Sense Contact - the Fount of Wisdom¹

Therefore, whether speaking, eating or doing anything whatsoever, reflect on yourself. You may want to live comfortably, eat comfortably, sleep comfortably and so on, but you can't. What have we come here for? If we regularly reflect on this we will be heedful, we won't forget, we will be constantly alert. Being alert like this you will put forth effort in all postures. If you don't put forth effort things go quite differently... Sitting, you sit like you're in the town, walking, you walk like you're in the town... you just want to go and play around in the town with the lay people.

If there is no effort in the practice the mind will tend in that direction. You don't oppose and resist your mind, you just allow it to waft along the wind of your moods. This is called following one's moods. Like a child, if we indulge all its wants will it be a good child? If the parents indulge all their child's wishes is that good? Even if they do indulge it somewhat at first, by the time it can speak they may start to occasionally spank it because they're afraid it'll end up stupid. The training of our mind must be like this. You have to know yourself and how to train yourself. If you don't know how to train your own mind, waiting around expecting someone else to train it for you, you'll end up in trouble.

So don't think that you can't practice in this place. Practice has no limits. Whether standing, walking, sitting or lying down, you can always practice. Even while sweeping the monastery grounds or seeing a beam of sunlight, you can realize the Dhamma. But you must have sati at hand. Why so? Because you can realize the Dhamma at any time at all, in any place, if you ardently meditate.

Don't be heedless. Be watchful, be alert. While walking on almsround there are all sorts of feelings arising, and it's all good Dhamma. When you get back to the monastery and are eating your food there's plenty of good Dhamma for you to look into. If you have constant effort all these things will be objects for contemplation, there will be wisdom, you will see the Dhamma. This is called dhamma-vicaya, reflecting on Dhamma. It's one of the enlightenment factors⁹. If there is sati, recollection, there will be dhamma-vicaya as a result. These are factors of enlightenment. If we have recollection then we won't simply take it easy, there will also be inquiry into Dhamma. These things become factors for realizing the Dhamma.

If we have reached this stage then our practice will know neither day or night, it will continue on regardless of the time of day. There will be nothing to taint the practice, or if there is we will immediately know it. Let there be dhamma-vicaya within our minds constantly, looking into Dhamma. If our practice has entered the flow the mind will tend to be like this. It won't go off after other things... ''I think I'll go for a trip over there, or perhaps this other place... over in that province should be interesting....'' That's the way of the world. Not long and the practice will die.

So resolve yourselves. It's not just by sitting with your eyes closed that you develop wisdom. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind are constantly with us, so be constantly alert. Study constantly. Seeing trees or animals can all be occasions for study. Bring it all inwards. See clearly within your own heart. If some sensation makes impact on the heart, witness it clearly for yourself, don't simply disregard it.

Take a simple comparison: baking bricks. Have you ever seen a brick-baking oven? They build the fire up about two or three feet in front of the oven, then the smoke all gets drawn into it. Looking at this illustration you can more clearly understand the practice. Making a brick kiln in the right way you have to make the fire so that all the smoke gets drawn inside, none is left over. All the heat goes into the oven, and the job gets done quickly.

We Dhamma practicers should experience things in this way. All our feelings will be drawn inwards to be turned into right view. Seeing sights, hearing sounds, smelling odors, tasting flavors and so on, the mind draws them all inward to be converted into right view. Those feelings thus become experiences which give rise to wisdom.

Footnotes

...¹

Given to the assembly of monks after the recitation of the Patimokkha, at Wat Pah Pong during the rains retreat, 1978

...sāmaneras²

Novices.

...dhammas³

The word dhamma can be used in different ways. In this talk, the Venerable Ajahn refers to Dhamma - the teachings of the Buddha; to dhammas - ''things''; and to Dhamma - the experience of transcendent ''Truth.''

...Sāriputta⁴

At that time Sāriputta had his first insight into the Dhamma, attaining sotāpatti, or ''stream-entry.''

... sense⁵

That is, nibbidā, disinterest in the lures of the sensual world.

...cca....⁶

The truth of suffering, the truth of its cause, the truth of its cessation and the truth of the way (leading to the cessation of suffering): The Four Noble Truths.

...uposatha⁷

Observance days, held roughly every fortnight, on which monks confess their offenses and recite the disciplinary precepts, the pātimokkha.

... wood⁸

The heartwood from the jackfruit tree is boiled down and the resulting color used both to dye and to wash the robes of the forest monks.

... factors⁹

Bojjhanga - the Seven Factors of Enlightenment: sati, recollection; dhamma-vicaya, inquiry into dhammas; viriya, effort; pīti, joy; passaddhi, peace; samādhi, concentration; and upekkhā, equanimity.