(EA08)-01-How-did-the-Sangha-split-into-Mahasanghika-and-Theravada

Somebody asked that she was advised to practice the greater vehicle, the Mahayana, not to practice the lower vehicle, the Theravada. She asked me whether that was correct. Firstly, I'd like to tell you a bit about my background, that I've been searching this truth, this spiritual path I've been walking for something like 20 years. When I started off, I studied the Bible, studied the Koran, studied yoga, studied Hindu teachings, Taoism, and then finally I came to Buddhism. Then when I came to Buddhism, at first I read also about the great vehicle, Mahayana teachings. And I practiced Mahayana for about eight to nine years. And three of those years, I practiced in ropes. I went to America to a big Mahayana temple. I stayed for three years. Then I came back because I was quite disillusioned. And then after that, after I came back to America, I took the Mahayana higher ordination in Kelok Si temple in Penang. And then I was a Mahayana monk for about half a year. And then I went to Thailand to investigate there are other Buddhism. Then after that I switched over to Theravada Buddhism and I have been a Theravada monk for nine years. This is my ninth Vassa, about nine years. So I have an understanding of Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism. I think I'm in a better situation to discuss this than many people. I've seen both aspects of it. So practiced Tibetan Buddhism, Vajrayana. Now coming back to this question about lower vehicle and the higher vehicle. When it comes to, this is one of the sensitive questions that sometimes monks don't like to talk about, don't like to answer, or don't like to answer in detail because it can get them into trouble. But because I learned the hard way, I lived the hard way, I groped about in the dark, because when I asked certain monks, when I was groping in the darkness and I didn't know, I went to certain monks for advice and they never advised me, never gave me the proper advice. So, as a result of which, I later came to realize that I lost many years, many good years, So when people ask me this type of question, I try to take the trouble to answer as best as I can with the view of helping people not to lose many years. So when it comes to this kind of question of which is the true Dharma, then I would like to advise people to think carefully. Now you have these three schools, Mahayana, Vajrayana and Theravada. Now this Vajrayana and Mahayana, their books are quite similar. They come from this greater vehicle of Mahayana school that started after the Buddha's time. And this, if we investigate the history of Buddhism, we can understand why this came about. Because the Sangha, the order of monks, is split into two. This happened about 100 years after the Buddha's Mahaparinibbana, after the Buddha's passing away. A certain monk by the name of Yasa, he was a good monk. He begged for his food. poor monk, didn't have any money. So he came to a certain area and the monks in that area, they did not keep the Vinaya, the discipline of the monks very purely. So they accepted money. And after they accept money from the lay people, they would distribute among the monks. So when this monk Yasa came to that place, he was supposed to be a Narahan. And the monks collected money from the lay people, especially on the Uposatha days, what we call Toyek Samumah. And they distributed the money and gave him abortion, and he refused to accept. So they got a shock, because here comes a monk who's trying to act differently from them. And then, because he refused to accept money, lay people would slowly get to know that he's doing the right thing, that the rest of the monks shouldn't be accepting money. So they were afraid of him, so they started to take action against him. Tried to suspend him. Didn't want him to mix with them and all these things. So as a result of this, there was a controversy in the Sangha. And these monks split into two camps. One camp sided with Yassa and another camp sided with those local monks. And this was the reason for the Second Sangha Council. And from there, they picked an Arahant, supposed to be 120 years old, to settle this dispute. And this Arahant was supposed to be a disciple of Ananda or something like that, one of the Arahants. And he decided in favor of Yasa because he was a strict monk. He talked about ten points. keeping money and other points of the Vinaya. One of them was whether they should follow what the teachers teach them. And it was decided that, for example, monks are not supposed to keep money, possess money. and that sometimes what the teacher tells us, we can listen to him. Sometimes we should not listen to him. Meaning that if what the teachers, the senior monks, tell us and it is the same as what the Buddha says, we listen to him. But if he tells us something that is not according to what the Buddha says, we should not listen to him. So as a result of this, because yasa one, The other camp, they had more monks and they split away from this Yasas group. Yasas group consisted of older monks, what they call the Teras, the elders. So the other group was a bigger group, they call it the Maha Sanghika group, the great Sangha. Whereas this one was the Theravada group, the group of the elders. So from there it split slowly into, but it took a process, not immediately split into Mahayana and Theravada. It took a few hundred years because at that time both of them were supposed to still follow the Pali canon. But as a result of the split, the other group, although they follow the Pali books, they started to change the Pali books. It's just like America and England. Because America, they had to fight with the English to get their independence. They have a certain hatred for the English. So after they won their independence, although they spoke English, they changed their English. Their English, they spell color as C-O-L-O-U-R. The Americans purposely spell it as C-O-L-O-R. There's no necessity. But they purposely want to change it just to show that they are different. So in the same way, But this Mahasanghika group, they split away, they changed their sutras a bit, just to show that they are different. What is in the beginning, they put in the end. What is in the end, they put in the beginning. And they changed other things. And slowly these two sects, the Theravada and the Mahasanghika, they also split into more sects. And by the time of Emperor Ashoka, there were 18 sects of Buddhism in India. But, We can know from the, what they call the Asoka, Emperor Asoka edicts, those pillars which Emperor Asoka made for people to understand the Dharma. It was written on these edicts, the words of the Buddha. And now that they dig up these old stone pillars in India, especially in Bihar state, which is the old Magadha country, When they dug up this old concrete, these stone pillars, they found that all the sutras in there are actually the Pali sutras. In other words, at that time, there were no Sanskrit sutras. And this was predicted by the Buddha. At first, the Buddha did not want to allow the bhikkhunis to form a bhikkhuni order, nuns. And then Ananda and the Buddha's foster mother, Mahapajapati, persuaded the Buddha to form the Bhikkhuni Order. But after the Buddha agreed, then the Buddha told Ananda, he said, today if we had not formed the Bhikkhuni Order, the true Dharma would have lasted 500 years, 1,000 years. Then he said, as a result of forming the Bhikkhuni order, now our religion is weakened and the true Dharma will only last for 500 years. In other words, it's not that 500 years after that there is no true Dharma. It is that after that you will be mixed with new writings.

(EA08)-02-How-to-differentiate-btw-Saddhamma-and-Adhamma

So how are we going to differentiate what are the true teachings of the Buddha and what are not the true teachings of the Buddha? It's a very difficult thing to do. It's like you ask most people, suppose now they make a counterfeit note, counterfeit $10 or $50 or $1,000. And suppose they have a very good machine and they make this counterfeit money look very real. You ask an ordinary person, you give him change, or you change money for you, or in the bank, suppose you give him a false $1,000 note, he won't know. You look at the real and the fake one, it looks the same. How to know? So, maybe an expert policeman who is trained in this field, he looks carefully, then he knows how to find out what is the real, what is the false. So in the same way, the Buddha also said in one of the suttas, the Buddha said, in the future, counterfeit Dharma will appear, false Dharma. And then the Buddha said, when the counterfeit Dharma appears, people cannot see which is the real, which is the false. And when they cannot see, they will lose heart. lose heart, get tired of it. Which one is real, which one is not. This monk says like this, that monk says like this, this teacher says like this, that monk says differently. How am I going to know which one is true? The Buddha gave the example of counterfeit gold. Buddha said, now you have only real gold on the market. People sell real gold. So people want to buy gold because they know when they buy gold is real gold. But the Buddha said a time will come when false gold will appear. And then people will sell gold which is not real gold. So that when you buy gold, you're not sure whether it's real gold or not real gold. And that happens, surely you're scared, then you don't want to buy gold. You prefer to buy something which is more, you can see more clearly, maybe diamond or something. So in the same way, the Buddha said our Buddhism will slowly decay and disappear because of these wrong teachings. So coming back to the question, how are we going to differentiate the true from the false? Now, of these three different schools of Buddhism, we want to ask, there are so many books. Is there a set of books which all three sects of Buddhism agree is the Buddha's words? If we look carefully, there actually is. In the Mahayana teachings there is a set of books which they call the Agama Sutras or in Chinese they call Ahan King. Those are four books. They call it Chang Ahan, Chong Ahan, Cha Ahan and Zheng Yi Ahan. Now these four books are also found in Theravada. They are called the original four Nikayas. the Diga Nikaya, long discourses of the Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya, medium length discourses, Samyutta Nikaya, and Anguttara Nikaya. And these are supposed to be the earliest four Nikayas that were discussed by the 500 Arahants, about three to four months after the Buddha's passing away, when the Arahants met to try to discuss and agree upon set of words which are supposed to be the Buddha's own words. So you see, these four books are also accepted by the Vajrayana school as the words of the Buddha. Only thing is, Vajrayana and Mahayana say that these are the lower teachings, the lower lower teachings of the Buddha. It doesn't matter what they say, whether it's lower or higher, as long as they accept it, that it is actually the Buddha's words. Now, most of the Mahayana books, what they call the Greater Vehicle Tai Seng, is not accepted by the Theravada school. And same with Vajrayana, many of the books, and the mantras, etc. are not accepted by Theravada simply because there are suttas that contradict. So once you have this set of four books which everybody agrees is the words of the Buddha, we have a standard to go by. Because in one of the suttas, the Buddha did say, the Buddha said, in the future, suppose people say are the words of the Buddha. These are the actual words of the Buddha. Then the Buddha said you don't have to welcome it, accept it or you don't have to reject it straight away. Buddha said you have to examine what he claims, this person claims to be the Buddha's words. You have to examine it. And examine it with what? The Buddha said examine it with his words in the suttas and in the Vinaya, in the discipline rules of monks and nuns. So when the Buddha says, compare with the Sutta and Vinaya, then, as just now I said, which Sutta to refer to? Now since we have this set of four books, which everybody agrees to be the Buddha's words, so we should compare it with these four books. So any other books that come even later that claim to be the Buddha's words, if they are actually conformed, don't contradict the earliest four books, we can accept it. For example, there are some Mahayana books which speak sort of the same principle, the same things, for example, to keep the precept, not to harm other beings, to cultivate the mind, etc. So, if there is a contradiction, then only we don't accept it. Whether there is a contradiction or not, how are you going to know? Unless you go and study both sides, what the book say and what these other books say. That's why unless you make this investigation, you're not going to know. When you go and investigate, like I did, then you will find, surprisingly, there is a lot of inconsistency. There's a lot of contradictions. So what some books say, compared to the original poor books.

