Step By Step To Liberation | 7th October 2023

One with complete perfections can see the Dhamma or realize the Dhamma. This realization arises because of merits and goodness from the past. But one who has done little good, has little wisdom and much ignorance, and this is the cause for suffering to arise.

Of the ten perfections which Lord Buddha had to accumulate to the fullest, the perfection of Dana, giving, was the first. And when the Buddha taught, he taught about giving first. Sacrificing external wealth is giving up miserliness and attachment to one’s belongings. It’s like transforming crude gains into the more refined gains of goodness and merits.

Venerable Ajahn Anan teaches us to see the importance of giving, morality and mental cultivation because it is the way to a peaceful and happy mind, step by step on the path to liberation.

Transcript

Today is the 7th of October,

2023.

May you set your hearts on listening to the Dhamma.

So we speak about the Dhamma.

The Dhamma has Kusala Dhammas and Ekusala Dhammas,

Wholesome Dhammas and Unwholesome Dhammas.

These are all Dhammas.

Dhammas of the wholesome or meritorious side bring happiness.

Dhammas of the unwholesome or demeritorious side bring suffering to the mind.

So we have to train because the nature of the mind is to chase after the various sense impressions,

Having liking or disliking,

Falling into this all the time.

So what should we do?

So in the beginning the Buddha taught to train the mind to have mindfulness,

To have sati,

This quality of recollection,

Of mindfulness,

Sampajjana,

Clear awareness.

These are important.

In order to know and see we need to have mindfulness and wisdom.

When the eye sees a form,

The various sense objects meet with their sense organ or sense door.

Why does the mind fall into liking and disliking?

Why does the mind not see that everything is impermanent,

Everything is always changing,

Stressful and not self?

Well when these experiences of sense contact arise,

Then the self,

Sense of self arises right there with it.

There's no time or no experience where the self isn't arising.

So those with merit and parami that's full and ready can understand impermanence,

Stressfulness and not-self and can see the Dhamma and at the highest level can attain to the Dhamma.

This arises from merit that's been cultivated already.

It's been made with faith and belief and effort.

This brings mindfulness,

Samadhi and wisdom to be complete and full.

Past lives are the cause,

The present life is the fruit or is the result.

So one with only a little bit of past cultivated spiritual virtues,

The wisdom won't arise.

There'll be delusion and suffering,

Delusion which causes suffering.

But it's not 100% wrong.

It's liking and disliking,

It's normal for people in the world to have that.

The Buddha taught in the beginning to have virtue,

To have giving,

To cultivate the dana parami,

The spiritual virtue of giving,

Which is one of the ten paramis that the Buddha built to completion,

To fullness,

To see the Dhamma.

So the Buddha taught generosity or dana first.

And one may ask,

Well if one only practices generosity can one realize Nibbana that way?

Is that the way to Nibbana?

Is there,

Are there other ways like that?

The Buddha taught according to different levels.

For instance,

When he taught Venerable Yassa was the son of a wealthy family,

He taught in a graduated way,

Taught step by step,

Level by level,

Starting with giving,

Generosity,

Sacrificing,

Giving on the inner level such as giving forgiveness,

Giving forgiveness,

Letting go of feelings of vengefulness or hurt,

Feeling hurt,

And giving on the outer level,

Abandoning stinginess,

Abandoning clinging to material wealth.

So normally people try to protect or store up their wealth and keep it.

But one with intelligence will change that wealth,

Will change that outer material wealth,

The things that we use,

And change it to be inner wealth in the heart,

To be merit in the heart.

Because all this material wealth we're not able to bring to the next life,

All this material wealth from this world we can't bring to the next.

So one with intelligence will change this material wealth,

This coarse wealth,

To be refined wealth,

Which is the wealth of merit and goodness in the heart.

So the fully self-awakened Buddha built spiritual virtues for a great many lifetimes,

Practiced giving and generosity for many lives.

