Zen, The Path Of Spontaneous Enlightenment | 19 July 2024

Ajahn Anan emphasizes that deep spiritual insight, like that achieved by the Buddha's first disciples, arises from accumulated spiritual perfections (parami), not just quick understanding. The Buddha's initial teachings, though concise, were profound because his listeners, like Venerable Koṇḍañña, had extensively practiced moral conduct (sila) and concentration (samadhi) in previous lives.

For us, achieving such rapid understanding requires building our own causes and conditions: consistent meditation, upholding precepts, and cultivating generosity. Renunciation of sensual pleasures, through practices like sitting meditation, strengthens the mind. By diligently purifying our minds—like polishing a mirror—and contemplating the teachings, we can gradually mature our parami.

This diligent effort allows wisdom to arise, enabling us to truly see and understand the Dhamma in this very life, leading to the realization of non-self (anatta) and ultimately, enlightenment.

Transcript

The Buddha gave the first sermon that we call the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.

Its meaning was easy and simple,

That whatever is of the nature to arise is all of the nature to cease.

This is speaking by way of panna,

Wisdom.

Like in the Zen tradition,

They teach by way of wisdom.

But it was here that the Sammasambuddha,

The perfectly self-awakened one,

Really taught by way of wisdom.

He taught in brief so that the Savaka disciples would take it to think about,

To ponder and reflect about at that moment.

And then the disciple could know it clearly,

Quite easily,

Because he was mature already.

In Dhamma practice,

He was one who was matured.

His samadhi concentration was mature.

It had power.

His faith was mature.

It had power.

His bala,

Spiritual powers,

Were full already.

The five bala,

The five spiritual powers,

The five spiritual faculties were full already.

The Dhamma that would make him be able to see the Dhamma and attain to the Dhamma was full already.

He had trained in it well already.

The Buddha did not need to teach of sila,

Moral conduct,

Or of practicing samadhi concentration at all.

He talked right at how to understand the problem he had,

To bring up wisdom,

And he was able to know clearly into it,

Instantly,

Right here.

And everyone wants to practice to get to knowing like this as well.

We hear about the Zen tradition and they like it because it's quick and a shortcut.

One can know and attain directly at the heart.

It goes directly against our defilements to the utmost.

But we don't know that the Dhamma arises from causes.

The reason that they could know quickly and understand quickly like that was because they had built it already.

It was because it was to be the last life of Venerable Ajna Kudanya.

Since he was a young Brahmin,

He had already trained and developed himself in samadhi.

He had been a Brahmin and kept the celibate life,

So it shows he had complete sila already.

His samadhi had been developed to the highest level already.

It was just his wisdom that was left.

He just wasn't able to see clearly yet and had to wait for the Buddha to become enlightened,

To come to teach and instruct him.

And he only needed a tiny bit of teaching and then he could know clearly.

The other four ascetics of the Pancavagya were the same.

They all had been complete in everything.

It was their last life because they had practiced it for a long time.

In their past lives,

They had built a great amount of Barami,

Spiritual accumulations built on top of Barami,

Until they could know quickly and attain quickly like that.

So we have to look at the causes and conditions first.

And we need to build our own causes and conditions,

Like how we come now developing our meditation in the monastery and at our home.

We develop our meditation and we do it every day.

This is us building up our causes and conditions first,

Until it's complete and full.

Then it may be in this life that we listen to the teachings of the Sama Sambuddha,

Like I am speaking here and I take the Dhamma of the Sama Sambuddha to talk about,

And that of the Krupa Ajahns,

The great teachers,

To tell you to follow practicing them.

And if we hear the teachings and we contemplate and practice following them,

Then we may be able to see the Dhamma.

We can know the Dhamma.

And it can be in an instant,

Arising right then and there,

But we need to build it first.

The Buddha will talk of dana,

Giving,

Of sila,

The benefits of dana,

Sila and bhavana,

Which brings happiness and ease of mind.

And talk of the drawbacks of that happiness,

To take the mind to practice to keep nekkhamma,

Renunciation of sense pleasures.

Sitting meditation is renunciation.

