Stop Being A Slave To Ignorance | 1 Dec 2023

A mind is a slave to avicca,

Ignorance.

This citta,

The mind,

It isn't free.

So we need to train and improve the mind to have wisdom so that the mind will be released from being a slave of ignorance,

Or avicca.

And the mind has been building this ignorance for a long time,

For countless lifetimes and existences,

Leading us to renewed birth and death.

It is continual suffering,

Again and again,

Over and over,

Having been born and dying,

Born and dying.

Our heap of bones are piled up higher than a huge mountain.

It is massive suffering,

Every time,

Continually ongoing.

The tears that we have shed are greater than the water in all of the great ocean.

We hear this and think,

Is this possible,

From the teardrops of our sorrows?

But we have been born and died numerous times,

More than the water in the great ocean.

So it means that our past births are uncountable.

We are born each time,

And we attach to this as being me and mine,

Out of ignorance.

The mind which is a slave,

Having ignorance in control,

It says,

This is me,

This is mine.

And the mind needs to accept it all.

Someone who is a slave cannot go against it at all.

It is up to how the master orders us,

No matter how much suffering and torture it is.

And we can't fight against it.

It is suffering and torture.

We want to escape,

But we can't.

Wherever we go,

We are unable to go beyond being a slave.

So someone who is a slave has suffering and torture,

By way of the body and mind.

Being a slave like this is of the body and mind,

Just like the way it was in the past.

So they were slaves for just that one life.

But after dying from that life and being born in the next life,

If they didn't have that karma,

Then they wouldn't be a slave again.

But the mind that is a slave of ignorance has been deluded for a long time,

For countless lifetimes.

The Buddha,

The victorious one,

Proclaimed that he had finished being a slave of ignorance.

He had been enlightened.

Aujjha is the house.

It is all the structure of the house that has been destroyed and demolished.

It wasn't able to build any more life or existence for the Buddha.

It couldn't go beyond life and existence anymore.

So here,

If ignorance is still there,

Then it continues to build life and existence for a long time,

For countless lifetimes.

We should think about if this is scary or not.

We will be born and die in the future,

And we can't count how many years it will be for.

It keeps on going.

Every life we are born and die,

It is full of suffering.

If we are born as a human,

Then it's quite good.

But to be born lower than that,

The slavery from ignorance is more ferocious.

It punishes us to be born in a lower realm.

Then it's great torture.

Just in the animal realm is a lot of torture already.

Being born as a cow,

A buffalo,

Or an animal that would later be tortured in various ways.

Or born as an animal bred for its meat to be eaten.

And being anywhere in the forest and being hunted.

And to search for food is difficult.

One is scared of dangers all the time.

If they have some merit,

Then they can be looked after by a human.

But still being born and dying ever onwards,

For countless lifetimes,

It is torture in this way.

And the times we have already been born like this is uncountable.

And our births ahead of us are also uncountable.

There is no end to it.

Even with the special knowledge of the Sama Sambuddha,

The perfectly self-awakened Buddha,

He couldn't even see it.

So how long have we been born then?

How far ahead do we have to go?

But we will try to free ourselves from being a slave by having Dhamma.

The Dhamma frees slavery by cutting off ignorance,

Which is the master of this mind,

That has it all under its control.

Ignorance makes it so that we have some happiness,

In order to make us be attached and cling to it.

When we are attached to it,

Then we fall under its control.

So we get attached to kammasukkhalikanuyogo,

Sensual indulgence.

This is kamma tanha,

Bhava tanha,

Vipava tanha,

Craving for sense pleasure,

Craving to become,

Craving not to become.

So our mind gets ignorance,

Craving,

And upadana,

Clinging and attachment,

Controlling over it.

It can't get out of it.

It can't go anywhere.

It is under their control.

So we need to train and practice to build goodness.

This is for our minds,

To have Dhamma,

So that we can get to be free from being a slave of ignorance.

In the beginning,

We will quit being a slave in terms of the bodily actions and speech,

Which we don't follow anymore.

What the master ignorance orders us to do,

We won't do it.

Before,

We may have said bad speech,

Had harsh speech,

Had insulted,

Have complained.

But we won't do it anymore.

We have harmed the body and mind.

We have drunk alcohol.

But we won't do it anymore.

Stealing,

We won't do it.

So okay,

We will stop being slaves,

Starting from the beginning first.

We have been someone who doesn't give to anyone.

Being stingy,

But we will quit being like that.

We can share.

We have metta,

Loving kindness and compassion.

We don't separate and divide,

Between me and them.

We can forgive.

We don't have grudges and revenge.

No hatred and ill will.

So this is by way of the mind.

When we try to quit being slaves by way of body and speech,

Then we see the drawbacks and dangers.

We have been slaves for a long time,

Which means having been following one's moods and thoughts for a long time.

Whatever we want to do,

We do.

Whatever we want to say,

We say.

We think to do it,

And we do it.

So we think that by following our moods and thoughts,

That doing this is comfortable.

But in reality,

We are following the ways of ignorance,

Or that which the master orders.

The mind is a slave.

And as the mind is the master of the body,

Which is its servant,

If the body gets told by the control of ignorance,

Then it orders the body,

And the body follows that.

When we know this,

Then we try to train,

To try to have sati,

Mindfulness.

This is important.

We practice having samadhi,

Concentration,

To be firmly established.

We train and get to know the drawbacks and dangers.

We try to let it go.

We try to build goodness,

So that we can go beyond suffering.

And this is something we are able to do in this life,

In this existence.

We are able to see the Dhamma.

Humans are excellent living beings who have intelligence that is sufficient,

And who can see the Dhamma.

If it is a non-human creature,

Then they won't be able to do it.

They can't see the Dhamma.

