u/Why_who-

(Edited translation)

For a bhikkhu who is developing the path to Nibbāna, going for alms from house to house in proper order is something that helps strengthen his own path to Nibbāna. When a bhikkhu goes on piṇḍapāta, in a village there may be an unseen distance from one house to the next. The residents of the houses are engaged in farming work. Poverty, faith, good conduct, and the wish to give dāna are present within them.

One day, while standing in front of a farmer’s house for piṇḍapāta, a woman came. She was young. A small child also came running behind her. She may have been the mother of one child. What she carried in both hands was a bottle of sugar. It too was half empty. She offered two spoonfuls of sugar into the bowl. Suddenly she began to sob and cry. “Venerable Sir, this child’s father spends everything he earns on drinking. There is nothing at home to offer,” she said in a very pleading voice, and she sobbed. Having shared merit with her, the bhikkhu departed.

A woman’s tears, her sobbing, the pain of separation, the man’s neglect, the compassion asked for by a mother of one child all these are the food that Māra gives you. It was Māra himself who fell crying before you in the form of a mother of one child. If you think, “Ah, poor thing. Because she has no food, she has no milk for the child either. I should give something from the bowl to the child. Tomorrow I should bring some biscuits or something and give them…”

If you go to sympathize with her sorrow in that way, then the one you are actually showing sympathy to is Mara. In the future, Mara will make you the servant of a mother of one child in a household.

However, if you are skillful, you should reflect like this: The woman crying before me has, throughout samsara, been born as a human daughter, a deva daughter, a hungry ghost (peta) daughter and an animal daughter. She has wept through grief, through separation and through being neglected by a husband. Even in this age of a Buddha's arising, she has inherited nothing but tears as a human daughter.

What she seeks is sympathy and compassion. What you seek is liberation (Nibbana). To seek sympathy and compassion is to seek to accumulate something. To cultivate the path to Nibbana is to let go. Therefore, you should let go of her tears and her sorrow. You should see tears and sobbing merely as their natural nature, just as a child is the natural condition of a mother.

Having let go of everything and gone forth from the lay household, one becomes ordained to develop the path to Nibbāna not in order to show sympathy to the world. Not in order to extinguish the suffering of others. It is to extinguish suffering within oneself. As you go on this journey, there will come occasions when even mettā, karuṇā, and sympathy must be let go of. By showing mettā and karuṇā to the world, you cannot realize Nibbāna within this very life. You have still not escaped from the helpless condition of dying, becoming ill, and aging within the world. First, free yourself from this helpless condition.

For meritorious people who run after the delusion that there is happiness in saṃsāra, who believe that their pāramī are still insufficient, and who make wishes for pleasing worlds according to their preferences, such qualities as mettā and karuṇā should indeed be developed more and more. There is no argument about that. Those qualities should be developed to the utmost possible extent.

Look how unwilling beings are to hurt Māra’s feelings. They long for his embrace itself. Māra’s embrace is bhava. While enjoying the warmth of Māra’s embrace with delight and relish, and while sobbing and crying, you have experienced it for hundreds of crores of kappas. Even today, you are attached to the saṃsāra that Māra stretches out his hand and points to.

You postpone liberation until the Dispensation of the future Buddha Metteyya. Then, for many more eons and through tens of thousands of rebirths, dying and being reborn again and again, if by some chance you are born as a human during the Dispensation of the Buddha Metteyya, then even at that time, just as today, Mara will point his finger toward the Dispensation of the next Buddha yet to arise. You will accept that as well. In this way, Mara has led you on, passing by hundreds of thousands of Dispensations of Fully Self-Awakened Buddhas, and has brought you to where you are now.

It is for this very reason that, by making Mara's warmth the warmth of your own body, you have inherited an ocean of suffering throughout samsara. If you wish to become free from Mara, who has brought you such suffering, you need not add anything to your life. What you must do is let go of everything.

Look at yourself, you are doing the difficult thing, which is accumulating, while avoiding the easy thing, which is letting go. If your mind comes to rest beside her tears, that is Mara's Dhamma. Letting go is the supramundane Dhamma. Do you wish to become a son of Māra? Or do you wish to become a son of the Buddha?

If what you do is collecting, accumulating, and heaping up, then you too are certainly a son of Māra. After death, ordinary worldling laypeople and monastics will compete to give sermons at the paṃsukūla ceremony, raise banners, and show you as one who has attained Nibbāna. Wearing the garlands of excrement placed on you by ordinary worldling laypeople and monastics, what will happen to you is that you will have to go toward another birth. That may be the four apāyas. It may also be the deva or human worlds. Yet in all of them, there is only suffering.

You must be skillful in making the practice of piṇḍapāta into a journey of seeking the requisites needed to develop the path to Nibbāna. If you are seeking only food, Māra will bless you. For you are seeking food for the sake of Māra’s continuation. Any of us can show mettā to the donor who offered dāna. What you must do is not what everyone does. It is what others cannot do. What everyone cannot do is to show mettā to the person who did not give.

If you are skillful on the piṇḍapāta journey, you can attain mettā-samādhi. If someone goes on piṇḍapāta seeking only food, what remains within him is not hunger of the belly, but the fire of bhava. If the fire of bhava is extinguished, all fires will be extinguished. Until now, what we have done is to throw straw onto the fire. Although Māra supplies the straw, it is you who burn in the fire. The nature of fire is to blaze. The nature of straw is to help it blaze. The nature of Māra is to bring these two together. What your nature should be is to extinguish the fire without putting the straw of defilements into the fire of bhava, and to do so without Māra seeing.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a1.html

In the current Buddha Sasana all who become ordained as monks do not exhibit the same resolve to attain Nibbana. However at least they are ordained by Lord Buddha. To work towards the worldly and spiritual progress of people, and to be happy, and to make others happy, is indeed an honourable vocation. But the true meaning of ordination entails more than that.

Firstly one should align strictly with the Dhamma Vinaya. To be ordained with whatever goal in mind but live in accordance strictly to the Vinaya (conduct) is a cause for admiration. But if one duly ordains with the resolve to attain Nibbana, yet thereafter is only involved in building Kutis, roads and fences for the development of the Hermitage, then this is deeply unfortunate. Having given up houses, children, relatives and responsibilities etc. in lay-life, the idea of ordination is not to repeat what was occupied in the past. The idea is to do something which has not been done in the past!

The carpenter, having taken to robes, continues carpentry in the Hermitage. The secretary, having ordained, keeps writing books. The cook, having ordained, keeps on cooking for the monks. These things should not happen! We need to examine carefully why we ordained - to rid our ruined minds filled with defilements, and to develop a mind freed from those defilements.

Family, wealth, social status, all constitute mountain-high burdens of defilements that we amassed during our lay life. Having laid down such defilements, one by one, we then continue to take on another mountainous burden with a different disguise of ‘developing the Hermitage’. With understanding we must lay down all mountainous loads, otherwise we will continue to inherit the same cycles of rebirth in samsara.

During lay life you were attached to relatives, wife, children, houses, jobs and businesses. Having given them up, you dive straight back in by immersing in the development and maintenance of Hermitages, thus becoming newly attached to benefactors and assistants. Thereby you renew lustful desires, enmities and delusions, never establishing within a true understanding of giving up. All that has happened is that one burden of defilements has been shed from lay life, and a second mass has been taken up in ordained life!

The mind, defiled by lustful desires, inclines to take this continuously crumbling world as ‘mine’. The mind is not intelligent to understand itself. That intelligence is acquired through wise knowledge (Panna). To gain such knowledge the Samadhi (concentration) needs to be established within you. Through this concentration the insight you gain is not to ‘build’ but to ‘un-build’; not to be attached or be in conflict, but to be devoid of entanglements.

During our lay life we keep on ‘building and building’. Un-building can only occur through comprehension of this building process! Through ignorance we construct vast buildings in the sensuous world, in the worlds of Form and still further in the Formless worlds. But as we climb our ladder of craving to erect these beautiful constructions, the moment our feet trip, disaster inevitably strikes and we plummet into the Four Great Hells. You must be intelligent to identify this enormous risk!

Those incapable of seeing impermanence in the three types of feelings (joyful happiness, tearful suffering and impartial equanimity), journey on through samsara. The Buddha declared that these tears of joy and suffering are greater than the mighty ocean. If you let the opportunity for liberation pass by, then the tears you shed in the future will be even greater. Because the great volume of water (suffering) stored in the ocean has been shed literally one tear drop at a time. Every tear drop welling at the bottom of your eyes arose through the feeling caused by contact with form. We are ‘beings’ who have shed an ocean of tears, and stranded ourselves, due to the impermanence of form, contact, feeling and consciousness. ‘Letting go’ of one form called the lay life and desiring another form of the Hermitage are one and the same – these are the chess moves of Mara.

‘Protecting’ the Sasana and ‘developing’ the Aranyas is like the icing on a tasty cake. Comprehend that this icing does not lie on a cake, rather on a pot of molten lava. During the Sasana of the Samma Sam Buddha there would have been lakhs of Arahats residing in the temples and hermitages now inherited by us. Great men and women like Suneethala, Sopakala and Patachara, having understood Arahatta and emerged as great Arahats, may have also resided in them. Yet we are still entangled building up our huts and hermitages.

Whatever we are actually building, brick upon brick, it is not enriching the Aranyas, but just fuelling more suffering. The Path to Nibbana is a process of un-building, brick by brick, and setting each aside.

Why not be an example of this suffering and leave it for the next generation to inherit. Let us also entangle our meritorious lay donors in this knot! Knowing that in our search for happiness, it’s only suffering that endures through the mental worlds we build, the bricks we lay day by day.

The joy which radiates from comprehension of the Dhamma, from the removal of every single brick, should saturate you. Know the might of ignorance (Avijja); the great ‘constructions’ of being (Bhava); the impermanence of the form (Rupa); the impermanence of the five holding aggregates which constitute rupa; the bhava constructions built by the bricks of craving (Tanha), conceit (Mana) and view (Ditthi). Endeavour to know this great edifice; to know your own weight, which is crushing and destroying you!

The five holding aggregates (Kandhas) arise at great speed, accompanied simultaneously by the blocks of craving, conceit and view. These build the towers of being (Bhava), and elevate us to the world of sense pleasures. Yet, at this very same speed these towers of bhava collapse inwards to the Four Great Hells. Here one endures the most profound depth of suffering. So, if some being is condemned to suffer in these hells it is due to their self-built towers of bhava collapsing and then crushing them. This is how they feel the pain of suffering.

It is worthwhile lending thought to all those fortunate beings that live in Aranyas. The forest is not there to be cleared or to be beautified. The forest by nature is beautiful and attractive. Only if our hearts are impure and heavily defiled do we feel an urge to ‘beautify’ the forest. If you are intent on developing the Aranyas then in the future you may take birth in the form of a tree deva, a protecting deva or as an invisible spirit. Since that’s what you desired, that’s what you will get!

Perhaps in the past we traversed the divine worlds, where we were kings of devas enjoying the bliss of divine life. As a result, we feel pressing desire to continue that lifestyle, to be an eternally protective deva or guardian, to steadfastly hold to that path. Similarly in the present, perhaps we have experienced that splendour and bliss, so our wish to be a protective deva or a tree deva is a strong aspiration. If such intention were to manifest, in that very Aranya or Temple we would literally take birth, living by taking the Bo-Tree, the relics and the Buddha Mansion as “mine” own. There one can live happily witnessing the meritorious deeds of others, and freely resentful towards those whom we oppose. Since the deva life is an ideal opportunity to be released from the four great hells, one lives greedily absorbing happiness from others deeds, and holding to a forest, Aranya or a Tree. This is still a very unfortunate situation.

The one in search of Nibbana, who resides in an Aranya or an empty space, should not seek to change the ‘nature’ of the environment. By doing so, they bypass the very essence of the Dhamma. Their existence becomes a mere token of it.

Having realised that the lay life is filled with suffering, and having let go of it, and then replace it with the suffering of monastic life is unfortunate.

“Suffering comes to be through the desire for form” - declared Lord Buddha.

Those righteous laymen wrapped in thousanddollar garments, who relinquish their lustful desire for such garments, but who then switch their lustful desire to the five robes, are like two sides of the same coin. All that has changed is the pattern and design.

In reality the world is simply a design. A design painted by our lustful mind as it rises and falls. The ‘designer’ sometimes takes human form, sometimes deva form, and sometimes Peta, animal, demon or hell being form. As long as there is grasping, aversion or equanimity towards the three pots of coloured paint - namely craving (Tanha), conceit (Mana) and view (Ditthi) - the designer will keep on painting pictures. Releasing oneself of lustful desire for the lay life, whilst holding to another lustful desire for monastic life, is simply changing the form of the design and its colours.

A sick person who visits hospital takes medicine for his sickness. If he neglects this and instead nurses others, or re-furnishes, beautifies and landscapes the hospital, then he will be swallowed up by his own sickness. By his unfortunate decision-making, having had access to the doctors, hospital and medicine, he succumbed to death. Similarly, our life endeavours should not lead to repeatedly inhabiting the womb of a human, Peta or animal, but to guard against this sickened fate.

However if your desire is to inhabit once again a womb then you will receive the same. The curled up embryo, wriggling inside the fluid filled cave called the womb, is you, the designer taken birth. In accordance with cause and effect you have taken form, self-satisfied, becoming everything you wished for.

