is kung fu, real kung fu.

(EA06)-05-Questions-and-Answers-02

Pandey, just now you mentioned about the world exists because of our consciousness. Yes. And we reach the state of Nibbāna because of our cessation of consciousness. Yeah. I have two questions. Question number one is that does Buddhism touch about unconsciousness and subconsciousness as well, other than consciousness? The Buddha did not talk in that way. The Buddha did not talk in that way, but the Buddha talked about tendencies, that we have latent tendencies. You might say this is the subconsciousness or libido and all that. So the Buddha talked in terms, in different terms. So unconsciousness depends on what you mean by unconscious. Real unconsciousness is that nirodha samapatti I mentioned, total unconsciousness. Okay? In the terminology of the subconsciousness, when we reach this state of nibbana, what happens to that? This one is difficult to explain because it's something beyond words, right? Just like if you try to explain to a fish what land is like outside the pond, you see, the ground is solid, and then you have trees growing on the ground, and then you have buildings where humans live. All this the fish cannot understand because it hasn't got out of the water. So in the same way, for us to understand Nibbāna is very difficult, but we can try to explain a bit because some of these things is beyond words, it can only be experienced. Now firstly, Nibbāna, It's a state now where the Sixth Consciousness ceases because the Sixth Consciousness is the world. And according to some advanced monks, they say that even though the sixth consciousness ceases, the state of Nibbāna is pure consciousness, where there is just awareness, but there is no awareness of self, there is no self. And it is a state of great bliss. And this state is a state of also bright consciousness. and boundless, boundless bright consciousness. Now, to make us understand the state of Nibbana a little bit, we will use a simile, a simile to help us understand. When we go to sleep at night, there are two types of sleep we experience. One is a dream state. where we dream. And these dreams sometimes can be frightening dreams, what we call nightmares. So because in that dream state, you are excited over something or you're agitated over something, it is not a very restful state. But there is another state of sleep where you go into a very deep sleep. When you go into this state of very deep sleep, you're not conscious of anything at all. And that state where you're not conscious of anything at all, you're not even conscious of yourself, is very blissful, so blissful that you wake up in the morning, you want to sleep some more. Today is Sunday, I can afford to sleep longer. So, Nibbana can be likened a little to that state where you are not aware of anything at all. You are not even aware that you exist. And yet, you are conscious. So you oversleep, then your mother comes and shakes you, wakes you up, then you wake up. Otherwise, you are not even aware that you exist. So in Hibana, it's a little like that. OK?

(EA06)-06-Questions-and-Answers-03

Bhante, I often look at the phrase, is it the Buddhist phrase says that sila, samadhi, paññā, it's sila morality, samadhi is concentration, paññā is wisdom. From what I understand from Bhante's mention, this should be sila, samadhi, jana, not sila, samadhi, paññā. No, no, no. Samadhi is jana. So where does the sila samadhi paññā, where does the paññā derive from after our concentration? Where will we develop the wisdom? This wisdom, wisdom is stated in the suttas as being able to see clearly. And when you see clearly, then you understand. And when you understand, then you have wisdom. So, when you cultivate the jhanas, then your mind becomes one-pointed. Your mind becomes very strong. Then you can put it to good use, whatever you want to do with the mind. So when your samadhi is attained, then wisdom comes naturally. So for example, you look at a person like Albert Einstein, supposed to be a genius, one of the smartest persons in the world. His Samadhi is very good, very excellent. Excellent. That's why we know that when he's given a long mathematical problem, we will have to use calculator to get the answer. He'll close his eyes, do all that. calculation in his brain. And then after some time, he'll write the answers down. How can he do that if he didn't have such an excellent concentration? So, you see, like external ascetics, they have, when they have jhanas, then they are also very special people, like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ also was a great meditator. and he had developed the four jhanas. That's why he could walk on water. So he had some psychic power. So when a person has attained the four jhanas, he's very near to enlightenment. But why didn't Jesus Christ become enlightened? Only one reason. He did not have the good fortune to listen to the Buddha Dharma. A person like Jesus Christ, you just have to tell him, let him listen to one sutta, he will become arahant, enlightened. So some people, they don't understand. They say, oh, a lot of external ascetics, they practice the jhanas, they get the jhanas, they don't become enlightened. Of course they don't become enlightened, because they don't have the chance to hear the dhamma. But when they hear the Dhamma, immediately they become enlightened. We, on the other hand, we don't have jhanas, we listen to 1,000 suttas also cannot become enlightened, yeah? So that's the difference between whether a person has jhana or no jhana. So in the suttas, the Buddha said, if you make offerings, to a person with Sila, your merit, you will get back something like 100,000 fold, 100,000 times what you gave to a person with Sila. But if you give to an external ascetic, who has no passion, that means a person who has attained the jhanas. Once a person has attained the jhanas, he has no passion. He's not lustful, he's not angry, his mind is very calm. Such a person, if you do dana to him, your merit will be a hundred thousand times a hundred thousand. So great. So people with jhana, they have wisdom. Only thing is, what type of wisdom they have. If they don't listen to the Dhamma, then they don't have Dhamma wisdom. They have other types of wisdom. But if you give them Dhamma, then they have Dhamma wisdom, immediately they become enlightened.