Training in samadhi is renunciation,

Because we aren't proliferating into thoughts and moods of liking,

Desiring and sensuality.

One who has mental strength will practice renunciation of body,

Speech and mind.

But if we haven't built up our Dhamma practice,

Then we aren't able to see the drawbacks of sensuality.

We aren't able to practice renunciation.

We have heard the Four Noble Truths,

But we haven't yet seen and known the Dhamma.

This is because our parami is not full,

It's not there yet.

But everyone wants to have their practice to be complete and get results quickly.

But if one hasn't built the causes and conditions,

Then one won't be able to get it.

But if we've built the causes and conditions already,

We can be like Yasa,

The son of a very wealthy man of Varanasi city,

Who had built the causes and conditions in the past already.

We have to contemplate that we haven't yet seen the Dhamma.

We don't know the Dhamma yet.

So we have to train and develop ourselves first.

Make our strength of mind be higher first.

Strength of mind in what?

In regards to giving dana,

We've done it regularly.

About sila,

We do it more.

And about sati,

Mindfulness and samadhi,

We have to try to do more of it.

So that the quality of wisdom arises.

Wisdom is the knowing,

The all-rounded knowing of the heap of Sankara's compounded phenomena,

According to the truth.

Knowing that rupa,

Material phenomena,

And nama,

Mental phenomena,

Isn't us or a self.

Venerable Yasa had clear understanding into this arise.

And this was when he was a layperson.

Whether we have a little or a lot of worldly knowledge,

If we have wisdom,

We can see and attain to Dhamma.

Like in the Mahayana tradition,

There was Huay Neng,

Who earned a living chopping firewood,

Because his father had died since childhood,

When he was three years old.

He heard a sutta about emptiness,

About anatta,

Not-self,

And he contemplated it and understood it clearly.

This was even being just a layperson.

And he asked the man,

Where did you learn this sutta from?

From what monastery?

So he went there to learn about it.

And he worked in the kitchen there and had the duty to cook rice,

Chop firewood,

To offer food to all the monks.

And he heard one elder monk say in summary that,

This mind,

If you have dust that comes to cling onto it,

Then you have to try to clean,

Polish,

And wipe the mirror to make it clear.

This is the mind that has defilements come in like dust,

And after contemplating,

Then it becomes clear.

Then he understood what the elder monk was talking about,

That the body is like a bodhi tree,

The mind is like a mirror,

So we have to make an effort to clean and wipe the heart constantly if defilements have come to cling to it.

So Huay Neng knew to write another summary,

That there is no bodhi tree,

There is no mind,

There is nothing for it to cling onto.

This is not-self.

This has come to the feeling of not-self.

The fifth patriarch knew that this monk had dhamma.

He was enlightened to the dhamma.

So he gave him the position of the sixth patriarch.

But these days it won't be the same like that.

There tends to be words and teachings that are said from pariyatti,

Theoretical teachings,

From thoughts and guessing,

Assuming how enlightenment of the dhamma would be like and what nibbana is like.

So we can just listen to it first,

Because it won't be like in the past era,

Where they were talking from the truth.

So why don't we see into the truth?

We do listen to it the same.

We listen to the discourse on emptiness as well.

We chant it.

We chant that rupa and nama is anatta.

We do the morning chanting every day.

Rupam aniccang,

That form is impermanent.

Rupam anatta,

Form is not-self.

Form,

Feelings,

Memories,

Mental formations,

Consciousness,

Is impermanent,

Unsatisfactory and not-self.

This is from the suttas for us to repeat and reflect on.

And so we take it to contemplate.

The Buddha said that form is impermanent.

Is that true?

Form is suffering.

Form is not us or a self.

Is that true?

We take it to contemplate.

Like in the Mahayana tradition,

They will take a thought to reflect,

Contemplate and investigate on.

And this will enlighten them to the dhamma.

We can have questions and answers and get enlightened to the dhamma.

And in reality,

The Buddha taught his first disciples.

He asked the five ascetics,

Is this form permanent or impermanent?

And feelings,

Perceptions,

Mental formations,

Consciousness,

Are they permanent?

The five ascetics answered that it is impermanent.