(EA08)-03-Did-the-Buddha-ever-mention-about-Bodhisatta-Path

For example, one of the problems is that there is supposed to be this bodhisattva path, and this teaching is not only found in Mahayana, it's also found in Theravada. That's why I have come to the conclusion that there's a lot of wrong views in both Mahayana and Theravada. So the only thing that you can rely on as consistent teachings of the Buddha are actually the Four Nikayas. If you study the Four Nikayas, you will find that they are very consistent. What it says in one book and another book is the same thing. Whereas other books, if you go and investigate it, sometimes you find different So for example, this Bodhisattva path. The Buddha in the four original books, the Buddha never mentioned that there is a difference between the Bodhisattva path and the Arahant path. In fact, if we study the earliest four books, the Buddha always referred to himself as the Arahant. And he never even called his disciples an Arahant. He always called them Aryan disciples, liberated by wisdom. Because this word, arahan, comes from the word arahatta. Arahatta consists of two words, ara and hatta, and it means a person who has broken the wheel of existence. That means he has, does not come back to existence. Some of these things are very profound, very deep. It's not easy to understand until you have made a lot of research. And then only you will understand. And certain things, even you read in the books, you are not really able to understand until you do some meditation and you understand the nature of the mind. Then only you can understand. And there are still other things that even you do some meditation and study the books, you still won't be able to understand until you reach the level of an Arahant or a Buddha. But there are certain things, for example, there are certain evidence which shows, for example, that there is no basis for this saying that the Buddha made vows, the Bodhisattva made vows to become a Buddha. And then he took, according to Buddhist tradition, he took four Asankeya Kapas and 100 Maha Kapas from the time he met the Pankara Buddha to the time he became Sakyamuni Buddha. There is no basis. In fact, there is a sutra, there are two or three sutras, that actually says this. What happened is, in the four original books, the Buddha said, he looked back 91 kapas. Now, one kapa is an extremely long time, you know. The Buddha said, you can't measure it, how long it is. To get an idea of how long a kappa is, the Buddha gave a simile of a huge rock, one yojana in length, which means something like seven miles, or some people take it as 10 miles. 10 miles in length, 10 miles in breadth, and 10 miles high, such a huge rock. And then 100 years once, you come, you take a piece of cloth and you rub it, You only rub it once in 100 years, you know. You have to wait for another 100 years before you come and rub it once again. How long before this big rock wear down to nothing? It take an extremely long time, isn't it? Even if you go and take something to grind it, grind it down to nothing also, it take such a long time not to stay up, taking a cloth to wipe it, isn't it? So to talk in terms of the Buddha taking 4 Asanteya Kapas, the word Asanteya means countless. So actually 4 Asanteya Kapas is meaningless. Because 4 Asanteya Kapas is the same as 1 Asanteya Kapas. It's also the same as 1 million Asanteya Kapas. When you say infinity, there is no 1000 infinity or 4 infinity or 1 infinity, it's just infinity. So the Buddha said in the sutra that he looked back 91 kappas. To look back 91 kappas must have taken him a long time because one kappa is already so long. So for him to look back 91 kappas, that's all he was bothered to look at. How can he keep on looking? He spent all his whole life looking at the past. And he said, there is no beginning to time, you know, no beginning and no end. And this runway, this samsara, the wheel of existence will never end, the Buddha said. It's something we cannot intellectually fathom. So, the Buddha looked back 91 kappas. He said there were 6 Buddhas before him. 91 kappas ago, there was a Buddha called Vipassi Buddha. And then about 30 kappas ago or something like that, there was another Buddha called Sikhi Buddha. Then after that, there was another Buddha called Vesapu Buddha. Then this Kappa, on this earth, three Buddhas appeared before our Sakyamuni Buddha. The first one was called Kakusanda Buddha. And when Kakusanda Buddha came, the Buddha said man's lifespan was 60,000 years. Imagine your life is 60,000 years. And then, after that, another Buddha came, by the name of Kona Gamana Buddha. And that time, the lifespan of human beings was 40,000 years. And then after that, Kasapa Buddha came. And the lifespan of human beings was 20,000 years. And then the Buddha said, now I am the Arahant Sammasambuddha. And man's lifespan is not more than only about 100 years. But the Buddha also predicted there will still be another Buddha that will come to this earth before the world sort of disappears. That will be Maitreya Buddha or Maitreya Buddha. And that time, man's age will grow very long again, 80,000 years old that time. Maitreya Buddha will come, Maitreya Buddha will come. Now if we look carefully into the sutras, the four Nikayas, the Buddha said that when the last Buddha came, Kasapa Buddha came, there is one sutra called Gatikara Sutra, Majjhima Nikaya number 81. The Buddha said at that time he was born as the Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva, this term means before he was enlightened. or in Pali it's called Bodhisatta. Sattva or in Sanskrit sattva means a being. And Bodhisatta means a being seeking for enlightenment. And he always used this term when he's talking about the past, before he was enlightened. So he always says when I was a Bodhisatta. So he said at that time, when Kasapa Buddha came, He was born as a Brahmin by the name of Jyotipalak. Brahmin is high caste, you know, in India. And he had a very good friend by the name of Gatikara. Now this Gatikara was a pot maker, a low caste man, what we would roughly call a pariya, low caste. And he made pots to sell. Now this Gatikara was a very strong disciple of Kasapa Buddha. In fact, a chief supporter, even though he was poor, because he had a very great faith in Kassapa Buddha. Kassapa Buddha considered him as his chief supporter. And this Gathikara was a very special person. He looked after his parents, who were blind and very old. That's why he didn't marry. And he sold pots, very ching chai fellow. He make his pots and he put them outside his house. And he just let people come and take whatever pots they want and exchange goods. Last time maybe they didn't use money. He take his pot and then maybe leave some paddy, some rice there for him or leave something for him. And he didn't bother what they left for him. Such a simple fellow. So one day, this Gathikara, he asked his friend Jyotipala, our Bodhisattva, he said, I want you to come with me to go and see Buddha Kasapa. He's my teacher. And every time I see Buddha Kasapa, I'm very happy. So I would like you to come with me and meet my teacher. You know what our Bodhisattva said? He's a Brahmin, that means he prays to Mahabrahma, the God, Mahabrahma. So, he said, why you want to go and see your teacher? He's a Shaveling, what in Hokkien we call Ti Luku. Why go and see this Shaveling monk? What's the use of going and see this Shaveling monk? In other words, he got no respect for Buddha, you know. Call him a Shaveling monk. So his friend asked him three times. He refused to go and see Buddha Tathagata. And then his friend thought, these brahmins, they like to go and bathe in the river, you know. They think they have washed away their sins. So he said, come, let's go to the river and bathe. So his friend said, okay. So Jyotipala and Dattatara went to the river to bathe. After bathing, they came out of the river. This Jyotipala was drying himself and wearing his sarong. So putting on his tali, his belt. And then his friend Datikara asked him again, he said, from here, from the river here, to go to the Buddha's monastery, it's very near, why don't you come with me and I will go and see my teacher. Then he said, what's the use of seeing this shivering monk again? His friend asked him three times, again he refused, said the same thing. So his friend, Geram, already pulled his belt. So he pulled back his kotoa. He said, again, he said, what's the point of saying this? Then his friend pulled his hair. These Brahmins, they keep very long hair. When they wash themselves, they let go of their hair. Like Nonya, like my mother. So, this Gatikara pulled him by the hair, pulled Jyotipala by the hair. When he pulled this Jyotipala by the hair, Jyotipala got a shock, because Jyotipala is a Brahmin, high caste person, like in Thailand, you know. You don't go and touch people's head. If you touch people's head, you are looking for a fight. They might even murder you, because their head is like something sacred. You cannot touch their head. And when his hair was pulled, he got such a shock and he thought to himself, this Katikara is a low caste man, you know. How dare he pull my hair? Like we say, haram lah. Maybe, you know, can kill him also. So he thought, maybe his teacher must be very special lah. He dare to pull my hair like that. Then he asked him, he said, is it necessary to go and see your teacher? Then Gathikara said, yes, it's necessary to go and see my teacher. Then he said, okay, okay, we go, don't waggle my hair. And they went to see. So when they went to see the Buddha Kasapa, this Gathikara paid a deep respect to the Buddha and then he sat one side. And then our Jyotipala, the Brahmin, he refused to pay respect to the Buddha. He just said, hello, and sat down one side. Then after that, Gatikara told Buddha Kasapa, he said, Bhagavata, this is my good friend, Jyotipala is his name, and he's a Brahmin. Can you please teach him some Dhamma? So the Buddha, out of compassion, spoke some dharma to this Jyotipala. After Jyotipala listened to the dharma, he became a different man. Then after that, the two of them went back. After a few days, Jyotipala came to see Gathikara. He said, Gathikara, now we have an arahant samasambuddha in the world. Why don't you renounce and become a monk? So Gatikara said, you know, my parents are blind and they are very old. I have to look after them. I'm the only son. That's why I cannot renounce. Then Jyotipala said, in that case, I will renounce. So Gatikara was very happy. Then Gatikara brought Jyotipala to see the Buddha Kasapa and ask permission for him to become a monk. So from there, our Bodhisatta, Jyotip, our Bodhisatta, he became a monk, and after that, he was reborn in the Tushita Heaven. And from there, he came down and became Sammasambuddha. So you see, this story about the, Our bodhisattva in the past life making a vow to become a Buddha, actually cannot be true. Even if it's true, it has no effect. Because every time we come, we already forgot the past. If now you make a vow to become a Buddha, it's possible next life you come, you might become a Christian. Isn't it? Become a Taoist. So how will we know? So we might even be like our Bodhisatta. You meet the Buddha in person also, you have no respect for him. So this sutra shows, even if our Buddha in the previous life made vows, it's useless one. By the time you meet a proper Buddha also, you got no respect for the Buddha, because you completely forgot already. But actually, there is a... Coming back to this sutra, You see, after our Bodhisattva Jyotipala, he heard the Buddha's Dharma, he changed completely. And he was willing to renounce and become a monk. This kind of person, the Buddha usually says, they have entered the stream. That means already attained Sotapanna, equal. First fruition. Or Sakadagami, second fruition. So actually you see a person, first fruition or second fruition, actually next time they come back to become the Buddha. And this is confirmed by another sutra. where the Buddha said, our present Buddha, our Sakyamuni Buddha, he said in one sutra, he said five types of persons enter Parinibbana here, that means in the human plane, as a human being, five types of person. And five types of person enter Parinibbana there, that means in heaven, as a heavenly being. And the Buddha said the first five types, who are they that enter Parinibbana as a human being? Three types of Sotapanna, first fruition person three times, then Sakadagami, second fruition person, and Arahant. In other words, the first fruition and the second fruition person, they must come back as a human being and become an arahant, that means enter parinibbana. Because in our Pali suttas, arahant and buddha, basically the enlightenment is the same. This is confirmed by the buddha in one sutta, where the buddha asked his disciples, what's the difference between an arahant samasambuddha and his disciples enlightened by wisdom? Then the buddha said, an arahant samasambuddha is One who first discovers the path, that means the Noble Eightfold Path, to liberation, he is the first one to discover. First one, that means during his time, he discovers the path, he walks the path, he is very familiar with the path, the Noble Eightfold Path, and he teaches the path, he expounds the path to many people. That is the Arahant Samasambuddha. Then the Buddha said, disciple of the Buddha who is enlightened by wisdom, he follows the same path after the Buddha. So if he follows the same path after the Buddha, walking the same path, he will arrive at the same place. As far as the enlightenment is concerned, they are the same. The Buddha never differentiated between the enlightenment of a Buddha and a Sammasambuddha. Only thing is, the Buddha said that a Sammasambuddha is higher on the plane, in a certain respect, higher because he's the teacher. He's the one who first teach this path. And after that is a Pacekabuddha. Pacekabuddha's enlightenment is also the same. as an Arahant and a Samasambuddha. The only thing is he doesn't want to teach. That's why he's placed second. The third is an Arahant. An Arahant, the enlightenment is also the same, but because it's easier for him, he learns from the Buddha. That's why he's placed a bit lower. But actually, when we say that the Buddha is enlightened by his own efforts, It only means his last life, you know. His last life, he enlightened by his own efforts. But actually, previous life, he already learned the Dharma from another Buddha. And when he became a Sotapanna and a Sakadagami, he already learned the Dharma. Like our Sakyamuni Buddha, when he was on that final night, when he became enlightened, what did he say, how he became enlightened? First, he attained the jhanas, because when he attained the jhanas, his psychic power comes. So when his psychic power came, first he looked at the past life. You see, he looked at one life, two lives, three lives, ten lives, hundred lives, thousand lives, ten thousand lives, keep on looking, long time. Now, when he looked at the past lives, he will know who he was, all his memory will come back, you know. That means all the Dharma he learned before, all the Dharma he learned from Kasapa Buddha, all came back to him. Must have come back because he knows everything in the past already. Then the second thing he looked at was, looked at living beings, how living beings, what they do, the karma they do, and then they are reborn where? What karma they do, they are reborn. Then he understands karma, how beings are reborn according to karma. A person do a lot of good, he's born in a good place. A person does a lot of evil, he's born in a woeful place. Then he understood this. The third thing was, he contemplated on the Four Noble Truths. Contemplated on the Four Noble Truths, how beings are all in dukkha, the cause of dukkha, the cessation of dukkha, and the path. All this is like a refresh his memory from the past. And then he contemplate deeper because he has got this psychic ability to see the actual working of the Four Noble Truths. And then only he became enlightened. So, from this type of sutra, we know actually the Buddha, he had this help from previous Buddha. And so, just now this sutra I mentioned, that all the Sotapans and the Sakadagamis and then Arahants, they attain enlightenment here in the human plane. Means, anybody who becomes a Sotapan, first fruition and second fruition, after they pass away they go to heaven, like our Sakyamuni Buddha. Jyotipala, the Bodhisattva. He was reborn in Tushita Heaven. Tushita Heaven, these heavens are usually millions of years, you know. That's why everybody likes to go to heaven because it's a good holiday, a long holiday. Come back to earth a lot of Dukkha. So, after millions of years in the Tushita Heaven, he came back to earth. Buddha Kassapa no more already. Dhamma also no more already. But his time is due, you know. It's like a durian fruit, ripe already, must drop. He cannot stop it from dropping. Any fruit that is ripe, it must drop. So same, the Buddha said Asotapan and Sagadagami. Asotapan, at the most, he's got seven existences more, you know. At the most, seven existences more. And Sakadagami comes back to the human plane as a human being one more time, only one more time, then you enter Parinibbana. And Anagami, the third fruition, doesn't come back, he goes to the heavens and then from there enter Parinibbana. So you see, these people who are Sotapans and Sakadagamis, when they are reborn back on earth, it's millions of years later, you know, after they met the Buddha. Millions of years later, like our Sakyamuni Buddha. And he came back, no Dharma, no Buddha around. But as we said just now, his time for enlightenment is due already. And there's something inside him that urged him to get out of samsara, you know. That's why the Buddha said when he was, before he was enlightened, he strove so hard that he suffered so much. He said it's not possible to find another being that suffered more than him. on the path to enlightenment. We look actually at the way he described how he struggled to be enlightened. It's very pitiful. It's like groping in the dark. First he learned from a teacher and the teacher taught him the jhanas. He cannot become enlightened. Then he went to other teachers And in India, there are a lot of aesthetics, you know. Some sleep on the nails, he also learned to sleep on nails. Some sleep on the open floor, he also sleep on the open floor. Some eat only specific types of food, like vegetarian food, you know, that he also follow for some time. And some do penance with themselves. and all this, he also followed all the different kinds of ascetic practices until he said he started to eat less and less. First he do things like he eat, say like one day he eat once. Then after he get used to it, two days he eat once. After he get used to it, three days he eat once. And then, four days he eat once, until something like, I don't know, one week or two weeks, he only eat once. But when he eat, he eat as much as he can. And then after that, he choose to see about the food. He only take a type of grain, other type of food he don't want. Or he only pick up the fruits from the forest and eat other types of food he don't want. And then there was a time where he even eat the shit of the animals, you know. Eat the cow dung. Dry cow dung also he eat. Wet cow dung also he eat. And then he follow things like behave like animal. He follow those aesthetics. Behave like dog. Go on force, he also go on force. Sleep like a dog. Bark like a dog. Eat like a dog. And then he act like a... cow, eat grass, and all these things. And then he ate less and less until he said he was eating one grain of rice, one grain a day. So you can imagine he became so thin that he said his bones all sunk in, his eyes went inside. His bones all came out, all his skeleton bones, and his backside no more flesh. So he said he was so thin, when he touched his stomach, he can feel his spine, he can feel the backbone, so thin. And he said, he actually was a fair person, but because he was undernourished, malnutrition, his skin also turned dark. So from there he was so weak that one day he went to the stream to bathe, to wash his face. The stream only a few inches of water, maybe six inches of water. Then he fell into the water. Then he couldn't push himself up. So weak. So weak you can't even do one press up. He couldn't press himself up. So he was drowning in the water. Then one cowgirl, looking after the cows, passed by, saw him struggling in the water, and then the cowgirl came and pulled him up. And after that, gave him something to eat. Some milk rice or something. Then after eating that, he felt stronger. Then he realized that he almost died. Then he realized, no point. All this suffering cannot win enlightenment. So he thought, he walked the middle way, take one meal a day. Buddha, he suffered so much, an ordinary person would not be able to undergo so much suffering to get out of enlightenment, to get out of samsara, to become enlightened. It's only because the seed of enlightenment already planted in him when he became a sotapanna. You see, sometimes we like to talk about the paramis, how our bodhisattva cultivated the paramis, did all kinds of things to perfect his character. But actually, all those things only helped him to be reborn in heaven. And then after that, he comes down again, human plane, or go to the woeful planes. And then he come back as human being, can do a lot of good and go up again. But he never get out of samsara, he just continue in samsara only. Only when a person enters the stream, becomes a sotapanna, then only he can get out of samsara. So if anybody says that bodhisattva became Buddha by making vows, it's too simple. How can anybody just make vows and become a Buddha? It's too simple. It's a process, a slow process where he becomes a Sutapana, Sakadagami, then only become a Buddha.

