Discovering and Practicing the Middle Way to Enlightenment

This is a thorough and educative talk. Starting with the Bodhisattvas practice before he discovered the Middle Way. The discovery of that Way... and the profound liberation and Enlightenment that the Bodhisattvas practice led to - full self-enlightened Buddhahood. Then Ajahn reads the Buddha's first teaching which led another to the same insight, and gives a commentary. Lastly Ajahn describes how we practice in accordance with the middle way, and according to our own level of ability in this current age.

Transcript

I'm going to go through the sermon of the turning of the wheel of Dhamma,

Dhamma Chakra Pawatana Sutta.

Usually on these retreats we chant it in Pali a few times,

But it's good to review the meaning of the Sutta so that when we chant it later on in the evening we can contemplate the meaning.

Lord Buddha explains that we grow in wisdom primarily through three means,

Listening to Dhamma or reading Dhamma,

Then deeply considering,

Contemplating those teachings and then with direct insight through meditation.

So we'll go through it.

So you call the Bodhisatta,

Those who have read the life of the Buddha.

He left the luxury of the palace,

Left his son,

His wife,

He was looking for a deathless.

He had a very interesting intuition that most people don't have without some help.

He had an intuition that because there is death there must be a deathless.

And so he set out looking for the deathless.

And Bodhisatta had this intuition,

An insight in a way,

Because there is death,

There must be a deathless.

And he saw the danger of this death,

All of us heading for death,

Looking at his wife and his child.

That's uncommon.

Most people born in the lap of luxury is very talented and very much loved by his royal father.

And he had in a worldly sense everything before him for a successful life.

But he saw aging,

Sickness and death and he became aware that none of us could avoid this.

And then he thought,

Well what kind of freedom is that?

What kind of life is that?

Where,

No matter how fortunate one is,

If one is in this realm of birth,

One is also in the realm of death.

And so he set out seeking the deathless.

It's interesting also to remember that when the Bodhisatta was first born a great sage came to look at the baby.

The king had his various Brahman ministers and various seers and so forth,

The royal family's consulting with these kinds of people.

That great elderly summoner looked at the signs on the baby and he told the king he'd be one of two things.

So palpable,

So obvious was the merit in his what they call physiognomy,

Marks and signs.

He said he'd either be a will-turning monarch,

That means a king of the world,

Ruler of the entire world,

Or a great religious leader.

So the king upon hearing that thought,

Good,

Good,

Good,

I want him to be ruler of the world.

And he actually did his best to keep him absorbed and distracted in luxury.

It's said that he didn't allow sick or old people in the palace,

Didn't want the young prince to see signs that would give rise to weariness or spiritual urgency.

But as the legend goes,

The prince got very curious and he asked his driver to take him outside of the palace walls and then he saw a sick person,

Aging person and a dead corpse.

He asked his driver,

Am I subject to this as well?

The driver answered truthfully,

Yes,

We all are.

Then he also saw a religious person.

He asked,

What's that?

That's somebody seeking for liberation.

So with his aspiration quickened,

Having seen the devadutta,

Heavenly messengers,

Aging,

Sickness,

Death,

And a monk,

The prince set out in the middle of the night alone on his quest.

He studied with two of the greatest teachers of the day,

Studied Samadhi.

So with his first teacher,

It's said that he studied the seventh jhana.

So I'm assuming that they're going through the jhanas one after another,

But that teacher was adept at the seventh jhana.

So that's referred to as the base of nothingness.

It's a very,

Very subtle absorption.

Then he realized something that once again most people wouldn't realize.

You see,

If you can absorb into that degree of Samadhi,

All of the chilesas get suppressed.

They don't get destroyed,

But they get suppressed for the purity of the Samadhi.

So most people who would have that kind of Samadhi would come out of that experience thinking that they were enlightened,

Because the mind is very radiant and there's no obvious suffering.

And also because it's so pleasant,

They would probably do it daily.

Go into the absorption day after day,

Not experiencing any of the hindrances and not experiencing any cause chilesa.

There would be a sense of self still identifying with that Samadhi on a subtle level,

But most people wouldn't have the faculties to see.

They'd be diluted by the radiance and the peace.

It's a really profound,

Boundless,

Radiant state.

