Being Nobody

by Ajahn Sumedho | 1989 | 2,746 words

No description available...

Read Content

This text consists of only 1 part

Try to note the cessation or the ending of things in little ways by paying special attention to the ending of the out breath. This way, in your daily life, youre noticing the ordinary endings that no one ever pays attention to. Ive found this practice very useful because its a way of noticing the changing nature of the conditioned realm as one is living ones daily life. As I understand it, it was to these ordinary states of mind that the Buddha was pointing, not to the special highly developed concentrated states.

The first year that I practised, I was on my own and I could get into highly developed concentrated states of mind which I really enjoyed. Then I went to Wat Pah Pong, where the emphasis was on the way of life in accordance with Vinaya discipline and a routine. There one always had to go out on alms round every morning, and do the morning chanting and evening chanting. If you were young and healthy, you were expected to go on these very long alms rounds - they had shorter ones that the old feeble monks could go on. In those days, I was very vigorous so I was always going on these long, long alms rounds and then Id come back tired, then there would be the meal and then in the afternoon we all had chores to do. It was not possible under those conditions to stay in a concentrated state. Most of the day was taken up by daily life routine.

So I got fed up with all this and went to see Luang Por Chah and said, I cant meditate here, and he started laughing at me and telling everyone that, Sumedho cant meditate here! I was seeing meditation as this very special experience that Id had and quite enjoyed and then Luang Por Chah was obviously pointing to the ordinariness of daily life, the getting up, the alms rounds, the routine work, the chores: the whole thing was for mindfulness. And he didnt seem at all eager to support me in my desires to have strong sensory deprivation experience by not having to do all these little daily tasks. He didnt seem to go along with that; so I ended up having to conform and learn to meditate in the ordinariness of daily life. And in the long run that has been the most helpful.

It has not always been what I wanted, because one wants the special; one would love to have blazing light and marvelous insights in Technicolor and have incredible bliss and ecstasy and rapture -not be just happy and calm, but over the moon!

But reflecting on life in this human form: it is just like this, its being able to sit peacefully and get up peacefully and be content with what you have; its that which makes our life as a daily experience something that is joyful and not suffering. And this is how most of our life can be lived - you cant live in ecstatic states of rapture and bliss and do the dishes, can you? I used to read about the lives of saints that were so caught up in ecstasies they couldnt do anything on any practical level. Even though the blood would flow from their palms and they could do feats that the faithful would rush to look at, when it came to anything practical or realistic they were quite incapable.

And yet when you contemplate the Vinaya discipline itself, it is a training in being mindful. Its about mindfulness with regard to making robes, collecting alms food, eating food, taking care of your kuti, what to do in this situation or that situation. Its all very practical advice about the daily life of a bhikkhu. An ordinary day in the life of Bhikkhu Sumedho isnt about exploding into rapture but getting up and going to the toilet and putting on a robe and bathing and doing this or that; its just about being mindful while one is living in this form and learning to awaken to the way things are, to the Dhamma.

Thats why whenever we contemplate cessation, were not looking for the end of the universe but just the exhalation of the breath or the end of the day or the end of the thought or the end of the feeling. To notice that means that we have to pay attention to the flow of life - we have to really notice the way it is rather than wait for some kind of fantastic experience of marvelous light descending on us, zapping us or whatever.

Now just contemplate the ordinary breathing of your body. You notice, if youre inhaling, that its easy to concentrate. When youre filling your lungs, you feel a sense of growth and development and strength. When you say somebodys puffed up, then theyre probably inhaling. Its hard to feel puffed up while youre exhaling. Expand your chest and you have a sense of being somebody big and powerful. However, when I first started paying attention to exhaling, my mind would wander. Exhaling didnt seem as important as inhaling - you were just doing it so that you could get on to the next inhalation.

