Empty of Self - Full of Peace

When Lumpur Chah went to the United States,

The first time,

A Western monk showed him and translated the Heart Sutra to Ajahn Chah.

And he said,

This is the description of the highest wisdom,

The experience of the highest wisdom.

Remember,

We are reading in that sutra today,

The very gifted monk who flew to the highest heaven realms asking,

Where do the four elements cease?

The Siddhadeva,

The Four Kings,

Saka,

Tushita Devas,

Brahma Devas couldn't answer.

And then one,

Kind and embarrassed,

Brahma Deva said,

Go back and ask the Buddha.

And he asked the Buddha,

And the Buddha said,

It's the wrong question to seek where the four elements end or cease.

What he said was what you have to seek is where they find no footing,

A consciousness which is signless.

So this is pointing to Nibbana Datu,

Nibbana element,

The purified mind.

So this,

The consciousness which is signless,

If you're experiencing a consciousness which is signless,

A place where the four elements find no footing,

Would you have eyes,

Ears,

Nose,

Tongue,

Body,

Or sense consciousness in that experience?

So when the mind,

I would assume,

Is experiencing Nibbana,

It's not attending to the sense basis in that way.

Ajahn Chah said,

The one comment that he made was that it was unfortunate that it didn't give very clear instructions about how to realize that,

The state of that particular sutta,

Although that's a condensed sutta,

I know there are much longer versions where there probably are instructions.

But the mantra at the end,

Thayathar Gathay Gathay Paragathay Parasangathay Bodhisoha,

Which is Sanskrit,

Go beyond,

Go further beyond into Bodhi.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

When I attended his commentary on this sutta,

Explained that this is the instruction about the path,

Containing that mantra,

That's the instruction.

So in Theravada,

In sutta,

We understand that we develop three kinds of wisdom,

We develop wisdom in three ways.

Listening to wisdom teachings,

Contemplating what you've listened to,

Not just contemplating like analytically considering,

Genuine contemplation.

And then through that contemplation you realize,

Yeah,

It makes sense,

His teachings make sense,

End up to good reason,

Rational,

Logical,

True.

And then the third way that we cultivate wisdom is through meditation,

Stabilizing the meditation,

Deepening those insights through meditation.

So His Holiness was saying,

That's the Gathay Gathay Paragathay,

Go,

Go further into Bodhi,

And Bodhi is wisdom.

And Buddha was enlightened through wisdom.

Ajahn Chah also talks a similar but a different description.

He says that,

First of all we hear Dhamma.

He talks about hearing Dhamma,

Seeing Dhamma,

And being Dhamma.

So this gradual training,

First of all we listen to Dhamma,

We understand it,

Makes good sense.

Intellectually we understand it,

We develop conviction.

Then through meditation we begin to see it on a deeper level,

Going in the level of insight.

And then when one actually purifies ignorance,

Delusion falls away,

Greed falls away,

Hatred falls away,

Then one is Dhamma,

Purified mind,

Seeing things in accordance with Dhamma,

Acting in accordance with Dhamma,

Teaching Dhamma.

So we have three types of ways to cultivate wisdom,

Which we're doing in this gradual training.

Tomorrow we're going to go through the Anattalakana Sutta,

Where the Buddha asks the monks to try to find a self in the five khandhas and the six sense bases.

And because those monks,

The first five monks' spiritual faculties were right in really paying close attention,

That very good samadhi,

These rishis in the Deer Park in India,

So with that very focused,

Sharp faculty,

Is when they attended in that way.

This is the middle way.

The Buddha's insight in the cave,

After practicing austerities,

Was that contemplation combined with samadhi,

Enough samadhi to contemplate in a focused and directed way,

Leads to genuine insight.

That was his discovery.

And then when he explained that to the first five bhikkhus,

And they investigated with their concentration and with their mindfulness,

Their body,

They saw that there was no self there.

In the Vajrayana,

They're trained people actually to contemplate emptiness in various ways.

In Theravada,

How Ajanananda has explained it to me,

It's through the contemplation of impermanence in particular,

And seeing that cessation,

Cessation,

Cessation,

When you really train good mindfulness in noticing,

Arising,

Staying for some time,

Ceasing,

Nirodhasanya,

Ceasing,

Ceasing.

What Ajanananda explains is when we really see the cessation very clearly,

You also see that it's not self.

So good mindfulness,

Good,

Clear,

Strong mindfulness sees impermanence.

And when it sees impermanence with more and more and more clarity,

It also recognizes that this can't be a self.

It's always changing.

There's nothing solid.

And in seeing that,

It sees dukkha.

So Tanajananananda explains that if you see any one of these three characteristics actually,

Dhāne cāṅ,

Dukkhaṅ,

Anatta,

Impermanence,

Unsatisfactoriness,

Not self,

If you see any one of them,

You also see the other two.

Because the mindfulness that sees the truth sees these three characteristics because that is the truth of conditions.

When you see one of them,

You see the other two.

And when you see all three,

The experience is of emptiness.

That's how Tanajananananda explains it,

Is that it's through clearly seeing with insight that there's a letting go.

The sense of self drops away because it's a delusion.

And you experience the empty nature of your own mind without conceiving of a self.

So you see emptiness and you experience emptiness.

So emptiness is the ultimate truth.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama also explains that there is the conventional reality.

There's the apparent world.

But the teaching on emptiness is explaining that it's not as it appears.

So there is an apparent world and it has its conventions and we live according to those conventions.

But when we contemplate,

We understand that there really isn't a self.

And I think when the mind really begins to experience these higher levels of samadhi and profound levels of insight,

It can actually not attend to the world element,

The loka datu.

