From: ben@crl.go.jp (Ben Lawrence)
To:   Barry.Kapke@f33.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 08:50:09 JST
___________________________________________________________________

/*      The following is a transcript of a 1-hour recorded Dhamma
talk by the Venerable Amathagawesi, a Sri Lankan monk.  The
talk was the first talk in a mediation retreat conducted by
the Venerable on 19th May 1993 in Sri Lanka.
Two monks from Australia and a number of lay-people from Singapore,
Australia and Sri Lanka were in attendance.
More than twenty talks were recorded during that period all
of which are in English.
        The following talk was not meant to be transcribed into
print and as such, it does not contain the full meaning
of the spoken word.
The transcription was undertaken without the Venerable's
permission.  All punctuation and text layout is the
responsibility of the transcriber, comments occur in '/*  */',
and Pali spellings may not be correct.  Any misrepresentations
and errors are the sole responsibility of the transcriber. */
___________________________________________________________________


Nammo Tassa Bhagavato Arahatto Samma Sambudhussa
Nammo Tassa Bhagavato Arahatto Samma Sambudhussa
Nammo Tassa Bhagavato Arahatto Samma Sambudhussa


Venerable Bhikkus, brothers and sisters,

        I welcome you to Sri Lanka and I wish that your stay here
will be beneficial and happy, and that you will fulfill your
aspirations.

        Dhamma is living truth and the truth can only be realized
if one lives in the truth.  Often, many try to understand the
truth by creating concepts.  Concepts are mere thoughts.  You
think only on the matter on which you know, that which you
don't know you can't think.  Thoughts are only matters which
the 6 sense bases have shown you, your own experiences.
Therefore for one to realize the truth one has to live in the
truth.

        With regard to Buddha's teachings,  he clearly says that
he only shows the path to those who know and to those who see.
Knowledge is certainly essential but one must not be satisfied
with knowledge only, one should try to make use of the
knowledge to see, to realize, to understand, to live in the
Dhamma.  When you think of the preachings of the Buddha, it is
very clear that the path he has shown is in every way
reasonable and something an average man can understand and
realize, because he has asked you to seek refuge within you
and not to seek refuge outside.    Why should we seek refuge
within us?  It is for us to understand who we are.  We are
aware of many things and in that awareness maybe we are aware
of the truth and maybe we are aware of the untruth also.  And
that of course we have conceived as concepts.  But when he
says to seek refuge within you, it is to realize something
within you.  When it comes to the question of getting rid of
anything you are used to, that too is within you which you
have created within you.  And if I summarize the path shown by
Buddha for one's realization, it is a path where you are
instructed clearly to undo what you have done to you.

        What are defilements?  They are not qualities of the
mind,  they are all that you have acquired... as a result of
habits, as a result of false beliefs, as a result of accepting
what is not true.  Those are the things that have created the
defilements within you.

        It is very clear that the consciousness that you are,
having within you, is meant for the performance of 6
functions, that is: to enable to see by the creation of a
thought, to enable you to hear by the creation of a thought,
to enable you to smell by the creation of a thought, to enable
you to taste by the creation of a thought, to enable you to
contact by the creation of a thought and to enable you to use
your mind by the creation of a thought.  Those are the 6
functions this consciousness is meant to perform, but you have
made use of this consciousness to perform other things, what
are they? to think, to re-think, to reflect on things, to go
over past memories and go on thinking.  Those are all
unnecessary things.  And Buddha clearly stated in the 3 Suttas
in the Sanyutta Nikaya pertaining to volition that one can get
rid of these habits which you have created in the mind.  And
if you can get rid of this unnecessary thinking, re-thinking,
reflecting, and thinking of past incidents, you can attain
Nibbana.