Those honourable beings, who have taken refuge in the Triple Gem, who have taken to robes, must steadfastly contemplate the true goal. They must allow it to germinate into noble intention. This nobility will grow to cover them like a protective shield, whilst bringing forth mindfulness and awareness. It will evolve within them, maturing into veneration and respect of Dhamma and Vinaya. Under the influence of such noble nature develops an inability to do evil deeds. Undisciplined, unrighteous behaviours only lead to deepening shame and fear.

In effect this ‘threat’ is the most effective guardian we could have for the journey to Nibbana. It is a great protector. If the shame and fear were to diminish then it would be dangerous for us and temptation would lead us astray. Those beings without fear and shame do not align themselves in conformity with the Dhamma or Vinaya declared by the Buddha, instead they fashion their intentions and conduct with their freedom and desires. Their mentality is corrupted by clinging to benefits and favours. Priority is given not to Lord Buddha but to those honourable benefactors who bestow such favours.

Benefactor means a person doing an established job, with family and children, having lands and houses, well to-do, and with varying degrees of power in society. Their aim is to accumulate as many meritorious acts as possible. Hence they direct their wealth for the development of Aranyas.

Since a benefactor’s lay life is overflowing with work, the burden of their meritorious gifts (Dana) falls onto the shoulders of the Bhikkhus. This entails searching for sand, bricks, cement and labourers.

If all the previously mentioned obstacles to progress have been recognised by a Bhikkhu, then living the true Bhikkhu-hood is to be honoured and revered. But it’s easy to be led astray by giving sole attention to those benefactors thereby neglecting true purpose. The critical question must then be continuously asked and engrained in oneself “which road are we travelling?”

Those righteous beings who wish to walk the Path to Nibbana should already know that the Buddha did not declare two different ‘ways’. The only Path is the Noble Eightfold Path! During our precious life as a Bhikkhu, we must earnestly focus our attention on whether it’s the right or the wrong path. Why so? Because shame and fear are such very rare qualities in the world.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

Whatever ones status when alms are offered, both the benefactor and the beneficiary acquire merit in this life and the next. Both gain long life, appreciation, comfort and positions of power, all of which are subject to impermanence. For the development of knowledge (Panna), let all the above merit be useful aids.

Now, we should not obsess over insignificant details: whether it’s one meal or two; whether it consists of meat or no meat; whether it lacks fruits; whether its rice and curry. What we should firmly understand is whatever the form of the food, its only purpose is to nourish the body which grows old, falls sick and carries us finally to death. In the final analysis, the food you take one day will kill the body. Before then, sickness is a certainty due to the lack or excess of food.

If you are able, try to distance yourself from the offering of food to your bowl (such as rice, vegetables, fruits and sweets) and view them instead as phlegm, urine, excreta or sweat. View the king coconut or water you drink as urine; the garlic as air emitted from the body; the curd as a pile of phlegm. What you will observe is the true nature of that food. The truth as it is. That is the real meaning of looking backward or reviewing (revision), and reflection. Looking backward is looking in-ward.

Eating at will and uttering stanzas of the Buddha during pilgrimage are not a quality of revision. Do not be a comedian towards noble review, or else the comedy falls upon you. Both the cloth cut in accordance with the dimensions of your greed and aversion, plus the colourful nature of your character, will be reaped by you in the future cycle of rebirths. That is what you have constructed and made arrangements for. It is not something conferred through mere utterance and wishful thinking. Whatever is to be reaped is sown entirely through your own actions.

You must aspire to an honest and truthful revision in the following manner: “In past times I have tasted heavenly food during heavenly births; king’s meals in the human worlds; phlegm and vomit in the ghostly worlds; grass and straw in the animal worlds; and fire in the hells. All of these foods are equivalent to the soil on this earth. Thereby my tongue shall not be greedy for tastes.”

Without such reflection, by tasting the alms (given by the innocent lay folks), we are unknowingly feeding them to Mara, and pushing ourselves further into debt. We can only escape this debt by curbing the tongues chase after taste, and by penetrating the real nature of this body which feeds on the food, and the real nature of the food we consume.

In many a hermitage, bottles of malted milk, fortified milk powders, imported coffee, and fruit cordials line the cupboards. But there will come a day, on your passing, when not even a tea spoon of tea leaves can be forced into you. Means, if you do not grasp the significance of food and its true nature today, then you will die reaching for these bottles whilst choking on your own spit! Lustful desire is the source of your spittle.

So, if you are clever to observe the impermanence of the mind that searches for taste; that demands taste; then you will always regard that tasty food in its right review. If you experience the desire to eat a specific type of food repeatedly, then view that food as a pile of excreta.

Reflect directly onto the desire as something which does not belong to you; as a causal part of the origin of suffering; as the stream of suffering you have endured throughout samsara; in the present and on into the future.

Due to a ‘foreign’ mind which does not belong to him, which appears and disappears, the Puthujjana (commoner) travels up this stream of suffering. During the current period of Buddha Sasana he should endeavour to ‘get out’, and use this human life to its ultimate potential.

The spit that is swallowed due to the arousing smell of food, the excited thoughts that arise alongside, and the taste you savour, see them all as impermanent!

Satisfaction experienced by the meritorious laypeople who offered these alms, must not be viewed as yours. While consuming food always restrain yourself within limits. A part of the stomach should be filled with food, another with water and another part should remain empty. To exercise your limits, align with the advice of the Noble Teachers, but do not give in to the well wishes of the alms-giving laymen.

Such resolution is only valid to those fortunate beings who in this life strive to conquer the Path to Nibbana. It should be clearly understood and kept in mind.

Whoever wishes to consume food may embrace the laity’s offerings to suit their liking, (liberty to do so is within the Sasana), but stay mindful that the quest to be released from this Samsara is only further distanced.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

It is to be expected that a forest-bound Bhikkhu encounters many difficulties finding food on his alms round. Hunger can be transformed by such circumstances into a blessing for the purpose of attaining Nibbana.

At such moments it is only you who should know that you are in hunger. Whether it is a single occasion or many, lack or absence of food catalyses an opportunity to gain wonderful comprehension. Again, that you were in hunger or that you are in hunger is not necessary to be known by the world. The witness and the defendant should only be you. Why? Because such self-restraint enables you to attack Mara (the unseen) with the strongest force. By focusing accurately on the right target, Mara gets defeated. This time you should be cleverer than Mara, because up until now, it was Mara cleverer than you throughout this great Samsara.

Most of the time we don’t experience genuine hunger. All we know is a flash of hunger triggering the food immediately consumed. This cycle is a part of our daily routine, the basic nature of the entire community of ‘beings’.

The Bhikkhu who searches for Nibbana is different from the entire community of beings. He is a ‘being’ resolved towards a different goal.

Imagine if the most professional astrologer, after studying your planetary horoscope and the lines on your palm, were to conclude you have long life and that you will live for fifty years. However if you were to suddenly starve for many days, you would surely die more quickly.

Why so? Because one instinctively understands that food is essential for this body to survive. If this body is not fed with food, however long your lifeline may be, you will accelerate death. Whether you pompously decorate the body, or declare it as yours, without being fed adequate food the body dies. In fact this is a body that belongs to rotting food. Without feeding on this rotting food death inevitably occurs. This is not a phenomenon which belongs to you or something which can ever be controlled.

So if you penetrate this with wisdom, you will see, that horoscopes; pulse reading; palm reading etc., are all traps laid by Mara to lengthen this samsara. Once caught in a trap the decision to follow the Path to Nibbana gets delayed by the day.

There is a well-known, virtuous, elderly Bhikkhu who had given up a good job with status in society. He pursued ardently the Path to Nibbana. However the astrologer predicted that he wouldn’t attain his goal of Nibbana for another ten years. So this venerable monk turned his attention away, declaring he lacks the Perfections, and has ended up cast adrift, only further from the Path to Nibbana.

What he pursued with great effort in the most difficult forest conditions, with the minimum of resources, regularly enduring the grinding ache of hunger, all this merit, was casually discarded, because Mara succeeded in halting his progress.

You must erase all these predictions uttered by Mara, disguised in the science of horoscopes, pulses and palms. Comprehend that this body lives only through sustenance of food. Ultimate victory (Nibbana) commands perseverance, effort and courage. This is the only predictive science (not astrology) necessary for your perfection.

Out of all the bodily elements, the air element is best understood when you starve the body of food. With starvation you feel the speed of the wind element in the stomach, windpipe and rectum and it happily invades the body, becoming agitated and turbulent. What one must do is apply mindfulness and observe its rise and fall.

During this exercise Mara will approach you and mock “Are you trying to die? Are you trying to get gastritis? You will suffer every day…. and you are bound to faint very soon.”

Do not succumb to any of the above. Why? Because these are Maras words. Mara inhabits your mind (which rises and falls), he fills it with defilements and greed for the pleasures of the senses.

So you must think the following:

“..That I am a Bhikkhu who strives for Nibbana, and I am developing the Path, with the knowledge that this impure body does not belong to me. Even if this body were to die, I will not give up my resolution”.

Thus you become a Bhikkhu who chases Mara crushing him blow by blow. By your observation of the impermanence in the air element, your mighty blows of wisdom will hit the target precisely, and Mara will come to fear you. This Bhikkhu will thus be disowned by Mara.

Take heed. Mara will go to great lengths to deceive you, warning that you will never be able to achieve Nibbana by starving in this manner.

See how cunning he becomes, ‘sympathetic’ towards Nibbana.

Undoubtedly, our only defence is to hold steadfast, mindful and recollected in our resolve for Nibbana, to avoid being cornered by Mara.

Maras’ proclamation that “Nibbana is not possible if one were to die”, automatically inclines us to regard it as our own idea. Though it is spoken by Mara, it nevertheless presents as our own pathetic thought process. You who strive for Nibbana must be primed to recognise these obstacles, tactics and tricks of Mara.

That said it is inevitable that the majority will lose the battle entirely due to the usage of the word Nibbana by Mara. His cunning guile plants the thought deep within us that “Nibbana is then not achievable”.

If you are clever, with reflection you must see that this body, this feeling, this air element does not belong to you! Stepping out further you must see that even Mara’s words do not belong to you. In the final lap you must even give up the desire for Nibbana, to achieve Nibbana.

Only then, wisdom (panna) reaches the ultimate level. But the effort and resolve must be there to surrender this body, on the march to Nibbana.

Now you understand why hunger is a blessing. Even if you were to only starve a single meal, through that, the growth of knowledge and comprehension should be cultivated, instead of simply dwelling in unwholesome feelings of virtuosity.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

The Lord Buddha emphasized that one must be disciplined in following the Noble Eightfold Path to attain to the final goal of Nibbana. With only the three robes and the bowl, living under the roots of trees, in lonely places and hermitages, the Bhikkhus in the past leaned towards the Path to be released from suffering in this journey of Samsara. This, the Buddha declared as the Middle Path to those Bhikkhus who strived to the end.

There is enough freedom for review and criticism. For those who wish and as per the length and breadth of their defilements, if this Middle Path is followed they can immensely benefit. In this Teaching Sasana, there is ample freedom for this endeavor. There is freedom for criticism and review. And there is no wrong doing in that. But the results will not be as expected or desired.

For those Bhikkhus who carry the bowl on alms begging to obtain a razor or a piece of soap as per the Vinaya has been clearly described within this Path. Here lies the true meaning of the Noble Eight Fold Path declared by the Buddha which then will move into fruition. When Bhikkhu goes on the alms round to be contented and exist with whatever he receives is the Middle Path.

Storing dry rations in the Hermitage and in the alms round if one is not able to find tasty, oily, spicy food, then to cook oneself is certainly not relevant to the Path. However the Vinaya (Conduct) gives complete freedom. And to make use of that freedom to the ultimate sense too is also not blameworthy.

The Vinaya is there for the inefficient and the not-so-clever person. The clever one is contented with whatever he gets. The Bhikkhu who strives for Nibbana at any cost, neither amasses or collects, but one who lets go once his hunger is satisfied. There is no tomorrow for him, he lives constantly in the present.

In the present times this could mean a satire, rude assignment, objective truth or even criticism. It’s not only in these times, but even in the time of Buddha, to live in the present had much criticism. So what can we say now!

However even at this present moment there are those sons of the Buddha who strive with the Path, who endeavour with it, take refuge in it and can be unquestionably, indisputably found in large numbers on this earth. They live by themselves in the thick of the jungles. They depend not by popularly revealing that they live on the robes and bowl. But live with the minimum needs not to grasp things but due to the difficulty of letting things go for the purpose of training. It’s because they must look after the physical body until they finish the job of reaching Nibbana.

Retrospectively the Bhikkhu should eat the food offered by the benefactor. To reflect that food offered is not tasty, or with the desire for taste to enforce a tasty meal by those dedicated laymen and to gorge into such meals does not belong to the Middle Path. Yet that it can be done in accordance to the Vinaya is also understood. If someone were to do so, there is no criticism. These are the natural behaviours of the world and the worldling. Yet we should not collide or be in conflict with them.

The one who leans towards Nibbana should be freed from such perceptions as suitable hut, gas oven or hot water bottle. These are Mara, who wakes your taste buds of greed. Between the Middle Path and the World of Sense Pleasures also is a state. This is neither the Middle Path nor the Sense Pleasures. It’s a combination or a mixture of both. It is similar to the equanimity between the two. In this there is both binding and colliding.

In that state one finds exceeding or violating the Middle Path and grazing or touching the World of Sense Pleasures. Let us call this the policy of Mara. Having seen the Middle Path as Mara’s policy, he goes in search of Nibbana. Though the calf stays near to the cow, if you were to milk through the calf then you will not get any milk. This is neither the fault of the cow nor the calf. The fault is in you. However the cow and the udder are both in front of you.

