MJ31 - 38 Blessings - Practicing Austerities (32 Of 39)
This is the thirty-second session of the Buddhist path of practice leading from the mundane to the transcendental based on the 38 Blessings of the Mangala Sutta. This thirty-first blessing concerns practicing austerities such as sense restraint and striving for self-improvement, as the groundwork to training the mind toward more esoteric states.
Transcript
Last time you saw me,
We looked at blessing number 30 on regular discussion of the Dharma.
With the Dharma talk today,
We'll continue in our series on Enlightened Living to the first blessing in the practice for the eradication of the defilements subsection,
That is number 31 on the practice of austerities.
So at this point in the blessings,
We have reached the penultimate subsection entitled the practice for the eradication of defilements.
This ninth group of blessings is where we are starting to put theory into practice,
Getting down to earnest spiritual striving.
Blessing group 9 consists of four blessings.
Blessing 31 on the practice of austerities involves restraining the senses and striving to burn up the defilements in the mind through the practice of gradual and intense austerities.
Then comes blessing 32 on practicing the Brahma Firing where having practiced austerity until the worst of the defilements have been uprooted,
It is necessary quickly to sow the seeds of higher virtue in the mind before the defilements can take root again,
Especially by extricating the mind from the sense desire that is the origin of decay and suffering.
Next comes blessing 33 on seeing the four noble truths,
Which means cultivating our meditation further to the point we can know and understand the reality of life in the world,
Otherwise known as attaining the body of enlightenment or Dhammakaya within.
Finally there's blessing 34 on the attainment of Nirvana,
Which means cultivating meditation beyond the four noble truths by bringing the mind to a standstill at the centre of the body of enlightenment.
The mind will then become sufficiently refined to touch upon Nirvana with the subtlest of defilements gradually falling away until none remain and Arahantship can be attained.
So within this wider context of eradication of defilements in this blessing we come to the 31st step on the staircase of Buddhist practice dealing with the practice of austerities.
An overview of the 38 blessings reveals that the 30 previous blessings can be regarded as merely a springboard for the remaining 8 blessings,
Because the final leg of the spiritual journey requires not just controlling the defilements in the mind but actually removing them completely.
Consequently this blessing is the first to deal earnestly with the defilements in the mind by advocating the practice of austerities,
Particularly on the twin themes of sensual restraint and striving in meditation as methods of removing them.
Just to backtrack slightly,
You will remember that our human being is made up of two distinct parts,
The body and the mind.
If you want to be technical you can use the word Arupa for the part that is the body and the word Nama for the mind.
Although the body may look bigger and stronger than the mind,
In fact of the two the mind has the greater influence on the quality of our lives.
The human mind can be understood as a dynamic energy condensed into a sphere which is normally about the size of the tip of your little finger.
The mind in its natural state takes the form of a clear sphere of diamond brightness.
However,
When polluted,
The sparkling mind is reduced to dullness and weakened potential.
This debilitation is caused by impurities that reside in the mind,
Known by the technical name of defilements or Kilesa in the Pali language.
Defilements are something we have already come across in many of the previous sessions including Blessings 5,
7,
16,
19,
20,
21,
24 and 27.
They are not to be confused with the defilements of action,
Known in Pali as Gamakilesa,
Which are actually just the outward manifestations of the real defilements in the mind.
This blessing is where we start to tackle these defilements at source,
As we shall see through the practice of austerities.
Defilements infect the mind in a way equivalent to how bacterial viruses cause illness by infecting the body.
We would expect the possible number of illnesses in the body to be a lot,
But in fact the number of illnesses in the mind is even greater,
And I'm not talking about mental health issues.
In the mind,
The major infections that destroy the capabilities of the mind are things like craving,
Hatred,
Benefulness,
Hunger for fame,
Sleepiness and vanity.
All these are signs that the mind is out of condition,
Even for a supposedly healthy person.
Defilements have gross and subtle forms in just the same way that trash has both gross and refined forms.
Gross rubbish is obvious enough to be picked up and put in a trash can.
Defilements also have their subtle forms which can be compared to dust.
Such defilements are so subtle that they cannot be seen with the naked eye,
And they may be like the dust that clings to a mirror,
Rendering it dull.
If you take a cloth,
You can polish away such dust so that you can see clearly in the mirror again.
Even though defilements may seem small and insignificant,
Things that are entirely in the mind,
We cannot afford to remain ignorant of the nature of the defilements or else we will have to live with the inefficiencies of the mind they inflict.
Defilements in the mind originate as the residue of ingrained bad habits.
They are the things which cause us to act on impulse rather than use our common sense.
Even though these mental taints might be considered minor,
No more than rust in the mind,
We have to try to get rid of them because they hold us back from enlightenment.
For most people,
The mental taints are so subtle that they feel like they don't really matter.