But the Bodhisatta had very sharp faculties.

We were talking about the five spiritual powers.

The last three,

Sati,

Mindfulness,

Samadhi and banya.

So he had a quality of truth discerning awareness,

Discriminating wisdom.

He saw as profound as it is,

It's a condition.

Samadhi degenerates.

And so he asked that teacher,

Is this the extent of your teaching?

And the teacher explained,

Yes it was.

And then that teacher invited him to co-lead that community.

Can you imagine?

He's just turned up.

Young prince.

He's already mastered what the master had mastered.

So he offered him shared joint leadership.

The Bodhisatta respectfully said,

No,

This is not what I'm looking for.

This is also of the nature to degenerate.

As amazing as it is,

It's still subject to death.

So he had enough mindfulness and wisdom to see the amazing Samadhi state degenerating,

The mind coming back down to a more ordinary level.

So he went on to study with another very famous,

Gifted teacher,

Teaching Samadhi.

And that teacher knew up to the eighth jhana,

Base of neither perception or non-perception.

So even as a concept,

You can't quite wrap your head around that,

Perception or non-perception.

It's not sleep.

Sometimes people joke,

I'm going to go and abide in neither perception or non-perception.

It's much,

Much more profound than sleep.

More profound than the base of,

Infinite base of space.

More profound than the infinite base of consciousness.

More profound than the infinite base of nothingness.

The most subtle one.

Neither perception or non-perception.

So he had the same experience.

He realized that that Samadhi,

As profound as it is,

Subtle,

Amazing,

Radiant,

Boundless,

Must be incredibly blissful.

And even the mind after coming out of such an absorption must be very relaxed and serene and blissful.

But he saw it's a condition,

A sankara.

And he was looking for a sankatha,

The unconditioned.

He saw that it was in the realm of death.

And he was looking for amata,

The deathless.

So he decided with the most gifted teachers.

He didn't know who he could go to next.

So he went off on his own to the cave,

Dungasiri.

And then he wondered if it was through the absolute extreme of patient endurance of austerity that he might be able to crack through to the other shore,

To the deathless.

So he only allowed himself to eat a very,

Very small amount of food.

And he got so thin that it said that his stomach skin pressed against the backbone and the back skin pressed against the backbone.

His hair fell out.

Actually he wasn't going to eat anything at all.

But the devas said if you refuse to eat it all,

It will inject divine food into your skin pores.

They would not let the bodhisatta die.

He said,

Okay,

So I'll eat an absolute minimum.

And we don't know how long he did that,

But he said about this period of time,

I should note he didn't allow his mind to absorb into any samadhi states during this time.

Although he was adept at eight jhanas,

He could have entered such a state easily.

He wanted to see if painful,

Racking feelings,

Enduring to the utmost such feelings and austerity,

Would lead to an insight that liberated the mind from the realm of death.

Like I said,

We don't know how long he did it,

But he said with his very broad and wise perspective,

It is possible that other seekers in the past have suffered as much in their striving,

But he said a very profound statement,

It is impossible that any other person ever suffered more.

So we know from that,

That the bodhisatta's efforts were truly heroic,

Self-sacrificing,

Awesome,

Incredible.

At the end of a period of practicing these austerities,

He had another insight.

Clearly this isn't working.

Then he remembered there was a time as a child that he was watching the,

I think it's the first sowing of the rice,

The royal ceremony where the Brahman bulls plough the field and the king plants the first rice for an auspicious harvest.

He was sitting under the rose apple tree and he was delighting in the beautiful nature and the festivities and with gladness and joy his mind entered the first jhana under the rose apple tree.

So he was,

I think,

A young boy,

Maybe 10,

12.

So we see here,

We glimpse here the result of the bodhisatta's past cultivation of samadhi and spontaneously absorbing into a subtle samadhi state as a child.

He remembered that occasion and he realized that that kind of pleasure is not a sensual pleasure,

It's a blameless,

Subtle mental pleasure.

And he wondered if I combined a certain amount of concentration with wise reflection,

I wonder if that will be the way to the deathless.

And he realized that it was.

So this is described as the middle way,

Combining a certain amount of concentration with directed focused contemplation.

This is what uproots ignorance.

