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Being Dharma #2: Otter Voice Meeting Notes

Being Dharma #2

John Pulleyn45min

John Pulleyn

00:00

This is the second day of this. June 2025, seven day seshin, and I'm going to continue reading from the book being Dharma, the essence of the Buddhist teachings, the words of Ajahn Chah. You.

John Pulleyn

00:23

I'm going to pick up where we left off yesterday. This is the translator's preface. We're just finishing up, and he says, Ajahn Chah was always available to His disciples for guidance, but he did not. He did not conduct frequent interviews to determine their progress. He urged people to self reliance through knowing their own minds and not getting attached to or doubtful about whatever occurred in meditation. He often told the Sangha that he was giving them a suitable environment in which to develop their own practice. He said it's like providing a pasture for your cows. If there's a pasture that's fenced in and has plenty of grass, the cows can eat grass and also be safe. If they are cows, they will eat they don't want to eat the grass. They are cows, maybe they pigs or dogs.

John Pulleyn

01:38

The Sheen is also a pasture full of grass. Everything we need is here for us.

John Pulleyn

01:51

Teacher can do a certain amount. I always found it helpful to check in with Roshi. Think it's good. But the essential thing is your own quest, your own practice, your own life,

John Pulleyn

02:20

Buddhism, in Buddhism, we rely on our own efforts.

John Pulleyn

02:32

Have the help of the Sangha, but unfortunately, we have to do most of the work ourselves. Nobody can do it for us. It's easier to do that work when you're not looking over your shoulder thinking, How do I measure up to this person or that person? What would so and so say it's just, it's just nonsense, froth.

John Pulleyn

03:14

There's a pasture. There's grass we just need to dig in. You.

John Pulleyn

03:25

Further on, the translator says Ajahn Chah was primarily a teacher of monks and nuns, people who have forsaken worldly ties and gone forth to a life of renunciation, while he was emphatic that Buddhist practice is not the exclusive province of monastics, he did emphasize the advantages offered by the discipline and simplicity of ordained life

John Pulleyn

03:59

Living in a monastery that is following the canonical discipline, one refrains from all harm. Well, I would say one attempts to refrain from all harm, and one is aided by the rules, by the guidelines you

John Pulleyn

04:24

there is a community based on mutual helping, sharing and respect with minimal possessions. There is little to squabble about or covet. Dharma is something to be lived, an idea reflected in the Thai words for spiritual practice and living in this way for a number of years builds habits of attentiveness, restraint and unselfishness. The result is often people who are strikingly happy. Well, there. Is also lay practice far more common in the West, sincere practice, no matter whether it's monastic or lay, will produce people who are open and genuine and happy helpful, simply a question of the right causes and conditions, building the right foundation, doing what needs to be done.

John Pulleyn

05:35

He goes on sometimes Ajahn Chah may sound moralistic to Western years in talking about such things as heedlessness, or refraining from evil, for example, the Buddha explained evil as that which harms others, harms oneself and others. He called heedlessness the way to death when we originally, when we took the precepts, which we do twice a year in the fall and in the spring, we include, we always include, the three primary basic precepts to do good, to avoid harm, to liberate all beings that avoid harm, was for many years, avoid evil. And because that strikes Western ears with a sort of Christian moralistic tone, and because, really, the basic, the basic reason to avoid those things is not to cause harm, harm to oneself or harm to others. We change that Roshi changed that translation. And now, you know, those of us who learned the old way stumble over it every now and then and say, evil instead of harm, which hopefully doesn't do too much harm.

John Pulleyn

07:13

Says, paying attention to the fine details of how one lives in all situations, alone or with others, can refine the mind considerably and create a firm foundation for meditation practice. Think this is an overlooked point. The value of consciously reflecting on your life, looking at your actions, many of which we're not proud of seeing ways that we've caused harm or the ways that we've done good, just just to spend a little time looking at that, it's a tendency to think, Well, all I need to Do is zazen just forget everything is burned up and I'm living only in the present. And that's great, if you can do it. But the fact of the matter is, there are many times in your life when you are not living in the present and you're wreaking havoc, and it's good to be aware of your patterns and what you're doing not to beat yourself. Up, but to find your way out, find your way through,

John Pulleyn

08:33

see what underlies that, what the assumptions are, your thoughts about what you need what you can't tolerate.

