Pointing to Dhamma

by Ven. Khantipalo Bhikkhu | 1973 | 96,153 words

The 'pointing to Dhamma' or 'sermons' in this book have been complied by the Author from amongst the Dhammadesana that he has given at various times and places. Most of them, however, were delivered in the Uposatha temple of Wat Bovoranives Vihara (Bangkok, Thailand). For some three years there was a Dhammadesana there for the benefit of anyone who...

Sermon 23: From Endeavor Wisdom Springs

From endeavor wisdom springs,
from lack of it does wisdom wane:
Having known this twofold path--
to progress one, by one decline,
Thus one should admonish oneself
such that wisdom does increase.

(Dhp, 282)

In this verse of the Dhammapada, two paths are pointed out which human beings may choose, but Lord Buddha exhorts us in the closing lines to take only that one leading to the increase of wisdom. What then is this wisdom that he talks of here? And what is meant by "endeavor" or thorough attention in this verse? Since the latter is the root from which wisdom arises, it will be proper to find out the meaning of endeavor first. To begin with, this endeavor, which is one meaning of the word 'yoga' in Buddhism, may be defined by showing what it is not. When a person is careless with what he does with his body, not being aware of what the body does--at that time he is without endeavor. How often this happens to ourselves? We are walking down a street but daydreaming and our minds are far away in some imagined realm. Then our foot strikes an uneven pavestone and we stumble for lack of endeavor with the body. People have died just because they made no endeavor with what their bodies were doing. And they have done evil, much evil, because of lack of endeavor with the body. Endeavor with the body means to be aware of its movements and postures while doing them. In picking up a cup of tea, just let there be that action of stretching the arm, tightening the fingers and raising the cup to the lips. People sometimes think that Dhamma lies in very exalted states, or else in places like wats or monasteries, but the truth is that it can be with each of us all the time! It means being aware of the body walking, standing, sitting or lying down. Does this seem tiresome? Then one does not want to tread the path to wisdom, for it is attention to such things as this, the unadorned ordinary actions of life that makes for wisdom's increase. And this is not all! One should have thorough attention for feelings as they arise and pass away whether those feelings are pleasant, painful, or neither the one nor the other. Because people do not give this thorough attention to feelings, so in their hearts arise Greed, Aversion and Delusion. After pleasant feelings follows Greed, after painful feelings marches Aversion, and trailing along behind feelings neither pleasant nor unpleasant there is old Delusion. So these three demons come to take control over the heart unprotected by 'thorough attention to feelings.' Then from their control over the seat of authority there flow forth numberless ills both for oneself, lacking in endeavor and for others as well. To make endeavor with body and feelings will be a task enough for most people, so more subtle aspects of this attention need not be described here. So we understand from this that endeavor or thorough attention means awareness of what is happening now. Now, for instance, you are sitting here and listening to these words. Are you giving thorough attention? What is your mind doing? What feelings are you experiencing? What thoughts chase through your minds? If you have endeavor then you are aware of the body's sitting position but not preoccupied with it. Thorough attention to the body leads to calm of the body, so one is not fidgeting, gazing out of the window or at other people but only using the ears to listen. In the mind, by thorough attention, there is relative calm, in which arising and passing away is noticed in respect of feelings and thoughts but there is no chasing after trains of ideas, thoughts, hopes, memories or fears. Just using the mind for storing the Dhamma, which is being spoken here. By thorough attention you discover what is happening now. It is this 'now' that is very important for anyone who would increase in wisdom. Really, it is rather ridiculous that with only the ‘now' to experience, we are forever chasing after the past and future.

