This is day three of this. June, 2025, seven day seshin, and we will continue today reading from the book being Dharma, the essence of the Buddhist teachings by Ajahn Chah you.
Going to continue where we left off yesterday, and Ajahn Chah speaking and says, In Buddhism, our actions should be aimed at making body and speech pure. First, this is spoken of as sila or morality. That's a simple way to put it. If the body and speech are pure, then there will be calmness and the mind will be firmly established. This is speaking in a simplified way. What is this calmness about you haven't stolen anything. You're free of worry. When the police come looking for a thief, you can relax, because you know it's not you thereafter. Well, maybe, if your mind is in this condition, free of anxiety, then when sense activity and thinking occur, you're able to know them clearly, able to notice what's going on with the mind. You
we have more awareness, more calmness, because we're not manipulating, we're not trying to achieve results, not trying to sneak around, bend the rules.
It's a calmness, a rightness, we know in our heart we're doing our best. We have goodwill towards others. We understand other people are just like us. We're just like them. We're
not always concerned with protecting number one. Ajahn
Chah says briefly, this is called the progression of morality, concentration and wisdom. I
we could say teaching, practice and enlightenment, which are, of course, the three pillars in Roshi kapleau's book.
Ajahn Chah says, earlier, we learned that to practice Samadhi, we need a teacher. I'll relate the following from my own studies, you had to have a teacher. You brought incense, candles and flowers to the teacher. You began your recitation, making obeisance to him, and then you supplicated and prayed. May this take effect in me. May sila that is not pure become pure. May Samadhi come to reside in my mind. We studied the text, and then we did the complete recitation of the factors of concentration, the different types of joy and rapture and so on. This is a part of traditional Vipassana Buddhism. We invited Samadhi to come, and then we sat. But I never saw it come. I just sat there. Got worked up because nothing was happening. So I started to think, and this is not the way to do it. If you could just invite virtue and concentration and they would come. That would certainly be easy, but it seems it's up to us to invest some effort here to make it happen. This is how it started to look to me. So I discarded the way I had learned.
Of course, a teacher can bring a lot in the right conditions with the right student, but we. Have to do the footwork. We're the ones who have to let go of the thoughts. We're the ones who have to notice the thoughts, the tendencies, the patterns that we're in again and again and again. Notice where we tense up, where we flake out, where we become impatient, frustrated. It's all grist for the mill, as Roshi capital used to say
whether results are good or bad has value, if we're open, if we're looking, If we're learning, if we're willing to invest some effort. Ajahn Chah says, in practice, some come to see easily, some with difficulty, but whatever the case, never mind difficult or easy. The Buddha said not to be heedless. Just that don't be heedless. Why? Because life is not certain. Wherever we start to think that things are certain, uncertainty is lurking right there. Heedlessness is just holding things as certain. It is grasping at certainty where there is no certainty, and looking for truth in things that are not true. Be careful, they're likely to bite you sometime in the future. We always think whatever state we're in is going to continue indefinitely, whether it's good or bad. It's like the weather. Know how many times I went to sesshin and it was warm at the beginning and I brought clothes for warm weather, never thinking about the fact that by the end of the week it might be freezing or vice versa. People say, I'm always like this, or she's always like this, it's never going to change. No, it's always going to change.
Bodin Roshi said that the teacher in the doksan room could be replaced with a sign that would say, this will change.
We want things to be different, but practice really begins when we're able to say, right now, it's like this. This is where we're working. The
way it is now is the result of causes and conditions. Can't be other than it is. It will change due to causes and conditions,
due to where we place our attention, what we do or don't allow ourselves to believe, so often, bad habits and ways of thinking, disaster thinking and whatnot. It just seems like, Well, yeah, that's I can't help feeling that way. I can't help thinking that way. I but it's because we're not really looking and we're we think that's the way it is. We think it's certain, even even if our negativity isn't about to disappear, just realize it's like everything else. It's temporary, and it's not certain. It's not true, necessarily.
He says, So in dealing with things true or false, good or bad, pleasing or displeasing, never mind. It's important to train the mind to accord with the path, which means establishing right view. Please don't be careless. Don't get carried away. Building anything up, making. A big deal out of it, to the point where you get lost. If there is disappointment and upset over things, know that there is unhappiness, but don't let the suffering exceed the truth of what it is. If you like things, don't get carried away. You can have the liking, but it should not become excessive. In the local idiom, we say, don't get drunk when you meet unhappy situations, don't become drunk without unhappiness. You experience happiness or pleasure, don't become drunk with that. We say, don't get drunk, but it just means not to let things go to excess, have a sense of moderation. If things stay with us, that's okay. If things leave us, that is okay. But if we become intoxicated with things, we suffer when we lose them. Or if unpleasant phenomena stay and don't leave, we suffer if we grasp them firmly, we exceed the truth of them and lose the path. This is not dharma, and we are not practitioners of dharma. This excess leads us to stray from the path,
good or bad? Can say right now, it's like this right now,
and we have the choice where we put our attention, whether or not we entertain thoughts.
