Don't Believe Everything You Think

A common expression among those who practice Insight Meditation is “don’t believe everything you think,” which points to the idea that in order for us to discover the truth – or any transformation or release from suffering in our lives - we first need to take a good look at what we’re believing, then courageously question the validity and/or benefits of these beliefs. In this talk, Shell explores the crucial practice of Investigation (or vicaya).

Transcript

So the summer I've been teaching a local workshop on the Buddhist Seven Factors of Awakening.

And this week we're on the second factor,

Which I need to confess is probably my favorite,

Which is investigation,

Or in the Pali language,

This is called vakaya.

This factor is also sometimes called analysis of qualities,

Or the factor of wise discernment.

And because it's my favorite,

I thought I would share some of the teachings on investigation on the podcast this month.

And whenever I'm teaching this particular factor of awakening,

I always feel almost obligated to refer to really famous teaching from the Pali Canon,

Which I think really exemplifies one of the main reasons I was so drawn to the Buddhist teachings in my 20s,

And why I continue to be so passionate about the practice today,

As I find myself inching closer and closer to 60 now.

This sutta,

The Kalama Sutta,

Or the Charter of Free Inquiry,

As it's often called,

Really defines for me how we are being asked to practice,

Or how we are being asked to relate to our own minds and hearts and lives.

When he was teaching about the sutta,

Actually the great Burmese monk Samatha once said this about the sutta,

He said,

The instructions of the Kalamas is justly famous for its encouragement of free inquiry.

The spirit of the sutta signifies a teaching that is exempt from fanaticism,

Bigotry,

Dogmatism,

And intolerance.

I just love that.

It's very true.

And it's actually just as true today as it was maybe 2,

600 years ago now when the Buddha first offered it.

If you're interested,

This famous sermon can be found in the Anguttara Nikaya,

Which includes several thousands of discourses ascribed to the Buddha and his chief disciples.

And it's called the Kalama Sutta because the Buddha was addressing a large community of people called the Kalamas in a town in India called Kesavutta.

So for about 45 years after his enlightenment,

Starting at age 35,

The Buddha often traveled to different towns and villages around India to offer his teachings.

And as he did,

People who had heard about this great enlightened being would gather in large crowds to hear him speak.

But as you might imagine,

Just like today,

The Buddha wasn't the only spiritual figure of his time,

And other spiritual teachers would frequently visit these towns as well.

But because of the Buddha's great reputation and the rumor that this former prince was actually now enlightened,

The Buddha's wisdom was generally very well respected.

And so as the story goes,

After the Buddha had arrived in a town of Kesavutta and a crowd had settled around him,

A man in the crowd raised his voice to ask a question.

And he said,

Venerable Sir,

There are some monks and brahmins who visit our town.

They expound and explain only their doctrines,

The doctrines of others they despise,

Revile,

And pull to pieces.

Some other monks and brahmins too,

Venerable Sir,

Come to Kesavutta.

They also expound and explain only their own doctrines,

The doctrines of others they despise,

Revile,

And pull to pieces.

Venerable Sir,

He said,

There is doubt,

There is uncertainty in us concerning them.

Which of these revered monks and brahmins spoke the truth and which falsehood?

Which of these revered monks and brahmins spoke the truth and which falsehood?

So here the Buddha is being given this great opportunity to tell an entire town full of people which teachers are giving them sage advice and which ones are just charlatans.

Instead,

He famously tells them this,

It is proper for you kalamas to doubt,

To be uncertain.

Uncertainty has arisen in you about what is doubtful.

Some kalamas do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing,

Nor upon tradition,

Nor upon rumor,

Nor upon what is in scripture,

Nor upon surmise,

Nor upon axiom,

Nor upon specious reasoning,

Nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over,

Nor upon another seeming ability,

Nor upon the consideration the monk is our teacher.

Kalamas,

When you yourselves know these things are bad,

These things are blamable,

These things are censured by the wise,

Undertaken and observed,

These things lead to harm and ill,

Abandon them.

And to help explain this a little further,

The Buddha went on to ask the crowd some questions of his own.

The Buddha asked,

What do you think kalamas,

Does greed appear in someone for their benefit or harm?

The crowd answered for their harm,

Venerable sir.