They are like tiny bacteria which can cause much more serious diseases.
Unless we have tried meditation,
It would be difficult to appreciate the dangers of these taints.
However,
When we start training the mind in earnest,
We can see that these taints cannot be ignored.
Although defilements may be small,
Abstract and hidden away in the deepest recesses of our minds,
They cannot fail to have dire effects on our everyday lives.
In individual work,
Defilements can create problems in the way we make decisions,
Especially when we succumb to bias.
When we work with others,
Defilements in the mind become even more evident when they cause interpersonal conflict between those supposed to be working as a team.
Statistically speaking,
The more we have done something in the past,
The more likely we will be to do it again in the future.
If all we have done in the past is good and virtuous things,
Then that would be our good luck.
However,
For most of us,
We have a repertoire of bad habits.
Any time we try to quit any of these habits,
We feel a lot of resistance.
Although we may not see the source of such resistance at its root,
We can know that this is the action of the defilements.
Such an understanding of the nature and the location of defilements is vital to a correct understanding of how to eradicate them.
Pre-Buddhist religion in India believes that defilements were physical aggressions located in the body.
Therefore,
They try to wash away their sins by bathing in a sacred river like the Ganges,
As in the example of Sangharatha Brahmin that we already mentioned in the purification practices of Blessing 16.
Even some ill-informed Buddhists try to find material solutions to spiritual problems.
They think that if their intended spouse is habitually bad-tempered,
They can cure the problem before their marriage by sprinkling them with holy water or taking possession of a sacred amulet.
Understanding of the nature of defilements has given rise to many strange religious rituals around the world.
People even link their heads together with a sacred thread at their marriage ceremony in the belief that it will keep them together for the rest of their lives.
Unfortunately,
They can only tie their heads together,
But they will never be able to tie their hearts and minds together for life.
The Buddha used the principle for removing defilements of fighting fire of the defilements with the fire of austerity.
So fighting fire with fire.
The purpose of austerity is directly to scotch the defilements from the mind.
If our body is ill,
Doctors have to track down the bacteria or viruses that have infected us.
In medical science,
They use all sorts of technologies to study the infections in the mind.
They use microscopes to identify the infection,
Study the properties of the infection,
And put a name to it.
For the mind,
It's the same process.
We have to identify the defilements we wish to remove,
Identify them,
And then put a name to them.
However,
There are three obstacles to the easy removal of defilements from the mind.
The first of these obstacles is that defilements are hard to see.
The problem with destroying defilements in the mind is that they are even smaller than the mind itself.
Most people cannot even see their own mind,
Let alone the defilements hidden inside it.
The second obstacle is that we take our defilements for granted.
Our mind is so used to being immersed in defilements that it's hard even to notice the effect that they are having on us.
We feel that they are a legitimate part of our personality.
It's like a person with athlete's foot who half enjoys having an itch to scratch.
The Buddha taught us that we are as used to our own defilements as a fish is used to water.
A fish out of water will surely die.
If anyone attempts to take a fish out of water,
It will struggle with all its strength to get back into the water again.
In the same way,
People are used to their defilements and will go to great lengths to preserve them.
The third and final obstacle is that the way to remove the defilements is hard to discover.
If it wasn't for the Buddha arising in the world,
We wouldn't know how to cope with the defilements in the mind.
Even though some religions know that defilements exist in the mind,
They know that the mind takes defilements for granted,
But they don't have any idea how to overcome those defilements.
They might realise they are lazy,
But they don't have any idea what to do about it.
They know they shouldn't covet others' spouses,
But they cannot get a traction of their mind.
All they think is,
Why does it have to happen to me?
What they lack are the techniques of practising austerity taught by the Buddha which are the subject of this blessing.
Another word used for practising austerity in Nepali is tapas,
Which literally means to make something hot.
It can mean to roast,
To boil,
To grill or to smoke anything that burns or heats something.
It's not the same as tapas,
Better known as a small savoury dish to be found in Spanish bars,
Although it may be a good way to help us remember the technical term.
If you can smoke out defilements,
All that be left is the unblemished mind.
Such a pure mind is wise and resistant to anger.
The process is like heating up crude ore to extract pure metal that can be used for something useful.
Such austerity should not be confused with the self-mortification or Atta-Gilamata-Nu-Yoga practices of Brahmanism that the Buddha tried for six years and rejected before he went on to middle way practices that led to his enlightenment.
Although self-mortification practices are also sometimes known as tapas,
Their objective is different,
To weaken the body to the point of feeling no more sense desire.
However,
They fall short because the moment you stop,
Like grass crushed under a stone,
It will spring up again stronger than before.
By contrast,
The Buddhist approach to tapas aims to uproot the defilements from the mind,
Rather than being a compulsory full-time job.
Such practices are designed to be voluntary and be practiced for a defined length of time,
Such as the three months of the Buddhist Lent.