(EA08)-04-Why-most-Buddhas-do-not-want-to-teach

I think there's a reason why many Buddhas, when they become Buddhas, they don't want to teach. Because to teach the truth is something that most people cannot accept. When people are used to certain views, certain beliefs, you try to change their belief, they get angry. Why they get angry? Because a lot of people have very strong defilements. These are called nivranas, hindrances. There are five things that most people have. Sensual desire, anger or ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry. and doubt. These five things cover us so that we don't see things clearly. Only when we meditate and we get concentration that these hindrances are suppressed, you know. And in the case of if you attain jhanas, then they are abandoned. So, when you try to teach something new to somebody, you usually get into trouble. They'll get angry and they might abuse you, revile you, persecute you, and sometimes even kill. If you look in the history of mankind, this is quite evident. You see that when people like, sometimes things that appear like to be obviously true, It's not true, you know. Many hundreds of years ago, people believed that the sun went round the earth. Because it seems so obvious. In the morning, you see the sun come up in the east. It goes one round, settle in the west, and must have gone underneath, and then come up again. Everybody thought like that. So especially last time, the Christians, they believe that God created the world and created human beings. And human beings are so important. Everything must go around the human beings. Human beings cannot go around the sun. Sun is not important. Human beings are important because God made Earth. So when people like Galileo, the investigator and Copernicus, and then he said that actually the Earth goes around the sun. When he said this kind of thing, people got angry. How can you say this? And then they threw him in jail. Threw him in jail not so bad, later they released him. There were other people who said different things from what people believed and then they were burned at the stakes. And then like Jesus Christ, he was killed. Just for trying to teach people to be good, how can you get killed? So you see, people are so difficult to teach, because they are so strong defilements. I mean, when you see something different from them, instead of just listening, if you don't accept, just let it go in one ear, come out the other ear. Why get angry? These people get angry very easily. So, very dangerous. We try to help people, try to teach them something new. as well as the Dharma is very hard to understand. So even you try to teach the Dharma to people, most people cannot understand. That's why most Buddhas after they become enlightened, they look with their psychic ability, they look around, they find human beings, they don't want to listen to the Dharma. That's why even our Sakyamuni Buddha, After he was enlightened, he looked around, then he realized human beings don't want to follow the Dharma. Even if they listen, they don't want to practice. So he decided not to teach. And then Brahma Sahampati, the Deva, came and appealed to him three times to teach the Dharma. He said, for the sake of the few, teach the Dharma. Then the Buddha, out of compassion, he taught the Dhamma. He knew that there'll be a lot of obstacles, because when you teach something different, people will scold him and all that. And this is, it can be found in the Sutta. So there's one Sutta where the Buddha said, I do not quarrel with the world, but the world quarrels with me. The Buddha said, he who speaks Dhamma does not quarrel with the world. So from this kind of words, you can imagine that the Buddha must have a hard time So I don't know whether I have explained enough on this point. If you all have other questions, you can talk about it.

(EA08)-05-QandA-1-Which-are-the-later-Suttas

This kind of writing is also found in Theravada Buddhism. And it is found in books like the Buddha Vangsa, Apadana, which appears in the Kudaka Nikaya. The Kudaka Nikaya is one collection of sutras that were added to the original four. And now we talk about the four original Nikayas, our Pali Suttas. The first one, Digha Nikaya has got three books. The second one, Majjhima Nikaya has got three books. Then Samyutta Nikaya has got five books. Agutra Nikaya has got five books. The last Nikaya is called Kudaka Nikaya, which means minor collection. Minor collection means it's supposed to be the smallest. But now it turns out to have 15 books. And according to the Burmese have 18 books because in 1956 they added another 3 books which everybody knows is not the Buddha's words. And I'm very sorry that they think it fit to add another 3 books which everybody knows is not the Buddha's words because this kind of is going to make things very difficult. A few hundred years later, say 500 years later, 1000 years later, people forgot, where did these 33 books come from? And they think this must be the Buddha's words. This is exactly what happened in the Kudaka Nikaya. They kept adding, adding, adding. I think now it's got 15 books. So because of that, I usually tell people, don't go and study the Kudaka Nikaya. First you go and study the Four Nikayas, and then after you have understood it, then you want to look at other books, then you have a certain right view. When you have a right view, then you compare, then you can understand.

(EA08)-06-QandA-2-Pali-vs-Sanskrit

Sanskrit is probably earlier. But the thing was, Sanskrit, although it was earlier, it was never written down. They have done, the scholars have done research, and now they have come to the conclusion that the earliest time when books were written down was at the time of Emperor Ahsoka. Emperor Ahsoka's time, they started to write down the books and they started by using leaves. They write on leaves and collect the leaves together, what they call Ola leaves. So at that time, it seems they They used this Pali to write down the sutras, the words of the Buddha. Because the Buddha spoke a language that was similar to what they call the Magadan language. There was a country called Magadha in the Ganges River Valley. There's a big country called Magadha and Buddha used to reside around that country, Kosala and Magadha. But you see, even during the Buddha's time, because the Buddha travelled Kosala, Magadha, a few countries around the Ganges Valley, that area. It's like, for example, Malay language in this country. You go to Kelantan, you find one type of Malay language. You go to Kedah, another type of Malay language, slightly different. You go to Malacca, you go south, a bit different. So in the same way, that language that was spoken during the Buddha's time, if you go to a different area, you have to change your slang a bit. So, when the Buddha's disciples, it depended on where they went, they had to sort of follow the local dialect a bit. You come to Ipoh, you have to speak Cantonese, go to Penang, you speak Hokkien. So, when they decided to put down the words of the Buddha, they used Pali. Pali is supposed to be similar to the language of Magadha. But it's not exactly the same because there are so many variations. But they chose a form that was convenient for writing it down. And it's quite similar to Sanskrit. But Sanskrit was supposed to be the classical language of the Raja. The Rajas earlier, they used it. They want to pass a certain order. They want to send an order to one district or something. They send their soldiers to write down the words of the king. Only the king used and only the Brahmins, the high caste people, they learned Sanskrit. So, because they thought, at that time they thought, to put down the words of the Buddha in Sanskrit is like too high, too high a language. Most people, they are not educated in Sanskrit, use the local language. That's why they chose Pali, which was supposed to be similar to Magadan language. Then, after 500 years, there was again interest in Sanskrit because they thought, at that time, after 500 years after the Buddha's passing away, there was about 250 years after Emperor Ashoka's time. That means for 250 years, they already had books already. So at that time, again, they felt that maybe should use Sanskrit again because Sanskrit is a high class language. So after 080, a lot of Sanskrit books appeared. This is not my personal view, this is the view of those Pali and Sanskrit scholars in England. They have done research and they have come to that conclusion.