And the Buddha continued,

Kalamas,

Being given to greed and being overwhelmed and vanquished mentally by greed,

Someone takes life,

Steals,

Commits adultery,

Tells lies,

And prompts others to tell lies,

To do likewise,

Will that be for their harm and ill?

Yes,

They replied.

And what do you think kalamas,

The Buddha continued,

Does hate appear in someone for their benefit or harm?

For their harm,

Sir,

They said.

And being given to hate and being overwhelmed and vanquished mentally by hate,

This person takes life,

Steals,

Commits adultery,

And tells lies.

And this person prompts others too to do likewise.

Will that be for this person's harm and ill?

Yes,

They answered.

And so it goes with the Buddha continuing to ask the same questions about delusion,

Which as you might recall,

Is one of the three main ways that we create suffering for ourselves and others,

Along with greed and aversion.

So here,

Even in his response where he asked questions instead of just answering directly,

The Buddha is giving us an example of what I want to talk about today,

Which is the essential factor of investigation in our practice and in our lives,

And why it is such a fundamental and even defining element in our practice.

And I might even say in our world today,

Right?

This factor of investigation,

Knowing the facts for ourselves and discerning what is right and what is wrong.

About 30 years ago now,

When I first heard the sutta at Naropa University in Boulder,

Where I was studying creative writing and also Buddhism,

It prompted me to go out and buy a bumper sticker that I think was stuck onto the back of my car for about a decade.

The bumper sticker said,

Question authority,

Question authority.

And I have to admit when I first bought it,

I remember just being so pleased with myself.

I was young and female and rebelling against patriotism.

And if I'm honest against my controlling father,

I was really enjoying that.

So I assumed that the sutta simply meant to not trust what anyone told me,

But to rely on what I considered my own kind of self-righteous opinion and belief.

But after a few years of practice and training by the monks and nuns and teachers at Naropa,

I very humbly ended up buying another bumper sticker that I stuck next,

Right next to that one,

Which said,

Don't believe everything you think.

One of my very favorite Insight teachers,

Larry Rosenberg,

Who founded the Cambridge Insight Meditation Society,

Describes our practice of investigation this way.

He says,

The question is,

How do we balance internal authority with external authority?

As the Buddha says,

Just because something is ancient doesn't mean it's true.

Just because it's new doesn't mean it's true.

Just because it's in the scriptures does not mean that it's true.

Just because it seems reasonable or you like the person teaching it doesn't mean it's right.

What's left then?

Where do we turn for authority in terms of knowing how to act?

The Kalamazita,

The Buddha,

Is not saying that ancient teachings are irrelevant or that you have to reinvent the Dharma wheel every time you think.

He's not saying not to accept the guidance of teachers or not to read the scriptures.

After all,

How else are you going to find out what's criticized and praised by the wise?

No.

What he's saying is,

Do not give final authority to these teachings.

Do not give final authority to your own ideas.

You have to test the teachings and your ideas in the laboratory of your actions.

In essence,

In our practice,

We are being asked to examine very closely,

Very directly for ourselves,

What thoughts,

Beliefs,

And actions are truly leading to our own and others' happiness and which ones are ultimately leading us to suffering.

The great modern monk and teacher,

Tanisaro Bhikkhu,

Tells us this.

He says,

For all the subtlety of his teachings,

The Buddha had a simple test for measuring wisdom.

You're wise,

He said,

To the extent that you can get yourself to do things you don't like doing,

But know will result in happiness and to refrain from things you like doing,

But know will result in pain and harm.

In fact,

The Buddha himself once very famously said about his 45 years of teaching,

I teach only two things,

O disciples,

The nature of suffering and the cessation of suffering.

The nature of suffering and the cessation of suffering.

And of course,

The way we discern all of this is through the practice of investigation.

We really need this crucial factor because the truth is,

On its own,

Mindfulness does not develop wisdom.

We need to add the crucial factor of investigation for this.

And our investigation also requires our mindfulness practice because our mindfulness practice informs our investigation.

So in other words,

It shows us how we are being asked to investigate,

Which is through our bare,

Direct,

Present moment experience.

This is what this famous sutta is trying to emphasize,

That we can't truly know something unless we've actually experienced and investigated it for ourselves.