The austerities of this blessing are a little different from putting temptation behind you,
Which we already looked at in Blessing 19,
Although many of the examples are quite similar.
Back in Blessing 19,
We merely refused to listen to the defilements,
But now we are removing the sound at its source.
Undergoing the heat of intense austerities is a little like sublimation they talk about in alchemy.
In the alchemist's lab,
Sublimation would be the boiling and condensation of the fermented solution to increase its purity,
The so-called white stage of alchemy.
Alchemists consider sublimation of psychic forces to be necessary in order to prevent impurities from the inflated ego or subconscious urges being taken into higher stages of practice.
Personal sublimation consists of a variety of introspective techniques that raise the content of the psyche to the highest level possible,
Freeing it from sentimentality and emotions,
Allowing a person to emerge from undesirable aspects of their former identity.
Alchemists regard sublimation as the purification of the unborn self,
Allowing the practitioner to become all that they truly should and could be.
We have time for a quick story to do with dangers for spiritual practice of failing to practice restraint of the senses.
Many aeons ago,
The Bodhisattva was born to a peace-loving hermit called Loma Kasapa.
The hermit trained himself in austerities and asceticism,
Together with pre-Buddhist meditation.
He focused his mind on objects outside the body,
And nonetheless was able to attain the external equivalent of absorptions or jhāna.
However,
His attainments in meditation were not very steadfast,
Because it's not possible to achieve a standstill of the mind while focusing outside the body,
Only a degree of fixation.
Even so,
The more he practiced meditation,
The more he managed to attain supernormal powers.
He could fly through the air at will.
At that time,
The king of heaven known as Indra,
Despite his esteemed position in the cosmos,
Was still subject to jealous defilements in his mind.
Indra observed how powerful Loma Kasapa was becoming,
And realized that before long,
A mere human would soon become more powerful than any of the angels,
Including himself.
Indra didn't want Loma Kasapa to outshine the angels,
So he looked for a way to destroy the magical powers of Loma Kasapa.
Eventually,
He found that in the city of Benares,
There was a princess so beautiful that she would be bound to tempt Loma Kasapa to abandon his exemplary practice.
Consequently,
Indra went to the king of Benares and told him that if he wanted to rule the world,
He would have to make a special animal sacrifice,
And the only person up to the task was Loma Kasapa.
Indra told the king that Loma Kasapa would be too afraid to sacrifice a live animal because it would be too obvious a way of breaking his ascetic precepts.
However,
If the king were to lure Loma Kasapa using the princess as a sort of honey trap,
Before long Loma Kasapa would comply with doing the sacrifice.
The king of Benares agreed to do the sacrifice and immediately sent his daughter to tempt the hermit.
Unfortunately,
The hermit lacked restraint of the senses.
As soon as he started to think about the beauty of the princess,
He became a slave to his latent sensual desires.
His meditational powers diminished instantly.
He could no longer fly through the air.
Now he had to walk,
And he started to follow the princess along the road back towards Benares.
It came to the day of the sacrifice,
And he was still closed in the garb of an ascetic.
He felt nothing about the fact that he was going to sacrifice a large number of animals because sensual desire had overcome him.
However,
The people of Benares complained and protested,
Questioning the conscience of an ascetic willing to do such a thing.
All the animals of the town howled and screamed at the same time.
Someone proclaimed the words,
The sun has strength,
The moon has strength,
Monks and ascetics have strength,
The ocean coast has its strength,
But none of these forms of strength can rival that of a temptress.
On this occasion,
The complaints and the sound of the animals reawakened mindfulness in Loma Casapa.
He cast away his sacrificial dagger and recovered his sense of conscience.
He was able to restrain his senses again.
As his precepts recovered their former strength,
His ability to meditate returned.
He was able to float in the air again,
And he flew up into the air and taught to all of the assembled people to learn from his mistake,
To practice restraint of the senses for themselves too,
And that the people of the world would not be enslaved by their desires.
Once Loma Casapa had given his warning,
He flew away back to the forest again,
Never to return.
To return to our subject matter for today,
There are two ways to remove defilements from the mind,
Gradually or intensively.
To look at the details of each in turn,
The gradual removal of defilements,
Which is known in Pali language as Sālekhā,
Is found in the Sālekha Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya where the Buddha taught a total of 45 defilements,
Together with the virtuous behaviours needed to gradually uproot each one of them.
The Sālekha are gradual solutions,
And this is the purpose of almost every item of dhamma in the Buddhist scriptures.
To give some examples,
If you know you are a very stingy person,
Then you can change yourself gradually by practicing generosity.
If you practice every day,
In the end the miserly tendencies will gradually disappear.
If you are a particularly hot-tempered person,
You should make sure you spread loving-kindness on a daily basis,
Before going to bed.