And then the Buddha asked,

What is impermanent?

Happiness or suffering?

The five ascetics answered that it is suffering.

That which is impermanent and is suffering,

Which has changed as its nature,

How can it be a self?

It is anatta,

Right?

Yes.

Just this much.

They listened to the dhamma,

Contemplated following it and answered.

And their minds were gathered in samadhi,

Their sila,

Samadhi and panya gathered.

They attained to becoming arahants,

Fully enlightened.

This is by answering through being questioned.

Being enlightened instantly,

The type of enlightenment that happens suddenly.

In this era,

We think of it as zen,

That it is a readiness to attain through wisdom.

Or the Buddha asked Dighanaka Brahman,

Brahman,

Why have you come here?

I've climbed up to vulture's peak because I've come to find a place where no one has died before.

Brahman,

You've died here before.

He grew weary and dispassionate.

Here he was questioned and answered on the dhamma,

What view do you hold,

Brahman?

He had to have a view.

His view was that,

What is happiness,

I like that.

What is suffering,

I don't like it.

It was all the same since in the past era of Dighanaka Brahman and the current era,

We like it like that.

And the Buddha pointed out and asked,

Aging,

Sickness and death,

Brahman,

Do you like it?

I don't like it.

What you don't like,

And when you get it,

Is that happiness or suffering.

It's suffering.

He understood that we can't just want and like only happiness.

We need to accept the truth as well.

We can't escape from the truth.

When he accepted this,

He saw the dhamma.

So what we have heard before,

We take to contemplate,

To understand it clearly.

If our bhārami is full,

Then we can see the dhamma.

And it can happen in this present moment,

When I'm giving a talk,

From me taking the dhamma of the Buddha to tell you of.

Or today there is a teaching that has impacted our hearts,

And we contemplate it and may be able to see into it.

Or one who has a lot of bhārami,

May be able to attain to a high level of dhamma,

To become enlightened as an Arahant.

It's up to whether our strength of bhārami is full or not.

If it's not full,

It means that it's still weak and not mature.

We need to mature it first.

Like a mango that is still raw,

It's not ripe.

So we need to undertake the process of ripening the mango first.

The fruit is not yet ripe,

It needs to mature first,

Until the fruit becomes ripe.

So we need to train and mature our bhārami.

Each time we do a meditation retreat is maturing our bhārami.

It is both instructing and training ourselves.

It makes our minds get better and better,

To have more wisdom.

And listening to the dhamma well will bring up mindfulness and bring up wisdom.

The mind will be bright and radiant,

And it will be merit from listening to the dhamma.

The current of the dhamma will filter out the heart.

We may be at the level that the heart is lowered,

So we need to filter it out first.

Whatever there is that has clung onto the mind and makes it murky,

Then we need to try and be diligent in cleaning and wiping the dust off first.

Because we still have a mind,

We still have defilements.

Until we get to the point that we don't have anything,

That everything is empty,

Then the defilements can't arise.

It's like we have no mind.

The mind is anattā,

Not self.

Everything is like that.

There is no suffering in the heart.

But when we're not yet at that level,

Then we need to keep trying at it.

We know first,

The body is like a Bodhi tree.

The mind is like a clean mirror.

We try to polish and clean it.

Try to listen to the dhamma.

Try to give dhāna.

Try to keep precepts.

Try to keep developing in meditation.

Until we see that the mind or heart is just a mind or heart.

It's not a person,

Being,

Self,

I,

Or other.

Here we will become enlightened to being anattā,

Not self.

So listening to the teachings and discussing the dhamma between yourselves is good.

We take the dhamma to contemplate.

It is the path that we can see and know the dhamma.

May you be patient and have effort and diligence and be determined in practicing the dhamma.

May you succeed and understand the dhamma.

May you grow in blessings.

Reviews

Thank you, Ajahn Anan. Really helpful talk. This gives much for contemplation. Wondering… if we fully experience emptiness clearly and deeply, is it ever possible to eradicate the defilements completely? Or as long as we are living are they there latently? It’s like they’re there, but they just don’t bother us anymore…

🙏🏾 2025.