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such sickness. As we get older, we run the risk of all kinds of disease; stomach problems, skin problems, teeth problems. I read a story once about a girl who suddenly went crazy, and they didn’t know why. She was a normal girl who suddenly went insane, totally uncontrollable, and they found that she had an impacted wisdom tooth that was hitting a nerve, and the nerve was going to the brain and causing the brain to malfunction. When they removed the wisdom tooth, she got better. This sort of thing can happen to our body. This doesn’t mean we should hate or loathe the body or even disregard it; we should take care of it, just as when we have a wound, we should take care of the wound. An arahant still takes care of their body. They take care of it as they would a festering wound or an injury that never fully heals, something that always has to be dressed and the bandages changed. Sometimes you have to pull something out like a tooth or an organ, like the appendix. Anyone who says, “the body is perfect,” just look at the appendix. People can die from appendicitis, let alone the many other incurable sicknesses of the body. This is the ādīnava of the body. Really, though, the problems with the body are insignificant in comparison to the problems of the mind. We think, “Well, if I’m born an angel, then I’ll have a perfect body.” Even sometimes as a human, it is possible to have good physical health for many years. As a result, we can become quite negligent, not interested in things like meditation or insight wisdom. We might not be able to see the dangers because we say, “well, maybe one day I will be sick, but how can I take that as a meditation subject?” As long as the mind contains impurity, however, it doesn’t matter what state the body is in. Some people are very, very sick, but their mind is pure, like Maha Mogallana or Maha Kassapa. Their minds were so pure, and yet their bodies still got sick; and so likewise, those of us who are still in good health, our minds can become very sick. Seeing the problems with the body is very useful for helping us give up kāma tanhā (desire for sensuality), but looking at the mind is much more useful for giving up bhāva tanhā (desire for becoming) and vibhāva tanhā (desire for not becoming), wanting things to be like this or like that, wanting 88
to create, wanting to become. When we see how dangerous the mind can be if we let it chase after its desires, it can actually be quite shocking. If one has never practiced insight meditation, most people think that the mind is a great thing. We think, “I like this, I like that, I want this, I want that, but I can control it.” Once we meditate, we realize no, you can’t, not even a bit. When lust comes up, when the desire for something comes up, there is no hope of denying it. It is a very dangerous thing. The mind will drag you, kicking and screaming, to the candy store to get what it wants, and if you want to get it out, you have to drag it, kicking and screaming, out of the candy store. You don’t want to go, and it doesn’t want to leave, and you fight. We have to fight with our mind. If we’re not careful, it will overwhelm us for sure, time and again. If you look at bad monks, even monks who at one time had good intentions and wound up on the wrong path, monks who abuse children or drink alcohol, for example, you can see how dangerous the mind can be. Alcoholics, drug addicts, even addicts to sensuality can get into very difficult states because of their own minds. So this is ādīnavasaññā, number four. pahānasaññā Number five is pahānasaññā. This is starting on the path. Actually, this is a positive perception, since it says that we can actually give free ourselves from suffering. The Buddha said we should never lose sight of the fact that it’s possible, that the path exists. If it didn’t exist, he wouldn’t have taught it. He said, “If it didn’t exist, I wouldn’t tell you follow the path. If you couldn’t abandon these things, I wouldn’t tell you to abandon them.” He could have said, as everyone else says, “Ah, live with it.” So we see that the Buddha wasn’t pessimistic. He was, if anything, optimistic, because ordinary people say, “Ah, life is suffering, so, live with it! Make the best of it.” That’s really pessimistic, or some might say, “realistic”, because they think there is no hope for something better. Some people might think that the Buddha was not realistic, but certainly he was not pessimistic. He said, “No, don’t settle for this. Don’t settle for such a 89
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Lessons In Practical Buddhism Yutta
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Introduction This book is based on
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Celebrating A Buddhist Holiday When
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eons and 100,000 great eons to beco
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any of us know how we became human
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- AN 1.331 Rare are the people who
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Thailand: “So today is a holiday
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“Whether a bhikkhu or a bhikkhuni
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great suffering. This is a danger t
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actually most apparent in good peop
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suffering that comes to the recipie
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good ones, cleaning the defilement
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teachers, refusing to listen and ev
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since the brain and mind together b
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A Comprehensive Practice Introducti
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from external interruption. One of
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future advancement based on this kn
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when they hear such a teaching. To
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teaching that the Buddha advised in
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immediately judge and react to just
Page 41 and 42: If we want to remain free from slav
Page 43 and 44: to support one’s practice, protec
Page 45 and 46: however, for people to possess dwel
Page 47 and 48: clearly uncontrollable - it is mere
Page 49 and 50: tiṭṭhikā” - “patience, for
Page 51 and 52: end his practice forever. The merce
Page 53 and 54: unpleasant. Certain situations are
Page 55 and 56: truly beneficial - how much more so
Page 57 and 58: entered into absorption, their comp
Page 59 and 60: Delusion too can be incredibly into
Page 61 and 62: The first step in our progress, the
Page 63 and 64: towards observing the nature of phe
Page 65 and 66: further refine their observation; t
Page 67 and 68: A person who has realized nibbāna
Page 69 and 70: other recommended him to disrobe an
Page 71 and 72: the fact that “mindfulness” is
Page 73 and 74: cultivation of objective understand
Page 75 and 76: many minutes, hours, days, or even
Page 77 and 78: experience, not impersonal space-ti
Page 79 and 80: “Rising” and “falling” are
Page 81 and 82: meaning is actually closer to “ac
Page 83 and 84: emembrance. It is called memorizati
Page 85 and 86: 8. sabbaloke anabhiratasaññā, pe
Page 87 and 88: Once you see impermanence, it’s n
Page 89 and 90: disgusting it is because, if you do
Page 91: angel is still not as good as being
Page 95 and 96: knowledge, “I am freed!” - MN 7
Page 97 and 98: their beauty. This is likely the re
Page 99 and 100: 2. paṇīto - is subtle 3. asecana
Page 101 and 102: The Buddha taught that inside of al
Page 103 and 104: Both greed and anger are caused by
Page 105 and 106: of experience. Once we are able to
Page 107 and 108: was as “afraid, afraid”, as wel
Page 109 and 110: for themselves and others. Actually
Page 111 and 112: true freedom - to see that all thin
Page 113 and 114: When we undertake the practice of m
Page 115 and 116: you can build up that won’t fall
Page 117 and 118: and effect works incessantly. This
Page 119 and 120: When we practice meditation our goa
Page 121 and 122: Part Three: Subjective Experience N
Page 123 and 124: haven’t studied the Buddha’s te
Page 125 and 126: happy. Even giving rise to good int
Page 127 and 128: The Nature of Reality Reality is a
Page 129 and 130: Simple Truth Studying the Dhamma is
Page 131 and 132: it changes. You will come to see th
Page 133 and 134: see the simple reality of our exper
Page 135 and 136: until finally the kid gets fed up.
Page 137 and 138: peaceful indigenous peoples of the
Page 139 and 140: to perpetuate themselves; beliefs i
Page 141 and 142: must look at it quite closely, whic
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and to agree with it, but the key i
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something goes contrary to our expe
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you obviously won't bump into anyth
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would like it to be. The technique
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