Says this straying the success is wrong view, which is the cause of suffering. The explanations about practice are aimed at knowing the cessation of suffering. Practicing according to that understanding is simply practicing to realize the cessation of suffering. We have this kind of view. We know suffering and how it arises. We know it's sensation, the way to practice to bring about cessation. This is what is called knowledge in Buddhism. We read in Buddhist teachings about suffering and the cessation of suffering, and we can take it to mean reaching Nirvana, coming to complete awakening, finally, cessation suffering disappears. But really, as you advance on the path and you as you discard your habitual reactions, your reactivity, your sense of self, rigid sense of self, suffering decreases. Path is good in the beginning, good in the middle, good at the end. I
I'm skipping way ahead. And
he says, if we just have mindfulness and clear comprehension in ourselves, we can do the practice. Some will think, I have no time to meditate, I have to sell things. He's talking here to lay people. Hey, when you're doing business, do you breathe? If you have time to breathe, you have time to practice dharma. Meditation is nothing but this awareness and sensitivity. But when you talk about meditating while you sell, people, think it means to sit down in the market and close your eyes. Awareness means knowing what you are doing at the moment today, did you speak act and think wrongly? If you have mindfulness, you'll know this is talking about practice in action. Does our practice continue when we walk out of the Zen? Do we go to a meal? We lie down to rest? So are all times when we continue breathing? If you're breathing, you can practice. You can be aware. You it doesn't mean you need to tense up. It's pleasant to be aware, to be in the moment, not to be pulled in any direction or. You're pulled in some direction to know that that's happening. Don't underestimate the power of this awareness really does change things.
He goes on. Don't think that practicing dharma means you have to ordain and live in a monastery when you are doing business or housework, writing or whatever. It's the same as with breath. You don't need to set aside time just to do that, even when you sleep you breathe. Why breathing is crucial to life? Actually, breath is an extremely refined nutrient we can't do without it for two minutes, the finest delicacy we can do without for two hours or two weeks. But how far can we go without breath? So the Buddha told us to contemplate the breath in and out. All parts of the body depend on it. It is the supreme food. When you contemplate, you see how valuable and precious it is for you, better than money, gold or diamonds, if it exits and doesn't enter, your life is over. If it enters and does not exit, you are dead. Seeing the frailty of your life through seeing the breath. Is the meditation on the recollection of death. This is a traditional Buddhist meditation, Buddhist practice, and actually pretty valuable one you might want to try sometimes, not during seshin, when you have another practice that you're concentrating on, but to reflect periodically on the fact that we will certainly die. Changes things. Buddha said, I believe that those who realize this, their quarrels cease. It not only puts your own life in perspective, it gives you an insight into the suffering of others. Everybody has their story, their own causes and conditions.
So says, just realizing this fact that if the breath goes in but does not go out again, goes out but does not come in again, your life is over. Is enough to change the mind. It will startle you into being awake. Your outlook will be transformed, and your behavior will change accordingly. You will fear wrong actions and have a sense of shame toward them. You won't be so inclined to follow your impulses of craving or hatred. Mindfulness will naturally increase, and wisdom will come rushing to assist you, teaching you many things you
just having an interest in your life, the flow of your life, moment by moment, changes things,
discover things you can't do that very well when you're fixated on having some sort of result. This is one of the problems people get into in practice, focused on the end goal, and they're overlooking what's right in front of them. The way is right in front of you. That's the way.
Chinese master non Chuan told Zhao Zhou or Joshu is the Japanese pronounce it. I onset. If you try to go toward the way you go away from it,
it's not something we can get it's something that we can realize that we have.
He says, take an interest in your breath. Set mindfulness on it. And many kinds of wisdom will. Arise, take an interest. It's one of the real factors of meditation zazen, just that attitude of interest, wanting to see what's here. We often fall into the pattern of, okay, I know how this goes. I've said, how many times then we're not we're not there, we're not watching, just to have that light feeling of, okay, what's it like now? What's this like? Then we're there, not making ourselves pay attention. We are paying attention. Our natural awareness is there. It's no longer a chore. It's a privilege to be able to bring awareness to this moment. I
again, he says, take an interest in your breath. Set mindfulness on it. And many kinds of wisdom will arise. You know, for breath, we can also substitute, take an interest in your koan, whatever your practice is, you
hmm, the breath. He says it is easy, because we all have breath when you lie down. You can fix attention on it until you fall asleep. This is truly easy. Well, it's easy to work at it. You'll make the mind clean and peaceful, no matter if you're an ordained person or a lay person, meditation is something to help us get beyond suffering. We can see what is right and wrong, but if we don't practice, we don't see clearly whatever we do, we should do it with knowledge. This is how the Buddha wanted his disciples to live.