So he knew and understood generosity.

And the Buddha taught about how to manage one's wealth.

For instance,

To take a portion of material wealth to care for one's family and relatives,

A portion for times of illness,

A portion for giving,

Making merit.

And if one gives,

Practices generosity while wanting results from that,

Then that's one who doesn't understand.

Because generosity on the deeper level,

It's for the sake of abandoning greed.

So we practice generosity all the time,

And we have a heart that's joyful and happy.

We practice virtue as well,

Sila,

That we don't want the wealth of others to belong to us.

We practice to abandon greed,

Aversion,

And delusion in ourselves.

We don't need or want the wealth,

Material possessions of others.

We don't want to harm or destroy the happiness of others.

And we maintain virtue in our hearts,

Which is,

We don't hurt the welfare of other beings.

So there's this virtue of giving,

This parami of giving,

And that gives rise to merit and goodness.

And there's generosity,

Virtue,

Mental cultivation,

Listening to Dhamma,

Chanting,

Sitting meditation.

This is a great amount of merit.

But if one only does generosity,

Then one lacks wisdom,

The mind still suffers a lot.

And one doesn't,

Or in this instance,

One just does generosity and doesn't practice virtue either.

And one who practices virtue as well,

In addition to generosity,

Has a mind of joy and happiness.

The fruit of that is happiness.

But in the end,

One comes to see that this practice of mental cultivation is important to bring the mind to joy and happiness and peace.

Because even practicing generosity and virtue,

The mind can still be chaotic and agitated.

So you need to train the mind to be peaceful in samadhi,

To sit in meditation with our kamatana.

This word kamatana,

Meaning the place of work that we need to train in.

So the merit arising from generosity and virtue,

It's not the mind in samadhi,

But generosity and virtue support the mind to not be troubled because of having virtue.

We can sit in meditation,

And if we sit in meditation without virtue,

Then we're not able to do it.

The opportunity to become peaceful is quite difficult to do.

So having virtue as our foundation,

That's something very good.

Generosity supports that.

And having practiced generosity,

When we're born,

We have the four requisites available to us of food,

Clothing,

Medicine,

Shelter.

And if we don't have the four requisites in a given lifetime,

Then it'd be difficult to meditate.

Our opportunity will be less.

We won't have the time,

Because we'll have to keep caring for our livelihood.

We won't have time left over.

So we train in our meditation object.

We practice generosity for the abandonment of defilement,

For the sake of realizing the paths and fruits of nirvana.

This is the way,

This is the path to destroying personality view,

Attachment to rites and rituals,

And skeptical doubt.

These first three fetters.

In order to do that,

One doesn't need a lot of knowledge.

One doesn't need to know a lot.

One just needs to abandon the sense of self to cut these three fetters.

One practices virtue and does the practices and principles of dhamma practice for the sake of the paths and fruits of nirvana,

Not for the sake of praise,

Not for the sake of others praising or speaking well of one.

We have this firm faith in the path of virtue,

Collectedness,

And wisdom,

Because we've seen for ourselves.

We've seen clearly.

We've seen clearly.

The eye sees a form.

We see it's just shape and color and light,

Just convention.

We see things with a name,

See material objects,

But we see all of that as just convention.

Contemplate that all of these outer things,

They're all just natural elements.

The mind that lacks knowing will be lost in clinging to these.

So the Buddha taught to make effort to abandon clinging,

Starting with generosity,

Which brings the mind joy and happiness.

We do this merit and we don't lose anything,

Because it comes back to us as a feeling in the heart.

One with wisdom will be able to do this,

Will be able to practice like this,

And will have faith as well.

This is something that the Buddha done already,

Brought generosity to the highest level,

Gave everything,

Did this for many lifetimes until the spiritual perfection of generosity was complete,

In order to realize Buddhahood,

To realize the full self-awakening.

And then in the Buddha's last life,

He gave up his palace,

His life as a prince,

Gave up the happiness of living in the palace,

Gave up his wife,

His child.