Though one ties oneself with the rope of Vinaya there will not be fruits. It’s no use collecting cow dung, urine from the cow. You should be clever to collect the five milk products of the cow. It’s only through comprehending this you become clever. The only way to this is the true Noble Eight Fold Path.

If you were to dedicate yourself to the practise of this Noble Middle Path, taking the three robes and the bowl while living in a hermitage, empty places or roots of trees, then the Middle Path becomes meaningful. Think carefully, though your tongue lies but the heart does not lie. That you can see only through the wisdom.

Before you endeavour to be freed from the burden of this world, be freed from your own burden. When you get freed from your own burden then you will comprehend that all this time you only carried the burden of the world. That weight of the world which does not belong to you has been sustained and carried by you. It’s due to the ignorance of the human being: the Puthujjana. The length and breadth of that ignorance will only be comprehended by you when you are freed from the world.

If you follow the Middle Path in a well-disciplined manner and pursue the path to Nibbana, you can make the entire universe delicately fine and bring it within your palms. Then you will feel that ‘I conquered the world’.

The power of conquering the world is hidden, spiritually inside all humans. What you need to do is to surface the power. If you fail to surface that power in this life you will have to spend many aeons of suffering in this Samsara.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

In a wet region on rainy days it takes about a kilometer to walk to an alms hall for the alms-giving in a hermitage which is infected by leeches. The road to this hermitage consists of stony paths, hills and valleys, dangerous serpents like Telkarawalaya, Kunakatuwa. A Bhikkhu who wears sandals inquires from a Bhikkhu who does not wear sandals in the following manner: “When you walk without sandals, don’t your feet get sore or feel the stones?” The other replied, “Actually not.” The first enquired, “How does that happen?” The reply was, “I emit Metta. First to all ten directions, thereafter to all trees, roots, stones, thorns and everything on my way I emit Metta. Every stone, root, thorn, and branch I meet on this road I wish them well and wish them healthy growth, and so I think. I respect all of them. Then you will feel that some stones, roots, thorns touch your feet move away without giving pain,” said the Bhikkhu who does not wear sandals.

Actually this is not a miracle. Because of the Metta you emit towards the stones, roots and thorns, you place your feet on them with great care. With the thought that will it harm them. Hence your mindfulness grows steadfastly. The two feet get well protected even when you walk on this difficult road.

Such harsh Bhikkhu conduct is extremely useful to strengthen your Path towards the journey to Nibbana. Here you must set up a virtuous plan; if not, Mara will adorn both your feet with a pair of sandals. Then you will say that sandals are suitable for a Bhikkhu to adorn.

Yes, surely it’s suitable. It is allowed in the Vinaya (rules of conduct). But from the day it was allowed, the usage of the Miriwada Sagala became in excess. And the Noble Arahats became less. Why so, when a stone or thorn hurts your sole, when you trample some mud, a dung hill or some rubbish, the nature of the feeling under the sole is not known by the one who wears sandals. The smooth sole while feeling the comfort of the touch of the sandals what you are indulging is in the craving of happiness. Since two feet are protected, you only speed up the movement of walking. Within this speed lies only the craving. You speed up to increase the touch, becomes ‘my touch’. Through craving what else can grow other than Bhava (‘being’).

Though a monk lives alone in the jungle, if one is complete in Metta then it is highly unlikely that you meet these wild animals. This is not a miracle but a nature or the Dhamma of cause and effect. The reason is Metta. However you must be cleverer than merely to chase away by confronting the animals by saying stanzas of protection or having emanated Metta to them. You should be able to evade them through the power of Metta. You didn’t move into the jungle to check whether the animals can be tamed by you or to check the might of the stanzas of protection. Why? Because with such efforts you will only increase your defilements, you will feel a victory is assigned to you. You who entered the jungle to give up the me and ‘mine’, now heroic stories of the ‘mine’ will be narrated. This is a stumbling block for the Path to Nibbana.

These are the reasons for the fewer people who attain to Nibbana in the present times. We moved to the jungle not to be a mahout or for snake dancing. But to dance, twist and turn the Mara who intoxicates us with the world. If the Mara makes you a heroic character in this world, then you must be clever to defeat the thoughts of Mara. It is not to be a hero or be a character in this world that you must set forth effort but to transform that effort to relinquish all—the hero, the character and the world—thus you must train. If that does not happen then the jungle, the solitude becomes another city. The fault does not lie in the jungle nor in the solitude nor the city, but it firmly lies in you. You must let go yourself. Then all above will be relinquished for you. Every individual who strives to attain the Path to Nibbana will dwell in Metta to oneself. That can be done if a willful effort by you is set in motion to exit this dreadfully bitter awesome suffering of existence. This is the superior Metta one could do to oneself. If one is successful in this quest then this superior Metta can be emanated to the entire world. However you too are helpless, if in this cycle of existence you are destined for birth, death, disease and old age and then to emit Metta to others is not in the field of wisdom.

Prior to the effort to emanate Metta to the world, bestow Metta upon oneself. It can only be done if you were to understand the predicament, helplessness and your destituteness within you.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

At the appropriate time laymen set lunch on the table for the monks. It consists of four to five vegetables, rice, fruits and sweets. Whilst these Dayakayas (lay disciples) leave, it is not uncommon to catch the following lament: “Not spicy enough, let’s fry some sprats!”

(In the hermitage there are dried rations for use as per the Vinaya.)

If you are amongst the novice monks you may be entrusted to clean the sprats. Do not arouse conflict, do not avoid it, face the challenge! It may be that you personally don’t consume meat and fish. Still do not think about the task. Each and every single sprat whose head you break can be regarded as a karmic embodiment of your (once) mother, father, relative or son: - all born within this great Samsara.

Reflect on the possibility, that this very sprat could have been a world turning monarch, a divine being or a ghost. It could even have been a dear friend of yours - so reflect! Compare or align this situation with each and every ‘type’ of human being or animal. Then, consider that this same animal may once have been a monk. Because within this epic Samsara, (the relentless journey of birth and death), everything is possible. So ponder how and why a monk could be reborn as a sprat, a sprat that may have given birth to Arahats.. Be clever to reflect in such a manner!

Through such comprehension, honour this sprat with full reverence, from the bottom of your heart. Realise the profound quality of ‘reflective objects’ (Kamatahan) which are conferred from a single sprat.

If you were to avoid your monastic duty, flatly objecting to handling the sprats and leaving the hermitage in protest, then only you would be in loss actually. You would be the loser of opportunity, of ‘reflective and meditative lessons on objects’.

Do not be impatient in your eagerness to identify what being or person resided in this or that sprat. For now, simply contemplate on those reflective objects you received through the sprats. See the terrifying depths of samsara. Dread samsara in its unfathomable entirety!

As these perceptions clarify, your wisdom will sharpen and gain comprehension. Since actually no being or person can be found in the sprat, only the elements - which themselves are subject to impermanence. If this understanding does not rise in you then maintain patience. As the faculty of wisdom – Panna - matures, right understanding will follow like a shadow.

Understanding allows us to realise that the taste of fried sprats gives nothing other than further desire and lust for that taste. And even though one may be a monk in this life, one should be mindful that from this cycle of birth the potential of becoming a sprat is ever present.

Be adept to avoid taking another birth in the womb of a mother, or to be conceived inside an egg. Else one day of this great journey, a sprat will be born a human and this human will consume you as if you were a sprat!

Don’t indulge in the same greed and desire as this monk, to avert taking birth as a sprat. Though you may quell your restlessness by becoming a vegetarian, disgusted by meat, do not fool yourself, you still remain enslaved to the tongue and it’s every taste. All that is accumulated is a different mass of greed.

What you should actually be doing is observing the impermanence of the sense desires, in other words, observe the Impermanance of the mind which desired the taste.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

The story of the way of a Bhikkhu who sets forth effort to be victorious with the resolve to realize Nibbana in this very life is similar to a tree. The Path is recognized not by those who build the hermitages (Kutis), with the notion ‘this hermitage is mine’, or ‘I am the hermitage’, nor the ones who build more buildings, nor is it by the gardens they grow. If a Bhikkhu honors the rules, then he should let those things be in the hands of the laymen for their fulfillment. If it does not happen, it is the duty of the Bhikkhu to be contented with whatever is given; and if things are neglected by those meritorious laymen, it should be an object of contemplation, having seen that as the nature of the world he must pursue to be freed from the world. For a Bhikkhu the utmost level of subsistence to be at ease is the bowl and the three robes. This minimum collection is the limit towards the Path to Nibbana. The limit of the ‘path to being’ (bhava - ignorance) is much larger and wider.

There are many faces of preparations that need to be done in a hermitage. Brush the premise, clean the huts, administer the alms hall, treat those Bhikkhus who are sick, attend to the offerings in the Shrine. There are many phases of preparations that need to be done in a room; attend to the elderly and foreign Bhikkhus are many duties that inevitably would be done. Existence and the cleanliness of the Hermitage are abundantly helpful to the way for eradication of the defiled state of one’s own conceit. Those elated by conceit and pride cannot gain results through meditation. Instead of harnessing the instructions given by the Path attained noble friend or a teacher, they try to go above the teacher and think of themselves becoming the teacher. They don’t like to listen to others. Walking towards the Path to Enlightenment (Nibbana), we should be clever to learn from anything high, low, poor, rich, big or small. The one who is conceited cannot do this, achieve this. The medicine for all this is the Path, the Way.

When you clean the toilet, you should not think that ‘I am cleaning the toilet’. You should think that you are cleaning your mind. When you sweep the compound you should not think you sweep the compound, but think that you are sweeping the dirt off your mind. This is the way you should clean your mind towards the journey to Nibbana. The nature of the Mara (ignorance) is to induce you to get good marks and a good name. You should not give good marks to Mara but to the Path to Nibbana. Your thinking should be that it is for your welfare that no one has cleaned the toilet or the compound. You should make use of this opportunity. When you ignore such matters, your mind daily gets filled up with defiled dirt and filth. The mind which is filled with dirt is a perfect nursery for Mara. At every moment you be the one to clean furthest filled spittoon without being lazy.

The optimum level for the Bhikkhu who is disciplined towards the Path to Nibbana must be down to earth all the time. If someone were to wash his hands on top of your head, thinking that it’s his nature you must remain in non-conflict within your nature. To be able to stay behind others, and even if you knew one thousand things you should behave as if you knew nothing. You are not a dumb person, but must answer when asked a question. This way you must not hesitate to stay behind others. The one who stays behind can always learn something by observing those in front. The observation of diversity in merit and demerit, virtuous and the non-virtuous, vividness of behavior and nature of movement can only be seen by those who walk behind. You should exclude or remove the good and the bad. You should see that in all there is only the diversity of the four great elements. Make use of the present situation of being the last. You being the last, thus having the opportunity to see all those ahead, and those ahead of you are unable to see you, must be considered as a fortune you have received.

In these world elements a human being’s most supreme journey is innocently undertaken by you, the elderly Bhikkhus will enquire thus; “Though you are robed as a monk, you seem to have no knowledge. Are you contemplating to disrobe?” Pretend that you have no knowledge until the final job is done, the state where the knowledge is complete. If you indicate that you know, then only the conceit which grows. So is the work of Mara. Do not be disturbed. With humility pay attention to those elderly Bhikkhus.

All these activity does not belong to you, hence let go of it. Do not take ownership of things that have been done by others. This process of letting go must only be known by you. If known by the second person, then it’s activated by Mara. Nibbana is a journey which you must walk alone; this must be kept in mind. In the final lap you relinquish yourself and that moment is the end of ‘being’ (bhava), the journey that comes to the end of bhava. Do not hesitate to think that the one who pays for this victory is non-other than the Path—the Way. The Path’s expenditure is humbleness. Uppermost level of humility is the ceasing of conceit and idea of self.

It must not be forgotten that the spittoon which collects the Betel leaf spit, the toilet which collects the urine stain, cobwebs which collects in a dining hall, are suitable planes for the purpose of Nibbana. It is only when you arrive at the peak of humility that you can experience the ceasing of conceit.

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For a monk to realize Nibbana in this life it is essential that he has an independent environment. One cannot give a single meaning to this independence. Depending on the worldly or supra mundane necessities the meaning would change. One can take this independence as a university education, teacher’s appointments, government job or politics. There is nothing wrong in this except that they are various views of individuals. However they are not the Path to the supra-mundane Nibbana.

The reasons mentioned here are not for those young Bhikkhus who train in this Buddhist dispensation, but for those who while living understood and seen the suffering of the worldly pleasures, that through all these one accumulates only suffering, and for those brave ones who put forth effort in this very life to realize the Path to Nibbana by establishing the complete meaning of these words “to be released from the bonds of the household”. In this dispensation it is true there are many such beings. If you are attracted to the Path, then the Path is open to you. Lord Buddha has proclaimed the right Path to you.

For freedom to be meaningful, you must think in this manner: “I robed myself, not to preach to others, not to utter the sermons (Pirith), not to administer temples and hermitages, not to succeed as the head monk, not to develop perceptions of Devas or Brahmas, but have the strength to think that ‘In this life I must fulfill the Path to Nibbana’.” According to the advice of the Buddha, freedom means to be able to think in this manner. As to the teaching of the Mara—ignorance, freedom means to think contrary to this.

As a son of the Buddha you must reflect that Nibbana is within you and it’s not near the Buddha, or in the book of sermons or in the Tripitaka. Nibbana is not in those books.