I believe the Arahants can close their eyes and experience nirvana without any awareness of the world.

When they come out of that experience,

They can then radiate their loving kindness into the whole conditioned world.

With a very,

Very powerful purified mind,

With amazing boundess metta.

So coming out of the experience of attending again,

Acknowledging,

Allowing awareness to see the world element,

They can then spread their loving kindness through the world.

So gradual training,

Hearing dharma,

Hopefully beginning to see some dharma,

Eventually being able to see dharma,

Listening,

Contemplating,

And then clearly seeing,

Experiencing emptiness,

Understanding emptiness.

We use our buddho,

The one who realized emptiness,

The one who realized not self,

Lord Buddha.

He explained to us many ways to contemplate so that we ourselves will experience this for ourselves.

So we just follow the eightfold path.

Four foundations of mindfulness lead to the deathless.

Five spiritual powers lead to the deathless.

So those five bhikkhus obviously had very developed five spiritual powers.

One teaching and they realized not self.

The sermon on the fire sutta,

Lord Buddha walked back to Gaya and he taught one thousand,

I think it is,

Naked fire worshipping matted hair ascetics.

He taught them about dukkha,

That the six sense spaces are burning with greed,

Hatred,

And delusion.

Because we grasp at them and we think we are ourselves,

Then the greed and the hatred comes with that.

And he was explaining that these six sense spaces,

Eyes,

Ears,

Nose,

Tongue,

Body,

And the mind sense space are on fire with greed,

Hatred,

And delusion.

And that the sounds,

Tastes,

Forms,

Tactile sensations are on fire with births,

Aging,

Changing,

And death.

And those thousand matted hair ascetics also realized nibbana after one teaching.

So they were right.

That is the value of if one does have a certain amount of samadhi,

When you really focus in correct ways,

The delusion can be cut through very quickly.

So there are various ways to contemplate impermanence,

Various ways to contemplate not self,

Various ways to contemplate the body and the mind.

One very,

I think,

Simple and effective way is just to really notice cessation.

So that's with every breath,

These kind of retreat situations,

You notice a cessation of an in-breath.

You've got all these hours to meditate.

And notice a cessation of an out-breath.

And then there's another in-breath.

It arises,

It ceases,

It arises,

It ceases.

And whatever thoughts,

You develop a little more space and a bit more clarity and you can just see.

You can't make any one thought stay there.

It's always changing.

One monk was very angry once.

He came to see Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Chah said,

Good,

Good,

Good.

He wasn't going to make it into a bad thing.

This monk was like,

What am I going to do with my anger?

And he said,

I want you to go back to your kuti and I want you to be angry all day.

He said,

Is it great?

Go and be angry all day.

So the monk went back to his kuti and he really tried to follow his teacher's instructions and he came back and he says,

I just can't do it,

I'm not angry anymore.

So that is a very direct teaching point into the fact that even if you're really,

Really angry you can't be angry all day.

At a certain point the mind just gets tired,

Needs a break from being angry.

So that's the same with all of our mind states.

You can't be blissful all day either.

Mind states,

Wholesome mind states,

Pleasant mind states,

Neutral mind states,

Unskillful mind states,

Painful mind states,

But they're all arising and they're all ceasing and in these retreat circumstances you can just see that one's gone.

Now there's some space,

Maybe more neutral mind state.

So just noticing that and using the breath.

The breath is what gives you calm in the storm.

It's the eye in the storm.

The inner refuge,

Able to pull back from thoughts and feelings.

With regards to working with the pain in the body,

I think a really important thing is to try not to have aversion to it.

So pain is an unpleasant feeling and the aversion to it is something that we add.

First few days of meditation,

Probably a lot of meditation retreat,

Probably a lot of pain in the body.

That's normal.

So important not to make a problem out of the pain and not try to destroy it,

Not even wish it wasn't there.

It's the being mindful of it as it is.

You might find as mindfulness gets a bit clearer over the days that you can separate from the pain more and more.

Just seeing it as a feeling,

Not my pain.

It's good to work with it for a bit and then if you find it really seems to be beyond what you can work with,

Then you quietly and mindfully change postures.

Try not to add aversion and when you do,

Have a good look at that.

What's it like when you add aversion to the pain to the pain?

It's much more suffering actually.

So noticing that,

Noticing the way we add suffering to pain and noticing what it's like when we don't do that.

Okay,

There's pain and then there's not adding suffering to it.

So working with the pain,

Taking it as a teacher.

Can this pain teach me how to be really mindful?

Can it teach me to separate the pain from that which knows the pain?

And working with it as much as you can and then mindfully,

Carefully,

Careingly changing the posture and starting again.

When the pain comes up,

Working with it again.

Okay,

Here's my teacher.

Having metta for yourself through the experience,

Nourishing your efforts and rejoicing in your efforts,

It is a difficult thing to do.

Nobody says it's easy.

Cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness.

Sitting and walking and sitting and walking,

Practicing center of strength,

Going against the desire to be lazy and relax and seek comfort.

So appreciating your effort and nourishing your effort with kindness and then being interested in pain and dukkha.

The teachers and the dukkhas there,

Ajahn Chah,

I was saying earlier,

It's exactly where the dukkha arises that the dukkha ceases.

The place of practice is where the suffering is.

So when it comes up,

There's something to learn.

Something to learn how to let go of,

Something to learn from.

And then to notice when you can let go,

Notice the cessation and you see none of these things are permanent.

None of them are me.

None of them are I.

None of them are mine.

So we have a good momentum,

Many hours of sitting already.

Just going to have another 45 minute sitting now,

The last of the day.

There might be some questions to answer after that.