Now reflect: one can observe breathing, so what is it that can observe? What is it that observes and knows the inhalation and the exhalation - thats not the breathing, is it? You can also observe the panic that comes if you want to catch a breath and you cant; but the observer, that which knows, is not an emotion, not panic stricken, is not an exhalation or an inhalation. So our refuge in Buddha is being that knowing; being the witness rather than the emotion or the breath or the body.

With the sound of silence, some people hear fluctuations of sound or a continuous background of sound. So you can contemplate it, you notice that - can you notice it if you put your fingers in your ears? Can you hear it in a place where they are using the chain saw? Or when youre doing exercises? Or when youre in a fraught emotional state? Youre using this sound of silence as something to remember to turn to and notice - because its always present here and now. And theres that which notices it.

There is the desire of the mind to call it something, to have a name for it, have it listed as some kind of attainment, or project something on to it. Notice that, the tendency of wanting to make it into something. Somebody said its probably just the sound of your blood circulating in your ears, somebody else called it the cosmic sound, the bridge to the Divine. That sounds nicer than the blood in your ears. It might be the sound of the Cosmos or it might be that youve got an ear disease. But it doesnt have to be anything; its what it is, its as that. Whatever it is, it can be used as reflection because when youre with that, there is no sense of self, there is mindfulness, there is the ability to reflect.

So it is more like a straight edge that you can go to, to keep you from going all wobbly. It is something you can use to compose yourself in daily life, when youre putting on your robes, when youre brushing your teeth, when youre closing a door, when youre coming into the meditation hall, when youre sitting down. So much of daily life is just habitual because we aim at what we consider to be the important things of life - like the meditation. So, walking from where you live to the Meditation Hall can be a totally heedless experience - just a habit - clump, clump, clump, slam bang! Then you sit here for an hour trying to be mindful.

This way you begin to see a way of being mindful, of bringing mindfulness to the ordinary routines and experiences of life. I have a nice little picture in my room that Im very fond of - of this old man with a coffee mug in his hand, looking out of the window into an English garden with the rain coming down.

The title of the picture is Waiting. Thats how I think of myself; an old man with my coffee mug sitting there at the window, waiting, waiting, watching the rain or the sun or whatever. I dont find that a depressing image but rather a peaceful one. This life is just about waiting, isnt it? Were waiting all the time - so we notice that. Were not waiting for anything, but we can be just waiting. And then we respond to the things of life, to the time of day, the duties, the way things move and change, the society we are in. That response isnt from the force of habits of greed, hatred and delusion but its a response of wisdom and mindfulness.

Now how many of you feel you have a mission in life to perform? Its something youve got to do and some kind of important task thats been assigned to you by God or fate or something. People frequently get caught up in that view of being somebody who has a mission. Who can be just with the way things are, so that it is just the body that grows up, gets old and dies, breathes and is conscious? We can practice, live within the moral precepts, do good, respond to the needs and experiences of life with mindfulness and wisdom - but theres nobody that has to do anything. Theres nobody with a mission, nobody special, were not making a person or a saint or an avatar or a tulku or a messiah or Maitreya. Even if you think: Im just a nobody, even being a nobody is somebody in this life, isnt it? You can be just as proud of being nobody as of being somebody, and just as deluded attached to being nobody. But whatever you happen to believe, that youre a nobody or a somebody or you have a mission or youre a nuisance and a burden to the world or however you might view yourself, then the knowing is there to see the cessation of such a view.

Views arise and cease, dont they? Im somebody, an important person who has a mission in life: that arises and ceases in the mind. Notice the ending of being somebody important or being nobody or whatever - it all ceases, doesnt it? Everything that arises, ceases, so theres a non grasping of the view of being somebody with a mission or of being nobody. Theres the end of that whole mass of suffering - of having to develop something, become somebody, change something, set everything right, get rid of all your defilements or save the world. Even the best ideals, the best thoughts can be seen as dhammas that arise and cease in the mind.

