108: Retreat Dhamma Talk 3: Parable of the Log

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SPEAKER_00 0:10

Namo tasa bhagavato rahato samabudasa namotasa bhago arhato samabudasa namotasa bhago arhato sama sambudasa retreat series Dhamma talk number three. We are all here practicing Satipatana Vipassana Meditation Mindfulness Insight. And if one is serious and want to succeed in what you are doing, progress right to the end. Okay, the basic requirements number one is one must have a desire. Okay. Desire to incline the mind towards the object of arising. Always there is one object, physical or mental, is always arising at every moment, arising and passing away. And you must have a chanda or a noble desire to incline your mind, okay? To lean your mind towards that object. I want to, I will incline the mind so that I could observe every object that is arising without missing. The basic desire, basic chandat, that's number one. And once you have the desire, then you must now I'm going to make sure that I will not miss any object that is arising and passing away. I'm going to do my best so that I won't miss, so that I will be with that object that is arising at the moment, to know all its qualities and characteristics. In other words, you must have a determination now. Determination so that you will not miss. Your mind will be always with the object that is arising. That's the number two requirement. And number three, number three is I will put my utmost effort, the urgent effort, so that I will not miss any object that is arising and passing away, and I will be with every object that is arising and passing away. If you have those trees, first of all is desire to be with the object at that present moment, secondly, you make a determination that you will not miss any object, and thirdly, you put all effort, your utmost effort, so that you won't miss and you'll be with every object that is arising and passing away. If you have these three qualities, you will succeed in this meditation. And if you are short of any part of it, then you will not be successful. We should keep a mind out because we are here to practice this meditation and not simply practicing to be able to succeed, to grow, to progress, to understand. That is our objective. That is Satipatana Vipassana. And as we said before, the Buddha taught us this mindfulness inside meditation to us in many different ways. Many, many different ways based on the character, nature, the level of intelligence of persons. But he approached and he taught us in many ways. Today we are going to approach how to reach the goal, how to reach the goal, based on one of the Buddha discourses, Sutta or Sutra discourses. And in here, the Buddha always travel, okay, except for three rain rainish in the middle of July to full moon day of July to full moon day of October. For three months, himself and all of his monks, they stay in one place. They stay in one place and they meditate, they contemplate, and also of course, if there are people who come and approach where they are staying, okay, they will teach. So that is the tradition. But once the middle of October passed and to the next full moon day of July, nine months, the Buddhas travel, not only him, he sent all his monks, all his bhikkhus to all directions. To all directions. They travel and they are supposed to teach and share the Dharma the Buddha has taught. To those people who are interested, who wants to learn but not to force upon them. And with that in mind, he sent out all his bhakus to all directions. And that is their job, basically. They travel on foot and goes and teach. So the same way in the Buddha also travel, of course, when Buddha travel, there are always some monks follow him. And as he was traveling along the Ganges River, Ganges River in India. And near the city of Korsambi. Korsambi. On the Buddha rested by the bank of the Ganges River, sit under tree with all the monks, everybody sitting taking the seats and contemplating. And while they were doing so, the Buddha saw a log floating downstream along the river. A log just flow down. And one thing we need to understand is whenever Buddha taught something, okay, it is not making and gathering people have an audience and teaching. There must be a situation, a condition, an incident that happens. Somebody might come and ask something and he will teach something. Or something somebody happens to that person on a situation, he will teach something. And if he see or hear something right in front and he will use it as a a tool or an example and he will teach something. That is how he teaches. All his discourses, there's a a time, a place, a condition, a situation, an event. Based on that he taught. And in here too, he was sitting and resting as he were traveling. A log floated around the Ganges River. He saw that and when he saw that he called attention to all his bhikkhus who are with him. Hey bhikkhus, look at that log floating around the Ganges River and it's flowing down the river. Of course, when you are going down the river, eventually its destination is the ocean. Eventually it will meet the ocean. So look at that log. And if that log is not caught on this bank of the river, okay, it will reach the ocean. And also if that log is not caught on the other side of the river, it will reach the ocean. And also, as it is