Dhamma from Achan Thong - Forego Delusive Attachment

Abandon attachment by means of three practices: ātāpī, sampajāno, and satimā.

Ātāpī means perseverance and endeavor. Ātāpī is the effort to raise the mind, to keep it focused on the present mind-object. Try to focus the mind on prostration, walking, and noting the rising and falling of the abdomen. Don’t be discouraged. Persist energetically and diligently.

Sampajāno is awareness of oneself. Know that you are prostrating. Know what you are doing. Be aware that you are noting the rising and falling of the abdomen. Maintain mindfulness in this way.

Satimā is constant recollection. Recall that you are in the act of prostrating, walking, and sitting. Remember as well to note all three of them. To note is to mindfully acknowledge the present mind-object, to be aware of its existence. Noting prostration, walking, and standing results in a positive outcome: Vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassaṁ.

Vineyya is driving away all evils, getting rid of sins. Loke means world; more particularly, in the form of the five aggregates which reveal the entire world to us.

Therefore, Vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassaṁ means “Destroy completely one’s affinity for the world’s pleasures and displeasures”.

Abhijjhā means greed and domanassa hatred. Why is delusion (moha) omitted here? It is because mindfulness is present. Darkness disappears when light appears. With the elimination of the evils of greed and hatred, insight knowledge can then manifest itself to meditators. Therefore, ātāpī sampajāno satimā vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassaṁ. Once again vineyya loke: dispose of the worldly evils of greed and aversion by means of mindful noting. Why does the Buddha advise us to practice the four foundations of mindfulness? It is to cut off the root of vaṭṭa. Vaṭṭa means going round and round. Beings seem to be forever going round the cycle of rebirth. Why? The Buddha discovered the facts about repeated births.

They are caused by four conditions which make up the root of this persistent circling.

1. Kāmo

2. Sukhaṁ

3. Niccaṁ

4. Attā

1. Kāmo, attachment to sense–desire. Beings cling to desire, pleasure, immutability, and the notion of self. Thus the Blessed One teaches us to practice the four kinds of mindfulness in insight meditation. Mindfulness of the body cures desire, which is craving. Craving here is craving for the apparent features of the human world, the divine world, and the Brahma world. Adhering to these worlds, beings cannot escape affiliation with their particulars. Therefore, practice mindfulness of the body. Establish mindfulness at the body and desire will fade. It is like taking medicine to get rid of ailments. Medicine and disease are formidable adversaries.

The Blessed One knows how to overcome defilements. What can be done to minimize desire? We should start with being mindful of the body. Diligence in bodily awareness lessens the mind’s craving for sense-spheres and sensual pleasures. Also, the mind becomes less attracted to the human, divine, and Brahma worlds. This medicine weakens craving. Contemplation of the body resembles taking medicine. When we have a headache, we take the appropriate medicine to counteract it. The headache then goes away. Similarly, practicing mindfulness of the body will cause craving to gradually decrease. That is why the Buddha teaches us to treat desire with contemplation of the body.

2. Sukhaṁ, happiness. Beings are born again and again because they are attached to happiness. The Blessed One took into consideration how this could be solved so that beings could be saved. The solution centered on detachment from happiness, which exists in myriad forms in the human, divine, and Brahma worlds. How could beings be freed from happiness? He recommends cultivating mindfulness of one’s feelings. There are three types of feeling: comfort, discomfort, and indifference. Note them mindfully, and the truth about everything – impermanence, suffering, and non-self – will clearly illustrate the ephemerality of happiness. However practitioners of the Dhamma choose to meditate, they should make sure to be detached from happiness in daily life in all its manifestations. Detachment liberates one from happiness little by little.

3. Niccaṁ, certainty. As mindfulness of feeling cures attachment to happiness, contemplation of the mind cures adherence to the delusion of certainty. Believing this notion to be beyond doubt, beings think their minds are perfectly capable of certainty. In reality the mind is uncertain. Being born human does not guarantee rebirth as a human in the future. One can later be born a pig, a dog, a cat, or any of innumerable other living beings. There is no certainty to be had while we wander in different states of becoming. Therefore, sabbe saṅkhārā sabbaloke anabhiratasaññā aniccasaññā sabbasaṅkhāresu aniccānupassanā: wherever we are there is uncertainty, and so there is suffering. Being born a divine being or even Indra, king of heaven, depends on the mind. One becomes a Brahma, a higher male deity who is an inhabitant of the World of Materiality or the Immaterial World, because of the mind. Birth or becoming are not guaranteed in any particular form. One can be reborn a dog, a cat, or even a mite. All of these are possible. You should know that there is no certainty in the sphere of the mind. This becomes apparent when contemplation of the mind is undertaken. When the mind is noted with mindfulness, any existing defilements dissolve. Then purification and the end of suffering are attained. Thus, noting “thinking, thinking” mindfully eliminates the delusion of certainty.