Now there's another section entitled the trappers snare. And he says, no aches and pains in the body, no fever or sickness. Can there be such a thing, and of course, not we beings are caught caught in the snares of Mara, the evil one. If we are caught in the snare, Mara can do anything to us. He can afflict us in our eyes, our ears, our limbs, anywhere, our bodies are so fragile, so complicated. It's amazing how they work. It's like a Rube Goldberg machine. One cascade of hormones affecting another, action potentials streaking across the nerves. One little thing goes wrong and it all falls apart like some really complicated computer program. It's amazing that medicine can do as much as it does.
He says it's the same as when someone sets a snare for animals, digs a trappers pit, or baits a hook. When a bird comes to eat and is caught, what can it do? The snare has it by the neck. Where can it go? Tries to fly, but it can't get away, struggles, but can't break the snare. Then the hunter, the owner of the trap, arrives, he sees the bird caught in the snare, just as he had hoped, grabs. The bird struggles, and if it tries to nip the hunter or peck at him, he can break its beak. May try to fly, but he can break its wings. Frantically tries to run. He can break its legs. The owner of the snare has all the authority here. However, the bird tries to get away. There is no escaping. Likewise, we are caught in a trap. The Lord Buddha was one who saw and knew clearly according to the truth. He was a prince, an heir to the throne, who enjoyed all the royal treasures and privileges when he saw what things were really like, he renounced everything. He clearly and unmistaken, mistakenly saw the nature of ordinary existence, and without any regrets, left it behind, seeing in his danger, he fled. Having been born caught by birth, he saw that he was like a bird caught in a snare. The noose was around his neck. He saw the liability, so he left it all. Just walked away. Thus, after his enlightenment, he pointed this out, showing what is harmful and what is beneficial. Also in this realm of uncertainty, he would not allow himself to be submerged and drown in it. He refused to die there. He would not agree to be caught in the noose so he was able to renounce the world and remove himself from it, having seen having attained realization, he then taught us to know about these things.
Realizing this, of course, it can be kind of depressing or alarming, but it puts things in perspective, and it's the truth, it's the way things are. We're born, we'll age, and we will die. It takes a while, sometimes to sink in, and the younger you are, the farther away it is. One of the wonderful advantages of being becoming ancient is suddenly you realize, oh, yeah, that stuff I used to talk about and think about that's real. No, there's somewhere where Ajahn Chah talks about suddenly having some sort of pain in his hip and thinking, yeah, that's about, right?
It's normal.
That's why the Buddha said, Don't be heedless.
Goes on still, although he explained the faults and dangers, the obscuration, obscurations of people prevent them from seeing. The mind is so thick, so dark, it just stays like that and keeps on accumulating afflictions and desires in all these dharmas, if we investigate, we can see the liability and suffering in them, just as it is said Birth is suffering, just as it is said Birth is suffering, we are born into this world. Do we suffer? We have contract contacted birth. We have arms and legs, eyes and ears. All these things coming into existence are just suffering coming into existence, and we have to find a way to get by, struggle to support ourselves, raise a family and so forth. We contact something and become stuck in attachment. We touch something else and get mired in that there is headache and worry about ourselves, anxiety over children, concern over wealth and possessions having been born, anything can degenerate at any time, the ears can degenerate into deafness. The neighbor I was talking to who got on the plane to go to Paris and suddenly couldn't hear out of one ear, she told her husband, called him, and he researched it and contacted her as soon as she got in Paris and said, go to a hospital immediately. And she did. They measured that ear. She had 3% hearing in it, but they were able to treat it using steroids and she, when I talked with her, she had about 30 or 40% hearing in that ear. Things can go bad in a big hurry. Life can change in a flash.
Somewhere, Ajahn Chah mentions when he wakes up, says, Oh, I'm still alive.