(EA08)-07-QandA-3-Are-all-Suttas-in-Khuddaka-Nikaya-unreliable

No, no, no. Not all of the books of the Kudaka Nikaya are unreliable. Out of the 15 books, there's about 5 books which are supposed to be reliable. But the thing is, if you start taking these 5 books and then you try to reject the other books, people will argue with you. But if we forget about the Kudaka Nikaya, there is sufficient dharma in the four Nikayas to teach us what we want to know about the Buddha's teachings. So if we just restrict ourselves to the original four Nikayas, there is more than enough to digest. It will take you a long time to digest and understand those four Nikayas.

(EA08)-08-Anagamin-and-Arahant-must-have-4-Jhanas-but-not-Sotapanna-and-Sakadagamin

One thing the Buddha has said that the path to get out of samsara is by cultivating three things. In Chinese they call it jie ting hui, sila samadhi panya, that means moral habit. concentration and wisdom. These are the three basic things a Buddhist has to cultivate to get himself out of samsara, the realm of rebirth. And the Buddha also said very clearly in two sutras that the Sotapanna and the Sakadagami, the first and the second fruition person has got perfect sila. The anagami, the third fruition person, has got perfect sila and samadhi. And the arahant has got perfect sila, samadhi and pannaya. In other words, only the arahant has got that pannaya needed for liberation. As far as the Buddha is concerned, the other three people, the three ariyas, they don't have that type of pannaya. But from this type of sutra, you can see, actually, the Sotapanna and the Sakadagami, they don't need four jhanas, because the perfect samadhi, perfect concentration is the four jhanas. But sometimes they translate as four mental absorptions. But the anagami, all anagamis must have perfect sila and perfect samadhi. That means all anagamis must have four jhanas at least. That's why all anagamis after they pass away, they are reborn in the fourth jhana plane. And all arahants must have perfect sila, samadhi and paniya. That means all arahants also must have the jhanas, all the four jhanas at least.

(EA08)-09-Both-Samatha-and-Vipasanna-are-required

But nowadays, because of the certain books that appeared later in Theravada Buddhism, there is now a widespread belief that there is such a thing called Samatha practice and Vipassana practice. I think those of you who are interested in meditation, you would know. that there are some monks who teach that there are samatha practice and vipassana practice. Now this kind of teaching has got no basis absolutely in the four nikayas. It is just the same as saying that you have a bodhisattva path and an arahant path and arguing that bodhisattva path is higher or arahant path is higher. As far as the Buddha's teaching is concerned, he never differentiated between bodhisattva path and arahant path. Why go and differentiate? The important thing is to get out of samsara. So in the same way, as far as meditation is concerned, the Buddha never said that you can either cultivate samatha alone or vipassana alone. In fact, if you study the four nikayas properly, then you will come to understand that both are absolutely needed. And one of the reasons they have a wrong understanding of this is that they translate this word vipassana as insight. This word vipassana should be translated as contemplation. Because there is a sutra in the Anguttara Nikaya, number 2.3.10, where the Buddha said two things contribute to knowledge, samatha and vipassana. Then the Buddha said, the result of practicing Samatha, Samatha means tranquilization, make your mind tranquil. The result of practicing Samatha is development of the mind, which means concentration. And the result of practicing Vipassana is development of wisdom. Development of wisdom means insight. That means you practice samatha, you will get concentration. If you practice vipassana, you will get insight. So how can the word vipassana mean insight? It means contemplation because vipassana comes from two words, vi and passana. Passana means to see, to observe. Vi means to separate. So when you observe and you separate, means to contemplate, to consider and contemplate. So, in meditation, there are only two things you can do. One is to tranquilize your mind, make your mind calm. The other thing is to contemplate, contemplate and to get insight. You cannot separate the two because for you to practice contemplation and to get insight is not so easy. If it's so easy, everybody would become enlightened. There is a condition for it. And the condition is stated in the suttas. And there's only one condition to get inside. And that is stated in the sutta as the cause for what they call yatha, bhuta, jnana, dasana. Yatha, bhuta, jnana, dasana means to see things as they really are. And what is the condition to see things as they really are? is concentration. Because when you have concentration, your five hindrances are abandoned or suppressed and you see things as they really are. So, to be able to get inside can only come about if you have concentration. So these two things you cannot separate, samatha and vipassana. In fact, there's one sutra that says In a person who is enlightened, the Arahant, he has got all these things, you know, he has got the seven Bhojangas, he has got the four Satipatthana, he has got the five faculties, the five Indriya, the five powers, five Bala, the four Idipadas, all these things all come. And then the Buddha said, at that time, Samatha and Vipassana work together in him. They work together. Yogananda is the Pali word. So, actually to separate Samatha and Vipassana is the same as separating Bodhisattva and Arahant. All this was never spoken by the Buddha. In fact, just now, I mentioned the sutra where the Buddha said an arahant has got perfect sila, samadhi and panya. That means you cannot get an arahant who has got no jhana. Impossible. This is stated in many sutras.

(EA08)-10-QandA-4-Why-external-sect-ascetics-have-Jhanas-but-not-enlighten

Somebody asked this question, he said, there are those external sect people, they attain the four jhanas, why is it they don't have wisdom? This one shows a person, he thinks that a person, that jhanas are not necessary to have wisdom. is to not to understand the sutras properly. It's like the thing about this Devadatta. Why is it Devadatta? I got all the jhanas and still I didn't have wisdom. Because there's two types of concentration. There's one type of concentration that is not the Buddhist concentration, the external set concentration. And there's a type of concentration which is Buddhist concentration. So, even you have four jhanas, you might have four jhanas of the external sect, four jhanas. But to have the four jhanas of the Buddhist, four jhanas is different. Why? To understand this, you must understand the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path, the Buddha said, there are eight things that if you cultivate will bring you out of samsara. There are two sutras, one in the Diga Nikaya, I think number 18. There's another sutra, I think Majjhima Nikaya, 117, where the Buddha said, right view comes first. A person, if he follows, cultivates the Noble Eightfold Path, first he must have Right View. And if you have Right View, you will naturally develop Right Thoughts as the second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. When you have Right Thoughts, you will naturally come to have Right Speech as the third factor. And when you have Right Speech, you will naturally come to have right action, and that will bring you naturally to right livelihood, which will bring you naturally to right effort, which will bring you naturally to right sati, some people call it mindfulness or recollectedness, and which will naturally bring you to right concentration, the four jhanas. In other words, disciple of the Buddha, if he cultivates the four jhanas and he cultivates the four jhanas correctly, these four jhanas that he cultivates must be supported by seven factors of the Aryan eightfold path. That only is the Aryan right concentration. To have the four jhanas not supported by the other seven factors of the Aryan Eightfold Path is not Buddhist sama samadhi. That is quite clear in the sutras, like Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha said, what is the Aryan Right Concentration? Then he said, it is the four jhanas supported by these other seven factors. So when you have the four jhanas supported by the other seven factors, which includes sati, right mindfulness, contemplation of the four things, that will bring you out of samsara, that will give you the wisdom. But these external set people, they don't have. So how can they get the wisdom? And in the case of Devadatta, even he got all the jhanas, he started it off with wrong view. Isn't it? Because of wrong view, he got wrong thoughts. Because of wrong thoughts, he wanted to kill the Buddha. So he don't have all the, he don't have the Ardent Eightfold Path. How can he succeed? Impossible. There is one sutra where the Buddha said, what is the difference between two persons who cultivate the jhanas and then are reborn in the Brahma plane as a Brahma deva. And these two persons, one is an external sect person, another one is a disciple of the Buddha. What is the difference between these two? After they are reborn in the Brahma plane as a Brahma deva. The Buddha said, the difference between these two is like this. That person who comes from an external sect teaching, after he passes away from the Brahma plane, he will fall down. Either come down to a lower heaven or the human plane, or even go down to the woeful planes, that is possible. But the Buddha said, the disciple of the Buddha, after he passes away from the Brahma plane, he won't fall down. In other words, he won't fall down into the woeful planes. He will keep going up until he enters Parinibbana. But this time of sutta, you will find, you can understand clearly that the reason why a Buddhist, by cultivating the jhanas, he succeeds is because he's got the other factors. So like the Buddha said, there is eight factors of the Aryan Eightfold Path, and you must cultivate these eight factors successively, one by one, and that will bring you to the liberation. So some people, because they separate Samatha and Vipassana, they say that it is possible to cultivate Vipassana without the jhanas. But that means the Aryan Eightfold Path, you are stopping at seven factors. That means you haven't cultivated. all the eightfold factors of the path then. Just now I mentioned so many suttas. It shows that it's not possible to become an arahant if you don't have perfect sila samadhi.