flowing down the stream, if that is not caught or embarked upon an island in the middle of the river, it will reach the ocean. And also, if that lock is not taken out from the river by the humans, it will reach the ocean. And if that lock is not taken away or taken out by the Dewas, celestial being, it will reach the ocean. And if that log is not sink in a whirlpool, whirlpool, it will reach the ocean. And finally, if that log is not get rotten from inside and then break into pieces, it will reach the ocean. So Buddha just picked up that, see that log and use that and show them. Caught on this bank, caught on that bank, the other side of the bank, sink submerged in the water, caught on an island, taken out by the human, taken out by the devas, and drowned in the whirlpool or rotten from inside. And if that lock is not caught by any one of these, finally it will reach the oceans. So it was very obvious. He pointed out all the traps, all the traps that could stop the log to reach the ocean. And then he said, in the same manner, a person, a person who is practicing, who is practicing meditation, mental culture, mental development, with a goal, with an objective to reach nibbana, the end of all physical and mental suffering. That nibana is like an ocean. So if a bhikkhu or anyone who is practicing and developing or culturing the mind, bhavana, to reach nibbana, they have to dodge all these different spots along the way. So that is where they go. And what does it mean? Okay, like the log, the log is now, if it's let's say caught on this bank, caught on this bank or embark upon this bank, it won't reach it. In the same manner, yogis are now practicing now. Okay, the bhakus are practicing, yogis are practicing, and of course, practicing in a serious manner. Their objective, their goal is to reach nibbana, the end of all physical and mental suffering. That is their objective. With that objective in mind, one is practicing, not just having a little weekend retreat just to de stress, okay? Just to have a little break from this world. But quite seriously, that's objective, that's a goal. And if that's the case, the person is practicing, and when he's practicing, of course we all know. We practice, and then there are many things at retreat, you know. There's a pain, okay, the hip pain comes in, the back pain comes, and oh my back, my car, accident injuries, my knees, I fell down, and was my knee dislocated? Okay, and so on. And then oh yeah, eating, I can't eat much, okay, I can I don't have enough sleep. And then suddenly you begin to worry about this, worry about that. So whenever this discomfort, pain, or discomfort or illness or disease pops up, you begin to worry. When you begin to worry, you begin to favor, your mind is moved towards these kinds of discomforts or illness. And then your mind is stuck on it. That's what it means by embark on this side of the river. Okay, to put in scriptural terms, the sixth senses, the sixth tense base. What is that? Eye base, ear base, nose base, tongue base, and then touch base, okay, six, and the mind base. And these bases, especially in this as the five bases, the mind takes them five as an object. And especially the touch base, if you really understand the touch, it is everywhere in the whole body, not only the surface, not only the skin. And even inside the body, you can tell there is a sensation. Sometimes you have a gasp pain, gastric pain. Sometimes there's a because you are not used to eating, not eating dinner, so the stomach growls and there's a move, you can feel the sensation. This why? Because of the touch sensation, put up. Ayatana. The touch sensation. So basically the whole body, but in the scripture it's called six tense basis. If you are favoring these sixth sense bases, if you're focusing on these six sense basis, you won't be able to concentrate and meditate. And if that's the case, you are embarking on the sides of the river. Of course, we don't have to be at our level, we don't have to be blindly doing it. If there's a pain, okay, purposely check it out, make sure that it is, whether it's neither emergency situation, things like that, and so on. If not, take our appropriate actions and then just leave it behind and meditate. And if you don't favor these six sense basis, your mind will be focusing on the object of the present moment, and then if you can do that, you will reach the ocean, the nibbana. So that's what it means by this side of the river caught. And then caught on the other side of the river. What does it mean by caught on the other side of the river? The other side of the river is again as we have the five sense basis, physical basis, just like that. There are also five objects outside. Not from inside, it's from outside. Okay, forms that we see, sounds that we hear, smell that we smell, odor that we smell, taste from the taste spark, and the touch, and even the dwelling and the ideas and the mind. We are fall in love if we crave for it, if we become attached to it, if we can grasp on any of these objects, the external objects, objects of desire, objects of desire. Vidtu karma. Vittu is the object. Karma is desire. If we get caught into these objects of desire, then we won't be able to practice and we won't reach our destination. That's what it means by caught on the other side of the shore.

unknown 20:17

Okay?

