‘‘Not Sure!’’ - The Standard of the Noble Ones¹

So in regard to this training of the mind, sometimes we may say it's easy. It's easy to say, but it's hard to do, very hard. It's hard in that it doesn't conform to our desires. Sometimes it seems almost as if the angels³ were helping us out. Everything goes right, whatever we think or say seems to be just right. Then we go and attach to that rightness and before long we go wrong and it all turns bad. This is where it's difficult. We don't have a standard to gauge things by.

People who have a lot of faith, who are endowed with confidence and belief but are lacking in wisdom, may be very good at sam?dhi but they may not have much insight. They see only one side of everything, and simply follow that. They don't reflect. This is blind faith. In Buddhism we call this saddh?-adhimokkha, blind faith. They have faith all right but it's not born of wisdom. But they don't see this at the time, they believe they have wisdom, so they don't see where they are wrong.

Therefore they teach about the five powers (bala): saddh?,viriya, sati, sam?dhi, paññ?. Saddh? is conviction; viriya is diligent effort; sati is recollection; sam?dhi is fixedness of mind; paññ? is all-embracing knowledge. Don't say that paññ? is simply knowledge - paññ? is all-embracing, consummate knowledge.

The wise have given these five steps to us so that we can link them, firstly as an object of study, then as a gauge to compare to the state of our practice as it is. For example, saddh?, conviction. Do we have conviction, have we developed it yet? Viriya: do we have diligent effort or not? Is our effort right or is it wrong? We must consider this. Everybody has some sort of effort, but does our effort contain wisdom or not?

Sati is the same. Even a cat has sati. When it sees a mouse, sati is there. The cat's eyes stare fixedly at the mouse. This is the sati of a cat. Everybody has sati, animals have it, delinquents have it, sages have it.

Sam?dhi, fixedness of mind - everybody has this as well. A cat has it when its mind is fixed on grabbing the mouse and eating it. It has fixed intent. That sati of the cat's is sati of a sort; sam?dhi, fixed intent on what it is doing, is also there. Paññ?, knowledge, like that of human beings. It knows as an animal knows, it has enough knowledge to catch mice for food.

These five things are called powers. Have these five powers arisen from right view, samm?-ditthi, or not? Saddh?, viriya, sati, sam?dhi, paññ? - have these arisen from right view? What is right view? What is our standard for gauging right view? We must clearly understand this.

Right view is the understanding that all these things are uncertain. Therefore the Buddha and all the Noble Ones don't hold fast to them. They hold, but not fast. They don't let that holding become an identity. The holding which doesn't lead to becoming is that which isn't tainted with desire. Without seeking to become this or that there is simply the practice itself. When you hold on to a particular thing is there enjoyment, or is there displeasure? If there is pleasure, do you hold on to that pleasure? If there is dislike, do you hold on to that dislike?

Some views can be used as principles for gauging our practice more accurately. Such as knowing such views as that one is better than others, or equal to others, or more foolish than others, as all wrong views. We may feel these things but we also know them with wisdom, that they simply arise and cease. Seeing that we are better than others is not right; seeing that we are equal to others is not right; seeing that we are inferior to others is not right.

Footnotes

...¹

An informal talk given at Ajahn Chah's kuti, to some monks and novices one evening in 1980

...p?timokkha²

The central body of the monastic code, which is recited fortnightly in the P?li language.

... angels³

Devaputta M?ra - the M?ra, or Tempter, which appears in a seemingly benevolent form.

...khandhas⁴

The five khandhas: Form (r?pa), feeling (vedan?), perception (saññ?), conceptualization or mental formations (sankh?r?) and sense-consciousness (viññ?na). These comprise the psycho-physical experience known as the ''self''.

...an?g?m?⁵

An?g?m? (non-returner): The third ''level'' of enlightenment, which is reached on the abandonment of the five ''lower fetters'' (of a total of ten) which bind the mind to worldly existence. The first two ''levels'' are sot?panna (''stream-enterer'') and sakad?g?m? (''once-returner''), the last being arahant (''worthy or accomplished one'').

... asks⁶

That is, one who lives dependent on the generosity of others.

...anatt?⁷

Transience, imperfection, and ownerlessness.

... year⁸

2522 of the Buddhist Era, or 1979 CE.