The real present is only experienced by those who have made the effort at training themselves in the Dhamma and come to see it by way of thorough attention. Now we begin to see the force of the first two lines of the above verse: "From endeavor wisdom springs. From lack of it does wisdom wane." Now we come to wisdom, to find out what it means and how it is to our advantage to possess at least some degree of it. In the Dhamma, wisdom implies many things, beginning with the knowing of what is good or wholesome action, and what is evil or unwholesome action. Thorough attention to our own mind will reveal this for ourselves, for evil is born of the presence of mental stains in our own hearts and we may see how they sully and degrade the heart in which they dwell. Good and wholesome actions, on the other hand, spring out of the roots of goodness: Non-greed, which is also generosity and renunciation; Non-aversion, which is also friendliness and compassion; and Non-delusion, which is also wisdom. The person who makes efforts to practice the good is to some extent wise. He knows what is for his own and others' good and chooses this while turning away from whatever is for his own or others' harm. These are the two paths spoken of in the verse above. One leads to Dhamma, the increase of wisdom with a wealth of noble conduct and happiness, and the other to deterioration, to falling down from humanness, falling down to animal-like conduct, or worse. But there are higher meanings of this wisdom than the knowing of good and evil and their fruits. We shall examine one, which is the key to penetration of the Dhamma. It is a key, which we carry about with us wherever we go, for it is called 'the arising and passing away of all events.' Now, if we take this key in our hands, we shall certainly be able to open that door which is marked "Wisdom--the Entrance to the Cool." Most of the time, unfortunately, we wander rather far from this door, and as we never approach it, so we do not think to take this key in our hands. Yet it hangs all the time at our waists. How is this? In the Discourses of Lord Buddha, this phrase is repeated, time and again: "Whatever has the nature to arise, all that has, the nature to cease." And what is it that has this nature to arise and to cease? Why, mind has the nature to arise and cease, body has the nature to arise and cease! The key is with us all the time! Though it is easy to agree with this intellectually, it is not so easy to penetrate to in one's own mind and body. Impermanence of mind and body are very well known to those of all religions, or to those with none, but the penetration to this truth in one's own continuity, that indeed requires steady training and a good deal of effort. Let us take an example, a body-what we call our own bodies. When we act as though this body is permanent, then that is called 'the path to decline', but when we are aware of its impermanence that is called 'the path to progress in wisdom.' Acting as though the body is, a true source of happiness; this is the path to decline, but contemplating the body as the place for the arising of all dakkha-or unsatisfactory experience-that is called the path for the increase of wisdom. When we regard the body as mine, as my self, or when we think that it wraps round some sort of soul, that is called the path to decline but the path of progress in wisdom can be seen when the void-ness of the body is understood, when one is aware that it has no owner. If we look at this body and think of it as beautiful, that is the path to decline, but when it is viewed in the light of its nine holes oozing various kinds of filth, or when head-hair, body-hair, nails, teeth and skin are all regarded in the light of their being dead already or of their constant need to to be washed and scrubbed, perfumed and painted in order to give them a semblance of beauty, then this is the path to the increase of wisdom. Whoever regards the body in the light of its impermanence, dukkha, lack of ownership and lack of beauty, in him the mental stains find no footing and he is on the way to discover Super-mundane Wisdom. This cannot be found while we look only upon the outsides of things and allow ourselves to be deceived by their apparently attractive and pleasant appearance. Wisdom is the way to open these things up so that we see them for ourselves. And what is to be seen in this way? The mertal-continuity is to be seen in this way, and bodily-continuity is to be seen in this way. So we are not without the chance to develop wisdom if we wish, though more than wishing will be needed-effort is called for. In the last two lines of the verse above, we are exhorted: "Thus one should admonish oneself such that wisdom does increase." Who is well established in wisdom? Only one who has seen in himself: "Whatever has the nature to arise, all that has the nature to cease." People like this are called Stream-enterers and having seen the truth of Dhamma in themselves, without recourse to faith, dogmas, holy books and so on, they are called irreversible in Dhamma. They cannot decline, slip-down into non-human births and are certain within a few lives at most, to become completely cool, to become those in whom the fires of Greed, Aversion and Delusion no longer burn since they have gone out for want of fuel.

We find Lord Buddha praising such people as this-the Arahants of whom He has said:

"Abandoning likes and dislikes too,
Become quite cool and asset-less.
Hero, the all-world-Conqueror,
That one I call a Brahmin true."

(Dhp. 418)

Such verses as this are a spur for ourselves that we should always make efforts upon the way for the increase of wisdom, and at least become those who admonish ourselves so that wisdom is well-established through the seeing of arising and passing away.

EVAM

Thus indeed it is.

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