        There are 3 Suttas one after the other, first second
third Cittanna Suttas in the Sanyutta Nikaya, which clearly
indicates the path for one to attain Nibbana.  Therefore, it
is clear that we are leading this life in this worldly way of
being born and dying and again being born, this continuity of
existence, as  a result of the misuse of the consciousness. We
have unnecessarily created thoughts and such creation of
thoughts has led to one important creation in us and that is:
desire.  We refer in books of the thousands of defilements
within us but, brothers and sisters, Buddha clearly indicated
to you that the cause of suffering is desire.  If you can get
rid of desire, you can attain to your Liberation.  Therefore
there is no necessity for us to worry very much about
defilements in us.

        We have one clear path shown by Buddha to get rid of
desire.  He has preached this doctrine for over 40 years to
the inhabitants of North India, clearly indicating a path for
their liberation.  Many followed that path and many attained.
But he preached one discourse only, of all the discourses he
preached over those 40 years, where he gave the assurance to
us that if you follow these instructions which I have given
you in this discourse, you will attain Nibbana within 7 days
or the longest period of 7 years.  And what is that discourse?
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness.  In that too it is
clearly stated that your unnecessary creation of thoughts that
has led you to this difficulty.

        If you analyze the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and
ask this question: in what manner has it indicated to us to
get rid of desire?  It is clearly indicated in the Sutta that
the creation of unnecessary thoughts that has led to the
creation of desire and one should make an effort, mindfully,
and with clear understanding, to stop this unnecessary
thinking.

        In the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, it deals with
four subjects: what are they?  First foundation of mindfulness
deals with the body, the second foundation of mindfulness
deals with feelings, the third foundation of mindfulness deals
with thoughts and the fourth foundation of mindfulness deals
with the development of the mind for the finally attainment of
Liberation.  Why did he divide this entire path to the
liberation of the human being into four such foundations?  We
refer to a worldling as body and mind.  He deals with the body
in the first foundation.  He deals with two things that the
mind can do in the second and third foundation: the mind can
create feelings and the mind can also create thoughts.  Those
are the two functions the consciousness performs.  And in
these three, the worldling is there, his body and his conduct,
everything is dealt with under these three subjects.  And with
regard to the fourth foundation, Buddha clearly indicates a
path how one should get rid of false views, false beliefs,
false habits one has created in the mind,  for the final
attainment.  And in all these, he directs you to get rid of
desire.

        In what way has he indicated to get rid of desire?  He
says in the first foundation connected with the body, he says
that when you create thoughts about your body and the body of
others, make a good effort, intelligently understand the
situation and mindfully do not permit your consciousness to
fall into the two extremes of attachment and aversion.
Mindfully stop the reaction of the mind in creating thoughts
of attachment and aversion.  These are the two things that
promote desire, brothers and sisters.

        In regard to feelings, feelings that you experience
through your sense bases, with effort, with clear
understanding and mindfulness, prevent the consciousness from
creating thoughts of aversion or attachment because thoughts
of aversion or attachment promote desire.

        In regard to the creation of thoughts, do not allow the
consciousness to create more and more thoughts promoting
aversion or attachment, prevent that by making use of effort,
clear understanding and mindfulness, to prevent that
development.  And in regard to these three, the entire life of
the worldling has been clearly dealt with to purify yourself
from desire. Because desire, Buddha has clearly indicated, is
a result of thoughts of aversion and attachment.

        And in the fourth foundation of mindfulness, he indicates
to you how one should develop one's mind to realize the truth
and get rid of all false beliefs, habits and false views and
ultimately to get rid of this idea of soul by realizing the
void.

        We have to ask this question: what is this desire which
Buddha has so much emphasized on?  Is it a quality of the
consciousness?  No, brothers, it is not a quality of the
consciousness.

        In the creation of a thought to enable you to see, to
enable you to hear, to enable you to smell, to enable you to
taste, to enable you to experience a contact, and think, there
are the five mental factors which perform their task in
providing the necessary information to make that thought you
create a complete one.  Mental factor contact creates the
mental image in you of the object, mental factor feeling
enables you to understand the object as something to your
liking or disliking, there is no time for you to create any
feelings, that idea that impression is only given to you at
that time through the mental factor feeling. You know that the
object of your vision is something to your liking or not to
your liking, of hearing as something to your liking or not to
your liking and so on with the other contact sense bases.
Then the third mental factor perception enables you to
identify the object with the worldly knowledge you have.
Mental factor volition enables you to commit the act of seeing
or hearing or smelling or tasting or contacting or thinking.
And mental factor attention helps this process by bringing the
object to the mind clearly.