And by the way,

My husband and I just adopted two small kittens.

And if you hear one of them crying,

Please know that that's what that is.

They're just wondering where I am as I'm recording.

So a phrase I've often heard over the years that helps me with this idea is,

The Buddha loaned us his map,

But the trip is ours to take.

The Buddha loaned us his map,

But the trip is ours to take,

Which means truly no one else can walk the path for us.

Others can point the way,

But we ourselves actually need to walk it,

To feel our feet on the path and make our own way.

And at the same time,

We really do want to use our intellect in our practice and not abandon our thinking mind at the door.

We want to make a strong effort to really learn the teachings and study them and contemplate them.

So we actually do want to study the actual map,

Since if we have an idea of where we're going and a detailed map of how to get there,

We're likely going to get there more quickly than if we were just kind of wandering around on our own with only a few pointed fingers here and there.

But again,

We are being asked to not simply trust any of these directions,

Again,

Without first examining them and investigating them through our own direct experience.

And here I'm reminded of when I haven't updated my old GPS that's in my car.

So often I just kind of blindly trust it,

And it has led me into more dead ends that I'd like to admit.

But my husband actually trusts not only his own instincts,

But his past direct experience of driving around town.

And he always seems to get us there faster because he knows exactly where he's going.

To quote the Buddha again from the sutta,

Our wisdom is not acquired through quote repeated hearing tradition,

Rumor,

Scripture,

Surmise,

An axiom,

Specious reasoning,

A bias towards a notion that has been pondered over another seeming ability,

Nor upon the consideration.

The monk is our teacher.

There's actually a short phrase from the Zen tradition that I love to remember about this from Master Linji,

Which is,

If you meet the Buddha,

Kill the Buddha.

If you meet the Buddha,

Kill the Buddha.

And this is a kind of cone or puzzle that we're asked to contemplate.

And there are many different interpretations of this phrase.

In our Western understanding,

The general idea is that if we perceive the Buddha as separate from ourselves,

This is an illusion.

It's a belief that we want to quote,

Do away with,

Though of course not in a violent way.

In fact,

This practice of trusting our own direct experience was so central to the Buddha's teachings that when he was 80 and was literally on his death bed,

He was still busy reminding his Sangha members about this.

In fact,

As he was dying,

His Sangha members were all standing around him and were kind of desperate to know what they were going to do without him.

And even here in his last breaths,

The Buddha was using his time again to strenuously remind them not to get caught up in the teachings of any authority figure,

But to use the practice of investigation that he taught them to discover the truth.

This is what he told them.

He said,

Be a light unto yourself.

Be a light unto yourself.

Betake yourself to no external refuge.

Hold fast to the truth.

Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourself.

So how do we do this?

How do we practice investigation,

That second factor of awakening?

The Pala language,

A term for what we're doing is called Dhamma Vakaya or investigating dhammas,

With vakaya meaning to investigate,

Scrutinize,

Analyze.

And here the word dhamma can mean something as precise as a very particular state of body or heart of the teachings.

Or it can more broadly mean anything of significance in our lives that we're using the practice to investigate.

But before we can explore what we're examining,

I'd like to really emphasize how we want to do this.

As I mentioned,

We begin with our mindfulness practice,

Which is training us to be right here,

Right now,

With our bare present moment experience.

Again,

However it is,

However it is.

This means being with our often aching,

Difficult bodies and all the different sensations that we're experiencing.

It also means being with our hearts,

Whatever our hearts are experiencing,

As well as all our thoughts and beliefs,

Whatever we're thinking about or believing in this particular moment.

And we're also mindfully investigating this,

Even if what we're experiencing is unpleasant,

Without allowing ourselves to be dragged away from the present moment and into the dream world of our narratives and stories about whatever we're experiencing.

And if you think about it,

We can't really experience or even investigate the direct moment if we aren't actually here to experience it.

When we aren't fully present or awake,

When we're kind of asleep,

We're not going to be able to truly experience anything.

Or when maybe we're allowing our old beliefs and conditioning to cloud our present moment experience by bringing our own predetermined judgments or biases or opinions about what's happening.

So when we're investigating,

It's really important to know here that we aren't just watching or observing our experiences like we're standing at a distance from it.

