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One of the things that could be
brought up concerns attainment or progress in practice. It's
something which we worry about: we talk about it, we get
caught up in it in various ways. That's the attitude we have
to our progress in practice. Are we progressing? Are we not
are we regressing? Are we getting worse at practice, or . . ?
How do we measure our practice?
We spend a lot of time measuring our practice by comparing
ourselves to other people. You know: are they more progressed
than we are? Are we less progressed? We go around and around
with this idea of trying to measure progress or our growth in
practice. It's something which we have to investigate and
watch, because we go to extremes of getting caught up in
trying to decide what is progress; and then going to the other
extreme of saying we shouldn't really think about progress, we
should just not bother to consider what progress is.
This is one of the things I found when I was traveling
through the United States, reading an article on Buddhist
practice and finding out that there is less and less emphasis
on enlightenment. People don't want to talk about
enlightenment any more, because it's daunting to people to
think in terms of practice and to think in terms of
enlightenment because it seems so far off and remote which
means that people are taking more of a worldly standard of
what they think practice should be. I think a lot of it
relates to the extremes we go to in trying to either measure
progress or to avoid the measuring of progress. Hence our
confusion as to what practice is and how to relate to
practice; or what we consider growth and maturity in practice
is. So I'd like to just give some reflections on what the
Buddha gave as standards for growth in Dhamma, growth in
practice, maturity in practice.
These are a set of four dhammas which are not talked about
so much. They are called the four dhammas conducive to growth,
to maturity. The first one is coming into contact with a wise
being (sappurisa sasevana) - just the contact with someone
who's wise. The second one is hearing the Dhamma, hearing the
teachings sadhamma savanaa. The third one is skilful
reflection, wise consideration yoniso manasikaara. And the
last one is Dhammanupata patipattaa practising Dhamma in
accordance with Dhamma. These are a framework for how to
relate to growth.
One of the things we do is we tend to measure progress in
terms of experience. We have some experience and we think This
is . . .' and then we measure it and say, "This must mean that
I'm progressing somehow". And then we have some other
experience and say, "Well, this must mean I'm falling apart".
We don't look at things in terms of process. We tend to
isolate instances, isolate experiences; and then measure them,
gauge them, and experience happiness or suffering because of
them. The Buddha's teaching is more concerned with process.
How do we get involved in the process of maturing? How do we
get into the process of growing and progressing in our
practice, rather than holding to some experience or trying to
create some experience, so that we can say "Oh, right, I
definitely must be progressing, I must be growing"?
It's necessary to take an interest in this process. It's
something which is cyclical, it's not a linear progression. As
you notice in the sense of coming to meet a wise being, of
listening to Dhamma, skilful reflection, practising Dhamma in
accordance with Dhamma these are things which revolve around
each other all the time. You're not taking a linear
progression and going from point A to point B. It's a process
which is working all the time, on an external level and on an
internal level because the wise being we should meet is also
the wise being who's within us as well.
On an external level, we need to rely on teachers, on
people who set the example, so we need to seek out a teacher,
seek out someone who is a good example. And even if we're
living in a monastery, practising together, to also seek out
the teacher, seek out the people who are setting examples.
This is where supporting each other is important. It doesn't
mean if you're sitting at the top of the line you're a teacher
or you're called a wise being. For each of us, it's our duty
to try to set an example for others; and then for us, as we're
living together, to try to support each other in practice. So
seeking each other out is necessary seeking out those who can
encourage us, who can give us guidance.
In the same way, with listening to teachings, if it's in
the form of formal discourse, or listening to tapes, reading
books whatever way that we can receive the teachings and
reflect and contemplate the teachings is a way which is
conducive to growth. Our practise is nurtured by coming into
contact with teachings which are direct and in accordance with
truth sadhamma sevan. Sadhamma is the `good Dhamma' you're
listening to, the good teachings - the teachings which are in
accordance with Truth. Investigating them, listening to them,
hearing them: it's the hearing of Dhamma which is one of the
conditions for the arising of right view. If we've not heard
the teachings, or not come into contact with teachings which
are direct or straight, it's difficult for right view to
arise. Unless you're a fully enlightened Buddha or a
self-enlightened Buddha, it's difficult. We need to listen, we
need to pay attention, we have to come into contact with
teachings. And if we're not listening, not paying attention,
then, of course, even if teachings are being given, they're
not absorbed, not brought into the heart. So, then, listen to
the teachings.