        So these five mental factors occur in every thought you
create in regard to the performance of the activities of the 6
sense bases.   Those are the 6 places thoughts are created.
It is in the connection with the eye, the ear, the nose, the
tongue, the body and the mind where thoughts are created.  Now
that is all that is expected of you to perform with the use of
this consciousness!

        But we have gone further... in that mental factor feeling
we got the impression of the object which has attracted each
of the sense bases as something which you like or something
which you do not like.  And you created thoughts, random
thoughts, either of attachment or of aversion.  These are the
two extremes: /* Pali */ lobaa and vesaa, that the worldling
lives in!  Constantly feeding the desire... we have got into
this habit and this performance is done without any
interference on our part.

        Whenever we see something, the mental factor feeling
gives you the impression of something which you like or do not
like.  In the natural occurrence as a result of the habit
which you have created in your mind, further thoughts of
attachment or aversion to the object are also created.  These
two create the desire in you.  Therefore it is clear that this
desire is a result of the misuse of the consciousness by us,
may I say so, in the way of creating unnecessary thoughts of
attachment and aversion.

        Buddha's path in one's attainment to one's liberation is
in regard to the body, in regard to feelings, in regard to the
thoughts and in regard to the development of the consciousness
along the path.  Be watchful, be mindful, don't permit this
consciousness to create unnecessary thoughts of attachment or
aversion.  Thereby you deprive the desire of its food!  We are
constantly feeding the desire through our 6 sense bases!  Not
by an experience we gained through them by a creation of a
thought, but by pursuing such experience in the way of
creating pleasant sensations or creating aversion to that
experience.  Buddha clearly indicates this in the Sanyutta
Nikaya.  He says: "I compare this desire to a lamp.  The lamp
is kept burning by you supplying the necessary ingredients to
the lamp.  You may have done this for so many many years in
the past, therefore the lamp is burning.  But today, if it
needs a oil and change of wick and you do not supply these
ingredients, the lamp will get blown out.  In the same way,
because you are feeding this desire, compared to the lamp, the
desire is maintained by you."

        You feed the desire and it becomes stronger and stronger
in you and isn't that the nature of a habit?  A habit is
strong as long as you perform the actions in keeping with the
habit.  But if you oppose that habit, the natural tendency is
that the habit will become weaker and weaker and weaker and
then you can dispel that habit.  Isn't that what Buddha has
taught in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, brothers and
sisters?  That is the clear path he has shown us!

        If you analyze it carefully, what he instructed is that,
with regard to the body when thoughts are created or with
regard to feelings when thoughts are created or with regard to
the mind when thoughts are created and with regard to the
development of Dhamma, don't permit this consciousness of
yours to fall into the two extremes of creating attachment or
aversion.  Thereby, what are you expected to do to the lamp,
this lamp called desire?  Not to feed the lamp with the
necessary ingredients so that it will be blown out!  You keep
away from feeding desire, from allowing this consciousness to
create random thoughts of attachment and aversion.  And
naturally, this so-called strong habit which you have created
in the mind, this desire, because it is not getting its feed
to maintain its strength, it becomes weaker and weaker, and
after some time it disappears.

        We can take an ordinary example in our day to day life.
There is a man who is in the habit of drinking for the last
thirty years, he's a drunkard.  He wants his sip of liquor in
the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening and he's used to
that.  Without that he feels it is difficult to exist.  But
one day, he decides:"I shall not continue this habit! because
I am suffering! and not only am I suffering but I'm making
others around me suffer!  I'll get rid of this."  And he
decides:"From today onwards I will not drink!"  Maybe he will
have to undergo much difficulty physically as a result of not
pursuing that habit, but he maintains that position of his for
one week, for two weeks, for three weeks, for four weeks, for
five weeks...  We have seen such cases in our life.  People
who have given up such practices, you see, as a result of
convictions, as a result of resolutions that they have made.
By stopping such practices from becoming committed further,
they have got out of such an habitual state of mind.

