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"Being"
is
the same. There is no need to cling to one's state of
being this or that, because in
reality there is no satisfactory
condition at all. All conditions bring about suffering
of one kind or
another. There
is a very simple technigue, which we must have a look at later, known as
Vipassa-
na, the direct practice
of Dhamma. It consists of close introspection,
which reveals that there is
nothing worth being, or that there
is really no satisfactory state of being at all.
Have a look at this
question or state of being.
Being a son?. a parent? husband? wife? master? servant?.
Is any of
these agreeable?.
Even being the man with the advantage, the one with the upper hand, the
winner
is that ageeable?.
Is the condition of a human being agreeable?. Even
the condition of a celestial
being or a good -would that be
agreeable?. When you have really come to know the what is
what.
You find that nothing whatsoever
is in any way agreeable. We are making do with mindlessly
get-
ting and being.
But why should we go risking life and limb by getting and being blindly,
always
acting on desire?.
It behoves us to understand things and live wisely, involving ourselves
in things
in such a way that they cause a
minimum of suffering, or ideally,none at all.
Here is
another point we must bring to our fellow men, our friends, and particularly
our relatives
and those close to us, the understanding
that this is how things are, so that they may have the same
right view as we have.
There will then be no upsets in the family, the town, the country, and
ulti-
mately in the whole world.
Each individual mind will be immune to desire, neither grasping at nor
becoming wrapped in anything or
anyone. Instead everyone's life will be quided by insight,
by the
ever-present, unobscured vision
that there is in reality nothing that we can grasp at and cling to.
Everyone will come to realize that all things are impermanent, unsatisfactory,
and devoid of any self-entity, that none of them is worth becoming infatuated
with. It is up to us to have the sense to
give them up, to have right views,
in keeping with the Buddha's teaching. A person who has
done
this is fit to be called a true
Buddhist. Though he may never have been ordained
nor even taken the precepts he will have really and truly penetrated
to Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. His mind
will be identical with that of
Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. It will be uncontaminated, enlightened
and tranquil, simply by virtue
of not grasping at anything as worth getting or worth being.
So a person can readily become a qenuine, fully-fledged Buddhist simply
by means of this technique of
being observant, perceiving impermanence,
unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood until he comes to
realize that there is nothing worth
getting or being.
The
lowest forms of evil originate in and are powered by desire to get and
to be; milder forms of evil consist of actions less strongly motivated
by desire; and
all goodness consists of action
based on the finest, most tenuous sort of desire, the desire to get or
be, on a good level.
Even in its highest forms, good is based on desire which, however, is so
fine
and tenuous that people don't consider
it in any way a bad thing. The fact is, however,
that good
action can never bring complete
freedom from suffering. A person who
has become completely free from desire, that is to say an Arahanta, is
one who has ceased acting on desire and has become
incapable of doing evil.
His actions lie outside the categories of good and evil.
His mind is free
and has transcended the limitations
of good and evil. Thus he is completely free of suffering.
This is a fundamental principle of Buddhism. Whether
or not we are able to do it wish to do
it, this is the way to liberation
from suffering. Today we may
not yet want it, some day we are bound to want it.
When we have completely given up evil and have done to our utmost, the
mind
will still be weighed down with
various kinds of attenuated desire, and there is no known way of
getting rid of it other than by
striving to go beyond the power of desire, to go beyond the desire to get
or be anything, bad or good. If there is
to be Nirvana, freedom from suffering of every kind,
there has to be absolute and complete
absence
of desire.
In short, to know what is what in the ultimate sense is to see everything
as impermanent, unsatis
factory, and devoid of selfhood.
When we really know this, the mind come to see things in such a
way that it does not cling to get
to be anything. But if we have to become involved in
things in the
ways known as "having
and
being" then we become involved intelligently, motivated by insight,
and not by desire.
Acting thus, we remain free from suffering.
GRASPING AND
CLINGING
How
can
we get away from and become completely independent of things, all of which
are tran-
sient, unsatisfactory, and devoid
of selfhood? The answer is that we have to
find out what is the
cause of our desiring those things
and clinging to them. Knowing that cause,
we shall be in a posi
tion to eliminate clinging completely.
Buddhisms recognize four different kinds of clinging or attachment.
1) Sensual
attachment ( Kamupadana) is clinging to attractive and desirable
sense objects. It is the attachment that we naturally
develop for things we like and find satisfaction in colours and
shapes, sounds, odours, tastes,
tactual objects or mental images, objects past present or future that
arise in the mind and either correspond
to material objects in the world outside or within the body, or are just
imaginings. We instinctively find pleasure enchantment,
delight in these six kinds of sense object. They
induce delight and enchantment in the mind perceiving them.
As
soon as an individual is born, he comes to know the taste
these six sense objects, and clings
to them, and as time passes he becomes more and more family
attached to them.
Ordinary people are incapable of withdrawing from them again, so they present
a major problem.
It is necessary to have a proper knowledge and understanding of these sense
ob-
jects and to act appropriately
with respect to them, otherwise clinging to them may lead to complete
and utter dereliction.
If we examine the case history of any person who has sunk into dereliction,
we always find that it has come
about through his clinging fast to some desirable sense object.
Actually every single thing a human being does not has its origin in sensuality.
Whether we love,
become angry, hate, feel envious.
murder, or commit suidide, the ultimate cause must be some sense
object. If we
investigate what it is that drives human beibgs to work energeticly, or
to do anything
at all for that matter, we find
it is desire, desire to get things of one kind or another.
People strive,
study and earn what money they
can, and then go off in search of pleasure in the form of colours and shapes,
sounds, odours, tastes, and tactual objects, -which is what keeps them
going. Even
merit-making in order to go
to heaven has its origins simply in a wish hased on sensuality.
Taken together, all the trouble and chaos in the world has its origin in
sensuality.
The
danger of sensuality lies in the power of sensual attachment.
For this reason the Buddha
reckoned clinging to sensuality
as the primary form of attachment.
It is a real world problem. Whether the world is to be completely
destroyed, or whatever is to happen, is bound to depend on
this very sensual clinging.
It behoves us to examine ourselves to find out in what ways we are
attached to sensuality and how
firmly, and whether it is not perhaps within our power to give it up.
Speaking in worldly terms, attachment
to sensuality is a way good thing.
It conduces to family love, to deligence and energy in the search for wealth
and fame, and so on. But if looked at from
the spiritual point of view, it
is seen to be the secret entrance for suffering and torment.
Spiritually
speaking, attachment to sensuality
is something to be kept under control. And it all
suffering is to
be eliminated, sensual attachment
has to be done away with completely.
2) Attachment to opinions (Ditthupadana).
Clinging to views and opinions is not difficult to detect and identify
once we do a little introspection. Ever since
we were born into the world,
we have been receiving instruction
and training, which has given rise to ideas and opinions.
In speaking here of opinions, what we have in mind is the kind of ideas
one hangs on to and refuses to
let go of.
To cling to one's own ideas and opinions is quite natural and is not nomally
condemned
or disapproved of.
But it is no less grave a danger than attachment to attactive and desirible
objects. It can happen that preconceived ideas
and opinions to which we had always clung obsti-
nately come to be destroyed.
For this reason it is necssary that we continually amend our views,
making them progressively more
correct, better, higher, changing false views into views that are closer
and closer to the truth, and ultimately into the kind of views that incorporate
the Four Noble
Truths.
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( May ,15, 2008 )
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