If you are obsessed with your own or others' appearances,
You should try to keep the eight precepts.
Giving up wearing makeup and jewellery required by eight precepts will help you to diminish your tendencies.
The power of your sensual desires will gradually be reduced.
If you are forgetful,
Then gradually train yourself in mindfulness.
For the second sort of austerities that involve the intensive removal of defilements,
These are sometimes known collectively as Dutanga practices.
This is a set of teachings which are a radical way of overcoming bad habits accumulated over the course of many years.
The Buddha categorised the root bad habits of people into four main categories,
Namely habits concerning dress,
Habits concerning food,
Habits concerning accommodation,
And habits concerning laziness.
There are thirteen different forms of austere practices,
And they address these four major categories of attachment.
Our knowledge of the thirteen austere or Dutanga practices comes from the Buddhist Vissudhimakka commentary.
In the Buddhist tradition,
Often the word Dutanga is associated with Dutanga walks,
Wandering monks,
Or pilgrimages,
Where monks are seen together or singly,
Walking with a rolled-up umbrella over one's shoulder and carrying their minimal possessions in a shoulder bag.
However,
The actual walking part is not actually one of the austere practices,
Although this wandering lifestyle gives the opportunity to practice some of the thirteen austerities included in Dutanga practice.
I should say from the outset that most of these practices are only suited for monastic practice,
Although some of them can be adapted,
At least in principle,
To make them suitable for laypeople,
Something I'll come back to later.
As I've said,
They are designed to deal with the removal of defilements in the mind that lead to attachment to clothes,
Appetite,
Comfortable shelter,
Or laziness.
There are two forms of austere practice designed to help monks overcome the habit of being fussy about clothes.
Monks are very limited in their choice of clothing anyway because they can only wear the prescribed robes.
Even so,
Some monks may be attached to new robes or robes that are made from high-quality fabric.
The first austere practice to do with overcoming attachment to clothes is the rag-robe wearer's practice or in Pali language,
Bangsakuli kankha.
Monks practicing this sort of austerity may wear only robes made from rags or those retrieved from a dust heap or a charnel ground.
Let's suppose it's the monk's slightly more extreme equivalent of choosing to wear only second-hand clothes or reject fast fashion.
It doesn't,
Like some religions,
Go as far as tormenting yourself by wearing a hair shirt.
The second austere practice to do with overcoming attachment to clothes is the triple-robe wearer's practice or in Pali,
Tejivari kankha.
Usually,
Monks are allowed only three items of clothes,
That is,
The upper robe,
The outer robe and the waistcloth.
These three robes are supposed to be adequate to keep monks warm even in the coldest of climates.
In later times,
However,
There have been concessions to allow monks to have additional accessory cloths such as belts and a vest to absorb sweat in hot climates.
Also,
Monks are usually allowed to have a change of clothes to allow one set to be washed while the other is being worn.
However,
If the monk practices dutanga,
Only the three robes are allowed.
This practice puts an end to monks' choosiness about their clothes.
In addition,
They would have to be extra careful about keeping their clothes clean and in good repair,
Giving them extra training in mindfulness.
For laypeople,
It is perhaps equivalent to reducing yourself to a basic wardrobe of multipurpose clothes,
The so-called capsule wardrobe or minimalist closet.
According to Jay Shetty in his book,
Think Like a Monk,
Many public figures,
Such as the late Steve Jobs,
Barack Obama,
And Arianna Huffington,
Have been known to adopt their own basic uniforms in order to reduce energy and time spent dressing each day.
Next,
We come to five practices to help monks control their appetite.
It would be hard for a monk to progress in their meditation if they cannot control their eating habits.
If they eat too much,
They will get sleepy.
The Buddha wanted to discourage monks from being slaves to their appetites.
Even without following dutanga practice,
Monks effectively practice intermittent fasting every day because they are not allowed to eat between midday and dawn,
Even if food is available.
Accordingly,
There are several ways in which monks can train themselves to control their appetite.
The first austere practice to do with appetite control is the alms food eaters' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Binda bati kankha.
For this practice,
A monk must eat only food that has been received on alms round.
If anyone offers food to a monk on a plate or in a restaurant,
The monk cannot accept it.
The monk accepts only as much as is given.
If anyone makes something especially for the monk,
Then they cannot accept it.
And similarly,
They must turn down better food offered when the bowl is already full.
The second austere practice to do with appetite control is the house-to-house seekers' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Sapadana chari kankha.
For this practice,
The monk is only allowed to go for alms round along prescribed routes.
The monk may not go on alms round to places where they think they might obtain better food.
The monk may not just go down a street where they know plenty of wealthy people live who might donate delicacies.
The third austere practice to do with appetite control is the one meal eaters' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Eka sani kankha.
If householders haven't had enough for their breakfast,
They can always make up for it at lunchtime.
