Why Must We Practice? | Online Retreat Feb 2024

Ajahn Anan emphasizes the importance of Dhamma practice to overcome suffering caused by delusion and attachment to self. He explains that although everything is inherently not self, our minds still cling to self-identity due to ignorance. To counter this, one must develop wisdom through the practice of morality (Sīla), concentration (Samādhi), and wisdom (Paññā), leading to insight into non-self (Anattā) and liberation from suffering.

Ajahn Anan uses metaphors like hunger and decaying buildings to illustrate the necessity of practice for achieving inner peace and understanding the transient nature of reality. He stresses the need for mindfulness and contemplation to see through the illusion of self and recognize the emptiness of all phenomena, drawing parallels with Mahayana teachings on form and emptiness. This path of practice, rooted in Buddhist ethics and meditation, guides practitioners toward awakening and the end of suffering.

Transcript

Now is the time that we listen to Dhamma,

So you can sit meditation and develop mindfulness with the listening of the Dhamma.

Don't send your mind outwards to thoughts or the different types of thoughts,

Thoughts of the past or thoughts of the future.

So this is the third day of this meditation retreat and there are those here in the monastery practicing along with those online and so we may have the question of why do we need to practice the Dhamma?

This comes to the question of when there is the khandhas,

The aggregates that we take as a self,

The rupa,

Vedana,

Sanya,

Sankara,

Vijnana,

The form,

Feelings,

Perceptions,

Mental formations,

Sense consciousness or mental and material phenomena,

Body and mind.

If this is non-self,

This is not a self,

Not a me already,

Then why must we practice?

Because it's already like that,

Because all things are already anatta,

Not self and that is true,

But it's because the mind does not yet know and does not yet see and understand clearly into this.

It hasn't yet seen the Dhamma,

It hasn't yet attained to the Dhamma,

Which means that it still has delusion,

It still has ignorance and so when there's delusion,

That means then suffering will arise.

So we must practice in order to gain wisdom and this is so that our minds won't suffer and it will know things according to the truth,

Because now when we have this delusion,

We take things as a sense of self.

What is not a self,

We take as a self and this means that we don't see according to true nature.

And so we may take an example of someone who is hungry because they haven't eaten yet,

They have this pain and suffering of hunger and they need to practice or take action in order to overcome that suffering,

That hunger.

And so once there was in the past a group of monastics from Taiwan or Korea,

They were dressed in a grey monastic robes and they came to Venerable Ajahn Chah in Wat Nongpa Pong and asked some questions and these questions they had been asking of monks in different monasteries,

The same question.

They asked firstly,

Why must we practice?

Second,

Once we practice,

What do we practice for?

How do we practice?

And what results do we gain after we practice?

And so they've been asking this question a lot and Venerable Ajahn Chah answered with wisdom that to them,

Question them back,

Why do you eat?

What do you eat for?

How do you eat?

And after you've eaten,

What result will you get?

So this is something that we need to think and contemplate about.

And so it means that we have to practice because we have suffering and we practice in order to gain freedom from suffering,

To be liberated from that suffering.

And if we practice the path of sila,

Samadhi and panya,

Morality,

Concentration,

Wisdom,

Then we are able to overcome the mental defilements and we gain nirodha,

Liberation or coolness arises.

We can see that the body and mind or rupa and nama are not a self,

They're not really us.

And then like this,

We don't have suffering arise.

And so there's an important sutta in the Mahayana tradition that talks about rupa form as emptiness and emptiness is form.

Feelings,

Perceptions,

Mental formation,

Sense consciousness are empty or emptiness and emptiness is feelings,

Perceptions,

Mental formation,

Sense consciousness.

So this is an important sutta in the tradition and it is pointing to that all things are anatta,

Not self.

So this practice of sila,

Samadhi and panya is for the mind to know,

To see into anatta,

Not self,

And then so that suffering doesn't arise.

So this practice in order to know and understand,

In order to see the dhamma,

It lies within this path of sila,

Samadhi and panya.

This wisdom is this true knowing,

It's understanding into the material and mental phenomena as being anatta,

As being non-self.

And sometimes we may be able to bring up wisdom in order to see emptiness a little.

It's a temporary arising of emptiness that we can see.

And we call this tathanga,

It's a temporary vipana or liberation.

And maybe we have experienced that,

This pure emptiness in our lives.

But it's still wisdom that's only arisen a little bit.

And so we need to further develop our samadhi concentration and mindfulness more,

Because it is this mindfulness and samadhi which will be the cause for us to gain wisdom.

And with wisdom,

Then there is the arising of insight and vimuti,

Liberation.

And this comes from us being well established in our foundations.

That is,

We have sila,

Which sila that we keep the five,

The eight precepts,

The 10,

The 227 precepts or the precepts of a nun.

We keep this firm in order to restrain over our actions and speech.

And then we practice at restraining our mind,

Because we'll notice that there's still a lot of thinking and restlessness.

The mind proliferates onwards.

And we can notice and practice when this mind contacts this arammana.

Arammana here means object.

It's the outer sense objects and the inner organs that receive these outer objects.

The outer sense objects are the forms,

The sounds,

The taste,

The odors,

The bodily sensations,

And the dhamma arammana,

Which is like the mind objects,

The objects that arise in the mind.

And so this mind is papasara,

It is radiant.

But then it becomes polluted,

If there is proliferation,

And the mind becomes defiled.

And so when we experience objects that bring up liking,

Attraction,

Then our mind is polluted of the type of being attracted or having desire.