Knowledge, examples and the Path are inscribed in them. There is no argument about that. If you get immersed in the books on Dhamma, what follows is knowledge, lectures on the Dhamma due to learning, and to attend discussions on the Dhamma. If not, you will be delicately roaming making offerings in the Buddhist mansions or in the compound of the Bodhi tree. The lay people are very fond of these rituals. Popularity, honor and respect are high priorities even to the Bhikkhus. Both parties grow in the worldly defiled Dhammas. They are reasons for happiness in existence. In the end the one who left all and robed as a monk sadly ends up as puppet to satisfy the laymen.

Here one must be clever to give up, relinquish all. However you must associate with those even cleverer than you—those noble friends who have developed the Path—and do not avoid this as the value of that association cannot be overstressed. This is an absolute necessity.

Until you advance to a position of strength, think and know that you are sitting in front of the Great Buddha, Venerable Sariputtha and Venerable Moggallana, and been advised by them. In this journey you need no further protection. Common jargon is to amass; what do you amass? Knowledge, stanzas, sermons, higher Dhamma, preaching...!! Let go of this, entirely feel the freedom and lightness, pursue feeling freed from anything which weighs. Extinction means a direction; for this direction what is important for you is the three robes, the bowl and a lonely hut.

If you believe that you are fulfilled in Sila (conduct) and Samadhi (concentration), if you have no doubt about your Sila, then it is appropriate that you select a lonely hut in the forest. If you do not believe in your Sila then you should not hurry to find that lonely hut in the forest. Your inability to gain strength is a prey for the Mara. In the forest caves non-humans, spirits and demons stalk you, make you sick and makes you a mental patient. Do not retreat. To strengthen you, a Noble (Ariyan) friend who has developed the Path is able to give you many short objects of meditation. Here the Sila is not whether you are a novice monk or an Elder monk or an assistant to the head monk, but the firm belief that you are flawless in conduct. Have trust within you with respect to this supra-mundane Dhamma. At the appropriate time get advice from the teacher or a noble friend.

For your protection, to use it at the time of absolute necessity, it will be more than adequate to know the meaning of the stanzas which worship the Triple Gem, sermon of the Loving Kindness and the Kandha sermon. Let others be, as much as you are able to let go, the ease of the development of the Path to Nibbana is realized. It is only when all other things are let gone that you are now ready to pursue the Path to Nibbana. However if you possess a mirror to check your face, a hot water flask, a blanket to keep you warm or any other such things, then it seems that you are still not ready. It means all such things are wrapped around the intention of ‘comfort to my body’. Let go of all. Until such time, you are not ready. For the one who cannot give up the mirror it only becomes a joke to advise him to give up this body. But if you could, then without any doubt it is possible for you.

Repeatedly reflect in your mind upon the Lord Buddha, nourish the image in your heart, and continuously see that you are under the shade of the Buddha. Early morning during the round of almsgathering, imagine you are behind the Buddha. Create the image of Vens. Sariputtha, Moggallana, Ananda and mentally live with them.

In your heart murmur with them, gather their modes of existence. Mentally observe their bodily courage they took to experience and understand Nibbana. Create in your mind the effort made by the great Arahat Chakkhupala. By using the above modes of plans train your mind towards the march to Nibbana. One by one breaking the ties from Mara (ignorance), relinquishing what needs to be relinquished, thus prepare you. But in the face of the worldly beings do not behave like an Arahat. If that were to happen you fall into the pocket of Mara. Be clever to transform that nature is one with you, and not two separate things.

Compare the huge tree in front of you and your body; view them as just a diversity of the elements. Contemplate again, that you are yet a monk ready for the pursuit of the Path. Be as much in solitude and freedom. “I must meditate this much time for a day”, “must break rest and meditate in the night”, set aside such thoughts by seeing their impermanence. Make a firm resolution, which you set forth effort towards, that “recolleetion that there will be no attachment, no bondage or no conflict when the last breath leaves my body.” Whatever the reason, do not attach your mind towards the Sovan, Sakkhadagami, Anagami, Arahat Magga Phalas. Think that they are defiled states of mind. Let go of the desire towards Magga Phalas. If you pursue with the desire for Anagami then you must think that you have wasted your precious life. Think leisurely. Sleep if you feel sleepy. Be simple, at ease, and freed. Do not indicate to anyone that you are following such a policy. Having observed the impermanent nature of every single form that comes into contact with the six sense faculties (see the actual ‘ceasing’), thus not to be in conflict with the mind, body and the environment.

You must always think that this battle of yours is with Mara. Every suitable moment you must deceive Mara. Make him fear you. Make him dread you. Earlier it was mentioned for you to live with those great Arahats; that is to deceive the Mara. Now you make him dread you. View those Arahats too as impermanent. See their passing away mentally. View the Stupas built upon their relics. Mentally see them vanishing too, thus once again deceiving the Mara. Mentally focus and then worship the Great Ruwanvali Stupa, Kiri Vehera, Sacred Maha Bodhi Tree and the Tooth Relic. Now deceive the Mara by seen the impermanence of all above due to their destruction by climatic changes, due to wars and with the passage of time. Having seen their impermanence, seen their ceasing, little by little, gain authority over Mara. Make Mara tremble by seeing the passing away, seeing the impermanence of all world elements. Make him dread. Now your duty should be accomplished. Having cheated you for a period of unfathomable period of eons, having driven you into the four hells, human and Deva worlds, having taken the authority over you, now turn the table on this Mara. Little by little twist the Mara, the Ignorance who holds the authority on you.

Similar to a boxing contest, having slowly but surely given blows to your opponent and craftily by giving the final blows completely dismiss him, just so craftily cheat the Mara until dismissed. The Forms (rupa) that become the food for your senses must be seen (not just viewed as the past) as impermanent. Must be seen then and there, when they arise and pass away. That which was seen, evade them. Do not search for them willfully. Do not hurry, neither be slow. Work within your own nature. On which Magga Phala am I now and how long will I take? Could I do it? As soon as these thoughts of Mara, the ignorance are seen, defeat them by seeing them as impermanent. Do not be in collision or conflicts; as soon as a form is viewed see its impermanence. If there is an attachment to a particular form, then try to see through that form, its transparency, the reality of that form. If you practice in that manner the results are quicker.

Let us take that relevant form as a beautiful woman. View her in the womb of her mother. Having started like a tadpole, having spent nine months within a balloon in the womb, with endless pain and deathly wailing having emerged to the world, struggling in her own urine and feces as a baby, then a child, youth, and in the middle age to old age, view all above forms of her. The beautiful form you saw in her, make it a skeleton and see it. View the manner how this skeleton carries the intestines, the veins and the flesh. His or her form by mentally stripping naked see the heap of dirt which consists of flesh, veins, etc. been carried by the sheath of skin. Beauty was not in that beautiful form or neither in you, but in your impermanent mind filled with ignorance, thus must you see with reflection and knowledge.

Five Holding Aggregates, Seven Enlightenment Factors, Dependent Arising, Four Satipattanas, are Dhammas (things) not to be learned by heart like parrots, but by seeing all forms as impermanent and the subsequent understanding gained when the wisdom (pañña) gets sharper, the above Dhammas get established. You are still on the training ground. The contest has still not begun. You are still warming your body for the contest. The stronger you warm it; the more victorious will be the contest. This is a battle, a contest, against Mara (ignorance) who wields authority on the entire world elements. If this contest is won then you are one who has gone beyond, or crossed over from the world.

Here you are engaged in a contest where Samma Sam Buddhas, Paccheka Buddhas and the Arahats contested and became victorious. In this contest those sons such as Rahula, Sopaka and Nigrodha were also victorious. And so were those women Patachara and Isidasi. If the training is successful then the victory is certain. Be simple and straight. Be light and easy. Be freed. When necessary take a rest. If the robe is sweaty then wash it. Keep the compound of the hut tidy. Saying that you see all things as impermanent do not neglect to be clean. If things are untidy what you see is an unfortunate impermanence. That is a force of ignorance. You must defeat that. Be impartial. To see the impure (asubha), be relatively clean and be pleasant. You must not be attached to this state of beauty you must be clever to be detached. All beautiful forms (rupa) in this world should be your object of meditation. You must be able to view a beautiful actress as object of impurity. See her as a skeleton. That occasion arose to you because of her beauty. In a world filled with non-beauty you cannot reflect and progress on impurity. Things change to unpleasantness only if they were beautiful. So the beauty became impermanent and turned to unpleasant or ugly. This simply is the nature of the world.

In this manner when you are honestly engaged in the Path then it becomes an invitation to the Lord Buddha. Why so? Your heart now is a hut with Buddha qualities. His qualities begin to grow. Next steps to take in the Path are seen to you as perceptions. Then you rise up like a massive elephant king. Why is it so? You begin to experience that Buddha Dhamma has come close to you. You will understand that instructions come to you. Dhamma leads you on. Now you will understand that Samma Sam Buddha and the Path to Nibbana are one and not two different things. Grow the Path to Nibbana. See the Lord Buddha. In this trust or belief the victory is near the door step. Through your effort open the doors then you will be enlightened within the world. Then immediately as you close your eyes the entire world can be seen as Extinguished. In this journey even the Buddha can be perceived as a skeleton. Do not be troubled until this strengthens. Still the Path is shown. Until then be clever to mentally perceive that you are under the guardianship of the Buddha. When the right time comes it certainly will happen that the Buddha too will be relinquished. Why is it so, because you will understand that in the Buddha too there is neither a being nor neither a person.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

It would be easier if the household life has been completed before becoming a monk hoping to pursue the path to Nibbana. If the household life has not been completed, then do not hurry to be a monk for the purpose of Nibbana. The village temple is the layman’s safe house. Whatever is the diversity of the monks in the temple, always think that it is not relevant for you. Due to things being impermanent, diversity is natural. We should be surprised if things are not so.

Let go of the mistakes of others. Aspire to move towards your own goal. In the temple you be everyone’s slave and the servant. Freely pay respect to the virtuous people, and mediate and provide the four requisites. Do not look for others’ arrival or their contribution. Tirelessly do all the work towards your own goal. With the help of the kind and loving thoughts which emanates from others’ minds, secretly strengthen your own spirituality.

Notice the impermanence in every action you take. Even though you mediate, offer the lead role to the others. Practice the art of letting go. Make everyone happy and with that merit gain strength. Having done Bodhi puja, processions, Kathina pinkamas (offering of robes to monks), organise alms, then by seeing their impermanence, gain strength spiritually. Having filled the stomachs of others, remain without food but do not indicate that to others. Serve those aged senior monks and gain strength from their blessings.

Having dedicated to social service, having served others, gain strength with their blessings. Not giving leadership to profit or glory, remember your goal and target as the path to Nibbana. You must observe that however hard and honestly you work for the society, the slightest mistake is met with sticks and stones, with fierce evil. You must observe that criticism, wickedness and inconsideration are the nature of the world. You must think that we should be surprised if such things were absent. While serving others, while making others happy—hearing the merit, demerit, wholesome and the unwholesome—observe its impermanence. Recalling, remembering the nature of the world and taking whatever which can be gained from the world, harness your spiritual development.

Do not be reluctant to attend to sick people. View the sick person as a celestial messenger. Nature of the sickly body, the pain that he suffers, the nature of the disease, are common to you and so you must reflect. View that your nature is just the same as his. Attend to his needs, and you must gain strength with his blessings.

Once in every two or three months visit the sick people in the general hospital, children’s wards and cancer hospital. Walk in the wards of the critical patients. Do not go to embrace the suffering of those sick people. Understand that the voices of those who moan and scream in pain are the same voice as yours. Those people whose hair is lost in the cancer ward, those whose breasts were removed, make them the object of contemplation. View this as the nature, even common to the prettiest actors and actresses in the Hindi cinemas.

If you are constantly harassed by thoughts of lust, then visit the pregnancy ward in the women’s hospital. Those mothers who are about to deliver babies and their painful nature of behavior must be observed humanly and sisterly. This will kill your lustful thoughts. In this consumer-oriented fancy world, which cheats you, supermarkets filled with consumer goods that please your taste buds, every item of food is only to nourish your body. Ladies’ sanitary towels which adorn the super market racks with beautiful packing, we must reflect with wisdom the nature of the waste for which these towels are used. Though we pompously push the cart with filled bags, we must learn to view that what we only nourish is an impure body of ours. You must be clever to observe all these as an object of contemplation.

If you were traveling in a bus, do not be reluctant to offer your seat to any needy person. If on a long distance journey, and if the necessity arises to offer your seat, let that be a gift for yourself, and do not think of the distance to go. Dedicate your happiness towards the need of the others. If others laugh with contempt, simply pay no attention. Gain strength through the blessings of the receiver. You must virtuously plan to gather strength from the rest of the world towards your Path to Nibbana. While getting others do meritorious deeds, you strive to grow in the Path. Make your way to go beyond the world by deceiving the world.

Searching for Nibbana is the most selfish act in the world. Having relinquished all, making all an object of contemplation, you must make your way beyond the world.

If you comfortably become successful to go beyond the world, you can put forth effort for the virtue and the welfare of the world. Therefore be selfish for the present time so that you can work in the future towards the welfare of the world.

Bestow the joy you gained through the above effective practice to the protective gods (Devas). In this journey, to avoid obstacles for your protection, make those unseen forces happy and gain strength through their blessings. Put forth effort to relinquish those that must be relinquished. To relinquish those that need to be relinquished, delay until the suitable time comes. Accept the responsibility of not hurrying. Always be critical of your indiscriminating mind.