If they haven't had enough for their lunch,
They can always make up for it with an extra large evening meal.
They might eat so much that they have to take a siesta.
For monks,
However,
With only two meals a day,
They have to train themselves to be content with whatever they receive.
Even so,
On two meals a day,
Some monks still cannot help but be interested in food,
And may overeat,
Becoming sleepy as a result.
This is why some monks prefer to restrict themselves to only one meal per day.
The fourth austere practice to do with appetite control is the bowl eaters' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Patapinti kankha.
This practice entails the monk eating all their food mixed up together.
This is particularly suitable for those addicted to tasty food.
When put together in a single bowl,
All the food will be mixed up,
So no matter whether it be rice,
Cocoa powder,
Or fish soup,
By the time the fourth or fifth random item of food is added to the bowl,
The contents will resemble a dog's dinner.
If a monk can build up a tolerance for eating of food in this way,
It will help him reflect on what the true purpose of eating is,
Namely,
To give the strength to carry on doing good deeds rather than being a gourmet indulgence.
The fifth austere practice to do with appetite control is the late-serving refusers' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Galupacca patikankha.
This practice is when a monk will not accept further helpings of food after they have already started eating.
Then come five practices to help monks overcome attachment to plush accommodation.
The first austere practice to do with reducing attachment to luxury accommodation is the forest dwellers' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Aranyi kankha.
This is why the classic dutanga accommodation is an umbrella with a mosquito net and nothing more.
This practice entails living only in shelters or tents in the forest rather than sleeping in a building.
The second austere practice to do with reducing attachment to luxury accommodation is the tree root dwellers' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Rukka muli kankha.
This practice entails living only in a forest at the roots of trees without even a shelter or a tent.
The third austere practice to do with reducing attachment to luxury accommodation is the open-air dwellers' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Apokasi kankha.
This practice entails living out in the open,
Not even sheltering under a tree.
It serves radically to reduce the monk's attachment to comfort,
Luxury,
Or sense desire.
The fourth austere practice to do with reducing attachment to luxury accommodation is the charnel ground dwellers' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Sothsani kankha.
This practice entails living only in a graveyard where corpses have been laid to rest without coffins.
The sound of mice running out of corpses,
Or the sound of vapours escaping from cadavers as they dry out,
Will soon put paid to any sexual urges or delusions of grandeur the practitioner may have had,
And help them to put their life in perspective.
The fifth austere practice to do with reducing attachment to luxury accommodation is the any-bed users' practice,
Or in Pali language,
Yatthasanthati kankha.
This practice entails accepting accommodation wherever this has been allocated by the host.
Even those staying on a campsite can sometimes get choosy about where they pitch,
Staying near the kitchen if they like the smell of food,
Or near the facilities if they think they can be first in line for the showers.
If someone has gotten extremely choosy,
Then maybe they need to try staying out in the open air instead.
Finally,
We come to a practice for helping monks overcome laziness.
The austere practice to do with reducing laziness is known as the sitter's practice,
Or in Pali,
Nesaci kankha.
This practice entails avoiding lying down.
Usually monks adopt austere practices to help them meditate better.
If the monk is following the sitter's practice,
They must restrict themselves to standing,
Walking or sitting down,
While never lying down or letting their back touch the ground.
In the time of the Buddha,
Some monks would keep this austere practice for the duration of the rainy season.
Generally,
Although it may sound very macho and something to be aspired to,
It only works well if a meditator has already gained a high level of advancement in meditation,
And it's only really useful if a person can meditate well enough to overcome their own sleepiness.
Traditionally,
The any-better-of practice is the only one recommended for laypeople.
You'll come across it on some retreats where you declare se na san na lo lo pang,
Pati ki pa mi,
Ya ta san ta di kang kang,
Samadhi ya mi three times,
Which translates as,
Willing are we to accept Dutanga training as our way of life,
Happy to make our bed wherever our hosts provide.
These verses will be declared at the beginning of a retreat,
Along with taking eight precepts.
Nonetheless,
For lay practitioners who are up to it,
The all-night meditation or the sitters' practice is also possible.
In our Dhammakaya tradition,
We practice it annually on the anniversary of the great abbot of Wat Phra Naam,
Rediscovering Dhammakaya.
In general,
Austerities are practiced in a gradual way,
But for intense practice of austerities,
It's advisable to practice under defined circumstances such as a Dutanga retreat.
In other words,
You practice it for a specified length of time.
Furthermore,
To practice austerities successfully,
You need to lay down the groundwork first of all,
By making sure you have seven prerequisite virtues.
The first of these is that you need to have patience,
In all the ways we have already seen in Blessing 27.
Secondly,
You need to keep the precepts strictly,
According to the level of commitment that you've chosen.
If you are a householder,
Five precepts should be upgraded to eight precepts.