SPEAKER_00 20:18

This side of the shore, six sense bases, internal six sense spaces. The other side of the shore is the all the objects of desire of the five senses. So if you don't get caught by these five external objects of desire, then you will reach the ocean, the nibbana, and then thirdly, submerge or drown in the water, in the middle of the water. What it means is in scriptural term it's very simple. What is karmatana is? Kama is all these senses. But what it means in this context is what do we do? What it is, our whole life is. We are loving it, we are eliminating it, we are trying to get it, grasp it, that's what we do. In other words, we are in love with our life. In one word. All these actions and one word is life. We are in love with our life, we are in love with our existence. In other words, we are attached, dana crave. Crave and attach to our own present, current existence, present life. That's what it means by Gamatana. We love our life, we love our existence, we crave and grasp our present existence, this life. And then the next one is called Bawatana. Bawatana is life. This is the again. You are grasping, craving, and living with the idea of being eternal. Okay, life, eternalistic view. Okay, your life is it won't die, it won't terminate, it goes on and on and on. It is the body, it's the shell, it discards, and this life goes on eternal. So the views can be break down into many, but just one word is eternalistic view. If you are in love with that eternalistic view, also that is one way of living or believing. The first one is you are, you have the view of this craving to this life. And in other words, craving for many lives, never-ending lives. And we bawa dana, we mean neg negation. It means no, this is it, this is the only one. We live, we die, finished. Okay. Ude cha dekay. It is the annihilation point of view. So if you hold on these kind of three views, one is the view on holding on, grasping on this present existence, present grasping on life, another one is having an eternalistic view, and another one is annihilation view. If you hold on these three views, then it means you drown in the river, you're submerged in the river. But if you can let go of these three views, basically all with life, life in a various mode. Present current mode, eternal mode, and annihilation mode. If you can let go of these three views, you will reach Nibbana. That's number three. And then the flock flows on, and what it is, it caught or it embarks on the island in the middle of the river island. So what does it mean by it in terms of our practice? The island. What's an island? An island is you are right there alone. Okay. Anything, everything is around water flowing, everything, but regardless, you are there safe alone and standing by yourself. That is the meaning of the island. In here, what it is is people in one word is called mana, conceit, pride or conceit. Some people have this great pride and conceit. I know. I'm right. Okay, I can do anything. I don't need to depend on everything. Everything is about I, I, I, I, I, me, me, me, me, me. And you look down upon everything, you look down upon everybody, I'm superior. Superiority complex in one word, okay, pride, conceit, or superiority complex. And if you have that, you might be practicing this Satipattana Vipassana meditation, you might be progressing like leaps and bounds very fast, faster than anybody. Okay, you see a lot of insight. All these things are happening very rapidly.

unknown 26:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

And sometimes you even have a sense, I know better than the teacher, I know better than anybody I know around. That kind of things happen. Okay. Because of that pride or conceit, not having humility. And when you have that conceit or superiority complex, even in the condition of practicing dharma, you will not reach nibbana. You will progress a lot, but you would never really truly see the Dharma. You might know about Dharma from the books, from the reading, from listening, and intellectually you might even understand, but the true nature of the Dharma will never unfold into you, and you and the true nature will never become one. That will stop you. So if you can let go of that superiority complex, even in the practice, even in the Dharma, you will reach the ocean. So that is what it means by the log caught on the island in the middle of the river. And then the Buddha said, if this log is not taken out by the human, okay, the logs flowing down, and there are some people down there, and some villages they saw the log and they might try and rope it up and put it out so that they can build a house or build a bridge or something. That is the natural order of things when people are living in the olden days. They don't even have to go and cut a log. And it is ready to use whatever they need. And the Buddha used that as an example. And one thing here is, and here in our society we live, and what is it? We are even called social animals. We love. We love our family. Okay, we love our friends, we love all our acquaintances. We have to expand our field of acquaintances. We like to be with people, we like to have parties, gatherings, and so on and so on and so on, never-ending. We all know what kind of things. In other words, basically, you love to be with people. You love to have attention of the people. Some people love more than the other. Some people cannot even live without it. Some people, if they cannot talk, if they do not have, if they do not have conversation, they feel totally uncomfortable. They feel totally uncomfortable to be alone, to be with your own thoughts. They love people, they love people, they love people, they love attention of people, they like to be with the people. And if the yogis, even in the yogis too, okay, like especially if you go to big Meditation center, you will see them because when you are only about four or five like us, it is easy to contain and also we control the environment. But in a big centers and monastery, there are hundreds of yogis and there are hundreds and hundreds of volunteers, and also there are people like they volunteer there and you become aware of them, you come become acquainted with them and you interrelate with them. And also your family might come and visit you. Of course, okay, you are meditating, visit you, but you feel so good, they