(EA08)-11-Are-all-Theravada-Suttas-reliable

This, in fact, today I was supposed to give this talk, but just now I explained why I didn't give that talk. I was supposed to talk about Theravada Buddhism, traditional Buddhism and original Buddhism. Many people, they come to Theravada Buddhism and they think that Theravada Buddhism is very pure. Very pure. And whatever is taught in Theravada Buddhism is all the words of the Buddha. I, when I first came to Theravada Buddhism, I also thought like that. And when I investigated further, then I understood that there is a difference between traditional Buddhism and original Buddhism. As I said just now, original Buddhism which was discussed by the 500 Arahants at the first Sangha Council, consisted only of four books. And whereas the Abhidharma and the commentaries and sub-commentaries and the Kudakanikaya, they came later. But we can accept those things that are consistent with the Four Nikayas, whatever is said in the other books. If it is consistent with the Four Nikayas, we accept them. But if they are not consistent, then we follow the Buddha's advice, throw it out. So, many people, because they have been taught by many monks who believe these other books to be the words of the Buddha, they also believe that these words are original words of the Buddha. But as I said just now, you need to investigate a lot before you know that some of these things cannot be accepted. But we don't blame these monks, in a sense, that come from these traditional Buddhist countries for teaching these things. Because if you If you, you can know the reason. Many of these monks, they come into monkhood at the age of 12. 10 years old, they become a novice monk. And from there, they start reciting all the things that they are told to recite. They recite the Jataka tales. and all the rest. And so for, say by the time they become very respected monks, maybe they are 60 years old. Then for 50 years they have been reciting all these books and taking them to be the words of the Buddha. And because nobody argue with them, in their country everybody accept that as the word of the Buddha. And nobody told them that it is not the words of the Buddha, so they just accept it. Abhidharma and all that. But luckily, for a person like me, I was not a monk at the age of 10 years old. At the age of 35, I became a monk. And because I suffered disappointment, disillusionment, and all these things, I become very skeptical. I become very weary of what I call masters. Some people call them masters such and such, teachers such and such. And because of my bad experience, I learned to be very cautious and to check with the original words of the Buddha. And when I checked, I found there are discrepancies which should not be there. Very serious discrepancies. For example, many of you won't know many of these things unless nobody tells you. And nobody tells you because very few people go and do research in this kind of things. For example, Abhidhamma is one of them. Abhidhamma is one of those books that I want to set of books that are controversial. Even many Theravada monks don't accept these Abhidhamma books. There are certain monks that accept. Now I will tell you some of the reasons why some monks don't accept, just to let you know. But I don't say that Abhidhamma is false, Abhidhamma is not the writings of the Buddha. That I'm not qualified to say because I was not there when the books were written down. All I can say is when I compare it with the original four Nikayas, certain contradictions appear which are serious enough to be suspicious. For example, one of the teachings in Abhidhamma is that when you attain path, you must attain fruition immediately. One moment a person attains Aryan path, the next moment he is attained fruition already. Now there's about three sutras or four sutras in the original Nikayas that say contrary to this. One is in Samyutta Nikaya, I think 25.1, which says that when a person enters the stream, attains the first path, Then the Buddha said, for sure, before he dies, he will attain fruition. Before he dies, he must attain fruition. But the Buddha never said when. That means, different person can be different. Might be one moment, might be one year, might be ten years. There's one sutra. And there's another sutra, In the Majjhima Nikaya, I think 142 Dakina Vibhanga Sutta, where the Buddha said, talk about the merit from giving to individuals. He said the highest merit you can give to an individual is to give to a Samasambuddha. Second is the Pachikabuddha, then Arahant, then a person who has attained the 4th path, then Anagami, meaning 3rd fruition, then a person who has attained the 3rd fruition, then Sakadagami you can give. You can also give to a 2nd path person, then the 1st fruition person, or you can also give to a 1st path person. That means the Buddha talked about 8 individuals, you know. When he talked about Arya, the Buddha always mentioned there are 8 individuals. He didn't say there are 4 individuals. The fact that you can give dana, you can give something to a path attainer, means that he exists, not for one moment. Exists. There is another sutra in the Anguttara Nikaya, where the Buddha talked about 3 types of Arya. One is Kaya Sakhin. body witness, one is Diti Pato, view attainer, then there is one Saddha Vimuto, a faith release person. Now three disciples of the Buddha were arguing about these three types of ariya, which one is better. Then one disciple of the Buddha said, number one is better. Another said, number two is better. Another said, number three is better. So they came and asked the Buddha, just now you are arguing about this, which one is better? They asked the Buddha, which one is better? Buddha said, very hard to say straight away, which one is better. The Buddha said, number one might be a Sakadagami, second fruition person. Might be a Anagami, a non-returner. It might also be a fourth path attainer, not arahant, fourth path attainer. And then the Buddha said, number two person might also be a Sakadagami, might also be Anagami, might also be a fourth path attainer. Same with number three. So from here, you find actually the fourth path attainer exists, not just for one moment, So this is one of the things that you find contradiction between the Nikayas and the Abhidhamma. Another one is the Abhidhamma, they talk about Bhavanga state. In the Nikayas, the Buddha talk about six consciousness, not more than six consciousness. It's only in the Mahayana books, they talk about the seventh and the eighth consciousness. But in the Abhidharma, they talk about the Bhavanga consciousness. Now in the Nikayas, the Buddha said, that consciousness does not exist by itself. It must have a reason, a support to cause it to exist. Now in the case of the sixth consciousness, Seeing Consciousness, Hearing Consciousness, Smelling, Tasting, Touch Consciousness and Thinking Consciousness. The reason for these to exist, the Seeing Consciousness is because a form appears before the eyes. You must have a form, something to see, and then you have a good eye. Because of these two, the Seeing Consciousness arises. And then if you pay attention, there is contact of these three, and you see. So the same with the hearing consciousness. A sound must come, then only the hearing consciousness can arise. Otherwise, the hearing consciousness cannot arise. It is like this kind of sutra that we find not only problem with Abhidhamma, also problem with certain Mahayana sutras. like the Shurangama Sutra, Lim-Yam-Keng. In this Shurangama Sutra, I talk about Kuan Yin Bodhisattva contemplating the nature of sound in the absence of sound. Not hearing sound, you know. He's hearing in the absence of sound, hearing the hearing nature. Which, when we compare with the Four Nikayas, it's impossible for the hearing consciousness to arise. Some other consciousness must arise. because there is no condition for the hearing consciousness to rise, because there is no sound. So when you come back to Abhidhamma, they say that the Bhavanga consciousness takes for its object the citticitta, the last consciousness of the previous life. So what they are saying, in fact, is that the last consciousness of the previous life causes the bhavanga consciousness of the next life to appear. Now if you understand paticca-samupada, dependent origination, you cannot accept this. Because the principle of paticca-samupada, dependent origination, is this being that comes to be. With the arising of this, that arises. This ceasing, that comes to cease. With the ceasing of this, that ceases. That is the principle of paticca samutpada, dependent origination. In other words, something ceases, something else must cease. Something arises, something else arises. With the ceasing of the last consciousness, the cuti citta of the previous life, some other conditions must cease. Now what they are saying is that with the ceasing of the last consciousness of the previous life, another consciousness arises, which they call bhavangas. This is contradictory to paticca-samupada. How can something cease and something arise? Impossible. This is another serious thing that we find about this Abhidharma. And then, just now in the sutra I mentioned where the Buddha said the five types of person that must attain parinibbana here in the human plane, one of them is the arahant. That means an arahant can only be a human being That's what it means, you know, this sutra. An arahant can only be a human being. And in the Abhidharma, they said that when the Buddha taught the Abhidharma, 800 million devas became arahants. If you don't notice this type of sutra in the Anguttara Nikaya, Book of Tenths, you won't realize that this is a contradiction. It's only when you understand Vitta or Sutta where the Buddha says all Arahants enter Parinibbana here on the human plane as a human being, then you cannot accept how can 800 million Devas become Arahants. Devas, as I said just now, actually it's a holiday. They are so happy, so long life, they cannot see Dukkha. They cannot see dukkha. So where is there any incentive to struggle hard? They are only willing to come and listen to some sutta. After that, they go and play and enjoy. Some of them, because of past life, they want to do a bit of meditation. But they are not willing to renounce. They are not willing to struggle very hard. Even surprisingly, even the anagami doesn't struggle to become an arahant. He just wait for his time and enter Parinibbana in the Sudaprabhasa abode. So you see, if devas can become arahant so easy, Buddha won't come to earth. Better go and talk to the devas.

(EA08)-12-QandA-5-Does-Anagamin-become-Arahant-in-the-Sudhavasa-abodes

No, no, no. They enter parinibbana, they don't. When they are alive, they never become arahant. The moment they enter, pass away. The Buddha gave a very good simile. Buddha said, it's like a piece of metal. You heat it all day long until it's red hot. Then you hammer it. Like some people, they shape this forging. When you heat the iron which is heated red hot, a piece flies off, you know. This piece of red hot metal flies off, falls to the ground, and then it cools by itself, cools by itself until it becomes completely cool. That is the simile of an anagami. An anagami is reborn in the Suddhavata abode. He is just waiting for his time, like the ripe fruit going to fall. Don't have to do any work. But some of them, they do some work. They don't become marahants. They enter in Parinibbana. They don't become marahants. Are you talking about the state of a person now with the life?

(EA08)-13-QandA-6-What-is-the-origin-of-the-Bodhisatta

Kuan Yin. How this Kuan Yin came about? When our Buddhism was deteriorating in India, a lot of these other Indian gods became popular again. India also they have a lot of gods, just like Chinese have a lot of gods. So when Buddhism was declining, a lot of people started to pray to the other Indian gods. So it seemed that a lot of Indian gods were brought into Buddhism and converted to Bodhisattvas. They called them Bodhisattvas. But we know that they come from the Indian gods because of a few reasons. One is, if you go into an Indian temple, you find an Indian god with about 16 hands. This same god is found, and now they call it Kuan Yin, Okay? When Kuan Yin was in India, when they prayed to Kuan Yin, Mahayana Buddhism, they prayed to Kuan Yin, they called Kuan Yin Avalokitesvara. Avalokitesvara, this word, if you examine it, the last word is called Isvara. This word Isvara is in Sanskrit. In Pali, it's called Isara. And this word, if you check the Pali Dictionaries or Sanskrit Dictionaries, it means a God. So when they translate this word, Avalokitesvara, into English, it means a God who listens to the sound of the world, you know. That's why in Chinese it's called Guan Yin, Guan Zhen Yin, when they say kind of sounds. So this God is actually a man, you know. Because when this god, when they started Buddhism in China, they have evidence that the earliest statues of Guan Yin was a male. They even appeared in books and all that, they photograph. The Guan Yin, the earliest Guan Yin got moustache. You know, this thing. And then, but Guan Yin was supposed to be a symbol of compassion because he's supposed to hear the cries of the world, people suffering and all that. So he's supposed to be very compassionate. So people thought, how can a man with beard and all this be more compassionate than a woman? A woman must be more compassionate, soft heart and all these things. Change the figure into, so became a woman. So you see how things, So when you ask the Chinese, who is Kuan Yin? Then they look into the history. They found that there was one princess in China. Very soft heart, very good, you know. This is that one, Kuan Yin. Nowadays, you find a lot of people, when they go into a trance, they also say, Kuan Yin, Kuan Yin Lei Jio. Everything also, they use the word Kuan Yin. But that was not found in original Buddhism. Because the original Buddha's teachings, was for you to help yourself. Because dharma is very deep, you have to understand that this world actually exists only in our mind.

(EA08)-14-Is-there-a-self

There is a sutra where one disciple of the Buddha, he came to ask the Buddha, he said, this world we know consists of the four elements, earth, water, fire, wind. So he asked the Buddha, where do the four elements cease to exist, these four elements? In other words, where does the world cease to exist? Where is there no being born, no aging, no dying? He thought if there's a place where there is no aging, dying and all that, he'd like to go there, where there is no these four elements. He asked the Buddha. The Buddha said, you asked the question wrongly already. Buddha said, you should not ask where do the four elements cease to exist. The Buddha said, you should ask in this way. Where do the four elements have no footing to arise, no support to arise? Why the Buddha said like that? And then the Buddha answered. The Buddha said, where mind is luminous, where mind is boundless, where there is no long and short, no big and small, no name and form, no nama rupa, there is phenomena, no phenomena. When consciousness ceases, when consciousness stops to exist, there, the four elements have no support to arise. What the Buddha is saying can also be found in another sutra. The Buddha said, the whole world can be found inside us. The start of the world, the ending of the world, the way to the ending of the world is all inside us. This is like in the Bible, you know, in the Bible there's a statement now, it's very profound. In the Bible it says, the kingdom of heaven is within you. These kind of things, now you ask the Christians, they don't understand because Jesus didn't have time to explain properly. After three years he taught his Dharma, people killed him. So he didn't have time to explain, but he knew certain profound things. And this was one of the profound things in the Dharma which we accept from the Buddhist point of view, this kind of truth. is correct, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Towards the Kingdom of Heaven is Nibbana. Nibbana, you cannot say whether something exists or something does not exist, or something both exists and does not exist, and neither exists nor not exists. You cannot say, because you only see, you can say something exists when you have a concept, when you believe there is a soul, there is something permanent. and there is nothing permanent at all, then this question does not arise. Just like Buddha said, suppose you, now there is no flame, isn't it? No fire. Now I take a box of matches. I take the box in my left hand, I take a match in my right hand, I strike the match, I get a fire. Then I observe this fire burn, burn, burn, burn, burn. After some time, the wood burned up, the fire disappeared. Now suppose a person come and ask, where did the fire go? Now I saw the fire, now where did the fire go? Did it went north? Then you say no. Did it go south? No. Did it go east? No. Did it go west? No. And the scholar said, I asked these four directions also, you said no. You don't know ah? Some people ask the Buddha this type of question. The Buddha said, not that I don't know. Buddha said you ask this type of question means you don't understand. Originally there is no flame. There is no flame at all in the beginning. Because of conditions, the conditions are right. You light the match, there is oxygen around, there is a wood to burn, then you have the fire. And then when the wood is burned up, you have no fire. The Buddha said just like a fire is burning because you have dry leaves, you have dry branches, and what's the other one? You have, say, one other thing, three things is burning because of three things. And when the fire keeps burning, burning until these things are burned up, and then it is extinguished. So the Buddha said, we continue in samsara because our fire is fed by three things. What are these three things? Greed, hatred, delusion. As long as we have greed, hatred and delusion, this is the fuel that keeps us turning in samsara. Never get out of samsara. When we cut off, we extinguish the greed, hatred and delusion, then we don't go around anymore in samsara. And you cannot say when a person against parinirvana, whether it exists or it does not exist and all these things, because the Buddha said basically to start off with, there is no I, no soul. This word Anatta, you have to understand this word Anatta. Sometimes, I was listening to one tape, one very old monk, he was residing in America. So you know America, this westerner, he went to Australia and gave a retreat, about nine days retreat. So he gave, every day he gave Dharma talk. So he said Anatta, I said no self. When you say no-self, a lot of Westerners, they cannot accept, you know. What do you mean no-self? They ask him all types of questions. If there is no-self, who is reborn? If there is no-self, who suffers? Ah, this word, now we have to be very careful when we use words, now we have to be very careful, you know. Actually, there is one sutra in the Four Nikayas, where one external sex person came to asked to tell the Buddha, he came to see the Buddha. Then he said, I believe that there is no self. The Buddha said, that's strange, I never heard people say there is no self. The Buddha said, do you have intention or not? He said, yeah, I have intention. Then the Buddha said, then how can you say there is no self? So this type of sutra, what the Buddha is saying, There is a self, but there is no soul. So when you write the self, it's a small s, you know, small s, the conventional self, that self which everybody thinks exists. And this self is impermanent, it does not last forever. It is conditioned. Depending on conditions, it arises and ceases. And it is dukkha, it gives you suffering. What the Buddha means by anatta is there is no soul. There is no, you can also see there is no self, but there is no self with a capital S. That means there is no conceptualized self. This self that everybody clings to is only a concept within us. The only thing that exists. But in the Buddha's teaching it does not exist. So what the Buddha is trying to say is there is no soul, but there is a self that is impermanent.

