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This is the twelfth and final talk of the series "Samatha-Vipassana for the Nuclear Age". I would like to use this opportunity today to summarize, in one bird's eye view, every angle and aspect of the topics discussed during this series. My goal is to go clearly and penetratingly into each of them one-by-one. I call this dhamma-sacca (Dhamma-truth), by which I mean that a specific aspect or angle must be scrutinized until we realize, on the most profound level, exactly what its true nature is. Most importantly, dhamma-sacca is the one particular truth most appropriate and necessary for a situation and its circumstances. We must choose the Dhamma-truth that needs to be studied and realized here and now. For this scrutiny. I'll use the framework of the Four Noble Truths, which consists of the principles:
What is it?
Through what cause does it arise? What is its purpose? How does it succeed in that purpose? Today's talk is called "The Dhamma-Sacca of Samatha-Vipassan
for the Nuclear Age". The nuclear age form of Dhamma prepares all people to face the events of our nuclear era: events of war and events of peace. It also prepares us for the general events in the daily lives of human beings. In the case of war, if nuclear war occurs, what sort of Dhamma will enable the mind to face such horrible dangers and punishment? With peace, what knowledge is needed regarding this situation in which there is still this nuclear age kind of peace? As for Buddhists, in order to be true Buddhists who don't waste the opportunity of hearing the Dhamma, what do we need to know about this matter and how should we practice to protect our name, face, and honor? Don't forget that being a Buddhist means being "one who knows, is awakened, and has blossomed into perfection".
Nowadays, what are people doing that we call this "The Nuclear Age"? They can go up to the moon, circle it, land on it, and come back to earth. They can send vehicles to look at, explore, and go beyond the planets. Nothing is at all like the old days. We can jump from here to there and fly around the world in hours. Things have changed like this. Now that we can go to the heavens nothing is the same. What mental qualities, then, are appropriate for a mankind that has progressed in this direction and to this degree?
STRANGE & DANGEROUS TIMES Obviously, this kind of progress leads to strange and powerful results. In Dhamma language, we call these results atimahant
There are tragedies, disasters, and crises–the opposites of peace. They come one after another, without any pause between them, and so we call them atimahant
The danger we're discussing here is am
In this nuclear age, such dangers can come at any time. Although we may have parents and children, it's as if we had no one. Then who will help us? What will help? I think that Dhamma will help us, which means the Buddha will help us.
DON'T HAVE TO CRY Therefore, we must develop and store Dhamma that will help us in circumstances so dangerous that thousands of mothers or children would be of no help. To prepare yourself so that you won't cry is enough. Don't go so far as to prepare yourself to laugh; no one would believe you. Simply being prepared not to cry when disaster comes is splendid enough. You don't have to say that you'll laugh. Actually, if one really has a lot of this sort of Dhamma, I think that one could laugh. Someone with a sufficiently high level of Dhamma can laugh in all events, whether disastrous or beneficial. One could laugh at both matters that encourage liking and that encourage disliking. However we common folk needn't go so far. We only needs, for as long as we haven't died not to cry. That's plenty good already. Thus, I encourage you to listen to this Dhamma of "samatha-vipassan
You must think back to the topics of the eleven previous talks. From the beginning, how are we to practice each one? Of them which point is the most important? Realize anicca
, dukkha
at
Before we discuss the meaning of "samatha-vipassan
SAMATHA AND VIPASSANA ARE ONE When we say "samatha-vipassan
Let's review the method of practice that was discussed in the previous talks. When we look at something, we endeavor to see how it truly is, both the characteristics that it has and its deepest reality or truth. In short when seeing or watching anything, one will see the state of idappaccayat
We can describe this as simultaneously seeing with tranquility (samatha), seeing an object and fixing the mind upon it, and seeing with insight (vipassan
This illustrates the intelligence of the Zen Buddhists. They don't separate sam
la) in that gazing. Then fixing on that thing is sam
Maybe we'll be forced to admit that it's stupid to separate morality, concentration, and wisdom from one another, then to practice them one at a time. There's never been any success in doing so. One can uphold morality until death, yet never have morality. It is impossible to fulfill any of the trainings when they are separated from one another. There's no use intending to practice (s
ENLIGHTENED FROGS There's a Zen picture that I'd like to discuss; I think it will amuse you. It's a picture of a frog sitting at the mouth of its hole. I'm not very familiar with it, but I've seen it a few times. The frog is sitting at the mouth of its hole it's sitting in the meditation posture. The words accompanying the picture are the frog's: "If they're Perfected Ones only because they sit in the meditation posture a lot, then I'm a Perfected One (arahant) as well, because I've been sitting meditation all my life". The frog says it has sat in meditation from its birth until the present. The Zen people are teasing other sects, kidding both other Mahayana sects and Theravadins as well for attaching to sitting meditation, for trying to sit in concentrated states until they become rigid, stiff, and crusty. The frog teases them saying, "I've sat in meditation all my life, therefore I'm an arahant just like the others". This points out something important: Don't practice anything blindly, without examining it from all sides and in all aspects.