come and meditate and they see they see you as meditating with your proper attires and very serene face and they have pity, the people have pity, and in turn you feel good about it. That's it. You don't have to throw a party to be with people. Even in a meditation center, your relatives, your friends come in and see you, and you have that kind of feeling. At that time, it is very obvious. The mental states are very clear if you observe. So that's what it means by the Buddha said if the log is taken away by the human out of the river. If a yogi is okay, have a high interest of interrelationship concert conversation. You love people, you love audience. If that's the case, you will not reach the nirvana. One must let go. What like are the what we call the social animals, the social aspect and our practice we have to avoid. That's one. And another one is if the log is not taken out by the Devas, celestial being, of course, celestial being is power, they can make the log embark or put it onto land. It is not that they just go the magnetize the log and put it on the thing. They created a situation. The waves come and the winds come and they got onto it. That is the way they can take the log away from the river. And in here, what it means was people are practicing. Okay, we all are practicing. Our objective is for nibbana. But one thing was if we really look at our own psyche, we like to be comfortable, we like to be pleasant, we like to have a better status, better standing. That is it. Our life comfort, our life starters, we always want to be better, better. Even next life we want to be reborn, even in a human, richer, smarter, more famous. And also we want to be reborn in Dewar Ram because in all the story we know how great, how pleasant the Dewa Ram is. In other words, heavenly abort, all the angels where the angels live. It's great. So you have that, okay. Oh, Nebana is far away, still far away. Okay, oh, in between while I am practicing, I have to go step up my little status. Okay, maybe I'm not sure I will get to Nepana, but maybe next life, maybe to the Dewar Ram. Your mind's inclined to the Dewar Ram. And if you have your mind inclined to the Dewa Rams, and if you are doing good, you will be going in that direction and that on that path. That's what it means by if the lock is taken out by the Dewa. So don't incline your mind for the existent in the heavenly and angel realms or celestial realms. And if not, then you will reach the ocean, that you will reach the nibbana. And then if the log is not caught in the whirlpool, it will reach the ocean. This whirlpool is there is a pleasure. Some people have excessive excessive enjoyment into the sex sense pleasure. And when you go excessively into the sense pleasure, you can never come out. It is like a whirlpool, it will suck you down. Those are the people who become addicts and alcoholics and sarcoholics and drug addicts. And also they are always people, you don't have to go to that extreme of addiction. They are always people engaging one after the other. What do I do? Okay, I'm going get up now, get up, and then I go to for a run, and after the run, okay, that feels good. Next time I'll go out with a coffee, and after the coffee, I'll go to the gym, after the gym, okay, get a friends, and then okay, let's go snowshoeing, skiing, and so on and so on. You're engaging one activity after one after another. In other words, those are the engagement, the planning, the activities are something that you really love and enjoy. So you are engaging one pleasure after the other endlessly. Program, I have to look at the calendar, I have to look at my timetable, okay. I can give you a little bit of 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there, I have this, I have that, and so on. Everything is planning out and doing things that makes you feel good and pleasurable. Even to that level, I will say you got drowned in the whirlpool, in the sense of pleasure. You don't do be, you don't have to be to the point of addiction. But in a way, they are addicted to this level, but so settled you think you are doing a living a normal life. In fact, most people think I'm living a normal life. I earn my money, I enjoy myself, I do what I feel good, I don't hurt anybody, I don't harm anybody. That is the way they think, and that's the way they live. Well, if that's the way they think they live, that's fine for them from their point of view. But if your objective is to attain nipana, to reach nipana, that becomes a hindrance. That will suck you down into the whirlpool into the water and you won't reach the ocean. And then last one, the last one is if that log is not get rotten from inside and then break into pieces, one will reach the ocean. That's the last example the Buddha gave. What it means is rotten from inside. In other words, you are corrupted, you are rotten from inside. The morality. Your morality, you know yourself. Most of the people, they might do something immoral, but they will hide it. And on the surface with other people, they pretend like they are the great outstanding citizen. But it is not. We have seen so many that the most obvious ones are the politicians and all these officials of high-ranking officials. They are supposed to be upholding the law, but they are the ones who is underneath, corrupting and breaking all these laws and doing all sorts of things. Only when they get caught, then there's a trouble. That's what it means by rotten from inside. You are morally corrupted. For us is in general, just average everybody is the five precepts. If we can uphold the five precepts, that's great. And if we are breaking some of the precepts, okay, number one, be aware. Number two, admit that you have done yourself wrong, done yourself harm, and then correct it so that it won't happen. Because it is very easy to say only five precepts, but depending on what level you are looking at, it is not that easy. So it is our constant battle to be morally upright in a gross form, in a medium form, in a finer form. There are so many forms, so many levels, based on whatever you can. One must be able to live. In that way, the log will not get rotten from inside. And for the yogis and people who they call it uposata, okay, observe, special observant day. And we even have our own little observant day. And a special observant day, we observe eight precepts