This is what allows delusion to fall away.

So he wandered down from the mountain,

He took a bath,

He had some milk rice.

The sujata offered milk rice,

A Brahmin offered him eight bundles of grass,

Set them up under the bodhi tree.

He sat under the bodhi tree and he made the resolution,

Let my blood dry up,

I am not getting up from this seat until I realize the deathless.

Having had some nourishment,

Having had his insight into the middle way approach,

He directed his mind.

He did allow his mind to absorb into the first,

Second,

Third and fourth jhanas and then back in reverse,

Third,

Second,

First and then with this very charged up,

Powerful mind he investigated past lives.

It said that he looked at fifty,

Five hundred,

A thousand,

Ten thousand,

A hundred thousand past lives.

It doesn't matter exactly how many he looked at.

The point is he saw,

He was trying to find the deathless.

So he realized the cause of death was birth.

So then he wondered and contemplated what's the cause of birth.

He saw that birth is nourished by ignorance and craving.

So when there is still craving in the mind,

Still attachment,

At the time of death,

Consciousness is thrust into a new life.

He also saw that the craving and the delusion was based upon ignorance as to the truth.

So the craving is for the sensual pleasure and the happiness that a being can experience in samsara.

But the bodhisatta saw that the pleasure was far outweighed by the danger because whatever pleasant experiences there were,

One is always separated from them.

They always degenerate and one always meets with death.

So he was contemplating,

Knowing the pleasure,

Seeing the danger,

Cultivating the escape.

So seeing delusion and ignorance,

Craving thrust beings into birth,

Seeing the arising and ceasing of life after life after life,

Scores of lives,

Hundreds of lives,

He had a very profound insight into the impermanent nature of the sankaras and the conditions that precede them.

Every condition is due to a preceding condition and that insight,

All that has the nature to arise,

Has the nature to cease.

So it's described in various ways,

Sometimes as contemplating dependent co-arising in forward and reverse,

Sometimes as reviewing the past lives and seeing the three characteristics.

Basically,

The bodhisatta through clear seeing with mindfulness and wisdom and concentration working together the eightfold path.

Ignorance fell away,

Clear knowing was what was present in the mind and with this clear knowing of conditions as they are,

The mind was liberated.

Then the Buddha wondered,

Now the Buddha wondered who he could share this approach to practice with and he thought of the teachers who had taught him the jhanas and with his by now fully functioning psychic power,

His liberated mind with all of these qualities previously cultivated all now functioning.

He saw that they'd been born in very refined Brahma realms,

They'd already passed away and they were not in a state where they could understand the teaching but then he thought of during the time that he was practicing the austerities of the cave,

There were five other summoners,

Rishis practicing with him.

When the Buddha decided to go and have a bath and have some milk rice,

Those five rishis rejected him.

This is very interesting as well.

They said,

Siddhartha is reverting to luxury.

Can you imagine?

He just had one bowl of milk rice and had a bath.

The Siddhartha is backsliding,

He's degenerating,

He's reverted to luxury.

They were appalled and disgusted.

The reason I say this is interesting is here you have the greatest bodhisatta in the universe having a correct intuition about what is correct and his closest friends are appalled and disgusted.

So the point is don't always expect those around you to support you in correct practice.

You have to use your own discriminating awareness and trust and be bold.

So then he thought,

Those five have sharp enough faculties and enough sincerity that they will realize this.

So he wandered in stages to the Deer Park.

Those five bhikkhus had walked down in the Varanasi area,

I think it's about 300 kilometers away,

And they were staying in the Deer Park.

Now,

Isipatana is the place where the rishis fall.

The word is translated and my tie to a guide that I take pilgrimages with her help,

She explained that the meaning of that word,

The place where the rishis fall,

Apparently it was a forest with deer that was set aside especially for monks and summoners and people striving to cultivate their spiritual skills.

And so people had seen these rishis flying through the air and that was the place where they'd fall.

So they were like coming home.

That was the place where the rishis fall out of the sky.

So the Buddha went there,

That's where the five bhikkhus were.

When he approached,

They said,

Don't greet him,

Don't set up a seat.

Here comes that one that reverted to luxury.

But when they saw him,

He was so radiant,

Several of them jumped up and set a seat and took his shoes and washed his feet and they did receive him very well.