There's another picture that teases in the same way. In this one the frog says, "These guys are accomplished and successful. If they pass this way, I'll jump into the water with a loud plop and scare them out of their wits. Have these accomplished vipassan
If we bring magical and sacred things into Buddhism it will become just more bowing to and worshipping holy things, requesting whatever we want without doing anything. That's a religion of begging and pleading; that isn't Buddhism at all. Instead, we must behave and practice in correct accordance with the law of nature. Then, benefits will progress according to that practice.
NOT HERE, NOT GOING THERE We can see in the Dhammapada Commentaries, which are full of stories, that the Buddha once gave his disciples a certain meditation object. He gave them a particular matter to take into individual practice and instructed them to come to tell him of any results that occurred. The Buddha didn't sit watch over the monks as is done with people nowadays, nor did he distinguish that as concentration and this as insight. He gave them a meditation object very similar to a Zen koan to think about...no, not to think about but to guard until they saw clearly. For example, they were to practice in a way that was neither here, nor elsewhere; without past, without present, without future. They were to practice until the feeling of "not being here and not having gone anywhere" arose. In "being here", there is yet a self, some person that is here. In "having gone" there is the desire to go somewhere, there is craving to find something somewhere. And there's no past, no present, no future, because these all are identical.
If we are just free of craving-that's all it takes–past, future, and present have no meaning. This is what the Buddha meant, but instead of explaining the meditation in this way, he had the monks figure it out on their own. He had them meditate until they saw that there is no past, no future, and no present, that there's no being anywhere, nor going somewhere. Nothing going, nothing coming, and nothing stopping anywhere. "Figure it out yourself".
The monks did as they were instructed and as soon as they began to contemplate what the Buddha had given them, there was morality, concentration, and wisdom full to the brim. The self-control to do a certain thing is morality (s
The commentaries make it very clear that in his time the Buddha gave meditation objects the scrutiny of which led to both tranquility and insight. He didn't separate practice into different stages to be done one at a time until we die without actually having practiced anything, such as keeping s
PERFECTLY NATURAL l'd like to ask you to observe the way things are naturally. When we think or do anything, the idea and intention to act, and then the intention to do it as well as possible, are gathered together within the act itself. We are able to survive in this life and can win the struggle with nature, because nature creates living things that have the intention to act and act correctly within themselves. But because this happens gradually we don't see it clearly and can't make out the distinctions. If we observe the children running around, we'll see that they develop daily in both sam
There is nothing that can be done without the simultaneous application of the powers of mind and wisdom. No matter how stupid a person is, if we give him an ax and tell him to cut some wood, and then he returns with the wood, then there must be sam
All natural things are under the control of nature itself. S
CONCENTRATION & WISDOM ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE With no exceptions, nature brings concentration and wisdom together in all things. This is something that nature has ordained all along, so that this partnership is a matter of nature which proceeds naturally. Consequently, we have the skill, cleverness, promptness, and resourcefulness needed to survive only because adequate sam
If we step into a fire, the leg will immediately pull back without any conscious mental intention. This is an area in which nature helps a great deal. But should it be impossible to pull the leg back to remove the foot from the fire, then there must be the knowledge, the mindfulness and wisdom, the problem-solving ability, the something needed to survive. I've observed that even animals have these faculties, although to a less evolved degree than people. They have the intention to act and then they act well enough to succeed. For a snake to swallow an animal as big as itself takes concentration and wisdom. Sit down and watch for once; a snake can swallow up something as big as itself.