        Of course, desire is something worst than that because
after all, six openings have fed the desire.  What are they?
your eyes, your ears, your nose, your tongue, your body and
your mind.  There is constant feeding going on without your
knowledge as a result of habits which you have created in the
mind.  Buddha says in his Four Foundations of Mindfulness: be
mindful!  Make a determined effort and understand
intelligently what you are doing and do not permit this mind
to fall into the two extremes of attachment and aversion.

        The question would be: could one follow this thinking
process so minutely?  Of course, for one who has done that for
a long time, he may be able to follow the creation of each
thought, that can be done.  But to a worldling, it is
difficult.  So what did he imply by asking one to be mindful?
Mindful of the realistic nature of all component things,
brothers and sisters.  Physically and mentally, what are they?
impermanence, everything is subject to constant change.

        You see something and you identify that as something
impermanent, you hear something and you identify that as
something impermanent, you smell something and you consider
that as something impermanent, arising and passing away, you
taste something and you consider that as something
impermanent, arising and passing away, and so are the other
experience gained through the other sense bases.  They arise
and pass away, you are well aware of it. You have developed
the mind in that respect through insight knowledge.  And that
helps you to keep away from allowing this consciousness to
create random thoughts of attachment and aversion.

        Because you attach a value to a thing, you like it or
dislike it!  If you do not attach a value to a thing, there is
no like or dislike, because there's nothing in that thing.
And that is how you are expected to practice the Foundations
of Mindfulness: to consider all conditioned things as
impermanent.  They arise and pass away.  That is the
impermanence you are expected to reveal.

        What are you?  If you were to ask this question: what am
I?  A composition of causally created incidents and nothing
else.  Those that occurred in the past are over, you can not
bring them back to the present.  Those in the future are yet
to come.  The past and future cannot merge together because in
the past there were incidents that you have experienced and in
the future are things that you are yet to experience.  There
is gap between the future and the past.

        What is that gap?  It is your performance of all your
activities, which are causally created.  You think and the
body acts.  The thought that arose in you arose and passed
away and the act that you committed arose and passed away.
Impermanence in all these activities. Impermanence!  In regard
to future matters, we still have not committed those acts.  In
regard to the past, impermanence.  But what has to be realized
is that what you are now, this moment: you create a thought
and according to that direction from the mind, you commit an
act. The thought you create now arise and pass away, the act
you commit now arise and pass away.  Therefore, the future has
given you the present to enable you to act in this manner and
the action has created an incident to go into the past.

        Therefore, this idea of impermanence is nothing that one
cannot imagine!  It is something realistic because it is
happening this moment, this moment you can realize it.  If you
carefully give thought to this, you realize this arising and
passing away this moment.  About the future, you have not
given thought to, about the past, we can reflect on what we
have done, but what we are doing NOW? We are creating a
thought and acting.  The thought arises and passes away, the
act we have committed arises and passes away, that is all.  Is
there any static condition that we can call 'just now'?  No,
there is a change going on constantly.  That is impermanence,
brothers and sisters.

        The four foundations of mindfulness, Buddha clearly
indicates to you: be mindful, be mindful of the impermanence
of all component things, the impermanence of all objects that
attract the sense bases.  And if you realistically understand
this impermanence in all component things, there is no
possibility to create thoughts of attachment and aversion
because you do not attach any value to those objects.  They're
arising and passing away.  Why should one be attached to an
object like that which arises and passes away?  When you do
not attach any value to it, its just a vision.  In the same
way, brothers and sisters, if you consider all that arises in
you in the way of thoughts, carefully analyzing these thoughts
as impermanent and if you consider all the acts that you
commit, as the result of thoughts you create, as impermanent,
then this consciousness will keep away from creating thoughts
of attachment and aversion.  You do not promote that activity
of the consciousness.