Then he said,

I've got something to say,

I've got something to share with you.

At first they didn't believe him.

They said,

What could you possibly share with us?

You reverted to luxury.

He had to say it three times,

That's how stubborn they were.

But one has to respect this kind of stubbornness.

This is nekkama bhāramī,

Renunciation bhāramī.

I think the Southeast Asians and probably myself as well,

We prefer to work with dhāna bhāramī.

We make our generosity bhāramī our strength.

These guys are working on nekkama bhāramī.

So for them,

A full bowl of creamy rice was way too luxurious.

These are the kind that would only have one cloth and no shoes and sleeping on nail beds and what not.

So they have incredible spiritual resolve,

Incredible stamina,

Incredible determination and incredible conviction.

And this is interesting because these are the ones that could understand what the Buddha was about to teach them.

So he asked them,

Have I ever spoken to you in this way before?

I've realized the deathless.

No,

You haven't.

So come on,

Listen.

Okay.

So then he uttered the following discourse.

These two extremes bhikkhus should not be followed by one who has gone forth.

Sensual indulgence,

Which is low,

Coarse,

Vulgar,

Ignoble and unprofitable,

That's one.

And self-torture,

Which is painful,

Ignoble and unprofitable.

Bhikkhus,

By avoiding these two extremes,

The Tathāgata has realized the middle way,

Which gives vision and understanding,

Which leads to calm,

Penetration,

Enlightenment to nibbana.

And what bhikkhus is the middle way realized by the Tathāgata,

Which gives vision and understanding,

Which leads to calm,

Penetration,

Enlightenment to nibbana.

It is just this noble eightfold path,

Namely right view,

Right intention,

Right speech,

Right action,

Right livelihood,

Right effort,

Right mindfulness and right concentration.

Sometimes the word right is translated as skillful.

Right view,

Skillful intention,

Skillful concentration,

Etc.

Truly bhikkhus,

This middle way understood by the Tathāgata,

Produces vision,

Knowledge,

Leads to calm,

Penetration,

Enlightenment to nibbana.

And he talks about the Four Noble Truths.

This bhikkhus is a noble truth of dukkha.

Birth is dukkha.

Aging is dukkha.

Death is dukkha.

Grief,

Lamentation,

Pain,

Sorrow and despair are dukkha.

Association with the disliked is dukkha.

Separation from the liked is dukkha.

Not to get what one wants is dukkha.

In brief,

Clinging to the five khandhas is dukkha.

This bhikkhus is a noble truth of the cause of dukkha,

The craving which causes rebirth and is bound up with pleasure and lust,

Ever seeking fresh delight,

Now here,

Now there.

Namely,

Craving for sense pleasure,

Craving for existence and craving for annihilation.

Karma tanha,

The essential types of craving,

Bhava tanha,

Craving for being,

Vibhava tanha,

Craving for annihilation.

And it's also the aversion,

Craving for on one hand and craving not for on the other.

This bhikkhus is the noble truth of the cessation of dukkha,

The complete cessation,

Giving up,

Abandonment of that craving,

Complete release from that craving and complete detachment from it.

This bhikkhus is a noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of dukkha.

The noble eightfold path,

Namely right view,

Right intention,

Right speech,

Right action,

Right livelihood,

Right effort,

Right mindfulness and right concentration.

So with regards to this fact of the realization of nibbana,

It occurs through giving up and abandoning craving.

So this is why we have to keep five precepts and this is why we train in keeping eight precepts later on.

Literally starving sensuality,

Starving craving in various ways.

Practicing the metta is also pacifying the aversion energies,

The hatred energies,

Keeping those precepts strictly.

Can't harm beings,

Can't kill them,

You can't act out the aversion.

You can't act out the sexual passion outside of a safe container.

So right speech,

Right action,

This is bound up with speech and action associated with renunciation.

The Buddha is explaining one has to give up and abandon craving.

Craving is the cause of suffering.

We understand that clearly renunciation isn't so difficult anymore.

If you really get in touch with your aspiration to be completely free and experiencing unshakable peace,

You realize that that's much better than the little pleasures that one's attached to.