(EA06)-07-Questions-and-Answers-04

Pandey, I have both feeling sad because of all the time we practiced Vipassana. Happy because Pandey pointed out this is a mistake. So now what should I do? We already practiced Vipassana. We started with Vipassana. How should I collect it? This morning When I gave a talk in Puchong, I said that to practice the Dhamma, four things are very important. First one is dana, charity. Second is sila, keeping the precepts. Third one is studying the suttas. This is a foundation. This is very important. I know there's one lady in Penang who practiced Vipassana for 20 over years, and after 20 over years teaching Vipassana, she renounced Buddhism. She didn't renounce the home life, she renounced Buddhism, switched her religion. Why? Shows there's no foundation. This foundation must be based on the Dhamma. Did the Buddha call his disciples yogis? No. The Buddha called all his disciples savakas, hearers, listeners, listeners of the Buddha's word. If you listen to the Buddha's word, you are a disciple of the Buddha. If you don't listen to the Buddha's words, you are not a disciple. You might be practicing vipassana meditation, you are not a Buddhist. So it's very important, number three, to listen to the Buddha's words. and then only you can get right view. Then only you know whether you are practicing the right way or not. And the fourth one is to practice Samatha meditation. That's the only meditation taught by the Buddha.

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Can I ask another question? This is quite a common question. You see, if you compare the volume of sutra and the Bible, can we quantify how many times the Bible? This is something they will ask. The Bible is about this thick. Our suttas, the first one, Digha Nikaya, is maybe slightly more. And then the Majjhima Nikaya also slightly more than the Digha Nikaya. And then the Samyutta Nikaya, about three times the Bible, two or three times. and Anguttara Nikaya also the same. The last one, the Kudaka Nikaya. Kudaka Nikaya means the small collection or the minor collection, but it has grown to become the biggest collection. So out of the 15 books that Thailand and Sri Lanka recognize, and Burma, they recognize 18 books, because in 1956, I think they added another three books, which are not suttas. So out of those books in the Kudākha Nikāya, only six, you can say, are reliable because it does not contradict the early sūtas. So you take that, say, three and three, six, six, six and three, nine, about ten times our original teachings of the Buddha. It's about ten times the size of the Bible. And these consist of about 5,000 discourses, 5,000 suttas.