But humans have the opportunity to see the Dhamma.

As such,

Then we need to make an effort.

We have to be diligent.

Then that will lead to having mindfulness and clear comprehension.

Through our efforts and perseverance in recollecting the body,

Feelings,

Mind,

And mind-objects,

We are determined in this.

But it is the quality of ignorance that will proliferate for our minds to continually think.

So see,

This is the mind that is the slave of ignorance again.

So we need to put up a fight.

We bring up and think of butto instead,

Butto,

Dhammo,

Sangko,

Or itipiso,

108 times.

We repeat and recite the verses of chanting,

And we have mindfulness to take control over the mind,

To be able to be still.

And when it is still,

Then we also need to manage it as well.

As a lay person,

If the mind becomes too still,

It may become wary,

And won't want to do any occupation anymore,

Because it goes against our feelings.

But if we are still a lay person,

We need to earn a living,

So we have to do that first.

And doing it with mindfulness and wisdom,

Managing it so that it is in balance.

But we contemplate that this work is not really what we want to do.

What we want is the emptiness that is pure,

Which is the mind that knows and sees the dhamma.

And then we can be freed from being a slave of ignorance.

The Sammasambuddha has taught of the path,

And the arahants,

The enlightened beings,

The well-practiced monastics and lay people,

They were able to do it,

Because they had built and accumulated their barami,

Their spiritual accumulations.

So we make an effort to do it in this life.

If we can't make it in this life,

Then we'll get there next life.

We have to do it in this life to the best that we can.

When sila,

Samadhi,

Bhajna,

Morality,

Concentration and wisdom gathers together,

Then magga-samaggi,

The noble eightfold path in harmony,

Will bring up knowledge.

The mind will flip over,

And see another side.

It sees another side.

Like for some people,

We see just their goodness.

We don't see their bad qualities.

Whereas some people just see the bad in other people,

They don't see their goodness.

Just seeing one side.

Or even with ourselves,

We may see just the good in us,

And not see the bad in us.

This is an autocracy,

Taking oneself as the chief.

We just see the world as good,

But we don't see the faults and drawbacks of being born in this world.

That is,

Until it arises clearly for us to see.

Like experiencing separation from things we love,

They disappear.

And then mindfulness and wisdom arises when we experience suffering.

If we don't suffer,

Then we don't see the Dhamma.

Here we have to see that in this world we have been born into,

It has a lot of drawbacks and dangers.

It is very scary.

This body,

This life,

It walks towards aging,

Sickness and death every moment.

If we get more detailed on the level of the cells,

Then it is every cell that arises and ceases,

Arises and ceases,

Arises and ceases.

There are the new cells being produced,

And the old cells dying.

But the new cells that are produced are less and less.

The cells that are being repaired are less,

Continually.

We may not see this,

But when we do see it clearly,

It is in the body that decays every year.

Sometimes we don't meet our good friends for a long time.

We meet them after three months,

And they look like they've changed.

Or we see them after six months,

One year,

And oh,

They seem like they've changed a lot.

Their bodily formation has gotten really old.

Or for those who haven't met for many years,

Maybe they can't remember them.

So we can contemplate the fault and danger in the change of sankara,

Bodily formation,

That it is not permanent,

With no certainty to it.

We strive to have the utmost effort so that we have inner confidence that whatever happens,

When we decay and die from this life,

Our heart will be bright and go to a realm that has happiness,

That we call heaven,

Which is a temporary resting place.

So may we be born between the heavenly and human realms until we can be free from suffering.

This is taken as we have a store of spiritual goodness,

So be intent in this.

We have now gotten to the appropriate age to chant,

Meditate,

And to practice dhamma regularly.

Or if we have work,

Then when we have a day off,

We use it to come to take up the precepts and meditate.

This is searching for wealth,

For noble wealth,

Which is important.

We are not intoxicated in this world.

We indulge in sense pleasures,

But aging,

Sickness,

And death is creeping closer with each moment.

It comes and calls for its repayment constantly.

We are sick and in pain.

This is it calling for repayment.

This is not your house.

This is my house.

It keeps calling in its repayment,

Continually.

There is arm pain,

Leg pain,

Eye disease,

Or this or that disease.

It is gradually asking for it back.

It comes knocking and knocking.

So may we have mindfulness that this is not ours.

This is not ours.

It is nature's.

Because we live on and on,

And we forget this.

We think that the body is ours.

It's like we rent their house.

And the longer we stay here,

The owner doesn't ask for rent.

And so we forget.

We forget about it all.

And then,

They finally come to ask for rent.

And we realize,

Oh,

This is a house that I'm renting.

It is not my house.

If it's only after a long time,

After ten years,

That they come to ask for rent,

Then we forget.

Like this body.

If it isn't in pain and sick,

Then we forget.

It has become all ours.

And then,

Not just this,

But it is our child.

Whatever it is,

It is ours.

It is mine.

But ultimately,

We throw it away.

Whatever you long for is a danger to you.

Like Venerable Ajahn Ginnari taught Venerable Ajahn Chah.

Venerable Chah,

When you go home,

Whoever you long for,

That person will be a danger to you.

He taught very briefly,

In a Zen-like way.

And so Ajahn Chah contemplated that if we long for our parents,

Then our parents can give us suffering.

So he established mindfulness and wisdom for this and the like.

So we need to quit being a slave in our heart.

We need to be able to win against ignorance.

Quit it in actions and speech.

Make samadhi firmly established.

Have wisdom,

Which is then quitting being a slave by way of the mind.

So that we won't be slaves for numerous lifetimes and existences.

Until we can see and attain the Dhamma.

When we attain the Dhamma,

Then we will be free from being a slave of ignorance.

May you grow in blessings.