Nature requires that we have both sam
MORE GOING ON THAN YOU THOUGHT If we take a purely material example, one that has nothing to do with people, in which there's a kind of awareness and thought that accords with natural law, we can see that more than one thing is necessary to achieve success and benefit. Let's take another look at the ax used for cutting wood. For the ax to bite into the wood, it must have two qualities: sharpness and weight. It can't be light, but must have sufficient weight. Sharpness alone, as with a razor blade can't do the work. Nor would a heavy but dull ax work; a hammer is useless for chopping wood. For an ax, or any cutting tool, to perform properly it must have both weight and sharpness. Sam
If you were to study from the lowest levels of nature, you'd probably understand this matter. In general, we blur the two qualities into one. We don't know about the realities that deceive us; we don't catch the deceptive facts. Take, for example, a slide projected on to a screen: we think it's a picture on the screen. We don't know that it's composed of two most important factors: light of adequate strength and a slide that is projected by that light. If we turned on the light without the slide, the screen would be all white, there would be just the light-component. When we put a slide in front of the light, it appears as a picture on the screen and we see the picture. We don't see the light because we already see it as picture. We only see the picture on the screen. We never distinguish between the light, as one component, and the slide, as another component, both of which must work together. This is the cause of our inability to distinguish the sam
The powerful light which shines upon the screen is the equivalent of concentration and the different pictures carried by the light are like wisdom (pa
Things work the same way when we see a car drive by; we only see "the car" driving past us. We never think to distinguish the two components: the engine that creates power and the wheels that spin by the strength of that engine. These are different components, as all mechanics, well know. In the language of mechanics, they say that if there's no load the motor spins without doing work. In other words, if the engine isn't engaged with the drive shaft the motor spins like crazy to no purpose. Sam
Now it's clear that sam
THE PATH MUST HAVE ALL THREE Now we'll take a purely Dhammic view. Observe that when various problems arise–dukkha in particular–there also must be solutions for them. All solutions must be complete in certain necessary qualities. The same is true of what we call the Eightfold Path, the Eightfold Path that we've memorized so well. Generally we take only the quicks superficial view of recognizing "that's the Eightfold Path", just as when we see a car go past but don't see the various systems at work within it. The larger systems of the Eightfold Path contains hidden subsystems within it. These are the morality subsystem of Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Maintenance of Life; the concentration subsystem of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration; and the wisdom subsystem of Right View and Right Intention. In the Noble Eightfold Path, in those eight factors, there are s
You would do well to remember that concentration and wisdom must join together and work together without any separation. So it seems that the Zen people are actually quite skillful in using the single term "Zen" to mean both concentration and wisdom working together. If we don't think carefully about this, we'll remain stupid. If we do think carefully about it, we'll admit that their improvement–just "Zen" to cover s
Now if someone asks, "So what's this samatha-vipassan
What the Buddha taught is adequate for the nuclear age; it's quick and complete enough for any age. His followers are sluggish, however, and sometimes they split the teachings into so many pieces that it's impossible to do anything right. Rather than spinning everything into a single theme, they unravel it into more threads than can be followed. Whether this is stupid or wise you can see for yourselves. If a person took three ropes, then unraveled them into many strands in order to tether a water buffalo, what a mess it would be! How stupid have things become? If it takes one three-ply rope to tether a buffalo properly, how could we tether that same buffalo with just a single strand from that same rope after we've unraveled it? This point must be scrutinized until we see that the Buddha said all that needs to be said–"Sv
I'm afraid that if we allow this clumsiness to continue, there will be nothing left to use in the nuclear age, because it demands absolute correctness, perfection and speed–excellence in everything. This is the reason that I'm giving this series of lectures entitled "Samatha-Vipassan
WHY IS SAMATHA-VIPASSANA NECESSARY IN THE NUCLEAR AGE? Now we come to the second topic. From what cause does this thing arise? Why is this thing necessary? Tranquility-insight that is appropriate to the nuclear age is essential because we are beginning to realize that the nuclear era is sliding forward more and more powerfully, and increasingly encroaching upon us. We must prepare something to meet the situation of this out-of-control era. But we aren't going to speak from just this one perspective; to do so would seem to belittle Dhamma's worth. We're going to examine this matter from the beginning, from its deepest levels, according to the instincts of beings living naturally, to see that we necessarily must have this thing already.