Skilful reflection is using the capacity for investigation
to recognise clearly the way things function. How do we use
our thought process? This is something that we have: we
definitely have the ability to think. Sometimes the quality of
yoniso - careful consideration, skilful reflection is not
exercised as much as it should be. I remember an article I
read (someone wrote a book about it; the title of the book was
based on this article): In a small town, a fire was reported
upstairs in a house. Smoke was coming out of the windows and
the fire department was called. They go to the house, break
in, go upstairs and find that the bed is on fire, smoking
away, and there's somebody lying on the bed. So they rescue
this person and put the fire out. And then after the fire is
out and the danger's over, they ask the person who was lying
on the bed how the fire started. And the person said, "I don't
know, it was on fire when I lay down." Which is a distinct
lack of yoniso! We laugh at it but, you know, how many times
have we done really stupid things? And the kind of suffering
that we get into, the confusion and the chaos that we create
in out lives, should normally be ringing all sorts of alarm
bells! But we disregard them, and just go ahead and butt our
heads up against this wall of suffering. So with yoniso,
careful consideration, we can look at what it is that is
creating suffering. This is our guideline in practice.
The Buddha has quite brilliantly used it as the bottom
line in the teachings. What is it that is creating suffering?
What is the way out of suffering? How is suffering caused? We
need to be able to reflect and consider. There are different
ways of investigating that: investigating the experience of
suffering; how it's caused; where it comes from; what it
revolves around. It's also just reflecting on the nature of
our experience which things are pleasurable, which are
suffering. What is the way out of both of them? Because our
natural tendency is to go towards the pleasurable and to try
to avoid what is suffering. But maybe that's not the way out.
We need to be able to reflect sometimes, and contemplate the
things which are pleasurable: they may be a fleeting pleasure,
but inherently they lead to more suffering. Some of the things
that are suffering are not necessarily just suffering; there
could be something beneficial in them. So we need to be able
to investigate experience as well. Some of the things also
which seem pleasurable are pleasurable and should be
cultivated.
Even though the Buddha uses suffering as a bottom line or
a foundation in teaching, it's also skilful to recognise that
the path we follow, the path of practice, is one that leads to
something which is considered happiness, and is pleasurable:
the pleasure or well-being of keeping our precepts well; the
pleasure or well-being of restraint; the pleasure or
well-being of kindness and compassion; the pleasure or
well-being of the peaceful mind. These are all things which we
need to cultivate, to develop. We need to understand their use
or function and how to bring them up. But then we also have to
recognise the grasping at the desire-based pleasure which
leads to frustration and so to more suffering. In the same
way, suffering is seen in two ways: the suffering which leads
to more suffering and the suffering which leads out of
suffering. We can notice when we're in the suffering of
aversion or anger. It's unpleasant in the present moment and
it leads to more suffering.
Whereas with something like, say, the suffering of having
to endure something, the suffering of training oneself, the
suffering of just having to sit still and watch the breath:
there's an element of suffering there, but then it's also
something that leads to a sense of well-being a training, a
stabilising, a settling. So to be able to investigate, to be
able to consider things carefully, is important. Our tendency,
as I said, is to always consider things in black and white:
"This is pleasurable, I'll go for it." "This is suffering, I
want to get out of it, to avoid it." Whereas, if we look at
things in terms of a process, there is that which is a cause
for something else to arise. We're seeing it in a different
light, relating to it in a different way. So that, through our
consideration, our reflection, this is a supporting of our
growth in practice. We have to consider: what is the way out?
What is the way to peace? What is the way to freedom, to
liberation?
Regarding practising Dhamma in accordance with Dhamma ,
there is a story in the Christian tradition. During the time
of the building of the great cathedral at Chartres, there was
much excitement at this great monument going up. Of course, it
took several generations for it to be built, and word spread
through Europe of this great cathedral. At one time, an
Italian pilgrim came to Chartres to pay respects and see this
cathedral being built. Arriving there in the late afternoon,
coming in and looking around, he sees people packing up and
doing this and that, cleaning up and he sees a man covered in
wood shavings. He asks him, "What are you doing here?" "I'm a
carpenter, I'm making doors and windows. I do all the woodwork
here." Then he sees somebody else, all dirty and grubby and
covered in dust. He asks again, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm doing the stonework, carving these stones for the
building." And then he sees somebody else, covered in various
colours and glittering with bits of glass, and he asks him,
"What are you doing here?" "Oh, I'm a glass worker, I'm making
these windows." Then he sees a little old lady who is cleaning
up, sweeping up at the end of the day, and he asks her, "What
are you doing here?" She stops and looks up, and looks around
her at the cathedral with its great sense of awe, and says
"I'm here helping to build this great cathedral for the glory
of god." That's a different perspective. That's a sense of
seeing what the practice is, seeing what it means when they
say, "practising Dhamma in accordance with Dhamma". You have
to have a vision of what you are going towards, a vision of
what you're practicing for. You have to have a vision of what
the purpose is. And that's what our practice is. The practice
that we're doing is what is going in that direction.