Always probe your mind. The eye of wisdom (pañña) that is above your mind must be always engaged in a friendly chatter with your mind. The mind that rises and falls must be subtly trained for the development of wisdom (pañña).

You are yet a meritorious lay person. Whatever may appear in your presence, experience it, taste it, and see its impermanence. You still have that freedom. By trying to see the impermanence in the not-experienced, not-tasted, it is possible that you may be confronted with questions. By tasting over and over what is most desirous to you, the most liked by you, be freed from that desire by living the experience, understanding, seeing the impermanence, and by practicing to give up, having fulfilled the lay life, open the door to monkhood for the purpose to pursue the Path to Nibbana.

During the lay life let only your mind dwell in the monkhood. Train yourself thus, to live a simple life with the bare minimum resources. Carefully examine whether you can walk on a stony path with bare feet without the sandals. Whether you can live with two robes, whether two meals a day would be sufficient. Whether you can let go of the most beautiful figure which you most desired. Whether you could live having given up relatives and household. Whether you have the strength to face up to any challenge that confronts you.

If all the answers are ‘yes’, then you are truly qualified for monkhood. Firmly bear in mind that the above experience is only suitable for those meritorious people, having lived through youth and beyond, having experienced life, and who will strive in this life with a strong resolve to develop the Path to Nibbana. However those meritorious Humans, Devas, Brahmas, who wish for the heavenly worlds, those clergy who hope to protect and guard the country, nation and religion, must consider that the above Path will not be needed. Why is it so? They have been immersed in suffering, wishing for further suffering. It is due to their ignorance, and with the hope that there is happiness in the above states. Those who protect the dispensation of the Buddha, should cleverly put forth effort to go beyond and cross over from the world. If you succeed to cross the world it will definitely be a great merit for those respectful monks who protect the dispensation of the Buddha.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

In this entire system of world elements, if we were to enquire where lies freedom as per its exact meaning, then without any hesitation the answer lies in the Noble Arahat. The Arahat is the perfect image of total freedom. His mind is equated to a pure white cloth. Not even the tiniest needle point of dirt can be found.

While the Arahat lives in the present he draws pictures on this white cloth and they erase at the same time. He draws again and erases again.

An Arahat does not accumulate or bundle together those pictures. It’s a non-defiled paint he uses to draw those pictures. There is no thickness, roughness, attachment or collision in them. They are burnt-out paint. Hence his white cloth mind, which constantly rises and ceases and is always pure.

The mind that sees no ‘being’ or ‘person’, his mind having perceived impermanence draws pictures which erase off. Therefore his life is always light, simple, clear and open. He is an image of Freedom. Those monks and laymen who are in search of Nibbana are in search of that nature of Freedom.

Freedom lies in life where all attachments are emptied. Having set aside all accumulated worldly belongings, one leaves the household to become a monk. Why have you so arrived having set aside all such things? It is to let go all those things which were set aside.

Reflect diligently. Setting aside and letting go is as wide as the earth and sky. Once becoming a monk, one must train to let go those things which were set aside. What are those that were set aside? Father, mother, relatives, businesses, lands and houses, civil status—in short you have set aside such things that are binding to the six sense bases. To let go of them is to be freed of them. Now the goal is clear. If that is so, one should search for a non-accumulative place conducive for the training of letting go.

What is that non-accumulating place? The place where defilements are not accumulated the place where the mind is at ease. If one cannot find such a hermitage or an empty place, then one should get near a teacher who develops the Path to an isolated hut.

Those places where one could be cornered to attachments such as to hermitages, attachment to fellow monks, attachment to Conduct (Vinaya), attachment to gods or Brahmas, attachment to Bodhisattva must be avoided. The nature of such places are only conducive to safeguard the teaching and beneficial for rebirth, and not beneficial for the purpose of the attainment of Nibbana. By adhering to the above nature you will only oppose the Path to Nibbana.

It still may be your nature to move along with the waves. You have left the fires of the household, not for the purpose of riding the pleasant waves of the norm, but to swim upstream of that current. If you were to fail, you will come under the influence of local and foreign relationship, fellow and teacher bonds etc.

Do not get attached or hold to anything. Learn to systematically drop off all what has been held. Think, that with age having understood life, that you are a complete person who has arrived with a purpose to this teaching (Sasanaya). However, you must guard against an overestimation of yourself.

You must know that there is a higher conduct (Sila) than the Samanera conduct or the Upasampada conduct. That conduct cannot be received by someone else. It’s self-achieved by enhancing one’s own effort towards both Dhamma and Sila.

Sila means only a tool for the comfortable achievement of Nibbana, but not a rope which is been tied to your hands and feet, nor is it a prop which kills your freedom. Like the paratrooper who uses his parachute for the purpose of descent, make use of the Sila for the comfortable achievement of Nibbana.

As soon as the trooper touches the ground, he releases the chute; just so, Sila means that which is released after having correctly understood the teaching, and not something which is held hard. Holding to Sila gives into its desires. Desires do not lead one to Nibbana but it leads to more ‘being’ (bhava). One must carefully watch that one is not trapped in thoughts such as “I am in the Sila” or “The Sila is in me”.

Sila means mindfulness and presence of mind. Dhamma means the true nature of things. Nature of the Dhamma is anicca, which means impermanence. To observe impermanence with mindfulness and with the presence of mind is to live in Dhamma and Sila.

Sila is essential not to make repeated wrongdoings. The Puthujjana mind is of the nature to do wrong. Having clearly understood and seen this, one must weed out wrong conduct. To dedicate oneself to Sila is a weakness. Without dedicating to Sila one must remove one’s weaknesses with mindfulness and the presence of mind.

If there are hundred books written on Sila, and having stacked them one on top of the other, then on top of all, place a label with the Buddha word “chetanaham bhikkave kamman vadami” (“Intention, monks is kamma, I declare”).

If one is not confident, lacks talent, is conceited, agitated, suffering from the inability to attain the fruits of the path, then consider to train under a teacher in a disciplined manner.

If not you will be lost. Do not overestimate your ability. Be intelligent in making decisions. Do not be slow or hurried. Be freed from timetables, preplanning or set order.

In just the same natural way the moon, sun, ocean and the earth behave without any effort, develop the path to Nibbana within your own natural way with ease. Be a part of nature. Do not keep a gap between you and nature. Compare your thoughts with the sun which rises, or the moon which descends.

Be a warrior who travels upstream in search of freedom. Having paused to reflect on the qualities of the Buddha, continuously contemplate your reason for your monkhood. Every moment you contemplate in such a manner you see the Buddha through your own experience.

Observe your weaknesses with humility. Humility does not mean timidity or shyness. A Bhikkhu should be the one on this earth who chases after the target with all might. There is no clever person in the three worlds who could hurry him.

Like the lonely elephant who has taken refuge in the mighty jungle, he himself must search for the freedom he seeks. In this journey, he does not notice the night, the day, the rain, the cold or the hunger. None so has control over him.

Like the warrior on this earth he chases after the defilements of Mara. The freedom he seeks must be realized by himself. It cannot be done by a god or a Brahma. They only can give their blessings. In your presence they are a mere second fiddle.

Having made this universe tiny and placing it on both your hands, you be the sage, the person who is released from this world. This is only possible if you succeed in taking the serious decision on either death or relinquishment. Then the freedom you search can be meaningful and be attained.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/gu1.html

Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

In our youth, making others’ postures ours, what a lot of castles in the air have we dreamt up? To own such a postural body [of another], what a lot of planning have we undertaken? Isn’t your wife, your husband, who’s right beside you, an attachment formed as a result of laying eyes on a postural body in the past and craving for those postures?

How much farther will that attachment, which was formed by becoming attached to impermanent postures of the past, elongate the round of rebirths? In the past, on the occasion when you were born as a Universal Monarch who turns the Wheel of Righteousness, how imperial, magnificent and pleasant would your postures have been? On the occasion when you were born as a god or a goddess in the past, how much grace, rhythm, smoothness and pleasantness would your postural body have had?

In the past, on the occasion when you were born as an animal, how fast must the movements of your postural body have been? On the occasion when you were born as a petaghost, how disgusting, repulsive would your postural body have been? Because of an impermanent postural body, how much attachments and aversions might you and others have formed?

Behold with the faculty of wisdom that taking a posture as permanent in itself is pregnant with the power to create an ‘existence’ filled with suffering. Just because someone spoke pointing a finger at them or just because someone frowned at them, resenting such postures of others, how many are the people in society who would kill each other, go to prison, receive death sentences. A minor posture, yields us a whole heap of suffering.

What a beautiful, serene, tranquil and undefiled postural body was that of the Blessed One, which was complete in the thirty-two marks of a Great Man due to the sheer strength of perfecting the ten perfections (pāramitā) for an extremely long timespan consisting of four incalculable periods and a hundred thousand eons? On the occasion that, upon the invitation of king Suddhodana, the Buddha arrived at Kapilavatthu for the first time after attaining Enlightenment, seeing the Buddha approach the city the king’s men went to the king and uttered ‘Sire, an unusual being, who is neither a superior deity (deva) nor a sublime celestial (brahma) nor a human being nor a celestial musician (gandhabba), is approaching Kapilavatthu on foot’.

Take a moment to behold with wisdom the calmed postural body of the Buddha, who made tranquil postures with a tranquil mind, stopping at merely the seen, merely the heard, and merely the sensed [and would not beyond that see, hear or sense some essence that is permanent or that is a ‘self’]. Also behold with wisdom how a stilled postural body as thus, too became impermanent. Behold with wisdom how, as a consequence of taking as permanent the thusly impermanent postural body of the Buddha, we still continue to accumulate wholesome-saṅkhāra to fuel ‘existence’. [Conversely,] see with wisdom how another accumulates unwholesome-saṅkhāra, resenting the taintless (undefiled) postural body of the Buddha.

What a lot of unwholesome-saṅkhāra did bhikkhu Devadatta’s postural body that was nourished by craving, accumulate for both himself and for others? King Ajātasattu who was fooled by bhikkhu Devadatta’s postural body that was dampened with craving, fell into the lowest hell called Avīci. By regarding another’s postural body as ‘mine’, king Ajātasattu brought destruction upon himself. As a consequence of sense-contact being dampened with craving, when the resulting pañcaupādānakkhandha becomes agitated, restless, the postural body of man too becomes agitated, restless.

Close your eyes and reflect for a moment… throughout the day, what is it that you do? ― what you keep doing is becoming attached to the ‘enjoyment’ (assāda) born of one’s own postural body that is of impermanence or of another’s postural body that is of impermanence, isn’t it? Yet, behind each such ‘enjoyment’ that you thus become attached to, aren’t there ‘adverse consequences’ (ādīnava)? A postural body that has been made to be of restraint, that is well trained, would simply be a conducive factor, a medicine, for samādhi (state of deep concentration of the mind).

Revered-you, remain with intent mindfulness present in you about your postures in action. When walking, when lying down, when sleeping, when doing household chores, when standing, constantly abide with a mindfulness present in you about the postures. See with wisdom that those postures become impermanent. From morning till night, how many are the postures you would have made? Each and every one of those postures became impermanent in a brief moment. Again, and again, see from the faculty of wisdom the postural body that became impermanent. Just as with your own postures, see with wisdom how others’ postural body too becomes impermanent.

When looking ahead or looking aside, when extending limbs, when eating food, or when defecating and urinating, do whatever that is being done while being fully aware and mindful of it. When one abides mindfully while noticing the impermanence of the postures, it curtails the chances of other distracting thoughts infiltrating his mind. And that in turn diminishes the origination of defilements. And because of it, a state of concentration of the mind comes to be; a samādhi forms. And that samādhi gives rise to penetrative insight wisdom (vipassanā paññā) of the fact that this body is nothing more than a postural body that is constantly subject to change.

Some revered-people, when changing postures, see it as “I am getting up”, “I am lying down”, “I am eating food”. Here, revered-you must do away with this notion of “I”. If the perception “I” develops, the perception of ‘self-view’ called “I” will develop in you. Therefore, always be skilful to see it merely as an impermanent posture, an impermanent postural body, and nothing more. As soon as the notion “I” sets in, see that thought as an impermanent thought [and let go].

What the Bhikkhu stated above in terms of the fourfold satipaṭṭhāna, was the way in which rūpa (material form) should be contemplated using penetrative insight (vipassanā) in relation to ‘contemplation of the body’. Through penetrative insight, at all times, try to see material form as a 32-fold impurity, as four great elements, as six sense-bases, as death, as a postural body. To do the above meditations, one need not necessarily be sitting down having folded his legs crosswise. But if one is able to so, then that would be much better. Being in whatever posture (position) that is suitable to you, contemplate with wisdom the above matters as they relate to your own material form.

Invest the leisure you find, for a mind of penetrative insight. The one who beholds material form according to ‘contemplation of the body’, the one who sees it rightly, would not regard rūpa (material form) as ‘self’; he would not regard material form as something over which he has dominion. He would not regard material form as in ‘I am’, or ‘I am’ as in material form, or ‘self’ as in material form, or ‘I am’ as in ‘self’. Wherever there is material form, there will be Māra; there will be, in keeping with dependent-origination, the one who is killed, or the one who kills. Therefore, the Buddha tells [us] to see material form as a disease, a tumour full of pus, a thorn, a distress, a serpent, a vessel full of excrement, rather than as [something] beautiful, a delight, or a happiness.