This is something not easy to do.

And the Buddha did it for us,

For all beings,

For all of us to be able to understand the Dhamma,

In order to know and see the Dhamma of the Buddha.

So we see the Buddha as the founder of the dispensation.

So for ourselves,

We have this quality of faith,

Which is not easy to come by.

We offer food,

Clothing,

Buildings,

Shelter,

Medicines,

Food and water,

Offer electricity and illumination,

These various requisites,

Electricity,

Like from solar cells.

Having solar cells,

Having electricity,

The monastery uses it for various kinds of work,

Sitting meditation,

Chanting,

Walking meditation.

In the past,

The monastery would use candles for this purpose,

But now we use electricity in order not to step on small animals,

Or not to encounter dangerous animals.

The electricity is also used for the cooking of food,

Making of food.

So this offering of electricity,

Offering of solar cells,

Has a great amount of benefit,

As I've explained.

And so doing this merit,

Doing this goodness,

And we get merit,

We get joy and happiness.

The benefit of generosity and virtue is happiness.

Just like the Buddha taught Venerable Yassa to see that having this happiness already,

And it goes even higher to the happiness of the heavenly beings,

Of the devas,

It's not difficult to achieve.

Even just a little bit of merit,

One can realize a deva state with even bigger merit than one realizes higher levels of heavenly states.

But once this merit runs out and is depleted,

One has to become,

One has to come be born as a human again,

Have the pains and pleasures,

Happiness and suffering,

Likes and dislikes,

Clinging to one's body and to others' bodies,

Clinging to wealth as me and mine.

And then in the end,

One has to discard all of it,

Throw it all away.

The body dies,

Gets eaten by viruses and bacteria,

Gets burned.

It doesn't last.

It's not stable.

We want it to last.

We want happiness that's continuous and stable.

So therefore we have to practice and strive to see the Dhamma.

We have to train.

For instance,

On today,

The Lunar Observance Day,

One may undertake the eight precepts,

The practice renunciation or nekama,

Renunciation on the outer and inner levels,

On the inner level,

Renunciation in the heart,

Not to fall into liking or anger,

To bring the mind to peace and collectedness,

To cultivate the mind.

For instance,

With the meditation word buddho,

To bring the mind to peace and stillness.

In this way,

The body and mind feels light.

This gives rise to contentedness and fullness of heart.

And one has faith in the meditation practice.

One seeks the truth.

In the end,

One is able to see the Dhamma,

Understand the Dhamma,

Abandon clinging,

Abandon the sense of self.

One is able to do that.

One's able to abandon wrong view first,

Such that there is no eighth lifetime.

This is something that lay people can do as well.

It's not difficult if one trains.

So we have this practice of generosity,

This quality of generosity that we do all the time that brings the mind joy,

Contentedness,

Happiness,

And fullness.

This practice of giving gives result in this present moment.

Fullness,

Happiness of heart.

So may you train,

Practice,

Have the effort to practice in this way,

To give rise to wisdom.

There's also the giving of Dhamma,

The giving of knowledge and information.

And then one can rejoice in the giving.

And this is more merit yet again.

And one can invite others to come practice giving with oneself to help in the practice of generosity.

If one does it alone,

Then one does gain benefit.

But if others,

If you invite others to help with the giving,

Then one receives a retinue as well.

One can do generosity by oneself,

But one doesn't get a retinue.

If one tells others about it,

Invites others,

Then one gets a retinue,

A following.

So may you train in practice,

Train the mind to see what is the mind with merit,

What is that like,

What is the mind of demerit.

So one takes care of merit and goodness,

One abandons demerit and unwholesomeness.

And in the end,

One can understand convention and liberation.

It's not difficult.

So may you strive and have effort in this to bring the mind to see clearly,

To give rise to wisdom in order to see the Dhamma.

So may you all set your hearts on this.

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