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My question is, all this while, I had a lot of this problem with this story of this River Dapta. River Dapta. Tell a story of what? Devadatta. Very difficult for me to reconcile the actions of Devadatta and his so-called psychic power and all these things. So I was thinking all this while, if Devadatta had achieved such a highly developed stage of this psychic power, so he must have, I think, maybe up to 4th jhanas or whatever, isn't it? So you were saying that with 4th jhanas and all this, you get wisdom, you reach the stage of anagami, sakadagami, sotapan, all these things. And then only lately I discovered that it's not necessary even when you reach the stage of 4th jhana that you are Sotapang or Anagami. Because if you are Anagami or Sotapang or Sakadagami, you won't commit those sort of hideous acts. Isn't it? So you can achieve 4th jhana, but then you have no wisdom and you are still not even a Sotapang. So I'm quite confused by what you were saying. Just now I said you have to be careful. What type of wisdom are you talking about? There are some people who are very crooked. They are very smart, but they are smart in the wrong way. So you see, during the Buddha's time, there were a few thousand arahants. How many of them were like Devadatta? How many Devadattas were there? Only one, yeah? Out of a few thousand, you have one bad egg. It's not surprising. You see, the Americans, they take so much trouble to make a rocket because they're spending millions and millions of dollars on that rocket. And they want to launch their rocket, maybe to go to Mars or Venus or something. And they make it with so many, how do you say, so many safety features. For example, they make it such that if one circuit fails, then they have backup, maybe another eight or nine circuits. In case one fails, you trip to another one. If this one fails, you trip to another. In spite of all that, they make everything so perfect. Sometimes when they launch their rocket, boom, explode. And they get so disappointed, they scratch their head. How come we made it so perfect? So in the same way, the Buddha said, he explains the Dhamma to his disciples. He shows them the way. But he doesn't guarantee that all of them become Arahants. He said, why? The Buddha gave a simile. Suppose now you are from Kajang, okay? Say we are from Kajang. So I ask you the way to a certain kampong in Kajang. You know the way, Ma. Yeah? They are very familiar with the way. Then you explain. You go by this road, then you turn left. After a while, you turn right, and then you see this sign, and then you turn here, and then you end up in that kampong. Okay? Now, then you ask ten people. You give them all this direction. You ask them to walk. Will all ten of them reach that kampong? No, Ma. Why? They are all different, Ma. Yeah? So the Buddha said in the same way, I teach the Dhamma, I show them the path so clearly, and it doesn't mean all of them will reach that Nibbana. So, out of a few thousand arahants, you only have one Devadatta. I think the success rate is very good already. You see, why does a person like Mahara appear, ask yourself. Mara is in the sixth heaven above the human, you know. It's in the sensual heavens, the highest sensual heaven, where their blessings is so great that whatever they wish for, they just think about it, it appears. They want a beautiful girlfriend, just think about it, it appears. They want to eat anything, they think about it, it appears. And such a high deva, how come he can become a Mara? It seems like this. I say how come a person cultivates four jhanas can become, have no wisdom? He has wisdom, but his wisdom is in the wrong direction. This person, Mahara, must have been a person who practiced the spiritual path, who meditated, who cultivated maybe ascetic practices, and did sila, practiced sila, dana, everything. So because of such great blessings that he's born in such a high heaven, even higher than Sakka Devaraja, but he made one mistake. he wasn't careful enough to cut the ego. I'm sure many of you, if you practice Vipassana meditation, I'm sure you know many people practice Vipassana meditation after many years, you think they have wisdom, their ego so big. Yes or no? Some of them. Why? As opposed to practicing wisdom, how come their ego so big? How come their temper so big? They are supposed to practice wisdom, but no wisdom. You know, isn't it? I don't have to tell you, you know very clearly there are many people who practice meditation, ego becomes so big.