If you really get a deep faith and start to glimpse a truly peaceful mind which isn't oppressed by craving,

Then you'll find the energy to give up lesser pleasures because you want an profound unceasing unshakable peace.

The Buddha describes peace as the highest pleasure.

With the thought,

This is the noble truth of dukkha,

There arose in me bhikkhus vision,

Knowledge,

Insight,

Wisdom and light concerning things unknown before.

With the thought,

This is the noble truth of dukkha,

This dukkha has to be understood,

There arose in me bhikkhus vision,

Knowledge,

Insight,

Wisdom and light concerning things unknown before.

With the thought,

This is the noble truth of dukkha and this dukkha has been understood,

There arose in me bhikkhus vision,

Knowledge,

Insight,

Wisdom and light concerning things unknown before.

So each truth has three aspects.

The fact of the truth and then it has two other aspects with relationship to the noble truth of dukkha.

It has to be understood,

That's the second aspect.

The third aspect,

It has been understood.

So the Buddha has come up with a hypothesis and he has proved it.

So he is laying that out for us.

This is the truth.

When I tested it for myself,

I realized this needed to be realized.

I tested it for myself.

I accomplished that.

I understand it.

With the thought,

This is the noble truth of the cause of dukkha,

There arose in me bhikkhus vision,

Knowledge,

Insight,

Wisdom,

Light concerning things unknown before.

With the thought,

This is the noble truth of the cause of dukkha and this cause of dukkha has to be abandoned,

There arose in me bhikkhus vision,

Knowledge,

Etc.

The second aspect,

The cause of dukkha,

The fact of the cause of dukkha,

The truth of the cause of dukkha.

The second aspect,

It needs to be abandoned.

The third aspect,

With the thought this is the noble truth of the cause of dukkha,

This cause of dukkha has been abandoned.

Sathu.

With the thought this is the noble truth of the cessation of dukkha,

There arose in me vision,

Knowledge,

Insight,

Wisdom,

Light,

Concerning things unknown before,

The fact of the truth.

With the thought,

This is a noble truth and the cessation of dukkha and this cessation of dukkha has to be realized.

Third aspect,

With the thought this is a noble truth and the cessation of dukkha and this cessation of dukkha has been realized.

Sathu.

With the thought this is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of dukkha,

There arose in me vision,

Knowledge,

Insight,

Wisdom,

Light,

Concerning things unknown before.

The fact of the path.

With the thoughts,

This noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of Dukkha has to be developed.

There arose in me vision,

Etc.

The second aspect,

The third aspect.

With the thought,

This noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of Dukkha has been developed,

Fully developed.

So long because as my knowledge and vision of reality regarding these Four Noble Truths in their three phases and twelve aspects was not fully clear to me,

I did not declare to the world of spirits,

Demons and gods,

With its seekers and sages,

Celestial and human beings,

The realization of incomparable,

Perfect enlightenment.

But when because my knowledge and vision of reality regarding these Four Noble Truths in their three phases and twelve aspects was fully clear to me,

I declared to the world of spirits,

Demons and gods,

With its seekers and sages,

Celestial and human beings,

The realization of incomparable,

Perfect enlightenment.

Knowledge and vision arose,

Unshakable is my deliverance.

This is the last birth.

There will be no more renewal of being.

So those extraordinary spiritual powers that the Buddha had,

He had them as a Bodhisatta.

He saw that the Samadhi states degenerated.

Now he's found it.

He's found that which doesn't degenerate and because he has such profound mindfulness and wisdom and Samadhi,

He knows it.

Knowledge and vision arose.

He knows for himself.

The mind is liberated.

In that liberated state with his incredible spiritual faculty,

He cannot see anything which is a condition that is subject to birth and death.

So what he's experiencing it from is the mind that has attained the unconditioned.

He's realized the deathless.

Within that experience,

He can't find anything subject to death.

Now he's ready to declare it to the world with his gods,

Demons,

Kind spirits,

Seekers and sages,

Celestial and human beings.

Unshakable is my deliverance.

This is the last birth.

There will be no more renewal of being.

Thus spoke the Blessed One,

Glad at heart.

The group of five bhikkhus approved of the words of the Blessed One.