John Pulleyn

08:57

Talk of good and evil may rankle us due to habit, perhaps the result of too many joyless Sunday school lessons, but it may be worthwhile to think about the implications. Ajahn Chah speaks repeatedly of the need for moral conduct, but it is for the purpose of creating a relaxed mind and a harmonious living environment, not in response to commandments handed down from on high, the violation of which is met with punishment, as with all of his teachings, his instructions on morality and virtue have a practical purpose and do not involve taking anything on blind faith. He also speaks of the necessity of transcending both good and evil, but as in all schools of Buddhism, there is the need for close attention to them, not only at first, but almost all the whole way through the path. Lot of harm has. Been done by so called enlightened teachers and masters who justify their actions as being beyond good and evil, Crazy Wisdom, such an advanced state where someone can Be totally trust their actions are for the good you.

John Pulleyn

10:52

Okay, I'm going to skip ahead and now we'll be reading directly from Ajahn Chah, who says the Buddha said that one who sees emptiness, the Lord of Death, cannot follow when an awakened being passes away, what happens next? There are only the elements breaking up. There is no person or self. So how could there be death or rebirth? There are only earth, water, fire and air, dispersing Lord of Death can then only follow after Earth water, fire and air, there is no person to follow. Likewise, if you are looking for a solution to problems, there will always be problems because there is a you. When there is no person. There are no problems. There's no need for solutions, because there are no problems to solve anymore and no one to solve them. But if you believe that you die, you are going to be reborn. You

John Pulleyn

12:05

we live so much more lightly as our solid sense of self starts to dissolve a bit. Self importance resentments and anxieties fade away when the sense of self isn't so strong so inelastic. You can't just make up your mind to drop your attention attachment to this fictive self, but you can do Zazen. Can let the mind rest, and gradually, through the alchemy of practice, begin to be a little lighter. You can see in people who've been practicing for a while

John Pulleyn

13:02

now. Not as embarrassed when you make a misstep. It's actually wonderful not to have that same intense need to be justified, to be okay, to be acceptable. Sheng Yen says, just be a good for nothing. I

John Pulleyn

13:52

a little passage from Anthony de Mello that really touches on this from the book awareness, perils and opportunities of reality. De Mello was a Jesuit priest. Many of you have heard me read from him before. He also evidently practiced Vipassana. Think he had an awakening experience working with Genka, one of the well known Vipassana teachers, Indian, an Indian. And de Milla himself was born in Goa in India, and a Catholic priest, a Jesuit priest. Anyway, he says, watch everything inside of you and outside. And when there is something happening to you, see it as if it were happening to someone else, with no comment, no judgment, no attitude, no interference, no attempt to change, only to understand, as you do this, you'll begin to realize that increasingly you are disidentifying from me in quote. Tation marks there. Saint Teresa of a villa says that towards the end of her life, God gave her an extraordinary grace. She doesn't use this modern expression, of course, but what it really boils down to is dis identifying from herself. If someone else has cancer, and I don't know the person. I'm not all that affected. If I have love and sensitivity, maybe I'd help. But I'm not emotionally affected. If you have an examination to take, I'm not at all that affected. I can be quite philosophical about it and say, well, the more your work, the more you worry about it, the worse it'll get. Why not just take a good break instead of studying, but when it's my turn to have the the examination, well, that's something else, isn't it? The reason is that I've identified with me, with my family, my country, my possessions, my body, me. How would it be if God gave me grace not to call these things mind, not to call these things mind, I'd be detached. I'd be dis identified. That's what it means to lose the self, to deny the self, to die, to the self for

John Pulleyn

16:32

now, Ajahn Chah continues today, I'm speaking a little about the Dharma for grown ups with those of childish intelligence hear that there is no self. When they hear that nothing is truly theirs, not even their body, they may wonder, Should I stick a knife in my flesh? Should I smash all the cups and plates and be done with it? Because nothing is mine? It's not that way. It is thick obstruction that can lead people to have such absurd ideas. How can we make the mind inclined to and enter the Dharma? The sotapana or stream enterer, that's somebody who's seen into reality a first opening. Let's say a sotapana or a stream enterer is one whose mind has entered the stream to Nirvana and does not return. Even if such people have anger, they do not return to the cycle of suffering and attachment. Even though there are desires in their mind, they will not return because of the power of knowing these things as they are, soda power. Sodapana enters the Dharma and sees the Dharma. But his being is not yet dharma. Sometimes there will be anger or desire and he will know them, yet still follow after them, because although he knows and sees Dharma, his being is not yet dharma. The mind has not become dharma. So he may study Dharma, understand Dharma, practice Dharma, and see Dharma, but to actually be Dharma is something quite difficult. It is a place for each individual to reach a point where there is no falsehood, not sure how useful or truthful it is to say that once someone has had some insight, that they will inevitably progress. See a lot of people who have a one sided insight into the nature of reality and go astray. It's really it's a continuum. It's a continual process.