To state the situation briefly, to be dominated by dukkha is our normal state. Nonetheless, as we enter the nuclear age, dukkha will dominate and trample us more and more strongly, thoroughly, and heavily. How is it possible not to prepare ourselves by improving our practice so that it can cope with the times? We've had natural dukkha all along; as the nuclear age progresses, that dukkha increases to nuclear strength. Buddhists must have the knowledge and whatever else is needed to resist and solve the dangers. If not, we can sit and cry at am
Ordinarily, what afflicts us? I'll use an easy-to-remember simile to illustrate. Ordinarily, we are in a condition that is like being slapped left and right, right and left, constantly. Normally, naturally, people are in a state that is like being slapped left and right, right and left, all the time. Do you see? If you don't see even this large a problem, we have practically nothing to talk about. And what slaps our faces left and right? The things in the world whose values condition satisfaction and dissatisfaction, liking and disliking. When we say left and right, we mean that on one side there is satisfaction and on the other there is dissatisfaction. Whoever sees this life as equal to constantly being slapped left and right is beginning to see correctly and is beginning to see in a way that will be of use.
This is a matter that we ought to discuss and study together. Why are we in a state that can be compared to having our faces slapped left and right? In this world, there are things that are conceived of and imagined to be pairs, through the foolishness and lack of knowledge in people. People insist that the pairs are real. Things are "just like that", they are "just that way". These are "the way it is" of fools, the truths that deceive the ignorant. People don't understand and take them to be the truth.
DECEPTIVE PERSONAL TRUTHS It's amusing that everyone has their personal truths. When someone studies the Buddha's teachings, it remains the Buddha's truth. It doesn't become one's personal truth until one actually passes through it. Children have their childish truths. We can't pull them away to do things that they don't want to do, because they have truths and likes of a certain level. Teenagers, young men and women, husbands and wives, everyone has their particular truths according to their particular feelings and sensitivities. Such truths can't be interchanged. Therefore, there are many levels of truth following from the awareness or sati-pa
This world is lovely and satisfying. We become infatuated with it and think we are right in doing so. Everyone thinks that it's correct to dote on the delicious tastes and beautiful sights in this world. These are illusory truths of the most foolish kind. Then we begin to study and practice insight. We begin to see that it isn't like that or this, that there's no self or soul as we had thought, and that there's nothing to grasp at, cling to, and identify with in such a way. Grasping and clinging at any time will bite every time. One begins to want not to cling, which means not to have a self, but can't stop because the attachments and identifications are too firm and tight.
UNABLE TO QUIT We have a simile to illustrate this. A certain gentleman is full of infatuated love and desire for his wife. Later, it becomes apparent that the wife is actually cheating on him and is a wicked person. Yet he can't divorce her, tell her to stop, or kick her out of the house because his infatuated love and desire is too strong. He will remain with that wife who he knows to be dangerous until things pile up and become more and more heavy, to the point where he can make up his mind and divorce her.