As this exposition was proceeding,

The spotless,

Immaculate vision of the Dhamma appeared to the Venerable Kondanyā and he knew,

Everything that has the nature to arise has the nature to cease.

So Anya Kondanyā has had the same insight.

Conditions,

Sankara,

Which have the nature to arise,

Have the nature to cease.

In seeing that clearly,

The unconditioned mind that knows that is revealed.

When the Blessed One had set in motion the Wheel of Dhamma,

The earthbound devas proclaimed with one voice,

The incomparable Wheel of Dhamma has been set in motion by the Blessed One in a dear sanctuary at Isipatana near Banaras.

A no seeker,

Brahman,

Celestial being,

Demon god or any other being in the world can stop it.

Now this is another aspect of the Buddha's realization is he's actually delayed his realization for hundreds of thousands of eons so that he could be the Buddha,

Setting in motion a Wheel of Dhamma that would turn for a very long time and liberate millions of beings.

So the devas are aware of this.

This Bodhisattva's great vow has now come to culmination.

He is the Buddha.

He's setting forth the Wheel of Dhamma.

And so what happened afterwards,

Of course,

Is the great disciples appear one after another with their various incredible skills.

And he gets quite the movement going there in northern India.

Two kings of the two biggest kingdoms become royal patrons.

And there literally must have been arahants in every other forest in northern India.

By the time the Buddha had finished 45 years of teaching 84,

000 Dhamma Verses,

There's some wonderful suttas where one is where he's teaching the Anapanasati Sutta in Savati and he's talking about thousands of monks and nuns attaining to paths and fruits.

And he said the most backward among that group of,

In the Jetavana Savati area at that time,

He said the most backward among them was a Sotapanna,

A stream-enterer.

So it must have been pretty amazing.

So,

Of course,

The further we get away from Lord Buddha's original turning of the Wheel,

There are less enlightened beings,

But there are still some.

And I like to remind people that monks and nuns who weren't yet Anagamis probably reborn as devas,

Hundreds of thousands of them.

So hundreds of thousands of devas who are Sotapannas,

Sakaragamis,

Probably millions who are Anagamis.

And then there were the devas who listened to teachings as devas.

There is one sutta where it's explained that Sariputta taught a large retinue of devas.

He was teaching about the stages of enlightenment from the Sotapanna path,

Stream-entry path,

Stream-entry fruit,

And the things which fall away from the mind.

People want to get enlightenment.

It's not actually,

It doesn't seem to be the way it works.

What occurs is things which obstruct enlightenment fall away.

It's more a path of relinquishment,

Which is why being generous is so central.

Dhanah,

Sīla,

Bhāvanah is why Sīla is about not doing things as much as doing things.

And the Bhāvanah,

Cultivating the wholesome states which antidotes,

Remedies,

Pacify the negative states,

Purify the mind with insight.

So,

Millions of devas who are established in paths and fruit.

So when you think of Sangha,

It's not just those of us who are wearing robes.

It's also lay people practicing rightly,

Practicing correctly.

And it's also other beings and other realms whose minds are established in correct practice.

I find that encouraging because if this human world seems to be degenerating,

The number of beings with Sīla is decreasing,

Then those of us who love virtue and love mental cultivation and who aspire to liberation need just look heavenward and feel confident that what you're doing will lead to heaven and beyond.

And that in the heaven realms there are millions of beings established in stages of enlightenment.

It's an encouraging perception,

At least I find it so.

So,

The earthbound devas said that the incomparable wheel of Dharma has been set in motion by the Blessed One.

In the Deer Sanctuary,

Near Banaras,

No seeker,

Brahman,

Celestial being,

Demon,

God or any other being in the world can stop it.

Mara tries of course.

Mara frequently appears to the Buddha and says,

You're not enlightened.

He says,

Yes I am.

Don't tell anybody.

I'm going to tell them.

Mara has to do his job.

And it's like,

Oh well,

Okay,

Wanders away,

Sad.

The devas of the Four Great Kings,

We have statues of them in front of the temple.

When you come into Chinese Mahayana temples,

The Four Great Kings are in the entrance hall and Maitreya,

The future Buddha,

He comes through those,

They're like guardians,

Protectors.

After the Four Great Kings said the same thing,

The Dvāwā-tīṃsā devas said the same thing.