We're not,

As the late great teacher Ram Dass says in his classic book,

Be Here Now,

Standing on a bridge watching ourselves go by.

The teachings are asking us to truly be in our experiences,

Fully in our bodies,

Embodied,

Experiencing and sensing them directly as they are happening.

The really helpful way to understand the practice of investigation is through a very popular mindfulness acronym called RAIN,

R-A-I-N.

And I know many of you are familiar with this.

And just to say,

We can actually use this practice of RAIN during our formal meditation as we train ourselves in it.

And we can do this right on the spot in our daily lives whenever we notice we're experiencing something that we'd like to investigate a little more.

So you might recognize the R in RAIN,

Which means recognize,

As part of our mindfulness practice,

Which is the first factor of awakening,

When we can actually stop long enough to notice or recognize that something is happening in the mind,

In the body,

In the heart.

So we use our mindfulness practice to recognize this.

So for example,

Maybe we recognize that there's something physical happening,

Or maybe there's some emotion that's arising along with the physical sensation.

And we might even notice that thoughts are also arising along with the emotion and the physical sensation.

When we can notice or recognize this,

We can then go to the second step,

Which is truly the most difficult step,

Because it involves staying with that first factor,

Our mindfulness practice,

Without jumping right into the second,

Which is investigation.

So this second important step,

Crucial step,

Is allow,

Which is the A in RAIN.

So as you might imagine,

Before we can investigate something,

And even as we're investigating,

We need to actually take a look at it.

We need to be with it and allow ourselves to feel it.

So we need to stay.

And that's the tricky part.

As you might recall,

The letter A in allow has a sharp point in it,

Which means we tend to want to jump over it because it's uncomfortable.

It's often painful to be with it,

To be on the tip of that A.

Our tendency actually is to not want to stay.

We don't like it,

So we almost immediately want to fix it or try to figure it out,

Which of course is a way of aversion.

It's not wanting.

And it has nothing to do with the investigation that the Buddha was talking about.

In practice,

Our investigation is not a kind of intellectual research project or something we might do in a therapist's office where we're sort of digging into our past or going over and over old conversations or old stories.

When we are investigating through mindfulness,

We are not psychoanalyzing anything,

Which if you think about it,

Involves going away from the present moment and is more of an attempt to not be with whatever's happening.

What we want to do instead is to have a more sustained mindfulness practice where we become more and more willing,

Again,

To just stay with whatever's happening and very intimately take a look without getting lost in the story around it or even believing the story.

And this type of looking or being with process is sometimes hard to put into words,

But I like the way Santikara Bhikkhu talks about it.

He says,

I like to think of the image of a jeweler working with precision.

You see these guys with their little monocles to which they hold up a jewel and they look at it very carefully.

They examine its color,

Texture,

Clarity,

And shape.

They examine it for flaws of various kinds.

They don't just hold it up.

They turn it around and see how it looks in the light from different angles and so on.

This whole examination is very active.

There's participation.

It's dynamic.

It's engaged.

So for instance,

Maybe we notice a feeling of anger,

Frustration.

This happens,

We can start by going right to the home of our body.

The first foundation of our mindfulness practice is our body,

This home where we experience our whole world.

So we might notice,

For instance,

Okay,

Right now everything feels kind of tight.

Like I want to explode out of my skin.

My jaw and fists feel tight.

My breathing feels maybe shallow,

Like I'm hyperventilating.

My heart seems to be pounding faster.

And maybe I'm also having a really difficult time concentrating,

Kind of scattered all over the place in the mind.

So when we're allowing like this,

We're already starting the investigation process just by noticing all these different sensations in the body,

Right?

Investigating what is manifesting in the body and staying with it,

Mostly on a kind of nonverbal level at this point.

As we continue then,

We might ask ourselves a very gentle question,

Which is,

What is this?

What is this?

Starting to allow whatever's happening in the emotion to just be,

Noticing how it's expressing itself in the body.

What is this?

We might even begin to notice that the feeling shifts and changes.

Maybe it gets more intense.

Maybe it subsides a bit.

Maybe it even changes into something else as we're paying attention.

This is the direct experience that the Buddha was pointing at.

We are staying with it,

Feeling it and investigating it for ourselves in the present moment as it is happening.