John Pulleyn

18:56

I know when I was young and working at this practice. Roshi told me once, John, you just want to grab Kensho and run. That was Roshi Kapleau, and he could see that, because that's how he was when he was practicing in Japan. There's that greed, that idea that that's going to solve all problems, but that's not the case, but it does. It does make a fundamental change, and it's one of the building blocks to a truly worthwhile life, but we still have to do all the work. Not sure if it's something to write home about or not.

John Pulleyn

19:48

When Ajahn Chah talks about actually being Dharma, maybe compare that, or say that's the equivalent of somebody coming to full awakening, which is exceedingly rare, exceedingly. Rare. Of course, you probably all heard that in Japan, they say even the Buddha still working on himself. We're all a mixture, mixture of this perfect nature and our frailties, our desires, our delusions, sand in the rice. John Chah says we are all like birds in a cage, no matter how fine the conditions in the cage, the bird cannot be content. It will always be restlessly hopping about wanting to be free. The wealthy and the privileged are no better off. We could say they are doves in a gilded cage. You could also say, in a way, it's worse for them, there's a clinging to wealth and status and success. It's a very rare person in such a fortunate circumstance that turns wholeheartedly to spiritual practice,

John Pulleyn

21:30

but to envy such people is so foolish, just so many people strutting on The stage, billionaires with so much wealth and success, what small lives they seem to live.

Unknown Speaker

21:49

Not all.

John Pulleyn

21:54

Ajahn Chah says, from hearing the Dharma all the way to seeing it. This is a progression, of course, hearing the Dharma, seeing the Dharma, being the Dharma, from hearing the Dharma all the way to seeing it, you will still have suffering, and you won't be free of unsatisfactory experience until you are dharma. Until you are Dharma, your happiness still depends on external factors. You lean on them for pleasure, on reputation, on wealth and material things. You may have all sorts of knowledge, but this knowledge is tainted by worldliness and cannot release you from suffering. You're still like a bird in a cage. You

John Pulleyn

22:45

going back for a moment to Anthony de Mello, he had an experience that he recounts,

John Pulleyn

22:59

meeting a man in India let him tell the story. He says, I discovered something, and it turned my life upside down. It revolutionized my life. I became a new man. This is what I'm going to share with you later, having discovered it, I found it in all the major religious writings. And I was amazed, amazed. I mean, I had been reading scripture for years, but I hadn't recognized it. It was right there in front of my eyes, and I hadn't seen it. Wish to God, I'd found this when I was younger. Oh, what a difference it would have made. It was a rickshaw puller. Rickshaw is the cart they use in India and other Asian countries, where people can pay to be transported, and they're pulled by the cart puller, by the rickshaw puller. I was introduced to the rickshaw puller in Calcutta named Ram Chandra, who opened my eyes understand that pulling a rickshaw for a living is an awful existence. It's backbreaking work, and the lifespan of a driver is only 10 to 12 years once they begin pulling the work rickshaw. In addition, Ram Chandra had tuberculosis, and at that time, an organized crime ring was engaging in an illegal activity involving exporting skeletons, and they preyed upon impoverished rickshaw drivers. Because of their short lifespan, they bought the man's skeleton while he was still alive, all for the equivalent of $10 the moment one of these drivers died, the thugs would pounce on the body, take it away, and decompose the body through some awful process until they had a skeleton to sell on the black market. Ram Chandra had a wife, children, and all the squalor, misery and disease that comes with AD. Poverty, and he had sold his skeleton to support his family, you'd never think to find happiness in this man's life. And yet he was alright. Nothing seemed to faze him, nothing seemed to upset him. So I asked him, Why aren't you upset about what he said? Your future, the future of your kids. He simply said that he was doing the best he could, and the rest was in the hands of God. But what about your sickness? I asked, that causes suffering, doesn't it a bit Ram Chandra said, but I have to take life as it comes. I never once saw him in a bad mood, and as I came to know him, I realized I was in the presence of a mystic. I realized I was in the presence of life. Was right there. He was alive. By comparison, I was dead. Remember those lovely words of Jesus? Look at the birds of the air. Look at the flowers of the field. They don't have a moment of anxiety for the future. Ram Chandra's life embodied those words. He understood the love, loveliness and the beauty of this experience we call human existence, though exceedingly poor, Ram Chandra lived like a king. Yes, more money would have helped, but he didn't need it not to live from his heart. I saw that to live like a king or a queen spiritually means you know, no anxiety at all, no inner conflict, no tensions, no pressures, no upset, no heartache, until we can transcend these reactions, our life remains a mess. You could say we still have suffering. Seeing this in Ram Chandra and others revolutionized my life. I became a new man. This is what I want to share with you, the discovery of the King and Queen we were all born to be. I