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Can we say that when we practice meditation, when our concentration is good, we attain jhana, we are able to see that our life, our worldly life is actually a delusion or illusion. With that we are able to attain... Is it what will happen? Is it very briefly what will happen? We will see that... Presently we see that our life is so real. because of our consciousness. But if we practice meditation with strong concentration, then we have jhanas, we are able to break through what is false. We can see our life, present life is a delusion. Just as when we sleep, we see a dream. It's actually surreal, but actually when we wake up, we see it's only a dream. It is not real. Can we conclude that? Different people see differently. You might be able to see that, another person may not see that. So it depends on the person. Studying the suttas is very important because if you don't study the suttas, a lot of things that should be obvious to us is not obvious. Then after we listen to the Buddha's words, then we see that, ah, it's so obvious. Why didn't I think of it before? But one thing, suttas we have to study again and again. We don't study the suttas like a storybook. Storybook we read once, we don't want to read anymore. We must study them every day until we die. And you become really knowledgeable in the suttas. Because I know from experience, sometimes I study a certain sutta, some very important implication I didn't see. Then after studying a few times, then I catch. For example, I give you an example. The Abhidhamma is one of the later books, later teachings. That is why, for example, it has some similarity with Mahayana teaching. What is that similarity? In Mahayana teachings, they talk about Liu Tao Lun Hui. six destinations of rebirth and Abhidhamma also talks about six destinations of rebirth. But in the early discourses of the Buddha, the Buddha only talked about five destinations of rebirth without the Asura. Okay? We have two happy destinations of rebirth, which is heaven and human plane. And then we have three woeful planes of existence, which is ghost, animal, and hell realm. And then Mahayana books added the Asuras. And Abhidhamma also added the Asuras. Now, how come they added the Asuras? Because We know that Asuras like to fight, like to quarrel and fight, very violent nature, and they like to drink liquor. So people thought if they are like that, they must have some mental dukkha. So later books, like the sub-commentary, they said there are three types of asura. One is the heavenly asura, heavenly beings. Then you have the ghost asura. Then you have the hell being asuras. They thought those beings who torture you when you go to hell, they must be like asuras, so fierce to torture you. So they came to that conclusion. Now, if you study the Digha Nikaya, And you must study suttas like using a comb, trying to find all the small details. Then you notice in one of the suttas in the Digha Nikaya, the Buddha mentioned that the lowest type of asuras is called the Kalakanja asuras. Kalakanja, so that's the very lowest already, you cannot find lower than that. And then there's another sutra in the Digha Nikaya, where a lot of devas came to pay respect to the Buddha. They came from very far away. Then the Buddha told his Arahant disciples, he said, you see, today, The hosts of devas from the 10,000 world systems have come to pay respect to the Tathagata. And then the Buddha mentioned their names, this type of powerful deva, that type of powerful deva, and then he mentioned Kalakanja Asuras. So you see, Kalakanja Asuras are up in the heavens. So how can you find asuras in the ghost realm and in the hell realm? That is the lowest type of asuras already. And they are not found in the four great heavenly kings, you know. They are even higher than that. They are found in Sakadeva Raja Tavatimsa heavens. So it's because, you know, a lot of people, they read the suttas, they didn't notice this. Because I read the suttas many times, I noticed. Just like nowadays, these scholars, they do a lot of research and then they find out all these facts about Jesus.

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Bhante, you mentioned that there are various Nikayas, Digha, Anguttara, Majjhima, Sanghuta. Is there an order, I mean, if we want to learn the suttas, which one do we have to start first, or we can start with any one? I have written a book called liberation, relevance of Sutta Vinaya. And in that book, I have tried to point out the importance of studying the Suttas. And at the end of the book, I did say that if you want to study the Nikayas, it's easiest to start with Anguttara Nikaya, because it has many Suttas related to lay people. And also, I have spoken about 55 hours of talks on the Anguttara Nikayas. and I have made it into MP3. There are two MP3s. So if you listen to those talks where I have read out the sutta, and sometimes, you know, these suttas, because they were translated by professors, their English is very high class. So I have simplified some of the English so that our Malaysians can understand. And then after reading the sutta, I try to explain and compare it with other suttas. So if you listen to my Anguttara Nikaya talks, it will be much easier to understand than to read the books. But if you want, at the same time you read the book, at the same time you listen to my talks and compare, then you understand better. When I go back later, I can try to get this book, Liberation, sent to you all. You can download my talks from our website, bbgnet.org.