If revered-you see material form as thus, disenchantment (disappointment) towards material form would set in well. Due to disenchantment, ‘giving up’ (renunciation) arises. Due to ‘giving up’ accompanied by insight-knowledge, escape from material form occurs.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html

Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

Next what the Buddha discourses in relation to ‘contemplation of the body’, is to see with wisdom the postures that are in action through the body, in whatever position the body is, whether it be walking, lying down or sleeping. How much attachments and aversions do we form owing to the postures that operate in oneself? Turn your attention towards postures that arise in human beings when operating on a highway or in a city, in a time of traffic congestion, in a bus stand or a train station. Each of these postures that originate from within every such human body, is nothing but a posture born of an impermanent mind; …is nothing but a posture that in itself becomes impermanent.

Recall a politician or a woman-politician who makes a passionate speech on a stage for an hour. How many are the postures that that gentleman or lady exhibit within a span of an hour? As a result of becoming attached to those postures, as a result of regarding those postures as permanent, what a lot of saṅkhāra that they themselves and others accumulate? In the end, what is it that we have become attached to? ― what we have become attached to is simply another’s pañca-upādānakkhandha that is of impermanence; …is simply a postural body formed solely conditioned by that pañca-upādānakkhandha.

How many various different postures do we witness through a character played on a cinema screen or a television screen? How much attachment do we form towards such postures? Or how much resentment do we generate towards them? Due to what cause have you thus generated attachment and resentment? ― due to taking as permanent another’s postural body that [in reality] is of impermanence.

The two young men Upatissa and Kolita understood that what those actors performing on stage exhibit are merely a postural body that is of impermanence. One person displays an impermanent postural body and goes backstage. Thereafter, another one does the same thing again. Those two young men saw that simply due to taking another’s postural body as permanent, we accumulate saṅkhāra that fuel ‘existence’ (bhava).

How much are the attachments and aversions that we have generated simply due to someone throwing around his limbs or going faster or slower, someone frowning, someone squinting, or due to someone flaunting the curvaceous rhythm of one’s body?

The Buddha proclaims that whether the woman is seated, or walking, or sleeping, or frowning, whether scowling, or dancing, or singing, or whether she is bathing… it will give rise to nothing but sensual lust. Revered-you too take a moment to reflect with wisdom… when living in the society, haven’t you formed attachment and resentment to the above postures at least for a brief moment? In the pātimokkha, the code of monastic training rules for bhikkhus, the Blessed One has placed ‘the woman’ as a phenomenon that bhikkhus should avoid. For a woman’s postural body constantly gives rise to defilements. That is in no way a fault of the revered-woman. It is rather a phenomenon that ‘the woman’ has inherited by birth for the purpose of the continuance of the world.

The Buddha constitutes the training rule on abstention from sexual intercourse as one of the four defeats of pātimokkha, the training rules for bhikkhus. This was owing to a grave unwholesome-karma of a sexual misconduct committed by a fully ordained bhikkhu by the name of Sudinna, as a result of being duped by the postural body of his former wife of when he was a lay householder, and taking those postures as permanent. Purely as a consequence of regarding woman’s postural body as permanent, the bhikkhu Sudinna committed an unwholesome-karma bound to fruition as a rebirth in the lowest hell, the niraya. For a fully ordained bhikkhu, a ‘woman’ is nothing but a fire. In hell, the bhikkhu Sudinna is still burning from that fire.

When mentioning about ‘meditation of postures’, revered-women must always ensure they apply careful restraint in terms of their dress, adornments, speech, and behaviour, when making postures before venerable bhikkhus.

If one takes one’s own postures or another’s postures as permanent, it would only cause to sow seeds of ‘existence’. A ‘postural body’ is a ‘mind’. A mind is an impermanent phenomenon. When you regard an impermanent thing as ‘mine’, you are becoming attached to nothing but suffering. At every moment henceforth when postures are in action, whether it be your own or someone else’s, see them as nothing but a ‘mind’. See them as a mind that is of impermanence, …a postural body that is of impermanence.

Before you go to sleep at night, see with wisdom the nature of your own postures that were in action throughout the day and the nature of others’ postures that revered-you had witnessed throughout the day. Behold that all such postures are nothing but an impermanent ‘mind’ that does not belong to either oneself or another.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html

Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

Next in relation to ‘contemplation of the body’ (kāyānupassanā), the Buddha discourses to develop the meditation known as ‘recollection of death’ (maranānussati). The Blessed One states that, if you were to pile up into one mound the dead corpses of when revered-you had died in the past throughout the round of rebirths, the journey of samsāra, that mound of corpses would be even bigger than mount vulture-peak. Keeping your eyes closed, behold with wisdom that mountain of corpses that heaped up because of you in the past through the continuum of dependent-origination (paṭiccasamuppāda).

With the faculty of wisdom, look at the dead corpses piled up on occasions when you died as whales, as elephants, and as Universal Monarchs who turn the Wheel of Righteousness. See with wisdom that the small strip of land that you, who are reading this at this very moment, are standing on is in itself a grave in which you yourself have been buried tens of thousands of times in the past. Throughout the journey of samsāra you have passed, how many times would you have been killed by kings having been beheaded, having your limbs severed, buried alive, hanged, or surrounded by enemies in battlefields?

Having been born as animals, how many times would you have been preyed on by lions, leopards, tigers, or crocodiles? Having been born as smaller fish in the great ocean, how many times would we have been swallowed by bigger fish? How many times would we have died bitten by venomous snakes? How many times would we have ended up being buried alive in natural disasters? In this manner, behold with the faculty of wisdom the pañca-upādānakkhandha (‘five aggregates subject to clinging’― i.e. material form, feeling, perception, volitional formation, and consciousness) of the past relating to the meditation called ‘recollection of death’. How many times would we have died inside the womb itself due to abortions? See with wisdom how death, which is linked with birth through dependent-origination, ceases with the cessation of birth.

Revered-you, for a moment, imagine your death! From the faculty of wisdom see your dead corpse being embalmed in the funeral parlour. See from the faculty of wisdom your body being placed inside your house amidst decorations of wreaths of flowers; see with wisdom both how [some] relatives are weeping and how [other] relatives are unmoved; see with wisdom the relatives carrying your corpse and placing it in the charnel ground.

The Bhikkhu recalls once when dwelling in a particular forest kuṭī, a large bull being dead and the carcass was lying by the side of the path the Bhikkhu takes when going on alms round. On the first day there were no external signs visible around the carcass. When the Bhikkhu was on alms round on the second day, that carcass of the bull was bloated considerably with its legs raised. On the third day the Bhikkhu was on alms round, during the previous night foxes and dogs had ripped out and eaten the abdominal area of the carcass.

In the morning, about ten or so village dogs enthralled by the taste of rotten flesh were lingering near the carcass, ripped apart the pile of rotting flesh and were feasting on that flesh. Some of the dogs, having filled their stomachs with rotten flesh, were lying down as though they were inebriated. When the Bhikkhu was on alms round on the fourth day, the carcass had shrunk and deflated like a deflated balloon. A flock of white cranes that had come to prey on the blowflies that were enthralled by the foul-smell given off by the carcass, were constantly seen frequenting the carcass over the past few days.

By the fifth day neither the dead bull’s skin nor its bones were left on the scene. In the end, the carcass of the bull ended up being the faeces deposited in the stomachs of foxes, dogs, and monitor-lizards, who [themselves] became animals as a result of the unwholesome-karma accrued from not practicing virtue (sīla) and generosity (dāna) in their past lives. That dead bull’s impermanent long-life, good appearance, happiness, and strength, converted into the impermanent long-life, good appearance, happiness, and strength, of the living animals. For the few days that followed, dogs were seen in the paddy field here and there licking over and over again the bone fragments of the dead bull. What was mentioned above was a natural sequence of events that befell a dead carcass of a bull.

While keeping the eyes closed, the Bhikkhu took a moment to reflect… instead of a bull, if it was the Bhikkhu who had died here, the fate that would befall the Bhikkhu’s corpse would be exactly the same. See with the faculty of wisdom the fate that would befall revered-your dead corpse as per the chain of events mentioned above, if your corpse was placed in a charnel ground or a burial ground. With the faculty of wisdom, see how that dead carcass would be bloated, putrefied, rotten, and become food to animals; see its loathsomeness, foul-smell, repulsiveness, and dreadfulness.

See with the faculty of wisdom how in the end this dead carcass disintegrates and unites with the earth, blends into the air, and becomes one with the four great elements. See with wisdom how you feed that same dead carcass, how you nourish it, bathe it, and dress it up [at present].

When practicing ‘recollection of death’ if a fear arises in revered-you, while recognising that that fear too as simply a ‘mind’ (a thought), behold that mind as impermanent. When writing about ‘recollection of death’, the Bhikkhu remembered a predicament that befell a particular bhikkhu of the past who had tried to practice ‘recollection of death’. After receiving instructions on a meditation-subject from the Buddha, this bhikkhu goes to the charnel ground to practice ‘recollection of death’. Seated before a dead carcass of a young woman that had been brought to the charnel ground that same afternoon, this bhikkhu practiced ‘recollection of death’ using that carcass of a young woman as the object for contemplation.

That venerable bhikkhu, after attaining the noble enlightenment, after becoming a noble arahat, makes a lion’s roar as thus: “This abject mind, this heedless mind, caused lust (rāga) to arise in me even through that dead carcass of a young woman. I was unable to remain there any longer. I left that place. I strived and meditated with energy contemplating on the wretchedness of lust, on the twistedness of lust. I defeated lust”. In relation to the ascetic precepts, dwelling in a charnel ground too is one of such ascetic practices.

‘Recollection of death’ causes disenchantment about this material form that lives, that is kept alive, as well as disenchantment about another rebirth, to arise in you. If revered-you are afraid to die, are afraid to think of death, then [that means] without doubt you are providing yourself an assurance about the next rebirth. How revered-you should pay your respects and pay tribute in the event of a death, is not by weeping and offering condolences, but solely by reflecting upon that death, by practicing ‘recollection of death’ at least for a brief moment.

Revered-you, having your eyes closed, for a brief moment behold every human being in your village or neighbourhood as a corpse. Thereafter, see every human being in your city or country as a corpse. See with wisdom that heap of corpses decomposing, putrefying, oozing with rotten matter, and spreading fetid smell all over. Kisāgotamī, whilst carrying a dead infant and pleading to bring a dead carcass back to life, went all over the city in search of mustard seeds from a household where no one had ever died. Always make that subject of meditation the Buddha gave to Kisāgotamī your own meditation-subject.

What the Bhikkhu noted above was the meditation on ‘recollection of death’ in relation to ‘contemplation of the body’ (kāyānupassanā).

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html

Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

This set of eyes, set of ears… don’t belong to you. It’s a thing of change. It’s a thing that will one day disintegrate into dust and become one with the earth. Mentally, take a fistful of soil from the earth and compare it with your eye, ear, and the like. The Bhikkhu is happy about the eye, ear, nose the Bhikkhu has received owing to a wholesome-saṅkhāra. At present the Bhikkhu’s eyes are weak. The weakness that burgeons from presbyopia when turning 40 has now been made even weaker with time. While keeping the eyes closed, the Bhikkhu sees this great earth through the faculty of wisdom. Throughout the past, during the journey taken while arising and passing in keeping with dependent-origination (paṭicca-samuppāda), this great earth has been nourished with my own sense-organs known as the eye, ear, nose, and the like. The Bhikkhu sees even this great earth, which has been nourished with my own eye, ear, nose…, as nothing but soil. Just as the Bhikkhu would not become attached to the earth, to the soil, so too the Bhikkhu would not become attached to the eye, ear, nose, and the like.

What helped the Bhikkhu to be able to see a [constantly] changing six sense-bases through an unshakable wisdom (paññā), was nothing but wise reflection on these six sense-bases. At the beginning of the year, the Bhikkhu visited a home for the disabled ― consisting of patients with disabled or deformed limbs and organs ― for a dhamma-talk. The Bhikkhu saw that home for the disabled as a fertile ground for meditation-subjects necessary for the meditation of six sense-faculties. Simply due to an eye, ear, etc. born in a past existence, the eye, ear, and the like, born in the present is being caused distress. The Buddha discourses that the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind are nothing but Māra, the evil one. Simply due to not recognising Māra as Māra, the revered-patient still expects compassion, love, and protection. The revered-person in good health who ministers to patients, through waiting on the sick, expects to gain merit and wholesome-karma for himself too. When one endures suffering because of an eye, another wishes for an eye. If you manage to penetrate with insight-knowledge the eye as a suffering, that would mean you have conquered both suffering and happiness. When one person endures suffering because of an eye, ear, etc., what revered-you must do is not wish for another eye, ear, etc., but escape from the eye, ear, and the like. That can only be achieved by practicing the meditation of six sense-faculties.

When on the day of her wedding hundreds of thousands of rupees are being spent to beautify and adorn the eye, ear, nose, etc. of the bride, if that very bride dies on the following day, to that workman who dissects her corpse for examination in the morgue a liquor ration is provided in order to overcome the loathsomeness, the fishy stench, of that bride’s corpse. We, who auction a worthless putrefying rūpa at the craving’s bid, purely because of rūpa, embrace suffering; …cause another set of six sense-bases to be born.

Revered-you, seated in a comfortable posture and having your eyes closed, with the faculty of wisdom, carefully observe your body from head to feet. With the faculty of wisdom, carefully examine your eyes. Let disenchantment about the eye set in, seeing with wisdom that the eye is a thing of tears, styes, cataract, rheum, putrefaction, rotting, and subjectivity to change. Close your eyes for a moment and reflect with the faculty of wisdom what an unpleasant, dark, karma-result (vipāka) blindness is. If this very set of eyes that provide sight at present would contribute to future blindness, then, behold with wisdom that the eye is a peril, a misery. Mentally pull out your eyes and put them on the floor.