If we don't have a vision of what we're doing, a clear
sense of what it's going towards, and try to lift our minds up
towards that, then we get stuck in our own little dramas of
me' practising the Dhamma and my difficulties and my suffering
over it. Or we get caught up into being nice little Vinaya
monks, keeping the rules and taking that as the path; or
getting caught up in trying to get our meditation down. . .
All these things are part of the path. We have to learn how to
keep the rules, we have to learn how to be restrained
according to a discipline, a sla. But it also has to be seen
in terms of what it's for what its purpose is, what it's going
towards in the same way as with the building of the cathedral:
if they just get caught up in their little jobs, they miss the
point of it and they miss the joy of the cathedral around
them. So in our practice also, we have to have a sense of what
we're practising, what we're doing to have a clear perception
of that. But then, also, what is it going towards? You have to
keep lifting the mind toward that.
Our sila is for lifting the mind beyond a tendency to just
not be restrained; to be established in a sense of wanting to
do the right thing you know, what is in accordance with truth.
And meditation is not just to become proficient in keeping the
mind on the breath. It's being able to develop a mindfulness
and a clarity, which is able to stay with the object of
meditation, but then also see what its nature is. Why is the
mind bowing to our own feelings and thoughts and perceptions?
Why do we keep taking it as self? If we don't have a sense of
lifting the mind beyond just the mindfulness or a concentrated
state, then we get bogged down and we don't experience the
freedom of the mind, we don't experience the cessation of
suffering, because it hasn't been in the context of its
nature. The same with the teachings the teachings of the
Buddha, or the Wisdom teachings: they're not just to be
memorised or copied down in our notebooks and referred back to
when we forget them. They're to be internalised and recognised.
What are they for? They're for cutting off our delusions, for
cutting through our attachments. So we have to keep bringing
them in and lifting them up.
One way of seeing our practice of Dhamma is of going
towards a goal: It has to be going towards something. Another
aspect of it is, I think, putting the "little dhammas" in the
"big dhammas". By that I mean getting ourselves orderly.
Dhammaanupatipadaa: anu is the little things and it's going
towards the bigger dhammas. So our practice is a progressive
practice, it's a process. We have to learn how to fit it
together. And also how to refer back. Sometimes we have
difficulties in practice, sometimes doubts come up. Learn how
to come back to the beginning. Learn how to start over again.
Start from the beginning and do the basics, and then it grows
from there, so that our practice is a constant sort of
growing. Our progress then happens on its own. We also have to
nurture it, to look after that process. That's what we have to
learn: how to pay attention in practice and how to develop our
practice. Our maturity comes from that. There's a tendency
again to try to create some experience and then hold that
experience - trying to have a clearer experience of "That's
what Dhamma is.", "This is what practice is", or "This is what
peace is." I think this is a great obstacle that we keep
coming up against. We have to learn to pay attention to the
process of just looking after things which support the growth
of Dhamma - and then it grows from there.
This is what Ajahn Chah would emphasise over and over again
in practice. We would come to him and ask him all sorts of
questions. "Give us the method, give us the way". And he would
so often tell us, it's not just squeezing an experience out of
the mind. It's like growing a tree: you don't just put it in
the ground and then force it to come up. You have to prepare
the ground, you have to put the seed in the ground, you have
to fertilise the soil, you have to water it, you have to look
after it. . . and then the tree will grow on its own. And the
tree will grow according to its own nature, and it will give
fruit according to its nature. It's not our task to try to
designate or try to force the tree to grow faster, or to give
fruit in a particular way that we think it should. Learning
how to look after the mind is similar to learning how to look
after the tree.
So I offer this for your reflection.
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