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One day, can I ask another question? Very often you hear people saying that they have done a lot of work for the society, a Buddhist society, done a lot of dharma work. Can you classify people coming to the temple to help and all that? Is that worldly work or dharma work? So what's the difference between worldly work and dharma work? If you do any work that helps to propagate the Dhamma, or help people to practice the Dhamma, then you can say that it's Dhamma work. For example, it's like you arrange this talk, and you do all the publicity to inform people about this talk, or you organize a retreat for meditation, or you organize Sunday Dhamma school where you teach the children some Dhamma. All that is Dhamma work. But there are some Buddhist societies where they are a little worldly. They may organize dancing and all that. That is not Dhamma work. That is more of social work. You find some Mahayana centres, they like to do all this social work, charity, free clinic, all that. That is not Dhamma work. So we have come to the Dhamma, our importance, the important Part of our work, it should be to teach the Dhamma, to propagate the Dhamma, to practice the Dhamma. The other things we can do, if we have the time, we have the money and resources and all that, like teaching yoga or teaching English and all that. So we should concentrate. If we don't know our what is important from what is not important, then we will be wasting our time. Just like some monks, they renounce, become a monk, and then they do charity, do social work. It's not that it's not good, it's good, but then it's not fitting. Why don't you become a layman and make a lot of money like Bill Gates, and then do charity. Bill Gates does a lot of charity, much better than you can do when you wear robes. Can metta meditation attain jhāna? Actually, in the suttas, if you study the suttas, you will find that the Buddha said to practice metta, you have to attain jhāna first. After you attain jhāna, then you practice metta, then you can radiate metta out, and other beings can feel it because you have that strength of mind. So nowadays, because people don't stress on jhana, people straightaway go into metta. So we imagine, we send out a lot of metta, but other beings don't feel. When I was young, I was in a Catholic school, and these Christian brothers used to give us holy pictures. of Christian saints. And remember, sometimes you get this Christian saint with the birds sitting on his shoulder and sitting on his head, and the deer will come to him and all that. This type of holy person, he really has metta, so that even other beings can feel it. And that is achieved through strong samadhi. All arahants have jhāna, and because all arahants have jhāna, their mind is so peaceful that it influences the area around them to be very peaceful. That's why the Buddha said, wherever you find an arahant, that whole area is very peaceful.

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And this ānāpānasati, if you look into the suttas, the Buddha didn't say that practicing ānāpānasati means looking at this point or looking at this point. Ānāpānasati is to be aware of the breath. It's only later books like the Visuddhimagga, they say be aware of the tip of your nose or the top of your lips and all that. That is not what the Buddha taught. Buddha taught just be aware of the breath going in and out.

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Auntie, just like you mentioned about the metta meditation that it's only when you reach jhana then you do it, you can radiate the, I mean, metta, whatever. I agree on that, but I find that if layman practice it, that is some good as well, because it's just a training of you always thinking good about other people, that the longer you train, actually you accultivate yourself to be always thinking about good things. So actually it will change your attitude, your personalities as well. Correct also. For people who cannot attain jhāna, then you can start by thinking of goodwill towards all beings, and compassion and all that. And from your bodily actions, instead of your vibrations, people can perceive your loving-kindness through your body language, through your verbal language.

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I want to ask, if one person have a lot of, his mind have a lot of thing disturb him, can he practice meditation? Because he have some tension or some illusion, so can he use a meditation to cure this kind of, I mean the delusion or, I mean have some psychology problem? Yes, actually that is the aim of meditation. We want to get a hold of our mind, to control our uncontrolled mind. But then for most people, practicing Anapanasati is quite difficult, very difficult. So if people have difficulty practicing the breath meditation, it is easier to practice chanting. In fact, the first meditation taught by the Buddha was actually chanting. It was a meditation on the 32 paths of the body. During the Buddha's time, they chanted in their local language. Like for me, I chant in English. I do like, head, hair, body, hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinew, bone, bone, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, midriff, spleen, lung, bowel, andril, gorge, dung, brain, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tear, grease, pittle, snot, oil of the joint, urine. So you see there are so many things to remember. So when you chant like this, first you write it all down. You write it all down and then you look at it and you chant. No need to try to memorize because it's quite difficult to memorize. You just hold the sheet and chant, and chant, chant, chant. After four months, then it becomes like a tune in your head. So it becomes automatic. So chanting is much easier. Chanting is much easier. But for most people it's very difficult to chant so long. So you chant Namo Tassa, Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhassa, Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhassa. And you still find that difficult for some people. Arahang, Arahang, Arahang, Arahang, Arahang. Like the Hindus, they do it also, they call it Japa. From there, maybe the Malays call it Jampi. Japan, they chant like, Om, Om, Om, Om, Om. I was practicing Hinduism. I was a Hindu before I was a Buddhist.