So the cry of rejoicing is ascending up to the heaven realms.

After the Dvāwā-tīṃsā,

You have the Yamā devas rejoicing in the same way.

After the Yamā devas,

You have the Tushita devas.

After the Tushita devas,

The devas that delight in creating.

You have the realm of the devas who delight in the creations of others.

Having heard what the devas who delight in the creations of others said,

The Brahma gods proclaimed in one voice,

The incomparable Wheel of Dhamma has been set in motion by the Blessed One,

The dear Sanctuary,

Nisipatana,

Nirvunārās,

No seeker,

Brahman,

Celestial being,

Demon god or any other being in the world can stop it.

Thus,

In a moment,

In an instant,

A flash,

Word of the setting in motion of the Wheel of Dhamma went forth up to the Brahma world and the ten thousand fold universal system trembled and quaked and shook and the boundless sublime radiance surpassing the power of the devas appeared on earth.

Then the Blessed One made the utterance,

Truly Kondanya has understood,

Kondanya has understood.

Thus it was that the venerable Kondanya got the name,

Anya Kondanya,

Kondanya who understands.

Thus ends the discourse on setting in motion the Wheel of Dhamma.

All Buddhist traditions still existing in the world refer to these Four Noble Truths as being the foundation of the Buddhist teaching.

The Truth of Dukkha,

A noble truth,

Not something to be denied,

Not something to be avoided,

Not something to try to put a pink,

Fluffy,

Positive affirmation on top of,

Something to know according to its characteristic.

If we don't try to know it,

We won't see the causes.

So in the act of knowing Dukkha,

Have a look,

Where's the craving,

Where's the attachment,

What are you attached to in this situation that causes the suffering?

Then you'll see craving and attachment.

The Buddha explains,

It's not the case in samsara that you try to rearrange the furniture on the deck of the Titanic,

Which is what most people are trying to do.

You're trying to get it right somehow,

But the whole thing is sinking.

And so musicians are still playing the song.

It's not that bad,

You know,

We'll try to make it work somehow.

Of course it sinks,

And everyone,

Or most people are dead.

So one has to be brave and brutally honest and truthful and take responsibility.

I suffer because of my craving.

Can't really blame my husband,

Can't really blame the kids,

Can't really blame the boss.

Can't really blame the economy or the politicians.

It's because of our craving that we attach to birth and we get born into this world.

And then we like praise,

People praise us,

We feel happy,

We don't like criticism,

People criticize us,

We feel sad,

We feel angry.

That's the way our craving is working in the mind.

So in our practice we have to have a good look at craving,

As well as brutal honesty.

One has to have compassion,

So you don't scold yourself.

It's a situation that is worthy of compassion.

You see that we're suffering,

Have to have kindness for the suffering,

Have compassion for the suffering.

But we have to be truthful about the causes.

That's why the Buddha is completely unnegotiable.

It's very interesting,

Isn't it?

And I can see why sometimes people don't like Theravadan Buddhism because of the emphasis on Dukkha.

Dukkha is the first noble truth.

It's like you're coming to a doctor,

You have to talk about the illness.

And then the doctor is going to give you the prognosis and the method of treatment.

If you come to the doctor and you don't want to talk about the illness,

He's not going to know the right amount of medicine and the appropriate medicine.

So in Theravada Buddhism,

The wonderful Theravada Buddhism,

We talk about Dukkha.

Because if you don't want to know Dukkha according to its characteristic,

How are you going to see the causes?

The second noble truth,

The cause of Dukkha's craving.

The fourth noble truth,

The path.

The path of relinquishing the craving and attachment that causes the Dukkha.

So you're not going to get to number three and four without number one.

You have to be truthful about Dukkha.

You have to have a really good look at it.

You have to start taking responsibility for the way we cause it for ourselves with a great deal of compassion and kindness and patience.

But we do have to take the bitter medicine.

And the good news is in taking the Buddha medicine,

Even just beginning to see Dukkha,

You're already undoing the causes.

Because mindfulness and clear comprehension,

When it sees the craving causes the suffering,

Learns how to let go of it.

That's where the craving is relinquished.

The craving is relinquished in your mind when you have enough mindfulness and clear comprehension and stability.