        In the path we show to you, Venerable Sirs, we follow the
Four Foundations of Mindfulness.  We encourage you to develop
your mind in concentration.  Why is concentration necessary?
Because the three realities: impermanence, unsatisfactory
nature of things and soullessness, cannot be realized by a
thinking mind by just a thought.  They have to be realized in
depth, and for one to penetrate deeply into a thing, one must
have the concentration.

        Also I wish to mention an incident that occurred in
Buddha's time.  Paccavata brahmin had a discussion with Buddha
and he said that the followers of Buddha are all serene in
their outlook, in their nature, and he feels that it may be
due to their maintaining a condition of mind higher than the
normal functioning of the 6 sense bases.  Buddha said:"Yes, I
also thought so some time ago.  I entered the first
Absorption, I could not get rid of feelings and perception.  I
entered the second, the third, the fourth Absorption but still
could not get rid of feelings and perceptions.  I entered the
four formless states of mind, there too I could not get rid of
feelings and perceptions.  It is only the state of mind where
I completely stopped thinking: /* Pali: */ sanya vedda
nirhodha (?)  where I stopped feelings and perceptions."

        What are these feelings and perceptions?  In the five
grasping groups the value of feelings and perceptions are
clearly indicated by Buddha.  Buddha compared feelings to a
bubble of water.  When a drop of rain hits the surface of the
water, it creates a bubble that appears and disappears.  That
is the value of feelings.  Perceptions, he compared that to a
mirage.  So when these two things are functioning in the mind
even when you reach the state of perceptions-non-perceptions,
could one experience Nibbana? Could one experience Liberation?

        Therefore, brothers and sisters, this concentration is an
essential thing, up to the fourth Absorption.  That is why
Buddha made that a subject of meditation in the four
foundations of mindfulness.  The first subject of meditation:
develop your mind in concentration up to the fourth
Absorption.  But what about the four formless?  Those are only
thoughts and nothing else.  There are four Absorptions with(?)
four formless states of mind which are only thoughts.  You
only think about: the boundless sphere, the boundless
consciousness, the void and the perceptions-non-perceptions
state of mind.  They naturally develop in you with the
development of the four foundations of mindfulness, developing
in the basis of the four Absorptions which you have developed.

        In the realization of the four stages: of Stream-entry,
of Once-returner, of Non-returner and also the final
attainment of Nibbana, one has to reach that state of mind
when one is free of feelings and perceptions.  But when you
enter the first state of Stream-entry, there are defilements
which pull you down.  When you enter the state of Once-
returner, there are defilements which pull you down.  When you
enter the state on Non-returner, you have got rid of desire.
That's why your next birth will occur in those pure abodes,
where you will attain Nibbana after clearing your mind from
all false views and false beliefs that you have.  Up to the
stage of Non-returner, you are pulled down to this worldly
life as a result of desire.  Beyond that stage, once you get
rid of those beliefs that obstruct your final attainment of
Nibbana, and once you attain your Liberation, that state of
mind is there with you.  That is within you, you become a pure
being, having got rid of all your bad habits.

        Therefore, brothers and sisters, this path shown by
Buddha is a very clear path, it is a practical path, a path
one can practice without difficulty, truly understanding the
true nature of yourself.

        You are expected to seek refuge within you and not to
seek refuge outside.  By that statement it is clearly
indicated you have to search yourself and find out what your
defects are and make an effort to overcome them.  And the
greatest defilement one must get rid of to attain that pure
state of Liberation is desire.

        This desire is not something introduced into you by
anybody. but something you have created in yourself as a
result of misusing your consciousness in creating random
thoughts after the experiences you gained through your 6 sense
bases.  The advice given to Bhayya was to get rid of such
random thoughts and confine his thinking only to the
functioning of the 6 sense bases.  The advice to
Mahlukkaputta-Tissa, the elderly priest who sought the
assistance of Buddha, to show him a brief path for his
attainment, a path which he can follow because he is old.
Buddha said: "Well, guard your sense bases.  Do not permit
your consciousness to create random thoughts and hence create
desire".