This world is the same. In reality it's a fierce world, for it bites us if we attach to it. The same holds for all that we attach to: beauty, entertainment, enjoyment, deliciousness, wealth, gain, fame, and praise; form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and thought. We've attached to these things for so long that the mind is addicted to the clinging. Even when one practices enough to realize the way things are–"Oh! It bites every time, it gnaws every time"–even then one can't stop. One still can't let go of this world, one still clings and clutches at it. One will continue hugging and embracing this world as something desirable until sati-pa
Smokers are an easy example of this point. Those addicted to cigarettes know that the habit is bad and want to quit, but these people can't stop smoking. And drunkards, they know that drinking is evil; they want to quit, but can't. Why not? Because the pleasure still binds them too strongly and they can't stop. These examples make the same point as the story of the gentleman who couldn't abandon his evil wife because the old love and bondage was still great. Such is true for each human being who when born into the world of forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and thoughts is fond of and bound to it, even up to this very moment. While we are yet sunk deeply in that infatuated love, it grips us too strongly to pull ourselves free; we must endure a lot of pain first. Pain must be endured until one day or one night a person is able to give it up, just as one day or one night that person is able to give up cigarettes or alcohol.
This is what we've been talking about–the truth. Truth has various levels. The truth of fools is clung to with all their heart and life. Eventually, they know that it isn't true that there's something which is more true. Nevertheless, they still can't abandon the truths that they have attached to. First, they must increase samatha and increase vipassan
Everyone is like this. Even Buddhists are stupid. They have their foolish truths, the illusory truths that they have clung to and grasped at since before they were worldlings. Once they listen to this Dhamma and realize their foolishness, realize that they're sunk in dukkha, they want to come over to this side which is free of dukkha. But they can't come over because they're still bound by ass
In this matter we have our easy-to-remember metaphor: we live in this world stupidly, like fools, like worldlings; and so we get slapped left and right, right and left, endlessly. Or, we could say that with every inhalation and exhalation there is liking and disliking, disliking and liking. We get slapped for this reason and that: now something about our children, now something with our husband, now something with our wife, now something about our possessions, now something about our honor and fame–nothing but what is ready to slap us silly. Getting, we are slapped one way. Losing, we are slapped the other way. Getting leads to love through which one stupidly sinks into attachment. Losing leads to sadness, crying, and moans of despair. Here we have both liking and disliking.
DUALITY TORMENTS THE WORLDLING When the mind is on such a low level that it already is liking or disliking something, take a good look and see if that isn't the same as being slapped left and right constantly. When eating delicious food, we get slapped by satisfaction with the deliciousness. When eating unpalatable food we get slapped by anger and aversion. We can say that this is more pitiful and sad than pity itself. The natural state of worldlings, of those who don't know anything, is a life comparable to being slapped left and right all the time by the things that come accompanied by their opposites.
There are many things which form pairs of opposites or dualities. The first set has already been mentioned–liking and disliking. Then there are gain and loss, victory and defeat, having the advantage and being disadvantaged. There are many pairs, many dualities, dozens of them, and each is a pair of slaps in the face. That is, they bite a person's heart on both sides because they are dualistic. Dualities have two sides, and whichever side comes by, it bites in its particular way. So if we aren't bitten this way, then we're bitten that way. Life goes on like this until we strip it all away by saying, "That's just how it is; it's just that way. It's idappaccayat
THE MOST URGENT OF ALL Is this matter as urgent and pressing as nuclear matters? Think about it. Is this matter as urgent and all-important as the issues of the nuclear age? Anyone who sees the truth of this will realize that this is the most urgent issue of all. We must resolve this problem before the body dies. But most people don't see at all, and so are careless. They cover their cars and close their eyes heedlessly as if nothing were happening. In laughable situations they laugh, in tearful conditions they cry. Laughing and crying, crying and laughing, as if it were nothing.