If you are a novice,
Then you should try to keep the ten precepts strictly.
If you are a monk,
You need to keep the monk's 227 precepts strictly.
Thirdly,
We need to practice Uposathakamma,
Which means that you need to revise your precepts regularly,
In the same way that monks attend the Patimokkha recitation ceremony every two weeks.
Fourthly,
You need to study the teachings of the Buddha.
We would need to alternate our monastic duties with the learning and memorising of the scriptures,
Hearing the Dharma,
Sermons or readings,
And daily chanting.
Fifthly,
We would need to commit to as many of the austere practices as we can.
Healthy people might keep all 13 of the Dutanga rules at once,
But it is more normal just to keep two or three of the rules at a time.
Sixthly,
We need to have restraint of the senses.
Seventh and last,
We need to strive for self-improvement.
And you'll notice that of these seven virtues,
The first five have already been discussed in the preceding Blessings.
For a Buddhist householder who must hold down a job,
Some of the Dutanga practices will not be at all compatible with their daily routine.
However,
Sometimes householders can seek out opportunities to pursue austerities on an occasional basis,
Perhaps during free weekends or the long summer vacation.
More relevant to lay practice are the twin trainings,
Six and seven on the slide,
Of restraint of the senses and striving for self-improvement,
Which can be readily adapted to our personal circumstances.
So,
Let's look at each in turn.
Concerning restraint of the senses,
Buddhists consider there to be six rather than five senses that need to be tamed.
They are like six entrances or doorways to the mind and comprise our eyes,
Ears,
Sense of smell,
Taste buds,
Skin and the intra-receptive capacity of our mind.
Supposing there is a walled city with six gates.
If ever the sentries are caught unawares,
Robbers or attackers could invade the city by any of the six entrances,
Subsequently wreaking havoc inside.
The sense doors of the mind are comparable to those city gates.
If our mindfulness is ever caught unawares,
Damaging sensory information can find its way into our mind.
If such damaging things can gain entry to the mind,
They will stir up the emotions causing the affirmations already there to manifest in a bad way.
You will remember how the sense doors of the mind have been compared unflatteringly to lowly animals.
The eyes have been compared to a snake because they have a tendency to always look at secret things.
The ears have been compared to a crocodile because just as a crocodile loves cool water,
The ears have always tempted to hear the flattery and flowery speech of others.
The nose has been compared to a caged bird because it jumps about,
Never resting from its obsession to find the source of any pleasant aroma it detects.
The tongue has been compared to a mad dog frothing at the mouth because,
If it ever has a free moment,
It fills its time by gossiping about the neighbours.
Meanwhile,
The body has been compared to a lazy fox which is always looking for a comfortable place to rest or to take the weight of its feet.
The mind has been compared to a monkey because it never stays still,
But thus finds something to think about the whole of the time.
Even if you try to train the mind to think continuously of a crystal ball or a shining sun,
It will prefer to daydream about anything else.
The sense doors,
And in Pali they use the word Indriya for these,
Are not praised because,
For the most part,
They are no better than slaves to the defilements in our minds.
Meditators are encouraged to practice restraint,
And Pali language uses the word Sambhara.
The senses bind non-attachment to the source of the sensations,
In whole or in part.
When we receive images through the eyes,
Sounds through our ears,
Smells through our nose,
Tastes through our taste buds,
Sensations through our skin or inner experience through the mind,
We must not become attached to the entirety of the source,
Which in Pali language is known as the nimitta of those senses,
In a positive or a negative way.
If we see a fashion model,
We must not react with the thought,
How beautiful they are.
If we see someone who is ugly,
We should not act with revulsion.
If we are caught unawares,
Entertaining such a thought,
Defilements latent in the mind will be stirred up and get out of hand.
Similarly,
We should be careful to practice non-attachment even towards parts of tempting sense objects,
And Pali uses the word Anupayanchanat for these.
You might see an attractive woman and think to yourself,
Overall this woman is not very attractive,
But look at the curve of her lips and the twinkle of her eyes.
Non-attachments to parts of an object can lead us to make serious miscalculations.
Someone may know that such and such a character is completely flawed and all their habits are despicable,
But because their gaze is so mesmerising,
They fall for them despite their better judgement.
Similarly,
We should be aware that just as partial exposure to an object can cause infatuation,
It can also bring irritation or anger.
It's all very well knowing the advantages of sense restraint,
But what if you find yourself surrounded by distractions that are driving you crazy?
The Buddha advocated the development of conscience,
As we have already seen in Blessing 19,
By bringing to mind the possibility of what may happen to us if we make a mistake with our senses.
The Buddha taught in the Anglo-Journiquist Iri Sutta that training ourselves in conscience will lead eventually to sensual restraint in the same way that,
If the hardwood of a tree is not rotten,
It will protect the bark and branches from rot as well.