And when there's,

When we experience objects that bring up aversion,

Disliking,

Then our mind is polluted of the type of another type of disliking or desire.

And so every time we experience this sense contact,

We call this passa.

This leads on to feelings to arise,

Then there's craving,

Attachment,

And this leads to suffering to arise.

When we have suffering,

Then this further leads on to attachment,

Craving,

And deluge,

More delusion,

Ignorance arising.

So this is the mind that was naturally radiant,

Or originally radiant,

And then it's covered over by the kilesas,

The defilements.

So then this is why we need to develop and train our minds.

We train them in this practice of sila,

Samadhi,

And panya.

And this is the one,

The one path.

And we need to walk this.

And if we do,

We are able,

Or we will be able to overcome,

Be liberated from suffering.

So we need to be determined to train our minds in this way.

We increase our knowledge,

Our wisdom,

Bit by bit,

Bit by bit,

More and more.

If we have experiences or objects that bring up attraction,

Desire,

Liking,

Or disliking,

Aversion,

Then we practice with it.

And in the beginning,

We have to be able to endure the moods and mind states that come up from it.

We don't follow those types of mind states or those objects that bring up desire or aversion.

And so we're able to look over or control our minds through making it peaceful in our actions and speech,

Which we call sila.

Then we're able to control our minds in the level of making it peaceful.

We use a meditation object,

Kamatthana,

A mental meditation repetition,

Like bhutto,

Dhammo,

Sankho.

Or we can chant,

Keep chanting a verse that we like,

A verse that brings up joy and inner fullness in the mind,

And we can use that.

And so we do this all to make the mind peaceful.

So we must make an effort in order to train our minds to have good mindfulness,

To have good samadhi.

We have to try to maintain the state of our mind when we receive and experience sense objects around us,

And we need to look after our minds.

When we have liking arise,

Moods of disliking or attraction aversion arise,

We know that.

And we contemplate these states,

Disliking and disliking,

Because the path that the mind stays away from liking and disliking,

This is the path that we will see the dhamma.

When we have liking or disliking,

Then we are deluded in samuti convention or conventional reality.

Then we have concepts and conventions such as me,

Them,

Mine,

Theirs.

We need to contemplate a lot about liking and disliking whenever these moods arise.

And we can contemplate that we,

About our own life,

That we must die.

We,

So if we must die,

Then what's the point of having this liking or disliking this attraction or aversion?

We,

Why should we attach to this concept of me and mine,

Because we must die.

And it's something that we're not able to control that we don't want to get old age,

We don't want to become sick,

And we don't want to die.

But we must experience that.

So this is the delusion that doesn't want that.

And not wanting that is going against nature.

And then suffering arises then.

But we can accept this nature,

The nature of impermanence,

Unsatisfactoriness,

And not self.

If we are truly able to accept that nature,

Then suffering doesn't arise through our wisdom.

So we must take care of our minds,

We must teach and train our minds.

Don't let it get diluted in all the sense objects,

Or the aramana,

For example,

Forms outside.

And we need to practice this onwards,

Practice it until it's well established.

And then one day,

Then the dhamma will arise,

We will be able to see the truth that all things are impermanent.

Like this hall that we're in,

We look around and we can see that it has its lifespan,

Maybe 100 years,

And then it will be completely decayed and destroyed.

This decay is happening all the time.

But we don't really see that truly.

But if we see with jhāna,

With insight,

Then we see that it isn't permanent,

That right now it's currently decaying.

And we see this with insight.

We see that it's decaying and decaying right now.

This is wisdom arising.

And we're able then to know and understand of impermanence,

About change.

And when we see this,

Then our faith will become very firm.

We see that all things then are simply conventions,

A conventional reality.

Able to see this,

Then this is when liberation arises.

This is when a freedom from suffering arises.

With this insight,

We gain rapture,

Inner bliss,

Because we understand the dhamma.

So we need to see for ourselves if our own minds are deluded or not.

We need.

.

.

Whenever our minds get deluded in conventions,

Then that's when suffering arises.

Whenever we have a sense of self,

Of me,

Arise,

Then that's when we have suffering arise.

So we need to contemplate this body and mind,

The material mental phenomena as being not me,

Not mine.

And this is what the important Mahayana Sutta talks about,

That rupa form is emptiness.

So then what is emptiness?

Emptiness is form,

Because that rupa,

That form isn't really there.

Emptiness is just emptiness.

If emptiness is form,

It's because that form is an intention that we take.

And so that rupa,

That form,

It doesn't really exist.

And this applies equally to the feelings,

The perceptions,

The mental formations and sense consciousness.

They're not really there.

It's kind of like we're in a dream.

When we're in the dream,

We think that all these things in it are very real and true and they exist.

But then we wake up and then we see that they're not really there because we were in a dream.

So our minds are in this world and we believe that these things are really true,

That they're really me and mine.

But if we see the Dhamma,

We understand the Dhamma,

Then we will know that those things don't really exist.

They're not really there.

So we need to train ourselves,

Our minds,

And whoever can train their minds well,

Then that individual will be able to make an end of all suffering.

So we need to practice.

And this is important.

So we should be determined whether we're in the monastery or online,

We have this great opportunity.

So try to firmly establish our mindfulness in the present,

Whichever posture we're in,

Whether we're sitting,

Standing,

Walking,

Lying down,

We have mindfulness.

We have mindfulness to see the state of our own minds and we can maintain our minds to be peaceful.

And like this,

We will see the Dhamma.

So may you all set your hearts on this.