Now turn your attention towards your ear. See with the faculty of wisdom what an unpleasant, silent suffering deafness is. Behold with wisdom the afflictions related to the ear such as cerumen, infections, and abnormal tissue-growth (cholesteatoma). Mentally pull out your ears and drop them on the floor.

Now look at the nose. See with the faculty of wisdom what an unpleasant, bitter suffering it is when the nose is blocked or it cannot tell smell. See with wisdom the afflictions related to the nose such as catarrh, snot, nasal polyps and tightness or blockage of breath. Behold with wisdom the nose dying and being reborn. Mentally strip your nose and put it on the floor.

With the faculty of wisdom, now look at your tongue. Recall what an unpleasant, bitter suffering it would be if your tongue couldn’t sense taste. See with wisdom the conditions related to illnesses of the tongue such as thrush or tongue bumps. See with wisdom what an unpleasant suffering, being mute is. At present if you become a slave to the taste provided by the tongue, see with the faculty of wisdom that the factors required for future muteness are hidden inside that tongue itself. Mentally strip your tongue and drop it on the floor.

Now focus your attention towards the body. Behold with the faculty of wisdom that due to the very reason of chasing after touch (tactile sensation), the possibility is ever present for the same body to get deformed in the future. See with the faculty of wisdom the diseases related to this pile of flesh such as swellings, abscesses, infections, wounds, and cancers. Behold with the faculty of wisdom the decaying, afflicted and dying nature of the foetus, the infant body, the childhood body, the young, the middle-aged and the old-aged body. Mentally strip that body too and put it on the floor.

With the faculty of wisdom, look at the mind that contemplated all of these subjects of meditation in the form of thoughts. You would be puzzled as to which organ the mind is. Is it the heart? Is it the brain? Or is it the blood? Don’t get stuck within obstructive thoughts or questions such as these. See the mind that gives rise to questions or obstructive thoughts too as impermanent. Remember that in doing so what you are witnessing is the impermanence of the mind itself. Recall what an unpleasant, bitter suffering the unwholesome-roots – lobha (greed), dosa (hatred) and moha (delusion), the kāma-rāga (sensuous greed, lust) and the paṭigha (anger, resentment) that arise in the mind give rise to. Through the faculty of wisdom, see the impermanent nature of greedless (alobha) and hateless (adosa) states that arise in the mind. Using the mind itself, strip that mind too and put it on the floor.

You have now piled on the floor all six of your sense-faculties. Now, while being in an imaginary body, from the faculty of wisdom gaze on the six heaps of sense-faculties lying on the floor. Behold with wisdom the putrefaction, the decomposing, the fetid smell, the oozing of rotten matter, and how it becomes a delectable meal for blowflies.

Behold with the faculty of wisdom a dog greedy for the rotting flesh devouring your eye. See your eye in that dog’s faeces, where the eye has been digested. If the eye is a thing of faecal matter, then, about such an eye let disenchantment accompanied by insight-knowledge arise in you. See with wisdom the other sense-faculties too in the same manner as above. Behold with wisdom all these sense-faculties disintegrating into dust and uniting with the earth in the end. Observe by comparing the soil of this great earth with your rūpa, your material form. See with wisdom the change that takes place in each of these sense-faculties in terms of the past, the present, and the future.

Just as one sees with wisdom one’s own eye, ear, nose, etc., so too one must see others’ eye, ear, nose, and the like, in the same way with penetrative insight wisdom (vipassanā paññā).

Once during that time of life as a lay householder, the Bhikkhu opened a grave made of concrete where a dead corpse was laid to rest. That corpse was placed in that concrete grave about ten years prior. When the concrete lid was removed, all that was there in that grave was a pair of shoes and a necktie. There was a bit of dust-like soil. The dead corpse placed in it ten years ago, had become victim to the velocity of material form (rūpa) becoming impermanent and had disintegrated and united with the environment.

An eye, ear, … that dies; an eye, ear, … that rots, an eye, ear, … that disintegrates and becomes one with the environment; look at such an eye, ear, … with nothing but disenchantment. What develops in you then, is the meditation of six sense-faculties in relation to ‘contemplation of the body’ (kāyānupassanā).

Source: [https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html\](https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html)

Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

Revered-you, keeping your eyes closed, focusing your mind on the distant past journey of samsāra, reflect on how the six sense-bases that were born, were subject to decay, sickness, and death. The suffering experienced due to those eyes that were blind, ears that were deaf, tongues that were mute, bodies that were deformed, mind that became deranged, nose that couldn’t tell smell, tongue that couldn’t taste; …the unwholesome-karma committed because of that suffering; …and the suffering formed once again due to that unwholesome-karma; …make all of these a subject of meditation.

Turn your attention towards the eye, ear, nose, tongue and body that you inherited in this life in keeping with the phenomenon known as “nāma-rūpa paccayā salāyatanam” (“with mentality-and-materiality as its condition, the six sense-faculties arise”). Mentally visit your mother’s womb. Mentally experience, without resenting, the reek, the fishy stench, that comes from the blood and fluids inside the uterus enclosed with flesh. With the faculty of wisdom, look at the eye, ear, nose, and the like, that formed on the soft foetus purely as a result of six sense-faculties of the past. Let disenchantment set in about the six sense-bases that are growing, covered in blood and pus, inheriting nothing but filthiness.

See with the faculty of wisdom the image of how, in the surgery, the nurse held you by your infant feet when revered you were born. What you first saw with this eye, was your mother. What you first heard from that ear of yours, was your mother’s voice. What a young mother would she have been at that time? But in the present, that mother’s eye, ear, nose… have grown old, become afflicted and dead. The mother too had an eye, ear, nose, body, mind that tends to affliction, aging, and dying; constantly subject to old age, sickness, and death; the mental images impressed in the mind discontinue and disappear.

Once there was a mother. When she was at the age of 80, her mind had become severely afflicted. She would not recognise her own children. When a son or daughter of hers comes to visit her at her house, she utters that a beggar is at the door and says to shut the door. The mental impressions in memory have discontinued. The faculty known as the mind provides nothing but suffering.

This eye, is a thing of change, a thing of affliction, a thing that dies. How many times would we have been born in the past in samsāra with either one or both eyes being blind? The great arahat venerable Cakkhupāla attains noble enlightenment while blinding both his eyes. The unwholesome-karma committed in the past in samsāra because of another’s eye, comes into fruition in the life in which he attains enlightenment. How much more is the unwholesome-karma we have committed in the past in samsāra that would come to bear results in the future during the course of existence? How many more times would they provide us with blindness?

If you see a blind person, in that blind person see your own self who’s not blind. Through the faculty of wisdom, see that the unwholesome-saṅkhāra that was the cause for his blindness was also accumulated purely as a result of regarding a set of eyes as ‘permanent’, as ‘self’, at some point in the past. If that beautiful set of eyes of yours will make you a blind person in the future in samsāra, be afraid of the material form known as the ‘eye’.

The great arahat bhikkhunī Subhā was a very attractive bhikkhunī in the order of Saṅgha. With the intention of abiding in seclusion, the venerable Subhā goes into the woods. In the same woods a man – a libertine – seeking sensual pleasures, having caught a glimpse of the beautiful bhikkhunī Subhā, forms a mind of craving towards her form (rūpa). And just as a result, he thinks of having her beautiful form to himself.

This man who is blinded by sensual-lust tells the venerable Subhā thus: ‘Those eyes of yours are extremely beautiful. I want nothing but to have your eyes to myself’. The venerable Subhā tells this libertine who is blinded by sensual-lust, that, ‘every thought you have formed [thus] by seeing with those eyes and by thinking with that mind will bring you great agony in the lowest hell, the niraya’. An eye, an ear… that is subject to old age, sickness, and death, he saw as delightful. How would such people ever recognise the suffering in niraya? Solely due to being ignorant about the suffering and the origin of suffering, this lewd man would not pay heed to the venerable Subhā’s advice.

As though the result of an unwholesome-saṅkhāra that she herself had accrued because of the ‘eye’ in the past coming into fruition, the venerable Subhā pulls out her eyes using her fingertips and offers the blood-dripping-eyes to that libertine saying “Come, here is the beautiful set of eyes that you ask for”. The venerable Subhā, who is now blinded, saw the world with the light of wisdom. The lewd man, who was enamoured of the eyes of the venerable Subhā, having created using his good set of eyes the factors necessary for a very long suffering in the lowest hell, flees the scene.

Revered-you, through the faculty of wisdom, see the eye balls [covered with blood] that the venerable Subhā pulled out using her fingertips and offered to that lewd man. See with wisdom those dead eyes dripping with blood and tears, veins hanging, and resembling a core of a rambutan fruit. Mentally, pull out your own eyes and take them onto your palms. See with the faculty of wisdom your now blinded material form as well as the eyes that are of putrid nature.

While seeing with wisdom, the eye hospital, the patients in the eye hospital, and the eye related diseases, contemplate about the flesh-eye (physical eye) using penetrative insight (vipassanā) and let the eye-of-wisdom arise in you. Uncovering subjects of meditation from hospitals and diseases themselves, let disenchantment about the six sense-bases arise in you along the phenomena of old age, sickness, and death.

Seeing the downpour of defilements that arise as a result of regarding the eye as permanent, seeing the journey of samsāra that elongates due to that downpour of defilements, let disenchantment about the six sense-bases set in.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html

Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

Next what the Buddha discourses in relation to ‘contemplation of the body’ (kāyānupassanā) is the meditation of six sense-faculties (six sense-bases, or six sense-organs).

The Buddha discourses that one must see this body (both material and mental) as six parts as, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; and that just as a butcher slaughters a cow and divides it into pieces as meat, bones, intestines, and skin, and piles them up into separate heaps, so too one must take these six sense-bases separately and contemplate them with penetrative insight (vipassanā).

The Blessed One discourses that, the eye is that in the world by which one perceives the world, senses the world. And likewise, the ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind, is that in the world by which one senses the world, perceives the world.

The Buddha also discourses that, if ever revered-you become attached to something, it is to the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind that you become attached. Similarly, someday if you emancipate from something, it is these six sense-bases that you emancipate from.

The Blessed One teaches thus: “Bhikkhus, I will teach you restraint and nonrestraint. If you, having seen from the eye forms that are desirable and pleasing, having heard from the ear sounds that are desirable, seek delight in them and sing praises of them, then that is you being nonrestraint. You would deteriorate in the wholesome states. If something is not yours, abandon it! Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind is not yours. They are subject to change, decay, sickness, and death. Therefore, seeing that these six sense-bases are not yours, escape from the craving you have for them. Seeing with the faculty of wisdom the nature of material form of the dreadful world, let mental seclusion and bodily seclusion that is of restraint arise in you”.

The Buddha discourses that these six sense-bases are six bandits. At the point in which the eye, the external form and the eye-consciousness are dampened with craving, these six bandits will confine you in a prison laden with extensive suffering. The Buddha discourses that this eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind constantly dies and re-originates (is reborn). To say that eye-consciousness arises with sense-contact (phassa) of the eye, is to say that the ‘eye’ originates. As one thinks about the form that is seen through the eye, eye dies and mind-consciousness is born. Dying and originating in each passing moment, accruing saṅkhāra for the future ‘existence’ is what these six bandits called the six sense-bases do. As a result of the thefts that these six bandits commit by breaking into the houses known as sight, sound, smell, taste, and tactile-object, we sow seeds of suffering for the future.

When doing the meditation of sense-bases as related to ‘contemplation of the body’, close your eyes and mentally go back to your immediate preceding life. Presume that you were a god or a goddess in the previous life. Mentally see with the faculty of wisdom the beautiful celestial eye, celestial ear and celestial body that revered-you had then received purely owing to your merit. See with the faculty of wisdom how you listened to the sound of the human realm through that beautiful divine ear; how you looked at the human realm with that divine eye. Mentally see how, through that celestial mind, you relished the enjoyment in these material forms. Such a splendid, beautiful celestial eye, ear, [it was].

Yet when your merit is exhausted and the time is near for you to depart from the celestial realm, that celestial body perspires; the celestial body weakens in decay; the flowers adorning that celestial body perish; the clothes get discoloured. See with the faculty of wisdom how that celestial eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind dissolved; how they [too] became impermanent.

See with wisdom the phenomenon known as “viññāna paccayā nāma-rūpa” (“with consciousness as its condition, mentality-and-materiality arise”), by way of which you descended into your mother’s womb in this life. See with wisdom the birth of the eye, ear, nose, tongue and body that were dependently arisen in accordance with the phenomenon known as “nāma-rūpa paccayā salāyatanaŋ” (“with mentality and-materiality as its condition, the six sense-bases arise”).

If you were a human being in the previous life, see with the faculty of wisdom how you would have passed away, feeble, at a ripe old age. See with wisdom such decay that comes with old age in the eye, ear, nose, and the like. See with the faculty of wisdom how those sense-faculties disintegrated into dust and became one with the earth.

In a previous life on an occasion when you were born as an animal, the way in which humans would have slaughtered you, cooked your eye, ear, nose, tongue and body as a tasty meal and feasted on it… In this manner, see with the faculty of wisdom the impermanence of these six sense-bases.