        There are many instances in the scriptures clearly
indicating that the desire which we have within us is our own
creation: in practicing things we should not do and getting in
a habit of performing acts which we should not do and that is:
creating random thoughts from experiences we gain through our
6 sense bases.  If we confine ourselves only to making use of
this consciousness to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, to
contact and to think, such performance will not create desire.
That is what we are expected to do in the Four Foundations of
Mindfulness.  Confine the activities of the consciousness to
the functioning of the 6 sense bases only, and not permitting
it to fall into the habit of creating further thoughts of
attachment and aversion.  By following that advice, we are in
no way feeding desire which is a strong habit within us.  As a
result of not feeding desire by the creation of aversion or
attachment, we get rid of desire by stages.  That is the clear
path shown by Buddha for the attainment of one's Liberation.

/******************* SIDE ONE ENDS **************************/

...in the Sanyutta Nikaya in getting rid of creation of
unnecessary thoughts: by making the mind silent!  Peaceful!

        I wish to indicate to you that there is a distinct
difference between the spontaneous activity of the mind
enabling you to perform the function of the 6 sense bases AND
the additional creation of thoughts in which you willfully
promote desire in the way of creating attachment or aversion.
I would not consider the spontaneous activity of the mind in
the creation of a thought as thinking.  That activity of the
consciousness is quite different from your purposeful thinking
in the way of the creation of thoughts of attachment or
aversion.  This is the thinking that Buddha indicated, in the
3 Cittanna Suttas, to get rid of.  And that is something we
have got used to as a habit now.

        In the Four Foundations of Mindfulness in regard to
feelings and thoughts, there too when you go on observing
them, not permitting thoughts of attachment or aversion to
arise, you are making the mind silent, brothers and sisters.
You are making the mind silent.  We are not interfering with
the performance of the activities of the 6 sense bases.  That
must occur and it cannot be stopped because that is the
spontaneous activity of the mind.  No one can interfere with
that.  But we can interfere certainly with the creations of
thoughts of attachment and aversion by analyzing them
carefully and not entertaining the thoughts.  With regard to
the second foundation of mindfulness connected with feelings,
we are doing that.  We are not pursuing the feelings by
creating attachment or aversion, we just dispel the feelings
as impermanent.  In regard to the creation of thoughts, we do
not permit more thoughts to be created that promote such
thoughts.  We dispel that thought as impermanent and make the
mind silent.  In making the mind silent and peaceful and
still, you are not depriving the power of the mind in the
creation of thoughts to perform the activities of the 6 sense
bases because that is an activity no one has any control over.
In the way of stopping unnecessary thinking where you have got
used to as a habit, we CAN interfere with such activity and
make the mind silent, calm, peaceful, quiet.  Thereby we do
not permit the creation of thoughts to feed desire.  Desire is
something which has to be maintained by us  as a habit and
when we do not maintain it, desire will naturally disappear
from our mind.

        To get rid of desire, that is the path shown by Buddha,
brothers and sisters, for the attainment of Nibbana.  It is a
very clear path and many Suttas in the Sanyutta Nikaya
supports the promotion of keeping the mind silent.  Thereby
not permitting the mind to create unnecessary thinking,
thinking that promotes desire.  If you make an effort,
brothers and sisters, you will in this life attain Nibbana.
It is an achievement within your reach, not an achievement to
be thought about for the period until another Buddha appears
on this Earth.  Not necessary.  This birth, just now, when you
realistically understand the true nature of yourself.  By
seeking refuge within you, you will be able to get rid of
defilements and the most important defilement being desire;
thereby enabling you to gain your Liberation and everlasting
peace which you have been searching for the last so many many
births.  May you all attain Nibbana.  Thank you.

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