Dhammapada Verse: The House

This brief talk breaks down a verse from the Dhammapada, which is said to have been spoken by the Buddha at the moment of his enlightenment. We can’t verify it, but the metaphor is of a house and captures the essence of liberation and the dismantling of ignorance.
For those of you who enjoy Sutta study, this may be of interest to you.

Transcript

So this morning I would like to break down and speak about the verse from the Dhammapada that Lily, Our guest teacher on Tuesday, Brought to you. I put the Dhammapada verse in the chat for you to follow along, But I will read it to refresh your memory. The verse is one, Verse 154 of the Dhammapada, If you're interested in that. House builder, You are seen. You will not build a house again. All the rafters are broken. The ridge pole destroyed. The mind gone to the unconstructed has reached the end of craving. So this verse is said to have been spoken by the Buddha, The moment of his enlightenment. Now we can't verify this, But this metaphor of the house captures liberation, The dismantling of ignorance, Like the proclamation of liberation. Like the first line of this Sutta, House builder, You are seen. Like what is our practice, If not seeing clearly? This points to the way we build the house, We build the walls to protect ourselves. The walls that symbolize, You know, Our desires in the world, Our ignorance that we need protection from the world. Like the mortar of those walls is described by sort of the ridge pole, The ridge pole being our ego. You know, So it says the ridge pole is destroyed, And all the rafters are broken. The rafters symbolizing our views, Our opinions, Our mental formations that cause our experience of separation and suffering. Then the Sutta goes on to say that you will not build the house again. The mind has gone to the unconstructed, Has reached the end of craving. So in the Sutta craving, Clinging has been uprooted, And suffering has come to an end. So that sounds great, Right? And there are so many aspects to the Sutta that perhaps we've experienced directly. And there are aspects that we have not experienced yet, May not experience, Or may experience in the moment of our death. We don't know, You know, We don't know how this will unfold for ourselves. I do know that I spend a lot of my time as a facilitator, A teacher on this path, And as a practitioner, Investigating and sharing teachings on clear seeing, Knowing the mind, And knowing the mind without the story, That it should be another way than it is. Like if only my neuroses were gone, Then I could dismantle the house. That's not how it goes. You know, We spend a lot of our practice getting to know the construction, Opening up the drywall, Checking out the electrical and the plumbing, Seeing how our house functions, How it is for us. And just like the Sutta says, We're not building another house. We're done with that. We're dismantling the house, But from the inside out. I like to think of this from the standpoint of like, We're gutting the house. That's what's happening in our practice. We may be inspired to to kind of take down the exterior walls at some point. But at first, We're just taking down drywall, Seeing what's there. You know, Taking out the exterior walls is more like really dismantling the ego and no longer working and being in the world so driven by egoic clinging, Which is hard. It's a practice. It's a turning. So when we stay with this metaphor of the house, The exterior walls are often the strongest. You know, They're exposed to the weather, The storm of other people, The wind, The rain, Kind of like the cries and the frustration of our entire society. So the exterior walls are, We've constructed them to buffer the pain of this world. Even if we've emptied out the interior of all of its holdings. We, We see, We're seeing that the house that we built is to protect our vulnerability. So this shell is what keeps us from experiencing the unconstructed mind. So what is the unconstructed mind? You know, On the Buddhist path, The unconstructed mind is Nibbana or Nirvana, Maybe more familiar in your vocabulary, The state that is not formed the unconstructed mind, The unconditioned, Not subject to birth and death, Free from desire, Craving, Free from aversion, Delusion. So I'm going to swing out a little bit here and assert that the unconstructed mind hasn't been experienced in this group practice. You know, Maybe you've experienced the unconstructed mind on retreat as an experience that arises and passes. Maybe you've experienced the unconstructed mind on a psychedelic journey. So a short period of time. But craving as completely uprooted? I don't think so. I could be wrong, But I don't think so. I do know that at the very heart of our practice, It's simply about knowing the state of your mind at this moment, Without judging it or evaluating it, Or trying to change it. Like knowing your emotional state in this moment, Is there joy? Is there sorrow? Is there loneliness? This is mindfulness. This is seeing the house that you built. And it's important because how we perceive and frame each moment generates our reality. The quality of your mind determines the quality of your life. So this practice that we do is rooted in the idea that true healing and transformation can only occur when we embrace our whole selves with all of the imperfections and the vulnerabilities. I want to offer another quote that's not directly attributed to this tradition, But speaks to the liberation of here and now. In this life as householders, Not monastics. You may recognize this quote. This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival, A joy, A depression, A meanness. Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, Still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, The shame, The malice, Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. This poem teaches us everything we need to know. Non-resistance, Spiritual growth, Impermanence, Radical acceptance, As the teacher Tara Brock says, Radical acceptance. Even the darkest moments of our lives can serve for the purpose of awakening. So I offer this to you house builders, For your saying. Thank you for your consideration.

Reviews

Great talk! Thank you! 🙏 💓

Inspirational!!! Thank you ❤️