They aren't aware that their lives are the same as being slapped in the face. Yet one who studies the mind, who reflects upon mental matters, who already has knowledge and understanding of the mind, will have observed that the mind is attacked from two sides: the side leading to liking and the side leading to disliking. The side of liking affects the mind in one way and the side of disliking affects the mind in another way. But fools don't know this. And why not? Maybe because their skin is too thick. They have no awareness. Their nervous system knows nothing about what is going on, because they're totally lacking in genuine wisdom of Dhamma. It's as if their skin is so thick that they can't feel anything. So we must scrape off the ignorance and thickness. Then, as it becomes thinner we'll gradually come to know these things. Whether or not this condition is as urgent a matter as our nuclear problems is something that you must decide for yourselves.
If we understand su
WHY ACCEPT DUKKHA? These days this world is in a state of becoming more and more stupid. No one believes me when I say this. You who are listening, do you believe that the present world is in a condition of increasing foolishness? We don't notice because we only look at those areas where man is clever in material knowledge. People are most clever at making strange, new things that we must buy and must use. Even these video cameras, although an example of the cleverness of modern man, demonstrate that the situation is becoming more and more stupid. These things are totally unnecessary. Why do we let them cause so many difficulties? We surely don't have these wonderful things in order to know Dhamma. They're only used to fall into deeper infatuation with beautiful and delicious experiences. These magical things are created for humanity to grow stupid and sink more deeply into the mire of delusion. Everything that is considered clever in this scientific age, all these marvelous instruments, when seen from a foolish perspective are thought to be examples of human intelligence. But when they are seen on a more profound level, they're simply proof of the human stupidity that makes us sluggish, that enamours us with all this, that keeps us stuck here, and that is nearly impossible to get free from.
We can summarize this point by saying that the modern world is in a state of accelerating stupidity regarding the creation of peace. We insist on the qualification "regarding the creation of peace". Although this world is increasingly idiotic, in the area of creating crises it is increasingly clever; it is quite talented at starting more complicated and troublesome disasters. This is the sort of progress we have. So whether people go to the moon or who-knows-where, they aren't going for peace. They do these things for reasons of war and increasing affliction. Thus, we must say that the world is becoming more stupid regarding peace. A correct method is needed. Don't become foolish. Don't sink into stupidity, but become more genuinely intelligent. Don't bother with unnecessary matters. Don't create unnecessary things. As for the unnecessary things which already exist, use them for peace.
All of the luxuries and conveniences with which we fill the world answer only to our defilements (kilesa, e.g., greed, hatred, fear, worry, ignorance). They support people's defilements and make people selfish. For this reason, all of the cleverness does nothing to create peace. All of the fine things, new products, expensive goods, and magical inventions only make people more stupid than ever. They lead people to infatuation with things that bind and attach the mind. Thus, there is no dawning of wisdom, no abating of the ignorance. This is what makes me think that samatha-vipassan
Actually, there is some understanding in the world; some people have some sensitivity regarding the situation. They try to free people from dukkha, to get people out of dukkha, but they can't get people out from dukkha, because they don't understand the cause of the problem. There are too many things that have been made to mislead people and sink them in the mass of dukkha, more than too many. Consequently, if samatha-vipassan
Humans get dukkha, difficulties, and troubles from their own foolishness. They make the problems themselves. Is this point too profound for people to see? Why do they continue amassing hassles and difficulties until they're so afraid that they can't sleep at night? This is the result of stupidity of their own making. They don't know what something is, and are consequently afraid of it.
A PIECE OF ROPE? To explain this Dhamma point we have an interesting metaphor. Both Buddhists and Vedantists tell of mistaking a rope for a snake, then falling into dukkha because of the stupid snake thus created. That is, in the moonlight at night, when it is dark and difficult to see, there is a coiled piece of rope lying on a path. A man comes walking down the path. There isn't enough light and the man thinks the rope is a snake. He jumps suddenly and cries for help. He created a "snake" for himself. The stupid man creates the stupid snake, then he is troubled and frightened by it. He doesn't even know that the snake isn't real, that it has no mouth or fangs.