Now, you might think that this is a barren philosophy of life because theres a lot more heart and feeling in being somebody whos going to save all sentient beings. People with self sacrifice who have missions and help others and have something important to do are an inspiration. But when you notice that as dhamma, you are looking at the limitations of inspirations and the cessation of it. Then there is the dhamma of those aspirations and actions rather than somebody who has to become something or has to do something. The whole illusion is relinquished and what remains is purity of mind. Then the response to experience comes from wisdom and purity rather than from personal conviction and mission with its sense of self and other, and all the complications that come from that whole pattern of delusion.

Can you trust that? Can you trust in just letting everything go and cease and not being anybody and not having any mission, not having to become anything? Can you really trust in that or do you find it frightening, barren or depressing? Maybe you really want inspiration. Tell me everything is all right; tell me you really love me; what Im doing is right and Buddhism is not just a selfish religion where you get enlightened for your own sake; tell me that Buddhism is here to save all sentient beings. Is that what youre going to do, Venerable Sumedho? Are you really Mahayana or Hinayana?

What Im pointing to is what inspiration is as an experience. Idealism: not trying to dismiss it or to judge it in any way but to reflect on it, to know what that is in the mind and how easily we can be deluded by our own ideas and high minded views. And to see how insensitive, cruel and unkind we can be by the attachment we have to views about being kind and sensitive. This is where it is a real investigation into Dhamma.

I remember in my own experience, I always had the view that I was somebody special in some way; I used to think, Well I must be a special person. Way back when I was a child I was fascinated by Asia and as soon as I could, I studied Chinese at the university, so surely I must have been a reincarnation of somebody who was connected to the Orient.

But consider this as a reflection: no matter how many signs of being special or previous lives you can remember or voices from God or messages from the Cosmos, whatever - not to deny that or say that those things arent real - but theyre impermanent. Theyre anicca, dukkha, anatta. Were reflecting on them as they really are - what arises ceases: a message from God is something that comes and ceases in your mind, doesnt it? God isnt always talking to you continuously unless you want to consider the silence the voice of God. Then it doesnt really say anything does it? We can call it anything - we can call it the voice of God or the divine or the ringing of the cosmos or blood in your eardrums. But whatever it is, it can be used for mindfulness and reflection - thats what Im pointing to, how to use these things without making them into something.

Then the missions we have are responses, not to experiences that we have in our lives - theyre not personal anymore, its no longer me, Sumedho Bhikkhu, with a mission as if Im specially chosen from above, more so than any of you. Its not that any more. That whole manner of thinking and perceiving is relinquished. And whether or not I do save the world and thousands of beings or help the poor in the slums of Calcutta or help to cure all lepers and do all kinds of good works - its not from the delusion of being a person, its a natural response from wisdom.

This I trust; this is what saddha is - it is a faith in the Buddhas word. Saddha: its a real trust and confidence in Dhamma; in just waiting and being nobody and not becoming anything, but being able to just wait and to respond. And if theres nothing much to respond to, its just waiting - coffee cup, watching the rain, the sunset, getting old, witnessing the aging process, the comings and goings in the monastery - the ordinations and the disrobings, the inspirations and the depressions, the highs and the lows, inside the mind, outside in the world. And there is the response because when we have vigour and intelligence and talent, then life always comes to us asking us to respond to it in some skilful and compassionate way, which we are very willing and able to do. We like to help people. I wouldnt mind going to a Buddhist leper colony - Id be glad to - or working in the shanty towns of Calcutta or wherever, Id have no objections; those kinds of things are rather appealing to my sense of nobility!

But its not a mission, its not me having to do anything; its trusting in the Dhamma. Then the response to life is clear and of benefit because its not coming from me as a person and the delusions of ignorance conditioning mental formations. And one observes the restlessness, the compulsiveness, the obsessiveness of the mind and lets it cease. We let it go and it ceases.

Like what you read? Consider supporting this website: