Toward the Unconditioned¹

Practicing the Dhamma is in order to transcend suffering in the mind. If we know the truth of things as I've explained here we will automatically know the Four Noble Truths - suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the way leading to the cessation of suffering.

People are generally ignorant when it comes to determinations, they think they all exist of themselves. When the books tell us that trees, mountains and rivers are non-mind-attended conditions, this is simplifying things. This is just the superficial teaching, there's no reference to suffering, as if there was no suffering in the world. This is just the shell of Dhamma. If we were to explain things in terms of ultimate truth, we would see that it's people who go and tie all these things down with their attachments. How can you say that things have no power to shape events, that they are not mind-attended, when people will beat their children even over one tiny needle? One single plate or cup, a plank of wood... the mind attends all these things. Just watch what happens if someone goes and smashes one of them up and you'll find out. Everything is capable of influencing us in this way. Knowing these things fully is our practice, examining those things which are conditioned, unconditioned, mind-attended, and non-mind-attended.

This is part of the ''external teaching,'' as the Buddha once referred to them. At one time the Buddha was staying in a forest. Taking a handful of leaves, He asked the bhikkhus, ''Bhikkhus, which is the greater number, the leaves I hold in my hand or the leaves scattered over the forest floor?''

The bhikkhus answered, ''The leaves in the Blessed One's hand are few, the leaves scattered around the forest floor are by far the greater number.''

''In the same way, bhikkhus, the whole of the Buddha's teaching is vast, but these are not the essence of things, they are not directly related to the way out of suffering. There are so many aspects to the teaching, but what the Tathāgata really wants you to do is to transcend suffering, to inquire into things and abandon clinging and attachment to form, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness⁷.'' Stop clinging to these things and you will transcend suffering. These teachings are like the leaves in the Buddha's hand. You don't need so much, just a little is enough. As for the rest of the teaching, you needn't worry yourselves over it. It is just like the vast earth, abundant with grasses, soil, mountains, forests. There's no shortage of rocks and pebbles, but all those rocks are not as valuable as one single jewel. The Dhamma of the Buddha is like this, you don't need a lot.

So whether you are talking about the Dhamma or listening to it, you should know the Dhamma. You needn't wonder where the Dhamma is, it's right here. No matter where you go to study the Dhamma, it is really in the mind. The mind is the one who clings, the mind is the one who speculates, the mind is the one who transcends, who lets go. All this external study is really about the mind. No matter if you study the tipitaka⁸, the abhidhamma⁹ or whatever, don't forget where it came from.

When it comes to the practice, the only things you really need to make a start are honesty and integrity, you don't need to make a lot of trouble for yourself. None of you lay people have studied the Tipitaka, but you are still capable of greed, anger and delusion, aren't you? Where did you learn about these things from? Did you have to read the Tipitaka or the abhidhamma to have greed, hatred and delusion? Those things are already there in your mind, you don't have to study books to have them. But the teachings are for inquiring into and abandoning these things.

Let the knowing spread from within you and you will be practicing rightly. If you want to see a train, just go the central station, you don't have to go traveling all the way up the Northern Line, the Southern Line, the Eastern Line and the Western Line to see all the trains. If you want to see trains, every single one of them, you'd be better off waiting at Grand Central Station, that's where they all terminate.

Footnotes

...¹

Given on a lunar observance night (Uposatha) at Wat Pah Pong, 1976

...uposatha²

Uposatha (or observance) days, are the days on which practicing Buddhists usually go to the monastery to practice meditation, listen to a Dhamma talk and keep the eight uposatha precepts - to refrain from killing, stealing, all sexual activity, lying, taking intoxicants, eating food after midday, enjoying entertainments and dressing up, and sitting or sleeping on luxurious seats or beds.

...kusala³

Kusala: wholesome or skillful actions or mental states.

...pariyatti⁴

Pariyatti, the teachings as laid down in the scriptures, or as passed down from one person to another in some form; the ''theoretical'' aspect of Buddhism. Pariyatti is often mentioned in reference to two other aspects of Buddhism - patipatti, the practice, and pativedha, the realization. Thus: Study - Practice - Realization.

... reality⁵

Sammuti sacca, a difficult term to translate. It refers to the dualistic, or nominal reality, the reality of names, determinations or conventions. For instance, a cup is not intrinsically a cup, it is only determined to be so.

... sukho⁶

''Cessation is true happiness,'' or ''the calming of conditions is true happiness.''

... consciousness⁷

The five khandhas.

...tipitaka⁸

The Buddhist Pāli Canon.

...abhidhamma⁹

The third of the ''Three Baskets,'' the Tipitaka, being the section on the higher philosophy of Buddhism.

...¹⁰

A Pāli phrase said at the end the traditional giving of the precepts.

...sīlabbata-parāmāsa¹¹

Self-view, doubt, and attachment to rites and practices.