In the mind,

You see the craving that causes the Dukkha and you let go of it,

Abandon it,

Relinquish it.

And then you will glimpse in periods of time.

.

.

Tanajanand talks about this,

I like to repeat it,

I think it's very useful.

He talks about temporary liberations.

So it's not the case that it's all just Dukkha and then in the end you're an Arahant or a Buddha.

It's that if you practice the Eightfold Path correctly,

You will have periods of Samadhi,

Moments of Samadhi where the five hindrances aren't present.

It's a little break.

You get to glimpse the bliss of the mind which has some concentration.

And that's an important form of nourishment.

Then if you have periods of insight,

When you see that something is causing suffering,

You see it clearly and you're able to let it go,

A sense of the mind being oppressed,

That oppression falls away.

And you do experience clarity,

Spaciousness,

Serenity,

Tranquility for a period of time and then some suffering comes back.

But we need to be nourished and encouraged by the peaceful moments and the little insights,

Understanding that the peaceful moments become deeper,

Longer periods of peacefulness and the insights become profound insights.

So that's what we're doing here,

Learning about how to cultivate the Eightfold Path,

Understanding that right mindfulness,

Right concentration,

Right contemplation,

Right thinking,

These things are leading to,

Uprooting the ignorance and the delusion that obscures the ultimate nature of your mind.

And that realizing of the deathless,

It will definitely be the outcome.

In just learning about how the conditions function,

In getting a good look at the conditions arising,

Saying for some time ceasing,

You will glimpse in moments the unconditioned part of your mind.

Because that which is seeing the conditions clearly is the unconditioned.

That which knows suffering isn't suffering.

So when you have these moments of clarity where there's a sense of peace,

Clear knowing,

No palpable suffering,

That is the part of the mind that's going to get cultivated and that's the part of the mind which is going to purify the impure mind.

Purity is born from impurity.

The place of practice is where the suffering is.

That's where we let go of the causes of suffering.

So,

We've got a good number of days to go,

Lots of things to contemplate in that Sutta.

And we'll chant it a good number of times.

And feel free to read over it on occasion.

We want to contemplate the three types of wisdom that lead to liberation.

Listening,

Reading,

Studying,

Deeply contemplating,

And then having the direct insight ourselves in our meditation cultivation.

I offer this for your reflection.

Reviews

Thank you!

The clarity of this teaching offered me a new understanding. Thank you 🙏🏼🕊😌

Did his son or wife ever feel abandon? Is this ever spoken about?

Talk to those on retreat. Very, very helpful for this beginner. I understand better concepts that confused me when I first heard them. Today it was the four noble truths. Confusing for this westerner. So different from US culture of avoiding suffering. Today. Made sense much clear. Great insight.
Listen many times. Much wisdom. Very helpful. So grateful you posted this to share. One hundred times listening and I shall still learn more. Thank you. 🙏🏽

Thank you for your teachings! It’s like getting an insiders view into the practice of middle way. Please can you do more talks going into greater detail on the practices! Sadhu sadhu sadhu 🙏🏻☸️

So grateful to have discovered your wonderfully clear and warm talks of wisdom and knowledge 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 I could listen forever.....

About the life of the Buddha and his seeking of the cessation of suffering aka Nirvana or Nibbāna. Then a Discourse on the Four Noble Truths and the Harmonious Eight Fold Path.

Very clear talk about the middle path.

Clear and kind exposition of the Buddhas path to realization, along with deep understanding of how we can understand the 4 noble truths.

Well received 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Just what was needed. So much wisdom and clarity to be gained. This is a great teaching from a great teacher. Namaste.

A timeless Dhamma talk, thank you, Ajahn. This is very beneficial to my practice.

Wonderful insight, thank you

Intense learning but managed to stay focussed. Thank you

Although I am not familiar with some of the terms used in this talk I found it very interesting and uplifting. Thank you. I listened to it during the night when I couldn't sleep as I have had a mild illness and it kept my attention for the full time.

Very good thanku i have learnt alot especially from the monk....namaste

Much information, explained beautifully

So helpful and rich - thank you for your guidance 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

Beyond grateful for this, thank you!! Your work deeply touches me!

Very informative and full of sound, practical advice as always. Much appreciated. Thank you.