He wholeheartedly believes that it's a complete, 100% snake, which strikes terror into his heart. There he stands shaking and calling for help. So it is with humans these days. Lacking sufficient light in their minds, they conjure up dangerous things which leave them shaking in fear.
As is well known, a kitten will be frightened of a brick or a block of wood if we tie the kitten to it with a rope. The kitten is afraid of the block because it believes the block is dangerous, and so cries in fear. It's the same with modern man. He creates all sorts of things, thinking that they will be good, progressive, advantageous, rich, or whatever the dream, but they end up causing him to be afflicted by fear and the many other problems caused by those things. In economics, politics, and other arenas of social competition, people are producing things that frighten them and cause them problems. Because wisdom is inadequate these things are common. So don't let these things into your homes, don't let them spook you into stupidity, fear, insomnia, and neurosis. These things which irritate the nerves, don't let them in. If you allow them to enter, they'll bite their owner so that, at a minimum, you can't sleep at night. Vipassan
Nowadays, we lack adequate wisdom and think ropes are snakes. Things that aren't even dangerous frighten people to death, although they are only things that have arisen out of our own foolishness and inability to think in the right way. This sort of thing is happening more and more. On the other hand, people see saw-tooth discs as lotus flowers: things which can genuinely help are seen as useless, while dangerous things are taken to be helpful.
People search out the bait of defilements as solutions for their problems. This is what is meant by the saying, "People see saw-tooth discs as lotus flowers". Such remedies are more harmful than the problems, yet these remedies are all too common these days. Saw-tooth discs are mistaken for lotuses, ropes are mistaken for snakes, dangerous cures are taken for minor illnesses. We create these things out of our own stupidity; otherwise they wouldn't exist. Then when it's time to get rid of them, we can't. We see things backward; we take unsolvable messes as the solutions to our difficulties.
SACRED OBJECTS ARE NO HELP Which brings us to a matter for which I've been criticized many times. If I say anything more, I'll be attacked again, but I can't skip over the topic of magic, sacred objects, charms, and talismans. They can't solve anything, but people still use them as solutions. They're conjured up without pause. I've even asked people with chains of amulets around their necks, "If we fill our homes and cities with these things, will your suffering end? If we fill the world with charms and amulets, will the world be free of dukkha"? They answer "No...no..." with a load of the things clanging around their necks.
Things that can't help, we want. Things that can help, we don't want. What are we going to do? The things that nourish intelligence and sati-pa
What can we do about this? Whose problem is this; whose mistake is it? Is it the error of Buddhism? Of the followers of Buddhism? Whose fault is it? Please think about this carefully.
Only when correct understanding and sufficient wisdom or vipassan
SAMATHA-VIPASSANA CAN STOP THE CRISES Now to the next topic: What advantages will nuclear age samatha-vipassan
The essence of this matter is: dispel the darkness, let in the light, then walk the correct path. When the darkness is gone, the light can shine, and it will be possible to walk the right path. That's all there is to it, this is our only objective. There's a metaphor which I've used in th past: correct samatha-vipassan
Beggars, if they're silly, cry just the same. They'll need to use that very same tear-wiping cloth as the millionaires, the exact same cloth. Think about it. Is this necessary or is it not? Between the beggars and the millionaires there are many levels of people: the ordinary poor, farmers, laborers, merchants, civil servants, professionals, and whoever, up to the rich, royalty, and the deities in heaven. If the deities up in heaven begin to cry, they'll need the same cloth to wipe away their tears. This is how it is; there's no cloth to wipe away the tears of fools other than samatha-vipassan
This metaphor covers many topics. It covers all the terribly fearsome matters that lead people to hang charms and talismans around their necks. Nothing else will dispel that fear except for correct knowledge of true samatha-vipassan
Or if you prefer, it's amata (deathlessness), not dying, beyond death, which is the same thing. When samatha-vipassan
This, exactly this, is the goal. There must be this level of sati-pa
So whoever has a child, grandchild, or great–grandchild–be careful! Set them on the right path. Turn them around on to the path that they should travel. To do otherwise is equivalent to turning them loose to walk into hell, into blazing fires, into things that make life purposeless, where there are only problems and dukkha. Please accept this knowledge as something essential, to be developed and preserved for sentient beings and human beings. Without this knowledge there is no humanity; there is nothing to distinguish us from beasts.