Some words I like to remember when applying investigation are words like curious,

Open and patient.

Again,

With the intention of exploring what is this?

Being open and curious and patient.

So we want to use a very light touch.

Again,

Without trying to dig too much for any answers or without trying to analyze it right away.

Just let it be.

What is this?

We can also intentionally tap into our practice of relaxing as much as possible,

Very intentionally using our practice to open up and relax the body.

So for instance,

We might take a few deep breaths in and out to just help ourselves calm the body as well as help us become more intimate with it.

We might consciously lower the shoulders,

Allow the muscles in the face to relax.

You might let the center of our palms soften so we can let go a little more of that gesture of letting go and receiving.

You can let our tummy soften.

And all of these things that we do to relax the body,

Of course,

Also relaxes the mind so that we can see more clearly.

So when we can do this and open and soften,

Often something that's been under the surface can suddenly arise and show itself.

It's really similar to when we're trying to remember where we put something in the house and we might find ourselves running around the house like crazy trying to find it,

Frantically trying to find it.

When we do that,

It just takes longer to find it,

Doesn't it?

I found that.

But if we just stop and take a breath and relax,

Oftentimes it can suddenly come to us where we put that thing or where that thing is.

Another excellent way that we can practice investigation is to remember the Buddha's teachings on dependent origination,

Which reminds us that nothing whatsoever exists independently of anything else.

And so another simple question we might ask ourselves is,

On what does this depend?

On what does this depend?

Again,

For example,

If we're feeling a sense of sadness or grief or even anger,

Shame,

Joy,

Whatever it is,

We might just gently ask,

On what does this emotion depend?

On what does this emotion depend?

When we ask ourselves that question,

It might reveal a belief,

Maybe a current belief.

Very often if we stay with it,

It might even unearth an ancient belief,

Which usually means an old belief about ourselves,

Our identities.

Then we get to investigate that belief by asking ourselves some other gentle questions,

Which might include questions like,

Is this true?

Is this true?

Or maybe is it always true?

Always true?

Or can I absolutely know that it's true?

Or maybe how do I react when I'm believing this thought?

How do I react when I'm believing this thought?

Another great question we can ask,

Which I need to confess is maybe my favorite,

Is who would I be without that thought?

Who would I be without this belief?

I think it's such a powerful question,

Mainly because this one brings us to the end in the RAIN practice,

Which is about non-attachment or non-identification with the feeling or the belief.

Even though we might be experiencing something or believing something,

We want to remember that we are not that.

We don't need to identify with it or make ourselves that.

Even though we might be having a feeling,

A passing feeling of anger or shame,

We can recognize that we are not a shameful or angry person.

It's simply a feeling or shifting energy that's passing through.

It's just an old,

Ephemeral belief passing through.

We don't need to identify with it.

We can simply rest in the end of natural awareness,

Which is simply experiencing what's happening right here in the present moment,

Knowing that this too will shift and change.

As we take this further,

We can then investigate that.

We can investigate for ourselves,

Again,

Experientially,

What are called the three truths of existence or the three characteristics of life,

Which is that all things,

All things,

Including ourselves are impermanent,

Imperfect and impersonal,

Which is anicca,

Dukkha and anatta.

And again,

We'll know these things not because some authority figure told us so,

But because we will have investigated directly for ourselves and we'll know this truth for ourselves.

As the poet Beth Ferris tells us,

Then there is the listening at the gates of the heart,

Which has been closed for so long and waiting for that mysterious inner voice to speak.

When we hear it,

We know it is the truth to which we must now surrender our lives.

When we hear it,

We know it is the truth to which we must now surrender our lives.

Namaste and blessings.

I hope you enjoyed this talk.

These talks are always offered freely so that no one is ever denied access to these teachings and your support really makes a difference.

Dhanah is an ancient Pali word meaning spontaneous generosity of heart.

If you feel inspired to offer Dhanah,

You can do so by visiting my website at www.

Mindfulvalley.

Com.

Thank you so much.

Reviews

Excellent 🌟 Your teachings are so warmly and clearly presented. Thank you 🙂

Buddhist teachings made very relatable. I listen to this talk frequently to remind myself of the basics. Very thankful for Shell Fischer