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You mentioned that it's good to study about the sutta. The origin of sutta is in Pali language. So is it incorrigible to study Pali so we have a deeper understanding, original understanding of the sutta? It is good to study Pali, especially if a person is a monk. But then, you have to see whether you have the inclination and the time. If a person goes into monkhood later in life, then he doesn't have so much time, then he should probably want to have more time to meditate. So when he studies, it is enough to study the translation, the English translation. I find that some people, some monks who study Pali, then they become so engrossed in that Pali that they spend sometimes a few months to study one sutta. During that few months, I studied so many suttas, all the translations. So I find Because I did study a bit of Pali on my own, but I've forgotten most of it. But I know how to use the Pali dictionary, so that sometimes when I read a translation, I have some doubts. Then I go and check the Pali. For example, in the translation, the early translations by the Pali Text Society, and they talk about this metta. There's a word, I think it's metta ceto vimuti or something like that, and they translate it as liberation of mind, liberation of the heart by loving kindness. Liberation of the heart by loving-kindness. When I look at this translation, I find it doesn't seem very... something wrong somewhere. So when I check the Pali, then I find there is this word Neta, loving-kindness. There is this word Vimuti, which they translate as liberation. And then there is this word Ceto, Ceto which is mind. and they translate it as heart. So when I look at these words, then I find actually what they are trying to mean is loving kindness radiated by the mind. When a person has strong samadhi, then he can radiate loving kindness using the mind. So this word vimutti, although it is liberation, but a similar word for liberation is radiation. So here it's more appropriate to use loving-kindness radiated by the mind instead of liberation of the heart by loving-kindness. So for most of us, it is not necessary to learn Pali. It takes too long. If you concentrate on studying the suttas again and again, you will get the essence of it. What we want is the essence, the understanding. There are some people who are scholars, they study the Pali and they become so absorbed in the origin of the word and all that, they spend too much time. So their understanding of the suttas is very little, but their understanding of Pali is so much.