(EA08)-15-QandA-7-Influence-of-past-and-present-life-Kamma

I want to tell you something about karma, what the Buddha wants us to believe. As I was telling some people upstairs just now, suppose there is a student, a boy, who's studying for his Form 5 exam. Form 5 exams, they have to take exam for 9 subjects, right? And he's still 9 subjects, isn't it? Okay, now suppose now a student is going for the Form 5 exam, 10 subjects, so all of them hope to get 10 As, isn't it? Okay? Now suppose you have the first student, you have a few types of students, I'm going to mention four types of students. The first student, he refuses to study, and then he prays every day, It can pray to all types of deities and any being. But he refused to study. Can this boy get 10 A's? Not likely, isn't it? Now the second type of boy, he wants to get 10 A's and he studies very hard. But unfortunately, He is born not very intelligent. So even though he studied very hard, he won't be able to get 10 A's because he's not very intelligent. Maybe he get one or two A's. That's the second type of boy. The third type of boy, he understand the Buddha's teaching. And he's also born very intelligent. Then he studied very hard. In the end, he got 10 A's. Now he's very happy he got 10 A's and he understands how he got the 10 A's. Due to his being intelligent and because he put in a lot of effort, he got the 10 A's. Now the poor type of boy, maybe he doesn't understand the Buddha's teaching. Then he prays a lot. But he's also born quite smart. And because of his very hard work, studying very hard, in the end he got 10 A's. But it's possible that this fourth boy, he might think because he prayed to Kuan Yin that he got 10 A's. But actually it's due to his hard work. Yes or not? So, in the Buddha's teaching, a person can get 10 A's student can get 10 A's because of two conditions. First one, he must be born intelligent. Yes or not? Second one, he must put in a lot of hard work. Yes or not? Now these two things represent two things in the Buddha's teaching. It represents kamavipaka, incore. The first one, being born intelligent, is that previous life In Goa, help you. Previous life karma help you to have that luck of being born intelligent. But that is not enough. Working very hard, studying very hard is present life in Goa. This life in Goa also must help you. Even if you are born intelligent, you refuse to study, you cannot get 10 A's. So because of these two things, previous life karma and this life karma, you can get what you want. In other words, as just now I was saying, the Buddha said in this world there are many types of people. And we get what we deserve according to our karma. Suppose in the previous life, a person, he didn't do killing. This life, he would have long life. Provided this life, he don't do killing again, then he will have long life. If a person previous life, he was very generous, and this life he comes, he is also quite generous. He can become rich quite easily. But if his previous life very selfish, this life also selfish, he become very poor. And if a person say previous life, he look down on other people, always put down other people, think he's very great. And this life he come also, he continue this life a bit. He might be born into a very poor family, low, low, low family. People look down on him because he look down on other people. Whereas another person who's very respectful, respectful to old people, respectful to monks and people he should be respectful to, teachers and all that. Next time he's born into a good family, a respectable family where people were very respectable to him. If a person, previous life, he hurt a lot of other beings, torture animals, torture slaves and all these things. because he makes their bodies painful. Next time he comes, he is born with a body which gives him a lot of pain, a very sickly body, always giving him sick, aches and pains and all kinds of pains. Whereas if a person, he does not beat other beings, does not torture other beings, he doesn't harm their bodies. Next time he comes, he has a very healthy, strong body. All this is scum. If a person, previous life, very bad-tempered, little bit, little bit get angry. And he's born with an ugly face. Why? Because when you are very fierce, very hot-tempered, you become very fierce and come out in the face. I tell you something quite interesting. Many years ago when I was working in the government service, I met one Malay prison officer. So we were chatting. You know what he told me? He said he works I think in Taiping jail, one of these jails, where they sentence people to death. They hang people. So I thought this job was done by a prison officer. I said no. The prison officers don't do this hanging. What happens when a person needs to be hanged? They pay people to come and do it. And it's paid quite well, maybe $100. Come and do this job, very simple. The prison officer on that day, he will open the cell, bring out that person, that person to be hanged. Then lead him to a place where he has to stand. that this convicted person has to stand in a special place, which actually has a trap door. He's standing on the door, which can be opened. So he stands there, they blindfold him, they tie his hands behind his back, and they put the rope around the neck. And then this man who does the execution, he goes to one corner and pull a switch. When he pulls the switch, the trap door will open. When the trapdoor opens, this man will fall into the hole. This hole is not very deep. And then he will dangle there for a while. But because of the sudden jerk, the bone will snap. The bone will snap, so he will hang there for a few minutes before he dies. So this kind of job is very easy. And he gets about $100. This person, after he goes back home, that night, he cannot sleep. Cannot sleep, you know. Second night, also cannot sleep. Third night, also cannot sleep. After three nights, he cannot sleep. Oh, a lot of torture. So he got to drink stout or whatever. Then only he can sleep. So most people, after they do this job, you invite them to come back and do it again, the $100 or such. But the prison officer, he told me, there is one man who has been doing the job for a long time, more than 10 years. But he said, this man, you look at his face, you dare not look at him again. So from there, you can imagine. Because to kill a chicken already, some people dare not do it. To kill a human being, you cannot simply reason and say, I didn't kill him. The judge sentenced him. But the judge only say on me, you know, you are the fellow who pulled the... So this person, because of the... To kill a person, you have to become very fierce to be able to do. And he keeps on doing, doing, doing, doing, their whole face also change.

(EA08)-16-QandA-8-What-is-the-criteria-of-an-Ariya

The Buddha, many people came to ask him that such and such a person died and whether he is an Arya and all that. So the Buddha mentioned that there are four things which, if you have, qualify you to be an Arya. Four things. And these four things we can examine in ourselves. First one is you have unshakable faith in the Buddha. Second one, unshakable faith in the Dharma. The third one, unshakable faith in the Sangha. And the fourth one is you keep your five precepts purely. So if you have these four conditions, then you can be quite happy with yourself. You can serve a pet on the back. That's Arya Sangha. Because you see certain monks, they might get angry and more questions.

(EA08)-17-Is-Jesus-Christ-a-holy-man

A few years ago, I was in Singapore and one person asked this question, posed this question to me. Do I consider Jesus Christ to be a holy person? And I thought about it for a short while. And I said, yes, I consider him to be a holy person. After that, I think he consulted another monk, and I think the monk must have given him a different answer. Now, my basis for saying that somebody like Jesus Christ can be considered a holy person, because in the Jamania Pala Sutta, which is the second sutra in the Digha Nikaya. The Buddha was asked, what are the fruits of cultivating the spiritual path? What are the fruits of cultivating the spiritual path? Then first the Buddha talked about the worldly advantages of cultivating the spiritual path. The king asked him the question. worldly advantages. For example, suppose a slave is a slave of the king. Because he's a slave of the king, the king can order him to do whatever he likes. He's got to serve the king and probably have to smile also in serving the king and all that. But suppose he renounced and became a monk. Then the Buddha asked, how will you treat this slave now? Will you call him back? After he has become a monk, ask him to come and do this, go and do that? He said, no. After he has become a monk, he has worn the robes, I will pay due respect to him. I bow down to him, respect to him, even though formerly he was a slave. and the king said he would support him. So the Buddha sit there, you see. There's already obvious fruit of the holy life that you can see. But the Buddha, after that, the Buddha went to talk about what he called Uttara Manusa Dhamma. Superhuman attainments, superhuman roots of the way. And the first one he mentioned was the first jhāna, the second jhāna, third jhāna, fourth jhāna. If you look at the Nikayas, the Buddha is always talking about jhānas. And I explained just now why our Buddhist jhānas are different from external sec jhānas, because the Buddhist jhānas are always supported by the seven factors of the are in eightfold path, otherwise they are not samadhi. So, in the Buddha's point of view, the jhanas are supernormal attainments. From there only the Buddha mentioned about the paths and the fruitions. So it is, any person who has actually attained the jhanas, In that respect, up to that level, he is considered holy. Why? Because he is not like a normal person. Many people have this wrong belief that a person attained jhana, not much use. Because after he comes out of jhana, all the hindrances come back. People who can say like that, that shows they have never investigated the Four Nekayas properly. Because if you investigate the four Nikayas properly, you find that the Sutta and the Samyutta Nikaya, where the Buddha said, Aryan disciples, the Sekas, what are sometimes translated as the learners, he said these have abandoned the hindrances. Abandoned already, you know, even out of Jhana, abandoned already. Whereas the aseka, the arahan, has not only abandoned the hindrances, they have been rooted out, the roots also pulled out. The hindrances obstruct us, like lalang. Lalang grown too long, you try to walk, it obstructs you. But in a person who has attained the four jhanas, they are cut down, all the lalang is cut down, but not rooted out. so that you can see clearly already. So for a person who has attained the jhanas, he sees things more clearly than other people. And as I said just now, in respect of a Buddhist person who follows the Aryan Eightfold Path, if by the time he attains jhanas, he has already attained the other seven factors, so that he sees things very different from ordinary person. And because he doesn't have these defilements to envelop him, to not obstruct him, then he doesn't have this sensual desire, this ill will, and all these things, restlessness and worries, and torpor and doubt. And this fact that a person who has attained jhanas has abandoned the five hindrances are also to be found in several other sutras. For example, there's one sutra where the Buddha was talking to many of the monks and he noticed a lot of new monks who came from the Anuruddha clan Then he talked to them and said, Anuruddha, he said, if a person does not attain piti and sukha, sometimes translated as delightful sensation and happiness, then he will continue to be obsessed He is obsessed by the five hindrances, the five hindrances obsess him. But when he attains to piti and sukha or something higher than that, that means either the arupa jhanas or the arupa jhanas, then the Buddha said, the hindrances do not continue to obsess him anymore. And then there are other suttas, like for example, I think his cousin, a very prominent Sakyan, by the name of Mahanama, came to see the Buddha. He said, Bhagavan, he said, although I understand Dharma, I know Dharma, and I know that certain things are wrong, like sensual desire and all that, yet, even though I know Dharma and I understand things are wrong, still I cannot do like sensual desires still obstruct me, still lead me astray. Then he said, why is that? I understand Dharma, yet still I do wrong things because of sensual desires. Then the Buddha said, it's true, Mahanama. It's because you have not attained to piti and sukha or something higher than that. That is why sensual desire is still obsessive. That shows what the Buddha is trying to say. You have not attained to jhana. That's why these five hindrances are all the time enveloping you. Only when you have attained to jhana that these five hindrances are abandoned. There's another sutra where one person came to talk to the Buddha. He said, Dr Wah, he said, there's a lot of teachers who come to this place. One person says it's got karma, one teacher says it's got karma, another teacher says even if you were to go around with a knife and you will kill countless of human beings with your knife, slashing them, yet you create no karma. Then there's some teachers who say after you pass away from here, you die, nothing exists at all. There are some teachers that say, after you pass away from here, you will continue to exist forever. He said he hears all these things and he is confused. He is in doubt. Who is true? Who is talking the truth? Who is true? Who is false? Then the Buddha told him, he said, you are doubtful. That's correct. That's natural to be doubtful because all these things are doubtful. But the Buddha said, you will have no more doubt if you can get mental calm. If you can attain to mental calm, then you will not have doubt. What the Buddha is trying to say, you can understand if you see other sutras. There is one sutra where the Buddha says, a person attains right view from hearing another voice. and thorough consideration. He considers properly, then he gets right view. Another person gets wrong view because of hearing another person's voice and un-thorough consideration. Un-thorough consideration and thorough consideration. What do these things mean? Thorough consideration means you are able to consider something. Suppose you want to arrive at a solution. It needs 10 steps. Your mind is strong enough to contemplate all the ten steps to be able to see things clearly. Whereas another person whose mind is weak, does not have samadhi, is enveloped by the five hindrances, he considers one, these ten things, after he considers about three steps, or four steps, his mind is sidetracked, stray thoughts come. He cannot have thorough consideration. So his consideration is un-thorough. Because of that, he cannot see things clearly. Because he cannot see things clearly, he gets wrong view. So what our Buddha was trying to tell this man, that when you attain mental calm, you will not have doubt. When you attain mental calm, you will be able to see things very clearly. Then you will understand, then you won't have doubt. That's what the Buddha was trying to say. As I mentioned just now, the condition for seeing things clearly as they really are, yatha, bhuta, jnana, dasana, is mentioned in the sutta as samadhi. Only one condition. Unless you attain to samadhi, even you try to see, you cannot see things clearly, because you are enveloped by the five hindrances. Just like wearing dark glasses, you know, and you try to see a colour. However hard you stare, you can never see the real colour because you are wearing dark glasses. Only when you take away the dark glasses, that means you can see the colour properly.