John Pulleyn

27:06

It's amazing that there are people like this. In this world. Seems there's always, no matter how far down things seem to go, there are always people who move gracefully through their lives. His heart is straight and pure. Their model, for those of us regular people,

John Pulleyn

27:35

model of what's possible, of who we truly are

John Pulleyn

27:53

Ajahn Chah goes on. The correct practice of dharma is derived from a teacher who received it from another teacher. It has come down in the long lineage this way. Actually, it's just the truth. It doesn't reside with any particular person. If we respect the person of the teacher and only act out of deference to him or her, this is not dharma. We will practice as if doing a chore or fulfilling our duties, because we see the teacher around, and when he or she is gone, we slack him. It's like working a factory. We work for the company that owns it. We don't really like the job, but we do it to get money. We take it easy at every opportunity we get. That is the way people tend to be relying on a teacher out of respect is one level of practice. Then we ask, When will we see the real dharma? You

John Pulleyn

29:00

the teaching of the Buddha is something that clarifies. It enables humans to enter the stream and see themselves. When we see ourselves, when we ourselves see we see dharma. Seeing Dharma, we see Buddha, then we have entered the stream. Say we see that our true self is no self and

John Pulleyn

29:40

I skip ahead a little bit here, and he says it is the nature of people who enjoy doing wrong. We don't like the result that comes from it, but we're addicted to such actions. We don't want things to come out twisted and wrong. But. You like to act in wrong ways. This isn't right view. Things don't just float up into existence by themselves. They are born of causes. You can't get the results without the cause. There's a saying I read that Buddhists don't worry about consequences. They worry about causes. Most people panic when things go south, but if you pay attention to the foundation, to the causes, far less likely you

John Pulleyn

30:48

we want to work a little and get rich. We want to realize path fruit and Nirvana. This is a Theravadan construct, the path fruit and final full enlightenment, Nirvana. But we don't want to do strenuous practice. We want to gain knowledge, but we don't want to study. Want to pass tests without applying ourselves. So we go get sprinkled with holy water from long pore. That's his familiar name, Ajahn Chah. What's the purpose? What will the water do it's necessary to work hard and hit the books, but people are like this. Well, they may get a little inspiration from the old monk spraying them with water, but the in the language of common folk, it's called not reaching the Dharma. That is one level in practicing Dharma, there must be causes and results. Those who really apply themselves can put an end to doubt and can resolve and finish with problems like the compass needle that always points true. We may enter the forest and think East is north because of our confusion, but the compass is always pointing out the right direction. This is the nature of dharma. We call it saka Dharma, or truth. So practicing according to the way of the Buddha, there is no wrong, there is no wrong in the cause and no wrong in the result. There can be right view or there can be wrong view, whichever there is, will be the root of your practice firmly clung to those are, there are just these two kinds of path. But when you have wrong view, you do not realize that it is wrong. Rather, you will think it is right and good. You cannot see and things will not go well. Of course, it's not a simple duality right or wrong, all kinds of wrong views we hold ideas of acquisition and greed for experiences, comparisons that we're just habitually making that are part of wrong view. Hopefully, in the course of practice, these begin to drop away, but they can have a big effect on our practice. It's like driving with the brakes on. I

John Pulleyn

33:24

if you're constantly losing concentration because you want to check in on how you're doing, that's a form of wrong view. It's not completely trusting the process. Gradually, if you notice, these things can diminish.

John Pulleyn

33:52

When the brakes are no longer on, then we can move easily and freely. You

John Pulleyn

34:03

suddenly seshin becomes a lot more pleasant.

John Pulleyn

34:12

The matter, laying a good foundation, keeping at it, working at it, putting in right effort.

John Pulleyn

34:36

Goes on. Actually, there is not a lot to learn about the real dharma. They're just the principles of practice that need to be applied. There's certain things that already exist and we only need to practice and gain direct experience. Those things we need to study are merely for knowing what to practice and how to go about the practice. We should understand such and such We should practice. Practice such and such, we should go straight ahead in such and such a direction that's all

John Pulleyn

35:10

simple but difficult.

John Pulleyn

35:22

Drop our thoughts. Should return our attention in the moment. Should be in the moment.

