Buddhist Hour
Script No. 446
Broadcast live on
3MDR 97.1FM
9 PM to 10 PM
On Friday 22 September 2006 CE 2550 Buddhist
Era
This script is
entitled:
"Lifetimes of
Learning "
Class 13 - Exploring the Perfection
of Wisdom Part 5
Tonight we will talk about how to apply wisdom to your everyday life.
The highest Buddhist wisdom is that
there is 'no permanent self' or that phenomena are empty of independent
existence. The self we know and see at this moment has come about, or is the
result of, many actions we have done at a past time - one minute ago, yesterday,
last year, last life or many lives ago.
How we are today is the result or
fruit of many causes. Causes are actions that were done by our mind (what we
thought) our speech (what we said) and our bodily actions (what we did with our
body). These three modes of actions, accumulating over life times, have given
rise to our present being. These actions are known also as 'kamma' The actions we did in the past resulted
in us having a human mind and human body this life.
Not only is this the case with ourselves, but is also the case with our outside world - the conditions we find ourselves in are also the result of our past actions.
From last week's
paper:
So if you get this, what it means is that things aren't fixed. Nothing is fixed. Things that appear to us aren't themselves any particular independent thing - everything is in our world because our kammic causes put it there. If we made the causes to grow to eight foot high there will come a time when the conditions in the world have people who grow eight foot high and we will be one of them.
By coming to understand the way we
are and the world around us, we can build a future that liberates us. This is
what the Buddha found out.
The Lord Buddha found that there was great suffering in the world- he was not talking about famine or war- he was talking about the reality that we all must suffer through sickness, old age and death. We must experience this great loss throughout our lives, whether we are rich or poor, or whichever country we are born into. This is not only true for humans, but also for animals and heavenly beings, hell beings, demi-gods and ghosts. All beings in the six realms of existence experience loss through their life and death.
The Buddha looked for and found the cause of suffering. A visitor to our Centre, the Professor Dr. Thel, said, "At that time in India, the Doctors used this type of analysis. If there is a problem there must be a cause, if there is a cause, then there must be an antidote, if one applies the antidote, it will cure the disease."
The Buddha found out that the cause of this suffering was craving, the fact that we ignorantly like and don't like things in our world. We are always wanting something and not wanting something. It happens all the time, on a very subtle level. We are not aware of it most of the time. These millions of actions of our mind then direct us to say something or do some action with our body, which then makes causes or kamma. This kamma will fruit at some later stage.
The Buddha found out that if we can stop this craving - if we can stop wanting and not wanting things, we can stop making kamma and then stop making the causes to be born. Once you have no craving to be born in any of the realms of existence you are liberated. You have found Nibbana.
Now, how to do this? How do we stop wanting and not wanting things so we can stop collecting causes for rebirth?
The Buddha found the antidote. It is called the Noble Eightfold path. The first part of the path is that we need to have the Right Thought or Right Attitude. This means always thinking that what we are experiencing is merely the result of our past actions. Stop thinking that what is happening to us is self existing, that is, that the object of the situation just comes into existence by itself. Instead we start to think that everything that is happening is because of causes that were made by ourselves at another time and we are just experiencing the results.
Think like this, "What is happening to me now is a result of past causes", instead of thinking, "I do not want this object or situation or I do want this object or situation. I like this, I do not like this."
When you recollect that what is
happening is just a resultant this is called thinking about the 'no self' or
anatta of the object or the 'emptiness' of the object or situation. When
you start thinking like this you start collecting the right sort of kamma. This
type of kamma will help you become liberated. This type of kamma stops you
craving, it stops you saying, "I like this, I do not like this." Instead you are
thinking about the truth of things.
So does this mean if we say "I like this or I don't like that" it is wrong? No, it's not wrong, it's just that our view of what's happening determines what happens next, what we do next.
'Like' and 'dislike' are very limiting in the sense that ignorance treats them like stop and go signals. For most people, "I like this" means I want more of it, I'll do more of that, I want, I want. It's just a craving thing happening. You can see it in children regularly because children are very addicted to like and dislike. Most young teenagers like to stay up late, regardless of what their responsibilities are the next day. They tend to choose short term pleasure (or likes) over whatever is a medium term consideration purely based on what they like.
Conversely they seem to have little tolerance or patience with what they don't like. So like and dislike are god but, it’s a very basic method to choose what to do and what not to do.
Being a habitual reaction there's no wisdom involved in the choices being made. If we are always deciding what to do based on like and dislike we are operating at the mercy of our feelings, not intelligence and certainly not wisdom.
Our Teacher Master John D. Hughes
used to say "feelings have an IQ of zero". People have good feelings about
things which are absolutely self destructive, like taking drugs or intoxicants,
or getting angry or driving their car at an unsafe speed. Other people have bad
feelings about doing good things. Feelings themselves are quite blind in this
regard and like and dislike are all to do with how we feel about things in our
life.
So where does our bad kamma from? It comes from making bad choices. Why do we make bad choices? In many cases we make bad choices because we operate with minds of like and dislike.
How can we dis-empower like and dislike and get above them so they don't dominate our behaviour and our choices? We do it by recognising the emptiness of feelings, the emptiness of like and dislike.
As we saw last week;
If we don't like some object we see it as inherently distasteful or obnoxious. We can't get past this personal impression of that thing, even though others may discern likeable qualities in that object, for us it has, what seems to be, inherent unpleasantness or disagreeable-ness.
But if the other person is looking at the same thing and finds it pleasant, that object can't be both things at once itself. And it can't be inherently pleasant or else everybody could only see it as being pleasant. And it can't be inherently pleasant and unpleasant at the same time either. What is happening is that we are looking at the world the way we think it is.
And now we add the words "at that moment". What is happening is that we are looking at the world the way we think it is at that moment.
We say at that moment because for example; one day you will be listening to a piece of music and be really enjoying it and yet on another day you can't wait to turn the same piece of music off.
If feelings were arising independently from their own side they would always be the same when you hear the same piece of music. But this doesn't happen because each time you are listening to the piece of music the feelings that are arising are coming from a different set of past causes.
Feelings are reflecting your past actions more than what is happening in the present. Some people listening to the music will be sad, some happy, some excited, some bored - it isn't the music, it isn't their feelings arising by themselves in response to the music either - it is that the feelings are all conditioned by past causes and therefore are completely empty. They are just fleeting momentary mental events that we are forced to experience by our past causes. The conditions in the present are just triggering certain kammas to fruit for the moment. As the conditions change other kammas are triggered to fruit.
So instead of getting hooked on feelings, instead of being intoxicated by them as if they were real in themselves, say to yourself "these feelings are coming to me from my past causes" They are unstable, unreliable and fleeting.
It doesn't mean something is good or not good just because I have pleasant or unpleasant feelings at the same time as I see the thing. Feelings come, feelings go, feeling only.
May you develop the wisdom that liberates you and all beings from suffering.
May you be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
References:
Carter, A., Carter, F., Sloman, A.
2006. Exploring the Perfection of Wisdom Part 6. Volume 15 of the series
"Lifetimes of Learning". Published by the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey)
Ltd. 33 Brooking Street, Upwey, Victoria 3158.
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