(EA08)-18-Is-there-deep-insight-in-the-Bible

You know, just now I said in the Bible, it is stated that the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Now, as I reflect, I think what the old prophets, long time ago, those prophets who spoke these words, they have quite a good understanding of the Dharma. The Kingdom of Heaven is the mind. And, for example, in the Bible, they talk about Adam and Eve. how Adam and Eve ate the forbidden food and they were expelled from heaven. But the thing is, what is the forbidden food? In the Bible, it's specifically mentioned the forbidden food was the fruit of knowledge. Fruit of knowledge. So, as just now I mentioned about the state of Nibbana, the state of Nibbana is the state where the consciousness ceases to be active. The mind is still there. We say something like potential energy. The mind is still there, but it ceases to be active. Ceases to be active. In other words, it does not manifest things for you to see, to hear and all these things. So, a being, if his consciousness starts to work, the moment the consciousness starts to work, that is knowledge. That is knowledge, you know. And when you have knowledge, you can see the world, you can hear the sounds, you can smell and all these things. And because you see the world and this being will have a body, then it begins to see other beings, it begins to differentiate, you know. Other beings, this is I, this is me, that is them. So once you have the I and the them, then the ego sets in, you know. When he sees something, instead of just thinking that it's just seeing, he thinks, I see, I hear. This I is something we added on. Because of that, it's like we are no more in the madang state. We have been expelled from heaven. So to go back to heaven, we have to cultivate the Aryan Eightfold Path.

(EA08)-19-What-is-the-actual-meaning-of-Sati-and-Satipatthana

This concept of God, some people say that in Buddhism we don't have God, but it depends on what you mean by God. This translation actually can be very misleading. For example, this word Sati, you have to understand what the word Sati means. People sometimes translate it as mindfulness, But if you look into the sutra, actually the word sati is explained in a few words. There's about four or five sutras that define sati in the same way. They define sati as being able to remember what you said and you did a long time ago. It means you are able to recollect. So when you translate it as the word mindfulness, If by mindfulness you mean being able to remember, then you are correct. But if you think mindfulness is being mindful of the seeing, hearing, and smelling, and all these things, you can be quite misled, you know. Because there is a sutra in the Samhita Nikaya where the Buddha mentioned that we should keep to our own posture to our own feel, don't stray out. When you stray out, you get caught by Mara. And what is your own posture? The Buddha said, you have to be, you have to contemplate on the four things, the body, the feelings, the mind, the state of the mind. and the Dharma. And the Buddha mentioned specifically, don't be led by thoughts of the body, don't be led astray by thoughts of the feelings and all that, don't think, just contemplate these four things, even contemplate the mind without thinking. And the Buddha said Mara's field, Mara's ground is the six sense doors, the six sense objects, seeing, hearing and all that. If you go and start contemplating the outside things, the seeing and the hearing and all that, that is not meditation. that is straying into Maharaj's field of view and you can very easily get caught. So when you translate the word mindfulness, when you use sakti and you translate mindfulness, you can use it, but you have to keep in mind, it means mindfulness on only four things, only these four things. And as I mentioned just now, when you cultivate the Aryan Eightfold Path, there are two or three sutras, They say definitely, if you cultivate sati correctly, it must lead you to samadhi. It must lead you to jhana. This mindfulness and concentration, they help each other. You cannot separate one. You cultivate mindfulness, you will get concentration. And if you have concentration, it helps you to be mindful. You cannot run away, these two are interlinked. In fact, there is a few sutras that talk about satipatthana and explain what you mean by satipatthana. Satipatthana actually means an intense state of sati. Patthana comes from two words, pa and tana. Pa means extreme, intense. Tana means a state, you know. Satipatthana is an intense state of sati, it's not ordinary sati. And this you can confirm by a few suttas. For example, Majjhima Nikaya number 44, the Buddha said the characteristic mark of samadhi is satipatthana. That means if you have jhanas, you must have satipatthana. In fact, there is another sutra in Samhita Nikaya which says how to practice satipatthana. You practice satipatthana, you must get one-pointedness of mind. So the characteristic mark of jhana, the four jhanas, is satipatthana. You must automatically have satipatthana when you have the four jhanas. This is confirmed by other sutras. For example, the Buddha says, his disciples, the Aryan disciples, the learner and the arahant, they constantly abide in Satipatthana. All the time they abide in Satipatthana. And then there's another sutra where the Buddha says, when you practice to attain Satipatthana, you must put the effort to attain Satipatthana. But once you have attained Satipatthana, the Buddha says, abandon it. You abandon the practice of Satipatthana when you have attained it. What does it mean? It means now when you have attained Satipatthana, it becomes automatic. So unless you attain the four jhanas, you don't have Satipatthana. You are only trying to be mindful. You are still not automatically mindful. Only when a person attains the Four Jhanas, then the Buddha said in Madhyma 44 that the characteristic mark of the Four Jhanas is the Satipatthana. That's why the Buddha said, after you attain Satipatthana, abandon the practice. But even though you abandon the practice, the Buddha said, Sekha, the loners, and the Arahant constantly abide in Satipatthana. Even though they're abandoned, they still abide in Satipatthana because they don't need to make any effort already. Once they have attained the jhanas, it becomes automatic. This kind of sutras, you don't go and investigate, you don't understand what is meant by Satipatthana. Why is it nowadays people treat Sati and Satipatthana the same? It's not the same. Sati and Satipatthana is the difference. You cultivate Sati, you must get Samadhi. And when you have Samadhi, you have automatic Satipatthana.

(EA08)-20-QandA-9-Samatha-and-Vipassana-can't-be-separated

That's why I say it's a big mistake to separate Samatha and Vipassana. These two terms, Samatha and Vipassana, are found in the Seven Bhojangas. The equivalent two terms there are Samadhi and Dhammavichaya, contemplate investigation of Dhamma. So in the seven bojangas, they are supposed to cultivate seven. How can you take away one or two? You cannot simply choose to take away one or two. They all come together. Because unfortunately, they believe it to be the real teachings. As I say, many of them, they sincerely believe this because they have been taught from young. And they have no reason to question it because in their country, nobody questions it. For example, somebody has been brought up as a Christian, and all the time he's happy being a Christian. You tell him, no God, he must slap you in the face. Very hard to convince people. That's why you try to be helpful to people, you get persecuted. People badmouth you, talk bad about you and all these things. These people, they make a big mistake. What is that big mistake? They always tell people, practice Satipatthana and study the Satipatthana Sutta. Memorize the Satipatthana Sutta and practice according to the Satipatthana Sutta. You cannot understand Satipatthana Sutta, Satipatthana, by looking at one Sutta. Because one Sutta will tell you the truth from one angle. Another sutta will tell you the truth from another angle. Another sutta will tell you the truth from another angle. Only when you study so many suttas and you can see it from so many angles that you can relate, then only you understand. Otherwise why are there such suttas where the Buddha said, after you attain satipatthana, abandon the practice. What does it mean? If you just study a satipatthana sutta, you're not going to understand this. Is it not? There are other things, for example, liberation by mind, liberation by wisdom. And then there is one sutra, Tathagiri Sutra, Majjhima Nikaya No. 70, where the Buddha said, a person who is two ways liberated, he attains the Arupa Jhanas. Whereas the person who is liberated by wisdom, he does not attain the arupa jhanas. And then, they use this liberation by wisdom, this is in the commentaries, they say that a person who is liberated by wisdom, there are five types. One who has attained the four jhanas, one who has attained three jhanas, one who has attained two, one, and one who has attained no jhanas. And they talk about the Cuka Vipassaka Arahant, the dry vision Arahant, which has no basis at all in the sutta. As I mentioned just now, there is two suttas which say that the anagami has got perfect sila and samadhi, and the arahant has got perfect sila, samadhi and panya, all arahants. So they must have perfect samadhi. So this thing about the dry vision arahant, there is no basis for it. And when you understand the satipatthana, the meaning of satipatthana, that satipatthana becomes automatic only after you attain the jhanas. And if you practice the satipatthana correctly, you must attain the jhanas. Then there is no reason to split samatha and vipassana. Just like a person who doesn't understand the four Nikayas about the Aryan path, they will start differentiating between Bodhisattva path and the Arhat path when in fact the two come together. So that's the trouble we have nowadays.

(EA08)-21-Is-it-important-for-lay-people-to-study-the-Suttas

Actually, the Buddha mentioned in one of the suttas that lay people, you should study the suttas. And if you look at the suttas, you find that all, you can say all the people who attained the Sotapanna, first fruition, they did it by hearing Dharma. Just hear Dharma only they attained Sotapanna. And just now I mentioned Sotapanna and Sakadagami, Perfect Samadhi, we only need Perfect Sila. So the first step is to understand our Buddha's words in the Four Nikayas, understand them well. There are some people, they have the wrong view that the Sotapanna is attained only by meditation. It's completely not founded in the Nikayas. In the Nikayas, it's always by hearing the Dharma. So, there are some people, they start off, straight away they want to meditate, you know, without a proper understanding of the Dharma. And there are people who have been meditating for 20 over years, I'm told, 20 over years, and teaching meditation. In the end, they renounce. But they don't renounce to become a monk or a nun, they renounce Buddhism. At the end of 20 over years and change their religion. He is a very shameful. He shows there is something wrong somewhere.