When looking at people,
We need to train ourselves to focus on their generally admirable qualities,
Ones that go beyond sensual appearances,
And ones that we might learn from.
We don't go looking for the physical beauty of others,
Or any other superficial quality.
If you keep on training yourself in this way,
Your sensual restraint will become more resilient,
Allowing you to upgrade the level of your precepts.
You'll be able to successively upgrade from imperfectly kept 5 precepts to intact 5 precepts,
To imperfectly kept 8 precepts to intact 8 precepts,
Through gradual improvements in your level of sense restraint.
Your precepts will fall into place almost automatically.
Once our precepts are properly kept,
Right concentration,
Or Samasamadhi,
Will arise of its own accord.
If you find in the present day that your meditation doesn't seem to be making much progress,
Then scrutinize the purity of your own precepts.
If the purity of your precepts leave something to be desired,
Then pay more attention to the restraint of the sense doors,
Especially if you find yourself daydreaming about sensually tempting images while meditating.
Such images would indicate that your restraint of the senses needs improvement.
If you can develop sufficient restraint of your senses,
Your precepts will be pure,
Meditation will arise,
And brightness will arise,
Inside to the degree that you will start to see the mind and its balance in the mind,
So that you can start work directly on the purification of the mind by the quality of seeing things as they really are,
Or as it's known in the Pali language,
Yathabhuta-yanadasana.
You will be doing the equivalent of what a lab technician does when they identify the vectors of illness in the body with their microscope,
Starting at first with only lenses of low power,
But gradually acquiring medium power,
High power,
Oil emulsion,
And eventually an electron microscope,
Until the vectors of disease have nowhere left to hide and can be uprooted.
In the same way,
As the subtlety of our concentration increases,
It will give way to dispassion with sensuality,
Known in Pali as Nibbitha,
Release,
Or in Pali language,
Viraka,
And eventually the seeing and knowing of liberation,
Or in Pali language,
Vimuttiyana-dasana.
Apart from the sensual restraint,
The second important training to develop within the context of austerities is striving for self-improvement,
Or in Pali language,
Piriya.
By this time in the study of the 38 blessings,
We should be able to tell the difference between what is right and wrong.
We know that the practice of austerity is good,
But we may be prone to giving up too easily instead of seeing our practice through to the point of mastery.
We might resolve to keep the 8 precepts throughout the 3 months of the rainy season,
But out of the third day,
When you feel hungry in the evening,
You start to think to yourself,
Well,
I've already kept the 8 precepts for 3 days,
And that's already quite a lot of merit,
Maybe I'll keep the 8 precepts again at the end of the rainy season,
7 days or more altogether,
And that'll be enough merit for me.
For such a person,
The ability to strive is still a work in progress.
Properly developed striving refers not just to meditation,
But means putting forth 4 types of effort.
Firstly,
Not succumbing to unwholesome habits which you never did before,
Or in Pali language,
Samvara-padhana.
Secondly,
Overcoming any unwholesome habits you already possess,
Or in Pali language,
Pahana-padhana.
Thirdly,
Developing good habits you never had before,
Or in Pali language,
Pavana-padhana.
And lastly,
Maintaining the good habits you already have,
Or in Pali language,
Anurakana-padhana.
As a classic example of striving,
Where a person is willing to put their life on the line for spiritual advancement,
The Buddha himself modelled the ultimate attitude to striving.
On the morning before he sat for meditation for his enlightenment,
He received milk rice from Sujata and took his place on a seed of perfume grass under the Bodhi tree.
The Buddha sat down for meditation with the vow,
For however long it takes for me to attain enlightenment as a fully enlightened Buddha,
Even if my body should shrivel and die,
Leaving only skin,
Sinew and bone,
I will not get up from this meditation seat.
The opposite of making an effort or striving is to backslide.
The main characteristics of a backslider are the sorts of excuses they make to themselves.
A backslider's attitude to the world always gives them an excuse not to meditate,
Whereas the attitude of a striver will lead them to take every chance to further their meditation.
Mostly it comes down to their mental attitude.
To give a few examples,
Knowing there is work on the way,
The backslider will think,
It's not worth meditating,
Because I will soon be interrupted by work anyway.
By contrast,
Knowing there is work on the way,
The striver will think,
I should be quick to meditate,
Because time for striving will soon be hard to find.
Knowing there is a long journey at hand,
The backslider will think,
It's not worth meditating,
Because I will soon be interrupted by a long journey anyway.
By contrast,
Knowing there is a long journey at hand,
The striver will think,
I should be quick to meditate,
Because time for striving will be hard to find en route.
Having had only a little to eat,
The backslider will think,
I can't be expected to meditate on an empty stomach.
By contrast,
Having had only a little to eat,
The striver will think,
I should be quick to meditate while my stomach is light.