or nine precepts or ten precepts. During that period too, whether it is one day or one week, if you are meditating, that's about a few days. During that day you are observing nine precepts. Make sure that your nine precepts are properly observed and not broken in any pieces. And if it does, you always self-admittance, self-correctness, and determination not to do it again. And for the bhakus, for the monks, they have precepts levels 227. So those at that based on who you are, what you are, where you are, what you are doing, the precepts are different. But regardless, if you are morally corrupted from inside, you will not reach Neipana. But if you can uphold and upright the moral code that we are supposed to be observing, then we will reach Neipana. That is how Buddha put it. Basically the same thing if you look at it. We talk about, let's say, how to deepen your practice, meditation, practice for about 60 hours. That sixty hours you can find this in all in this little sutra. First of all, what fundamental must be morally upright. You have to have a moral code. And when you are practicing, don't have people coming and socializing, don't make it into a social affair. And then when you're practicing something good, don't intend yourself to be born in a better existing Dewar Ram. And if you are, before you come, make sure that it's a restraint. Make sure that you are not immersed into the pleasure. And then even if you are progressing, don't be too cocky and don't be too proud. That's what it's saying. And then here too, what is it? You must have the right view. Okay, the right view, samadity. Okay. Not the it is the mind and matter. It's a physical phenomenon, mental phenomenon. It's not a I, not self, a not being, a not person, not individual. That is one self. And then it is not a eternally going on, just one thing undestructible. And it is not that it is simply disappear. You have to practice with the right view. And then you must observe all the objects that you come in contact with. Not to embark on the other side. And then you have the eye base, ear base, nose base, the objects, external rupa material, eye base, internal rupa material. And then when they come in, they come in contact and feeling and so on. You know the whole system, how it goes. So there seems like a little story with the log, but it covers the whole spectrum of it. All the things. If you want to talk in details, details, the Buddha talks for 45 years, but all the talks that he talks, it's in this little example or simile with the log. It is in their covers. So it is the whole perfect roadmap. Okay, perfect roadmap from every extent, from the moment before you start practicing. And then while you're practicing when you're in growth and how to do what to do in this little simile of the law covers everything. Buddha taught at a different time with a different example for different people. And also Buddha has a mental power to know who has the capacity to be enlightened, in other words, who has parami and who is at this moment listening and what will touch that person. Those kind of things Buddha has insight into it, his power, mental power or psychical power. Even though he was talking to these monks, maybe about 20-30 monks he's traveling with, at that time nearby there is a cow herder. In the West we call it cowboy. A cow herder. In Asia, cow herder is just a guy with a little stick and then mine about uh 10 or 20 cows. Okay. Bring it in the morning, bring it out to the pasture in the evening, take it back to the village. And he got paid for that. And that is his job because he doesn't have much education or other qualities of skills, so he has to earn his living by cowherding. And at that moment there was a kowhara when the Buddha was teaching. And the kauhara was intently listening. Okay, intently listening, and it's very simple. Okay, of course, I try to explain a lot more into detail. Buddha didn't explain in that much. Just simple. Okay. Don't get fall in love with objects. Okay. Don't get too much favor to your own body while you're practicing. And have the right view. Okay. It's not an eternalistic the right view about self. Don't be cocky, have pride. Okay. Don't enjoy people. Don't do it for nibbhana. Don't get into the pleasure. Be morally upright. That's about it. Buddha talks on a very short, straight to the point basis. And the Kauharas was listening and he reflected himself. This Buddha taught all these things, and I have everything of these things. Oh, I want to go to Nibbana where all suffering ends. The Kauharas approached the Buddha late after that talk. So I have listened to your talk intently, and I'm quite sure I have all the qualities that you said it will reach Nibbana, it will reach the ocean like the dog. I would like to become a bhaku, a monk, and practice this. And the Buddha looked at him, and Buddha knows that he has the parami to be enlightened. And what he said was, well, right now you have a responsibility, you are hurting the cow. It's your job. And your job is supposed to take it back home. So why don't you take all the cows back home and give it to his owner and tell him that this is the last job you are doing it? And then you come back. So the cow, because you have the responsibility, if you take the responsibility, you must finish that responsibility and fulfill that responsibility. So the cutter takes the cow back to the village, gives it to his owner, and he came back. And the Buddha ordained him and then taught him how to practice Satipattana Vipassana meditation. And he listened to what the Buddha said, listened to the instruction and practice, and soon he became arahat. So in Buddhism you don't have to feel a super intellectual, bright mind, super mean mind to be enlightened. Of course, that helps in a way. But at the same time, if you have enough intelligence to understand and practice and follow the road that the Buddha set out, one will become enlightened, one will become arahat, which is the last life in which you face with physical and mental suffering. That is how this call it simile of a log or parables of a log, a sutra or discourses the Buddha gives at the bank of the Ganges River. So may all of you be able to reflect upon this simile and follow its example so that we can all reach Nippana without any obstacle as soon as possible. Sadhu Sadhu Sadu Buthambujem Sangam.