(EA08)-22-Good-to-point-out-the-Saddhamma

I speak all this with a good intention so I'm not here to attack people or to put down anybody. My intention is to help people to understand the right dharma so that they don't waste years of groping along the wrong road and then after many years you realize. As I was saying just now, I'm trying to help people not to waste their time, to set them on the right path. And if I differ in my views with other monks, it is not with the intention to put them down. As I said just now, We cannot blame them because they also have this sincere intention to teach the right Dharma. But unfortunately, as I mentioned just now, they take certain books to be the correct Dharma, when in fact they have contradictions with our four original Nikayas. And why they don't see this contradiction is because they study too much. They study so much, you know. They study the five Nikayas, they study the Vinaya, they study the Abhidharma, seven books, they study the commentary, so many books, they study the sub-commentary, so many books, they study the sub-sub-commentary. So many books, that how are you going to... It's like they say, Jack of all trades, master of none. These sutras are meant not to be read once, you know. These four Nikayas are meant to be read again and again and again. And I mentioned before, each time you read, something new is revealed to you. You read it again, again you see it in more depth. So that the more times you read, the more you understand. And if you only read it once or twice, you're not going to catch many important points. So two years ago I went to KL and I gave a talk in one big buddhist temple and the chief monk there introduced me as a controversial monk. My intention is not to be controversial. It so happened that what I say is a bit different from other monks. So the subject is controversial. But I never, if you listen carefully to what I say and the books I publish, I might attack Dharma, which I consider to be wrong. I never attack people. But because some people, their defilements, as I said just now, is a bit big. They get very angry. And you see, I attack them. There's nothing personal in this, you know. Dharma is not mine, Dharma is not yours. Dharma belongs to everybody. I don't claim that I speak the absolute truth. Maybe I'm correct, maybe I'm not correct. What I try to do is only to let you see the other side of the picture. for you to consider and if you think it's logical, you want to accept, you accept. If you don't want to accept, don't accept. We are not trying to sell something, you know. Dharma cannot be sold. I'm not trying to change your belief. You can believe what you want to believe is good for you. What I'm trying to do is only to teach the Dharma according to the Buddha's words and try to help some people and the intention is as I said good and not to put down anybody but unfortunately Some people, they get the wrong idea that I affect them and they start to spread some bad things about me and all this. I know, but I just try to ignore.

(EA08)-23-Can-someone-get-attached-to-Jhanic-Bliss

There's another thing that some people have this view about jhanas that they say you can be easily attached to jhanic bliss and you get sidetracked. Actually, in the sutras, the Buddha said that there are two kinds of happiness or pleasure. One type of pleasure is sensual pleasures, and the Buddha said that should not be indulged in. But there's another type of happiness, jhanic happiness, which the Buddha said should be pursued, developed, and made much of. This is mentioned in Tiga Nikaya, number 29, Majjhima Nikaya number 66 and 139. And then the Buddha gave the reason why. The Buddha said there are four advantages from pursuing, developing and making much of jhanic bliss. And the four advantages are Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahant. In fact, If you look into the sutras, like in Samyutta Nikaya number 28, there is about 9 sutras where Arahant Sariputta, Ananda asked him, I see your face is very serene, very clear. In what state have you been abiding? And there is one sutra where Sariputta said, I have been abiding in the first jhana. Then another one, another sutra, I said I've been abiding in the second jhāna, third jhāna, fourth jhāna, fifth jhāna, then sarupa jhāna, six, seven, eight, until the ninth cessation. So you see the arahants, they constantly, every day, they abide in jhānas. Buddha saw nothing wrong in that. One of the sutras, Majjhima Nikaya number 36, the Buddha said, when he has to speak Dharma to people, then he speaks. When he's not speaking Dharma, then he'll enter jhanas. His mind becomes one-pointed. And this is arahants, all the time they are not doing anything that has to be done concerning the outside world. All the time they abide jhanas. So much so that the Buddha stated, In the Anguttara Nikaya, Book of the Force, he said there are four types of postures, four types of sleeping position. He said there is a type where you sleep with your back on the floor. Most of us sleep like that. But surprisingly, the Buddha said there is a ghost posture. Ghosts also sleep like that. And then the Buddha said there's a type of posture where you sleep resting on your left side. The Buddha said that's a luxurious posture. And the Buddha said there's a third posture. You sleep on the right side. There's a lion posture. And he encouraged people to sleep on the right side. I think there's a reason for that. The reason is my personal opinion. The reason is when we are active, We breathe in through two nostrils, you know. We breathe, our breathing goes through two nostrils when we are very active. But when we are very calm, when we are very calm and our body is very calm and we breathe very slowly, surprisingly the right nostril stops to function, you know. The right nostril stops to function and we breathe through the left nostril. So that if you sleep on your right hand side, your breathing in and out through your left nostril is unobstructed. Whereas if you sleep on your left side, you know our sinus tends to flow down, doesn't it? So if you sleep on your left side, it will block your left nostril. And I think that's my personal opinion why the Buddha asked us to sleep on the right side. And then the Buddha said, there is a posture called the Tathagata posture. And the Buddha said that the Tathagata posture is not any position of the body. The Buddha said that the Tathagata posture is resting in the first jhāna or the second jhāna or the third or the fourth jhāna. In other words, the Buddha never goes to sleep. And you can understand why. If you look into the sutra, the Buddha said if you have not attained the jhānas, you must cultivate during the day, non-stop, in the morning, in the noon, In the evening, all the time you must cultivate to attain the jhanas. And even at night, the first watch, you must meditate, walk and sit and walk. And then the middle watch, you can take your rest. And then the last watch, you continue to sit and walk. So a person like the Buddha, he has attained to jhanas, and their jhanas are very stable. When the person's jhāna is very stable, whenever he wants to, he inclines his mind to enter jhāna. So, because of that, he takes his rest in the jhāna state. So, from this sutta where the Buddha talks about the tathagata posture, it's quite obvious that the Buddha does not fall asleep like we do. Actually sleep is due to this hindrance, you know. Because of our hindrance, we feel sleepy, you know. This is the third hindrance, sloth and topper. So for most of us, say by 12 o'clock midnight, the hindrance, they press down on us so hard. Or you feel groggy already. So sleepy, can't hold it. But in the case of the people who attained the jhanas and the Buddha's disciples, the Buddha asked them to cultivate until they are very strong. In fact, there's one sutra where the Buddha mentioned about the four kinds of samadhi bhavana, development of concentration, four types. Then the Buddha talked about one type. He said there is one type of concentration which is conducive to jnana dasana, very conducive to insight. Now what is that type of concentration? The Buddha said a person cultivates his mind until it's bright. And he cultivates it to brilliance. It's so bright that the Buddha says day becomes night and night becomes day. In other words, The mind becomes bright so that at night, his mind is all the time bright like this. Mind is a very powerful thing, you know. If we know how to cultivate it, it becomes a very, very powerful tool. People like the Buddha, without telescope, he could see 2,500 years ago. He called the galaxy, he called Chakravala. Chakra means a disc, you know, a flat disc. Now, 2,500 years ago, they observed the stars. They find the galaxy is flat. How come the Buddha could see?

(EA08)-24-QandA-10-How-do-we-know-whether-the-early-4-Nikayas-are-accurate

On this, you have to study the suttas to come to a conclusion. If you study the Four Nikayas, you find that the teachings are consistent. There is no contradiction in the teachings, but there are some small mistakes here and there. What type of small mistakes? For example, the Buddha gave several types of simile. One of the types of simile is, for example, the Buddha, there's a sutra where the Buddha said he took some sand on his fingernail, and then he spoke to his disciples, he said, he looked at the sand on my fingernails, and compare it with the sand in the world, which one is more. Then they said, the sand on your fingernail is so little compared to the sand in the world. How can the sand on your fingernail compare with the sand of the world? So the Buddha said in the same way, there's one sutra where the Buddha said, a person who has attained Sotapanna, stream entry, The dukkha that is remaining is so little, like the sand on the Tengganim. Whereas a person who has not attained to Sotapanna, Putujana, an ordinary person, the dukkha that is remaining for him is so much like the sand in the world. This is logical. We can accept this. But sometimes, They get confused now with other similes. There's another simile where the Buddha said, if you look at India, he said, you look at the amount of land that is accessible, that is used by human beings, that can be used by human beings, town, area. fields where they plant crops and all these things, when you compare it with the inaccessible areas, the very high mountainous areas, the thick jungle that people cannot go, and the rivers, the wide rivers that people cannot afford to go through and all that, the area that is usable compared with the area that is not usable is not so much, right? But in our mind we can reasonably think, maybe something like 20% or 30% of that land in India is used by people, the rest is not used. So the Buddha said, in the same way, the number of human beings now, the number of human beings, after they pass away, the number of human beings that will come back to be humans, or to be heavenly beings are so few like the land that is usable. Whereas the number of human beings that will go into the Whirlpool Plains will be so much like the land that is not usable. So if you think in terms of say 20 or 30, 20 percent, maybe about 20 percent of human beings can come back to be reborn as humans or as heavenly beings, that's reasonable. Then another 70% or 80% will go to the worldly planes, that's reasonable. But then sometimes these similes, they occur a few times and they confuse, you know. And then there's a, for example, there might be a sutra where the Buddha, they give a simile when the Buddha pick up the sand on his fingernails and compare with the earth. Then he said, the number of human beings that will be reborn as human beings or as devas, so little, like the sand on the fingernails. Whereas those that will go into woeful pain, so many, like the sands in the in the world. That type of comparison is not logical, is it? That means out of, say, like 1,000 people, maybe only one only come back to the human plane or go to heaven. Too few, isn't it? So here you can understand this kind of inconsistencies come about because because they pass from mouth to mouth reciting, then there is a slight confusion over the simile. And this type of inconsistency we admit are found in the Pali sutra. But as far as the dharma is concerned, there is no inconsistency. Not like for example in certain, sad to say, certain Mahayana sutras, for example, Like this Leng Yen Ching, Leng Yam King, Surangama Sutra, where the Buddha is supposed to have talked about a Buddha nature. He talked about a Buddha nature which is permanent, eternally existing. And the reason for this given is that they say that consciousness, the stream of consciousness never ends. Never ends. In fact, in our Pali suttas, the Buddha did say that the stream, the consciousness, it only arises, each consciousness that arises has got a a basis, a reason for it to arise. It does not flow naturally. Every second, every moment of consciousness depends on some condition for it to arise. So that if you cultivate your mind, you can change your consciousness. For example, our thinking. To an ordinary person, he cannot stop the thinking. This conception, this thinking process, what the Buddha calls the proliferation of thoughts, you know, multiplies very much. And this is thinking and conceptualizing all the time. This cannot stop, you know, until you attain to jhana. Only when you attain to jhana, then your mind can be controlled and the thinking stops. And because the thinking stops, you are able to see things clearly, and you are able to get intuitive wisdom, not wisdom that comes from conceptualizing. As long as you have not attained Vijnana, all your reasoning, all your wisdom is all conceptualized wisdom. It's a lower form of wisdom. So, unfortunately in the Surangama Sutra, they say that consciousness is a stream that never ends. This has got a problem in terms of... There are other kinds of inconsistencies in the Mahayana sutras where you can find between two sutras they contradict each other. That is possible. For example, in the Sixth Patriarch Sutra of Jyotanika, There, the disciple of the Fifth Patriarch, Sun Tzu, Sun Tzu, he wrote a few words. He said something like, clean your basic nature, don't let the dust alight. Then after that, our Sixth Patriarch, Vīnaṅga. Vīnaṅga, he wrote, there is no self-nature, so where can the dust alight? He is a person who understands Dhamma. You see, there is no self-nature, there is no soul, there is no something that you can call I, something permanent. And so when you see that, like Churangama Sutra, they talk about this are forcing, and this forcing to them is something permanent, eternal. Whether you call it forcing or not, the moment you say something eternal, something that will never be destroyed, straight away that is a soul already, that is a capital S self. So this kind of sutra you find contradicts the six patriarch sutra. So because of this, if you keep studying Mahayana sutras, sometimes you can get a bit confused. I met one man in Berlin, he said he studied a lot of Mahayana Sutras for many years already because he can only study the Chinese books. Then he said he is so confused now, he said he doesn't understand. So the important thing is not to read too many books. You see, you should only read those books that are reliable. In fact, now there's a group of monks in Taiwan who are teaching that they should go back to the Ahan Jin, you know. Yes, there's a group of monks. And now they are beginning to translate our Pali Suttas into Chinese. There's one monastery in Kaohsiung. They are translating the Pali Suttas into