INCREASE SAMATHA-VIPASSANA'S POWER There's one more topic and we'll be finished. What method will do it? What method will produce samatha-vipassan
We must realize that the needed Dhamma principle already exists. The Noble Eightfold Path–exclusively this and nothing else–can solve the problem. There is only this way. No other path can solve the problem and quench dukkha; the Noble Eightfold Path is the only way. To increase its power and energy is to increase the power of that very same samatha-vipassan
SAMATHA-VIPASSANA FOR EVERYONE Not speaking about the facts has led to a gap in our knowledge; so we don't understand that there are different ways of talking about this one thing. Because this hasn't been taught, some people have an erroneous understanding. They are confused to the point that they feel samatha-vipassan
We therefore practice samatha-vipassan
POUR ON THE FUEL If we want the fire to blaze, we must add fuel. If we want the nibb
We use a material metaphor and speak of increasing the fuel for Dhamma so that Dhamma will flare up. The fire of Dhamma is dying out, it's almost extinguished, there's no light left. Increase the fuel to the fire of Dhamma! The fire of Dhamma will blaze forth and radiate its brightness everywhere so that people will follow the right path. People will be able to follow that path to the highest truth–the truth that there is really no self. The same holds true for the young man who loved his wife so passionately that he couldn't divorce her even when it became apparent that she was wicked and adulterous. He must add the fuel of knowledge of correctness, increasing it until he is able to abandon that evil wife of his. Then the matter is finished, the problem is ended, and there is no dukkha.
Nowadays, we've fallen in love with the world–sights, sounds, odors, tastes, touches, and thoughts–to the degree that we love it even though it bites us. We're infatuated with the world in spite of the biting and clawing. The fact that it bites us means that it isn't loyal to us, it has another lover, and it isn't honest with us. But we still can't let go. We're just like the fools who can't stop smoking and the slaves who can't give up alcohol, because we don't have the strength and fortitude to sacrifice the petty charms of these things.
SELF-PUNISHMENT We must observe until we see the wicked punishment of att
Living the Noble Eightfold Path, or genuine samatha-vipassan
What we mean is to accelerate the machinery of seeing tathat
IF ITS THE PATH, IT DELIVERS Please devote your lives to more, higher, and better practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, or samatha-vipassan
The Ten States of Rightness–the Noble Eightfold Path, plus Right Knowledge and Right Deliverance–is the perfection of the Sublime Way of Life. All the necessary causes and effects are there. When all ten factors are fulfilled, the Buddha said that it is perfect. It is a cathartic (virecana) that evacuates the self; once taken it purges the self. Beings possessed of birth will be released from birth, beings possessed of old age will go beyond old age, beings possessed of disease will transcend disease, and beings possessed of death will be delivered from death. This comes about by taking the purgative known as the ten sammatta. Sometimes they're called a vomitory (vamana) that causes the self to be heaved and thrown up. Other times they're known as dhovana (holy water that washes away sins), but this "holy water" washes away the self. The Ten States of Rightness are the perfect cure for the disease of self.
We've used these materialistic metaphors because they're easy to remember. Once the self is finished, what is born? What grows old? What falls ill? What dies? We can see that there is hope for us to not be born, not grow old, not fall ill, and not die. There's hope when we take this cathartic, when we take this vomitory, and when we bathe with this "holy water". But no one talks of this! But now the time has come–it's most urgent and is getting closer and closer–to be interested in this matter. So please help each other. Help work together to perfect this world with nuclear age samatha-vipassan
The time for this lecture is up. Before finishing, allow me to express the wish that you all will get moving, that you will get active in causing these things to arise gradually, or immediately, so that you can be released from the dangers of this nuclear age. It's time to stop talking now. Our time is up. Get moving!