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Actually, just now you are talking the chanting for the person who have a lot of mind problem. I want to ask, can you recommend one book for this kind of person to read to build his confidence before go for chanting? Or is there any book you can recommend? So that they can build their confidence before they go for meditation and chanting. I've written two basic books on the Dhamma that beginners would benefit by reading it. One is called Only We Can Help Ourselves. It is about Kamavipaka. I think the book is outside there. You can get it outside. It's in English. We have the Chinese translation also. And then the other book is The Message of the Buddha. Message of the Buddha is about the Four Noble Truths, the basic understanding of the Four Noble Truths. That also has been translated into Chinese. So if a person studies these two books, he has a foundation in the Dhamma, then he might be more interested to practice. But there are some people with some mental problem or some traumatic experience. It might be dangerous for them to meditate. If they meditate, then they may have a breakdown. For example, if a girl is jilted by her boyfriend and she's heartbroken, keep thinking about the boy. He starts to meditate. Instead of meditating on the breath, he's meditating on the boyfriend. Sometimes such people, they go and commit suicide. Last night, when I was in Chimpaka, I quoted an example in the suttas to make people understand how the power of jhāna. In the suttas, it is mentioned that the Buddha had a few anagamin, lay disciples. And we find that when the Buddha wanted to find his earliest disciples, he would this is my personal opinion, he would go to those people who had attained jhāna in their previous, either in their previous human existence or in the present lifetime. And the earliest thousand over arahants mentioned in the Vinaya books, the Buddha went to all these type of people and just preached the sutta to them, never asked them to meditate, just asked them to sit quietly and listen carefully. Then when he preached the suttas to them, they all attained arahanthood. So there was this case of this lay person. He was a very, very wealthy man. I think he had four wives and a lot of slaves to entertain him. Every day the slaves would sing and dance for him, and he would drink himself drunk. So one day he was in that drunken state. and the Buddha purposely came and walked in front of his house. So, because he had this affinity with the Buddha from the past life, the sight of the Buddha immediately struck him like lightning. The sight of the Buddha made him suddenly stare at the Buddha and he immediately sobered up, no more drunk. And then from there, he went to the Buddha and he knew that this was his teacher, and then he followed the Buddha, and he became an Arya. So you see, how can a person, an ordinary person, just like that, sober up suddenly and shake off all that drunkenness? That is the power of jhāna. Jhāna is the ability of the mind to focus, focus so strongly, like a laser beam. That is a very important quality. If you have that ability, when you listen to the Dhamma, you are able to focus like that, immediately you attain something. We find from the Suttas and the Vinaya, those people who enter the stream, all enter the stream by listening to the Dhamma. It's never mentioned in the suttas and the Vinaya, anyone who attains stream entry by meditation, never mentioned. Because the Buddha said, stream entry is synonymous with right view. Right view is the first factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. And the Buddha said, you have not attained right view, you have not entered the Noble Eightfold Path. That's why I mentioned just now somebody can meditate for 20 over years and in the end throw away Buddhism, hasn't entered the path. So, we find in the suttas and the Vinaya, Those people who had no jhāna, when they listened to the Four Noble Truths taught by the Buddha, they attained stream entry. Whereas those people with jhāna, when they listened to the same sutta, either is anagamin or arahant. Yes. But not in that way. The Buddha said, you know the Noble Eightfold Path can also be said to consist of three factors, sila, samadhi, paññā. The Buddha said, the Sotapanna and the Sakadagamin, they have perfect sila. The Anagamin has got perfect sila and samadhi. The arahant has got perfect sila, samadhi, and paññā. So you see here, the suttapanna and the sakadagamin doesn't need perfect samadhi. Perfect samadhi is the four jhānas. There's another misconception. Some people think, oh, you practice jhāna because you are greedy for psychic powers. It's not true. All the arahants have jhānas, but about one-third of them have no psychic power. Sariputta, remember Sariputta is a classic example. He has all the jhanas according to Bhamajjhima Nikaya. In spite of having all the jhanas, he said he could not even see the mud sprite in the, you know, if there's a pool of water and there's a mud spirit there, he said he can't even see it because he was praising Moggallana. So Buddha so far away, the Mahamoggallana could see the Buddha, could talk to the Buddha. It's like a TV screen in front of him. Whereas he said, even the mud sprite in front of him also you cannot see. So you see, it doesn't mean you have jhanas that you will have psychic power, no. About one third of arahants don't have psychic power. The other thing, some people have the misconception, if you attain jhana, you are reborn in the Brahma world or in the form realm. Also not true. Only if you constantly absorb yourself in that jhāna, day in, day out, day in and day out, then only you are reborn there. You see like our Buddha, when the Buddha Kassapa was around, our Buddha renounced and became a monk under the Buddha Kassapa, and in that lifetime he attained the first jhāna. Because, why we say that? Because when he came out after that life, he went to Tushita Heaven. After Tushita Heaven, he came down in his last life as Siddhartha Gautama. And as a young boy, Siddhartha Gautama could enter the first jhāna under the jambu tree. So, he didn't attain it in the Tushita Heaven. He must have attained it when he was a disciple of Buddha Kassapa. Okay? So you see, When he attained the first jhāna after following the Buddha Kassapa, he wasn't born in the Brahma Heavens, he was born in the Tusita Heaven. From the Tusita Heaven he came down to Earth, the human plane. So there's a lot of misconceptions because people are not so familiar with the suttas.