In a previous life on the occasion when you were born as a Universal Monarch who turns the Wheel of Righteousness (cakkavatti), see with the faculty of wisdom how your majestic and magnificent eye, ear, nose, tongue and body that were filled with long-life, good appearance, happiness, and strength, turned into a mere heap of ashes after an honourable cremation, disintegrated into dust and became one with the earth. Even the Universal Monarch’s eye, ear, or body is subject to change, gets disintegrated, subject to decay, sickness, and death.

Revered-you, keeping your eyes closed, focusing your mind on the distant past journey of samsāra, contemplate how the six sense-bases that were born, were subject to decay, sickness, and death.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html

Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

Māgandiyā, the daughter of a brahmin family, was a beautiful woman endowed with the five marks of a beauty. She was intoxicated with her own beauty. Her brahmin father offers Māgandiyā in marriage to the Buddha. On that occasion the Buddha calls Māgandiyā’s physical form (rūpa) ‘a vessel filled with excrement’. Māgandiyā who had fallaciously taken a ‘vessel filled with excrement’ to be ‘five marks of a beauty’, becomes incensed against the Buddha. For a mere ‘fourfold element’ known as rūpa that is bound to perish, Māgandiyā commits one of the world’s gravest unwholesome-karma.

Eventually, once she becomes the chief consort of king Udena, Māgandiyā kills the king’s other queen, Sāmāvatī, and 500 women in waiting, by setting their palace on fire. For making a fourfold element ‘mine’, in the end queen Māgandiyā falls into the lowest hell, the niraya. In niraya too she takes up residence in yet another four great elements. Because of the past unwholesome-karma committed due to making the four great elements ‘mine’, in niraya the related four great elements exasperate agonizing the mind of that denizen of hell, and as a result, once again lets unwholesome-karma accrue for the future.

We generate an ‘enjoyment’ (assāda) out of making the four great elements ‘mine’. The ‘adverse consequence’ (ādīnava) born of that ‘enjoyment’ carries us one ‘existence’ after another into a birth composed of the four great elements. In terms of the human realm, those who suffer in hospitals, in prisons, in household lives, are just those revered-people who experience the ‘adverse consequences’ of becoming attached to the ‘enjoyment’ in the four great elements.

Through the aforementioned, having recognised the emptiness – the vanity (nissāra) of the four great elements, revered-you must let disenchantment about the four great elements set in. At times, the fourfold element is an illusion, a paradox, or a disappointment. At one time it is pleasant. At another it is disgusting. At one time it is fragrant. At another it stinks. At one time it is delightful. At another it is a phenomenon so repulsive, that one might want to look the other way to avert sight of it. We experience this disparity purely because the ‘four great elements’ is Māra, the evil one.

Revered-you, being in a suitable posture, close your eyes and observe your material form (rūpa) carefully! Through the faculty of wisdom, observe the composition of what the material form is made up of. Observe separately the solid parts of the body, the liquid parts, the parts that are of airiness and the parts that are of heat. Behold the material form neither as the body nor as material form, but as the four parts mentioned above. Now what you are observing through the faculty of wisdom is not a 32-fold impurity, but a fourfold element.

Now, keeping your eyes closed, mentally dissect those solid parts of the body you discerned and put them on the floor. Mentally, put in a separate heap the liquid parts you identified in the body such as blood, phlegm and snot. Now revered you would cease to perceive the body; would not see the body as a body. For you have already stripped the body as earth (solid) element and water (liquid) element and piled them on the floor in two heaps.

Now being in an imaginary body, observe with the faculty of wisdom the two solid and liquid heaps on the floor. Through those very two heaps of earth and water elements, be skilful to see the air element and heat element too. Let disenchantment arise in you about the nature of the four great elements, which is to putrefy, to rot, to reek, to be covered by blowflies, and to give off a fishy stench. See with the faculty of wisdom how these four great elements that disintegrate, blend in once again with the great earth, …with the environment, and integrate once more into nature, …into the four great elements themselves.

See the great earth in your material form and your material form in the great earth. Just as revered you see your own material form as a fourfold element, so too you must see the others’ material form as a fourfold element. Keeping your eyes closed, mentally see all the human beings and animals in this whole country as rotting dead carcasses lying on the great earth. See with the faculty of wisdom how those dead carcasses get integrated over and over again into the four great elements that is the environment.

See with the faculty of wisdom how beings related to those carcasses once again takes up residence in yet another fourfold element as a result of the saṅkhāra they formed due to making the four great elements ‘mine’. Likewise, see with wisdom that the ‘craving’ one forms towards the four great elements would be the cause for recultivation of the ‘world’ over and over again.

If revered-you so wish, you could also see as four great elements the inanimate objects you have become attached to with craving, such as your house or your luxurious vehicle, and thereby diminish the craving you have towards them. You must abide with an awareness constantly present in you of the fact that your material form, your four great elements, is not a beauty salon but a mere putrefying ‘four great elements’. What develops in you then, is the ‘mental advertence of elements’ (dhātu-manasikāra) relating to ‘contemplation of the body’ (kāyānupassanā).

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html

Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

The Buddha discourses to householder Nakulapitā thus: “This ‘four great elements’, householder, is a thing of constant affliction, pain, disintegration. Therefore, householder, do not become attached to material form known as the four great elements! Even though one is afflicted in the material form (the body), do not let the mind be afflicted”. At the point where we take material form as ‘mine’, we cause the mind to be afflicted. The mind that becomes afflicted will cause one to inherit nothing but a ‘fourfold element’ over and over again.

View as four great elements both the eye and every visible form coming into contact with the eye; both the ear and every audible form (sound) coming into contact with the ear. For the other sense-bases too, do as above.

Through the faculty of wisdom see the suffering and pain you endured throughout the past in samsāra because you took the ‘four great elements’ as ‘self’. With the faculty of wisdom see how, on an occasion when a past eon came to an end where so many realms of the world system burned up and annihilated, the 168,000 yojana-tall Mount Sineru that is like the symbol for the strength of earth element, scattered into pieces; the great ocean that symbolises the strength of water element dried up and became parched; the sun that is like the symbol for the strength of fire element, grew into seven suns destroying the entire human race and burned whole of the earth leaving only dust and ash; the mass of smoke originating from Mount Sineru that symbolises the strength of air element covered the entire earth with smoke for thousands of years.

Reflect on the fact that if you fail to penetrate with insight-wisdom the impermanent nature of the four great elements of the past, in the future you will fall into suffering over and over again through such eonendings where realms of the world system would annihilate. Let disenchantment accompanied by insight-knowledge arise in you about the four great elements you bear embracing as ‘mine’.

Just as a tsunami that destroys countries emerges from the bottom of the ocean as a result of the aggravation, the exasperation, of the four great elements, so too you must behold comparing with a tsunami a gas that escapes through the mouth or a gas that escapes through the anus as a result of the exasperation of the four great elements called ‘your body’ after ingesting food that doesn’t agree with the body.

Behold with the faculty of wisdom, when revered-you eat a bowl of rice, the four great elements known as rice and curries mixing with saliva inside the mouth, turning into gorge or vomit inside the stomach, and, as blood, assimilating and integrating into the four great elements known as your material form. Behold with the faculty of wisdom how, as urine and excrement, those same four great elements once again unite with the four great elements known as the great earth.

One day when revered-you pass away, if your body is buried in this great earth, through the faculty of wisdom see how that dead corpse putrefies, disintegrates, and then blends into the four great elements known as the earth; see how the trees and leaves are nourished by the earth’s essence; and see how by those trees and leaves the four great elements of animals are nourished.

In terms of their nature, notice with the faculty of wisdom that both the great earth and your own four great elements are one and the same. Through the faculty of wisdom behold the earth you are standing on, as nothing but the four great elements nourished from your own dead carcasses of the past samsāra, …as nothing but the four great elements that continually became impermanent.

Take a moment to walk up and down on the heap of your own dead corpses of the past. View the earth, the water, the wind, the sunlight and your material form as [simply] the four great elements.

The time now is around 6 o’clock in the evening. The sky is filled with rain clouds and the whole atmosphere is gloomy. Loud thunder is heard from beyond the mountain range. Now raindrops are falling. The Bhikkhu gets up from the surface of the rock and goes inside the kuṭī.

What is it that we see in this change in the environment? ― what we see is the changing nature of the four great elements; …the enragement, the exasperation of the four great elements.

Just as how tears shed from the exasperation of the four great elements that is the eye; just as how pus exudes from the exasperation of the four great elements known as the wound; just as how urine streams from the exasperation of the four great elements that is the bladder; so too the exasperation of the clouds is what we see as rain.

Always contemplate comparing the four great elements that is your material form, with the occurrences in the environment. Form the same indifference you have towards rain, towards your material form too.

At this moment if you are experiencing some physical or mental pain, or physically or mentally if you are feeling a form of joy or happiness, you cause both the above states to arise purely as a result of making a fourfold element ‘your own’. Due to this reason, at every moment, revered-you dwell accumulating saṅkhāra for future ‘existence’ (bhava).

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Kāyānupassanā (Contemplation of the body)

Next in relation to ‘contemplation of the body’ (kāyānupassanā) the Buddha discourses that one must view this material form (rūpa) considering it as the ‘four great elements’. When meditating on the 32-fold impurity in relation to ‘contemplation of the body’, we viewed the material form considering it as 32 parts. Whereas when viewing the material form as four great elements, the material form is simplified into just four parts as the earth element, water element, fire element, and air or wind element.

One views the solidness of the body (quality of being solid, characterised by hardness) as the earth element, the fluidity, the liquidness of the body (characterised by cohesion) as the water element, the airiness of the body (the quality of vibrating, motion) as the air element, and the temperature or heat of the body as the fire element. It is the earth element that has provided your body with a beautiful covering. That earth element has been given a lustrous surface and made colourful by the water element. The fire element keeps this body from perishing by providing heat and preserves the body in its unspoiled state. The air element goes into action so as to steer this body by inflating it and forging it into shape.

Whilst on one hand seeing the youthfulness of the four great elements by seeing with the faculty of wisdom the curvaceousness, the rhythm, the radiance, the smoothness, the pleasantness, of the body of an adolescent girl or boy, on the other hand see with the faculty of wisdom the impermanence, the change, of the wrinkle-skinned, discoloured and coarse four great elements of a father or a mother passed the ripe age of 60. The Buddha discourses that just as you view the impermanence of your own four great elements, so too you must see the impermanence of the four great elements of others.

As this note is being written, the time is now around 9 o’clock in the night. Inside the Bhikkhu’s stomach that is empty of food, the air element is making an invasion as it pleases. The air element can cause tightness in the chest, heartburn, pressure in the head, or heavy eyes. The earth element can cause this material form to swell up through a bruising, a cut, or a wound. This is a life that has [completely] surrendered to the four great elements; …to the four great elements that inherit change, impermanence; …to the four great elements that neither have a master nor are subject to anyone’s mastery.

The Blessed One discourses that revered-you are constantly fostering four serpents. One needs to regularly feed and nourish these serpents, bathe them, put them to sleep and give them medicine. If one fails to minister to these serpents, they get exasperated and attack. The exasperation of these serpents, their aggravation, is what we see as birth, decay, sickness, and death. The four venomous serpents that revered-you constantly nourish are the elements earth, water, fire and air, also known as the four great elements.

The Buddha proclaims that one must always view these four great elements as nothing but poisonous serpents; that one must develop fear of these serpents. The wholesome- and unwholesome-saṅkhāra would be the venom of these serpents. This snake venom called saṅkhāra can carry you farther in the round of rebirths for numerous eons. Due to attachment and resentment towards these four great elements, we constantly accumulate saṅkhāra pertinent to (that are the condition for) ‘existence’ (bhava). The venerable Sāriputta advises the householder Anāthapindika, who is on his deathbed, thus: “This earth element, householder, is not something that belongs to you. It is constantly subject to change (impermanent), gives pain, hurts, swells up. Therefore, you must not become attached to this earth element. If there is any feeling arisen in dependence of the earth element, do not become attached to that feeling. This water element, fire element, air element, is constantly subject to change. They are not yours. Therefore, if there is any feeling arisen in dependence of those elements, do not become attached to that feeling”.

The Buddha discourses that, in the case of the four great elements an ‘enjoyment’ (assāda), an ‘adverse consequence’ (ādīnava) and an ‘escape’ (nissarana) exist; if a pleasure, joy or rapture arises in dependence of the four elements, that is the enjoyment in the four elements; if the four elements are of a certain quality of impermanence or subjectivity to change, and as a result, there is a suffering, a grief present, that is the adverse consequence in the four elements; if desire for the four elements would fade and disenchantment accompanied by insight-knowledge would set in, that is the escape from the four elements. If the four great elements were a pleasure, a joy, a happiness, and had it not been immersed in suffering, then you would not be disenchanted with the four great elements. You become disenchanted with the four great elements purely because it is subject to change. Seeing with wisdom the material form (rūpa) of an adolescent young man and an elderly father, insightfully realise the aforementioned.

Seafaring merchants making long voyages take a gull in their vessel. If it becomes difficult to find their way on sea routes, these sailors release the caged gull. Having flown in all directions, if the bird sights land, it flies towards that shore. That gull will not return to the ship. If there is no land in sight, then the gull returns to the ship again. The Buddha discourses thus: if there is a consciousness (viññāna) illuminated with wisdom (paññā) due to the overcoming of craving (tanhā), in [such] consciousness the ‘four great elements’ cannot gain a footing (cannot exist).

At any point beneath that level, because of the saṅkhāra we create purely owing to taking the four great elements as ‘mine’, once again we take up residence in a material form known as the ‘four great elements’.

Source: https://dahampoth.com/pdfj/view/a11.html