4. Attā, self. Beings cling to the concept of self. In actuality, what exist are the body and the mind, or corporeality and mentality. Our feelings are mentality. Corporeality is the body one inhabits, and which is a tangible entity. The so-called self consists of corporeality and mentality. In other words, what we regard as self comprises the five aggregates. Mindfulness of mind-objects corrects the false view of self by means of noting “rising, falling”. The five aggregates – the body, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness – lack certitude, are subject to suffering, and are non-self. Acknowledge them by noting “rising” and “falling”, which includes the five aggregates. Saṅkhittena pañcupādānakkhandhā dukkhā – suffering may be summed up as the five aggregates of clinging. When we note the rising and falling of the abdomen, we contemplate the five aggregates as mental objects. The rising movement is corporeality. That which knows the rising is mentality. The falling movement is corporeality. That which knows the falling is mentality. The five aggregates in brief comprise corporeality and mentality. Noting them constitutes contemplation of mind-objects, in the process of which one is freed from the false belief in self. There is no such thing as self. There are only corporeality and mentality. Everything else is a superficial construction. Persons known as Mrs. Dee, Mrs. Dang, Mr. Nguen, Mr. Khaw, and Mr. Dam are named as such for the sake of communication. In truth they are the body and the mind. One is addressed as Mr. This or Mrs. That; or titled Sheriff, Governor, or Minister. These designations are socially constructed.

In reality there are only corporeality and mentality. Yet we cling to the notion of self – we, they, you, and I. Completely immersed in such an attachment, we cannot be liberated. However, to simply note (corporeality and mentality), is to be released from the delusion of self. All we see as self is only a construction. Contemplation of mind- objects clarifies our view: whether it is we or they that is declared, no self actually exists. All such notions are constructs. Novices, monks, Phrakhru (a monastic title) and Chawkhun (a high monastic title) are all conventional constructions of the monastic community. Do not take conventional truth seriously. By adhering to what are accepted as conventional truths like us, them, you, and me, we cling to a false sense of self. The absolute truth is clearly seen in nāmarūpapariccheda ñāṇa, knowledge of distinguishing between mentality and corporeality. Each movement we note – “right go thus”, “left go thus”, “rising” and “falling” – proceeds to arise and then cease, arise and cease. The mind knows right and left are two separate things. There are only the body and the mind. We ask ourselves time and again: What is a person? Who am I? Some people do not know who or what they are. They should know that they are only physicality and mentality. There are only these two categories: the body and the mind. Corporeality and mentality are two of the Lord Buddha’s fundamental concepts. There are only corporeality and mentality. Everything else is a conventional construct. Do not cling to it. By clinging stubbornly to conventional constructions, how can you set yourselves free?

Therefore, keep in mind the purpose of the Buddha’s fourfold mindfulness practice. Contemplation of the body reveals the body to be a mind-object. It is an antidote to desire. Contemplation of feeling remedies the delusion of happiness. Contemplation of the mind, during which we note “thinking”, eliminates unrealistic belief in certainty. We note “rising” and “falling” to cure the concept of self.

By not adhering to conventional truths, we subdue the root cause of wandering repeatedly through the cycle of birth and rebirth. Then we begin to feel liberated. Our heavy burdens become lighter. The end of suffering will be achieved either in this or a later life. This is the way to eradicate the cause of wandering pointlessly round and round. Humanity up until the time of the Buddha did not understand this. After attaining complete enlightenment, the Buddha found the solution. It is the Buddha’s discovery of this truth which his disciples preserved and then taught and passed on. You can see that insight meditation with the four foundations of mindfulness is of fundamental importance to our lives.

Next, we will do mindful prostration, walking, and sitting.

#dhamma #vipassana #AchanThong