Similarly,
Those lacking the ability to strive,
Cannot meditate in the summer because it's too hot,
They cannot meditate in the winter because it's too cold.
In the seasons when the climate is just right,
They regret not using the favourable temperatures to get some hard-earned rest.
Such excuses are not hard to invent.
If you find yourself using any or all of the backslider's reasoning to get out of meditating,
You will be able to sleep uninterrupted all year round and never do any meditation again.
However,
For the practice of austerity,
Even in everyday life,
We should not resort to the lazy excuses I've mentioned,
But instead try to transform that reasoning into that of a striver.
Before we finish today,
We have time for a quick scriptural story about restraint of the senses.
There was a previous lifetime when the Bodhisattva was still purging the lack of sensual restraint out of his system.
During this particular lifetime,
He lived again as a hermit,
Practising meditation in a great forest far from the temptations of the so-called civilisation.
Before long,
Through earnest practice,
He was able to attain psychic powers through his meditation.
Because the hermit could fly through the air by his mental powers,
He would always do so instead of walking.
On one occasion,
In search of supplementary minerals,
He left the safety of the forest and travelled through the air to Benares for alms.
While he was there,
He stayed in the royal park.
The king of Benares was pleased with the hermit's demeanour and persuaded him to live permanently in the royal park.
Sixteen years passed and the king,
Leaving the city to quell a border rising,
Left the hermit in the care of his queen who was called Mudulacana.
The hermit was slightly inconsiderate of his royal patrons and instead of going for alms at the palace at a set time,
Would turn up on his own agenda.
Any day he was particularly hungry,
He would go earlier to the palace.
On days he was not so hungry,
He would go later.
The queen would prepare food each day,
But would never know when the hermit would come to collect alms.
On the fateful day,
The hermit had still not come for alms at the appointed hour,
So the queen got tired of waiting,
Freshened up and eventually went back to bed because the hermit was taking such a long time to arrive.
Meanwhile,
The hermit finished his meditation and flew unannounced to the palace for his alms through the air and at high speed.
He did not enter by the door,
But through the open window.
And by surprise,
Queen Mudulacana heard nothing but the sudden rustling of the ascetic's bark clothing as he flew.
Getting up quickly from her couch,
The queen's clothes slipped from her body,
Revealing her nakedness to the hermit.
It was never the intention of the queen to lead her respected hermit into temptation,
However it was too late for the ascetic who could not now unsee her body.
All manner of desires long hidden away in his mind were stirred up.
The hermit became instantly besotted with the queen,
Consequently losing all his mental powers.
Instead of being able to fly back from the palace that day,
He had to return to his dwelling on foot.
Meanwhile,
The queen could not help but feel guilty about unwittingly destroying her hermit's vocation.
Seven days later,
The king returned.
He found the hermit disconsolate and unable to eat.
On learning the reason and out of respect for the hermit,
Without hesitation,
He agreed to offer him the queen in marriage.
The reason why the king could treat the hermit so forgivingly was that he was sure that the hermit's behaviour was the result of a mistake rather than deception.
Hearing the king's equitable words,
The hermit recovered instantly from all his apparent illness.
Secretly,
However,
The king asked the queen to think of some ruse by which he could save the hermit's holiness.
Together,
The hermit and the queen left the palace,
Where they intended to set up their love nest in a derelict house given to them by the king.
In fact,
The building in question had previously been used as a lavatory.
The queen made the ascetic clean the house,
Knowing full well that dealing with filth and heavy lifting would be a perfect antidote to Sen's desire.
She insisted he fetch water and do a hundred other chores.
Having pushed him to the very limits of his physical ability,
The queen shook him by the shoulder and yelled,
And still you don't wake up to the fact you're supposed to be an ascetic?
Is this how you set an example to the world of relinquishing said pleasure?
The hermit then repented and hastened back to the king,
Surrendering the queen with the words Before obtaining the lovely queen Murulacana for myself,
She was the only thing in the world I desired.
But having once obtained her,
The desire for other things has increased without end.
With this admission,
The hermit was able to recover his mental powers,
Taking his leave.
He flew back through the air to the forest where he cultivated the divine abidings for the rest of his life,
And on passing away,
Was reborn in the Brahma world.
So the moral of the story is,
If you haven't reached the point in your meditation where you can fly through the air,
Don't think you can ignore the importance of Sen's restraint,
Either in whole or in part.
So this session I've introduced to you,
Blessing 31 on Practicing Austerities.
For my next session,
We'll continue with the second blessing of the 9th subgroup,
Number 32 on Practicing the Brahma Firing.
Hopefully as a result of today's session,
You will be better prepared,
Or even inspired,
To practice austerities for yourself,
Especially striving for self-improvement and sensual restraint.
So for today,
This is me,
Practicalist Tynius Rowe,
Signing off for now,
So long folks,
And stay safe.