John Pulleyn

35:39

It's not a moralistic thing. It's just practical how the Dharma works. It's how practice works. It's how the self gradually is diminished. The obstruction is gradually diminished. So the brakes can be taken off, how we can move freely? It's

John Pulleyn

36:11

really a good metaphor for Dukkha driving with the brakes on. Sure it's familiar to everyone. It's a familiar, familiar to me. It's a lot of different ways of describing dukkha or suffering. Roshi favorite is hard butter on soft bread. The word originally comes original meaning, or the image that comes with it, with the Sanskrit word or the Pali word, whatever it was first is a cart, the wheel of a cart that's lopsided, the cart sort of thumps along. This is what our life is like, constantly running into difficulties problems.

John Pulleyn

37:15

Further on, he says, no matter where you are, no matter what your situation, it is possible for you to be practicing dharma. Well, even if you are young, something for you to do. Don't leave it to the old folks to do. Mostly, this is what everyone thinks. Now, when I'm older, I will start going to the monasteries and spend some time on dharma. Now I can't do it. There are a lot of things to take care of first, so I have to wait until I'm older. They pass the buck to the elders. I don't know how great it is to be old. Actually. Are there any old folks where you live? What kind of shape are they in? Could they keep up with you in a foot race? Their teeth fall out. Their sight is weak. Their hearing is going when they stand up, they groan. When they sit down, they groan again. I remember that point where I noticed myself that I was getting out of the car grunting. Wait a minute, where did that come from?

John Pulleyn

38:20

Yet, when we're young, we like to think, when I'm older, I'll do it. Somehow we get the idea that in old age, we will be energetic and robust. Old Mr. Kim in the village here used to carry big planks around when he was a young man. Now he has to lean on a cane to walk. Life is like this. So don't get these funny ideas, please. It is so common to put off practice because there's more time, isn't there? But it's so common to put anything off anything we really want to do, until one day we realize, oh, I guess I never did that.

Speaker 1

39:00

I while

John Pulleyn

39:10

we are still alive, let's pay attention to good and evil, whatever is wrong and bad. Let's try to avoid doing whatever is good. Let's make efforts to do that's all. These are things that anyone can practice. You don't need to leave it for old age. Come on, you've seen aged people, haven't you? Every move they make is accompanied by groans and creaking. Don't you know why? And even so, we close our eyes and ears and say, let me finish with this first. Let me take care of that piece of business. Wait until I get older, then I'll go to the monastery or then I'll do more. Sesshins, when you're old, it's hard to sit for long listening to. Teachings you might not hear clearly or understand well. So don't wait for old age. Practice steadily and continuously before age. Old age comes. You have youth. It's not like you are old and then you become young. It only goes one way. Truth is, you've been aging for a long time back from a long time back. You probably have the feeling that you're young people. But as soon as you were born, your aging began. You could say it began even in your mother's womb. As you grew there, you became older than you were previously, then birth occurred. If you hadn't aged, there would have been no birth. You would have had to have to it would just have remained in the womb. Then as you grow bit by bit from infant to child and on, it's more aging. So by the time you've reached this point, you can certainly say that you are old. Don't feel old, and you don't see it. But if you hadn't aged, you wouldn't be at this stage of your life. Now it's better to think that you are old already, and then you will feel the importance of having real dharma practice in your life. Then eventually nobility and virtue will result. You should begin with virtuous ways right from today, when you are relatively young, and later on, you will certainly have well being creating good karma in the present there is no miserable result later on, it's a good principle to follow actions that bring distress later on are those you can avoid good things to give careful consideration in your youth, but if you have the idea that you must deal with different pressing matters before you can practice Dharma, Then there will likely never come such a time you

John Pulleyn

42:13

it's actually, there's, there is a long tradition in Asia of people turning to religious practice when they become old, when they've raised their family, and it's certainly understandable. But we don't need to be removed from the demands of our life to practice the Dharma. Maybe we need to be removed from the demands in order to be a monk or a nun, but as lay people, where everything is laid out for us, there's nothing we can't do. Maybe we can't find as much time to sit except during seshin as would be ideal, but we can do enough, and we can carry our practice with us through our day. We can we can reflect on how well we keep turning the mind back and make the effort. It's not a chore. It's not unpleasant, once we get the hang of it, it's wonderful to open the mind. It's wonderful to become one with circumstances. It's wonderful to build that habit, that direction, and

John Pulleyn

43:48

not that you should do it, it's that if you do do it, it has an effect cause and effect causes and conditions. It's

John Pulleyn

44:07

for us now we're here in seshin, here in the second day. So much opportunity in front of us and it

John Pulleyn

44:25

just make up your mind to remain open, just to look directly. Don't go off on thought trips, don't spend your time criticizing yourself or criticizing others. See what it is.

John Pulleyn

44:56

Time is up. We'll stop now and recite the four vows. It's.

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