The eyes can lose their sight. Pain can afflict the limbs or any other part of the body. Cannot soar away because we are caught in the snare. Snare of the trapper is up to the trapper now to do as he wishes. We are in the trap. You can take care of us and raise us, or he can break our beaks, break our wings. This trap represents the demon of the aggregates, the demon of the afflictions. The aggregates are the various forms, well, the various bundles or heaps of the mind, of awareness of ourselves. You. I talk about them a lot in Zen, Buddhism,
form, sensation, volition, there are five, which obviously I don't remember all of right. Now I
it's not a thing,
just processes,
processes subject to change. Ajahn Chah says here, the mass of humans do not understand the Dharma and only want to escape from reality. They strive to avoid it and struggle to get away. They don't want it to be the way it is, and wish for it to be otherwise. So it leads to suffering by way of sensual desire, desire for becoming, and desire not to be. I think those are three types of desire in traditional Buddhist teaching. So the Buddha taught us to analyze the body, to give rise to dispassion, detachment and disenchantment, and to see that these conditions are not a being, an individual or a self. It's like when we are working in the fields. We put up a scarecrow when the rice is maturing, so the birds want a light to eat the crops. We gather grass and sticks, tie it all together and cover it with a shirt and pants, and the birds are afraid they won't eat the rice. Now, scarecrow is helping us. Now the rice has a chance to ripen, then we can harvest it, and the job is done. But actually it was only a skeleton of grass and sticks. Once we've harvested the rice, we can discard the Scarecrow there in the patty. That's all there is to it. We are just like the Scarecrow. When consciousness leaves this body, there is nothing, no different from the skeleton of grass. Scarecrow in the field does not go anywhere, and ultimately it is just discarded there. But now we can move. We can go places. We can have all sorts of thoughts and feelings and desires to do things and travel about. We think about going and we go. Think about staying. So we stay. We want to sing and dance and play according to the way of the world. To put it simply, it's just as if we are waiting for the day of death, the harvest. Time comes, the crop is reaped, the rice gathered and carted away, and the scarecrow is discarded in the field. When the day of harvesting comes, we depart, someone who doesn't know the beginning or end of things, will feel elation and depression and go on spinning around, not wanting to have sick illness when he gets sick, not wanting to get old when he gets old, not wanting to die when he dies, not wanting life to disappear. But things are like this. We don't understand the law of nature. We want things to be stable and permanent. This is me. That is her. Everything is seen in terms of me and mine, and dharma is never contemplated. The point is, when it gets to the end, everyone must leave it all behind, material gain, reputation, praise, whatever happiness or suffering there is, is all left here in the world. They're all worldly accomplishments. So lying in the memorial prayer is gone into a vast silence and all of us go into this vast silence. All we have is our actions, Buddhism, we say, our karma. What does that? What is that? A result of result of what we do, how we think, where we place our attention, what matters to us, changing what matters to us changes. Everything doesn't have to be doctrinal. You should do this. You should do that. It's just common sense, cause and effect. Life doesn't bend itself to our will. You start fighting it. You're going to suffer more. They say, I fought the law and the law won. You.
We people are no different from a bird confined in a cage or a fish in a tank. When the owner wants to take them, he can do so looking at Dharma, don't look far away. If you look far away, you won't see reminds me of a quotation saying, apparently of Jesus, see what is within your sight and what is hidden from you will become clear you. Don't look away.
Don't drift into thinking.
Says, If you have doubts about Dharma, look at yourself. Look at this body and mind. What is it that is certain or reliable? To what extent are they yourself? How much essence do they have? How stable? How permanent, or how long lasting are they? There is no such part that is like this. You have hair and they will Gray, you have teeth and they will decay and fall out. The ears will lose their hearing, the vision will weaken, skin will become dry and wrinkled, yeah, with lots of age spots on it too, just like my grandfather. Why is it like this? Because we have no power to force things to be the way we want. They follow their own conditions and do not listen to the commands of anyone. It's like a river that flows to the south, if we see it and want it to flow in another direction. Can that happen? There can only be frustration. Then the water flows south and we want it to flow north. When will this ever be resolved? The water is wrong. Is the water wrong? Or are we wrong? It's just a way to create frustration. Nature is like that things following their laws, no matter how much we wish to force it to be. Otherwise, it just continues on in that way. What should we do if we think like this? Where can we find happiness? The river flows on in the same direction, thinking we cannot make a change, trying to do something about it, we find it is beyond our ability. And so the Buddha wanted us to practice meditation, to listen to the Dharma and investigate and to see according to the truth, the truth of the river. If it flows south, let it flow that way. Don't fight it. If there is a person with the eye of wisdom stands by the river, sees it flowing south, and can accept that, because it is just the nature of things. There is no conflict or frustration. Water flows in its way. That's all there is to it. That is dharma, that is nature. There is aging, sickness and death in the beginning. There is birth in the middle, aging and in the end, breaking up and disappearing. Those who can contemplate and see the truth of this will be at peace. You.
It's really acceptance, acceptance of the way things are so many things that are problematic, like little children. I don't want to go this. See my grandchildren. They came over the other day, and dad was helping me pull a lawn mower out of the mud, and they were wandering around in the grass and chasing insects. And then we were finished, and it was time for them to go home. So painful for them kicking and screaming, he actually had to pick them up and wrestle them into the truck, strap them in and take off with a load full of two unhappy children and. You see it in people as they get old. It's a shock to people, even Dharma practitioners, just all of a sudden, there are wrinkles where there weren't. There are diagnoses that come you
list of medications that you take becomes longer and longer,
but it's Okay. It's part of our, part of our contract. You
What could be more important than to see to really know what we are
and time is up, we'll stop here and recite the four vows you.
